Novellv Chapter 4776 Royal Casino ()
Chapter 4776 Royal Casino ()
Chapter 4776 The Royal Casino (Part 10)
Since they need to find the last safe, they must split up. Now it's a test of luck; even Batman, with all his skills, can only capture one person at a time. He might not capture the one he wants, but he'll definitely stumble upon the one he'll find.
And among these people, it goes without saying who had the worst luck. After parting ways with the others, Greed hadn't even walked half a floor when he saw the tall figure blocking the doorway.
"What did you see in your fear?" Arkham Batman approached slowly and deliberately. But his deep voice and heavy footsteps sounded like a death knell.
The background music starts again. This time, the variation has an ethereal quality, like the sound of morning bells and evening drums, reminiscent of the flickering lights outside a window on a sad night. Greed stands there, looking at Arkham Batman, and says, "When your child leaves you, when you can't find him, what you see, I see."
Arkham Batman paused. Greed continued, "Those unspeakable fears come from you, and they are reflected in us as well. Oppressed, isolated, struck, controlled, abandoned..."
Arkham Batman didn't know what they had encountered, but he could roughly imagine. These unspeakable fears stemmed from Arkham Batman's own experiences: Superman felt the darkness he experienced in Gotham, Matt felt the terrifying hallucinations of sensory derangement after being infected with the Joker virus, Agent felt his inability to reconcile with himself, Lucifer felt his tragic fate as if he were anchored to it, and Greed felt the loneliness and helplessness of everyone drifting further and further away from him.
But at the same time, these tragedies also deeply affected them, reflecting their fate and causing their pain and helplessness to strike their hearts, bringing unspeakable terror.
This didn't seem like Doctor Manhattan. Arkham Batman immediately realized this. Batman had studied Doctor Manhattan extensively. They knew that Doctor Manhattan couldn't be considered a carbon-based life form, or even an emotional one. He was more like an absolutely rational creation of nature, even bordering on indifferent.
Such a person likely lacks the level of control over their mind and manipulation of emotions. Or rather, they wouldn't resort to such methods. It seems there's something else lurking behind this Manhattan amusement park.
As he pondered these thoughts, Arkham Batman had already reached Greed. Without hesitation, he knocked Greed down with two punches. He understood that Greed's decision not to run away didn't mean he had given up. He had stayed to say these words to remind Arkham Batman that this amusement park was not as simple as it seemed.
But this wasn't a good place to chat. Arkham Batman shouldered Greed. He knew Greed had the ability to resurrect itself, but it was pointless now. Even if it could resurrect, he couldn't escape anyway.
Batman from Arkham carried Greed all the way to the basement. He placed Greed on a chair and secured his hands and feet with locks, but didn't immediately activate the stun gun.
"Are you waiting for someone to come and rescue me?" Greed asked with a smile.
“If there is, I won’t refuse.” Arkham Batman checked the equipment in his belt and then said, “Tell me in detail what you’ve all been through.”
They're all currently engrossed in the game Dr. Manhattan created, so naturally they can't openly mention him. But they're all smart enough to understand what they're really talking about.
“This is a very interesting skill,” Greed said first. “The most ingenious part is that it can reflect your pain and our pain one by one. Empathy with others should be about mutual understanding. But in a hostile and high-pressure environment, it is inevitable to feel resentment, to belittle the pain of others, and to belittle one’s own pain.”
Greed was stated subtly, but Arkham Batman understood. This ability inflicts the pain that Arkham Batman once felt on others. But the chosen passages are exquisitely crafted, perfectly triggering the psychological trauma of the victims.
Putting aside the potential impact of dredging up past traumas on mental health, the mere fact that one is subjected to such psychological attacks in this environment is enough to cause fear and even drive one to the brink of collapse.
In this situation, it's hard not to feel a kind of emotion, similar to "Why are you dwelling on this?" or "Why am I dwelling on this?" To put it more bluntly, it's like saying, "Our emotions will kill everyone."
This emotion actually stems more from the primitive genes of social creatures. In extremely harsh environments, or even when survival is precarious, a group will instinctively exclude those who cannot control their emotions.
For example, in ancient times, a tribe was hunting. They lay in ambush in the grass, waiting for their prey. But then, someone complained about the weather or the environment, or someone had a falling out with their companions. This outburst caused a disturbance, ruining the entire hunt and leaving the whole tribe hungry. Such a person would certainly be ostracized from the hunters' group because they lacked rationality and composure, and therefore could not bring more food to the tribe.
While it's true that in a crisis, one shouldn't focus too much on their own emotions and should prioritize survival, if they are further provoked at this time, causing their emotions to cloud their judgment, they will inevitably begin to doubt themselves, wondering if they are truly incapable of handling the current situation, and whether their weakness is dragging down the entire group.
This is a very dangerous kind of wavering, especially at crucial moments. Once you doubt your own judgment when you need to make a decisive decision, and thus hesitate, you could really lose your life.
The skill "Unspeakable Fear" undoubtedly utilizes this principle. In a critical situation, it emotionally stimulates a person, causing them to lose control of their emotions. After feeling this loss of control, they doubt their own abilities, which further interferes with their judgment and execution.
What's even more ingenious is that this not only taps into the fears of the gamblers themselves, but also inflicts the fears that Arkham Batman experienced upon them. This will make players doubt themselves while also generating resentment towards Arkham Batman.
Almost everyone knows what kind of person Batman is. He is powerful, resolute, and nothing can shake him. But to truly empathize with his pain is another matter entirely. While righteous people might admire his ability to overcome such suffering, his actions in this way at such a moment inevitably carry a hint of cold-blooded indifference, like "doing what you wouldn't want done to you." If one isn't steadfast enough, resentment will inevitably arise.
Not everyone might think this way, nor would they necessarily consider it to this extent. But if even a slight thing is amiss, or if, after the game ends and one calms down and reflects on it, something feels off, then it undoubtedly creates a crack in the statue of Batman's majesty.
The game world does indeed have many difficult dungeons. Some of them almost caused even the legendary Batman from Arkham to suffer. It also features many mind-manipulation techniques, many of which originated with Schiller, causing considerable distress to many players.
However, that mostly stayed within the game itself and didn't involve anything outside of it. Batman Arkham never saw anything related to his personal experiences in the Battlegrounds storyline.
But this time it's clearly different. This upgraded bat suit is practically made for this whole meal. The most important thing is this mental attack skill.
This also involves a certain psychological manipulation technique. Initially, give them a less-than-satisfactory skill set. As the situation becomes increasingly tense and no progress can be made, then give them a sufficiently powerful set. Many people will become immersed in excitement, focusing only on using skills to wreak havoc, completely unaware that something is amiss.
But clearly, neither Arkham Batman nor Greed are like that. Although they are enemies for the time being, they both understand that this is just a game. Once they leave the game, many things are more important than the outcome of the game itself.
“I think you can’t wait to leave,” said Batman Arkham.
“That’s true,” Greed didn’t argue, he nodded and said, “Everything will be alright, won’t it?”
In the flash of lightning, the greedy body tensed abruptly, and he jerked his head up, seemingly feeling little pain. His form quickly turned to ash and dissipated. This was somewhat illogical. However, Arkham Batman already knew that this game wouldn't leave corpses. Perhaps it was to prevent anyone from playing with corpses; although he wouldn't do that himself, there was no guarantee someone wouldn't want to.
"Everything will be alright..." Arkham Batman murmured to himself. He felt something was off. Greed seemed eager to leave, as if it were about to go and cause trouble for Doctor Manhattan. Arkham Batman had no doubt he would do it, but he felt there was something else going on.
But Arkham Batman had no time to think about much else. He had to stop those guys from opening the safes. There was only one safe left; once it was opened, they could get away. That was not the outcome Arkham Batman wanted.
Arkham Batman had a map, and he could clearly see the locations of the remaining safes. Based on the gamblers' previous positions, Arkham Batman headed towards one of the safes.
He had just arrived when he saw Matt already fiddling with the safe. Arkham Batman had already raised his fist, but Matt suddenly turned around and shone a high-powered flashlight directly in his face. Arkham Batman's vision went completely white, and by the time he reacted, Matt had already run away.
Arkham Batman glanced at the progress of opening the safe; it wasn't even a quarter complete. Matt probably didn't have any speed-up abilities. Arkham Batman quickly caught up, but Matt just sprayed him with pepper spray. This annoyed Arkham Batman.
They failed to completely suppress Greed early on, allowing him to grow stronger and resulting in their current abundance of items. However, now is not the time to be angry. He chased after him again, only to have Matt block his view, followed by a door slamming into his face.
Batman from Arkham wasn't in a hurry and just kept chasing him. Matt ran out of gadgets and was chased into an open area, where Batman still knocked him down with a single punch.
However, Arkham Batman didn't take him to the basement. That would have been too time-consuming. Matt didn't have any self-activation abilities, and the others were probably busy activating the final safety mechanism and wouldn't come to his rescue. So Arkham Batman simply carried him to a small room and left him there.
(End of this chapter)