Chapter 1: Start Dark Knight

"Same as before, a little shorter?"

Aunt Li at the barber shop opened the electric hair clipper in her hand.

"Well, just trim it a little shorter." Chu Cheng replied, "But not too short."

Aunt Li started to work and said with a smile, "A shorter haircut gives a neat and professional look. It's trendy among young people nowadays."

"Oh really? That's good to know. I was also thinking about changing my hairstyle," Chu Cheng said.

"That's wonderful! As a college student, it's important to have a distinctive personality, and trying out new hairstyles can be both thrilling and empowering. Plus, it can definitely make an impression on the ladies," Aunt Li exclaimed with enthusiasm.

Chu Cheng didn't say a word, but he thought in his heart, "According to this, wouldn't girls nowadays prefer guys who constantly change their looks?"

That being said, it might be true that Peach Blossom luck is not directly related to hairstyle, but it definitely has to do with appearance. However, that's understandable because the same goes for men.

The XP system they claim to be full of strange things. Some say that they control Yujie, while others claim they control Lolita, but in reality, it's all just talk. Numerous examples have shown that for LSP, as long as one is good-looking enough, gender becomes less relevant. If one's appearance is exceptional, even race may become less important, and with even higher standards, the boundary between yin and yang can be blurred.

So for a player like Chu Cheng, hairstyle is of secondary importance. After all, he is so good-looking that he could attract countless female fans with just a single shot from the back...well, mostly only for middle-aged and elderly women.

Chu Cheng didn't know why, but he suspected that he had the face of Zhang Shao, who had been popular for 20 years, known as the idol of older women. He had only moved to this community a year ago to attend university, but he had already become acquainted with all the aunts in the area.

At this moment, another aunt in the barber shop who had come to chat couldn't stand it any longer. "Take care of your hair honestly and don't keep thinking about introducing your girl to others. Xiao Chu Cheng is a well-known college student. I don't know how many girls like him."

Aunt Li, who was being pointed at, was not happy to hear it. "What's wrong with our Juanjuan? When she grows up, she might also get into a prestigious university..."

The two aunts continued to argue, but Grandma Wang took advantage of the distraction to show Chu Cheng a photo.

"Look, Xiao Chu, this is the girl I mentioned to you last time. She's so beautiful. Can you add her contact information so you can chat?"

Chu Cheng glanced at the photo Grandma Wang handed him. The girl in the photo looked really cute with big, watery eyes, flawless skin, and slender legs. She was playfully making a "V" sign towards the camera.

However, Chu Cheng's attention quickly shifted to the metal railing beside him. The poor railing appeared to have endured some kind of unknown force that transcended dimensions, affecting the continuity of its space and resulting in an indescribable phenomenon similar to a straight man coming out of the closet.

In other words, it was bent.

However, that wasn't the point. Nine out of ten photos without makeup were deceptive, and one of them was simply a result of a hair change. A mere space distortion was not worth making a fuss about, and Chu Cheng wouldn't complain if it was only up to this extent.

But when Chu Cheng saw the reflection in the glass curtain wall next to the girl in the photo, he pointed to it and asked, "Grandma, is there someone else in the mirror?"

Grandma Wang gazed at the photo of the Shui Ling girl, who appeared to weigh 100 kg both inside and outside the mirror, and pondered over it for a while.

"..."

After Chu Cheng finished his haircut, he chatted with his neighbors for a while before saying goodbye under the reluctant eyes of his aunts. He then went upstairs and straight back to his apartment.

This apartment belonged to his uncle and happened to be located near the university where he was studying. When he entered university, his uncle gave him the apartment for four years. This allowed Chu Cheng to enjoy this large house with a large area without having to live on campus and also saved him the cost of accommodation.

Despite the envy of his fellow students, Chu Cheng did not use his uncle's apartment for romantic purposes. He knew that such distractions would only slow him down in achieving his goals. As a wise man once said, "Women are a hindrance to progress," and although Chu Cheng did not necessarily agree with such an extreme view, he knew that his priority was to become a skilled gamer rather than a ladies' man. Thus, he spent most of his time in the apartment focused on his passion for gaming, with a library of games waiting to be conquered and an abundance of game materials to edit.

Chu Cheng is not only an undergraduate student, but also a well-known figure in the stand-alone game community on Station G. Thanks to his exceptional skills and unwavering pursuit of perfect, unscathed playthroughs, the games he edits often feature stunning visuals that have earned him a large following.

As a conscientious gamer who has never been fond of romance, Chu Cheng always prioritizes his career and fans, and has no time for trivial matters.

Ding!

As soon as he entered his apartment, Chu Cheng heard a clear notification sound that made his heart tremble. 'Could it be that the Master's system, which had been delayed for a month, had finally arrived?'

That's right, Chu Cheng is not an original native, but a traveler from the D-ball, and he has only been on Earth's soil for a month now. Based on the limited knowledge he obtained from fantasy works, he can judge that he has traveled to a certain body that is on almost the same life trajectory as his own in a different world. However, this world is similar to the D-ball, but not exactly the same.

The Earth Pole Star is a world dominated by humans, similar to the human civilization that Chu Cheng is familiar with. However, the human civilization in this world has undergone a completely different development process, and the complex evolution over the long years has led to the fact that today's Earth Star has no national boundaries.

Yes, although the Earth's pole star has continental plates and regional divisions, it lacks the concept of national boundaries, and this has been the case for many years.

Moreover, there are many other differences in the polar star, and it would take days and nights to list all the details one by one. However, the direct impact on Chu Cheng was not significant.

If time-traveling is compared to smoking a blind box, he feels that his luck is not too bad. In past generations, some people have traveled to the end of the world where zombies are rampant, some have traveled to the wasteland that was rebuilt from ruins, and some have traveled to the fairyland where people roam everywhere with the power of gods...

Compared to those high-risk planes, Chu Cheng's current situation at least seems to be in a stable society. From the memories he inherited, he couldn't find any strange phenomena. He has no cheats or special skills; he's content with just living a simple life, eating and sleeping until he dies.

However, everything changed when he heard a clear "ding" in his mind upon entering his room. In the early days of internet travel, nine out of ten travelers had a system installed, which often signaled the beginning of a losers counterattack that allowed them to become powerful and kill everything in seconds.

But as the web developed, even the omnipotent system became more and more rolled up. In the past, most systems would talk about the basic methods upon opening, but later on, more and more systems showed their cards and didn't install them. They would directly fill up the magical skills upon login, allowing the users to kill everything in seconds with a single strike.

When Chu Cheng first encountered games with the system that granted invincibility at the beginning of check-in, he used to scoff at it. But after experiencing it firsthand, he had a change of heart and realized how satisfying it was to have such power right from the start. He now strongly recommended that everyone get a set for themselves.

However, as he mentally called out to the father of the system, he realized that the notification sound he heard didn't come from his phone, but from the computer on his bedroom desk that he had left on all night.

The sound was similar to the one that plays when a game is being downloaded and installed.

Disappointed but curious, Chu Cheng wondered why he was receiving this notification. He had not downloaded anything recently, except for some learning materials that he had been reading late into the night. Did the computer get infected by some sort of virus that automatically installed strange things when he downloaded those materials?

Chu Cheng shook the mouse, waking up the dozing monitor. He soon noticed the extra icons on his desktop.

"Avengers vs Justice League: A New Age."

Chu Cheng was puzzled.

He actually recognized this game, as it happened to be the last game he bought before time traveling. He still remembered that a month ago, on the eve of time travel, he excitedly bought this newly released game and downloaded it in the background before heading out to attend classes. Unexpectedly, an unexpected event occurred and he ran into a dump truck that turned over not too far away. He didn't even get a chance to save the rescue process and fast forwarded directly to the black man carrying the coffin. When he woke up, he found himself in a different world.

Initially, he had forgotten about the game after spending a month in the other world. However, seeing the game icon on his computer made him feel like he had turned to stone.

"How is this possible?" he wondered. "In this world, there are no Marvel, DC or any superhero-themed works. So how can a game like 'Avengers vs Justice League' exist here?"

Chu Cheng's mind raced with possibilities. "Could this be some kind of advanced black technology? Has G Fat's Steam platform expanded its business to different dimensions?" he wondered.

He even considered the possibility that Steam detected that he bought the game but disappeared before he could play it. To prevent customers from spending money on games they wouldn't play, did they create a multiverse tour line?

Without thinking twice, Chu Cheng double-clicked to open the game icon. Even though he wasn't sure what use a game downloaded from another world could be, he still had high hopes for it. After all, according to the laws of web text traversal, the things you can bring with you from the original world are often the most valuable.

As the loading progress bar appeared on the screen, Chu Cheng began to wonder whether this was truly just a game or something else entirely.

The Avengers and Justice League logos flashed on the screen, followed by the production company's logo, before the UU Reading website fell into darkness. The only things left were the silver Avengers and Justice League logos on opposite sides of the screen, with a silver diagonal line representing the loading progress bar.

The loading process began, and a line of small characters displayed loading information beside the progress bar.

[Hero character loaded...]

[Role loaded successfully.]

[Game map loading...]

[Map information is missing, loading failed.]

Chu Cheng's heart skipped a beat as he realized that something might be wrong. The loading process continued, and there were several loading failure prompts in a row. However, the game automatically repaired itself each time, and finally, the loading process finished successfully, and the title interface appeared on the screen.

Although the game had loaded successfully, the process of loading and repairing left Chu Cheng with a sense of foreboding.

Without hesitation, Chu Cheng clicked the start button.

The game was a classic stand-alone action-adventure game that allowed players to take on the roles of superheroes and complete tasks, experience movie-like main storylines, or freely explore open maps.

[Please choose your hero,]

the game prompted.

Chu Cheng realized that he didn't have a choice, and most of the superhero portraits on the screen were gray question marks and could not be selected.

The only hero Chu Cheng could choose was the game's default character, Batman, the world's strongest detective, the brain of the Justice League, and the Dark Knight of Gotham.

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Let me know your thoughts on which one would be better to translate, this or the other?