The Gotham City skyline was a suffocating blanket of black clouds, packed so tightly together that only a few sickly rays of dim light managed to pierce through and reach the streets below.
Bang! BOOM!
The ear-piercing crack of gunfire, the heavy rumble of explosions, and the hysterical, manic laughter of absolute psychos hit the city like a violent rainstorm crashing into a quiet lake.
Terrified civilians scattered like startled fish, swimming desperately in every direction to escape the chaos.
[Daily Mission: "Blend into the Joker Gang" Complete!]
[Reward Received:] Usain Bolt Character Card x1 (9.58 seconds for the 100-meter dash, kid!), EXP +20, Cash +$1,000.
[Player Level:] 3 → 4 (System Shop unlocks at Level 10).
A glowing blue holographic prompt floated right in front of Lynn's face. Completely ignoring the panicked bank tellers and random pedestrians fleeing for their lives around him, he zeroed in on the text.
"Six more levels until the System Shop opens. I wonder what kind of crazy stuff is in there," Lynn muttered to himself. "And what am I supposed to do with this Usain Bolt card? Throw Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, Catwoman, and Batgirl over my shoulder and just sprint away, leaving Batman to eat my dust?"
Lynn was a 'Player', complete with a literal System.
When he first realized he had been dropped into Gotham, he didn't even have a legal ID. He spent his first few days shivering in corners, trying not to draw attention.
After all, this was Gotham. A city that stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Los Santos and Night City in terms of absolute unlivable chaos.
It wasn't just that the city's water supply was regularly spiked with Joker venom, cancerous Clayface residue, Scarecrow's fear toxin, or Bane's super-steroids. The place was literally cursed by several evil gods.
A normal person simply could not survive here.
Fortunately, Lynn wasn't a normal person anymore. He was a Player.
The System made him a promise: complete daily tasks, progress the storyline, trigger major event nodes, and defeat bosses, and he would be showered with rewards.
The thought of eventually gaining Superman's powers, and maybe randomly experiencing Superman's incredibly blessed lifestyle, was enough to get Lynn on board.
"I need to hit Level 10 and unlock that shop as fast as possible. Once the store is open, I can use my cash to buy actual gear. Plus, it looks like the System unlocks a brand new feature every 10 levels... Man, I can't wait."
"Alright, let's see what's next on the agenda."
With a single thought, he pulled up the glowing blue mission log.
[Main Quest: Rob the Gotham Bank]
[Mission Description:] What kind of Player would you be if you didn't rob a bank at least once? Please rob the Gotham Bank and successfully infuriate the city's final boss: Batman.
[Rewards:] Intelligence-Lowering Aura Ability Card x1 (Peter Griffin Edition!), Resurrection Card x1 (Arise, my Player!), Gotham Reputation +30, EXP +20, Cash +$10,000.
[Note:] Are you ready to piss off the Big Boss of Gotham?
Lynn blinked, staring at the densely packed list of loot.
"The rewards are this stacked?" he whispered.
"An Intelligence-Lowering Aura... I genuinely wonder what would happen if I used that on Batman. Would he just start acting like a complete idiot? And a Resurrection Card! I already have one of those. I can use it on myself, sure, but it also works on the dead. When the time is right, I'll just make Batman's parents casually stroll back into his life."
Swiping the mission log away, Lynn lifted his thin face, his dark eyes scanning the chaotic crowd.
Among the thugs waving guns around, one figure stood out like a sore, flamboyant thumb. It was impossible not to notice him.
Purple suit. Deathly pale face. Acid-green hair. A deeply uncomfortable, psychotic smile.
"Jokie has arrived. Can the Bat-kitty be far behind?"
Lynn mumbled to himself, then casually tilted his head back, his cool gaze drifting up toward the bank's pristine, silver-white ceiling.
Sure enough, clinging to the bright ceiling like a massive, shadowy gargoyle waiting to ambush its prey, was a pitch-black figure.
"Yep. Bat-kitty is here."
For a Player who had successfully infiltrated the Joker Gang, robbing a bank wasn't the hard part.
The hard part was figuring out how to genuinely piss off the big boss himself, Batman.
Lynn thought about it for a second. He shoved his right hand into his pocket, pulled out his phone, and just started mashing random numbers on the keypad before hitting call.
[Skill Activated: Batman Communicator]
Can contact the Big Boss of Gotham, Batman, anytime, anywhere (as long as there is a communication device near him).
Note: Perfect for infuriating the boss on the go.
Because of this beautiful little skill, it didn't matter what number Lynn dialed. The call was going straight to the Bat.
...
Up on the ceiling, Batman was just preparing to drop down and launch his ambush when a sharp ringing sound suddenly echoed in his ear.
He frowned, raising his right arm to glance at the multi-functional communicator strapped to his wrist.
Nobody knew this highly encrypted frequency except the Bat-Family, Jim Gordon, and Barbara.
Who is this?
"Hello?" Batman answered.
"Moshi moshi!"
Batman froze for a second. Japanese?
"Hey there, Bat-kitty. I've got scandalous photos of your secret late-night side-hustle."
Batman's expression instantly turned to stone, the sheer absurdity of the statement completely throwing off his usual intimidating glare.
What on earth is a 'Bat-kitty'?
"Who are you?" Batman demanded, his voice dropping into its signature gravelly growl.
"Who I am isn't important. What is important is... you wouldn't want the good people of Gotham seeing these little pictures, would you?"
Batman's face darkened, the atmospheric pressure up on the ceiling dropping right along with his mood.
In all his years fighting crime as Gotham's Dark Knight, he had never encountered a criminal this arrogantly absurd.
Someone was actually trying to blackmail him.
"How much do you want?" Batman asked smoothly, showing zero emotion while secretly tapping his gauntlet, signaling Alfred back in the Batcave to start tracing the signal.
"The entirety of Wayne Enterprises."
Batman's pupils contracted to pinpricks, a highly dangerous aura rolling off his armored form.
"Do you know who I am?" he growled.
"Of course I do! I don't just know who you are, I know about your future son, your home address, your exact floor plan, and literally everything there is to know about the Wayne family."
Batman: ???
Are you hacking my life right now?
Naturally, he didn't believe a word of it. He immediately pinged Alfred, demanding to know if they had a lock on the location.
But Alfred's voice crackled back with bad news: the caller's number was a constantly shifting string of gibberish. It was completely untraceable.
"Well? Have you thought it over, Bat-kitty? Those scandalous photos of yours..."
Click.
Batman hung up.
...
"Beep. Beep. Beep."
Listening to the busy signal, Lynn reached up and awkwardly flattened a stray cowlick on his head, trying to play off the rejection.
"Damn, he really just hung up on me."
"Well, whatever. I'll just try again tonight. Right now, I need to focus on robbing the Gotham Bank."
"Actually, Jokie is already robbing the bank. If I just rob him, if you round up, that basically counts as me robbing the Gotham Bank, right?"
Robbing the Gotham Bank meant dealing with the GCPD and Batman.
Robbing the Joker meant he only had to deal with the Joker.
He was perfectly capable of doing the math on which one was easier.
Find the Joker. Steal the money the Joker stole.
Maybe he could even recruit Harley Quinn while he was at it and form a party to fight the boss.
If he pulled that off, he could clear way more missions, get his hands on some overpowered items, and finally live his dream of being a ridiculously arrogant millionaire with a girl on each arm.
"Sorry, Joker. For the sake of my mission, you're just going to have to suffer a bit."
Lynn holstered his gun and looked down at a body lying motionless on the floor.
"You don't mind if I use you for a second, do you?"
Since she didn't voice any objections, Lynn hauled her over his shoulder and calmly walked straight into the absolute chaos of the main lobby.
...
Back on the ceiling, Batman stared at his gauntlet, his face an unreadable mask of dark intensity as his tactical mind went into overdrive.
How did someone get this encrypted number?
And it wasn't just the number, the caller implied they knew his true identity.
What exactly is going on here?
As a master detective and a seasoned hero, every instinct in his body was screaming that something was very, very wrong today.
Is this one of the Joker's twisted games? Or... is this that new psychopath?
Batman suddenly remembered a conversation he had with Commissioner Gordon a few days ago.
Gordon had warned him about a new, utterly unhinged criminal appearing in the area. Based on the sheer absurdity of the crimes and the bizarre methods being used, Gordon genuinely believed this new wild card might be even crazier than the Joker.
Batman, who had spent years dancing with the Clown Prince of Crime, hadn't believed him.
The Joker was already a terminal case of insanity.
Who in the world could possibly be crazier than the Joker?
"Maybe it's just Gordon letting his imagination get the better of him," Batman muttered to himself, dynamic-entrying through a skylight. "How could anyone in Gotham possibly be crazier than the Joker?"
Having gone toe-to-toe with the clown for years, Batman felt he had a pretty firm grasp on the limits of that particular brand of madness. As for the idea of some new psycho rising up who was somehow worse...
Please. This wasn't some video game where villains just kept leveling up. Real life didn't work that way.