Chapter 27: Players log off and then unleash their ultimate abilities – a momentary thrill.

"Perhaps we can talk." The group ran so fast that in the time it took Wen Yue to turn around, only one person remained.

Wen Yue tapped the unlucky guy who had been abandoned by his teammates, squatted down, and said gently, "Tell me what you know."

"I won't tell you anything," the other person stubbornly resisted.

Dick couldn't stand it anymore. He took the player's stick and turned on the current. "Give him a shock first. Fifty thousand volts into his head won't kill him."

"Calm down, calm down, Robin!" Wen Yue quickly hugged the grumpy Pikachu. Dick got into character so fast, or did he really just let loose?

"I'll talk! I'll talk!" The other person looked at the stick getting closer and closer to his head, and his words changed instantly. He answered in a trembling voice, "It's the clown..." The other person's voice suddenly stopped, and he let out a painful and miserable howl. Then his body turned into a pile of ashes.

"Wow!" The player was startled. He hadn't guessed the whole process of playing dead and fighting back. How did he end up turning into ashes in one step?

Dick picked up the intact Joker playing cards from the ashes and solemnly handed them to the player.

Wen Yue stared at the Joker card and scoffed, "This is a Joker? I don't believe it. It's probably an Extra card." Extra card, meaning an extra card, was the name for the Joker card in earlier times.

Gotham East, at the entrance of the safe house—

Wen Yue looked at the dark room in front of her, stroked her chin, and revealed a wise look. "Jason went out for a late-night snack?"

A glimpse of red caught Wen Yue's eye out of the corner of her eye, and she glanced at it subconsciously before abruptly stopping. Before her brain could process it, her subconscious had already given her the answer.

Dick walked over and picked up the fragment from the corner. "This is the Red Hood mask..."

Wen Yue suddenly noticed that the streets seemed unusually quiet today; there were no human voices, no car sounds, and even the birdsong had disappeared.

"It seems we've been discovered. Should we continue our ambush?"

"They won't go inside."

"Then let's get started."

What should be done with the red hooded figures?

"Make the best use of everything." A whisper came from the darkness.

A cold arrow flashed past, and the balloon burst into pieces. A face-covered man in black with glowing red eyes emerged from the shadows, holding a crossbow. "A warning."

"Where did this red-eye come from?" Wen Yue was the first to mock and provoke, "Besides, what era are we living in? Why are we still using these outdated cold weapons? Can't we keep up with the times and get some firearms?" — Is it that they don't know how to use them, or that they dare not use them?

"Sharp-tongued." The man in black sneered. "Ignorant humans, we are vampires." He gestured behind him, and a mangled figure was thrown down from the building. The man in black smiled faintly, slowly aiming his crossbow at the blood-soaked red-hooded figure on the ground. "Now put down your weapons and surrender obediently."

"Is he dead?" Wen Yue asked in a low voice.

“Of course not.” The man in black roughly pulled up the red-hooded man’s hair, revealing Jason’s unfocused, half-open eyes. “He seems a little disoriented, but don’t worry, he’s still alive.”

Wen Yue's face was ashen, and she readily removed all her weapons, except for a long staff and a red Robin dart. She made it clear that she could give them away as she pleased, and that the other weapons were in her game inventory; anyone who could get them could go in and retrieve them.

The enemy's henchmen took out handcuffs and stepped forward. Wen Yue calmly gave up resisting and let them put the handcuffs on her. It was something that could be solved with a single ion laser; the player couldn't be bothered to resist.

With her hands handcuffed, Wen Yue walked towards the other person without saying a word.

"What are you doing here? Stop!" The man in black shouted, seeing that things were not going well.

"I've come to see him to prove you weren't lying." Wen Yue continued walking, showing no fear of the countless hidden weapons pointed at her from the shadows.

"Attack!" Seeing that things were not going well, the man in black hurriedly gave the order.

"Close your eyes." Wen Yue's voice overlapped with the other person's at the same time.

A blinding flash of light appeared as the flashbang, made of nickel-chromium alloy, was incredibly powerful. The enemy was enveloped in white light, and when their vision returned, Red Hood and Red Robin were nowhere to be seen. Even Robin, who had been lurking in the corner not far away, had vanished.

"Quickly, after them!" Thinking of the consequences of messing things up, a bead of cold sweat trickled down the man's forehead.

Dick led the way, while Wen Yue, carrying a red hood, hurried through the intricate alleyways.

Information about vampires has been suppressed, but it wasn't the Bat Family who did it; it was Nightwing. He's misleading the players.

Based on my years of experience reading DC comics, the Vampire King issue's plot was like a pile of dog shit, but the art style was undeniably beautiful. I was tricked into reading it back then. The general plot was that Nightwing, or rather Dick, was transformed into a vampire and became the Vampire King in one fell swoop. As a corrupted character, Nightwing became ten times stronger after his corruption, infiltrating the Bat-Family, transforming Green Lantern Hal, and single-handedly killing Batman, among other things, before finally ruling the Earth. When I read it, I almost fainted from needing oxygen. I never imagined they'd be transported to this abstract world! It was truly unexpected!

The entire book started strong but ended weakly, leaving Wen Yue frustrated. She had skimmed through the earlier parts of the story, and now, the boomerang from years ago had struck the player in the present. She deeply regretted her past actions; if she had known she would be transported to this world, she would have deciphered every single word.

The evening clouds obscured the bright moon, the night concealed its light, and in the thick shadows, dark creatures attacked from all directions.

After being surrounded several times, and with the number of pursuers behind her increasing over time, Wen Yue suddenly realized one thing: there was no way to escape, because this was the city of the Bat Family.

The vampire horde itself is not scary, nor is the sudden ambush or siege. What is truly terrifying is the mastermind behind them, the vampire king Nightwing, who knows everything about everyone.

What's on the surface is never the root cause; what we really need to be wary of are the traitors lurking within the bat family.

Wen Yue chose what she initially believed to be the right path, forgetting the consequences of making the wrong choice. She stubbornly believed the information she had gathered about the Bat-Family's past, believing that the Bat-Family represented justice in this world, ignoring the questionable details raised by Jason and Dick, and becoming trapped in the existing information gap. This was bad, and foolish. Because the player had already made the same mistake when dealing with the Court of Owls. After stumbling again, she realized this. Perhaps true strength is fearless, but the player was clearly not that strong.

On their very first day in this new world, their whereabouts were already exposed. With Nightwing's knowledge of the bat family, it was only a matter of time before Red Hood, Robin, and Stark found Red Hood's safe house. The players' actions undoubtedly accelerated this process, leaving the three of them insufficient time to rest and prepare.

Reality isn't a comic book or a movie; there aren't that many coincidences. News of the players' arrival in this world didn't spread as they expected. Nightwing had preemptively blocked the news, and the Bat Family was still unaware of internal problems.

The vampires surrounded Wen Yue and her group, blocking all their path; the players had nowhere to escape.

Faced with such a desperate situation, Wen Yue laughed instead: "Bluster, you're really scared." — The bat family of this world.

These vampires chose this moment, waiting for darkness to conceal their true forms before daring to act, masking their behavior with a mocking attitude. Beneath this illusory ferocity and brutality, there must lie weakness.

Their hesitant actions—casting bait, setting ambushes, and circling—all revealed their fear of being exposed. So far, they haven't dared to use any large-scale weapons, not even firearms that might make a sound, trying to keep as quiet as possible. Their covert pursuit is designed to avoid attracting the attention of the Bat Family members. However, the players are not without countermeasures.

The cat-and-mouse game on the surface isn't real; beneath this playful attitude lies the true fear of these vampires. Now, the player's task is to expose their bluff, create as much of a scene as possible, and thus alert the bat family of this world, sowing seeds of doubt.

Even the player's flashbang didn't attract attention, it seems the Bat Family is really hampered, so let's have something bigger.

Wen Yue pulled a high-powered portable solar searchlight from her game backpack, and the moment she turned it on, half of Gotham's sky was bathed in light.

The vampire leader could no longer maintain his composed demeanor. His expression changed drastically, and his words betrayed his panic: "Quickly, turn off that light!" His fear wasn't just for the bat family, but also for the vampire king, Nightwing. If their actions were exposed, they would not only attract the attention of the bat family but also face the vampire king's punishment.

Dark creatures surged toward the players like a tidal wave, blotting out the sky.

Wen Yue certainly wouldn't give them a chance to extinguish the light. The sun searchlights had the effect of weakening vampires, but even weakened, ordinary weapons were still ineffective against such a large group of vampires.

At this point, the only effective weapon to deal a devastating blow to these vampires is the Angelic Aura, a weapon specifically designed to target dark creatures.

The ineffable dust and light rose out of thin air like boundless water, and the ethereal light, invisible and intangible, intertwined and condensed from the void into a halo, transforming into a dazzling angelic halo.

"I think you've eaten too many red beans and are lovesick (wanting to die), right? Take this Holy Light Universe Ring!" Adhering to the player tradition of casually naming moves, Wen Yue unleashed an angelic halo at the start, drawing a holy and clear arc in the air, breaking through the darkness with absolute power.

A halo arrived on the wind, shimmering wherever it touched, and all things vanished under its holy light. The scene was magnificent and radiant, creating an absolute realm of light that extinguished all dark creatures.

Like a wildfire, the vampires who had been besieging them all day were reduced to dust and ashes in the blink of an eye.

After eliminating all the vampires, the halo returned to Wen Yue's hand and then disappeared into the void, turning into specks of starlight.

Regarding these vampires who were instantly annihilated, players can only say: "Cheating is fun for a moment, but cheating all the time is even more fun. Pay-to-win games are forever the best!"

Wen Yue felt like she was the only one who mattered in the world, but after taking only two steps, her legs went weak and her knees hit the ground with a dull thud. She was a typical example of someone who couldn't be cool for more than three seconds.

It's fun to go all out, but it's a disaster afterwards. Oh no, the battery's low.

Wen Yue forced herself to stand, stumbled to Jason's side, and lightly tapped the little red bird with her fingertip. "Jessica, it's your turn to shine." The player still remembered the little red bird's panel description: [Robin Bird (Red): After binding, it shares life and death with its host...]

"Chirp chirp." The little red bird chirped softly twice, as if in response. A faint glimmer of light flashed across its feathers, and Jessica rushed into Jason's body, transforming into the few red bird patterns outlined on his skin.

The fatal wounds inflicted on a Stand, regardless of their severity, healed and disappeared rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye. Almost the next second, Jason regained consciousness.

"And you, play your part." Wen Yue reached out and let the blue lark land on her fingertips, a clear, fleeting light passing through her eyes. The blue lark hopped onto Dick's arm, transforming into a flowing, unrestrained bluebird tattoo.

[Angel Halo: 0%]

The player, on the verge of disconnection, spread his wings like a roc, barely managing to utter, "Watch out for the Bat Family... Nightwing..." before finally losing connection.

——

The root of the problem was foreshadowed at this point. Interpreting the player's last sentence, was it "Beware of Nightwing of the Bat Family," or "Beware of both the Bat Family and Nightwing"? The difference of one word makes a world of difference. Jason and Dick didn't understand the distinction; their interpretation was the latter. Afterwards, the player wanted to slap themselves. Either don't say "Bat Family," or add an extra "of"—how could they have been so ambiguous? This blunder only escalated further.

-----------------------

Author's note: A sentence came to mind:

"When the axe came to the forest, many trees said, 'At least its handle is one of our own.'"

Hahaha, this is hell!

——

Okay, let's talk about what happens next:

In the player world, he is called: Dick, Jason.

In the vampire world, he is called Nightwing, Red Hood.

For everyone else, just write their names; there's no need to differentiate them anyway.