Chapter 350: 345: From Superman to Ordinary People?<div>


    Trantor: 549690339


    The next day was the second day of the closed beta.


    Shuihua sold the jackpot from the casino and got a nice addition to her own little stash.<div>


    Hao was engrossed in learning car modification skills in the game with videos ying.


    Super Tomato temporarily set aside the casino matter, roaming around in Night City, trying to find more interesting content.


    As Camille Victoria couldn’t find the Master of Cheating in reality, she began learning cheating skills from “Anti-Gambling Scams” videos online at the viewers’ advice…


    As expected, with the help of the [Advanced Extreme Handheld Sports] skill, her hands were incredibly agile. It was absurd how fast she was learning these cheating skills.


    The techniques for stealing and hiding cards, dealing two but pretending to have dealt one, all became easy once she understood the principles and steps. Often, just ten or so tries were enough to put these tricks into practice effectively.


    But then the problem arose—


    These basic cheating tricks that were disclosed couldn’t be used in more advanced casinos.


    In any sizable casino, would the gamblers even have the opportunity to deal their own cards?


    Professional croupiers have long since be standard in casinos.


    Otherwise, where do you think the ad phrase, “Sexy dealers, dealing cards online,” came from?


    So these cheating tricks were of no use.<div>


    It’s the same for Mahjong. With tons of gamblers watching and cameras everywhere, cheating can’t be hidden.


    There might be high-level cheating techniques that can fool everyone and can be used freely in the casino.


    But such techniques obviously couldn’t be found online.


    In the end, she found out there’s only one trick that can be tried.


    This trick sticks to the old adage that “the highest-quality ingredients often only require the most simple cooking techniques.” It’s very simple to practice.


    Get a few friends, agree on some signals, and then pretend not to know each other.


    When one of them is at the card table, the others act like pedestrians, sneak peeks at other’s cards, and then give signals to the yer at the table.


    It’s simple, crude, but it seems like it could actually work!


    After all, it’s been proven in practice: To save onputing power, Cloud Dream made the NPCs look smart, but their “smartness” has its limits.


    The NPCs involved in the main missions or the special characters at specific locations get allocatedputing power in advance, and theirnguage and behavior patterns are very diverse.


    But many ordinary NPCs only get temporarily allocatedputing power when yers interact with them, loading more facial expressions,nguage, behavior, and other modules.<div>


    If yers don’t interact with them, they’re just pedestrians with one or two sets of fixed behaviors, not much different from the background of the game.


    So theoretically, although the gamblers in the casino appear to be very shrewd, they might just be idiots.


    “If I can’t beat the casino, can’t I beat you bunch of idiots?” Camille Victoria starts looking for people with full confidence, intending to try it out.


    But at this stage, it’s still a bit difficult to find people to cooperate.


    The closed beta had few yers to start with, and everyone is busy finding content that interests them.


    Especially because one yer discovered how to trigger a majorbat mission.


    After this mission was announced, arge number of yers hollered to join the fight against the gang members,pletely uninterested in other things.


    Camille Victoria only got the chance to try cheating in the casino the next day.


    This was also thest day of the closed beta.


    Shuihua finally took a break and epted Camille Victoria’s invitation to join the “cheat” squad.


    It was also on thest day that yers finally got the hang of the newbat system as their level and skills improved.<div>


    The first skill to be unlocked was [Combat Sensing].


    At first, everyone thought this skill would be a blend of active and passive abilities, like [Assassin Bloodline].


    It could be always on to handle sudden attacks, and it could also be actively enabled to provide more reaction time.


    But after unlocking the skill, everyone realized—it’s not like that at all!


    This is a purely passive skill; the effect is, well, just read from the wording, it’s purely a “special sensing” towardbat.


    It gives a distinct sense of danger when targeted and even vaguely senses the uing crisis’s direction.


    During intense fights, it can make the yer aware of better shooting timing and angle.


    This hintes from the neural modtor-demodtor, and it’s hard to describe in words but, it gives a clear sense.


    And as the skill level increases the “sensing” will be more urate and efficient.


    But herees the problem: even if you sense it, can you avoid it?


    Don’t make meugh!


    Bullets aren’t that easy to dodge!


    In “Assassins’ Alliance”, yers can dodge bullets purely because the effect of [Assassin Bloodline] is too powerful. It slows down time from far away while greatly enhancing the yer’s physical abilities, allowing the yer to instantly respond to the sound of gunfire and dodge bullets.


    Even so, it still can’t dodge bullets at close quarters.


    Regrettably, [Combat Sensing] only tells you where the bullet ising from and doesn’t help you dodge it.


    Relying on a slightly superior physical ability than an ordinary person, when you’re aimed at by a gun, it’s nearly impossible to dodge the moment the trigger is about to be pulled.


    Especially when they won’t stop at just one shot…


    One more outrageous point is: the enemies in “Assassins’ Alliance” won’t approach you. Most of the battles maintain a distance for shooting.


    But “Speed Chase” is different.


    Almost all enemies, as soon as the battle begins, will try every means to get close to you and charge at you.


    Even if they’re holding a super powerful automatic rifle that could suppress you from a long range, they still prefer to kill you up close.


    With all these factors considered, thebat logic in “Speed Chase” ispletely different from “Assassins’ Alliance”.


    There’s only one way to win—before you’re killed, kill the opponent first!


    If you can shoot first, you must take the initiative.


    If you can’t take the initiative, you need to shoot faster, have higher uracy, or take lesser damage than the opponent.


    Especially when you’re facing multiple enemies alone, the battlefield, attack efficiency, target selection, rhythm control, all this demands more of the yer.


    The existence of [Gunfighting Technique] is meant to increase the lower limit of the yer’s performance in these areas as much as possible.


    Provide yers with better hints for dodging and attacking, more efficient dodging movements, more urate target selection, and quicker adjustments to firing actions.


    With hints from [Combat Sensing] plus the assistance of dodge and assault from [Gunfighting Technique], yers could at least rest assured they won’t be battered into submission by intense fights.


    Even everyone can experience the joy of single-handedly defeating five enemies at once.


    And if you can better utilize the environment, you can even take on ten, or even a hundred enemies at once!


    Of course, carrying out such maneuvers is challenging.


    That’s because it’s no longer just casual gamey, it’s yers challenging their own ability limits.


    Of course, as always, the dynamic difficulty adjustment option still exists.


    Turn on this option, and as long as you die enough times, all the enemies will turn into fools!


    The changes to thebat system, which touch upon the game’s core mechanics, naturally ignited veracious debate within the yer circle.


    Controversy was inevitable.


    A lot of yers felt a bit annoyed about having the sensation of transforming from Superman into an ordinary person.


    With no “Time Stop” avable, bullets couldn’t turn corners anymore, and just a few small monsters could potentially wipe you out.


    Even if not dead, you’re likely to get shot.


    And once you’re shot, you would have to fight carrying the negative condition, which makes the battles even more challenging.


    Even after the fight, it takes several minutes for the negative status to fade.


    This has led to yers who are ustomed to thebat in “Assassins’ Alliance” to feel a bit annoyed.


    However, these criticisms usuallye from yers who failed to participate in the closed beta test or didn’t manage to unlock [Combat Sensing] and [Gunfighting Technique] during the test.


    yers who truly experienced immersive gamey in the newbat system were generally excited about the changes.


    More realistic, more intense, shooting from ultra-close range, or even close quartersbat, a mix of gun fights and unarmedbat, there’s hand-to-handbat in a gunfight, and shooting in a brawl!


    Thisplex and diverse fighting mode, in which no means is spared to take out the enemy, is incredibly thrilling and exhrating, and it gets the adrenaline pumping!


    You might even subconsciously think that this is what realbat is like!


    Arge majority of yers who have experienced the “one against many” challenge, immediately shut down the dynamic difficulty adjustment without a second thought.


    They are up for the challenge at the highest difficulty!


    Because, in this mode, the sense of achievement from winning a battle is extremely intense.


    However, yers who can participate in the closed beta are just too fewpared to the total yer base.


    And the number of yers who are hell-bent on leveling up to sessfully unlock [Combat Sensing] and [Gunfighting Technique] is even fewer.


    As a result, countless yers watching live streams see thebat scenes looking like this—


    “Enemies spotted!”


    “The enemy is charging in!”


    “Oh no, I’ve been shot!”


    “Ah, I’m dead!”


    Well, without the main missions avable, yers blindly navigate through the game and can easily encounter enemies stronger than themselves.


    The battles be realistic and intense.


    That’s why audiences watching these battles without full context, are often left feeling unsatisfied with thebat system.


    When the closed beta test came to an end at the weekend, and all the test yers began to fill out surveys, the majority of the feedback expressed dissatisfaction with thebat system.


    But after Lincoln asked Mavis for help topile all yers’ feedback, andpare it with what they actually experienced, they quickly located the problem.


    So, Lincoln decided to put this issue on hold for now.


    It’s not that he’s ignoring the feedback from yers, it’s just the yers’ viewpoints under the circumstances were severely distorted.


    He’ll consider further strengthening the skill effects after the game officiallyunches, and arger number of yers get hands-on experience with thebat system.


    Another issue that a lot of yers mentioned was that the randomness was a bit too extreme.


    One yer even illustrated a tragedy that happened to him:


    He epted a task to assassinate a dealer selling illegal drugs. When he was still over a hundred meters away from his target, he witnessed a robbery taking ce.


    Without a second thought, he pulled out his gun to stop the crime.


    But then the robber, as well as the victim, both stopped and pulled out their guns, aiming at him!


    The next moment, the [Combat Sensing] warning went off!


    Having been through such situations before, he didn’t hesitate to take the initiative and fire his gun!


    The gunshot sound resonated and further spread the impact.


    People in street-side windows, pedestrians from the other side of the road, and even a begging wanderer all turned their heads towards him.


    Then, there were the gangsters, street racers…


    Finally, his actual assassination target, the head of the smuggling ring, came rushing out with around ten of his cronies…


    “I’m not saying that this mechanism is bad, I’m just suggesting: can we limit it a bit, so it doesn’t trigger a chain reaction? It’s just too overwhelming!”


    “Hmm, I’ll consider it,” Lincoln nodded, nning to discuss whether to strengthen the limitations with the team when he got to work.


    Yes, the mechanism yers are experiencing, is actually already the limited version.


    When Lincoln first created this system, Fred, just by firing a shot in the street, triggered a rapid spread of impact.


    yers impacting NPCs and NPCs impacting more NPCs.


    Just like a chain reaction, the impact quickly spread out in ripples.


    In the end, the whole city was in uproar – gunfights, car crashes, robberies, riots, killings, bombings, fires…


    If it hadn’t been for Lincoln calling a halt, all the NPCs in the city might have ended up annihted by their own actions!


    The scene was terribly grim!


    The entire development team was left pale-faced.


    Lincoln was also a bit taken aback, and immediately began researching on a limitation mechanism…


    Now, what the yers are getting to y,pared to the original version, it’s been cut down to the bone.