The news that the first final boss was defeated quickly spread to all the squads. Everyone reacted differently to this. Of course, everyone was happy. However, some doubted: if the final boss is defeated so easily, the game's lifespan might not be very long.
Brainiac was noncommittal about this. Although he didn't adapt many powerful abilities and had some invisible numerical limits, he wouldn't point fingers at how players play the game. Although he's an evil artificial intelligence, he won't teach players how to play the game.
Previously, when they couldn't face it head-on, Brainiac only gave a suggestion to go back and develop. But when players wanted to fight crickets, to use minor bosses against the final boss, Brainiac didn't stop or comment. After succeeding, the rewards were issued as usual, and no changes were made to this mechanism.
Even if the players had doubts, thinking this would lower the game's difficulty too much, Brainiac didn't respond. Rather, his attitude made players start considering whether this tactic would work on all final bosses.
Come to think of it, the boss in the North District is considered the weakest in the setting. Other than having strong firepower, it has no special ability, but the others are different. They either have magic attacks or deal spiritual damage. Bringing minor bosses from other regions might still get cleaned up by them. It might not be a one-size-fits-all solution.
After the final boss in the North District was eliminated, there would be no more raids. But the agent and Deathstroke from the North District clearly wouldn't hide in the base and live peacefully. These two hadn't planned to manage the base at all. As soon as the final boss died, they went straight to the West District to meet up with Arrogant and stayed to help Arrogant's team fight the raid.
The reason for going to the West District is that Arrogant's team is indeed relatively weak. Since the Anti-Life Equation can't be used anymore, they lack attack methods. The last raid was already fought with great difficulty. If no one supports, they can't really wait for the lake monster to come up and fight for them.
The car stopped again in front of the lakeside villa's door. Deathstroke got off the car first, then the agent. Just as they were about to walk in, the agent hesitated for a moment and began to untie his tactical shoulder straps.
Of course, they couldn't come empty-handed to support. Various equipment had to be brought. Most were placed in the trunk of the car, but some easily accessible ones were hung on the body. Deathstroke was armed to the teeth, while the agent was slightly better, but he still carried a gun, hung a gun, and had two pistols, a baton, and a Taser gun at his waist.
"Why are you untying this thing?" Deathstroke was really annoyed, "If the Doctor has an episode on the battlefield, are you planning to directly throw away your gun or take off your bulletproof vest?"
The agent didn't speak and still untied the entire chest strap. He walked behind Deathstroke. Deathstroke didn't care much and boldly pushed the door open. As he walked in, he saw Ethan's terrified expression.
Deathstroke was about to say something when a black umbrella pointed at his neck.
"Get out. You've scared my patient." Arrogant said.
"What's going on?" Deathstroke complained, "I'm not a special agent!"
"Mercenaries aren't good either." Gordon shook his head and said, "Of course, I know you're here to support us, and we should all be thankful for that. But since you've accepted money from Primary Universe Batman, make sure to do the job well."
This did successfully persuade Deathstroke. Even aside from the money, he didn't want to offend Arrogant. More precisely, any Shiller. Even if his dealings with Arrogant were few, seeing the agent's attitude, he knew that guy wasn't easy to deal with.
So Deathstroke went outside and took off all his equipment. He kept nothing but his uniform and removed his mask in passing. While he was unloading, he complained: "Do I need to get a tailored suit?"
"Remember to choose a retro style." The agent picked up the equipment and threw it inside through the window, "And bring a bottle of red wine."
Deathstroke clicked his tongue, then opened the door and walked into the room. Arrogant wasn't without measures. Ethan was no longer in the living room; he should have gone upstairs to rest.
"What's exactly going on?" The agent also came in and said, "Is the PTSD this severe?"
"He has seen mercenaries massacre civilians." Arrogant paused and said, "He has killed to escape too."
"Tsk." The agent grimaced.
"That's not surprising," Deathstroke said, "The regular army has some discipline and at least offers hope. Mercenaries are mostly a bunch of hopeless walking corpses doing the work. Unrestrained, they can do anything."
"Or rather, they hire mercenaries to do those inhuman dirty and hard jobs. After killing people, they walk away unscathed, and no one can do anything to them."
"Large mercenary groups are somewhat better, while individual mercenaries may be restrained. Those small mercenary squads of a few people mostly consist of madmen who enjoy killing. He must have encountered this kind of person. It's no wonder he would be left with psychological shadows."
Deathstroke sat on the couch and began to check the equipment and supplies in the terminal. Gordon gave him a glance. From head to toe, he exuded the aura of an outlaw. The reputation of First Mercenary, he had heard of naturally. However, in the Prime Universe, Deathstroke was quite restrained, even seeming more human than the agent.
What he said now is quite reasonable, making the previously tense atmosphere less stressful. As expected, staying at the top position in the world for so many years isn't entirely due to violence, but also human relationships and worldly wisdom. No wonder after beating Robin several times, Primary Universe Batman is still willing to hire him.
"The terrain here is really bad," Deathstroke said while looking at the map, "It's practically flat. Enemies can approach from all sides, making it impossible to defend."
Speaking of this, Gordon had a lot of grievances. During the two previous raids, the hardest point was that those monsters came from all directions. Their manpower and equipment were insufficient, and there were always gaps in the defense.
Gordon was well aware that this arrogant house wasn't suitable for a fortress. If it were in the real world, he would suggest they move immediately. But after all, this is a game, there won't really be any danger, at worst, it's just losing the battle. Besides, this is Arrogant's home, and he probably won't want to leave.
Gordon hesitated for a moment and then said, "We wanted to defend by the lake, but the lake is still a certain distance away from here. In front of us is a large lawn, which is really too open. There's no space for flanking shots, and our resources are insufficient to face the enemy head-on."
Deathstroke fell into thought. The agent stood by the window with his arms crossed and said, "Once the base is chosen, I'm afraid there's no way to change it. Otherwise, we could have picked a better location."
"If I had known, we should have picked the Gotham Police Department," Gordon said. "It's a time-tested strategic location. It has survived so many disasters back in the day..."
Stopping abruptly, he then thought and said, "Isn't the Gotham Police Department worth exploring? There's quite a lot of good stuff there."
Deathstroke raised his eyes to glance at him. He opened his terminal to look at the map. The terrain of this universe's Gotham is indeed somewhat different from his universe, and the specific location of the Gotham Police Department differs as well, but it's quite close to the city center in both. They haven't really explored there yet, and a visit wouldn't hurt.
Deathstroke wasn't expecting much from the "good stuff" Gordon mentioned. They are already heavily armed, with big and small guns and various ammunition, enough to fight a localized medium-sized war. The police department probably only has some police equipment, which might seem good to an ordinary squad but doesn't really impress Deathstroke.
So he stood up and said, "Let's take a walk in the city center."
When they say "walk," it means literally walking, because Gotham's city center has a large roundabout leading to four different areas. East is the Cathedral, West is the Police Department, South is the commercial street, and North is the Gotham River and Riverfront Mansion.
They had visited the Cathedral before, but this time they went around once more. The Bishop and Constantine were still busy setting up the array. For these two, their raid strategy was all about defense without attacking. The arrays are used to repel monsters, but can only repel and not eliminate. Monsters can't come in, and the two of them can't go out, creating a balance.
Nevertheless, it's still pretty good for them, as they only have two people on their team. Gotham Cathedral is particularly close to the city center, with a very high number of monsters here. Deathstroke and the agent might not be able to kill them all. Keeping the monsters outside the base relies entirely on Constantine's excellent skills.
After touring around, greeting them, they headed towards the Gotham Police Department to complete an exploration task in the surrounding area. After getting off the car, the agent and Arrogant went to complete the task, while Gordon and Deathstroke entered the police department.
Gordon rubbed his hands. He walked skillfully to the chief's office. He opened the door to go in but unexpectedly, there was a small boss who fired a shot at him, "Bang."
Gordon narrowly dodged. He assessed the silhouette of the monster behind him, discovering it seemed to be his colleague, Detective Bullock. That guy was indeed not very clean, a shady cop walking the line between black and white. But Gordon knew it was merely a temporary expedient. Bullock could be considered a good cop, seemingly very familiar with the mob, but in reality, maintaining Gotham's order in his own way and protecting the ordinary people in the lower echelons.
"Deathstroke!" Gordon shouted. Gordon was very aware that he's not good at fighting, conveniently there's a super mercenary available for use.
Deathstroke came upstairs, peeked inside, and went in holding his sword, saying, "I thought you would be inside here."
"I'm always a straight-shooter," Gordon retorted coldly, "If Brainiac dares to make me a boss, he'll regret it."
Deathstroke didn't argue, and walked toward the little boss with his sword. Bullock couldn't possibly be his match and was defeated in a few moves. Gordon entered his familiar office and began searching through the bookshelf.
"What are you looking for?" Deathstroke asked, "This bookshelf doesn't seem like it's hiding any treasures."
Who would have thought, after searching on the bookshelf for some time, Gordon accidentally pressed something, and the entire bookshelf slowly descended underground. Deathstroke raised an eyebrow, "There's a secret room now?"
Upon entering, it wasn't a secret room but an elevator. Gordon entered another code once again. The elevator descended, seemingly going down at least seven or eight floors, currently around the third or fourth underground level. Stepping out of the elevator, the space was large.
When Deathstroke was puzzled about what might be hidden beneath Gotham Police Department, Gordon turned on the lights. Right before Deathstroke, there appeared a tank.