After Shiller voiced his speculations, the situation had evidently become somewhat delicate.
"So we're stuck in a rules game, then." Stark looked at Shiller and questioned, "One would need to defeat the opponent in a specific style to have a shot at victory, right?"
Shiller nodded and responded, "And although we're still unsure about the consequences of flouting the rules, even the least severe stipulation would entail us being kicked right out of this park. I believe we should consider avoiding such risk."
Strange let out a sigh and said, "If only Loki were here. He would have been able, using his illusion technique, to conjure some cartoon figures to combat these creatures."
However, Shiller shook his head and retorted, "Loki's illusions might work, but he likely hasn't watched enough human animations. The characters he creates with his illusions may not necessarily comply perfectly with the game's rules."
"So what do we do now?"
Bruce, too, had not anticipated this enigma, one seemingly without a solution. The amusement and cuteness of children's animations are one thing, but the crux lies with the prohibition of any gory violent scenes. Aggressive language is also taboo, lest it be deemed harmful, which is the biggest hassle.
Even if he were to step out in a comical manner to duel the monster opponent, the moment he throws the Batman dart, the rating of the scene teeters on the edge of PG-13. Should he then engage in a fistfight, no matter how it's depicted, it wouldn't fall within the family-friendly rating.
Of course, transforming into an angel to purify the Dark Creatures is also an option, but this leans towards being a fantasy movie and might raise other unexpected issues and complications.
Nevertheless, Strange's words endowed everyone present with a new perspective: if these characters with a less family-friendly style were unable to engage in the battle directly, conjuring some summoned entities would be a feasible workaround.
Stark tested this theory. His Mecha drone could certainly fly out without breaching any rule, yet it was prohibited from attacking under any circumstance. Otherwise, it would be considered as having sci-fi violence elements, and hence once more evicted from the child-friendly rating.
Stark used the drone to scout the front and back gardens of the Ghost Mansion and saw hordes of monsters. Even if there were no rule restrictions and he could wreak havoc with his Mecha, it would take him some time to eliminate all monsters, an impossible task without direct action.
After a moment of contemplation, Shiller walked over to Bruce and whispered something in his ear. Bruce nodded, and then, with a flash of the Holy Light, he vanished from sight.
"What did he go off for?" Stark asked with a hint of confusion.
"To bring in reinforcements, obviously."
Just as Strange was about to ask, Shiller looked at him and said, "You should go too, as this game cannot be won by ordinary rules."
Still a tad confused, Strange asked, "Go? Go where?"
Just then, he noticed a towering silhouette standing behind Shiller, with a Skull Falcon's head atop its own and a giant Magic Wand in its hand. Its eye sockets twinkled with flickering light.
"Khonsu?!"
About five minutes later, despite leaving slightly later, Strange returned ahead of Bruce. Behind him, apart from Khonsu, a lion with golden fur of no minor stature, a lean black panther, a stork with vibrant feathers, a somewhat slender glasses king snake, a vulture with a slightly somber aura, and lastly, even a dung beetle flew back with Strange.
Apparently, Shiller's strategy hinged on summoning animal friends.
Assuming you're a human with regular head-body proportions, it's easy for any form of violence you portray in various movies to increase the rating. This judgement standard isn't unreasonable since humans tend to be more fearful of violence against their own kind.
However, were the protagonist to be replaced by an animal, humans won't associate other meanings with their actions on one hand. On the other, prey-hunting by animals is a natural instinct and may even be interpreted as a way to familiarize children with the wonders of nature.
When mentioning animal gods, one cannot overlook the Celestial Realm in African mythology, the headquarters of the animal gods. The humans there share a good rapport with these animal gods.
First off, the Black Panther has shielded Wakanda for generations and has a good relationship with the tribe's people. They are also members of the Holy Sanctuary. They agreed to assist the Noble Master out of respect.
Secondly, Shiller and Khonsu are quite familiar, although Khonsu left Shiller's Thought Palace to govern the Netherworld, they are still on friendly terms.
Last but not least, these individuals are rather intrigued about these odd rules. Or perhaps it can be said they had plenty of free time on their hands, so they decided join the fray.
Not much later, Bruce returned with his reinforcements. However, this time, there were three figures behind him, namely Lucifer, Natasha and Pamela.
Lucifer looked rather resigned, and judging by the hint of trace marks under his shirt, it seemed his fun had been interrupted.
However, upon seeing Natasha behind Lucifer, both Stark and Strange could easily deduce Lucifer had dodged a bullet.
As for Pamela, neither Stark nor Strange could understand what this average-looking female university student was doing here. Did she also possess Loki-like illusion-generation abilities?
Who would have thought that the Lucifer at the forefront, under Pamela's command, would suddenly pull out a bunch of boxes and piled them all in the lobby of the entrance to the line?
Pamela adjusted her glasses and yawned, then said, "The plants have undergone three generations of revolution. Their resilience and combat power have both met commercial standards."
"I've contacted the Lawrence family previously, they're in the tobacco business. I wanted to borrow their support routes to Mexico to heavily promote them to various mob bosses needing guards. This is a good opportunity to give it a test run."
Shiller stood by, merely gesturing towards the front yard.
Pamela raised her hand, then froze in place, then tapped her forehead and said, "My IQ has dropped recently from staying up late to work on papers, bear with me."
Then she walked to the box herself, lifted it, glanced around the yard, and threw the box over.
Stark couldn't bear to watch anymore. They had already tested it. No matter what they threw at the monsters in the yard, it was ineffective. Although they wouldn't enhance the monsters like saying forbidden words, even if those monsters were smashed up, they could still get up in a comical manner, and continue to stare menacingly.
This time was no different, the box directly hit a skeleton guard's forehead and shattered instantly.
The skull of the skeleton, of course, was knocked down, but its limbs could still move, and it started looking all over the ground for its head.
Just as the pale knuckles were about to touch its eyes, a green figure punched two ribs of the skeleton, followed by an uppercut and a spinning kick.
"Ping, ping, pong, pong!"
The flying skeleton hit the iron railing behind it and shattered instantly.
Stark and Strange widened their eyes, anxiously took two steps forward to observe whether the skeleton would revive.
They saw a wisp of green smoke emerging from the mouth of the fallen skull, and the flame in its eye socket flickered a few times and then disappeared.
Bruce and Pamela high fived each other.
Then Pamela began to instruct a few people to move the boxes. Pointing at several boxes on the left, she said, "These are regular cabbages for hitting people, weaker than the one I just released. They only know how to throw punches and aren't very nimble."
"The skeletons over there are relatively basic, they don't have weapons in their hands. Throwing them over there should be enough."
"But these here are upgraded fighter cabbages. Not only do they know how to throw multiple punches, they can also spin kick, and even jump to a height of about 1.5 meters, they are very agile."
"They can be used to deal with these common skeletons with shields, they should be able to jump over the shield and hit the weak points."
"These boxes are wheat bomb throwers. After being planted, they spin their upper halves to throw out grains, causing a small area of bombing. The downside is that they can't change the place of explosion, the power is not strong, and it takes a certain amount of warm-up time."
"Those zombies over there look tough and thick-skinned, I'm afraid the leaf fists won't penetrate their defense, explosions would be just right."
"This is the upgraded frost bomb wheat by Professor Victor. The moment they are planted, all the grains fly out at once and can freeze an area about the size of a flower bed."
"I'm not sure if ghosts can be frozen and restricted. Throw two over there first to see the effect. If it works, we will plant some on the side of the yard as a last resort. At a critical moment, we can seal off the entire hall to ensure our safety."
"And here, these are large leaf algae drowners. They can grow in any water body and are good at pulling down everything around them and drowning it. We can throw them into the pond block nearby, which should be able to solve the nearby... what are those? Fairies? Or goblins?"
Pamela squinted at the small figures beside the pool. Bruce peered out and said after a glance, "They should be garden goblins. I've heard Alfred say that they dig holes under the roots of plants, destroy gardens, and overturn water buckets."
"Fortunately, they are not too big." Pamela snapped her fingers and said, "The original version of broadleaf algae is not very strong and cannot pull down things that are too big. This is their only weakness."
"Of course, there is also this upgraded version." Pamela pointed to another group of jars and said, "These are blue hole giant broadleaf algae. They can withstand water pressures of thousands of meters and can carry goods under this pressure."
"The Lawrence Family plans to plant them from the sea bottom to Mexico, then use Victor's dense ice technology to seal the goods. So they don't have to pay tariffs, and even save the maintenance cost of the ship fleet. In case they encounter marine police inspections, they can also defeat them thoroughly."
Stark and Strange narrowed their eyes immediately, looking at Pamela who was calm. They were now very suspicious of what kind of tobacco business that so-called Lawrence Family was doing.
Then Pamela pointed to the big boxes deepest behind her with her thumb, showing a smile and said.
"This is my newly developed secret weapon, it's too overwhelming for regular occasions."
"Stop being mysterious." said Bruce, "Let's see your latest research result."
Who knew Pamela would look at Shiller, and said, "I need to make sure that the professor is not present, is he?"
Shiller shook his head gently, so Pamela walked towards those huge boxes with light steps.
With a gentle press of the button on the box, the wooden boards around the box collapsed instantly, revealing a broccoli plant taller than a towering tree.
"Allow me to introduce, the unbeatable warrior with no weaknesses - the God Tree Broccoli!"