amaotonovel Chapter 3745 The Perilous Situation of Dark City (8)
Chapter 3745 The Perilous Situation of Dark City (8)
Chapter 3745 The Crisis in Dark City (Part 8)
The agent's plan to trick Pride and Greed into floating with him had no fancy purpose; it was simply to use their mental strength to activate their hallucinatory vision. And the reason for activating hallucinatory vision was nothing lofty either—it was simply because they couldn't see.
"Visibility in this dilapidated city is less than two meters, and it's all cloudy, dark, foggy, and rainy. How am I supposed to aim at enemies from a distance without my illusion talent that allows me to pinpoint their location precisely?"
Arrogance and greed are beyond words.
They should have realized sooner; the agent wasn't there to discuss philosophical questions. He was a complete pragmatist. He disliked illusions because he found them unreliable, and he needed them now because he had no other choice.
“I didn’t need it before because nobody in this city uses guns. I had a gun, so even if my field of vision wasn’t great, I could still have a certain advantage,” the agent continued. “But after testing the nano-equipment, I discovered that it also has night vision capabilities. If the enemy uses nano-equipment, they will have a visual advantage over me, and my advantage will be completely lost.”
"Besides, they don't use guns against Batman. But now that I have a gun, they might use one too. If the weapon gap is closed and the enemy has the advantage in vision, then I might be at an extreme disadvantage. The success rate of the mission could drop significantly, which is not what I want."
"So you want to use our unique talent to close the gap in vision?" Greed asked. "But your bullets are limited, and the gap in weaponry will be closed sooner or later."
"They'll soon find that the same tactics they use on Batman don't work on me. They'll change tactics, use more violent methods, and might even use modern firearms in the name of fairness. Then I can get supplies from them."
“That’s true,” said Arrogance. “But you’d better not expect them to genuinely pursue fairness. The mastermind behind it all is far more hypocritical than you can imagine; he’s a…”
“That’s not important,” the agent interrupted. “The most impactful victory is a head-on victory. Nobody doesn’t strive to defeat their opponent in a direct confrontation. If he dared to face Batman and was confident of defeating him, he wouldn’t be sneaking around hiding behind the scenes. The fact that he hasn’t shown himself yet proves that he doesn’t have that ability. So the upper limit of his ability is Batman, but I’m not.”
“You’re too confident,” Greed said. “What if his potential is that of Batman from the Arkham Knight universe? And a completely immoral version at that…”
“The problem isn’t with something as vague as morality,” the agent said impatiently. “The Batman in the Arkham Knight universe isn’t constrained by his morality, but by his abilities. While he’s incredibly strong, he lacks in other areas.”
"For example?" the arrogant man asked.
"psychology."
"His psychology skills are quite high," Greed retorted.
“He’s just blinded by his own involvement,” the detective said coldly.
"Do you think Batman in the Arkham Knight universe was stopped because the enemy was powerful enough?" the agent suddenly changed the subject.
“Probably not,” Arrogance said. “This Batman’s fighting power has no limit. Even if the Batman Who Laughs brought all the Batmen from the Dark Multiverse, they might not be able to defeat him head-on.”
"Since you know, the mastermind must know too. He's afraid of Batman from the Arkham Knight universe, which is why he didn't lead his men to ambush him the moment he showed up, but instead set a trap. Do you think he's afraid of me?"
Pride and Greed both fell into thought. Their reasoning was relatively complex, as they believed it was highly likely the Batman Who Laughs was behind it all. They would deduce his intentions and how to break the deadlock based on the Batman Who Laughs's mental state and code of conduct.
However, the agent's way of thinking is very simple. The Laughing Maniac didn't fight Arkham Batman with brute force, at least not entirely. He definitely relied on traps in the early stages, which proves that the Laughing Maniac wasn't that confident in his own strength and didn't dare to face Arkham Batman head-on, but instead wanted to use traps to wear him down first.
So, would he dare to confront Schiller head-on?
Schiller, back then, had to change his identity because of his infamous reputation. From alien invasions to trash cans being overturned, he was responsible for everything. The Laughing Man even had several personal encounters with him. His assessment of Schiller's fighting ability might not be lower than Arkham Batman's; in fact, Schiller could be far superior.
That's why he didn't jump out and fight Schiller head-on as soon as he entered the instance, but instead wanted to wear him down first, just like he wore down Batman in Arkham.
So the question is: how much should we deplete before we can launch a direct attack?
This is the same question as "When should you press the nuclear button?" Should you press it when the other side declares war? Should you press it when the other side launches its attack? Should you press it when the other side's fleet is halfway there? Should you press it when the other side reaches your doorstep? Should you press it when half of your territory has been occupied? Should you press it when your capital is about to fall?
In fact, most leaders wouldn't use nuclear weapons in any of these situations. Because nuclear weapons are a last resort, meant to be used only as a last resort. But no matter what, the situation could never be worse than a nuclear war, so they would never use them.
The same applies to the Laughing One. He considers his own fate and a fight with his opponent as a last resort, so he won't use that method until the very last moment before the mission is complete. Because no outcome could be worse than being defeated head-on before even throwing a punch.
The most exhilarating victory is a direct victory, while the most humiliating and frustrating is a direct defeat. If the Laughing were to personally intervene, he would inevitably face the risk of direct defeat, so he would only ever consider personal intervention a last resort, like a nuclear button that he would never press.
So although his plan was to wear down the opponent first and then defeat them head-on, what he actually did was just keep wearing them down, wearing them down, and wearing them down again.
It's impossible for Arkham Batman to be defeated head-on; otherwise, he would have boasted about it to the entire universe. Since there's been no reaction at all, it means that Arkham Batman and all the other players participating in this instance died in a war of attrition.
That's why the agent was so confident. The enemy would only keep sending out minions to wear him down; the chances of them personally engaging were extremely low. So, all the agent needed to do was avoid being worn down, and he would naturally complete the mission. And that's exactly what he'd been doing all along.
Players like Batman from Arkham or Superman who may have participated in dungeons may fail because they are morally coerced, but the root cause is that they are not fully aware of the harm caused by being consumed by phased goals.
When people do something, they usually set an overall goal and specific milestones. In the plan, the overall goal is put first, and the milestones are put second. But when it comes to actually doing it, it's completely reversed.
For example, if you're painting a watercolor painting, then completing the painting is the overall goal. And cleaning the palette to prepare the colors in order to complete the painting is a stage-specific goal.
However, when washing the palette, people think: cleaning the palette is a prerequisite for painting well. How can I paint well if I don't clean the palette? So they try their best to clean the palette.
Batman in Arkham might have thought the same thing: If I can't even save these few victims, how can I save this city? Anyway, to restore order to Gotham in the end, I'll definitely have to save people. Saving people is part of restoring order, so it's worth wasting any amount of energy.
However, in reality, the physical and mental exertion spent on washing the palette, the anticipation of completing the painting consumed by the tedious repetitive work, and the anxiety and frustration caused by the lack of progress on the stage goal are likely to damage the final product more than the damage caused to the painting if the palette is not washed properly.
People focus excessively on physical losses, forgetting the crucial role of willpower and spirit in driving human development, and allowing themselves to be drained of their spirit by many trivial matters, ultimately leading to losses in both the physical and spiritual realms.
Batman in Arkham might think rescuing people is just a matter of physical exertion, but the Maniac Laugh won't make it that easy; it'll definitely involve a lot of unexpected twists and turns. Rescuing Broken Batman already involves backstabbing, so rescuing the innocent victims will likely involve even more surprises. All players will unknowingly be mentally drained by these phased objectives, and because of the goal of restoring order to Gotham, in the later stages of a long campaign, mental exhaustion will inevitably leave them vulnerable to exploitation, leading to mission failure.
If characters like Batman from Arkham could understand this issue, then even if they have sympathy for innocent victims, they would still try to save them. At least they would have a psychological warning and try not to pay attention to those messy things, keeping their spirits from being depleted, which would greatly increase their chances of success.
Ironically, it is the strongest characters like Batman Arkham, who have almost no weaknesses, who are least likely to realize this problem. This is because they are so strong that they feel their physical strength and energy are limitless, that their will will never be worn down, and that they can multitask and complete tasks at high speed, which is why they gradually fall into the trap.
However, on the other hand, Arkham Batman has no weaknesses, and even if he reveals a flaw later on, he is not so easy to defeat.
“He must have a decisive move,” the agent continued. “It’s not some minor trick, but a way to seize the slightest opening in the opponent’s defenses and deliver a decisive blow that would cause the player’s mission to fail. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be so easy to defeat Batman from the Arkham Knight universe.”
Pride and Greed both pondered, but there were indeed few clues at the moment, and they couldn't figure out how the Batman Who Laughs could decisively defeat a powerful figure like Batman Arkham without directly engaging in combat.
"Let's put that aside for now. There's another thorny problem in this universe," Greed said. "Your mission is to rescue Batman, but who is Batman?"
"No, we're not the ones who should be worried about this," the agent shook his head and said. "Since the mission objective states that we need to rescue Batman, then there must be a Batman. But I've killed all the potential Batman targets, so they have to create a new Batman. No matter how powerful the mastermind is, they can't completely control the Battlefield system, and they can't control who will be the next Batman. So, in terms of controlling the plot, we've leveled the playing field."
"Is this why you killed the Broken Bat, the Angel of Death, and Tone?" Arrogance asked.
"Yes, these people are probably all under the control of the mastermind. It would be troublesome if they became Batman. But if a new Batman is created, the new Batman may not cooperate with the mastermind, which is advantageous to me."