“Is this… really Batman?”
Jina stared at the screen, her brow furrowing deeper and deeper.
The Batman in her impression the Dark Knight, the shadow of Gotham, the nightmare of criminals, spoke in short, deep tones.
But this one in front of her started off with a “pfft,” self-proclaimed as “DC’s greatest hero,” and even openly admitted to being a comic book character, his tone carrying an unmistakable comedic vibe.
Jina searched through all her memories of Batman, and finally, an image with a completely different art style emerged:
A body made of building blocks, a plastic-textured black cape, able to rap, throwing parties in his own living room, with an exaggerated and brainwashing laugh.
“Lego Batman?” Jina muttered softly to the screen.
“No way…”
Her first reaction was that someone was impersonating him, but on second thought, Superman, Saeko, Mami everyone who joined the group was the real deal, so there shouldn’t be any impersonation.
Another new message popped up in the group.
[Batman]: The Superman of another World actually gathered people from parallel Universes.
What does he want to do?
Could he be trying to develop forces other than the Justice League?
No, I must keep a close eye on him.
[Mami Tomoe]: Hm?
Ultraman looked at this message and fell silent for a second.
This was clearly not meant for others to see; he was talking to himself.
A normal Batman wouldn’t post his vigilance and suspicion directly into the Chat Group.
“Lego Batman didn’t… just post his inner thoughts directly, did he…” Ultraman muttered to the screen.
After confirming it wasn’t the conventional Batman, Ultraman did breathe a sigh of relief.
Lego Batman wasn’t the detective type who could see through lies at a glance.
The difficulty of playing Superman in front of him had dropped by several orders of magnitude.
But just as he let out that breath, another question surfaced what could a comedic, kid-oriented Batman do by joining this group?
[Batman]: Fortunately, I prepared enough Kryptonite in case of abnormal phenomena.
However, I’m not sure if the Superman of a parallel Universe would be affected by Kryptonite.
Well, maybe when I need Kryptonite, I can go to that World and swipe a few…
Ultraman thought.
…
Lego World, Batcave.
Alfred stood at the top of the stairs holding a tray, watching his young master sitting in front of the massive computer, gesticulating wildly at the empty air.
One moment Batman was laughing, the next he was looking around vigilantly, then he was muttering to himself, his fingers clicking rapidly on the table even though there was clearly nothing there.
“Master Bruce,” Alfred walked over and placed the teacup from the tray on the corner of the desk, “you are talking to the air again.”
“It’s not air, Alfred! This is a Chat Group from another dimension!” Batman didn’t even turn his head, his fingers typing even faster on the invisible keyboard. This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
Alfred glanced at the empty desk, then at Bruce, his expression completely unchanged.
“Of course, Master… Would you like me to add some more hot water for you? The cup from just now has already gone cold.”
“No need!” Batman said, then immediately added, “Wait, add a cup, but with lots of ice. The last one almost melted my tongue.”
[Jina]: Um…
Batman, is your World Lego?
[Batman]: This person keeps asking about me…
Maybe she’s an informant sent by Superman.
I can’t give her any more information, and I absolutely can’t let her know that I am a Lego Master Builder…
Jina’s mouth twitched at the screen.
She hesitated for half a second before deciding to remind him.
[Jina]: Ahaha…
Um…
Batman, did you type out your inner thoughts?
We can see them.
The Chat Group fell silent for a few seconds.
Jina could almost picture a Lego minifigure on the other side of the screen, petrified in front of the dialog box.
So he really was from Lego World.
She confirmed it once more, trying to make her tone sound as friendly as possible.
Although this Batman’s style was quite far from what she had expected, he was still a superhero after all, so at least he wouldn’t have any bad intentions.
…
Mami Tomoe quietly watched the Chat Group for a while and decided not to chime in for now.
Batman had just joined, and Jina was in the middle of verifying his identity.
At this moment, having another person speak up would only make things more chaotic.
Letting the group owner gather the information first was the safest approach.
“Mami Tomoe, are you spacing out again?”
A voice came from beside her.
White fur, round red eyes, and long ears twitching slightly.
Kyubey had squatted beside her at some point, looking up at her.
“Ah, Kyubey.” Mami shifted her gaze from the Chat Group’s light screen, looked down at the familiar white creature, and offered a smile.
“It’s nothing, I’ve just been a bit tired lately.”
Jina had previously made a point to remind everyone not to reveal anything about the Chat Group to anyone outside its members.
Mami felt that Kyubey was her companion and there was originally nothing to hide, but since the group owner had said so, and because she had been focusing on the Chat Group, she indeed hadn’t proactively brought it up with Kyubey. Find the original chapter at g.com.
“I see.” Kyubey tilted its head, its red eyes staring unblinkingly at her, asking no further questions.
…
Jina turned off the physical keyboard and switched to mental input mode.
After her fingers waved in the empty air for a while, she realized she was still making typing motions, so she quickly lowered her hands to use her mind instead, feeling a bit unaccustomed to it.
She glanced at the corner of the room where the supplies she had stockpiled for Saeko were still neatly stacked compressed biscuits, bottled water, medical kits, piling up over half the corner.
It seemed they wouldn’t be needed now which was actually a good thing.
“Speaking of which, it seems I haven’t gone out in a while.” Jina stood up and stretched.
Ever since binding with this Chat Group, the focus of her life had completely tilted toward it.
Every day she checked in to accumulate points, paid attention to whether a zombie outbreak had occurred in Saeko’s World, and worried about Mami’s mental state.
Thinking about it, it was time to go out for a walk and breathe some fresh air.
She put on her coat, pushed open her door, walked into the hallway, and pushed open the apartment building’s main door.
Then Jina froze.
The street outside was abnormally quiet.
It wasn’t the kind of quiet during nap time; even the sparrows weren’t chirping, and there wasn’t even the sound of wind blowing through the leaves.
The air felt as if it had solidified, making her ears feel stuffed.
“Eh?”
Jina looked up.
Strange purple glows appeared in the sky, line by line, like geometric patterns made of some kind of energy, rapidly spreading.
The next second, those light traces violently expanded outward, forming a massive translucent barrier like an upside-down bowl, covering the entire neighborhood inside.
“What’s going on?” Jina’s eyes widened, and she subconsciously took a step back.
“My World has an anomaly too? I always thought my place was just an ordinary, everyday World…”
Before she could finish her sentence, Jina heard a sound.
Dragging footsteps coming from the end of the street.
Then she saw figures a few people walked out from around the corner, their steps stiff, their postures distorted, their heads tilted at a bizarre angle.
Jina’s pupils contracted sharply.
She had never seen those figures in person, but she was all too familiar with them.
During those few days she spent preparing for Saeko, she had watched countless screenshots and clips of zombie movies.
Those movements, that kind of posture, were almost identical to the scene before her.
“Zombies?” Jina heard her own voice trembling.
“How could they appear here?”