Chapter 1 Opening

Opening the vent's baffle, the space within was empty. The lighting inside the duct was poor; visibility faded quickly.

Clearly, while Clapton was talking to the young officer, the person in the duct had quietly crawled away.

If the explosion hadn't occurred in the monitoring room, and if the young officer had been observant enough, he might have noticed disturbed dust on top of the lockers when he climbed up. Unfortunately, after the explosion, that was no longer possible.

Given Feng Bujue's cunning, he wouldn't have left the broken Bluetooth device in the vent, so that clue was also gone.

The officer crawled into the vent headfirst, supporting himself on his elbows, moving slowly forward. After Clapton's words, his confidence in finding the culprit had diminished greatly. He simply wanted to verify his guess and decided to take a lap inside, observing the vents in each room from the inside to see if he could find any traces.

Meanwhile, Feng Bujue had already located the vertical duct leading to the roof and was climbing towards the rooftop.

Actually... Feng Bujue's original plan wasn't like this.

His original intention was to first fool Clapton, claiming he had already escaped and implying he was a super-powered criminal, to shake the other man's resolve. Then, he'd create an explosion to enrage him. Subsequently, while everyone was hot-headed, he'd release a summon to create a diversion. That's when he'd have his chance to escape.

But as it turned out, things were simpler. Feng Bujue had overheard everything Clapton said on the radio from inside the vent. Since the rooftop was unguarded, all he had to do was climb out.

Feng Bujue quickly reached the building's rooftop via the duct. There was originally only one sniper watching, and he wasn't even constantly monitoring the area. Now, it was completely unguarded.

He somersaulted to the ground, crouching low, and without a word, dashed towards the roof of the adjacent building.

A distance of three or four meters and the height of a railing was nothing to Feng Bujue at this point. Even without activating Ling Shi Jiushen Shu (Spirit Consciousness Focusing Technique), he could easily jump across.

As mentioned earlier, players above level thirty, regardless of their specialization, would have physical abilities comparable to those in The Matrix, able to run on walls and strike like the wind. Feng Bujue was currently level twenty-eight, and as an all-rounder, all his abilities were above average, so he naturally possessed that kind of strength.

Of course, purely in terms of combat power, the other five players were like Agent Smith, while Feng Bujue was like a lackey in the resistance; an all-out fight would be a dead end. He'd be chased down the street, at best.

After a few leaps, Feng Bujue arrived on the roof of a nearby residential building. He found the fire escape and glanced down into a small alley; there was no one there. In fact, there weren't many people on the surrounding streets; everyone had gone to the street in front of the bank to pick up money.

Feng Bujue leisurely walked down, and when he reached the second floor, he simply supported himself with his hands, vaulted over the iron railing, and landed on the ground.

"Sigh… as soon as I enter a script, I encounter this kind of mess," Feng Bujue muttered. "Fortunately, I got away without too much delay." As he said that, he looked around again and activated [Come Hither].

A red, formation-like graphic, similar to an alchemy array, appeared on the ground in front of Feng Bujue. The light on the array suddenly gathered, and after a moment of fluctuation, the shadows materialized.

[Name: Summoning Art - Hammerhead Stork]

[Skill Card Attribute: Active Skill, Permanently Learned]

[Skill Category: Summoning]

[Effect: Summons a Hammerhead Stork to fight for you (Cooldown Time: 10 minutes, Duration: 5 minutes, Maximum of 1 Hammerhead Stork at any given time)]

[Cost: 50 Stamina Points, 10 Spirit Points]

[Learning Condition: Summoning Specialization F]

[Note: Too heavy-headed to fly.]

"Looks pretty bizarre..." Feng Bujue couldn't see the skill's description, but after the summon appeared, he could see a new survival value (also displayed as a percentage, without a specific number) in the game menu, along with a "Dismiss" option.

"Can you understand what I'm saying?" Feng Bujue asked the summon.

The Hammerhead Stork didn't react...

"Um... go over there." Feng Bujue pointed to the ground on his left.

The Hammerhead Stork walked over.

"Jump." Feng Bujue said again.

The Hammerhead Stork jumped in place.

"Stand by; jump in ten seconds." After Feng Bujue said that, he ran a dozen meters in the other direction. He looked back; the Hammerhead Stork was standing still, but it didn't jump after ten seconds.

"So that's how it is..." Feng Bujue muttered. "It can't communicate with me, and it can't accept overly complex commands." As he said that, he returned to the Hammerhead Stork and said, "Attack me."

The Hammerhead Stork didn't respond.

"Um..." Feng Bujue understood that was an invalid command. Then he said, "Play dead."

No reaction...

"Stand on one foot."

The Hammerhead Stork did so.

"Maintain that position and turn in a circle."

No reaction, but it maintained the one-legged stance.

"Will it ignore instructions that exceed its capabilities too..." Feng Bujue reached out and grabbed the Hammerhead Stork's neck, wanting to pinch it to test, but he found that his intention couldn't be converted into action.

"Same nature as teammates, huh..." Feng Bujue tried putting the Hammerhead Stork into his bag, and it actually worked.

"Okay… I understand roughly." Feng Bujue completed the test and dismissed the summon, since he couldn't let the thing follow him around on the street.

"I wonder if all summons are like this... Anyway, first, I'll get a newspaper and check the situation in Gotham City." Feng Bujue muttered as he walked out of the alley.

At the same time, on the other side of the city.

On a park bench sat a man reading a newspaper. His clothing was ordinary: a checkered shirt, jeans, a jacket, and a conventional short haircut.

He looked like an ordinary passerby; no one would pay attention to such a guy. If this were a movie, he'd be a human prop, part of the background, blurry and completely faceless.

But he was a player - Zhao Ying Wang.

Suddenly, a tiny voice sounded, "Someone used a summoning skill."

The voice was strange, seemingly coming from under the bench Zhao Ying Wang was sitting on, but there was nothing there.

"The summon is?" Zhao Ying Wang asked softly.

"Just trash, nothing to worry about, and it's already been dismissed," the voice replied.

"Can you pinpoint the location where it last appeared?" Zhao Ying Wang asked again.

"Of course."

Zhao Ying Wang folded the newspaper, slowly stood up, and muttered as if talking to himself, "Lead the way."