[Western Crossover] Play Games with a Smile

Clark thinks the superhero role-playing game is a complete flop, even though it has incredibly fleshed-out NPC backstories and side quests.

But what kind of single-player superhero game doesn't give the NPCs on the side of justice invincibility, or let you turn off friendly fire? One accidental button press and an NPC is dead.

And the NPCs remember everything across all save files. If you kill an NPC in one file, everyone will remember it forever. Come on, you've already restarted the file and brought them back to life, so why doesn't the negative reputation go away? Doesn't that force him to play the villain in this superhero game?

When Clark realizes that, after several events, he's become a supervillain, he angrily leaves a ten-thousand-word negative review and prepares to quit the game.

Then Clark happens to discover that his roommate, Bruce, is playing the same game. Sometimes Bruce even edits gameplay videos, which seem to be getting quite a few views.

Puzzled, Clark clicks on Bruce's profile and sees that he's titled his gameplay video "A Pure Mortal's Guide to Speedrunning World Destruction on Superhero Difficulty."

Clark: "...?"

Clark: "Wait, aren't games supposed to be fun? Why are you treating the entire game world like a dungeon to clear?"

Bruce: "Huh? Aren't games about winning? Besides, do I not look like I'm having fun?"

Clark feels that he and Bruce have wildly different ideas about how to play games. But it doesn't take long for him to lose interest in that:

Because they've transmigrated.

A few things to know before reading:

1. The timeline is a mess. As usual, expect OOC.

2. The pairing is player Clark and player Bruce, though based on their original counterparts, it would probably be Superman Prime One Million x The Batman Who Laughs... Anyway, the romantic storyline is only between the two protagonists. The original canon pairings may be mentioned.

3. This is a future project. Since I'm not sure how the main plot will go yet, the blurb may change a lot, but the pairing and player premise won't. Note from 2026.06.14.

*

Theme: How should one become a hero?