Chapter 137 A Long Night

"What? Sir?" The driver had clearly heard what Brother Jue said, and the latter's tone and voice indicated that he was talking to the driver. The driver couldn't possibly remain indifferent, "Are you talking to me?"

"That depends on what you mean by 'I'..." Feng Bujue spread his arms, slumped in the back seat, and looked at the rearview mirror in the car, "Do you mean an ordinary taxi driver? Or Bruce Wayne? Or... Batman? Heh... Which one do you think is the real you?"

The car speed began to increase, but the driver didn't step on the gas pedal hard because he was nervous—it was deliberate.

"It seems you know more than I expected..." When he spoke for the second time, the driver's voice and tone had changed, becoming low and cold.

"Likewise..." Feng Bujue replied, "It seems you've listened to the recording of my conversation with Dr. Quinzel and found a clue to track me down..."

"Your observation skills are more acute than I imagined..." Since things have come to this, we don't need to call him "driver" anymore. That's right, he is Bruce Wayne, also known as—Batman.

"Observation skills?" Brother Jue repeated these four words, then responded with a disdainful laugh, "Ha!"

"What are you laughing at?" Wayne asked.

"There are many laughable things..." Feng Bujue said, "First of all, someone seems to think that just by applying some foundation, changing into a cheap jacket, washing out the expensive hair wax, and sticking a scar on his cheek... is an foolproof disguise."

"Secondly, this 'taxi' that someone is driving..." At this point, Feng Bujue raised his hands and made quotation marks, "...the shell is made to look exactly like the real thing, but the tires are still expensive ones. What's even more outrageous is... the interior of this car is clean and spotless, with no strange smells, and there are no messy decorations in front of the car..."

"Okay... I have to admit, I rarely have the opportunity to take a taxi." Wayne was a little displeased by the criticism, but he remained calm. "And... before you, I used this disguise and this car... to fool many people, so I didn't realize there were so many flaws." He shook his head. "Anyway, I'll remember what you said... I'll improve in the future."

The conversation continued, and the car continued to accelerate. In the blink of an eye, they had left the road with more vehicles and entered a small road with less traffic.

"Improve? For whom?" Feng Bujue said, "To deal with a group of amateur criminals? Or to deal with a few characters like Zsasz?" His words were full of sarcasm, "Do you know what's most ironic? When you appeared in my sight driving this car, what made me suspicious wasn't your so-called 'observation skills', but 'common sense'... This is really disappointing."

"Of course, there are indeed things worth observing right now—such as the tachometer in front of you, which is only equipped on supercar or racing engines, and the button on the back of the steering wheel that you've been blocking with your hand... These two things give me a very bad feeling..."

As he spoke, the taxi they were in had reached a speed of 140 kilometers per hour, and the speed was still increasing.

Wayne's driving skills were amazing, driving a car at this speed in complex urban terrain was as easy for him as riding a bicycle.

"I can feel... you are a person who thinks highly of himself and has the ability to bear that arrogance." When Wayne replied, the taxi had arrived near Gotham's Pioneer Bridge. "Unfortunately... you are also a person who will bring chaos and evil to this world..." At this point, he pressed the switch on the back of the steering wheel, "Therefore, I can only ask you to disappear..."

With that, Wayne pressed the button that Jue-ge thought was suspicious.

As soon as the button was pressed, the steering wheel in front of Wayne retracted into the car body on its own. At the same time, the roof above the driver's seat quickly opened, forming a gap.

Bang—

In the next second, with a loud bang, Wayne, who was wearing a seat belt, was ejected out of the car roof along with the seat he was sitting on.

And the taxi itself... rushed straight down a deserted path under the Pioneer Bridge at a speed of nearly 200 kilometers per hour. Three seconds later, it smashed the riverside railing and plunged into the cold Gotham River.

Before the water splashed by the falling iron lump had dissipated, Wayne, who had been ejected into the air, bent down and pressed a "safety switch" at the bottom of the seat.

The reason why this switch was installed at the bottom of the seat was also obvious... because it was used to detonate the entire car, so the design had to ensure that it could only be pressed after the ejection function of the driver's seat was activated.

Boom—

When the self-destruct device was activated, a flashing fire brought out a muffled sound... exploding underwater.

And Wayne, who had released himself from the seat after pressing the switch, did a few gymnastic movements in the air of nearly ten meters, and then landed steadily.

As he had planned, on such a night, in such a sparsely populated place, the whole thing had no eyewitnesses at all.

Of course, even if there were, it wouldn't matter... no one would recognize him. Although Wayne's disguise was useless in Feng Bujue's eyes, it was enough for most ordinary people...

If you know enough about the American police's process of "asking eyewitnesses about the characteristics of suspects", then you can figure out the most effective disguise method.

Exaggerated wigs, fake beards, makeup to modify the contours of the face, etc., these common methods in film and television works are not so practical. Sometimes, they may even make the police aware that "this person has deliberately disguised himself".

In fact, regarding the key points of the best disguise method, Brother Jue almost said them all when he was criticizing Wayne—

First, skin color, which can be done with foundation.

Second, clothing, no explanation needed.

Third, hairstyle, same as above.

Fourth, a single, significant feature; such as a long scar, an obvious tattoo, a festering sore... things like that can divert other people's attention, and it's best to stick it on the face.

As long as you do the above four points, even if you are seen, you can easily mislead the police investigation.

For example... suppose there is a passerby nearby right now, and he sees Wayne from a distance by the light of the street lamp, he cannot recognize him. When being questioned by the police, he will only follow the police's questions and say something like "That was a brown-skinned Latino man, about six feet tall, with a long scar on his face." This... is already considered reliable, but will this kind of testimony lead the direction of the investigation to Bruce Wayne, a scar-less white billionaire? That's completely going in the wrong direction.

"Computer, check physical condition." After standing still, Wayne immediately raised his left hand and pressed the screen of his watch and said.

[Checking—]

[Respiratory system normal.]

[Pulse and blood pressure are slightly higher than average, decreasing.]

[No significant external injuries.]

[Muscles and knee joints are slightly damaged.]

[Connecting to the injection device at the waist—]

[Supplements have been injected, expected to neutralize lactic acid effect and repair damage within ten seconds.]

This unemotional computer voice was directly transmitted into Wayne's inner ear through a special communication device in his cochlea. Even if someone put their face close to his, they wouldn't be able to hear it.

And in the process of this passage being narrated, Wayne had walked to the "driver's seat" that had fallen to the ground not far away, and quickly destroyed it with a miniature incendiary bomb he was carrying.

Then... he looked around a few times, and then disappeared into the night.

…………

At the same time, in the Gotham River...

Feng Bujue, with a pipe in his mouth and his arms crossed in front of his chest, stood on the riverbed at the bottom of the river.

The pile of destroyed car wreckage was less than twenty meters away from him.

If Brother Jue was willing, he could have left the car earlier than Wayne, but he didn't...

After understanding the other party's intention, he chose to play along.

At the moment when he rushed into the water with the car, he knew that he had left Wayne's sight. At this time, he twisted his body and used a [Lan Jiao] (storm leg), removed a door of the back seat, and dashed out from that opening.

As a result, as soon as he came out of the car, the explosion happened. The shock wave generated by the underwater explosion pushed Brother Jue away from the center of the explosion, and also cost him some Survival Value. Of course... this damage was not enough to kill him.

"Well... what a son of Gotham, decisive and swift..." Relying on the [Oxygen Pipe], Feng Bujue could not only breathe underwater, but also talk to himself while spitting bubbles, "It's a pity... as 'Batman', your approach is a bit too far..."

He stood there and waited for a while, and said again, "It's been more than two minutes, aren't you coming down yet?" He pondered, tilting his head, "Sure enough... he also knows very well that in the case of insufficient equipment, even if he has diving ability close to the limit of human beings... it is impossible to complete the reconnaissance work in this dark river bottom; however, with his intelligence, he will never give up until he finds my body... then... from the time he returns to the Batcave to drive the submarine over, to the time he confirms that my body is not in the car, and has not been washed downstream along the river... all in all, I can at least buy myself more than an hour."

Thinking of this, Brother Jue shrugged: "Alas... it's really tiring to do a hidden mission."

His sigh came from a kind of helplessness; at this time, he understood—time is the difficulty of this script.

Like this kind of "non-sleep mode" "normal difficulty" script, the time required to pass the level is usually not much—in the 1:2 ratio of the non-sleep mode, eight hours of real time, that is, sixteen hours of game time is basically the upper limit.

To be honest, if Brother Jue intended to end the script quickly, he could have done it six hours (game time) ago.

The method is also very simple, three steps: First, cause a riot in Arkham, thereby drawing out Batman; second, set a trap; third, kill the Batman who comes.

But in order to find the opportunity to "contact the high-level god", and to unravel some of the "doubts" that the opening introduction brought to himself, Feng Bujue did not do so; he chose to prolong the progress of the script, and then successfully found the hidden mission...

Brother Jue even gave up a chance to kill Batman that was close at hand—just now in the car, as long as he wanted to, he could have sent Bruce Wayne, who wasn't even wearing the Batsuit, to the west with whatever he did in the back seat.

And all of this forbearance, in the final analysis... is to buy time.

Obviously, Feng Bujue's obsession with solving the mystery far exceeded his desire to pass the level; in addition, there was also a personal "dissatisfaction" with the abnormalities of this world, which was driving him to take more dangerous actions...

…………

Night, 9:50.

For some people, this time is close to bedtime, but for another group of people... this point is the beginning of their wonderful life.

Here is a banquet restaurant on the top floor of one of the Gotham Twin Towers.

Well-dressed celebrities gather here, doing what they do every day—exchanging benefits in a circle full of hypocrisy and lies, and cursing each other to die sooner in their hearts.

Tonight's banquet was hosted by Mayor Cobblepot to celebrate his overwhelming victory in the most recent poll.

In addition to the usual faces of Gotham's high society, the mayor also invited two people who seemed a little out of place—District Attorney Harvey Dent and Police Commissioner James Gordon.

However...

"Ah... Gordon didn't come..." Mayor Coppola didn't show much surprise when he heard the news.

"I'm sure you've heard..." District Attorney Dent, who was talking to him, replied in a solemn tone, "There was a very serious incident in Arkham this afternoon, and the perpetrator is the same person who committed the 'fire ax murder case' last night."

"I know all of this." Coppola continued, "I also know... that the guy who calls himself 'Jack' is still missing at this moment. The thought of such a mad criminal still wandering the streets gives me goosebumps..." He paused, lowered his voice, "By the way... does our mysterious 'Dark Knight' have any movements?"

Dent took a sip of the champagne in his hand and pursed his lips: "How would I know? Gordon is more familiar with him..." He paused for half a second, "Wait... Mr. Mayor, you're not still suspecting that I'm Batman, are you?"

"Are you?" Coppola widened his eyes and said with anticipation.

"Of course not." Dent rolled his eyes.

Compared with the blackened version, the "Penguin" and "Two-Face" who have always been good people seem to have no sense of oppression, one is amiable and the other is serious and upright; fortunately, these two have IQs that are still online. As good people, their work ability in their positions is indeed very outstanding.

"Sir, you can't go in..."

Just as the banquet was halfway through, suddenly, there was an uproar at the door.

A waiter's gradually increasing voice attracted everyone's attention.

"Sir! Sir!" He advised in vain, and had to pick up the walkie-talkie, "Security! There's a man in a long purple suit at the entrance..."

"We've already seen him, leave it to us." Before the waiter could finish speaking, the security guard's response had already come from the radio.

At the same time, three or four well-trained strong men had rushed towards their target at an extremely fast speed.

However, just as they approached to within about five meters of the man, they only heard a series of piercing sounds of wind breaking.

In the blink of an eye, the security guards screamed one after another and fell to the ground.

Some sharp-eyed guests noticed... at that moment, it seemed that several card-like objects flashed with black light and flew out of the uninvited guest's hand.

Ka—Boom!

Although Feng Bujue didn't need to rely on guns, he still took the time to get some guns and ammunition before coming in order to control the scene in a way that the people around him could understand. At this moment, he took out a shotgun that looked very intimidating and fired a shot at the ceiling.

As soon as the gun rang, the screams also rang out.

Although the men didn't scream, their reactions were similar to the women's. Most people instinctively bent down, looked at, and moved away from the direction of the gunshot. Some people who reacted more alertly... were already moving towards the exit.

These were all expected, and Brother Jue didn't care about these passersby running away.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen." After firing a shot, Feng Bujue walked slowly towards the center of the banquet hall while saying, "Everyone, don't panic. I'm here... just to find two people."

While speaking, he didn't relax his vigilance, because he knew that with the mayor present, in addition to the security guards in the banquet hall, there would also be security forces with guns brought by the mayor himself.

"First, Mayor Coppola..." When Brother Jue said this, he had quickly searched for the mayor's location through the eyes of some passersby around him, "Second... District Attorney Dent..."

Fortunately, the mayor and the district attorney were standing together at this moment, which saved Brother Jue a lot of trouble.

"Ah... very good, you're both here." Feng Bujue confirmed the location of the target and quickened his pace.

"Freeze!" At this moment, two bodyguards in suits rushed out and stood in front of the mayor and the district attorney. They both took out their pistols and aimed at Brother Jue, and one of them shouted loudly to not move (a common usage of freeze).

Some people may think they are stupid, they should just shoot directly, why shout?

But in fact, their approach is correct, because there are still many other guests around Feng Bujue at the moment. Some people are running out, and some people are still standing in place at a loss. At this time, shooting in the direction of Brother Jue, if you miss... who knows where the bullet will fly? What if a neighboring millionaire gets shot?

"Ha!" Feng Bujue looked at the two of them, smiled, "I knew there would be such a scene..." Saying that, he opened his suit, revealing two rows of things that looked like explosives, "Fortunately, I was prepared."