Chapter 1 Team One, Arrived at Designated Location, Over

“Team One, arrived at designated location, over.”

“Team Two, arrived at designated location, over.”

“Team Three…”

“Team Six, arrived at designated location, over.”

“All six teams have assembled, please issue your orders, sir!”

Several different voices reported their status to the Bat Castle through the radio.

“Maintain formation, tighten the encirclement, await the Bat’s instructions.” Gordon, in the command center, watched the screens displaying images transmitted from each team and gave his orders crisply.

“Yes, sir.” A firm reply came through the communication line.

“Did you hear that, Bruce?” Gordon quickly switched frequencies to reach the_Bruce.

“Of course,” Bruce replied in a deep voice, “From here on, I’ll take over.”

“Understood.” Gordon responded, then opened the common channel and shouted, “Hail the Bat!”

“Hail the Bat!” A chorus of responses rang out.

At this moment, fifteen minutes had passed since the “smiley face” appeared in Gotham’s sky, and the time limit for [Not-So-Hasty Repairs] had just expired.

The_Bruce and his Robin unit had also just completed the encirclement of the Gotham Police Department.

On the ground alone, over two hundred fully armed soldiers and ten armored vehicles had gathered. Not to mention the twenty-plus disc-shaped patrol boats and a Batplane (the spare number two) hovering in the air.

The entire Gotham Police Department, from top to bottom, was surrounded by a network of firepower ready to be unleashed at any moment. With a single order from the_Bruce, the historic building would be riddled with holes.

“Ah~ ah~ here they come in a blaze of glory…” Xiao Tan stood in the center of the rooftop, gazing at the sky and muttering.

Not far away, Xiao Ling leaned against a rocket launcher as thick as a tree stump. “Don't get carried away later, prioritize your own survival. If it really doesn't work, abandon the plan and just kill the_Bruce to complete the mission.”

“Mm-hmm, be careful yourself,” Xiao Tan replied.

At this moment, only the two of them remained on the rooftop. Brother Jue, Ruo Yu, Joey, and Maya had already left.

“Two-Face, Poison Ivy.” Suddenly, the voice of the_Bruce came from the Batplane’s loudspeaker. “I don’t know where you got your strange, evil powers, but if you think you can use them to escape justice, you’re sorely mistaken…”

Before he finished speaking, the Batplane’s hatch opened. The next second, Bruce, clad in combat armor, jumped from his seat, spread his dragon-wing-shaped cape, and glided toward the police station rooftop.

“Huh? No way…” Xiao Tan muttered in surprise, “This guy has an air force at his disposal and he’s coming down here to fight us?”

“He’s coming down to fight *you*.” Xiao Ling patted Xiao Tan’s shoulder and smiled, tilting her head. “I can’t beat him.”

*Boom—*

With a loud crash, Bruce landed firmly on both feet. Because his combat armor was quite heavy, he crushed the ground beneath his feet upon landing, displaying a formidable presence.

“My citizens…” Bruce straightened up and shouted, “Use your eyes to witness… the Bat’s true power!”

“Is he talking to us?” Xiao Tan turned his head and whispered.

Xiao Ling replied, “Obviously not.” She glanced at the patrol airships in the sky. “Just like the captain predicted, the ‘live broadcast’ has been restored. He’s talking to the ‘audience.’”

“Oh! That’s perfect then.” Xiao Tan twitched his wrists, his hands already gripping a combat knife and a claw blade. “I’ll beat him to a pulp in front of the entire city.”

“You seem pretty enthusiastic…” Xiao Ling seemed somewhat listless. “Then have fun fighting.” Before she finished speaking, she grabbed the rocket launcher, turned around, and walked away.

Xiao Ling’s thinking was clear. Since the_Bruce had come to the rooftop, the surrounding firepower network was essentially useless—the Bat’s army couldn’t possibly fire at their own master. Therefore, Xiao Ling simply cleared the space and let Xiao Tan fight to his heart’s content.

“Don’t forget the basic strategy the captain laid out.” Xiao Ling said as she reached the rooftop entrance.

She nonchalantly placed her weapon on the ground, leaned against the wall, and began to watch the fight.

“Mm.” Xiao Tan turned his head and said, “Don’t worry, I…”

*Whoosh—Bang!*

In the moment Xiao Tan was distracted, a black blur suddenly flashed before him and delivered a heavy punch to his cheek.

“Ugh…” Xiao Tan was caught off guard. Staggering from the blow, his body lurched sideways.

“Ah~ he got punched in the face.” Xiao Ling calmly commented as she watched Bruce’s sudden attack on Xiao Tan. She had complete confidence in Xiao Tan and showed no sign of worry.

“How does it feel, Two-Face? Not bad, right?” Seeing his opponent staggering, the_Bruce naturally wouldn’t miss the opportunity. He pressed his advantage, immediately stepping forward and kneeing Xiao Tan in the ribs.

However, this attack missed.

Wang Tanzhi exerted force from his waist, twisting his body and using a horizontal flip to evade the crisis.

“Oh? You’ve got some moves.” The_Bruce calmly commented upon seeing this, his tone relaxed. “At least you’re stronger than the rabble in the city.”

“You despicable bastard…” Xiao Tan wiped the bruise from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand, glaring at Bruce. “You tied me to a flying device before and crashed a plane into me, and now you’re attacking without warning…”

“Give you a warning?” Bruce sneered. “Hmph… Two-Face, are you out of your mind?” As he spoke, he sidestepped, searching for an opportunity to attack. “This isn’t some kind of martial arts sparring match, it’s a life-or-death struggle.”

Before he finished speaking, Bruce suddenly attacked again, using the fin-shaped serrations on his forearm armor to launch two strikes.

*Clang, clang—*

Xiao Tan’s reaction was quick. He calmly moved his feet, raised his combat knife and claw blade, and blocked the opponent’s attacks.

“Tch… much stronger than I imagined…” Xiao Tan thought to himself after exchanging a blow with his opponent. “Is this guy really just a normal person?”

On the other side, the_Bruce’s surprise far exceeded Xiao Tan’s. “Incredible… each of those strikes carried about thirteen hundred pounds (approximately 590 kilograms) of force. Even if an ordinary person were to block with an alloy shield, they would be sent flying by the tremendous force. And yet… he’s blocking with a short weapon in each hand, only taking a few steps back after receiving the blow.”

“Hey, Xiao Tan, can you hear me?” Just as the battle began, Brother Jue’s voice suddenly rang out in Xiao Tan’s ear through the communicator (obtained from a corpse in the parking lot and modified by Musashi Koganei).

“I’m busy right now…” Xiao Tan replied softly.

“Yeah, I can see that.” Brother Jue added, “They’re showing it on the big screens in the city.”

“Then why are you talking to me at a time like this?” Xiao Tan felt genuinely annoyed. He wasn’t good at multitasking, and Brother Jue’s actions were essentially interfering with him.

“I wanted to remind you that you’re playing the role of a supervillain, a brutal, antisocial rogue.” Feng Bujue said, “But so far, your words and actions have been too normal.”

“Ah…” Xiao Tan lowered his voice and complained, “…sorry I don’t have the talent to play a bad guy!”

“It’s okay, I’ll teach you.” Brother Jue continued, “First, you need to let out a hysterical laugh.”

“Heh… haha… hahahahaha…” The obedient Xiao Tan immediately broke into a fit of laughter.

This move actually worked. The_Bruce frowned when he saw “Two-Face” suddenly burst into laughter. He thought the opponent was about to do something unexpected and didn’t dare to be careless. He quickly increased the defensive energy of his combat armor and stopped to observe.

“Then, put on a confused expression.” Brother Jue added.

Xiao Tan hesitated for two seconds, imagining what a confused expression looked like. Two seconds later, he opened his mouth halfway, rolled his eyes upward, and made a sound like, “Uhh…”

“If I had to describe your current state, I’d say it’s like ‘someone who just had a lobotomy is choosing their lunch’.” Feng Bujue added on the communication channel.

“I’m getting angry!” Xiao Tan hissed.

“Okay, okay, I’m just kidding.” Brother Jue laughed. “Now, take out that coin, toss it casually, and look at the result.”

Xiao Tan did as he was told.

“Finally, put on a look of sudden realization…” Brother Jue continued, “…and run over and forcibly kiss Poison Ivy.”

“What did you say?” Before Xiao Tan could respond, Xiao Ling’s voice cut in directly.

“Eh? This communication channel is shared?” Feng Bujue was stunned upon hearing this.

“Yeah, I heard it too.” Joey’s voice also sounded in the communication.

“Brother Jue, what are you doing?” Xiao Tan replied weakly, “Are you just messing with your teammates out of a twisted sense of humor?”

“No, no, no… this is definitely part of the strategy.” Feng Bujue explained, “To make the character of Two-Face more believable, you need to show the personality trait of ‘deciding everything by flipping a coin.’ Think about it… the real Two-Face often does crazy things after flipping a coin.” His tone sounded like he was just bluffing. “Um… actually… as long as what you do is unexpected enough, that’s fine. You don’t have to kiss Poison Ivy, you can kiss the_Bruce, anyway, the other party is a male NPC, and as a heterosexual, the system won’t prevent you on the grounds of homosexual tendencies…”

“Big Sis, hit him!” Xiao Ling’s voice rang out, interrupting Brother Jue’s nonsense.

A second later, accompanied by a scream, the communication from Brother Jue’s side was cut off…

“What exactly is he trying to do…” The_Bruce had no idea what was happening on the other side. From his perspective, he only saw the Two-Face in front of him making a series of strange expressions and muttering to himself from time to time (after players equipped communicators, the item became integrated with the player’s image, so it wasn’t visible on the face of the character in the story), and he was completely bewildered.

“Ah ha! I’ve decided!” Now that things had come to this, Xiao Tan had no choice but to go with the flow and keep pretending, as if he had actually decided something by flipping a coin. “I’m going to… um… going to…” His expression changed, and he suddenly turned around. “…run away!”

“Huh?” Of everyone present, Xiao Ling was probably the most surprised.

“Hmph…” The_Bruce sneered, thinking to himself, “I see… I overestimated him. My two strikes must have worked. He seems fine on the surface, but he’s actually suffered considerable damage… so he’s putting on a show to delay time and divert my attention in order to create an opening to escape.”

“Ha—” Xiao Ling sighed deeply. “He’s really just asking for trouble.”

She muttered to herself, then reached out and grabbed the rocket launcher next to her. At the same time, she stylishly kicked her left heel. With that one pull and kick, she hoisted the huge cannon onto her shoulder.

“What about the role-playing? What about stalling for time?” Xiao Ling’s tone was clearly complaining.

“Sorry… I really can’t think of anything else to say.” Xiao Tan said as he ran toward Xiao Ling.

“Ah… forget it, I don’t blame you.” Xiao Ling said, stepping forward and leaping five meters into the air. She tilted the muzzle of the rocket launcher downward, aiming at the police station below…