The bedroom, filled with a faint fragrance, was illuminated by the warm yellow light of the wall lamps.

The man’s silver hair fell loosely, and Vivi held his face, lifting the bangs covering his right eye to examine “her own” eye closely.

“Better cover it with the bangs again,” she whispered, “it looks too strange when it’s uncovered.”

Because that was… her eye.

It reflected a forest-like green, as deep as the waters of a lake. If Vivi’s and Mr. C’s right eyes were placed side by side, anyone would conclude they were the same.

Vivi had once let others believe that Mr. C was some mysterious entity capable of using her body, and this eye seemed like a remnant of her body after “Mr. C” had descended upon it and altered it.

She placed her hand on his chest next, noting that the skin was semi-transparent.

—Currently, Mr. C was using Vivi’s corpse. Could a dead body die again?

Staring at the faintly glowing blue heart, Vivi pulled out paper and a pen, beginning to sketch the faint magical circle visible through the skin.

As soon as she put pen to paper, she blinked and realized that it wasn’t a magic circle.

It was pale blue, and circular, but the patterns lacked the rhythm one would expect from magic.

Most people understood magic as intricate and free-flowing, but this circle seemed constrained, its lines chaotically twisting inside the rigid boundary of the circle, emitting an enticing glow.

Moreover, the circle was rotating. At first, Vivi thought it was constantly changing, but later realized it was the lack of pattern that made it seem like it was shifting.

Every joint in C’s genderless mechanical body bore the same kind of circle. After studying it for a long while, Vivi concluded they were identical.

“If this is magic…” she mused, “then it’s probably a type of binding magic?”

But beyond binding the parts together, something else had to make the puppet move. Vivi suspected other driving magic was hidden inside. When she tried to dismantle C, some of the strange metal components disappeared from her hands and returned to their original positions in the body.

“Guess that won’t work.”

After spending a long time trying to figure out the puzzling circle, Vivi was left with a sheet of paper filled with cramped lines, pressed into the middle by the circular frame. The average person might faint just from looking at it.

But Vivi knew she was trying to exploit a system loophole—

“If the system ever gives out this type of magic, it should auto-generate the circle with a single button press,” she thought. “This is way too hard to draw! Who knows if it’ll even work?”

Lying on the bed, she casually waved the sheet of paper.

The symbols, drawn with an ordinary pen on regular paper, fluttered uselessly through the air—nothing happened.

Vivi wasn’t disappointed. System exploits were rarely easy, and if the game was full of loopholes, the developers might as well close up shop.

Just working on this had eaten up most of the night, and as she was about to put the paper away, her gaze fell on the wardrobe across the room, sparking an idea.

She had already confirmed the circle matched exactly with the one inside C’s body. Why not try using it with another item?

Regular paper and ink might not meet the requirements. Maybe it needed materials similar to C’s body.

That reminded Vivi of the wardrobe she used for teleportation.

She tipped over the small single wardrobe in the bedroom, tapping on its inner surface to check its thickness, then called Mr. C over and placed the paper on top, asking him to start carving the pattern into the wood.

For such delicate work, having her steady-handed alt perform the task increased the chances of success.

The shirtless man leaned over with a carving knife. He carefully etched the lines from the paper onto the wooden surface of the wardrobe, while Vivi buried herself in the sofa and closed her eyes.

With a detailed diagram to follow, she instructed her alt to carve from the inside out, starting with the inner pattern and then the outer circle, which looked like a ring of Roman letters.

The moment the first stroke was made, she thought she heard a strange sound, like a distant, distorted howl.

“Are there rats in the rose garden… gnawing at my bed?” she drowsily wondered. “Or maybe roses attract bugs when they bloom. Maybe there’s a hidden mini-game in the garden… Oh, game designers… I see through you…”

Vivi suddenly opened her eyes.

The ticking of the bedroom clock was still steady, and the room was quiet, seemingly unchanged from when she had closed her eyes.

Except—

When she started carving, it had been 5:55 PM. Now, the clock shows 4:25 PM.

Vivi had a realization. Opening the gold coin shop, she saw that, sure enough, the items displayed were no longer from May 5th—they were from May 6th’s collection!

The figure lying inside the wardrobe wasn’t Mr. C anymore but her original corpse. Had her subconscious canceled Mr. C’s control?

Had she fallen asleep in the game?

Something seemed off.

Vivi picked up her body, glancing at the intricate carvings inside the wardrobe.

The cramped lines, once limited to a sheet of A2 paper, now filled the entire inside of the wardrobe. Oddly, there were no wood shavings on the floor—where had they gone?

However—

“It looks like the outer circle wasn’t drawn.”

The surrounding circle was missing.

She checked her phone, noticing that, aside from her unexpected nap in the game, nothing else unusual seemed to have happened.

The roses in the soil had reached maturity, their buds hanging heavy, and the atmosphere was quiet. Vivi pushed open the window, and a fresh breeze greeted her.

“I must have fallen asleep by accident…” Vivi muttered. “Makes sense, I haven’t slept in over a month.”

Players in the game don’t actually feel the passage of time, nor do they experience physical exhaustion, as their real-world bodies are nourished. Staying in the game for years doesn’t affect them.

When entering the game, players are injected with basic knowledge of the game’s world to help them fit in.

Because the game is incredibly realistic and time-consuming, to prevent players from confusing it with the real world, the system blurs in-game memories when they log out. Many players only leave the game after completing it fully, without leaving any regrets behind.

Vivi thought back to her real life but realized she couldn’t remember much. Only some vague general knowledge remained.

But that didn’t matter. Once she left the game, she’d remember everything!

Perhaps her brain had decided she needed rest, so it forced her to sleep.

Vivi gazed at the lines inside the wardrobe and muttered to herself, “There’s just one last step…”

She took out the mercury.

Since mercury was a magical material that could dissolve a corpse, maybe it could activate this magic. Although she didn’t understand the magical circle inside the wardrobe, there was no harm in trying—it wasn’t like players could die permanently, and her house wouldn’t get damaged.

The mercury slowly flowed into the carved grooves. Theoretically, a wooden wardrobe should have been unable to bear the weight of such a heavy metal, but the magical circle began to glow faintly with blue light.

The silver mercury slithered like a snake, filling every part of the carved lines—

[You have successfully activated the sigil “Unknown (Unnamed).”]

[Would you like to name this sigil?]

[Detected that the main quest “??” is incomplete, and the sigil system has not been fully unlocked.]

[Sigils can only be engraved on system-produced items. Please experiment to discover how to use this sigil.]

A gray sigil interface appeared on her system panel, and when she opened the “Unknown (Unnamed)” sigil, it was filled with question marks. However, there was now an option to engrave it with a single click.

Experiment with it?

Vivi directed her alt to step inside the wardrobe, which was just big enough to fit one person.

He raised his hand and touched the still-moving sigil, which seemed to pulse like a living thing.

Nothing happened, so Vivi tried to pull her alt’s hand back… but it wouldn’t move! Her alt used his other hand to pry it off, but soon, both hands were stuck to the wooden surface!

Was this a sticky sigil?

Vivi pondered this for a moment, then threw a book and some small trinkets inside. They too stuck immediately, becoming part of the “whole.”

For example, if the spine of a book was stuck, there was no way to remove any of the pages, even though they hadn’t made direct contact with the sigil. The magic treated everything as part of the whole!

About two hours later—during which Vivi played a rose pest control mini-game that she discovered actually existed—the alt and the stuck objects finally dropped to the floor.

She observed that the mercury in the sigil seemed to have evaporated.

She thought she understood now.

Vivi dashed down the stairs. “White, we’re going out—”

Her white horse neighed, kicking open the stable gate and trotting to her side, and Vivi changed her appearance with a single click, donning her “Night Watcher” outfit. This outfit covered the lower half of her face and came with a perfectly fitting black cloak, giving her the look of a nighttime assassin.

An assassin riding a white horse? How strange.

Half an hour later, she arrived at the docks on horseback—searching for Batman in Gotham was like looking for a needle in a haystack, requiring a lot of time watching the map. But she had received a tip that something suspicious was happening at the docks; apparently, some people had noticed that “Penguin’s” underlings had stopped smuggling, and others were beginning to stir.

Her informant, naturally, was Violin. After missing Mr. C’s last appearance, Violin had been heartbroken for quite a while. Strangely, that heartbreak had turned into motivation, and now Vivi frequently received updates from him.

She could stake out the docks for Batman, and if she didn’t find him, she could still capture the smugglers.

As for her stakeout method… Vivi pulled out a [Magic Pipe] and engraved the sigil on its surface.

…

The sky over Gotham darkened early, as always.

Dick perched silently on a gargoyle, watching two groups below him trading weapons.

After Batman “went to prison,” Dick had temporarily taken his place, donning the suit to fight crime. Gotham needed Batman, after all.

To be honest, the suit didn’t fit him quite right. It was too loose in the chest and too tight in the back, but he only needed to wear it for seven days.

After learning that Batman had left the psychiatric ward shortly after arriving, he and Tim had discussed their options and decided not to interfere. They had to trust Batman.

Besides, based on what they knew of the warden, her actions showed that she wasn’t a villain, though her methods of enforcing justice were a bit extreme… But who could be more extreme than Batman?

Since she had taken over Blackgate, several corrupt and abusive guards had been imprisoned themselves. It seemed she genuinely wanted to bring about reform.

That time when Dick was invited, if he hadn’t become Nightwing, he might have been happy to accept the position as deputy warden… Well, then Batman wouldn’t have to sneak in.

The deal below was nearing its end. Dick watched coldly as they pulled out the cash, and his hand instinctively reached for his escrima sticks—only to grab two Batarangs instead.

Dick: “…” Sigh.

“Hey,” a voice suddenly said from behind him, “do you know where Batman is?”

Dick instinctively flared his cape and stepped back, but all he saw was a flash of silver—a one-meter-long pipe. Then, Dick stumbled awkwardly.

His cape had flared out, but it hadn’t fully extended.

For some reason, he was stuck—just like a cicada clinging to a tree.

Vivi stared at him, wide-eyed with shock.

Dick stared back at Vivi, who was holding the pipe.

“What is this?” he asked in a low voice.

“I should be asking you that,” Vivi whispered back. “Changing your voice won’t help—where’s Batman, Nightwing?”

What, do you superheroes swap identities for cosplay now?