Chapter 4672: Desperate Escape (End)

A few minutes ago, the moment Greed pulled the switch, Batman, like an arrow off a string, with lightning speed, directly tackled Deathstroke to the ground.

Deathstroke never expected that Batman would suddenly lash out when the negotiations had already succeeded. He subconsciously wanted to grab his weapon to resist, but Superman had already struck him on the head with a crowbar.

"Bang!"

Deathstroke was dizzy from this blow, didn't react for a moment, and then heard Batman, who was pressing on him, say in his ear: "Cooperate with me, I'll take you out."

Deathstroke was stunned, didn't even react to what he was saying, but Greed understood.

The act of pulling the lighting power seemed to have been determined by Batman as an attack. Or rather, Batman thought the organizer was using the means of suddenly plunging them into darkness to make this mercenary erupt into an attack. So Batman took the initiative and tackled him first.

But in reality, Greed was just preventing them from doing any more tricks, and since the lighting power was also broken, he just pulled the switch together.

And what he said was also to turn the mercenary. After all, in his understanding, the mercenary was limited by the company and had to sell his life. If there was a chance to leave, maybe he would choose to grasp it.

"Let me go first," Deathstroke acted quite like it, saying, "I didn't want to attack you, I still have to lead the way and open the door for you."

Batman just took it as him agreeing, and the two of them took Deathstroke back to the skylight level. He should have left after opening the door, but because Deathstroke had already agreed to cooperate with Batman, he followed in.

Superman pulled another hijacking stunt. This time it didn't exceed Deathstroke's expectations; he cooperated in acting a play, and then let Greed open the door to the room where Pride and Bruce were.

The mechanism in their room was triggered purely physically and didn't need power, so it couldn't be cleared directly even after the power was cut. After the door was opened from the outside, the two came out and were also startled by the situation outside.

"What the hell?" Bruce asked, "Who is this guy?"

"A staff member here," Batman said very calmly, "Everyone go to the exit first, but don't rush to leave, I suspect they still have traps."

Only in terms of vigilance, no one would doubt Batman. They actually didn't quite believe the organizer would let them go so easily, and everyone carefully checked the keys and keyholes, fearing the organizer would send them some parting gifts.

The people upstairs all left, leaving only the people on the first floor. Superman grabbed Deathstroke and asked: "Where is the door on the first floor?"

"You have to go up," Deathstroke said, "I only know the exit is above."

He pointed to the very top of the iron chain. And Bruce and Shiler, who had deduced the original appearance of this level, understood that it should be the exit designed by the company. The iron chain had stopped, and there was no electricity, but the blades were still there, so how to climb up?

"I'll go take a look," Bruce said. The ceiling wasn't actually far from him, because the blades were moving before, so he couldn't climb up, but now that they had stopped, he used the crowbar to hook the iron chain on the edge of the winch, climbed up slowly, then did a pull-up, and immediately stood on the winch on the side, checked the blades, and said: "This can be removed, you wait a moment."

Bruce started removing the blades. Fortunately, this thing didn't need to be removed piece by piece; by moving the fixing object in the middle, the whole plate could be removed. But what was difficult was how to fix it on the rope to remove the blades; Bruce was clearly not very skilled.

"This job should be left to Selina," Bruce said, "Dick would also work; he could hang on this rope for hours, truly worthy of being... a traditional circus family..."

Although he said so, it was just removed a bit slowly, and it was finally completed. Bruce climbed to the very top, grabbed the winch above, climbed up, and then said: "No problem, you guys come up quickly!"

"You guys step on my shoulders to go up," Batman said, "Superman wait for me, this way you can pull me up."

Shiler naturally recognized Deathstroke; he knew this was probably another character added by Greed. He waved at Deathstroke, letting him climb first. Deathstroke didn't hesitate; if he had to choose between Batman and Shiler, he would definitely choose Batman, because Batman at least reasoned a bit, while Shiler was purely a land-based orca.

Deathstroke's movements were much sharper; he was clearly the kind of person who knew rope-climbing techniques, and climbed up in two or three strokes. Then it was Shiler; Shiler's skill pool was already common, and the Agent also knew how to climb ropes, so Shiler also climbed up quickly.

Batman and Superman brought up the rear. Actually, Batman couldn't climb anymore, and it was Superman who pulled and dragged him up; the two of them climbed for nearly twenty minutes before coming up.

Above was a circular room with a door on each side. The light coming from the door on the left was clearly not light, but daylight; this might be the exit.

Batman walked to the door on the right, but found a piece of paper stuck to the door—"If you stay, we will pardon a newcomer."

Batman sighed; it turned out the organizer was waiting for them here. This was another moral choice, but still not mandatory, just full of temptation.

This game required six groups of twelve people to play. Under normal circumstances, it was impossible for everyone to clear the level; at least three or four people would be victimized, and it was even possible that only three or four people could clear the level in the end. Every time it was played, many people would be sacrificed.

However, if the old players chose to stay and continue to participate in the company's game, they wouldn't bring in newcomers, which might allow more people to be spared from harm.

People who could complete so many heaven-defying high-difficulty levels and reach this point were either strong people with a certain spirit of sacrifice, or fearless lunatics. Regardless of which kind, they might not necessarily rush out the moment they saw the exit, and the probability of them choosing to stay wasn't small.

And this was exactly what the company wanted. Those who could clear the level were all good hands; joining the game could greatly increase variables, and might even become star players to increase the odds, and it could also save them from going out to catch people. No matter how you look at it, it was a steady profit without loss.

"Looks like this choice concerns the ending," Superman said after looking at it. "Which one, staying or leaving, will be the good ending?"

"Neither," Batman said, "After leaving, one will be shrouded in shadows for life, suffering from stress disorder due to the terrible experience, and worrying about being caught back by the company; and choosing to stay means dealing with endless cruel levels until dying miserably."

"Then what should we do?" Superman asked.

"Wait," Batman said, "I don't know if the agent who helped us before succeeded in escaping. As long as he finds the corpses we piled up in the central energy room, he will have sufficient evidence. If he leaves with this evidence, support might arrive soon."

Superman understood after thinking about it. Actually, if it were them, the players, who died, it might not necessarily attract attention, but it was different if the organizers died. Those organizers were all rich people with faces, and it wasn't just one who died, almost all of them were killed by them.

After these people went missing, the pressure faced by the FBI would be explosive, and therefore, if that agent really brought the evidence out, the federal government and the FBI would definitely go all out to strike at the company. If they couldn't wipe out the company, they would have to take the blame.

Moreover, the government and the police would need them, the victims, because only by them standing out to recount could all this be blamed on the company. Reporters and support would come at the same time, and they had to be prepared.

Greed in the monitoring room wiped his face and turned to the agent: "What are you still doing here? Go be a savior!"

Ten minutes later, the huge roar of helicopter rotors came from afar. With a bang, the door was kicked open, and countless police officers poured in, the flashlights brighter than the sun in the desert.

Everyone was draped in rescue blankets and walked towards the outside surrounded by police and reporters. Until they reached the ambulance, the sharp siren sounded in the red and blue overlapping police lights. Through the ambulance window, the police passing through the heat wave were like schools of fish in the water. Everyone saw a blurry face in it, smiling at them.

"D. T Company CEO Richard Boardman was arrested at his home today. He claimed he knew nothing about the shocking 'Battle Royale Reality Show' held by the company in New Mexico, but the police found files recording the victims' personal information at his residence. Please listen to the detailed report from this station..."

The host played a real video of the arrest. The camera of the police law enforcement recorder kept shaking, searching in Boardman's home, and successfully arrested Boardman, who was still wearing pajamas, in the bedroom. And Batman, who was watching this plot animation, keenly discovered that Boardman's left hand only had four fingers.

He reached out and dragged the progress bar, looked at the details of all the previous videos, and finally saw at 2 minutes and 15 seconds that an illustration that looked a bit like a plant pattern was hanging in Boardman's study, but zooming in, one could see that it wasn't a plant, but a tree made of human fingers.

"Is he a cultist..." Batman muttered to himself.

And at this time, Greed had already collapsed in the chair. This good ending was something he had forcibly kneaded out after spending ten minutes just now; originally there were only bad endings and worse endings.

Just as Batman guessed, choosing to leave, the ending animation would be the protagonist drinking heavily, then entering a mental hospital, triggering the "Soul Stays Forever" ending; choosing to stay, it was opening eyes and arriving in a new secret room, triggering the "Endless Suffering" ending.

The only thing that could be called a good ending in the whole game was the hidden ending, which was the true ending. The condition for achievement was that one must first understand Ten Thousand Hands Become One God; it could be found by oneself, or told by others, anyway, one had to know there was such a thing. At this time, choosing to leave had a certain probability of triggering the "I See You" ending.

After the protagonist left, he chose to investigate Ten Thousand Hands Become One God, and then took the things found to threaten Boardman, making him reveal the investor list and survivor list. Finally, the protagonist pulled together the survivors he could find, constantly fought against the company, and assassinated the investors, finally almost wiping out the entire organization.

The only ones who could read the true ending were Shiler and Anatoly, because this was a replica of Shiler's past life experience.

"Just take it as me making a 'memorial'," when Pride asked why Greed wrote this ending, Greed said so, and bit the emphasis on the word "memorial," and Pride seemed to understand something. ===== CHAPTER 4673 =====

"Just consider it a 'memento' from me." When Pride asked Greed why he wrote this ending, Greed said this, putting a heavy emphasis on the word "memento," and Pride seemed to understand something as well.