Chapter 5: Fight!

Honestly, even though it was just a game, Chu Cheng was a little startled by the scene he witnessed.

Wait a minute, wasn't this game supposed to be rated PG-13 according to the initial promotion?

PG-13 is actually a rating for games and movies, indicating that there may be content in the work that requires children under 13 to be accompanied by parents while watching. However, overall, it's supposed to be an ordinary level without particularly thrilling or intense plotlines.

But now, as Chu Cheng watched the headless figure in the conference room holding his own severed head, he couldn't help but feel disoriented.

He seriously started to doubt whether the production team had some strange misunderstanding about PG-13. Just imagine, a child eagerly opens a newly purchased game on a weekend, fantasizing about becoming a superhero and saving the world, only to be greeted with such an explosive scene right at the beginning. It's likely that this would plant a seed in their young minds, affecting their future perception of love and warriors.

What the hell is this supposed to be for children?

But that's not even the end of it. The man named Ed not only stood firm after decapitating himself, but he also continued to walk forward, holding his own head step by step.

The severed head he held in his hands oozed its contents, leaving a horrifying trail of blood on the floor. However, everyone in the conference room seemed oblivious, as if someone walking around with their own head was just a completely normal thing.

The man with a crew cut stepped aside. At that moment, the cabinet against the wall in the conference room started to move. Two cabinets separated from each other as if equipped with automatic pulleys, revealing a hidden door. Behind the door stood a black statue.

The statue was exquisitely crafted but had a distorted form. It resembled something inhuman, with numerous twisted arms extending from its angular torso. The contorted limbs twisted like twisted branches, resembling some kind of deformed tree trunk.

Chu Cheng couldn't recall seeing anything with a similar shape before. However, this thing appearing in the scene made him feel extremely unsettled. Its grotesque form was deeply imprinted in his mind with just one glance, rooted in the deepest layers of nightmares, haunting him relentlessly.

Ed approached the statue and lifted his own severed head with blood-drenched hands. What was even more terrifying was that the severed head seemed to retain consciousness. It even displayed a devout, almost euphoric expression, appearing incredibly sinister and ominous.

The headless body held up the severed head. The head quickly disintegrated into a mixture of flesh and blood, being absorbed entirely into the grotesque and twisted statue as if pulled by an invisible force.

As the head vanished from his palm, Ed's headless body suddenly went limp and collapsed to the ground, like a puppet whose strings had been abruptly cut backstage.

A crimson light flashed in the eye sockets of the contorted sculpture. Led by the man with a crew cut, everyone in the conference room devoutly bowed down, offering their utmost reverence to the statue.

A swooshing sound passed over their heads. A bat-shaped black dart pierced through the air and lodged itself into the black statue.

The man with a crew cut raised his head in astonishment, witnessing the dart lodged in the statue's chest and abdomen, with a red indicator light flickering on and off, signaling danger.

Boom! The small dart was filled with highly concentrated explosives that detonated, obliterating the entire black statue into pieces. Countless fragments scattered across the floor.

"Who?!" The man with a crew cut erupted in anger.

A sound akin to an engine shutting down echoed through the conference room, causing both the lights inside the room and the ones in the hallway outside to extinguish simultaneously.

It was a miniature electromagnetic pulse, one of Batman's signature gadgets. Darkness was Batman's best ally, and he often preferred to disable all electronic devices, including surveillance and lighting, with an electromagnetic pulse before initiating his infiltration operations.

The advantage of this approach was that he gained the upper hand in operating within the darkness, sowing fear among his enemies in the realm of the unknown. The drawback, however, was that it would expose his arrival before he even began his assault.

Everyone in the conference room stood up. But before they could discern who the intruder was, a small spherical flashbang rolled onto the floor like a marble.

Bang.

A powerful light erupted from the flashbang. The individuals in the conference room hadn't had time to adapt to the sudden darkness when their retinas were struck by a blinding light as bright as daylight.

Taking advantage of the momentary blindness that befell everyone, Batman leaped out from the ventilation duct and landed on the conference room floor.

This operation wasn't about stealthy infiltration but rather aimed to incapacitate everyone in the shortest possible time. Chu Cheng finally had the freedom to unleash his skills, his fingers swiftly dancing across the keyboard and mouse. Batman moved like a hare, swiftly rendering one person unconscious and causing two others to suffer broken bones in the blink of an eye.

However, Chu Cheng soon noticed that something was off about these individuals.

Take, for example, the chubby bald man. Batman dislocated his arm with a joint lock. Based on past experience, this grunt should have been taken care of, writhing on the ground while nursing his arm, devoid of any fighting ability. It was impossible for him to continue charging forward fearlessly as if he didn't feel any pain.

And then there was the crew-cut man, even more absurd in his behavior. Amidst the combo, Chu Cheng utilized the "Rapid Batarang" skill, quickly pressing the number 1 key twice to make Batman automatically hurl a Batarang. A danger marker indicating an imminent attack appeared above the crew-cut man's head. Responding to the input command, Batman effortlessly threw a Batarang without even looking, precisely hitting the crew-cut man's raised left hand, forcefully pinning his palm to the wall behind him as if he were cheating.

The crew-cut man exerted force twice, attempting to remove the Batarang lodged in his palm, but realizing it was stuck, he reached for a dagger with his free right hand. Without any change in expression, he resolutely cut off his entire left hand from the wrist, as if he were a Terminator, seemingly impervious to pain. Disregarding his spurting severed hand, he continued charging forward.

Another individual, whose leg joints were dislocated and deformed by Batman's sweeping kick, promptly got up as if nothing had happened. Hopping on one foot, he continued to advance and join the assault.

The room was splattered with brain matter, blood, and various other substances. The entire conference room had turned into a devil's playground, and even through the screen, Chu Cheng could almost smell the nauseating stench.

This was a game with a distinct flavor.

These fearless and deranged lunatics caused Chu Cheng's sanity meter to plummet. He even had a sudden sense that he might have opened the game in an inappropriate manner. It felt as though he wasn't playing a superhero-themed game but rather some kind of Lovecraftian horror game, with his portrayal of Batman resembling a classic investigator.

Fortunately, despite their madness, they were no match for Batman, who possessed peak physical abilities, formidable combat skills, and an arsenal of high-tech gadgets. They posed no real threat to him.

Even from a different perspective, Batman had a special advantage when dealing with these maniacs. It was a perfect match, and if it were any other superhero facing these lunatics, they might not have handled them as adeptly as Batman.

In just a few minutes, the crazed individuals in the conference room were sprawled all over the floor.

Only one remained.

The crew-cut man struggled to climb up from the support of the wall.

He had a severed left hand, a shattered right arm, and a dislocated left leg.

Three out of four limbs were useless, and even if we count the legendary "third leg" of a man, he was left with just two functioning limbs. It was honestly impressive that he could still stand, considering the circumstances.

With a fierce gaze, he stared at Batman as if he wanted to devour him with his eyes.

Hopping forward on one foot, his limp arm dragged behind him, and blood continued to gush out from the severed limb, creating a horrifying scene.

Chu Cheng didn't let his guard down just because his opponent was disabled. He remained cautious, preparing to manipulate Batman for another flurry of attacks.

But before he could make a move, his opponent suddenly stopped.

Boom!

The head of the man with the crew cut exploded into a burst of blood and gore.