Chapter: Chapter 381
“My method is simple. Since we can’t knock people out or kill them, I can only use my ability to hypnotize that guy,” Leticia said to Xiao Lu and Police Sister, who were gathered around her. “Speaking of which, can the rioters in the mall see what’s happening here?”
“Do you see that surveillance camera over there? The rioters have already occupied the monitoring room, and they can see our every move. To prevent them from going all out in desperation, we can’t dismantle that camera,” Police Sister pointed to a surveillance camera not far away, flashing a blue light, indicating that everything happening here would be recorded.
“This is easy to solve… Wait a moment, please, I need to prepare,” Leticia gestured towards the camera with her finger, confirming that she could directly release a lifelike illusion in this place.
It was like the illusion she used to attract attention after being ambushed by a bomb before. As long as the other party didn’t send someone to the scene to check, they wouldn’t find anything unusual.
“Are you sure there’s only that one camera? If there are more and something goes wrong, don’t blame me,” Leticia confirmed again.
“There is indeed only that one,” Police Sister confirmed that there was only one camera here because they had already gained control of the mall’s surveillance, and anything the rioters could see, they could see as well.
The only camera that could capture this place was this one. As long as this camera was dealt with, there would be no problem at all.
“Okay, now watch my performance.” Leticia drew her magic sword, aimed it at the small camera from a distance, and began to perform delicate magic operations.
Xiao Lu hugged her tablet, which she almost never let go of, and looked at the surveillance footage on the tablet, wanting to see what kind of solution Leticia had.
However, Leticia’s magic obviously did not have those flashy special effects. The surveillance footage in front of Xiao Lu merely flickered slightly and then returned to normal. If Xiao Lu hadn’t been paying close attention, she might not have even noticed this flicker.
Even an S-class hero like Xiao Lu almost overlooked this detail, let alone those rioters.
Xiao Lu waved her hands towards the camera twice and was pleasantly surprised to find that she in the surveillance footage hadn’t moved at all. This was undoubtedly the effect of Leticia’s magic, and the surveillance footage had become fake.
“What a wonderful ability, how did you do it?” Xiao Lu asked with joy.
This greatly increased the possibilities for operation.
“It’s very simple, just paste a picture on the surveillance camera’s face,” Leticia said, stating that this was basic skill and everyone didn’t need to applaud. “Alright, now I’m going to hypnotize that guy, you guys step back a bit.”
Leticia was also a little afraid that her approach might stimulate the rioter and cause him to do something irrational, so before approaching, she cautiously gave herself two shields.
Then, she walked out of the crowd and walked towards the rioter step by step.
Seeing Leticia walk out of the crowd, the rioter was stunned, and then sternly reprimanded, “Stop! Stop right there!”
Although this girl didn’t seem threatening at all, he just had a heart-pounding feeling. If he let this girl approach him, something very bad might happen.
“OKOK, I’ll stop. I’m not carrying any weapons, I just want to have a good chat with you.” Leticia stopped obediently and raised her hands considerately to show that she posed no threat. “You have bombs on you, and there are so many hostages inside. No matter what, I won’t do anything against you, will I?”
Perhaps the distance gave the rioter enough security, and his tense body relaxed, but his gun was still aimed at Leticia. “You might be from the Hero Association. Even if you don’t have weapons, you can still kill me!”
“Yes, yes, yes, but you have hostages, so I don’t dare to act against you, right?” Leticia nodded with a forced smile, but in reality, she was quite bold to act.
However, what she needed to do now was to stall for time, waiting for the colorful mist she released to approach the rioter.
In the rioter’s blind spot, the very faint colorful mist was creeping along the ground, inch by inch, towards the rioter. They were like vipers lurking in the shadows, ready to deliver a fatal blow to their target.
“Your demands are too harsh. Both the ransom amount and the weapons and equipment cannot be prepared in such a short time. I advise you to be more pragmatic and lower your demands so that we can make a decision as soon as possible.” Leticia offered pragmatic advice to the rioter from a realistic perspective. If you ask for less, you might be able to escape. If you ask for more, it will be a fight to the death.
Losing one’s life for a sum of money that is destined not to be obtained is not a good deal.
“Young lady, our demands cannot be reduced. If this is all you have to say, then please go back. There are only five minutes left until the agreed time, and we always keep our word.” It was not the rioter who answered Leticia, but a walkie-talkie stuck to his chest.
It seemed that the boss of these guys was also watching here all along.
“I’m just advising you to be pragmatic. So many hostages do make things difficult for us, but we cannot accept your demands either.” Leticia shrugged helplessly and shouted at the rioter, “Hey, little brother, you don’t want to die, do you?”
Oh my, the mist has already spread around you. Let’s see how long you can last…
“I will not betray my leader!”
“Your counter-espionage trick is useless,” the rioter leader chuckled. “If we are still having this meaningless conversation, then please go back.”
“So I really hate guys like you who don’t listen to reason. Anyone with a brain knows that we won’t agree to such outrageous demands.” Leticia smiled at the rioter brother, whose eyes were already glazed over. “Don’t you think so, little brother.”
“I already said I won’t betray!” the rioter brother sternly shouted at the empty space next to Leticia.
Well, the hypnosis effect is perfect, and it hasn’t attracted anyone’s attention at all.
“But your leader sent you here, isn’t that sending you to your death? You won’t say that this is actually the safest place, right?”
“You…” The little brother’s eyes were dazed. He instinctively wanted to retort, but an idea suddenly popped into his mind: what this girl said didn’t seem wrong.
After chatting with this little brother, who hadn’t realized he had been hypnotized yet, Leticia decisively returned to Xiao Lu and Bai Ling, ready for the next phase of action.
“That rioter has been hypnotized by me. He poses no threat to you now. However, the walkie-talkie on him is a problem. If we can deal with that, we can get some information from his mouth,” Leticia said, pointing at the rioter who was still shouting at the empty space. This behavior undoubtedly indicated mental instability, and almost no one present would suspect that he was faking it.
“But just this one outside is useless. There are still many rioters inside the mall…” Police Sister did not feel much relieved. The rioter’s performance made her uneasy. How could those hostages be rescued?
Only a few minutes were left before the deadline set by the rioters, and there was no response from the superiors. Those at the scene dared not do anything. They dared not storm the place by force, nor could they compromise, so they could only surround it like this.
If the higher-ups had made up their minds and said that they didn’t want the hostages anymore and could arrest and execute all the rioters first, Police Sister would have definitely rushed in with her gun. But now, there was no news from the higher-ups at all, and she suspected that the higher-ups were also struggling whether to be tough or not.
“This is what I’m going to talk about next. If my deduction is correct, the rioters staying in the monitoring room have also fallen into a hypnotic state. I can try to sneak in and control the situation.” Leticia extended a finger, looking calm and collected.
The surveillance footage specifically shown to the rioters was not just ordinary footage; at the very bottom of those footages, there was a gift from the divine lord hidden within.
Although it was not as effective as direct contact, nearly ten minutes was enough for Leticia’s backup plan to take effect.
“By the way, you’d better go and check on the people you have watching the monitors. Their mental state probably isn’t too good right now. Hurry up and get away from the screen to drink some coffee,” Leticia gave a friendly reminder. Her mastery of Dream God’s powers was not yet high enough to exclude allies from the target when casting an area-of-effect spell.
In other words, anyone who stared at the surveillance footage, whether friend or foe, would be hypnotized by Leticia’s ability.
“Ah, this…”
…
Inside the mall, in the monitoring room.
Three rioters stared at the almost unchanging screen with bored expressions.
They were left here to do the most boring thing. Anyone could do the job of staring at the screen, and their companions were enjoying the screams of terror, which made them extremely envious.
Rioter No. 1 scratched the metal collar around his neck and said impatiently, “I say, how long do we have to stay here?”
Rioter No. 2’s eyes widened when he saw No. 1’s action. He sternly rebuked, “If your hands are still that idle, I’ll chop them off. Is this something you can touch casually?”
He had witnessed the power of that small thing exploding with his own eyes. To put it bluntly, if No. 1 had accidentally slipped his hand, there would be no survivors in the monitoring room right now.
Who knew where those mysterious guys got this equipment.
“Hmph, as long as we get what we want, where in this vast world can’t we go? I don’t believe those weaklings would dare to ignore so many hostages.” Rioter No. 3 snorted coldly. He felt that he understood the current situation of the Central City high-ups well, believing that those carnivores would definitely yield to them. “We can rebuild our organization in any small city and then have a good showdown with the Silver Moon Society.”
“Aren’t they dogs for the Hero Association? How can they defeat us?” Rioter No. 1 slammed the table fiercely, completely unconcealed in his disdain for the Silver Moon Society. He truly believed that the failure of their organization was due to the Hero Association’s unfair play.
But he seemed to have forgotten that before the Hero Association intervened, they were already beaten so badly by the Silver Moon Society that they could only shrink their forces and resort to underhanded tactics.
“Haaah, why do I feel a bit sleepy?” Rioter No. 2 yawned. “It’s too boring to stay here.”
“Monitoring room, have you detected any abnormalities?” The voice from the walkie-talkie interrupted the three people’s idle chat.
The three rioters glanced at the surveillance footage, which was the same as before, and replied in unison, “No, everything is normal.”
“Really? Why did I just seem to see a figure flash by in area A6?” The person on the other end of the walkie-talkie was somewhat disbelieving. Could it be that he really saw it wrong?
“The three of us didn’t see it. This monitor is clearly working normally.”
“What about outside? The dark-haired little girl is still negotiating with No. 20?”
“Yes, No. 20 is quite emotional, but we can’t hear the sound from over there, so we don’t know what he’s cursing about.” The three rioters replied.
No problem, the rioter leader on the other end of the walkie-talkie glanced at the image displayed on the tablet. It was the same as what those three lazy guys saw. It must have been his eyes playing tricks on him.
Not only was the screen over there larger than his own, but it also had two extra pairs of eyes. Those who watched had a clearer view than he did. The leader convinced himself and handed the tablet in his hand to his subordinate next to him.
“Keep a close eye on it. If you see anyone else coming in, immediately sound the alarm. I need to go to the second floor; the boss has something to announce.” The leader licked his lips. Letting them go back now meant that they really wanted to let those people know that they were not joking.
As for the white figure he had just seen, it must have been an illusion, right? Are there people with white hair in Central City? Surely not.
The leader left, but the follower holding the tablet stretched and waved towards a corner in the shadows, “Come out. You almost got exposed just now.”
“This is your newly acquired ability, it’s truly a bit… terrifying.” The white-haired girl emerged from the shadows, looking at the black-haired girl standing in front of her and a rioter subordinate standing like a wooden statue with complex eyes.
Just now, while the rioter leader was communicating with the monitoring room, Leticia had pulled both targets into a hypnotic state at once, without attracting anyone’s attention. The two rioters had become hidden double agents.
“I’ll take that as a compliment. Let’s hurry, we still have a lot to do.”
