Chapter 4789: Royal Casino (Three)

In a flash of thought, Greed had a plan. He walked around the table in circles while trying to negotiate, using smooth talk to persuade Arkham Batman to let him go.

"I think you, as a speedrun player, should understand that in asymmetrical games, the ghost's development is more important than the human's." Greed stated bluntly, "On the surface, the ghost has an absolute advantage, but actually, humans have a higher error tolerance, so ghosts focus more on early game, while humans focus more on late game. If you don't develop early, you'll just get dragged to death."

"Of course I'm not reminding you out of kindness, mainly because you're walking around here with me and I'm annoyed. Why play the game like this? In asymmetrical games, you're only fixated on me—isn't that a bit targeted?"

"I'll take it as your acknowledgment of my strength, but I also have teammates. Never mind whether they'll come to save me—aren't you afraid they'll find some key item and use it against you?"

The more Greed said this, the more unmoved Arkham Batman remained. The two kept circling the table, and in the time it took to exchange these few sentences, they had already made over a hundred loops.

"Batman!" Greed raised his voice, "Are we really going to circle like this until the game ends?! You brought all these people in just to play this?!"

"Why not?" Arkham Batman replied casually.

Greed put on a helpless expression on the surface, but inside he was thrilled. That's exactly what he wanted—to keep Arkham Batman occupied here, because he had just run into Matt, exchanged initial plans, and Matt should now be searching the top floor.

They had agreed that whatever Matt found would be given to Greed for operations. Even if he encountered other teammates on the way, he would take their supplies and chips to serve as Greed's startup funds.

Greed could also guess that Arkham Batman wasn't worried about others developing, probably because he had some long-range interference skills, like disrupting their lockpicking progress bars, or simply tampering with the gambling facilities, which allowed him to stay here calmly watching him.

But if all teammates cooperated and conducted a wide search while Arkham Batman was absent, they could not only map the entire terrain but also haul in a large amount of loot. As long as they didn't interfere with the gambling facilities, the chance of disruption would be low.

That way, he wouldn't just stall Arkham Batman's development—he'd also let teammates freely accumulate capital. Once they got past the early game, he could still launch operations.

Greed's plans were clicking away like an abacus when—bang! —a gunshot, followed by a flash of red light, and the agent shouted at the door: "Get out!"

Greed nearly facepalmed. Others were playing asymmetrical combat, but the agent was playing *007: Casino Royale*, waltzing in with a gun like he owned the place?

Yet seeing the agent's expression, Greed knew he had no choice. So he took advantage of Batman being stunned, directly manipulated the gambling table, withdrew his chips, and darted past him in a flash.

Greed ran forward, the agent turned and fired another shot at Batman. Both ran upstairs together. The agent said while running: "I knew he'd come block you—he definitely wants to stall you."

"It's me who's stalling him!" Greed shouted back, "If you hadn't come, I could've stalled him for at least two hours!"

"The problem is why he'd let you stall him." The agent reacted quickly, "He shouldn't be so stupid as not to know development's importance."

"He definitely has some long-range interference skills." Greed said.

"I checked the Hunter's memories before coming," the agent said, "Ghosts usually gain points through various means to unlock their ultimate. He's been chasing you half a day—his points are probably nearly full."

Greed slowed his steps, the two entered the upstairs private room. Greed frowned slightly, then said: "You mean he's farming points off me?"

"Not necessarily—his remote control skill might also grant points. Either way, dragging it out means when his ultimate is ready, you definitely won't escape."

"That's indeed a problem." Greed pondered, then said, "What kind of ultimate do you think it is?"

"Not entirely clear, but the Hunter's ultimate is a status effect called 'God of the Wild Hunt' that increases his speed, removes attack cooldown, and boosts attack power."

Greed began to think, he said: "If it's just like that, I wouldn't fear it. But I feel if his whole skill set lacks offensiveness, his ultimate probably isn't offensive either. What would it be then?"

Arkham Batman glanced at his skill bar. Obviously, in this game two people were tirelessly gambling—one should be Lucifer, the other possibly Superman or Matt.

Arkham Batman knew Superman better. Superman isn't a gambling fan; he might gamble only because he has no idea how to play this game, just follows the main quest. The main quest gave him chips, told him there was a gambling game, so he went.

And after Arkham Batman kept manipulating win rates, he had already taken almost all chips from the two. Plus earlier gains, his points reached 120. Just three more chips and he could activate his ultimate.

Meanwhile, his other skill happened to be useful—"Personally Engage: Select an ongoing gambling game, participate as the opponent; once you win in gambling, the chips won are converted to points at triple rate. (This skill can stack with Presidential Decree)"

It's clear this skill set is a combo: first use Map Scan to see which facility is in use, then use Presidential Decree to increase the opponent's failure rate, then immediately engage personally to farm points.

He hadn't used it before, actually fearing Greed. Arkham Batman also knew that if Greed lacked control or escape skills, his skill might also have win-rate manipulation. Raising failure rate and increasing opponent's win chance would clash, lowering profit odds.

But Greed had just been chased off by him and should still be en route, not launching games so soon—so unlikely to meet him. Other targets were relatively safe.

Arkham Batman reactivated Map Scan. Sure enough, a gambling table was highlighted. He immediately executed the combo: first raise failure rate, then activate "Personally Engage," instantly appearing opposite the table.

The Superman opposite was stunned. He turned to run, but the in-game match cannot be exited. He could only grit his teeth and greet: "Hey, Batman."

Arkham Batman ignored him, just lowered his head to look at the table. This is a simplified Texas Hold'em: each gets 12 cards, pick the best combination to play, three rounds, best two of three.

Because of the skill, Arkham Batman's hand was very strong—he had a leopard and a gourd, with high values. Seeing Superman's furrowed brow, he knew Superman's hand must be terrible.

As expected, Arkham Batman played combinations, but Superman's best was just a leopard, the rest mostly scattered cards. Superman lost the first two rounds of best two of three, shaking his head in regret.

Arkham Batman felt sorry in his heart but still took his chips. Superman now had only one chip left, but because it was tripled, it converted to exactly 30 points, totaling 150.

Arkham Batman looked at the ultimate of his Presidential set.

"Presidential Recruitment: The President personally calls a gambler and grants them pardon. Changes their race to 'Zealous Voter,' bestows a set of 'Voter Skills' besides their original ones, and installs a 'Presidential Hotline' on the map for communication between President and Voter. Their victory condition is also changed to 'Successful Withdrawal'."

Arkham Batman wanted to activate this ultimate precisely because it's a defection skill. He can directly pull a player to his side, giving them a whole new skill set and a private line to him—more importantly, changing their victory condition.

"Successful Withdrawal" means, when all other teammates are wiped out, walking the lone escape route to leave the casino. This escape route only opens when the gambler side has only one player left—meaning, to win, that person must eliminate all other players, then take the escape route. Otherwise, whether humans or ghosts win, he cannot win.

Thus, the bound person, even if not actively sabotaging teammates, must loaf as much as possible. At least cannot go save teammates about to be killed, because if humans don't die, he cannot win.

Arkham Batman really wanted to give this skill to Greed—then he could cripple the opponent's core.

But he's no slouch as a veteran player—upon seeing this skill, he immediately realized it shouldn't go to the most valuable person, but to the one who cares least who wins. Precisely, the one with the least extreme personality.

Even in reality, defection can't sway the opposing leader. In a stalemate, why would they surrender to you? At worst, die together.

Moreover, this isn't reality—it's just a game. If Arkham Batman defected Greed, Greed would likely sacrifice himself to drag Arkham Batman down with him. After all, this isn't forced control—just changing the victory condition—so the opponent's autonomy remains large.

Greed is rather extreme and is the opponent's core. From current performance, he still wants to bring the opposing side to victory. Using this skill on him would have very low success chance—most likely mutual destruction.

Conversely, if used on someone who doesn't care whether humans or ghosts win, the defection success rate would be much higher. Also, this person's moral底线 can't be too high, can't be too team-oriented, or they might not want to betray.

So Superman and Matt are basically out. Superman refuses to do such things—his moral底线 doesn't allow it. Matt is close to Greed and has little to do with Arkham Batman—he wouldn't betray friends now.

That leaves only Lucifer and the Agent. Though they're on good terms with Shiler, they could still be defected. But Arkham Batman first ruled out Lucifer—this guy, even if defected successfully, would mostly just drag things down. He doesn't play games seriously, has been sightseeing since launch—bringing him over would be useless.

Instead, the Agent. His escape skill itself is very strong—if not recruited, catching him would be hard. Plus he has a gun; even if friendly fire is disabled, once defected, the opposing side wouldn't count him as a teammate and could shoot him. As long as a key shot is fired at a key moment, the gamblers' plan would collapse.

And the Agent was recruited—he truly doesn't care who wins, just wants to get off work early. Arkham Batman is still confident he can persuade him.

The moment the skill activated, all players' positions were laid bare, and clear body outlines were visible. Arkham Batman selected the Agent.

"I'll first protect you to find Matt," the Agent said to Greed, "Then I'll have a couple rounds with Batman, he..."

Next second, the Agent's vision suddenly showed a highlighted outline of a desk phone, a guide line on the floor led to it, and a voice rang in his mind.

"Ring ring, Presidential call! Ring ring, Presidential call! Please go to the designated location within five minutes to answer the President's private call, thank you!"

The Agent turned and walked out, Greed looked utterly confused: "Wait, wasn't it said you'd protect me?"

"Sorry, I'm going to take a call."

"?"

Greed: When I put a question mark, it's not that I have a problem — it's that you have a problem.