Chapter 4898: There Is No Batman Here (III)

No one present spoke up to refute it, because an obvious fact was: the several factions currently competing with each other were all vying for "who gets to rule the multiverse," while their enemies had always held the idea of "I want to utterly destroy the multiverse." This is a confrontation between order and chaos.

And on the side of order, what they ultimately needed to compete for was a powerhouse who, after ruling the multiverse, could ensure it would never be invaded by chaos, never be destroyed. Doctor Manhattan wanted to be this powerhouse, Brainiac wanted to be, Darkseid wanted to be, and Batman also wanted to be.

So no one could say this wasn't benign competition. Their struggle was to select the strongest one capable of facing chaos head-on; that naturally had nothing to do with justice or evil, but was merely a process of intelligent life seeking survival amid natural disaster.

This is like certain sports competitions. Suppose Team Darkseid defeated Team Batman, successfully ruled the multiverse, but was then destroyed by chaos; you still couldn't say Batman would definitely have succeeded. Because if he couldn't even beat Darkseid, he couldn't protect the multiverse either.

Although Batman has protagonist armor, if that thing were really that strong, he wouldn't have lost to Darkseid. This is a competition where all factors are calculated in, and the winning solution is inevitably the best usable one.

Of course, they might also choose to cooperate. In fact, they have cooperated. Even Batman and Darkseid were able to cooperate once in the multiverse war. Brainiac and Doctor Manhattan aren't necessarily complete enemies either. Batman's attitude toward the two of them has always been very restrained and cautious. Regardless, they cannot betray the order side.

"Do we have to personally participate in this mode too?" Pamela asked. "Will there be restrictions on abilities? If there are, I'm not going; the Green has no obligation to save money for me."

Harley couldn't help rolling her eyes: "The Green is unlucky to have you; I heard he's already started skimping on other Poison Ivys' budgets just to get you research funds for combat plants."

"Isn't that perfectly normal?" Pamela spread her hands. "Other Poison Ivys only protect plants, while I gave plants the ability to protect themselves — give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime..."

"Alright alright, stop preaching." Tim said. "Rest assured, there won't be ability restrictions; it's exactly like reality, you won't even feel like you've switched worlds..."

Tim looked at the increasingly thick fog outside. Harley took a light breath: "You don't mean to say we're already in the Fog Realm, do you?"

"Otherwise where would such heavy fog come from?" Tim shook his head. "This is similar to a soft load in a video game — it looks like just a weather effect, but it's actually switching maps."

"Then what do we have to do?" Ted asked. "Do we fight monsters?"

"Battles in the Fog Realm will keep rotating." Tim looked at Brainiac's holographic screen. "Some involve fighting physical monsters, some involve exorcism, even fighting Outer Gods — every major battle is different. But the theme is always the same: save Gotham."

"What are the victory conditions? Hold out for a certain number of days?"

"No, you can't just stay in the base; you have to actively go out and do missions — like eliminating monsters, capturing strongholds, or gathering resources — and you can also trade with other squads."

"So it's joint operations?"

"Exactly. For now there's no content where players attack each other; instead, everyone works together to defend Gotham. Each squad can choose an initial stronghold; I picked the Manor we're most familiar with — should be fine, right?"

Harley frowned slightly. He said: "The Manor's structure is fine, but the terrain isn't great. If it's this mode, we should pick a more remote location."

Tim shook his head: "Strongholds have size limits. With this many of us, we can only pick a large stronghold, otherwise we won't fit. Those more remote strongholds are all small, only suitable for lone wolves."

"There are lone wolves too?" Pamela said with some surprise. "What kind of people did Brainiac find?"

"A lot." Tim said. "Not only did I bring some Robins, there are Gotham locals participating, and Professor Xilei seems to have called friends too."

"The Professor is participating???" Harley was genuinely shocked. "Why would he be interested in this kind of game?"

"The storm hasn't fully passed, Gotham University is still on break, TV signals are unstable, and he doesn't want to read papers — naturally he can only find something to do." Tim knew Xilei well. "Besides, those missions aren't just combat; there are also plot and investigation elements, otherwise I wouldn't be participating so actively either."

"Come on, you're participating because you can get big guns." Harley directly exposed him. "You've been eyeing Brainiac's arsenal for more than a day or two; stop pretending to be a detective here."

"Who says a detective can't carry a big gun? In my view, Holmes had a shotgun back in the day, and it didn't stop him from plunging off a cliff with Moriarty." Tim curled his lip.

Just as his voice fell, a prompt came from Brainiac: "System loading... Base system load complete. Please proceed to the base center to receive personal terminals."

Through the Manor's walls, they saw a blue pillar of light in the back garden. Several people stood up and walked over. Under the garden's large tree, a platform-like device had appeared, with several watch-like objects floating above it.

They walked over and each took one. After putting them on their wrists, a holographic projection popped up. Tim checked it and found the functions quite comprehensive — not only a map, but also equipment, missions, personal info, and other tabs.

"You really haven't played few games." Harley said to Brainiac.

"How come there are no skills?" Lilith asked.

"This isn't a turn-based game." Brainiac replied. "No ability restrictions; you can use whatever abilities you want."

"Are you sure?" Lilith asked. "In the Dou Realm my prophecy ability caused a dungeon collapse; can I really use it freely?"

"Then you wait a moment." Brainiac instantly backed down.

Everyone laughed; the room was filled with a cheerful atmosphere. Tim shrugged: "I did it on purpose; Lilith's ability is the best choice for testing system strength — prophecy isn't something digital life can understand."

They went back inside and each checked their terminal. Pamela took a look, then said: "The map right now seems to only show a small area around the base; the rest unlocks after exploration?"

"Definitely." Harley said. "If the map were fully open, the difficulty would be too low. But with fog this thick, exploring the map will probably be quite troublesome too."

"How come there are no missions?" Ted asked with some puzzlement.

"Probably hasn't fully finished loading yet." Tim said. "Right now it's still newbie tutorial time; the campaign hasn't officially started."

"Cassandra wants to ask what theme the campaign will be," Lilith spoke up. Everyone knew Cassandra doesn't speak, but coincidentally Lilith is a mind-reader, just right to serve as Cassandra's mouthpiece.

"Don't know." Tim shook his head. "But I feel it won't be a single theme; it might be mixed."

"What do you mean?" Dick asked.

"Physical monsters, illusions, mental corruption, all stacked together. Because if it's a single type, there's definitely an optimal solution — like building turrets. But if they're stacked, finding a universal solution is very difficult, and it increases replayability."

"Meaning these are adjustable." Harley mused. "If the whole system is open-source, we can decide what monsters there are, how they attack, even design our own missions. This is a bit like the Dou Realm's creation system."

"Exactly. Freedom is the ultimate answer to replayability." Tim sighed lightly. "Themed dungeons have no shortage of exquisite works, but open worlds are the ultimate time-killers."

"Can we leave and come back anytime?" Ted asked. "I still have some things to do on Earth."

"You can." Brainiac said. "However, time in the Fog Realm flows normally; even if you don't come, many things will still happen."

"It's like playing a game on a server — you log off alone, but the server's progress continues. But that's pretty good too; the team doesn't all need to be online. If there's no mission, just leave one or two people on duty."

"But if everyone logs off, won't that cause progress to fail?"

"Time limits can be chosen yourselves." Brainiac said. "Because this is the first game, I set a time limit based on my understanding; later you can modify it yourselves."

"That works." Harley said. "Gaming is tiring too, and I don't have that much vacation to spend here."

"No problem. Gotham has two rainy seasons a year, basically always on break; there'll be plenty of vacations later." Tim leaned comfortably on the sofa. "I dare say other Gothams definitely don't have it this good; their annual leave definitely isn't as much as ours."

"Right. Even if they get time off because of storms, they're busy going out for disaster relief. By the way, Little B, how were the casualties this time?"

"An Outer God died." Brainiac dropped a bombshell. "Other than that, there were none."

"That's good... wait, Outer God?"

"You didn't know yet." Tim said. "I have to tell you about this case..."

"Professor." Xilei opened the door. Young Charles stood in the fog, walked forward, and shook hands with Xilei: "Call me Charles."

Xilei made way, letting him in. Charles complained: "It's way too damp out there; how can there be such heavy fog?"

"Brainiac is testing the game system." Xilei replied. "It'll be fine in a bit."

"He really did it?" Charles was somewhat surprised, and clearly very interested. "But how can there be fog in the real world?"

Shiler didn't speak, but Brainiac explained it himself. Charles nodded and said, "That's interesting. It would be nice if we could play it on our side too."

"We're doing dual-world adaptation," Brainiac said. "Jarvis is interfacing with me through the Overbody, but the Mist Dragon can't be used over there. We're considering other viable landing options, like the Reality Stone."

"That works. The Reality Stone can only be used in its own universe, so that's a layer of insurance," Charles said. "What about the patient? I'll go see him first..."

Shiler handed him a glass of wine, then said, "The patient is resistant to meeting in the real world. We might as well go meet him in a dream."

Charles nodded. After the two drank the wine, they sank into the mental world, traveling from the Dream Dimension all the way to Alberto's mental world, where they saw the long-unseen Evans.

?? Defend Super Gotham LO