Chapter: Chapter 382
Perhaps the rioters accidentally damaged some power lines while acting, or perhaps they intentionally cut off the mall’s power supply. In any case, only the dim emergency lighting remained in the mall at this time.
Although it was daytime outside, inside it was just like a scene from a horror movie, cold and dark, and who knew what would leap out from beside them.
It could be a vengeful spirit, or it could be a beautiful girl with black hair.
“This side is done too, Xiao Lu, did you receive the message I sent?” Leticia asked, clapping her hands.
“Yes, I received it. We are ready on our side,” Xiao Lu’s voice came through the earphones. “This time, we really have to thank Qianqian.”
In the few surprise attacks just now, Leticia successfully obtained the rioters’ specific deployment from them and also attached monitoring devices to them. Now, Xiao Lu’s side should have the specific locations of those hypnotized rioters.
According to the information Leticia had gathered, these rioters were currently heading to the place where some hostages were being held, and their boss was also there.
“Speaking of which, the time should be up, haven’t they killed the hostages yet?” Leticia glanced at the time. Although she was very fast, she couldn’t do so many things in an instant, turning so many rioters into turncoats took her nearly ten minutes.
This had already exceeded the time limit set by the leader of the rioters. Logically, he should have started killing hostages by now.
But judging from Xiao Lu’s voice, the other party didn’t seem to have any extra actions?
“Phew, to stall for time, we temporarily diverted a sum of cash as a show of sincerity, so they slightly relaxed the deadline. It seems they are not completely insane,” Xiao Lu replied faintly. If they were truly reckless rioters, it would be more difficult.
The group of rioters they were facing indeed had extremely cruel methods, but they were still reasonable and knew that so many things could not be mobilized in a short time. If they really killed hostages for this reason, the Hero Association of Central City would hunt them down to the ends of the earth.
“Okay, how many minutes are left? Their final move is explosives placed in various parts of the mall. There are many detonation devices, and I don’t know who exactly has those detonation devices,” Leticia felt that these rioters were too cautious, why did they have so many backup plans?
The explosive collars on their necks made people afraid to engage them in close combat, thus avoiding being assassinated one by one by heroes with superior individual abilities. The explosives placed in various parts of the mall indicated their determination to fight to the death, daring them to come in, and die together.
There was more than one detonation device, which meant that decapitation tactics were almost useless. As long as one rioter holding a detonation device was not dealt with, the mall was doomed.
“The hostages are also scattered in various places. It would be much easier if they were all together,” Leticia sighed. If the hostages were concentrated in one place, she could rush into the crowd and create a shield, then wait for the bombs to explode.
She didn’t believe those bombs could shatter her shield!
“There’s no way, the other party’s preparations are too thorough. Let’s save as many as we can,” Xiao Lu also knew the difficulty of this operation. She no longer expected Leticia to save all the hostages. She would save as many as she could, but those heinous rioters must all be kept here, and none of them should be allowed to leave.
“Shh, someone is coming.” Bai Ling, who had been acting as a vigilance accessory, suddenly covered Leticia’s mouth and pulled her into the shadows.
Leticia’s hypnosis took effect quickly, but it had a range limit. The further away, the worse the effect. If the other party had discovered Leticia from a hundred meters away, the time it took for the hypnosis to take effect would be enough for the rioter to fire a shot.
It wasn’t that this shot could injure Leticia, but the sudden gunshot would alert the rioters who hadn’t raised their guard, letting them know that someone had infiltrated the mall.
Now Leticia and the others were in the dark and had the advantage. Once they lost this advantage, it would not be good.
Her own safety was not a problem, but the safety of the hostages was a big problem.
Fortunately, the rioter whom Bai Ling had detected in advance was just passing by. He had no idea that there was something terrifying lurking in the shadows.
Thus, under the deliberate subtle sounds created by Bai Ling to lure him, he vigilantly looked around with his gun. After finding nothing unusual, he breathed a sigh of relief, thinking it was a mouse or some small animal that had caused the noise.
“There are even mice in this mall, the environment is really bad,” he muttered to himself, lowered his gun, and planned to continue his patrol mission.
But when he looked ahead, he was horrified to find that a cute black-haired girl had appeared before him at some unknown time. The girl’s eyes flashed with strange colorful light, making him feel dazed.
Huh, did he see anything just now? He scratched his head vaguely, trying to recall what had just happened.
That’s right, the captain told me to return to the team. Perhaps they were going to transfer the hostages. He nodded, turned his head like a drunkard, and walked back the way he came.
“This guy’s team is guarding a group of hostages. I’ll try to see if I can get them to send the hostages out.” Leticia, having completed a quick hypnosis, breathed a sigh of relief and thanked Miss Dream God in heaven from the bottom of her heart.
Your authority is so useful, so why are you so weak? It’s too embarrassing for the gods.
Authority is much more useful than magic. Those hypnosis spells not only have many steps, consume a lot of magic, but also have questionable success rates and take a very long time to take effect. How can they be as useful as the current authority? There is no activation cost at all. It takes effect on ordinary people in one second, and often the other party is hypnotized before they can react to anything.
A single glance can turn an enemy into a friend, how powerful is that?
It’s no wonder Zi Meng received such high regard. After awakening, she was immediately assigned two S-class heroes as partners. This kind of ability is almost like cheating no matter where it is placed.
Although Zi Meng’s ability is definitely not as good as Leticia’s original version, having it or not having it are two different things. Who would refuse a hero with such strong functionality?
Probably only a fool would, and those old men in the Hero Association are clearly not fools.
“I hope all of these guys are fools. Give me a little more time, and the hostages should not be a problem.”
…
“The police and heroes still haven’t made any move? Not any movement at all?” Somewhere in the mall, a man hidden in the darkness looked coldly at a group of hostages trembling with their heads in their hands, his eyes flashing with malice. “Will they really back down? I’m not very convinced.”
“But they did transfer a sum of money, and we have no reason to make trouble for them. After all, the only thing we have to negotiate with is these hostages,” the rioter next to him said coldly. The Hero Association probably wouldn’t care if the mall was blown up; they would only care about the safety of the hostages.
Neither side wanted to provoke the other. The official side wanted to protect the hostages in the hands of the rioters as much as possible, and the rioters would not want to provoke the official side and fight to the death.
Everyone cherished their lives, and it was not worth losing their lives for a little money.
“Contact headquarters and clean up the money that has been transferred. The agreed time is almost up. I hope they haven’t tricked us,” the man said in a low voice, glancing at his watch.
“Can those guys who are hiding their heads and tails be trusted? If they don’t lure away the police surrounding here as agreed, won’t we be surrounded and trapped here?”
“Our weapons, these bombs, and those plans were all given by those people!” the man roared impatiently in a low voice. “Their goal is not our goal, but our actions are assisting them. Once their actions are successful, the pressure on our side will immediately be reduced.”
Compared to the rioter beside him, the man saw more clearly. The mysterious people who came to seek cooperation had a condescending attitude from the beginning. After all, these hyenas who had just failed could only be useful in this regard.
Other forces would absolutely not do something that would break ties with Central City. They were indeed bad people, but they had brains and knew that their existence was because Central City itself did not want to manage them.
If, one day, the people above Central City decided to break their promise, how long could they, who didn’t even have many self-defense weapons, survive?
Relying on the superpowered individuals recruited with money? Those guys would definitely be the first to flee at that time.
The superpowered individuals under the Hero Association and the government were much higher in quality than the superpowered individuals mixed in here.
If their faction hadn’t planned to stay in Central City in the first place, they wouldn’t have gritted their teeth and accepted this commission.
The high-level personnel had already been transferred out of Central City. Those who remained in Central City were only the workers like them who worked underground. Oh, he should be considered a senior worker, but it didn’t matter. He was too closely bound to the organization, belonging to the type that could absolutely not change allegiance.
If not for this, why would he be doing such a thing?
Almost all the rioters in the mall were like this; they could not turn back.
“Strange, why is there no sound from the C team’s base?” The rioter’s subordinate looked at the silent ** which hadn’t made a sound for several minutes, and a sense of fear inexplicably arose in his heart. “C team, C team! Answer!”
There was no response from the walkie-talkie, as if he were calling to the air.
Could it be that the C team was eliminated by the heroes who infiltrated?
Impossible, so all the rioters participating in the operation wore self-destruct collars. Once they died or fell unconscious, the bombs would explode, and such a commotion could not be concealed!
This was also why they dared to disperse their limited number of people to various places. At other times, such a decision would be equivalent to giving free kills to the enemy’s assassin-type characters, but now, everyone was a human sensor. Even if they died, they could send out a signal.
“Call other squads and send someone to check on the C team!” The man sat down on his chair, propped his chin up with his hands, and his face showed a cold expression. Had the Hero Association finally made a move?
So, the rioter switched to several other squads, wanting to contact them. But to his horror, all the squads had no response.
Could it be that those squads had all been dealt with?
But this was impossible. How did those heroes avoid the effect of the collars?
The man couldn’t figure it out. His knowledge was insufficient for him to come up with the answer to this question.
He only knew that things had completely gotten out of his control, and their group was very likely to be arrested here.
“No, except for here, all the squads outside have lost contact. I can’t reach them at all.” The rioter wished he could crush the walkie-talkie in his hand. This feeling of something unclean lurking around him made him shiver with dread.
“What about outside? What’s the situation outside?” the man asked sharply, his eyes wide.
“Outside? Outside it’s still… wait!” The rioter brought up the footage from the camera outside. The footage that had been completely normal just now had become bizarre.
Just now, he had seen the rioter they had sent out spraying excrement at the negotiation expert sent by the official side. But after a moment, on the side of the road, there were already a dozen heavily armed rioters. Their weapons were discarded not far away, and the police were aiming their guns at them.
But they showed no fear, instead smiling and chatting calmly, as if they hadn’t realized they were surrounded.
And within sight, some hostages with expressions of lingering fear were being escorted away by the police and heroes.
Things had gone from bad to worse!
“Damn it, concentrate on me immediately and bring all the hostages here!” the man roared. He understood his subordinates. Under normal circumstances, they would never do such a thing.
There was only one possibility: someone had tampered with their minds, causing them to lead the hostages out of the mall themselves!
As expected of the officials, they still had such experts hidden, but such an ability must have its limitations. As long as the people were gathered, the other party’s actions wouldn’t be so easy.
“What, don’t you hear me! I told you to come here!”
“Stop shouting, haven’t you realized yet? Your subordinates are no longer your subordinates.” A pleasant voice sounded in the man’s ear.
At the same time, a faint starlight shot out from the shadows and tightly gripped his throat.
Two girls appeared before the man like ghosts.
“Come, now, look into my eyes.”
