Above Gotham City, dark clouds crowded the skyline, dim light seeping through their gaps and spreading into every corner of the city.
Bang! Boom!!
Shrill gunshots and explosions mingled with the maniacs' wild laughter, crashing into the stillness like a downpour striking a tranquil lake.
People scattered in panic, like fish startled from the lakebed and darting in every direction.
[Daily quest "Join the Joker Gang" completed!] [Rewards received: Bolt character card ×1 (100 meters in 9.58 seconds, kid!), EXP +20, funds +$1,000] [Player level: 3 → 4 (System shop unlocks at level 10)]
Blue system notifications appeared before Lynn. Ignoring the bank tellers and bystanders fleeing in chaos beside him, he focused on the messages.
"Six more levels until the system shop unlocks. Wonder what's in there. And this Bolt card..."
"Am I supposed to carry Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, Catwoman, and Barbara off and leave Batman watching us disappear?"
Lynn was a player with a system.
When he first discovered he had transmigrated into Gotham, he hadn't even had a legal identity. All he could do was tread carefully and tremble in fear.
After all, this place ranked right alongside Los Santos and Night City.
Not only did the water contain hair-raising stuff like the Joker's blood, Clayface's carcinogenic residue, Scarecrow's fear toxin, and Bane's venom...
Several fucking evil gods had even laid countless curses on this hellhole.
An ordinary person simply couldn't survive here.
Fortunately, Lynn was no longer an ordinary person. He was a player.
The system said it would reward him for completing daily quests and story quests, resolving event milestones, and defeating bosses.
Thinking about how he could someday become Superman and randomly screw people, Lynn had agreed to the deal.
"I need to hit level 10 and unlock the system shop soon... Once it's unlocked, my funds should buy plenty of items. And apparently, every ten levels unlocks another system feature... Can't wait."
"Let's see what the next quest is."
With a thought, he clicked the quest tab on the blue panel and checked his next quest.
[Main quest: Rob Gotham Bank] [Quest description: How could a player possibly not rob a bank? Please rob Gotham Bank and provoke this city's final boss, Batman.] [Rewards: Intelligence-Reducing Aura ability card ×1 (The Peter Griffin special), resurrection card ×1 (Rise again, my player!), Gotham reputation +30, EXP +20, funds +$10,000] [Note: Ready to piss off Gotham's big boss?]
Lynn paused at the densely packed line of rewards.
"That generous?"
"An Intelligence-Reducing Aura ability card. Wonder what would happen if I used it on Batman."
"And a resurrection card. I already have one. Not only can I use it on myself, I can bring back the dead... I could get Batman's parents up and running."
Closing the quest tab, Lynn lifted his lean face and scanned the chaotic crowd.
Among the armed robbers, one figure stood out with brazen swagger, like a crane among chickens. It was impossible not to notice him.
Purple suit, sickly face, green hair, perverted grin.
"If Joker-boy's here, can Bat-Faker be far behind?"
Muttering to himself, Lynn raised his cool gaze toward the bank's silvery-white ceiling.
A dark figure hung from the brightly lit ceiling like a bat, doing who knew what.
"Sure enough, Bat-Faker's here too."
For a player who had infiltrated the Joker Gang, robbing a bank wasn't difficult.
The hard part was provoking the big boss, Batman.
After thinking for a moment, Lynn reached into his pocket with his right hand and pulled out his phone. He tapped a random string of digits and dialed.
[Batman's Communicator: Contact Gotham's big boss, Batman, anytime, anywhere (Provided Batman has a communication device nearby).] [Note: Piss off Gotham's big boss anytime, anywhere.]
With the [Batman's Communicator] skill, he could call Batman whenever he wanted, no matter what number he dialed.
On the ceiling, Batman was hanging in ambush like a sneaky bastard, just about to jump down, when a call suddenly sounded in his ear.
He frowned slightly and raised his right hand, his sharp eyes turning to the multifunction communicator on his wrist.
Apart from members of the Bat Family, Gordon, Barbara, and a few others, nobody knew this confidential number.
Who could it be?
"Hello?"
"Moshi moshi."
Batman paused. Japanese?
"Bat-Faker, I have photos of your Bat Gang selling ass."
Batman's expression froze. The sheer absurdity of that statement even dulled his piercing gaze.
What the hell is Bat-Faker?
"Who are you?" he asked in a low, gravelly voice.
"Who I am doesn't matter. What matters is... you wouldn't want everyone in Gotham seeing these photos, would you?"
Batman's face darkened, and even the air around the ceiling seemed to grow heavier.
In all his years fighting crime as Batman, he had never encountered a criminal this brazen.
The man actually had the nerve to blackmail him.
"How much do you want?"
He asked calmly while having Alfred, back in the Batcave, begin tracing the caller's location.
"All of Wayne Enterprises."
Batman's pupils contracted slightly, and a dangerous air radiated from him.
"Do you know who I am?" he asked darkly.
"Of course. Not only do I know who you are, I know about your future son, your home address, your house's layout, and everything about your Wayne Family."
Batman: ???
Are you hacking?
Naturally, he didn't believe the caller. Instead, he quickly contacted Alfred to ask whether he had located him.
But Alfred told him the caller's number was a string of gibberish and couldn't be traced at all.
"Well? Made up your mind, Bat-Faker? Those photos of you selling ass..."
Batman hung up immediately.
"Beep, beep, beep!"
A busy tone sounded in his ear.
Lynn rubbed the white cowlick on his forehead, trying to look less awkward.
"Wow. He just hung up on me."
"Since he hung up, I'll try again tonight. First, I need to rob Gotham Bank."
"Joker-boy just robbed Gotham Bank. If I rob him, that counts as me robbing Gotham Bank, more or less, right?"
Robbing Gotham Bank meant facing the Gotham police and Batman.
Robbing the Joker only meant facing the Joker.
He could tell which was harder and which was easier.
Find the Joker, then take the money from Gotham Bank off his hands.
While he was at it, he could see whether he could recruit Harley Quinn and team up to fight the boss.
Then he could complete more quests, earn more powerful items, and live a life of brazen excess in this world, with a beauty on each arm.
"Joker, for the sake of my quest, you guys will just have to suffer a little."
Lynn put away his pistol, looked at the corpse on the floor, and asked:
"You don't mind if I borrow you, do you?"
Since she had no objections, Lynn slung her over his shoulder and headed toward the chaotic lobby.
After hanging up, Batman wore a grim expression, constantly analyzing what had just happened.
How did someone find out this confidential number?
And it wasn't just the number. That person knew my identity, too.
"What the hell is going on?"
As both a detective and a superhero, his instincts told him something was wrong.
"Was it the Joker? Or that sick criminal who's appeared around here lately?"
Batman recalled what Commissioner Gordon had told him.
Over the past few days, a vicious criminal had appeared in this area.
Based on the cases and various incidents involving him, Commissioner Gordon believed that sick criminal might be even crazier than the Joker.
But Batman, the Joker's longtime adversary, disagreed.
The Joker was already insane beyond all hope. Who could possibly be crazier than him?
"Maybe Commissioner Gordon was just imagining things. How could a lunatic crazier than the Joker turn up in Gotham?"
After years of fighting the Joker, Batman felt he understood that deranged criminal very well.
As for Gotham producing a lunatic even crazier than the Joker...
Come on, this isn't a game. How could someone crazier than the Joker possibly show up?
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