FB: Chapter 52 – The Room

Winner! Standard 1v1: 310-0 Champion 1v1: 18-0 Tournament: 1-0
Please return to the platform to leave the arena.

I left the arena after my most recent Champion win. People were madly speculating why I kept doing Champion battles and regular battles. Some thought I was a battle junky, others thought I wanted to prove that I was the best, while some thought I was going for a title of some kind. The last group of people would be right.

My undefeated streak was massive. I hadn’t unveiled Vomitatis yet. It had taken 10 platinum, 8 Epic skill shards of Murk Barf maxed out on experience I had personally collected, and the Tome of the Arch-Mage Blight. But I now had my second special Legendary skill.

Vomitatis dealt a base amount of 6 poison damage and 2 acid damage each second per rank instead of just 3 poison damage like Murk Barf. It was almost three times the damage and it was sticky and acidic as well. Shields would melt and static defenses would run into a hard time. Same for people rushing at me. Special legendary skills were the kind of skills that separated the top players from the rest, since it was such an investment to get them.

With my recent wins and bets, I had money saved up. Enough that I was going to try and get the Dice of the High Roller today. I stepped into the Capital Casino. “Baroness Foxy Blight, what can we interest you in today?” An attendant was ready to greet me the moment I entered.

“I wish to enter the Room,” I said. The Room, had no name, and was just called the Room. This was where fortunes could be won or lost in an instant. It was incredibly cutthroat.

“Of course. That just requires a minimum deposit of 100 platinum,” the attendant said. He pulled out a runic plate. I put my hand on it and my balance plummeted back down. “This way Baroness.” I followed the attendant to a magical elevator which took us to the top floor of the gambling establishment.

We entered the waiting area before the Room. “Since this is your first time here, please allow me to explain the rules,” the attendant said. I nodded for him to continue. While I already knew them, a refresher wouldn’t hurt in case something had changed from what I knew.

“If you wish to put up anything as collateral, you must do so here with our assessors. The establishment will not accept collateral once you enter the Room. You may ask other individuals present to finance you, if your line of credit is depleted or make trades with them. If you leave the Room, your current bets will be considered forfeit, so make sure you have the funds necessary before entering. No skills are allowed. No cheating is allowed. We employ multiple Vigilance Paladins to constantly monitor for any suspicious activity. All bets are final. If you are unsure about the rules of a specific game, please ask an attendant and we will be happy to explain or answer any questions you might have. All food and drinks are on the house, so please order as much as you desire. If you require anything else, please ask and we will provide you with what you ask for at a reasonable price,” the attendant said.

Basically, if you ran out of money the other players would suck you dry. If you were an idiot, the house would suck you dry. I went over to the attendants handling assessments for items that were put up. I had thought long and hard about this, but I planned to go all in right away and bet everything on the first match. I pulled off my pendant.

“I would like this assessed please,” I said. I couldn’t put up my skill shards since they were soul bound to me. After half a minute, I was given a credit line of 3,000 platinum for the pendant. If I paid that amount back within 40 in game days, which was 10 real world days, then I could collect the pendant. If I didn’t, the casino would take the object from me and resell it to recoup their lost money.

With an additional 3,000 platinum to my name, I was ready to risk it all. The doors were opened and I entered the Room. There were at least 50 nobles and another 70 high ranking people scattered across various games. The games of chance were scams for the most part. Playing against other players was asking to lose all your money as well. The NPCs here wouldn’t cheat, but according to the lore they were highly observant. The smallest blink, twitch, breath, or increase in heartbeat and they would discern quite a bit.

There was only one game that interested me, since that was the only way to get the Dice of the High Roller. It was also the only chance I had in this place. I went right to the main table. I had only played lesser versions of this game before. Supreme Commander was the popular mini-game inside the Human Empire. Basically two players would sit opposite each other and use their money up to a certain limit to buy various units and battle each other.

They would set up the units in secret on their side of the table. Then the battle would begin. Individual pieces, when attacking or defending would have dice rolled by both sides to determine the outcome. The board was divided into three, with the middle being seen, but you couldn’t deploy your units there. Each player’s side was hidden during the deployment phase from their opponent. Terrain mattered as well. There were reference sheets available for all the pieces and I had been studying them quite heavily to make sure I hadn’t forgotten anything.

The main table had the top NPC player in the Human Empire that the casino hired to represent them. Half of each battle went into the grand prize pool. One had to pay a minimum of 100 platinum to have a match. Since the pot was currently at 2,850 platinum and the house had started the pot at 1,000 platinum. That meant they had already made their money back.

Part of the culture of the game was to take the dice that your opponent used and bring your own dice to forfeit if you lost. I had a set custom made for this upcoming match. The dice went through an auto roller very quickly and their numbers were displayed over the battlefield in real time. It was to ensure that all randomness was publicly viewed without deception. The game could be slowed down if a player wanted to confirm each roll, but doing that would be insulting the owners of the table. For the Room, these were people I couldn’t afford to offend. Also, it wasn’t worth the risk of cheating when they had hired the best player at this mini-game.

I took my spot in the empty challenger seat. The woman across the table gave me a look up and down. Several people in the room looked over as well. People began to slowly head over to watch a newcomer get crushed.

“This is my first game. I hope you don’t treat me too harshly,” I said with a smile.

“I am obligated to do my best each and every game,” the woman across from me replied stiffly.

“Perhaps we should make it more interesting. A 100 platinum game is a bit boring. I have heard about a special challenge one can make, if they have the platinum. I wish to make a full challenge,” I said and there were a couple gasps of shock. I would be putting up 2,850 platinum to match the prize pot. If I won, the casino would hand back my bet and the matching prize pool. But the real prize were the special dice that were brought out for such a competition. The dice were legal but designed to tilt things in a person’s favor subtly. That was why they were called the Dice of the High Roller.

It was complete and utter insanity. But I had seen the path to victory the last time this was done. The prize pool had reached around 8,500 platinum by that time, but the concept was still the same. A shame I was choosing to act now rather than waiting. But I needed money now and wanted that unique legendary skill. I had run lots of practice matches working out how the match I had seen and the one I would now play would be different.

“I am Garren Tine. The first ranked player in the game of Supreme Commander,” she said.

“Baroness Foxy Blight. Actual first time player, guild leader, and grand champion,” I replied. The last title was an actual title, which the NPCs recognized.

“It is confirmed that Baroness Foxy Blight has no confirmed matches at this time and has the available funds,” an attendant said. There were gasps of shock at this. Everyone knew I had some kind of scheme or plan, but this wasn’t the kind of game you could easily cheat in. Also, this was the Room and multiple Vigilance Paladins were watching me closely.

“I also wish to bet an additional 250 platinum on my victory, so the audience is entertained,” I said as a runic plate was brought over. The casino accepted both my initial payment to play a full challenge and my bet. Once I was locked in, the large crowd quickly got in on the betting action with the odds heavily weighted against me. Still some people bet on me, since 15 to 1 odds meant even a small win would have big profits.

“This will be a 2,850 platinum match for both sides. No handicaps. Standard ruleset. Each player may now may now begin selecting and placing their pieces,” the attendant overseeing the match said. I didn’t hesitate and immediately selected the pre-saved load out on my screen for this match as the battlefield appeared. The terrain didn’t matter for what I was about to do. It hadn’t been difficult to pay an information broker to find out how much the jackpot was at the table. Rushing like I was doing was seen as unsporting, since after one side was done, the other side had two minutes to finish their selection for their purchased troops.

Garren Tine was good, but she was overly confident in herself. Her first mistake was not having a pre-built army for a full match like this. These kind of matches almost never happened. Even if they did, people would build up to them first or play against Garren Tine in a lesser value match to get a better understanding of her level of skill. I knew how skilled she was. She was the Tom Brady, Michael Jordon, and Lionel Messi of this mini-game. All of them combined at the same time with an actions per minute, or APM that would put former professional e-sports players to shame. Some even speculated she was QAI’s avatar in game with how skilled she was combined with the Dice of the High Roller she was seen as unbeatable. In comparison I was just some punk coming off the street with a huge bank roll.

That was why I couldn’t give her any room to breathe even if it was considered poor sportsmanship to have a pre-made army for a non-standard amount. I could tell she knew what I had done along with everyone else. They now knew I wasn’t some idiot, and I had come here to win. Unfortunately for them, betting had been closed.

She was rapidly selecting pieces and placing her army on her side of the game space as quickly as possible. It was unfortunate the jackpot wasn’t more, but that didn’t make a difference for how my strategy would work. She was buying specific units in batches, her fingers flying across the screens that were in front of her while also giving verbal commands. It made me wonder how much processing power QAI devoted to this kind of thing.

Computers had long since conquered regular board games. That was a big reason why there was no chess or go in Exponential. They had been done to death for a long time. Supreme Commander was a much more volatile strategy game, with infinitely more possibilities and variations. With the number of pieces directly related to the amount of money bet on the outcome, this kind of match was almost never done. People would play at the standard 100 amount, scaled to their wealth. In the Room it was platinum, in other places it was copper, silver, or gold. It gave the feeling of commanding a large army.

Garren Tine finished moving her hands and speaking at low volume three seconds before the timer ran out. A soft chime sounded and the dividers hiding our respective sides of the board were removed. I held my breath as I looked over her formation and then I relaxed slightly.

She had gone with the strategy I had seen previously. Layer upon layer of complex formations of a variety of units, creating a massive defense in depth to protect her Commander unit. She would out micro anyone she was up against, whittling them down over a period of time with flawless commands and micro. It was a safe and tested strategy that worked very well in the vast majority of cases. Even in most cases Garren Tine would easily adapt with her unit selection.

Unfortunately, the price cap for this game was immense. Different social classes played the game with different monetary values, but the standard was 100. It was incredibly rare for games to be played over that amount in a formal setting. People had tried to out micro Garren Tine in the past, but that was a losing strategy. People said that she was QAI’s avatar in game meant to humble anyone foolish enough to try and win in such a game, showcasing its vast computational might as if the world of Exponential wasn’t enough.

The physical dice and the auto roller were to show various engagements had a bit of randomness to them. People had done studies to confirm this. No one could figure out how the Dice of the High Roller rolled better, since they were confirmed not to be enchanted when checked by both high level NPCs and players. They were just innately lucky. My personal guess was that they were made from something monster with a lot of Luck.

I had purchased what was considered a joke unit in the game but included out of respect. The Human Emperor, and I had purchased 28 of him for 100 each, with 5 praetorian guards for 10 each to protect my Commander in the middle of my wedge formation.

We each had a minute to observe the other side and give our initial orders. Mine were simple, have the wedge move directly towards the enemy Commander. The front line of Human Emperors would engage in high level magic and melee where needed. The second line of the wedge would shield from ranged attacks and heal.

The unit was completely overpowered, but in a normal game you would just have one of them and nothing else. While very hard to kill, it would leave a Commander exposed and this strategy wouldn’t work against anyone will intelligence. People would lose the game by losing their Commander while the singular Human Emperor remained on the battlefield. But with 28 Human Emperors attacking and 5 Praetorian Guard on defense, my Commander could move with my formation directly to the enemy Commander.

It was complete and utter cheese. My orders were already pre-set so I didn’t have to do anything beyond giving high level commands. Meanwhile Garren Tine was rapidly tapping on her screen in front of the table and issuing shorthand verbal orders as well at the same time. I could only imagine QAI’s sever banks, or whatever it used starting to overheat trying to solve this problem. Our dice were already loaded in the auto loader that would rapidly roll them for each engagement, while showing the results on the holographic field of battle. An illusionary game, inside of an illusionary game.

Everyone watching was utterly silent as the massacre unfolded. It was an incredibly stupid strategy, but if it worked, it was no longer stupid. The last time this happened, a new universal rule was implemented for the game, only allowing one Human Emperor per side no matter the starting amount.

But that would be too late for what was occurring right now. The Human Emperor unit’s stats were just too high in the game. While Garren Tine had some elites, the moment they got in range they were cut down. She managed to lay down focus fire to kill two of my Human Emperors, but she had lost two tenths of her melee forces in the same time period.

She was moving all her ranged units to attack both of my flanks, piled up her melee in front of me, and had her more mobile units circle around behind. I lost another three Human Emperors, putting me down to 22, while she had lost a third of her melee forces. I had the wedge tighten up and my forces rotate where possible to spread out damage, as the rolls came quickly from the auto rollers that were next to us, constantly recycling the dice for each engagement.

I then gave the order to move to the side and not forward, disrupting her entire defense in depth. My small formation could move far more quickly than her massive army. Her ranged units were caught out of position as my small force quickly pivoted. I could see the frustration on her face across the game table as her APM, had to be above 600 with no actions wasted. I was just rampaging across the board, while she was struggling to salvage the entire situation with her god tier skills.

It was impressive how she fought until the bitter end. It was clear she had lost, but she never gave up. Even when I finally reached her Commander, a last rush at my formation was done by all her units to get mine first. It didn’t work of course, but it was the only thing she could have done. The match finally ended with my victory.

Commander
Win a ranked match of the Commander game.
+1% Aura Range

It was a garbage title, so I ignored it. “Well. That was certainly fun. I think I will retire after this, undefeated,” I said to chuckles around the room.

“Well played Baroness Foxy Blight. I won’t forget this,” Garren Tine got up and pulled out her dice rack from the auto-roller on the table. She then came over to me and gave me her dice rack. I took it with a smile. The Dice of the High Roller were finally mine along with a lot of platinum.

An attendant came over to me as Garren Tine left. I won 6,600 platinum in profit. That was not counting the initial money I had wagered, which I got back on top of my winnings. Time to get back my pendant, leave this place, and never return.