Chapter 270: Mantlescramble Battle (V)

Chapter 270: Mantlescramble Battle (V)

A few minutes earlier...

As the metal shutter descended slowly, Feng Bu Jue rose from behind the counter. He had already set up call forwarding—the moment Ke Le Pu Dun dialed the bank's landline again, the call would be redirected to the cell phone in Feng Bu Jue's hand. Naturally, the phone was switched to vibrate mode, and he had confirmed the number wasn't linked to any ringback tones.

The bank lobby naturally had a way to check the time. Feng Bu Jue glanced at the electronic clock on the wall, muttering, "It'll take at least seven or eight minutes for them to get the basic situation from the hostages." Holding the key and access card (retrieved from the bank manager), he passed through the back door into the surveillance room and shut off all the monitoring cameras.

Earlier, during those few minutes between the hostages being hooded and the police's call arriving, Feng Bu Jue had taken a quick tour of the bank, mapping out the building's structure. He knew there were only three possible exits: first, the main entrance; second, the ventilation duct; third, the windows of the four or five offices facing the street.

Feng Bu Jue wasn't sure about the police deployment outside—he could only guess.

First, there would definitely be officers outside the main entrance. Even though the Cash Projectile's effects lingered, he couldn't possibly walk out through there openly.

Second, the street-facing windows were likely under surveillance too. Even if the police presence there was lighter than at the main entrance, escaping that way would require using a pipe wrench to break through the window grates. Whether considering time or stealth, this route was highly impractical.

That left only the ventilation duct.

Feng Bu Jue had no illusions. Given his luck and the Gotham City Police's intelligence, there would surely be officers waiting at the duct's exit. Once he crawled out, he'd face one of two scenarios: either be captured by the surrounding ambush or fall into the sights of one or more snipers lying in wait at a distance.

"Once Ke Le Pu Dun finishes his interrogation, he'll know there's only one person left inside—the me—and that there are no other hostages. At that point, he'll either send in a forced entry team without warning or try to negotiate with me to surrender", Feng Bu Jue mentally mapped out the possibilities. "If they go for forced entry, I can use the death poker technique combined with my spirit sense body method to stall the officers long enough to escape through the window they entered from.

But... given the situation, he's more likely to try negotiating with me. He wouldn't risk unnecessary casualties or further material damage. If I refuse to surrender during negotiations, he can always order forced entry later. Meanwhile, the conversation itself would give his men time to approach unnoticed."

"So long as I keep the call active, the first officers entering will naturally focus most of their attention behind the counter", Feng Bu Jue continued his analysis. "That'll make it easier for me to lead them into my trap..."

He returned to the lobby, removed the hood from the submachine gun-wielding thug's face, then vaulted back over the counter. Taking the relatively intact hood, he placed it over the face of the money-packer thug whose face had been destroyed. Then he dragged the corpse into the surveillance room.

The surveillance room contained two essential facilities for Feng Bu Jue's escape. The first was the ventilation duct entrance—common in nearly every room except the vault. The second, found only behind the counter and in the surveillance room itself, was the control switch for the bank's metal shutter door.

Placing the corpse on an office chair in the surveillance room, Feng Bu Jue began setting his trap...

He pushed the chair into a corner, its back facing the door. From his [Endless Grenade Magazine], he retrieved a second grenade, attaching a metal wire (found in the vault) to its pin. Then he stuffed the grenade into the ruined face of the corpse...

He could have secured the explosive elsewhere, but he specifically wanted the metal wire to extend from the eye holes of the hood. Perhaps it was some kind of dark humor.

Thus, one end of the metal wire was attached to the grenade pin. Starting from the corpse's face, it ran down the torso, passed between the legs, and was finally fixed to the chair's swivel mechanism.

It was a decent office chair—high-backed with an adjustable backrest, smooth swivel mechanism under the seat, and wheels on the base that rolled freely without jamming.

Feng Bu Jue was confident that if someone slightly moved or pulled this chair from behind, four seconds later, this dozen-square-meter room would gain several more corpses.

After finishing, he walked to the wall, pushed himself up to the top of a storage cabinet, where the ventilation duct entrance was located. Removing the vent screen, he peered inside. The duct was relatively spacious—his build could crouch inside and even turn around.

At that moment, the phone behind the counter rang once. Two seconds later, Feng Bu Jue's cell phone buzzed. He smirked, "Perfect timing..." Jumping back down, he removed the Bluetooth earpiece from his phone and pressed the answer key. "What can I do for you, officer?" he said casually, carefully placing the cell phone itself into the corpse's jacket pocket.

Walking to the control panel, Feng Bu Jue exchanged a few words with Ke Le Pu Dun before opening the bank's main door.

"Hands up! Come out from behind the counter!" Ke Le Pu Dun barked through the phone.

"Hehe... I refuse", Feng Bu Jue replied, Bluetooth still in place, his movements unhindered. He lightly leapt onto the storage cabinet, legs first, squeezing into the ventilation duct.

"Have you finished playing games yet? I'd hate to see more deaths today", Ke Le Pu Dun said. Meanwhile, several officers stormed into the bank, surrounding the counter in the lobby as expected.

Feng Bu Jue leisurely picked up the vent screen from the storage cabinet top, replaced it, and slowly moved backward into the duct. Deliberately, he brought up the topic of call forwarding with Ke Le Pu Dun.

After pondering for ten seconds, Ke Le Pu Dun suddenly turned to the hostages, rushing to a bald man and urgently demanding, "Hey! Where's the control for those metal doors?"

The bank manager hesitated, replying, "Behind... the counter in the lobby."

"Any other switches?" Ke Le Pu Dun pressed.

"Uh... in... in the surveillance room", the bank manager answered. "From behind the counter, there's a staff-only corridor leading to the vault, staff restrooms, and..."

Before he could finish, Ke Le Pu Dun grabbed his radio, shouting, "Did you all hear that?"

"Yes, sir! We're moving in now!" an officer responded. He exchanged glances with three colleagues who had entered with him, then approached the door.

Finding the door required a key and access card, the officer decisively shot the lock and kicked the door open. They adapted quickly—one officer remained in the lobby while the other three advanced cautiously, covering each other.

"No matter what tricks you're pulling, your game's over", Ke Le Pu Dun picked up the phone again, his tone harsh toward Feng Bu Jue. "I know you're in the surveillance room. I advise you to drop your weapon, put your hands on your head, and stand still somewhere to avoid getting shot."

"Hehe... What you choose to believe is your problem", Feng Bu Jue chuckled. "Let me make this clear—I'm no longer in that building. If your reasoning skills are up to par, you should realize I've already escaped through the ventilation duct during the last door closing and opening."

"Hmph... Is that so? You cunning liar... Then explain how you escaped from a roof with no fire escape stairs? And before that, how did you slip past my snipers' sights to crawl out the vent? Huh?" Ke Le Pu Dun sneered.

Feng Bu Jue secretly rejoiced at extracting these two questions. He replied, "I naturally have my methods. You could ask the hostages how I killed the submachine gun thug—they might enlighten you." He chuckled, adding, "Well, let's end this boring game, officer. I know someone's recording this conversation. Please note this message—six super criminals from another world are about to deliver several grand gifts to Gotham City. That rain of millions in dollars was merely the beginning."

With that, Feng Bu Jue ended the call and crushed the Bluetooth device with his pipe wrench.

The typical operational range between Bluetooth devices and cell phones is within ten meters, and any physical obstructions could reduce this distance further. Feng Bu Jue hadn’t crawled far at all—his position was practically immune to the explosion’s impact.

The three officers reached the surveillance room slightly later than expected. Their route required checking several other rooms first, as they needed to confirm the status behind each door before advancing.

The surveillance room door was unlocked. As the officers burst in, their eyes locked onto the same spot.

In the farthest corner from the entrance sat an office chair with its backrest raised high. A figure occupied it, their head visible above the backrest, wearing a black mask. Their hands rested neatly on the armrests, motionless.

The officers barked in unison: “Don’t move! Police! Hands up!”

“Hands up! Turn around! Now!”

“Turn around now! Show me your hands!”

The figure remained silent.

The three officers, experienced in such scenarios, exchanged quick glances. One stayed at the doorway, keeping his gun trained on the chair, while the other two advanced cautiously, one to the left and one to the right.

The surveillance room was small, and the chair was wedged into the corner. They’d have to rotate or drag the chair to see the person’s face.

………

One minute after the explosion, Ke Le Pu Dun led eight officers into the bank, while the remaining personnel stayed outside to maintain order and secure their positions.

He stationed two officers at the bank’s main entrance, positioned another two at the two corridors connected to the lobby, and charged into the staff area behind the counter with the remaining four.

As he approached the surveillance room, Ke Le Pu Dun spotted the fourth officer who had originally been stationed at the counter. This officer had been the first to rush in after the explosion and was now kneeling on the ground, cradling an injured colleague who was barely alive. He roared toward the ceiling, “Oh God! Lester… no…!”

The wounded officer, Lester, had been closest to the explosion’s epicenter. Blood covered his face as he groaned in agony.

The other two officers lay dead inside the surveillance room, their bodies charred beyond recognition.

“Call a doctor! Hurry!” Ke Le Pu Dun barked at a subordinate. “Go to the street! Tell them to bring stretchers in…!”

Though his voice trembled with urgency, Ke Le Pu Dun knew deep down that Lester was already beyond saving. The officer likely wouldn’t survive long enough to reach the ambulance, let alone the hospital. Worse still, the chaos outside made it impossible for ambulances to navigate through.

“Lester! Lester!” The officer clutching him sobbed, his voice cracking. “Why… why did this happen…?!”

“Damn it!” Ke Le Pu Dun kicked the wall violently, his eyes blazing with fury. He stormed into the surveillance room, heading straight for the explosion site. “What the hell happened?!”

The officers’ radios had remained active, allowing Ke Le Pu Dun to hear everything during their operation. He knew the trio had spotted the target seconds before the explosion and seemingly gained control of the situation. But what followed remained a mystery…

“Did this bastard detonate his own bomb?!” Ke Le Pu Dun crouched to examine the charred corpse. “No… the clothing on this body is wrong!” He stood abruptly, his brow furrowed. “Did he set a trap using another body? Where did he go?!”

During Ke Le Pu Dun’s initial interrogation, someone had mentioned “strange golden light” and Feng Bu Jue’s ability to produce weapons from thin air. But Ke Le Pu Dun had dismissed these details as nonsense, focusing instead on other information.

It wasn’t until the explosion that, at Feng Bu Jue’s suggestion, he re-examined the details of the submachine gun-wielding robber’s death that he realized the truth was far more complex.

“Could this ‘John Doe’ be a new ‘super criminal’?” Ke Le Pu Dun muttered, gripping his thinning hair. “Did he really escape?” He grabbed his radio, contacting Newman, the sniper monitoring the rooftop. “Newman, can you confirm no one exited through the ventilation shaft?”

“Uh… yes, sir.”

“I mean, can you absolutely confirm your eyes never left that vent?”

A pause. “Well… sir, I can’t watch the same spot every second. There might’ve been a few ten-second intervals where I checked the street or the main entrance.”

“Damn it!” Ke Le Pu Dun cursed, exhaling sharply to calm himself. “Alright, come down, Newman.” He switched frequencies. “All snipers, withdraw. Return your rifles to the equipment van and assist on the street.” He adjusted the frequency again, contacting the tactical squad. “Units Two and Three, leave three officers on the back street. Everyone else, report to the bank entrance for assistance.”

As the highest-ranking officer on-site, Ke Le Pu Dun bore the weight of grief and frustration. Yet he still had to fulfill his duty, directing his team to manage the aftermath. “Notify headquarters to send a forensics team. Everyone else, search every room and corner of this building. Find any remaining robbers or hostages.” Speaking into his radio, he returned to the corridor.

By this point, Ke Le Pu Dun was certain he’d encountered a “super criminal.”

Feng Bu Jue’s earlier actions and composed demeanor revealed that this “John Doe” was no ordinary man. His behavior was erratic, unpredictable. He’d eliminated the robbers, taken hostages, toyed with the police, scattered millions in cash on the street, released all hostages, and killed three officers…

Hero? Criminal? Robin Hood? Terrorist? Humanitarian? Serial killer?

He was like a metronome, swinging wildly between good and evil, exuding madness yet possessing razor-sharp logic and exceptional execution skills. If not for the hostages’ descriptions of Feng Bu Jue’s appearance, Ke Le Pu Dun might’ve suspected he was a lunatic from Arkham Asylum.

“Sir, maybe he’s still hiding in the ventilation shaft?” A young officer in the corridor asked.

“Good point. Then you’re in charge of checking it.” Ke Le Pu Dun replied with a bitter smile. In his mind, Feng Bu Jue had already escaped. He couldn’t fathom that the suspect was hiding mere meters away…

“Uh… just me? Where do I start?” The officer asked.

“Listen, rookie,” Ke Le Pu Dun said, adopting a lecturing tone. “When you’ve worked Gotham City long enough, you’ll learn some criminals can’t be caught with conventional methods. A second’s lapse, and they’ll vanish from a sniper’s sight forever. Some can scale walls, others release neurotoxins, and some could bite off half your body. Do you think the Joker hides in ventilation shafts? Would Two-Face or the Riddler?” He shook his head. “I’ve seen too many cases like this… Check the shaft if you want. The rest of you, follow me.”

Ke Le Pu Dun’s words reflected the mindset of most Gotham officers. Even Commissioner Gordon couldn’t deny that when facing “super criminals,” only Batman could save the city. The police’s role was merely to clean up the battlefield.

The young officer adjusted his cap, replying earnestly, “Yes, sir.” He glanced around, his eyes settling on the ventilation shaft in the surveillance room.

The ventilation duct’s entrance sat high on the wall, nearly flush with the ceiling. Though the explosion had warped the storage cabinet below, it posed no obstacle for the officer.

He pushed himself up, hoisting his upper body onto the cabinet’s top. Shifting his weight, he lifted his legs to join his torso. Then, he reached for the ventilation duct’s screen…

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end