Red-Name Players and White-Name Players

"Huh? Gotham Villain Profession Certification?"

Having just one-shot Oni Princess, Eileen stared in surprise at the achievement notification that had popped up on her panel.

The moment Eileen said that, Cheng Tian saw her dart toward him. He immediately raised his shield at a forty-five-degree angle over his head, his sharp eyes sweeping every possible hiding place.

"That old Gotham bat must be hiding somewhere and spying on us. I'd wager he's here in person."

As someone who had already earned that honor, Cheng Tian immediately made his judgment.

Though Cheng Tian was not a true shield-bearing class, the defensive boost from Shield Master made filling in as a guard easy enough. Besides, when he signed the Gray Contract, he had already made his role in the party clear. At least in this current mission world, Eileen was the one he needed to protect.

"Open the treasure chest! Run!" Eileen immediately issued the highest-priority order.

"Roger." Without another word, Cheng Tian followed her and ran.

Clearly, neither of the two players officially recognized as Arkham VIP Customers wanted to get tangled up with Batman.

As mentioned before, there were quite a few people in the Player Community who treated NPCs from their own faction exactly the same as dungeon monsters and enemies. For the sake of the Protagonist's Armament, they would attack these companion NPCs who had originally been allies and teammates.

However, from the moment they attacked, the dungeon would undergo nearly irreversible changes. The game save associated with players who killed allies would carry over into every subsequent dungeon. And not just the corresponding Game Blueprint—even cameo appearances, mentions, and other Game Blueprints set in the same universe could be affected.

Once a choice was made, the consequences had to be borne. This was also one of the possible developments the space wanted to see.

As for Twin Sister Yaksha, who had escaped in another direction... Cheng Tian had no means of pursuit, and Eileen would be weak for a while after using that Fusion Combat Skill. So let her run. There would be other chances later.

Crouched on the rooftop like a statue, Batman stared blankly at Oni Princess's corpse, still nailed to the gates of the Abandoned Factory. He then shifted his gaze to Cheng Tian and Eileen, who were fleeing toward the financial district. But he did not choose to pursue them.

The elusive Batman always appeared with uncanny precision wherever an incident occurred in Gotham City. Naturally, he had not missed Cheng Tian's group's battle, especially since they had not even tried to hide themselves.

Yet unlike the countless petty thieves, pickpockets, and robbers scurrying around like rats, or gangsters openly shooting each other, the confrontation between Cheng Tian, Eileen, and the twin sisters looked to Batman like nothing more than supervillains tearing each other apart.

Batman, based on the 1989 Movie version, would not use excessively extreme measures to bypass the judicial system when dealing with ordinary criminals. But this version of Batman had personally killed Joker.

And let it not be forgotten that the Bounty Mission for killing gang members to obtain mission items had been issued by him.

So Batman here did not have as strict a "no-killing rule" as his Alternate Dimension Counterparts.

Furthermore, although he had already determined that Cheng Tian and Eileen were both Arkham VIP Customers, he had also noticed that their targets were gang members and fellow supervillains. They seemed to have no interest in ordinary people. Therefore, the ones who should truly feel threatened by letting them act freely were supervillains like Assassin Moth.

Still, the gangs, now poisonous as they were, had infiltrated every corner of Gotham City. This made a living gang leader far more important than a dead one. Once a gang leader died, the gang would inevitably descend into chaos as people fought for power. Other gangs would also clash with it over territory, and in the end, it would be Gotham's ordinary civilians who suffered.

Putting aside that Scallop Warrior with his warped values, that archer who killed so decisively would most likely find a way to go after Assassin Moth again. And judging by the situation, that man and woman had already joined forces. All that could be said was that Assassin Moth's odds of survival had dropped sharply.

Now the question was—

Should he find a way to stop Assassin Moth from being attacked at the source? Or should he directly consider how to stabilize the entire Moth Gang after Assassin Moth died?

Batman sank into thought.

"They didn't follow us."

Eileen, frowning slightly after breathing in Gotham's air thick with industrial dust, signaled Cheng Tian to slow down.

Cheng Tian nodded and calmed his racing heartbeat from the run.

But Cheng Tian quickly demonstrated his fine habit of asking whenever he did not understand something, speaking bluntly.

"Can you tell me about the price of killing players, and the rules concerning those Bloody Treasure Chests?"

"No problem~"

For some reason, Eileen seemed a little pleased to hear Cheng Tian ask. She nodded and readily agreed.

The simple summary was this: killing one player forcibly gave one point of PK Value. As PK Value accumulated, the Drop Rate of the "Bloody Treasure Chest" dropped upon a player's death would increase in stages.

Normally, a White Name killing a White Name would become a red name, while a White Name killing a red name would not turn red, though PK Value would still increase.

Of course, there was also a judgment involved. If both sides were White Names and the one who attacked first was killed instead, the one who counter-killed would remain a White Name.

Accumulating PK Value as a red-name player could lead to being ostracized by Protagonist Factions that generally upheld justice-oriented values. This could then forcibly shift the player's faction, gradually increasing the chance of being assigned to an opposing faction among dungeon characters and raising the frequency of Faction Confrontation-related dungeon modifiers.

There might even be Bounty Missions specifically targeting heavily red-name players.

But red-name players were also a form of player existence, and they enjoyed certain special privileges unavailable to White-Name Players.

For example, in some dungeons where "killing Protagonist Faction members/Ally NPCs yields no drops," red-name players could ignore that condition, kill NPCs as monsters, and receive relatively normal drop rates.

At the same time, once their PK Value reached a certain level, they became qualified to use Special PK Gear that could only be used in battles between players.

In short, being a red-name player was also an optional playstyle for Chosen Players, but it did not suit Cheng Tian's gaming aesthetics.

Making arrogant demons and monsters so powerful they feared nothing kneel and beg for mercy, then tearing out their spines amid their terror and screams—that was Cheng Tian's favorite sight.

"Then are you a red name?"

Cheng Tian once again asked a rather sensitive question. It was impossible to tell whether he was simply that dense or doing it on purpose.

"What? Scared?"

Eileen, who was checking the bowstring of the Elf Bow, rolled her eyes at Cheng Tian and shot back the question.

"Of course not~"

As Cheng Tian spoke, he flashed a kindly smile that sent fine goosebumps across the skin of Eileen, the archer whose overall strength completely outclassed his.