RNP Chapter 4755 Murderous Intent on a Rainy Night (1)
Chapter 4755 Murderous Intent on a Rainy Night (1)
Chapter 4755 Murderous Intent on a Rainy Night (Part 1)
Just as they selected the difficulty level, the elevator doors on the side of the lobby opened. Robots guided the two into separate elevators. As Arkham Batman entered the elevator, he thought, "This opening is pretty good, quite immersive, much better than those direct portal-based fight scenes."
But he soon realized something was wrong, because the wait in the elevator was taking far too long. While he hadn't held out much hope for this small operation, a loading time of a few minutes was understandable. But Arkham Batman had been waiting in the elevator for over ten minutes, and it was still descending without any sign of opening.
Batman from Arkham began to suspect that the elevator was malfunctioning, or that a new level had begun, requiring him to solve some puzzles to escape. But perhaps to avoid this misunderstanding, the elevator was completely empty—no buttons, switches, or wall decorations were present.
Batman in Arkham could only continue waiting. He remembered what Dr. Manhattan had said before: that they needed to balance the attributes and turn their abilities into skills. That would definitely take time, and Dr. Manhattan might even have to manually manage it, so it was normal for it to be slow.
After waiting a few more minutes, and loading for a full twenty minutes, the elevator doors finally opened. But to Arkham Batman's surprise, the game still hadn't started. He found himself in an almost completely dark space.
He sat in a chair, his hands, feet, and neck restrained. There were four other people around him, but the space seemed to be blurred, and the lighting was dim, making it impossible to see who they were.
A beam of light shone down in front of the five of them. A figure stood within the light; though only his back was visible, Arkham Batman recognized him—it was Schiller.
For some reason, Batman Arkham felt a sense of relief, because thankfully it was Schiller with his back to them, not the other way around. Otherwise, things would have been quite a spectacle.
Suddenly, the ground beneath everyone's feet vanished. Everyone plummeted, and the chairs disappeared as well. Arkham Batman struggled to maintain his balance in mid-air, but it was futile, as it was just another loading screen.
As they descended, they vaguely saw the castle's spires below growing larger and larger. At the same time, a voice rang in their ears: "Valai Castle, a dark place cursed by the devil, where generations have been tormented. Every stormy night, the eldest son of the Valai family is possessed by a demon. Tonight, he seems particularly out of control. Exorcists gathered from all over the world can only try to seal the demon, or perhaps, ultimately, be devoured by it..."
The instant he finished his lines, Arkham Batman found himself sprawled in a bush. It didn't hurt, so it wasn't a real fall. He didn't rush to get up, as lying in the bushes would provide good concealment. He needed to sort out the plot and the game's mechanics.
Undoubtedly, this is an asymmetrical game. There are several exorcists, but only one demon. The difficulty lies in the fact that both the exorcists and the demon are played by the players. This means their opponents have no predetermined course of action and can be extremely cunning and powerful.
The loading screen before arriving at the castle wasn't just a way to waste time; it was meant to let the group know roughly how the game was played and who their opponents would be. And the most terrifying thing was that Schiller randomly got the devil.
Just as they had anticipated, while duo queueing was possible, teaming up wasn't. It only ensured the two were in the same game, not that they wouldn't become enemies. Arkham Batman was somewhat regretting agreeing to Rasheed's duo queue, and he shouldn't have agreed to the Greedy swap; it had resulted in the most troublesome player.
However, it was precisely this mode that ignited Arkham Batman's desire for a challenge. He knew that in asymmetrical competitive modes, the side with fewer players would be greatly strengthened, otherwise it would be impossible to fight multiple opponents. And in such an environment, facing Schiller's pursuit, wasn't the challenge he was looking for exactly what he needed?
So, Arkham Batman didn't complain much. He started thinking about the backstory again. The opening didn't give much information, but it was clear it was another story about an ancient family being possessed by demons. And these unlucky exorcists were basically just there to be killed.
However, the backstory mentions that they can seal the demon, which proves that there is still a happy ending where the demon is completely defeated. This ending is what Arkham Batman strives for, but how to seal the demon is still unknown.
Just as he stood up, Arkham Batman suddenly noticed some icons in front of him that didn't obstruct his view. There were no typical video game icons like health or stamina, but in the lower right corner was a row of what looked like skill icons. Arkham Batman checked his skills.
He has two passive abilities. One is a racial passive, as his race is "human." This passive has the effect of "having a chance to remove negative status effects when talking to other human players or characters." Arkham Batman understands that this likely emphasizes the social nature of humans, highlighting how they can gain emotional support through interaction with companions.
The other is his passive skill. Unsurprisingly, his profession is "Batman." This passive skill grants him "virtually immunity to all weather and environmental conditions, unaffected by ground effects." This skill can also be interpreted as Batman having a high tolerance for the environment and being very cautious, watching his step carefully to avoid falling into ground traps.
Batman Arkham was somewhat disappointed with just these two passive skills. He felt he should at least have a presidential-level passive skill, otherwise, what was the point of being president?
However, he could understand, since judging from the age of the castle, there probably wasn't a president back then. As for driving skills or mechanical engineering, those were probably useless due to the era, so Dr. Manhattan didn't provide them.
It's a pity this is a medieval exorcism scenario; if it were set in modern times, he might have had more room to maneuver, Batman Arkham thought. However, perhaps it was precisely because he told Dr. Manhattan he wanted a more difficult challenge that Dr. Manhattan specifically threw him here—quite considerate of him.
Next came the active skills. Arkham Batman was somewhat looking forward to them, and these three active skills did not disappoint him. Perhaps to compensate for the lack of his passive skills, the three active skills were given generously.
The first skill is "Bat Focus," which increases the speed of all sealing or exorcism actions with a duration by 30%. This skill's effect increases to 70% when the demon is within 50 yards of the user.
Batman Arkham thought this must be to speed up loading times. He really liked this skill because he hated loading screens, and his patience was already wearing thin with the slow loading time; making him wait there slowly would only make him more impatient.
The second skill is "Master of Puzzle Solving". When activated, it highlights important clues within a 200-yard range and allows clues within a 50-yard range to fly directly to your hand.
Batman from Arkham doesn't really like this ability because he's good at solving puzzles and can find clues slowly. The only useful thing is that it flies right over, which can save some time.
The third is the combat skill "Cloak Stun". Using this skill, you wave your cloak to stun the demon in front of you, deflecting one of the demon's attacks and stunning the opponent for two seconds. This skill can accumulate charges, up to three times, but there is a two-second interval between each use.
Batman Arkham's favorite skill is this one; the two seconds it takes to stun an opponent is enough for him to unleash a twelve-hit combo. It's a shame he didn't get the ground knockdown and disarming abilities. But thinking about it, it makes sense; if he could take the Devil's weapon, it would be too overpowered, and the Devil would be completely helpless.
Furthermore, Arkham Batman sensed that his physical attributes hadn't been significantly reduced, and his reaction time remained roughly the same. While this was better for him, it wasn't entirely good news, as it meant that other players and his enemies hadn't been weakened either. Schiller, in particular, might have even stronger abilities while retaining his physical attributes.
The only thing Batman Arkham knows for sure is that Schiller definitely has a skill that targets enemies with their backs to him, meaning he might have increased damage or tracking capabilities against enemies facing away from him. He also definitely has a passive ability that increases his stats the more serious the injury. As for anything else, Batman Arkham can't be sure.
However, based on the fact that his attributes weren't weakened, Batman Arkham can confirm that those participating in the game are likely people with similar physical abilities to him. At the very least, no one should be significantly weaker than them; otherwise, for balance, the overall stats would probably be lowered.
After reviewing his abilities, Arkham Batman crouched in the bushes, looking around. He must have landed in the castle garden, which wasn't good news, as he could be seen from the upper levels of the castle. Hopefully, Schiller wasn't on the balcony.
Batman from Arkham turned to face the castle and slowly backed away. He saw a gazebo behind him and considered retreating there to see if he could find more clues. As for the castle, he had no intention of going in now; who knew what monsters and demons might roam inside.
However, as he retreated, he saw a figure climbing the castle wall. Arkham Batman had to stop and look closer, but unfortunately, because of the rain, he couldn't see the figure clearly. Judging from the climbing motion and skill, it was probably Spider-Man. The climbing posture was very spider-like.
"There's a Spider-Man here," Arkham Batman thought as he backed away. He must have retained Spider-Man's climbing ability, which means he'd be incredibly mobile. But he probably couldn't climb indefinitely, otherwise, if he just crouched on the highest rooftop, who could find him?
Sure enough, Spider-Man probably only climbed one floor before jumping onto the balcony, likely waiting to cool off. To Arkham Batman, this was utterly suicidal; it would be interesting if Schiller peeked out and stabbed him later.
Batman from Arkham believes Schiller should have map-finding abilities, or be able to see their location within a certain range. Otherwise, with such a large castle and garden, he wouldn't be able to find anyone and would easily get out of position, which would be unbalanced. But this Spider-Man probably didn't consider this.
Just as Arkham Batman was praying for Spider-Man, Spider-Man looked in his direction and suddenly pointed at him. Arkham Batman understood almost immediately. He turned around and saw a solitary black figure standing alone behind the misty rain.