Chapter 568: I, Joker (7)
Translator: Lonelytree
Joe knew the underground sewer like the back of his hand. On the way to the police station, he had been using the device that looked like a Gameboy to conduct his scouting job to ensure that there was no ambush waiting for them. While at the same time, Marya used another handheld device to receive the surveillance signal from the ground. She realized with a shock that not only Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn beside them, even Two Face and The Joker had escaped from The Bruce’s tracers…
At that moment, on all the big screens over the city, they were broadcasting a speech that Gordon had pre-recorded which had the purpose of calming the people. The 4 ‘supervillians’ who had not been executed had already disappeared from the public’s sight… For those who had their faith in the Bat, this was truly a ‘frightening’ night.
“This is the place, right?” After turning around another bend, Soulie suddenly slowed down and turned back to ask.
“Yes, just above this manhole cover is the parking lot of the police station.” Joe pointed at an iron staircase stuck to the wall. He then said with awe. “Oh, miss, you have such great memory. You only glanced at the map once and you have been leading us down the right way…”
“That is nothing.” Soulie replied casually before adding, “Where are Dar and the rest?”
“It was five minutes ago when I last received any signal from them.” Marya answered, “They should be hiding near the parking lot, waiting to intercept us.”
“Okay… then…” Soulie was about to add something else when suddenly…
Bang—
A loud boom came from above them.
“What was that?” Marya’s expression scrunched up in tension.
…
“That explosion was definitely not a welcomed sound…” Joe was relatively calmer but his expression had turned several shades more serious. Eek—Right then, there came another sound of metal grinding against each other. Then, the manhole cover above them opened. A short and strong figure swiftly crawled through it.
“Dar?” From the back and the hair style, Joe recognized this as his comrade.
“Hmm? Oh! Joe!” Dar turned around in shock before he slid down the stairs. “Joe, it is bad news!” He was catching his breath as he ran over to Joe. “we were discovered by the team of Robins! The b.a.s.t.a.r.ds came prepared… they had RPG and also… Hey! Wait, you have rescued another person?” It was only then that he realized there was a Harley Quinn in their midst.
“Do we have any survivors left on our side?” Ruoyu suddenly spoke to toss out a question.
Dar shook his head, “No, I am the only one…”
Hearing that, Ruoyu strode forward without saying a word. Her presence was so strong that Dar involuntarily stepped out of her way.
“30 seconds.” When Ruoyu reached the stairs, she dropped this statement calmly. Then with a kick, she leaped vertically into the air and blasted out from the open circle.
“What did she mean by that?” Joe asked curiously.
“Erm… before that…” Marya widened her eyes. “how did she manage to jump that high?”
Soulie giggled, “You can ask her yourself when you go up there later.”
At the same time, on the ground…
“Do not move!””Show us your hands!” Once Ruoyu showed up, echoes of shouts rang around her. She did not show any trace of panic. She turned in the air and activated her Soul’s eyes, Extreme Efficiency at the same time. In that instinct, in Li Ruoyu’s eyes, even the pa.s.sing of time had slowed down. Because in this status, the various data of her character status had reached their theoretically maximum. Therefore… most of the creatures in the same dimension as her basically had gone still as pictures.
“14… no, 15 people.” Li Ruoyu’s gaze scanned the crowd like lazer. Her mind was working faster than usual under the influence of Soul’s Eyes. “One RPG, 4 Rifles, 4 shotguns, 6 guns of unknown usage; everyone is wearing a uniform with the R symbol and wearing battle helmets; similar to those soldiers piloting the floating shuttles from before, they are undeniably the Bruce’s people…” Ruoyu only used 1 second to confirm these information. This one second blinked past for the others, but for her… it was more than enough time to compile necessary information. In this one second, she had identified the enemy, confirmed their numbers, their inventory of weapon, and location. She even had time to look at the dead bodies of the rebels on the ground, after ensuring there was no living allies in the air, she did not need to worry about holding back anymore…
Fallen Blossom Sweeping Slash
A chilling gaze paired with a resplendent skill. The slashes of Holy Seal danced through the night. The slashes morphed into innumerable chips of sakura and twirled through the sky. The light reflected the danger of cold steel, blood fell like a drizzle of rain. The skill which only had a 10 metres radius had its area of effect tripled under the influence of Ruoyu’s Soul’s Eye. Whenever the rain of slashes visited, nothing was left alive. 30 seconds later, when Soulie jumped out from the sewer, the battle at the parking lot was already over.
Dar, Joe and Marya followed behind her and they could not believe their eyes. The number of Robins that this Harley Quinn had taken down in just mere 30 seconds would require them rebels months to deal with.
“G.o.d, what just happened here?” Marya looked at the dead bodies in shock. “How did one manage to do this?”
“It looks like… they had been standing in a storm made from knives for several seconds…” Joe walked towards one of the bodies and said contemplatively to himself.
“So they have been there the whole time…” Ruoyu did not answer the two of them but looked up at the roof of the police station and mumbled. The group followed her gaze and saw two heads that poked out from the edge of the police station’s rooftop.
“Hi~” When Xiao Tan saw that he had been discovered, he decided to waved at the five at the ground and sent them a greeting. For Soulie and Ruoyu, Xiao Tan still looked like how he usually did, but for the three members of the rebels, he had the appearance of Two Face, therefore, the friendly Hi that came from his mouth felt weirdly contradictory. Two seconds later, Feng Bujue who stood next to Xiao Tan patted the latter on his shoulder and tossed him a glance. Xiao Tan understood his friend. The next second, he leaped over the edge of the roof with Brother Jue and dropped down from the sky and landed on the ground.
“What the h.e.l.l…” Seeing the two drop from the fifth floor (The police station was higher than a normal building, if it was a civilian building, the height would be similar to the seventh floor) and landed without any injury, even Joe could not help but curse to express his overwhelming shock and awe.
“You are Joe, right?” Feng Bujue walked forward and asked while he looked at Joe.
“Yes.” Joe answered. “But how do you know my name?”
“Then you must be Marya.” Feng Bujue did not reply him but turn to Marya beside Joe. Marya was confused but she still nodded.
“Very good, then let me guess…” Feng Bujue’s eyes finally landed on Dar. “Dar, is it?”
“Yes.” Dar answered. “I say… buddy, who exactly are you?”
“There is no need for you to know, but I do have a question for you…” When Feng Bujue said that, he already walked to stand before Dar.
Bang! A gunshot. Who also did not expect Brother Jue’s next move was to take out the pistol from his pocket, raise his arm, aim it between Dar’s brows and pull the trigger. The whole process was so smooth, quick, accurate and gracefully. There was no hesitation and mercy. When Dar who did not realize what had happened careened backwards, Feng Bujue only finished his question, “…why would you betray your friends?”
“Hmm…” Seeing this, Xiao Tan grumbled with a serious tone, “How do you expect him to answer you now…”
“Oh, my G.o.d!” Joe roared in anger and took out a dagger from his pocket and lunged at Brother Jue. “You b.a.s.t.a.r.d, what you have you?!”
Ping—
Joe only took two steps when the dagger he was holding was knocked away. He did not know what happened. His sight blurred and his wrist numbed. His body lost balance and he almost tripped. When he recovered and looked up, he saw… Harley Quinn was standing before the Joker with a long blade raise and the gaze that was sharp as knife was staring at him.
“You… You…” Joe stammered out from confusion and anger.
“He must have his reason to do something like that.” Seeing the man did not charge blindly at them anymore, Ruoyu slowly put the blade down and put in a good word for Brother Jue. Of course… that sentence itself sounded rather unreasonable.
“Joe Collins.” Feng Bujue walked around Ruoyu and strode towards Joe. “You are a clever man, calm down and think about it… what do you think has happened in the parking lot earlier?”
Hearing that, Joe tried to suppress his anger and tried to think back to the series of events that had transpired. Several seconds later, his expression changed and he looked at Brother Jue and uttered, “Dar… he is a traitor…”
“Very good.” Feng Bujue nodded. “If you cannot see through something as simple as that, then there is no reason for us to continue this conversation.”
“He…” Joe held his forehead in one hand and the sadness and regret was clear on his face. “He was my friend… why…”
“Because he was not strong and determined enough.” Feng Bujue interrupted. “Dar is a weak minded person, you should know better about that than I do. Once someone like him was captured by The Bruce’s people, he would have traded the rebels in for his life without any hesitation. Without even the need for any torture, he would willingly kneel to the bat.” He paused. “Whether you choose to believe me or not, I still need to inform you… Just a few minutes ago, me and my friend saw with our own eyes he brought your rebel friends to this place and used scouting as an excuse to slip away on his own. Then he gave off a signal to the Team of Robins who was hiding around in ambush.”
“Oh… I get it now…” Soulie continued, she said her thoughts out loud. “When he saw us… The panic on Dar’s face was not because the Robins were chasing after him but when he was going down the stairs, he suddenly heard Joe’s voice. I suspect… he planned to come down here to find us and then lead us into the trap at the parking lot but he did not expect us to arrive so soon and happened to run into him at the entrance. Since the sound of RPG’s explosion just came from above, he could not come up with a better excuse to trick us to go up so he could only change his plan at the last moment and lied to us that they had fallen into an ambush and he was the only one who managed to escape.”
“This is so unbelievable…” Marya was equally stunned as well. “Dar was the earliest one to join the group… I thought…”
“There’s no use crying over spilt milk. The man is already dead.” Feng Bujue tried to wrap things up. And then he turned to Joe and said, “Mr. Collins, I have something to discuss with you.” He put away the pistol and walked to the man. “I know you must have many questions… do not worry, I will try my best to satisfy your curiosity in a bit.”
The NPCs naturally would not know that… when Joe climbed out from the sewer and appeared in Brother Jue’s sight, Brother Jue and Xiao Tan both received the hidden quest. From then on, Feng Bujue had already come up with the perfect solution to solve the scenario in his mind. Currently, his every move had a final goal in mind.
“In any case… for now, I would need everyone to join us at the top of the roof.” Feng Bujue said as he reached out his right hand to grab hold of Joe’s arm…