[Integrated/Crossover DC/Marvel] Why Did the World End Again? - Chapter 1

Chapter 1: The Red Sun

A colossal red sun hung over the earth. A figure floated in the sky, facing everything, yet utterly futile. Immediately afterward came a flash of white light, and everything was annihilated. Just as the shockwave was about to hit, Alice jolted awake from her nightmare.

In a Metropolis studio apartment, a girl with messy red hair suddenly sat up in bed. She reached up to touch her face, trying to push aside strands of hair to uncover her nose so she could breathe. She gasped heavily, trying to calm down from the nightmare she had just experienced.

“When will this life ever end?”

Alice couldn’t remember how many times she’d had this nightmare recently. It was just a weird sun and strange light, but why did it fill the dreaming her with such intense terror? All she could feel was a desperate need to escape, yet she was pressed down as if submerged in water, surrounded by despair. She couldn’t escape, no matter what, and finally woke up startled.

Alice was just an ordinary girl. She attended a common school, studied a hard-to-employ major, worked various jobs after graduation, and eventually circled back to become a gaming streamer.

Fortunately, she was good at creating content, her showmanship was decent, and she was willing to put in the effort. Although the money she earned was only enough for her to get by, she was at least happy. Overall, it was much more relaxing than clocking in every day. Moreover, Metropolis wasn’t a city with a very fast pace, so Alice’s life was relatively comfortable.

Eighty percent of the reason she chose to live in Metropolis was Superman. With Superman around, at least her personal safety could be guaranteed. Alice really didn’t want to recall everything she had encountered in her previous city.

At that time, she was extremely poor and really didn’t have much money, which forced her to move to Gotham. Although she had some awareness of how to “handle” the city, looking at the cheap rent, Alice finally decided to risk it.

$100 a month for rent—it was a deal she couldn’t find anywhere else. However, in just three days, Alice lost her wallet four times and was robbed three times. Alice finally conceded. She wretchedly grabbed her luggage, crossed the bridge, and ran to the neighboring city—Metropolis.

Sighing deeply, Alice glanced at the alarm clock. It was 5:00 AM. Soon the sun would rise, and the sunlight would illuminate the whole room through the window. For some reason, Metropolis always had an excessive amount of sunshine. Perhaps the sun favored its divine child, choosing to give the city extra attention.

Alice struggled out of bed and poured a glass of water. As she felt the cool water flow slowly into her stomach, her heart gradually calmed down. She still had plenty of time. As usual, she turned on her computer and began scanning the market for games.

In the gaming streamer industry, you have to understand the latest trends in the game market earlier than others to attract more fans and earn more money.

Recently, casual romance games were popular. Alice followed the trend and began searching for similar games. Then, one game caught her eye.

“She/He Next Door?”

“That’s a weird name…”

Alice couldn’t help but complain. Most game titles either carried some special meaning or featured some kind of symbol. This was the first time she had seen such a vague title. However, Alice was sure she had never seen this game in anyone else’s stream, indicating its popularity was likely low. Maybe she could edit a bizarre video out of it?

Then Alice began to check the game description.

“This is a town once forgotten. In the past, it was very prosperous, and the people lived and worked in peace until, later, no one knew what happened. Most people moved away, and you received a will. Your mother said that your family’s most important heirloom was hidden in the old apartment. It is said that the world’s greatest secret was once concealed there. There are also rumors that by obtaining this secret, you can get everything you desire. As a novelist, you yearn for all kinds of mysterious stories. With a longing for the unknown, you came here, moved into the apartment, and also met the She/He Next Door?”

“Mystery-solving???”

Alice complained while continuing to scroll down, finally seeing the romanceable characters.

Below the game were six neat pictures showing the romanceable NPCs—three males and three females—which made Alice sigh in admiration. They really are masters of balance. The NPCs, however, made Alice a little curious. She thought such an unknown, low-budget game would feature crude designs, but surprisingly, although the name was strange and the description was riddled with mysteries, the quality of the romanceable NPCs, judged from the pictures, was very high. Every single one was beautiful.

“It must be a gimmick…”

Thinking this, Alice downloaded the game, started her stream, and began the live gameplay commentary.

As the game screen loaded, Alice confirmed there was no art fraud. She quickly created a character and entered the game. For this kind of casual romance game, people generally look for the plot and the characters’ appearance. Alice just hoped the game’s script writing was as strong as its art design.

“Hello everyone, welcome to the SeraphEver stream! We’re bringing you a brand new game today. This time it’s not a horror game, so please relax.”

After her usual opening remarks, Alice officially started playing. A game title slowly expanded on the computer screen.

“She/He Next Door?”

Soon, the game displayed the prologue.

“We always contemplate one question: Is love truly the strongest force in this world? Can love really be eternal? Or, can the kindness between people truly exist forever? Will you find the answer?”

Alice watched the prologue and complained.

“I hate riddlers the most.”

Next, she controlled her game character to the entrance of the small town. A person was standing there. The moment she saw them, Alice’s eyes lit up. Indeed, no art fraud! Even if the plot is bad, the NPC is gorgeous!

Under the dim streetlamp, a tall woman stood there. She was very beautiful, with a hint of coldness when she pressed her lips together, appearing somewhat fragile. She had a pair of beautiful blue eyes, but for some reason, Alice felt those eyes looked strangely familiar???

When she looked at you and smiled, an intensely vibrant aura of life and confidence came toward you.

The person smiled sweetly and approached cordially.

“Hello there, I’m Lisore. I’m happy you’ve come here. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a new resident. You’re Ms. Helen’s granddaughter, aren’t you? She lived here quite comfortably before. I’m sure you’ll be happy to be here too.”

Alice looked at the other person’s face and, embarrassingly, nodded.

“Yes, yes, I’m Mary. I’m happy to be here!”

Then Alice controlled the game character to her new home. Since no one had lived there for a long time, it looked dusty. Lisore was very kind and brought various items, starting to help with the cleaning.

The comments section on the stream was constantly flashing.

“Such a beautiful NPC! Go romance her immediately!”

“Streamer, you got a bargain! Since this NPC is so gorgeous, won’t the others be just as good? Be the Sea King, be the Sea King, we must be the Sea King!”

Alice felt her smile was almost impossible to suppress, but she closely followed the tutorial and continued playing. The game was actually very simple, almost without any main plot. Players could freely explore any storyline, and there seemed to be no time limit. Alice suddenly understood why the game wasn’t popular despite its high-quality artwork.

After all, the game seemed to have no actual gameplay. Alice went to the community forum to check for guides but found the entire comment section empty, as if she were the only player.

She also searched on Google, but she came up blank.

“That’s strange. Based on this NPC’s appearance, it should have some popularity. Why are there no guides? Oh well, playing by myself is also fun. I’ll just keep going for now.”

The first day of Alice’s gameplay quickly passed with light house cleaning. On the second day, Alice began observing everything in the game’s small town. The apartment building she lived in was very strange.

So far, she only knew the resident on the first floor, Lisore. She knew nothing about the others. In the morning, Lisore promptly knocked on Alice’s door. Alice nodded in greeting, then listened as the other person offered to give Alice a general introduction to the apartment’s environment before starting to introduce her to all the residents.

“I live on the first floor. My sister, Anna, is on the second floor. The third floor is your room. The fourth floor is occupied by Sia and Aurora. The fifth floor is Narcissus and Medusa. For now, we have this many residents in our building.”

“For now? Does that mean there will be new people later?”

Alice was a little confused. To be honest, the game had a high degree of freedom with very few fixed choices, but she hadn’t yet figured out what was going on, so she could only follow the other person’s lead and observe.

On the computer screen, Lisore just smiled and said nothing in the end. After a day of touring, Alice had a general understanding of her surroundings. Finally, she controlled her character back to her room, and the side tutorial immediately showed a new prompt.

“Congratulations, Player, you have unlocked Lisore Wayne.”

The character card is as follows:

“A girl named ‘Lisore’ seems to have a mysterious past, but it is said she has a very good temper, so apparently, whatever you do to her, she won’t get angry. Will you be bold enough to hurt her?”

The moment she saw the character card, Alice fell silent.

“No wonder it wasn’t popular. You dare to co-opt the Wayne name? It’s amazing this game hasn’t been taken down.”

The comments section on the stream exploded.

“Awesome, awesome! They dare to use that name?”

“No way, brother. Age is a question mark? Do they think she’s a thousand-year-old tree demon or vampire?”

“Wayne: Here comes the lawsuit~”

It was just a name. After complaining, Alice didn’t dwell on it. Then the system gave a prompt.

“NPC Affection 30 has reached one star. Partial personal plot can be unlocked. Unlock now?”

“30 is 1 star?”

“Yes, the maximum affection value is 300, totaling five stars. However, some players have special plots that require unlocking an Easter egg to trigger.”

Alice paused, then waved her hand and clicked “Confirm.” She wanted to see what was so different about this plot.

The screen immediately went black. Everyone watched intently, even the comments stopped for a moment.

A few lines of white text appeared first.

“People always say that profit is above all else, but only when they are trapped in a dilemma of straying from the path do they realize one thing: wealth may be important, but often, freedom and fairness will always rank above it.”

In the pitch-black night, a solitary figure walked. Alice could tell this CG (cutscene) was very silent. She could only see a back and couldn’t tell who the person was. Then, a woman’s voice came from the distant end.

“Honey? Why are you running away? Hahaha.”

Followed by the woman’s light laughter.

“Geez, I thought this was casual romance. Why is it turning into horror again???”

Then the scene immediately shifted. It was a somewhat ancient small town. Villagers were pulling fishing nets on the shore. The camera slowly panned toward a barren field, where a tombstone was visible on the screen.

It read: “Tomb of Todd.”

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