"This customer, you're the first person ever to order milk here."
After hearing Cheng Tian's order, the bartender actually pulled a carton of skim milk from the fridge and poured a full beer mug right in front of him. He looked highly professional, but he was clearly not very enthusiastic.
After all, Cheng Tian's below-average Charm stat was right there. It was not low enough for everyone to hate the sight of him, but he could not expect people to be particularly welcoming either.
"Milk is good~ Replenishes calcium and strengthens the bones."
After saying that, Cheng Tian tipped his head back and drained the entire mug in one gulp, then let out an incredibly crude milk burp amid the strange looks of everyone around him.
Since Cheng Tian had already passed the Novice Trial, he would generally be given a relatively reasonable legal identity that better fit the setting of the current world whenever he entered a brand-new instance.
Secretly, he was a bounty hunter. Publicly, he was a gentlemanly foreign businessman in disguise.
However, Cheng Tian himself clearly did not suit the image of a gentleman in disguise. Or rather, he did not know how to maintain the persona of a foreign gentleman. He would not change himself to suit the instance and instead continued doing whatever he pleased.
Perhaps the Space had simply chosen this strange disguise so his vampire gentleman's cane would not look so out of place.
The bartender took back the mug, which still had a little milk at the bottom. But as soon as he moved it, he noticed something tucked underneath it—
A tiny little Golden Flash~
The bartender immediately understood. Without changing his expression, he hooked it with his pinky as he moved the mug and slipped it into his sleeve.
"What can I do for you?"
The bartender's tone became noticeably warmer. That little cutie had probably temporarily given him +4 Charm.
Normally, taverns filled with all sorts of people also served as information hubs. Naturally, Cheng Tian wanted to ask about the Bounty Mission—information related to the Moth Gang.
"I'm new here. I don't want to cause trouble or have trouble come looking for me, so I'd like to know how many gangs there are in Gotham City, and where their members usually gather."
That was Cheng Tian's excuse for gathering information.
Based on the Bounty Mission's description and Cheng Tian's own judgment, the difficulty of obtaining information on gang units should fall somewhere between something money could not buy and something that did not necessarily require a slaughter spree.
If the information could simply be bought with money, Batman would have acquired it himself long ago. There would have been no need for players to do it. And the most extreme method—killing everyone in sight—probably was not the only way either.
Since it had been explicitly stated that he could kill, steal, control, or snatch, that meant the target units definitely possessed some sort of proof that would represent successful acquisition of detailed information. In game terms, it was a "Quest Item."
Cheng Tian had also brought up the question of "how many gangs" because that white guy earlier had indirectly tipped him off. He had mentioned the Firefly Gang.
Although someone dressed like Cheng Tian deliberately coming to this kind of mixed-bag place was rather unusual, his excuse was indeed convincing... and the money was genuinely enticing.
The bartender wrote a 10 on the Bar Counter with a wet cloth. Cheng Tian immediately double-tapped the counter, asking for another mug of milk while agreeing to the price.
Soon, the second mug of milk and a map of Gotham marked with territorial divisions and gang gathering spots were delivered to Cheng Tian. Cheng Tian also pushed over the stacked golden chips.
However, once Cheng Tian focused on the map, he failed to notice the bartender, after accepting the golden chips, signaling toward Cheng Tian's back. Several people who met his gaze quietly rose to their feet while making as little noise as possible. One of them went to the tavern entrance and hung up a "Closed" sign.
Cheng Tian might have come here looking for information in a convincing manner, but he had actually just copied what he had seen in movies and games. He had absolutely no relevant experience. It could even be said that he was full of openings.
Cheng Tian had considered that something might happen here, but he had not considered who might stand behind a place capable of getting information in Gotham.
Wayne Group? Or... Gotham's criminal gangs?
Click!
The sound of the door locking made Cheng Tian's ear twitch. When he looked up, he saw the tightly shut door and the tavern patrons, all of whom looked ill-intentioned, rising from their seats with eager expressions.
"Was the money not enough?"
Cheng Tian's eyes shifted slightly. One hand rubbed his Transformation Cane, and at some point, the cane vanished from his hand.
"No. You're the most generous customer we've had in days."
The bartender said this, clearly surprised by Cheng Tian's calmness.
"...I see. So this thing is just meant to fool me?"
Cheng Tian pointed at the map on the table.
"Not at all. We still value honesty in business. The goods are real, no cheating anyone. It's just that our boss has been very annoyed by some Outsiders bothering him these past few days, and he needs an unlucky bastard to vent on. You happen to be an Outsider of unknown identity too, and you even have the very rare face of an Asian, so..."
"So that's how it is~"
Upon hearing that, Cheng Tian decisively folded the map and tucked it into his inner pocket, then casually began untying his tie.
Now Cheng Tian completely understood. Someone had made a move against the BOSS Unit here, and judging by the situation, they seemed to have failed, putting the boss's subordinate forces on alert.
Under normal circumstances, players who accepted a Bounty Mission would act around the mission itself. But players themselves were the greatest variable, so it was nothing new for a Bounty Mission to involve either actively or passively encountering a main-quest-level BOSS.
However, in most cases, the survival or death of powerful non-mission-related units and main-quest-level BOSSES in a Bounty Mission would not affect the evaluation of the Bounty Mission itself, whose focus was different. Even if players attacked them, they were only gambling on whether the BOSS would drop a chest and whether that chest would contain anything good.
The mission Cheng Tian had accepted could accommodate up to five players, all of whom would be placed into the same map. The five players' mission completion would not interfere with one another, and their completion rates would be calculated separately.
But the actions of those who arrived earlier would inevitably affect those who came later to some extent. Cheng Tian was clearly the one caught in the fallout.
"Mr. Milk, if you give up resisting, I can at least guarantee that you will not suffer any unnecessary injuries during transport."
Seeing Cheng Tian loosen his tie, the bartender kindly offered him a warning.
At the same time, seeing that this skinny yellow Asian monkey actually looked like he intended to resist, the official gang members only wanted to laugh.
The tall, burly bearded man closest to Cheng Tian, a Bearded Fighter within the gang, had already stepped forward two paces and swung his fist straight at Cheng Tian's face.
Racism stacked with resentment toward the rich, then stacked with low Charm—right now, he only wanted to knock a few teeth out of this yellow monkey's mouth and let him know that Gotham was not a place weaklings like him could casually enter—
Then an intense pain shot back from the knuckles and ulnar styloid process of his punching hand!
A shield bearing Red and White Ring Stripes, with a blue center and a white five-pointed star, appeared in Cheng Tian's hand without warning and blocked the Bearded Fighter's punch.
Among Cheng Tian's records was a notification that had appeared the moment he entered the instance.
[Detected: this is your first time entering an instance related to Batman—] ["Game Master" activating—] [You have successfully loaded the Original Protagonist Template from the world blueprint of Captain's Orders—"Captain America/Steve Rogers."]
Before you continue