The town turned into a plain, with only a few scattered houses dotting the land. One could see the distant forest without any obstruction. Poor Lisa almost thought their home, along with the house itself, had been mysteriously moved elsewhere by some unknown force.

However, what Lisa didn’t know was that the strange and surprising events of that night didn’t end there.

Rewind to 1 a.m. the previous night. While most people were sound asleep, the “event” officially began.

Two activities were involved: the Strange Circus and the Goat’s Cabin. The former required players to exchange building blocks from the mall to assemble structures, while the latter involved collecting construction materials to submit to the system. Neither could be completed immediately. When Vivi made a call to wake Shelk up to prepare materials, the Tin Soldier Men had already quietly landed in Gotham.

The palm-sized Tin Soldier Men army was randomly parachuted into Gotham.

Nearly 100,000 of the tiny soldiers quickly spread throughout the city. It was the Gargoyles who first noticed the anomaly and alerted Vivi.

After delegating tasks to others, Vivi teleported from South Hinckley to the East District to visit the Iceberg Construction Company.

The instructions for the [Tin Soldier Battle Royale] event were clear: to deal with the tiny soldiers, players needed to use system-issued balloons to lift them away. These balloons were infinite and could be replicated as cards. Previously, Vivi had instructed the Gargoyles to distribute balloons to children in Gotham’s streets, giving them to any passing kids.

The system also stated that at the Iceberg Construction Company in the East District, players could obtain tin-foil-wrapped chocolates and penguin pop rocks. The former could neutralize the special effects of items, while the latter prevented interference from the Tin Soldier Men during the event.

When Vivi arrived at the construction company, she found them unloading truckloads of candy.

It turned out that when the Gargoyles first appeared, Vivi had hosted a balloon-for-candy exchange event. Anyone who had a balloon gifted by a Gargoyle could exchange it for candy at this location. It was, in essence, a way to legally distribute candy to poor families and attract people from other districts to witness the changes in the East District. It also helped soften the fearsome image of the Gargoyles as part of a publicity effort.

The candy wasn’t funded by Vivi squeezing her acquaintances—it hadn’t come to that.

Apart from regular candy, Vivi added a twist: she claimed that the wrappers from special candies could be exchanged for grand prizes. There were only ten such prizes, a design reminiscent of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory that tempted many. Otherwise, plain candy alone wouldn’t have drawn so many people to the East District.

Now, the trucks of pop rocks and chocolates were part of the festival promotion, purchased voluntarily by the construction company to be given away in their lobby.

In the old East District, such generosity from a company would have invited looters. But in the new East District, anyone daring to rob would find themselves hung on the wall by a Gargoyle.

Both candies were marked as event items, and Vivi grabbed a handful of each.

However…

Vivi originally intended to randomly select ten people to receive special system-provided items as rewards. But now she had changed her mind.

She didn’t need to provide rewards herself—the [Tin Soldier Battle Royale] event rewards already included chocolates, candied apples, jelly, and most importantly, ten silver cards.

“I can’t possibly deal with every single Tin Soldier in the city—there are nearly 100,000 of them. The system will only reward me with sparklers, so the silver cards will almost certainly end up with other people…”

Moreover, the event lasted only seven days. If Vivi hadn’t shared the method, it wouldn’t be a week-long celebration but rather seven days of torment for the entire city caused by the Tin Soldiers.

To maximize her benefits… she needed to contact young CEO Tim and call in the mayor’s press secretary to urgently draft a plan.

If Tim were here, he’d likely agree with her.

At 1:30 a.m., young CEO Drake had just finished his work for Wayne Enterprises—overtime, to be precise—and decided to make himself a cup of coffee.

It was late, so he’d already sent his secretary home. But as he held his coffee in the break room, he heard noises coming from his office.

Unperturbed, he quickly considered his options: a kidnapping, corporate espionage, or something else?

Reaching for his rubber-bullet-loaded gun—standard issue for him, more practical than batarangs—Drake cracked open the door.

Four tin-armored soldiers were hopping down one by one from his desk.

In single file, they carried jelly on their backs, chocolate-bar rifles, and shiny curved blades at their waists. Standing just over 10 centimeters tall, they exuded a seriousness that belied their size. The leader of the group noticed Tim and gestured, prompting the other three to hide.

Tim: “…”

Should he not have pulled an all-nighter? Was he hallucinating from lack of sleep?

Despite suspecting he was dreaming, he remained cautious, gripping his gun as he opened the door fully. There were no signs the windows had been opened or the door tampered with. Could they have entered through the vents?

Tim locked eyes with the only Tin Soldier who hadn’t hidden. Both held their ground like true warriors, cautiously circling the office. Then, a shadow flickered above—

A hidden Tin Soldier had climbed onto the ceiling and leapt down. Tim instinctively swatted it away, but the little creature hurled its jelly pack at him.

… Jelly?

The jelly exploded, and Tim, Gotham’s young vigilante Robin and brilliant Tim Drake, found himself abruptly on his knees—before springing right back up in surprise.

The jelly didn’t cause any harm, but it transformed Tim’s entire body, clothing included, into a jelly-like state—soft, elastic, and unimaginably light.

Such a drastic transformation in physical condition would throw even the strongest warrior off balance. Tim couldn’t even stand up. His “soft” hands slid off the desk the moment he tried to brace himself.

He even thought he smelled faintly of pear.

“Fantastic…” he muttered to himself, “Opportunities to turn into jelly don’t come by every day.”

The four Tin Soldiers approached him, exchanging glances. The leader drew its shiny curved blade. Tim suspected it might slide harmlessly over his jelly-like body, and indeed, it did. The not-so-sharp blade bent against his skin without piercing it. But as it did, Tim noticed his scent shifting from pear to apple. His body stiffened entirely, leaving only his face capable of movement.

The four little Tin Soldiers pointed and gestured at him as if celebrating the capture of a prisoner. Then, they marched in formation out the door, leaving Tim both exasperated and amused.

“What… is all this?” he murmured.

At that moment, his private phone buzzed. It was Vivi on the line.

Tim remained in his immobilized state for ten minutes before regaining movement. While the stiffness wore off, his jelly-like form persisted. Eventually, Vivi climbed in through the window she’d removed and, upon entering, chuckled. “What’s this? Smells so sweet.”

After her laughter subsided, she relented and unwrapped a chocolate, shoving it into his mouth.

Freed from the effects of the apple-scented candy and jelly, Tim sat up on his chair, speechless. “So this… is supposed to be a children’s festival?”

“Well, it’s a festival designed by a magician. Of course, it’s full of whimsical magic,” Vivi replied, making a hand gesture. “Right now, there are 99,999 of these little guys all over the city.”

Half an hour later, Vivi finalized a new promotional plan for the festival: delegating the publicity task to Gotham’s ever-concerned vigilantes. She also sold off the candies purchased wholesale by the Iceberg Construction Company at five times their original price. According to the event rules, even identical candies needed to be routed through the Iceberg Construction Company before being redistributed for them to have the desired effect.

With the promotional tasks settled, Vivi summoned all the Gargoyles in the city to start duplicating the [Infinite Balloons] card. She instructed each Gargoyle to distribute these balloon cards to the public. The less active Gargoyles were ordered to hover just low enough for people to reach out and grab them. While it was rumored that Gargoyles only interacted with children, Vivi countered, “Big kids are still kids, right?”

To encourage players to participate in the event, the limited-time store even sold an item that turned adults into actual children. It was cheap—only three sparklers.

Having addressed the first event, the [Tin Soldier Battle Royale], Vivi noticed her sparkler count increase from 10,000 to 10,600. The system informed her that the extra 600 came from players receiving “Mr. C’s” projection rewards.

The [Mr. C’s Magical Hat] event was particularly mysterious. The projection appeared randomly, couldn’t be interacted with, and disappeared after thirty minutes unless players managed to amuse him. Vivi shook her head, wondering, Am I supposed to dress as a clown and perform in front of him?

To help players engage with the event, Vivi ensured projections were marked on the map with purple dots. She exported the map, sent it to Jar, and asked him to forward it to Tim. Tim quickly called back, stating he’d urgently update Gotham’s festival guide app. This app, initially designed as a tourism guide for Gotham, had been acquired by Wayne Enterprises not long ago.

“People fear the unknown. But if the unknown becomes known, their fear will dissipate by half,” Vivi remarked. “No matter what’s said out there, we’ll just claim it’s all magic… or fine, maybe call it supernatural.”

The festival guide app would push notifications to everyone in Gotham, explaining the four events in detail, making it appear as though everything was under official control.

However, before guests at Wayne Hotel received these notifications, they witnessed the anomalies firsthand.

The hotel’s top floor had been reserved by a woman named Daisy Diamond, housing her students and private medical staff. Despite being just as wealthy, another guest and his companion could only reserve the floor below.

That guest’s surname was Stark.

Iron Man, Tony Stark, one of the Avengers’ core members and the first superhero to publicly reveal his identity, had arrived in Gotham with the Avengers—not for a battle, but for a vacation or, more precisely, to visit an old friend.

That friend was Doctor Stephen Strange.

Before coming to Gotham, Strange had prepared for any unexpected occurrences. He instructed his companion, the sorcerer Wong, to contact the Avengers if he went off the grid. Tony’s investigations revealed that while Strange wasn’t answering calls, he occasionally appeared on Gotham’s street surveillance cameras, seemingly hard at work.

Tony Stark: “…?”

Yet, Strange continued ignoring calls, texts, and any form of communication.

Amid Tony’s confusion, Gotham’s South Hinckley Town case drew everyone’s attention. On June 1, the Avengers arrived in Gotham under disguised identities, treating it as a vacation while reconnecting with old friends.

…Though saying “coming to Gotham for a vacation” sounded more like a joke than a genuine statement.

In the early hours of June 1, Tony Stark missed out by just a step and couldn’t reserve the top floor of the Wayne Hotel.

Still, the view from the second floor wasn’t too bad.

Even under the guise of a vacation, the Avengers came prepared for combat—this was Gotham, after all, a city where anything could happen.

Despite their long flight, none of them felt particularly tired. Captain America, Steve Rogers, was polishing his shield. Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff, had opened a bottle of red wine. Dr. Bruce Banner, the Hulk, was reading the latest updates on news websites. Hawkeye, Clint Barton, was browsing the menu, preparing to order food. And Thor… yes, Thor happened to be free and was completely engrossed in whatever was on TV.

Tony shook his head, wondering if he had brought a group of kids on a field trip.

It was at this moment that the projection of the mysterious magician appeared.