With only the last major adversary left, even Arkham Batman had to speed up his moves, because once only one person was left, the escape route would be opened, and the agent’s victory condition had been modified—to escape counted as his win.
Although Arkham Batman also counted as a winner, he felt uneasy about it. Having expended so much effort and taken down so many formidable opponents, only to have one he couldn’t solve in the end, was truly frustrating.
The map did show the locations of the escape routes, but there were about seven or eight, and they were quite far apart. If he didn’t choose correctly the first ti, it would be nearly impossible to block the agent again.
In the previous ga, the escape route was under the lake. This ti, it’s reversed; the escape route was through the central ventilation duct to you take a helicopter upstairs. Arkham Batman couldn’t help but think, this exit thod was truly agent-like.
Arkham Batman didn’t hesitate and walked directly towards one of the duct entrances. The agent surely would choose this entrance, for no other reason—based on his luck, he could only end up at this central and conspicuous ventilation duct entrance. Those others hidden in nooks and crannies, he probably hadn’t even seen them.
Sure enough, before Arkham Batman reached the duct entrance, he encountered the agent there. The agent launched himself off again, disappearing from sight, but Arkham Batman wasn’t anxious. He stood guard at the duct entrance, completely unmoving.
As expected, after gambling with his luck, the agent found that he might indeed only be able to escape using this entrance, so he had to quietly sneak back, seeing Arkham Batman gave him a headache.
"I say," the agent spoke from a distance, "why don’t you just give a quick end."
"No," Arkham Batman refused.
"Why? My skill is already on cooldown," the agent said, "If you chase now, I can’t run."
"You should realize there is truly no conflict between us," Arkham Batman said, "Your escape doesn’t affect my victory. And once your victory condition was modified, even if you escape alone, it counts as a successful retreat, and you can receive rewards."
That’s right, winning the ga, much like in Battleworld, also has rewards. Although the shopping system and such haven’t been opened yet, points can clearly be used to buy things. Arkham Batman felt the agent might care more about this.
"That’s true, but why are you still blocking here?" the agent asked, "Since we can both win, just let through."
"That won’t do." Arkham Batman squinted at the agent and said, "You agreed to my recruitnt, but didn’t accomplish the task. Agent, don’t you think you owe an explanation?"
The agent licked his lips: "So, are you asking to apologize? For my betrayal?"
"You didn’t betray ," Arkham Batman pointed out again, "Because you’re just a rcenary, loyalty doesn’t really apply. But you didn’t accomplish the task, so you should apologize for your incompetence."
"If I were truly incompetent, I wouldn’t have survived until the end," the agent’s voice turned cold, "I failed because I don’t believe you wouldn’t burn bridges after crossing them."
"What evidence do you have?" Arkham Batman asked, "Every ti I hired you, I paid in full. And every ti, you left safely."
"That’s because I had leverage. Even if you tried to silence , I had ways to escape. In this ga, I don’t. My life or death hangs on your whim. Helping you is likely accelerating my own demise."
The agent went further: "If I can seize victory myself, there’s no need to wait for your charity. And if I can’t, kneeling to beg you to let go just adds insult. Even a top-level agent wouldn’t do this."
"Seems I can’t persuade you," Arkham Batman said, "Then unfortunately, you really are heading towards your own demise."
He said this, then quickly approached the agent. The agent imdiately dashed into the room beside. Just as Arkham Batman reached for the doorknob, the trap set by the agent on the handle activated, the door slamd into Arkham Batman’s face. The agent swiftly ran out from another door.
Imdiately after, Arkham Batman chased again, but that door too had a trap. He stumbled again, and the agent managed to escape.
The agent entered another room, and Arkham Batman beca cautious, choosing not to touch the door with his hand, kicking it instead, yet still triggering the trap. He was delayed for a mont again.
After zig-zagging through three or four rooms, the agent’s skill was ready again, and with a launch, he dashed away.
In fact, the agent didn’t appear to have done much—aside from encountering Arkham Batman mid-flight and locating a safe, he was utilizing his skill to set traps at door locks everywhere. The doors along the routes he frequented all had traps set by him.
And due to previous incidents where he escaped swiftly by launching off, Arkham Batman was uninterested in chasing, naturally not bypassing the doors or triggering the traps, leaving him unprepared. Hence, he continuously fell into traps at this ti.
Arkham Batman took a deep breath, knowing the agent likely wouldn’t return to this duct entrance, staying here was pointless. But which duct the agent might find next, he was unsure. Now it was a matter of whose luck was worse.
Arkham Batman randomly chose a direction to walk towards. This direction had a duct entrance that was quite far away. As he walked over and reached the entrance, he saw the agent climbing up.
The agent was startled to see him, halfway up, firing back a tranquilizer dart, but it was almost useless. Arkham Batman rushed over to grab the agent and pull him down. The agent turned back with a gunshot.
Bam!
The shot was fired from above, hitting Arkham Batman’s headgear directly, its effect greatly improved, causing Batman to be dizzy for about a second. The agent took this chance to climb up.
And since Arkham Batman wasn’t limited in movent, he could climb up too. The agent used both his hands and feet to climb up the ladder, looking down to see that massive figure chasing right behind him. At that mont, he felt as though his soul had left his body, wishing he had a few more pairs of hands and feet.
The climbing speed was related to basic speed. The agent was climbing nowhere near as fast as Batman, and seeing he was about to be caught, the agent directly threw a tool downward.
It was a bottle filled with chemical adhesive which could slow down the pursuer. Arkham Batman wanted to dodge, but the passage was just too narrow, and he didn’t have anywhere to hide, taking the hit head-on. White smoke rose from his armor, and his movents slowed down.
He gritted his teeth, silently cursing: This agent sure was thrifty with his tools; in those critical monts before, he didn’t use them at all and still had tools remaining. Such greed, giving away all his tools, leaving his teammates rich beyond asure.
The agent used his hands and feet, quickly climbing to the next platform, imdiately identifying the direction and finding another ladder to climb up. As Arkham Batman was about to surge upward, another smoke bomb ca crashing down.
Arkham Batman laughed in frustration, having to wait on the platform until the smoke dissipated, marking the agent with a Batman dart before continuing to climb. Otherwise, when another smoke bomb cos, he wouldn’t know where the target is.
Climbing halfway, almost caught again, seeing the agent about to throw another tool, Arkham Batman jumped to a side ladder to dodge. As expected, the tool missed, but the agent didn’t look back, continuing to climb.
In the end, the agent’s tools ran out, and Batman still caught up. Watching that shadow clinging on like a bone-maggot, the agent pressed his lips together.
"Ready to apologize, sir?" Arkham Batman still had the ti to joke, "The exit is right there."
Indeed, now the exit’s light was visible, but the distance between them was nowhere near enough for the agent to run out.
"No way," the agent said, "If you really want to hear apologize, hire in the real world. See if there truly is a task that overwhelms ."
Batman suddenly surged upwards, punching out.
Boom!
The expected scene of a body falling didn’t occur; instead, it seed like the agent suddenly used the force of the punch to surge upwards, reaching the exit handle above, climbing directly out.
Arkham Batman’s eyes widened. He climbed a few more steps upwards, but the agent was already stumbling toward the helicopter. As the lights flickered, his face grew paler, those gray eyes growing so faint one couldn’t see their color, like a wolf lying in the snow, near death.
Arkham Batman clenched his fists. The agent was too different, making him forget— the agent also was Shiller, who grows stronger after being injured.
"Goodbye, Mr. President." The helicopter took off, wind from the rotor blowing through their hair, the agent gripping the rope ladder above, swaying as he ascended. "This is the agent’s retreat you wanted, isn’t it?"
His figure gradually disappeared into the night. Suddenly, Arkham Batman saw his own silhouette standing on the rooftop. The settlent screen appeared, and within his vision, the big word "Victory" flashed.
"All those greedy fellows ended their lives here. You and your subordinates completed a perfect operation. The casino still remains like a monster devouring everything, soon to welco new guests..."
The ending narrative was cut off abruptly. Doctor Manhattan’s virtual image appeared before Arkham Batman and said, "Sorry, there was a problem with the final data settlent of the ga."
"What happened?" Arkham Batman asked.
"The player who escaped from your hands experienced an anomaly in his data. He shouldn’t have been that fast in the end."
"Wasn’t that his skill?"
"No," Doctor Manhattan said, "I never gave him such a skill. It’s so sort of special ability of his that exceeded data calculation, ultimately resulting in the anomaly."
Arkham Batman understood; it should be Shiller’s ability, growing stronger as he beca weaker, not factored into Doctor Manhattan’s calculations. However, it seems Battleworld’s suppression of such ability wasn’t good either, as in many scenarios limiting abilities, Shiller could still retain that power. This proves it might not be a corporeal issue but rather a soul issue.
"I need to ask for your opinion now," Doctor Manhattan said, "I could cancel his victory settlent and award. Do you want to do that?"
"You seem to have misunderstood sothing." Arkham Batman coldly said, "Not being able to limit his abilities is your problem. You should apologize to everyone for your ineptitude."
Doctor Manhattan fell silent. Batman snorted coldly to himself. This attempt to sow discord was a bit low-level. Although he did have so conflicts with the agent in the ga, this is a competitive ga, and conflict is normal. This has nothing to do with their real-life relationship.
Just as Arkham Batman was about to turn and leave, Greed folded his arms and approached with other players. Arkham Batman initially thought they were coming for him, given he almost killed all of them in the ga, but Greed spoke, and it was the sa tune.
"Doctor Manhattan, the ga data anomaly impacted not just one or two individuals, our whole group’s gaming experience dropped. Shouldn’t you provide compensation for this?"
"If you dare to shirk off responsibility and refuse compensation, I guarantee my negative reviews will loudly echo throughout the Multiverse. If you know well enough, you’ll understand I can do it."
"Now! Imdiately! Offer compensation!"
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