Chapter 1: The Beginning of the Dark Knight

"Same as usual, a little shorter?"

Aunt Li, the hairstylist at the barber shop, switched on her electric hair clippers.

"Yeah, just a little shorter will do," Chu Cheng replied. "But not too short."

Aunt Li got to work, smiling as she said, "A crew cut would be nice, it looks honest and respectable. That's what girls like these days."

"Well, actually, I've been considering changing my hairstyle," Chu Cheng said.

"Oh, really? That makes sense. As a college student, it's only natural to have some personality and try a new look. Nowadays, girls prefer something more trendy," Aunt Li continued to agree.

Chu Cheng didn't say anything, but in his heart, he couldn't help but think that if what she said was true, then don't girls nowadays prefer constantly changing their preferences?

On second thought, that might not be entirely wrong. Romantic luck and hairstyle choices are not directly linked, but they definitely have a connection with one's attractiveness. But that's understandable because it applies to men as well.

They all claimed to have various XP systems, some said they were "seducing older women," while others said they were "seducing lolis," but it was all just talk. Countless examples have proven that for LSP, as long as you're good-looking enough, gender doesn't matter. If you're even more attractive, you can even transcend racial boundaries, and if you're even more attractive, you can blur the line between the mortal realm and the underworld.

So, for players like Chu Cheng, hairstyle is secondary. After all, he's so charming and captivating that he can attract countless female fans with just a turn of his back.

Well, generally speaking, it's mostly his mom's fans.

Chu Cheng doesn't know why, but he seems to have a face that looks like he has struggled for twenty years, which is commonly referred to as the idol of middle-aged women. Since he moved to this community after entering university, he has already become acquainted with the nearby aunties in just over a year.

At this moment, another middle-aged woman who dropped by the barber shop couldn't stand it anymore. She said, "Just get a regular haircut and stop trying to promote your daughter. Little Chu here is a prestigious university student, who knows how many girls in his school like him."

Aunt Li, who was targeted by those words, didn't take it lightly either. "What's wrong with our Juanjuan? Who knows, when she grows up, she might even get into a prestigious university."

The two aunties started arguing, and in the midst of it, Grandma Wang seized the opportunity and slipped in with a photo in her hand.

"Oh, Chu Cheng, take a look at this. It's that girl I told you about last time, so lively. Why don't you exchange contact information and have a chat?"

Chu Cheng glanced at the photo Grandma Wang handed him. The girl in the picture did indeed look lively and cute. She had big watery eyes, flawless fair skin, long and slender legs, and was playfully making a "V" gesture towards the camera.

However, Chu Cheng's focus wasn't on her. His gaze quickly fell on the metal railing next to her. The poor railing seemed to have undergone some unknown dimensional force, causing its spatial continuity to be affected, resulting in an indescribable phenomenon similar to when a straight guy comes out of the closet.

In simple terms, it was bent.

Well, that's not the main point. Nowadays, out of ten photos, nine are edited, and one has a swapped head. A mere spatial distortion isn't worth making a fuss about. If it were only at that level, Chu Cheng wouldn't bother commenting on it.

But Chu Cheng pointed at the reflection in the glass curtain wall of the building next to the girl in the photo and asked, "Grandma, is there someone else in the mirror?"

Grandma Wang looked at the girl in the photo, who appeared to weigh a hundred pounds outside the mirror and a hundred kilograms inside, and fell into deep thought.

...

After getting his haircut and chatting with the neighbors for a while, Chu Cheng bid farewell to the aunties, who seemed reluctant to let him go, and went upstairs directly to his own apartment where he was staying.

This apartment belonged to his uncle, conveniently located near the university Chu Cheng attended. So, when he entered university, his uncle let him stay there for free for four years. This allowed Chu Cheng to have this spacious apartment all to himself and saved him from paying for accommodation.

Many of his classmates were envious when they learned about his situation because they thought it meant Chu Cheng could frequently bring beautiful girls to his place and have fun, and when they got tired, they could just go to sleep since his place was quite big.

However, that wasn't the case.

Because it would only affect Chu Cheng's gaming speed.

One great person once said, "Women and such are just distractions. I, on the other hand, aim to become a world champion." While Chu Cheng didn't have such grand aspirations, he did have a dozen games waiting for him to complete without taking any damage, as well as a pile of game footage waiting to be edited.

As an undergraduate student, Chu Cheng also served as a moderator in the single-player games section of a gaming forum. Thanks to his exceptional skills and unwavering determination to achieve perfect, damage-free completions, the game videos he edited often had a cinematic feel, earning him quite a number of fans.

As a conscientious moderator who never slacked off, he always prioritized his career and his fans. He had no time to fuss over other trivial matters.

Ding!

Upon returning home, Chu Cheng had barely stepped through the door when a crisp notification sound rang in his ears, causing his heart to skip a beat.

Could it be that his delayed system finally arrived after a month?

Indeed, Chu Cheng was not a native of this world, but a traveler from the Earth. He had just arrived on the Polar Star a month ago.

Based on his limited knowledge gained from fantasy works, he concluded that he had transmigrated into a parallel world where his life trajectory closely mirrored his original one.

However, this world was similar to the Earth but not entirely the same.

The Polar Star, like the world Chu Cheng is familiar with, is a world dominated by humans. However, the development history of human civilization in this world took a completely different path, leading to the absence of national borders in the present-day Polar Star.

Yes, while the Polar Star does have continental plates and regional divisions, the concept of national borders does not exist, and it has been that way for many years.

In addition to this, the Polar Star has many other differences, and listing all the details would take days and nights. But those differences don't have a significant direct impact on Chu Cheng.

If we compare transmigration to opening a blind box, he feels that his luck isn't too bad. Some predecessors transmigrated to post-apocalyptic worlds overrun by zombies, some went to rebuild in wastelands, and some went to realms filled with immortal beings.

Compared to those high-risk dimensions, Chu Cheng's situation at least resembles a stable society. At least, he hasn't discovered any strange or chaotic phenomena in the memories he inherited. Without any cheats or special abilities, he would be content as long as he could live a comfortable life and wait for death.

Until now.

In early internet novels, nine out of ten transmigrators had systems, and the sound of "Ding" in their minds often marked the beginning of their journey from loser to dominating everything.

He couldn't help but feel disappointed when he received no response despite calling out for the system in his mind. It was then that he realized the sound seemed to be coming from his computer, which he had left on all night without shutting it down.

The sound resembled the notification tone that plays when a game finishes downloading and installing.

While feeling let down, Chu Cheng also couldn't help but feel puzzled. Although he stayed up a bit late studying materials instead of watching videos—wait, that didn't sound right—he didn't recall downloading anything. Could it be that his computer got infected with some strange malware that automatically installed something peculiar while he was downloading a movie?

Chu Cheng shook the mouse, waking up his drowsy monitor. Soon, he noticed an additional icon on his desktop.

"Avengers vs. Justice League: A New Era."

Chu Cheng: !?

He actually recognized this game because it happened to be the last game he purchased before his transmigration.

He remembered vividly that a month ago, on the eve of his transmigration, he eagerly bought this newly released game and started downloading it in the background before leaving for school. Little did he know that an unexpected accident occurred on the way—a mud-carrying truck took a turn too sharply, causing him to crash. He skipped the entire rescue process and woke up to the "coffin dance" meme, finding himself already in the new world.

After a month in the new world, Chu Cheng had almost forgotten about the game. Seeing the icon on his computer, he nearly turned into stone on the spot.

You see, this new world had no Marvel, DC, or any of those diverse superhero-themed works. Therefore, it was impossible for a game like "Avengers vs. Justice League" to exist in this world.

He couldn't help but wonder about this incredible black technology. Had Steam expanded its business to other dimensions?

Could it be that Steam detected he had purchased the game but didn't get a chance to play it before he disappeared, so they thoughtfully provided him with access to a multi-dimensional gaming experience to ensure he didn't waste his money?

Sitting in front of his computer, Chu Cheng held his breath and double-clicked the game icon.

According to the laws of transmigration in online novels, the things you bring from the original world often turn out to be cheats or powerful items. So, even though he didn't know what use a game downloaded from another world would have, Chu Cheng still had high expectations for it.

But there was also the possibility that it was just a regular game.

After the joint logos of the two major companies and the production company flashed across the screen, it plunged into darkness.

In the center of the pitch-black screen, only two silver logos remained. One was the "A" representing the Avengers, and the other was the "JL" representing the Justice League, separated on opposite sides of the screen by a silver diagonal line.

That slender silver diagonal line represented the loading progress bar of the game, accompanied by a small line of text displaying specific loading information.

"Hero character loading. Character loaded successfully."

"Game map loading. Map information missing, loading failed."

Chu Cheng's heart skipped a beat as he began to feel that something might be wrong, and then another message appeared on the screen.

"Repairing. New map system loaded."

Following that, several nerve-wracking loading failure prompts appeared one after another, but fortunately, they were all automatically repaired in the end. The game completed its loading process with a mix of suspense and relief, entering the title screen.

Chu Cheng breathed a sigh of relief, but at the same time, the process of loading and repairing gave him a foreboding sense of unease.

Without hesitation, Chu Cheng clicked on "Start Game."

The game was a classic single-player action-adventure game, where players typically took on the role of a superhero, completing missions, experiencing cinematic storylines, or freely exploring open-world maps.

"Please select your hero."

Although there was a prompt to choose a hero, Chu Cheng found that he didn't really have a choice. On the screen, there were numerous superhero icons, but most of them were gray question marks and couldn't be selected.

The only option Chu Cheng had was the initial hero given by the game, one of the flagship characters from DC Comics, known as the world's greatest detective, the mastermind of the Justice League, the Dark Knight of Gotham City—Batman.

Chu Cheng recognized Batman as a prominent character, being a fan of comics in his original world. He felt excited about being able to play as such an iconic hero in the game.

Without hesitation, Chu Cheng clicked on Batman's icon, confirming his selection as his hero character.

Subsequently, the screen underwent a subtle change, transitioning to a new interface displaying the game's settings and character introduction.