There were three Batman games on the NES. The Game Blueprint Cheng Tian was in was the first one, adapted from the 1989 film of the same name. It had even boldly included Cutscenes like those in Ninja Gaiden and Ninja Cat/Kung Fu Cat Party, a daring move for NES cartridges measured in kilobytes.
In truth, those Cutscenes had already been heavily cut down. The reason was that the Japanese developers had naturally referenced many classic scenes from the original comics, including a Batman-Joker confrontation that closely recreated an iconic scene from The Killing Joke.
The result went without saying—legal warning letters!
For this Batman adaptation, the most troublesome aspect was actually the BOSS faction setup.
In the film, there was one and only one Supervillain: Joker. Batman spent the entire story locked in a love-hate struggle with him... but an action platformer could not possibly have only one BOSS, could it?
So the Japanese developers designed a series of original BOSS Units through a process of taking inspiration without fully copying, giving each of them a great deal of unnecessarily detailed character backstory.
As usual, the Japanese and American versions inevitably differed in their character settings.
When Cheng Tian heard the thug in front of him mention the name "Assassin Moth," then connected it with the gang's name, the "Moth Gang," he was basically certain that this scenario used the American character settings rather than the Japanese ones. Otherwise, Assassin Moth might have become "Sergeant Fred."
Of course, the American version's so-called character settings were really just DC villain names forcibly slapped onto vaguely similar original BOSSES. Their abilities did not perfectly match their supposed identities.
But Chosen Space had a marvelous mechanism: while preserving much of a Game Blueprint's original appeal, it refined and supplemented elements that would be unreasonable in a generated instance.
Thus, Assassin Moth and the Moth Gang, who should have had absolutely nothing to do with the original film, had naturally appeared here.
With the idea that it was the holiday season, Cheng Tian planned to pry more information from the two men. Unfortunately, they were genuinely just worthless punks throwing their weight around under borrowed prestige. Apart from knowing their gang leader's name, they knew nothing about the other core members, leaving Cheng Tian no opening to gather intel.
Just as the white guy thought Cheng Tian had run out of questions, Cheng Tian, after pondering for a long while, spoke again. Yet his next question was so strange that both the white guy and the Black guy behind him—who had already regained consciousness and quickly adapted to, or rather blocked out, the stench—could not help but freeze.
"If Gotham City caught fire, would insurance cover it?"
"Uh... if the place that burned down had Wayne Group insurance, it should pay out, right?"
Someone at the very bottom like the white guy naturally could not afford Wayne Group insurance, but he had indeed never heard of any news about insurance being bought and then refusing to pay compensation.
Although Gotham was a gathering place for gangs—the Moth Gang, the Electrocution Gang, the Firefly Gang, and the most vicious and evil of all, the Joker Gang—the one organization that truly extended into nearly every corner of Gotham was the massive conglomerate known as Wayne Group.
People cursed the rich, sure, but Wayne Group's insurance business had never had any major scandal that even someone at the very bottom like him would know about.
"Then do fire trucks respond promptly? Is there water in the hydrants? Who pays for fire response?"
Cheng Tian fired off another triple question.
"The response seems pretty fast. I heard a few Firefly Gang animals talking in an underground bar before, saying the firefighters got there too quickly and they had not even finished enjoying the burning. So I guess the hydrants must have plenty of water.
"As for the money, I think Wayne Group funds it too."
Perhaps Cheng Tian had opened the floodgates. The two foolish thieves who had been defeated in reverse both relaxed considerably, falling into a rhythm where Cheng Tian asked, the white guy answered, and the Black guy occasionally added something. Cheng Tian learned much more about the city.
For example, people like the white guy and the Black guy—gang members in name, homeless people in reality—could receive relief supplies from aid stations established by Wayne Group. At the very least, getting one free, filling meal a day was no problem.
And those unlucky people injured after being caught up in the justice enforcement of some tights-wearing bat freak could have their exorbitant ambulance fees waived as long as they could prove the cause of their injuries. Their follow-up medical bills also received major reductions, all paid for by Wayne Group.
Learning the truth about Gotham was the real hellish joke to Cheng Tian.
For a long time, not only he but many others had believed that a place as blessed with talented people and beautiful land as Gotham was a crime-ridden city utterly unfit for human habitation. Yet with real-life examples for comparison, Cheng Tian truly felt a phrase in the Gotham before him that should never have gone together: "a capitalist's conscience."
As the actual controller of Wayne Group, which dominated nearly every field in Gotham City, Bruce Wayne should have been like most capitalists, squeezing the lower classes to the bone. Instead, his greatest hobby was apparently dressing up as a tights-wearing freak at night, running around and fighting criminals!
Have insurance? Pay!
Have a fire? Rescue!
Have homeless people? Help!
Have criminals? Beat them down!
I hereby declare—Gotham is a better, more livable city than Metropolis and Los Angeles!
"Hey, hey, hey!? You're just leaving? Let us go!!" "Yeah, bro! You haven't even untied us!"
Their conversation had clearly become quite friendly—friendly enough that the Black and White Duo thought Cheng Tian might invite them for drinks. Yet after asking all those questions, Cheng Tian seemed to be savoring something as he smoothly turned and left.
The sound of a cane tapping against the ground stopped. Cheng Tian turned around, and the tapping resumed.
"You don't think a few casual words can make up for the fact that you wanted to rob me, or even kill me, do you?"
Looking down at them, Cheng Tian stared directly into the Black and White Duo's eyes, making both of them swallow almost instinctively.
"No matter how tragic and winding your journey into homelessness may have been, the moment you attacked me, it meant this was not the first time you had done something like this. You are trash. Filth. You need to be punished."
"...Bro, are you one of those vigilantes who starts killing without saying a word?"
The Black guy tried to sound tough, but his voice trembled beyond his control.
Yet Cheng Tian merely shook his head, then gave an answer that made a chill rise from the bottom of the Black and White Duo's hearts.
"My friends... the best punishment is not necessarily death~"
Cheng Tian smiled brilliantly.
Ten minutes later, a shadow that seemed to block out the narrow alley's sky descended from above.
Because of his cowl's material, Batman could not freely turn his head and had to face his target with his entire body. When he clearly saw the scene before him, his powerful frame shuddered.
The Black and White Duo's limbs had all been twisted in the opposite direction, and they had been bound together in the shape of an interlocking yin-yang symbol.
A sensory assault best described as "eye-searing" entered Batman's mind before any other emotion could.
Meanwhile, Cheng Tian had already appeared, dressed as an utterly out-of-place gentleman, in an underground bar where normal people clearly did not belong. This was the little bar the white guy had mentioned earlier.
After taking a seat at the Bar Counter, Cheng Tian tapped it with the joined index and middle fingers of his left hand, then said something that drew even more attention to himself.
"Bartender, a glass of milk, please."
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