This script is adapted from DC Comics' *Batman-i, Joker*. Any similarity is purely coincidental.

...

[Feng Bujue, Level 43]

[Wang Tanzhi, Level 40]

[Si Yu Ruo Li, Level 40]

[Bei Ling Xiao Gu, Level 40]

[Please select the game mode you wish to join.]

[You have selected Team Survival Mode (Normal). Please confirm.]

[Your team is joining Team Survival Mode (Normal). The random team size is four.]

[Your team has entered the queue and is searching for other ready individuals or teams.]

[Match complete. Coordinating neural connections. Scenario generating...]

[Loading. Please wait.]

"Welcome to... Thriller Paradise." A deep male voice spoke the opening line.

[Loading complete. You are currently in Team Survival Mode (Normal).]

[This mode provides a scenario introduction and has a chance of containing side hidden quests and special worldviews.]

[Scenario completion reward: Randomly draw a piece of equipment appropriate for your level.]

[The scenario introduction will now play. The game will begin immediately after.]

The system prompt finished, and the players immediately cut into the first-person perspective of the opening CG.

Before their eyes, a night sky appeared.

There, they could not see the moon and stars, but they could see countless multicolored lights.

Green, blue, yellow, purple, white, and black... Piece by piece, like paint splattered on a canvas, dyeing the night sky into a strange and bizarre scene.

Beneath the night sky was a city.

In Feng Bujue's eyes, it was both familiar and foreign...

Like the same character drawn by two very different cartoonists, there would definitely be two completely different auras.

"Is it Gotham..." Feng Bujue thought, "What kind of story will it be this time..."

[Perhaps Bruce never imagined that there would be such a future.]

The voice of the man from before, as a narrator, began: [Gotham City has become a place of strict order and powerful authority.]

[The people in the city all knelt at the feet of the same "god" with extreme fear and fanatical religious worship.]

[the_Bruce]

[That is his name. Of course, people also call him God, Your Highness, King of Gotham, or... Batman.]

[He is certainly not the real Bruce Wayne. The legend of the first Batman is a thing of the distant past.]

[He is a descendant of Batman, the man who inherited the cape, the ruler of Gotham.]

"I see, is it this grotesque work..." Feng Bujue already knew the general plot of the scenario when he heard this. Because he had seen this comic before. As long as he searched in his Mind Palace, the outline of the entire story would emerge; it wouldn't be long before some details became clear as well.

However... Brother Jue also knew very well that the established scenarios that appeared in Thriller Paradise might not develop according to the plot of the original work. Relying too much on one's knowledge of the original plot could be a big loss.

[December 21st, the longest night of the year, the night of pursuit and challenge.] The narration continued.

[As in previous years, the "ritual" begins at the castle—the black-winged cathedral that belongs to the_Bruce.]

Along with the narration, the camera slowly moved down, and a majestic castle appeared in the CG picture.

It was a typical Gothic building, with towering spires, arched doors, and huge stained-glass windows. The outside of the building had huge flying buttresses, slender bundled columns, and a high platform as open as a cliff (which could also be regarded as a balcony, but without a top and walls, only a circle of stone carved railings).

"Hail Batman!" On the semi-circular protruding platform, a man with gray hair, glasses, and a brown trench coat shouted a slogan. No matter how you looked at this man in his fifties, he looked exactly like Commissioner Gordon back in the day.

"Praise Batman!" "King of Gotham!" Tens of thousands of people gathered in the streets, wearing strange costumes (futuristic clothing, but it looked like cheap rags; to describe it... like a beggar gang version of Saiyan battle suits), raised their hands, looked up at the people on the high platform of the castle, and made devout shouts.

"What day is today?" The man at the high place shouted, "Who am I?"

"Night of Bloodshed!" "Gordon (the_Gordon)!" A burst of responses erupted from the crowd.

"That's right, I am Gordon, your chief executive, the prophet of His Highness Bruce, the messenger who foretells his coming!" He shouted hoarsely, "Praise Batman! Praise his righteous act of killing for Gotham!"

[This is the Night of Purification.]

[Every year on this night, the villains who once opposed Batman will be "resurrected"... and Batman will kill them again.]

[Therefore, this is also an endless night...]

"Look... your ancient enemies have awakened from death!" The man who called himself "Gordon" was still giving a passionate speech, "...and are once again bound by the power of His Highness Bruce."

As he spoke, four cylindrical glass pods slowly extended from the building. In each glass pillar, there was a person fixed by metal shackles.

Anyone who has read Batman comics can easily identify who they are...

"Joker, Harley Quinn, Two-Face, Poison Ivy..." Gordon announced the identities of the four one by one, then paused, "The ritual requires that they all be released from bondage..." He said here, and suddenly grinned.

His laughter was clearly broadcast through the communication device next to his mouth. His face and terrible laughter were being broadcast on large screens everywhere in the city...

"...Terror from a hundred years ago will sweep the streets again, explosions, gunfire, cries, screams..." Gordon quickly continued, "Only Batman can save you! Batman sympathizes with your fears, shares your hatred... He will use the blood of those villains to reward your faith!"

This guy was completely in the posture of a religious fanatic, gesticulating wildly and preaching with a distorted face...

"Hail Batman!" "Long live the King of Gotham!" "Long live the_Bruce!" Such shouts resounded throughout the city.

At the same time, the CG's camera switched accordingly.

But see... at the height of that castle, a solitary, muscular figure has spread its black "wings" and descended on the top of this city.