OBS Chapter 4778 The Royal Casino (The End)
Chapter 4778 The Royal Casino (The End)
Chapter 4778 The Royal Casino (The End)
With only one major threat remaining, Batman Arkham had to speed things up, because when only one person was left, the escape route would open, and the agent's victory condition had been modified—escaping would also count as a victory.
Although Batman Arkham could be considered to have won, he was still somewhat unsatisfied. After expending so much effort and defeating so many formidable opponents, he was left with only one to contend with, which was truly infuriating.
The map does show the locations of the escape routes, but there are about seven or eight, and they are all quite far apart. If you don't choose the right one the first time, it's basically impossible to block the other side.
In the previous game, the escape route was underwater. This time, it's the opposite: the escape route is through ventilation ducts upstairs to catch a helicopter. Arkham Batman couldn't help but think, "This exit method is really agent-like."
Without hesitation, Arkham Batman walked straight towards one of the ventilation shafts. The agent would definitely choose this one, for no other reason than that, given his luck, he could only stumble upon this central and most conspicuous ventilation shaft. He probably hadn't even seen the others hidden in the nooks and crannies.
Sure enough, Arkham Batman encountered the agent before even reaching the tunnel entrance. The agent sprang into action again and disappeared, but Arkham Batman remained unperturbed. He simply stood guard at the tunnel entrance, completely motionless.
Sure enough, after the agent went out and gambled his luck, he realized that this might be the only way to escape, so he had to sneak back and saw Arkham Batman, which gave him a headache.
“I said,” the agent said from a distance, “you’d better just give me a quick death.”
“No,” Batman Arkham replied.
“Why? My skills are on cooldown,” the agent said. “If you chase me now, I won’t be able to escape.”
“You should realize that there is actually no conflict between the two of us,” Batman Arkham said. “Your escape does not affect my victory. And with the modified victory conditions, even if you escape alone, it will still count as a successful evacuation, and you can get the reward.”
That's right, winning games, like in the Fighting World, also offers rewards. Although the in-game store system isn't open yet, points can clearly be used to buy things. Arkham Batman thinks the agents are probably more interested in that.
“That’s definitely true, so why are you still blocking the way?” the agent asked. “Since we can achieve a win-win situation, why don’t you just let me through?”
“That won’t do.” Arkham Batman narrowed his eyes at the agent and said, “You accepted my offer, but you didn’t get it done. Agent, don’t you think you owe me an explanation?”
The agent licked his lips: "So you want me to apologize? For my betrayal?"
“You didn’t betray me,” Batman Arkham reiterated, “because you’re just a mercenary, so loyalty isn’t an issue. But you failed, so you should apologize for your incompetence.”
“If I were truly incompetent, I wouldn’t have survived to the end,” the agent’s tone turned cold. “I couldn’t get things done simply because I didn’t trust you to discard me after I’d served my purpose.”
“What evidence do you have?” Batman Arkham asked. “Every time I hired you, I paid you the full amount. And every time you left unharmed.”
"That's because I have leverage. Even if you try to silence me, I have ways to escape. But not in this game. My life and death are in your hands. Helping you is more likely to hasten my own demise."
The agent went further, saying, "If I can seize victory on my own, I don't need your charity. And if I can't, kneeling down and begging you to let me go will only add to my humiliation. Even a secret agent wouldn't do that."
“It seems I can’t convince you,” said Batman Arkham. “Then, unfortunately, you are indeed doomed.”
After saying that, he strode towards the agent. The agent immediately slipped into the adjacent room. Just as Arkham Batman reached for the doorknob, the trap the agent had set on the doorknob detonated, and the door was slammed into Arkham Batman's face again. The agent quickly ran out of the room through another door.
Then, Arkham Batman gave chase, only to find that the door was still a trap. He was tripped up again, and the agent escaped once more.
The agent entered another room. Arkham Batman was wary and didn't touch the door with his hands, but kicking it would also trigger a trap. He was held up for a while longer.
After dashing through three or four rooms, the agent's skills improved, and he escaped with a catapult-like launch.
It turns out that the agent didn't seem to be doing much—aside from encountering Arkham Batman taking off and finding a safe, he was just using his skill in setting traps on door locks to set traps everywhere. Basically, he had set traps on the doors of the houses on the streets he frequented.
Because he had used a catapult to escape several times before, Arkham Batman had no interest in chasing him and therefore didn't follow him around the door, thus avoiding triggering any traps and remaining unprepared. That's why he fell victim to the traps repeatedly at this moment.
Batman Arkham took a deep breath. He knew the agent wouldn't return to this passageway, so there was no point in staying any longer. But he wasn't sure which passage the agent might find. Now it was just a matter of who had worse luck.
Batman Arkham randomly chose a direction and walked towards it. There was a passageway far away in that direction. He walked towards it, and just as he reached the entrance, he saw the agent climbing up.
The agent was startled when he saw him. Halfway up, he threw a tranquilizer dart back at him, but it was practically useless. Arkham Batman rushed over and reached out to pull the agent down. The agent turned and fired a shot.
boom!
The shot was fired from above, so it hit Arkham Batman's hood directly, making it much more effective and stunning him for about a second. The agent took this opportunity to climb up.
Because Batman in Arkham is not restricted in his movements, he can also climb up. The agent used both his hands and feet to climb up the ladder, and when he looked down, he saw the huge figure chasing after him. At that moment, he was terrified and wished he had more hands and feet.
Unfortunately, the speed at which someone climbs a ladder is related to their base speed. The agent couldn't climb as fast as Batman at all, and seeing that he was about to be caught, the agent simply took out a gadget and threw it downwards.
It was a bottle filled with a chemical slime that could slow down pursuers. Arkham Batman tried to dodge, but the passage was too narrow, and he had nowhere to hide. He took the hit head-on, white smoke billowing from his armor, and his movements slowed down.
He gritted his teeth, cursing inwardly: This agent is really stingy with props. He didn't use them during that critical moment, yet he still has them. And he's so greedy, giving all the props away, making his teammates rolling in money.
The agent used both hands and feet to quickly climb onto the next platform, then, after getting his bearings, found a ladder and climbed up. Just as Arkham Batman was about to leap up, another smoke grenade came crashing down on him.
Batman from Arkham was so angry he laughed. He had no choice but to stay on the platform and wait for the smoke to clear. He marked the agent with his batarang before continuing to climb. Otherwise, if another smoke bomb came, he wouldn't know where the target was.
Halfway up the ladder, just as the agent was about to throw another gadget, Arkham Batman jumped onto a nearby ladder to dodge. Sure enough, the gadget missed, but the agent didn't even look and continued climbing.
In the end, the agent ran out of supplies, and Batman still caught up. Looking at that figure that clung to him like a leech, the agent pursed his lips.
"Ready to apologize, sir?" Arkham Batman quipped. "The exit is just around the corner."
Indeed, the light of the exit can be seen now, but the distance between the two is no longer enough for the agent to run out.
“No way,” the agent said. “If you really want to hear my apology, hire me in real life. See if you can find a job that I’m not up to the task.”
Batman leaped upwards and threw a punch.
boom!
The expected scene of falling to the ground as a corpse did not occur. Instead, the agent seemed to suddenly use the force of the punch to leap upwards, reach the handle above the exit, and climb out.
Batman from Arkham stared wide-eyed. He scrambled up a few times and leaped up as well, but the agent had already staggered to the helicopter. In the flashing lights, his face grew paler, his gray eyes so pale they were almost invisible, like a wolf lying dying in the snow.
Batman Arkham clenched his fist. The agent was so different that he forgot—the agent was also Schiller, and would become stronger after being injured.
“Goodbye, Mr. President.” The helicopter took off, the wind from the rotors whipping through their hair. The agent grabbed the rope ladder above, swaying as they ascended. “Is this the kind of agent-style exit you wanted, isn’t it?”
His figure gradually disappeared into the night. Suddenly, Arkham Batman saw himself standing on the rooftop. The results screen appeared, and the word "Victory" appeared in large letters in his field of vision.
"The greedy fellows have all perished here; you and your men have accomplished a perfect victory. The casino remains a monster that devours everything, and soon, new guests will arrive..."
The ending was abruptly interrupted. A ghostly figure of Doctor Manhattan appeared before Batman Arkham and said, "Sorry, there was a problem with the final data calculation in the game."
"What's wrong?" asked Batman Arkham.
"The player who escaped from you has some stat anomalies. He shouldn't have been that fast at the very end."
"Isn't that his skill?"
“No,” Dr. Manhattan said, “I never gave him that skill. It was some special ability of his that broke through the data calculation, ultimately leading to the anomaly.”
Batman from Arkham understood that Schiller's ability to grow stronger the weaker he was was something Doctor Manhattan hadn't anticipated. However, it seemed the Fighting World's suppression of this ability wasn't very effective; in many instances where abilities were restricted, Schiller could still retain them. This suggested that the problem might not be with his body, but rather with his soul.
“I need your opinion now,” Dr. Manhattan said. “I can cancel his victory settlement and reward. Do you want me to do that?”
“You’ve got something wrong,” Arkham Batman said coldly. “It’s your problem that you can’t control his abilities. You should apologize to everyone for your incompetence.”
Dr. Manhattan fell silent. Batman scoffed inwardly. This attempt to sow discord was rather low-level. While he and the agent did have some conflicts in the game, it was a competitive game; conflicts were normal. It had nothing to do with their real-life relationship.
Just as Arkham Batman was about to turn and leave, Greed crossed his arms and led the other players over. Arkham Batman assumed they were after him, given that he had practically killed them all in the game, but Greed's voice was still the same old slang.
"Dr. Manhattan, the game data is malfunctioning. Shouldn't you provide compensation? Your incompetence has affected more than just one or two people; the gaming experience for all of us has been negatively impacted."
"If you dare to shirk responsibility and refuse to compensate, I guarantee my negative review will be loud enough for the entire multiverse to hear. If you know me well enough, you'll understand that I can do it."
"Now! Immediately! Issue the compensation!"
(End of this chapter)