The argument about whose surname the child should take ultimately remained unresolved. Leticia and Bai Ling both believed the child should take their surname, completely forgetting why they were discussing such matters at this time. What interrupted their argument wasn’t Leticia suddenly realizing they shouldn’t be discussing this, but an urgent contact from Little Green.
“Qianqian, emergency mission! A group of thugs has suddenly appeared at the XXX mall. They’ve taken over the entire mall and are holding more than ten hostages. If you’re free, hurry over to provide support!”
A mall, thugs, right now? Leticia blinked. In broad daylight, under the clear sky, could such a thing happen? Wasn’t the East District supposed to have good public order? How could something like this occur?
“The enemy reportedly possesses weapons of mass destruction. Heroes and police in the vicinity have already rushed to the scene, but none have the capability to resolve the situation for everyone before the thugs react!” If they couldn’t resolve the situation with all the thugs simultaneously, they couldn’t guarantee the safety of the hostages. Who knows if these kidnappers had planted bombs in the mall, determined to die with their hostages. They couldn’t afford to gamble. If so many hostages couldn’t be saved, they’d have to bow many times to apologize.
“Do you know what faction they belong to? This can’t just be a group of random individuals, right?” Leticia had already picked up her makeshift fire poker. It was time to show some initiative. Even Bai Ling stood up, the laziness in her eyes replaced by seriousness. If the thugs knew how powerful their opponents were, they probably wouldn’t have taken this job in the first place.
“We’re investigating. They’re all wearing helmets, and we can’t ascertain their identities from surveillance footage alone!” Little Green’s voice was filled with suppressed anxiety. “I’m also on my way, and support from other districts is en route. The best option for those guys now is to surrender on the spot, otherwise, they’ll have no burial place!”
“Alright, Bai and I will be there immediately. We can get there in five minutes.”
“Okay, we’ll meet at the scene!”
Five minutes later, in the large plaza where several tents had been erected, Leticia and Bai Ling found Little Green pacing restlessly outside the command center. Police cars, their red and blue lights flashing, had surrounded the mall, which Leticia found somewhat familiar. She remembered shopping there before. She wondered why the thugs chose this particular location as their target.
“You’re here just in time. You’re the only S-class combatants who can make it right now.” Little Green’s first sentence completely baffled Leticia. S-class heroes weren’t exactly common, but there were still a dozen or so of them. Little Green was one, and Leticia was another. That only made two. In fact, Little Green herself didn’t belong to the S-class hero category, meaning Leticia was the only S-class hero providing support here? Was this some kind of international joke? Did Central City not care at all about the lives of its people, or was this incident not enough to mobilize those S-class heroes? This was impossible. Little Green had called it an emergency mission, and all heroes were obligated to accept such missions without a valid reason, not to casually refuse them. Unless, were there truly no S-class heroes available for support?
“A few days ago, there were traces of a wilderness beast in the wilderness near Central City. Due to its proximity to Central City, the Hero Association dispatched an S-class team and three A-class teams to attempt to hunt down the beast.” Little Green listed the number of remaining S-class heroes in Central City while counting on her fingers. “Then we have to account for reserve heroes who cannot leave headquarters, as well as support heroes who lack direct combat capabilities.” For example, the Guild Leader. And to protect the Guild Leader’s safety, Lu Siyu’s linked item couldn’t be moved carelessly.
“No, there are still quite a few left. At least ten, right?” Guardians like Little Green weren’t included in the count of S-class heroes, so Leticia hadn’t included guardians from other districts. Even so, there should have been no less than ten S-class heroes in Central City who could move freely. By all accounts, only she shouldn’t have been the only one providing support.
“That’s the problem. Currently, you’re the only S-class hero in the East District who can support me. As for the other heroes, they’re all on other missions.” Little Green handed her tablet to Leticia, indicating she should take a look. Leticia took the tablet and after a couple of glances, her eyes widened. “What a grand operation! I’m sure there’s a conspiracy behind this!” In just a few minutes, four districts in Central City, excluding the central district, had almost simultaneously erupted with extremely significant and vicious incidents. The methods were identical: a sudden attack on public places followed by hostage-taking.
“Two malls, a children’s amusement park, and a bank. Good heavens, and they all have heavy equipment. Has Central City been infiltrated through and through?” Leticia reluctantly returned the tablet to Little Green. With this situation, it was indeed difficult to call for much S-class support. If there was only one emergency mission, all heroes would have to respond to it and rush to the target location as quickly as possible. However, if there were multiple missions, the principle of proximity would be applied. Unfortunately, the closest hero at hand was indeed Leticia.
She was spent. This wave was truly exhausting. Leticia wasn’t a multi-limbed deity. She could kill the thugs guarding all the passages of the mall, but she couldn’t guarantee the safety of the hostages. The Demon King’s destructive power was absolutely sufficient, but destructive power alone was useless at this moment! Not to mention Leticia, even Little Green could handle these seemingly heavily armed thugs, but they faced the same predicament: the inability to guarantee the safety of the hostages.
“Then what do those guys want? They can’t possibly be acting without any desires, right?” Leticia felt that at this moment, negotiation was the only way, although she wasn’t enthusiastic about bowing to bad guys. If it were the demon race, she would have directly ordered a full-scale assault. Hostages? I didn’t see any hostages. To make His Majesty the Demon King yield with a few demons? Who gave them the audacity? Attack them all. This was the former Leticia, a true tyrant. No one dared to provoke her in such a manner because everyone knew it was useless to His Majesty the Demon King. Anyway, Leticia didn’t have to care about public opinion or anything like that. She didn’t ascend to her position based on such ephemeral things. I’m in this position because of my bloodline and my unparalleled power in this world. Anyone who disagrees? If you disagree, come and fight me!
“There’s no time to make any operational plans,” Little Green said, scratching her hair in annoyance. She truly hadn’t expected such a troublesome situation to arise in the district she managed. “We can’t accept the conditions they’ve offered. Not to mention the tens of millions in ransom, we absolutely cannot hand over helicopters and armored vehicles.” The conditions proposed by the thugs were displayed on Little Green’s tablet. It could only be said that the conditions on it were quite fantastical. Such a large ransom, and they also wanted helicopters and armored vehicles as a means of escape? Central City would never accept such terms.
“Good heavens, so much ransom… Even if all the hostages died, paying compensation at the maximum rate would be cheaper than this, wouldn’t it?” Leticia clicked her tongue twice after seeing the figure. It was clear they weren’t intending to negotiate. If the amount requested were smaller, Central City might have grit its teeth and made concessions. Once they received the money and released the hostages, several S-class teams could surround them from multiple sides and take them down in one go. But now, not only were the thugs asking for an exorbitant amount, but they were also foolishly dreaming of obtaining major weapons like helicopters and armored vehicles? Was this a joke?
“Ahem, you can’t say that. If they’ve planted bombs inside the building, the cost of reconstruction wouldn’t be small either,” Little Green coughed twice, replying somewhat awkwardly. If those people were in an open area, Little Green might have taken Leticia’s suggested approach, ignoring the hostages and rushing in. What hostages? We didn’t see any hostages.
“So what do we do now? Just wait them out like this?” Leticia tilted her head.
“There’s no other way. We can’t act rashly until support arrives. Although we could send someone to infiltrate, it would be troublesome if they were discovered.” Little Green sighed. She was good at fighting, but she didn’t have many ideas when faced with such a situation. The Association Headquarters was probably in an uproar. Her support request had been unanswered for nearly five minutes. Normally, her message would have received a response from headquarters within ten seconds, but now, after five minutes, there was no reply. It was likely that there were simply too many things happening at once, and the Association couldn’t handle them all.
“However, the Hero Association is just an executive body. The police are the main force, aren’t they?” Leticia raised her head and pointed at the police officers who had already surrounded the mall. “Since we can’t do anything now, let’s watch how our colleagues handle it.” Heroes dealing with such matters were not specialized. This kind of situation should be handled by our police officers; they are the professionals.
“The thugs have sent someone out to negotiate. He’s over there now. Shall we go take a look?” Little Green had a lot of information. At least she knew a thug was standing outside the temporary police command post. “That thug is carrying a bomb. We don’t know when it will explode.”
“Alright, let’s go see the show.” Leticia would naturally not refuse this suggestion. Although the matter seemed quite serious, her mindset was actually quite calm. The ones doing the kidnapping were humans, and the ones being kidnapped were also humans. All the excitement was among humans, so what did it have to do with her, an innocent and helpless demon girl? Even if everyone inside died, she wouldn’t bat an eye. She loved watching dogs fight dogs. As for whether those hostages were innocent? Please, Leticia never considered herself a good person. She didn’t even care about the lives of demons, so how could she possibly value human lives? As long as I have no morality, no one can morally blackmail me. Leticia felt that this saying was indeed very appropriate. Thus, the group of three, the strongest combat power of the Hero Association in the East District, arrived at the main road in front of the cleared mall. The thug who had been sent out was confronting the heavily armed police officers on the other side of the road.
“Our conditions cannot be reduced by even a single bit! If you lessen them by even a little, we won’t release anyone! We’ll give you another quarter of an hour to consider. After that time, we will kill one hostage every quarter of an hour!” When Leticia and the other two arrived, the thug was shouting hoarsely. What caught Leticia’s attention was the metal object around the thug’s neck. That collar-like item was flashing with green light, looking exceptionally strange.
“What is that? A bomb?” Leticia asked a very upright police officer beside her. The police officer, knowing Leticia was a member of the Hero Association, nodded. “That’s what the person said, but its authenticity is unknown. It might be real, or it might be fake.”
“If it’s real, then it’s truly troublesome,” Little Green said worriedly, glancing at the agitated thug. If the thugs all had such bombs on them, then covert operations would have almost no chance of success.
“According to the thugs, this collar monitors their bodily data. Once they fall unconscious or are killed, the collar will instantly detonate. Any attempts to dismantle it will also detonate the bomb, but we don’t know the specific power of the explosion,” the police officer added. She hoped it was fake, otherwise, the subsequent operation would be truly difficult. On the opposite side were bomb-laden individuals who would detonate if attacked. They couldn’t engage in close combat and could only attack from a distance, but that would turn into a frontal assault. What about the hostages?
“Most of the surveillance inside has been destroyed, with only cameras in specific locations remaining intact. They probably wanted us to know they weren’t lying, that they indeed had hostages, and that they would kill hostages,” the officer continued with a sigh. In her many years of work, this was the first time she had encountered such a distressing situation. She had never encountered such difficult events before. They couldn’t attack, and they couldn’t compromise; they were completely stuck.
“Hey Green, does your Hero Association have any solutions?” the officer asked Little Green in a familiar tone.
“You should know the current situation. We three are the S-class combat power in the East District. Besides, we psychics aren’t gods. We have no solution for such situations.”
“No, I do have a method, I just don’t know the success rate.”
