Volume 6, Heaven or Hell, Second Level—The Evening Sun Plaza, A Tangle of Noises, Ill Habits, and Bravery (2/2)

“Uh, I don’t really mind this, and I actually feel like I’m the one benefiting here, but there are people watching us, and they look like they’re anticipating further development. Anyway, since we’re not going to continue this, I feel a bit sorry for the audience.”

“My apologies!” I hurriedly scrambled to my feet, but as soon as I stood up, loud gun shots rained upon us, making me reflexively lie down again.

Who was it that fired?

The plaza was filled with continuous screams. Right then, I heard two clicking sounds. I lowered my head to find that Lin Ding was holding a gun in her hand and had a keen look in her eyes. She was looking around. I assumed that she was looking for the source of the gun shots.

She told me, “Don’t stand up. Crawl away and find coverage. Alright, go behind the pillars of the veranda.”

I would be glad to go, but must I crawl there?

“Go quickly!” Lin Ding said with a somewhat harsh tone, “Remember to crawl!”

Since she was so persistent, I had no choice but to follow her orders and started to crawl toward the pillar of the veranda. What a shame about the clothes that the young master bought me. I hope that the elbow and knee parts of the clothing will not become torn.

I did not have much… experience with crawling and there was a huge crowd of people in the plaza. With such a series of obstacles in the way, getting to the pillar while avoiding being stepped on when I crawled really was not an easy task.

As I crawled, gun shots and screams sounded from above me, but most of the noise was created by angry shouts and curses.

Finally, I reached the pillar and went behind it. I stood up to examine my elbows and knees. The clothing was a bit dirty but did not seem to be torn, which was very reassuring. I was glad that I had not damaged the clothing that the young master had bought me.

I wonder how Lin Ding is doing? I looked out from behind the pillar. The situation outside seemed very chaotic.

The young people in the plaza looked like they had been through a lot of battles before, since they were either crouching on the ground or hiding behind large obstacles with various kinds of weapons in hand. They showed no sign of fear, but instead, wore ferocious expressions on their faces as they looked around for the audacious culprit.

Right then, a van boldly crashed into the plaza and started to spew out large amounts of something. The picture right now was very similar to the raining glass shards from earlier, but those things drifted slowly, so they were clearly not glass shards. Instead, they looked like pieces of paper.

A piece of paper landed lightly on the ground not far away from me. I settled my eyes on it and realized that it was…

Cash.

The flying pieces of paper in the sky are all cash!

Suddenly, the plaza fell into a rare silence, yet the silence only lasted for a few short seconds before the noise exploded once again. Everyone tucked their weapons under their arms and with their free hands, started to fight over the cash in excitement. Some reached out their hands to the sky to catch the money, while some bent over to pick up cash from the ground desperately.

I wonder where Lin Ding went? It had only been a short while and she had vanished to an unknown place. With the situation as chaotic as it was, I worried about her safety.

While the crowd was picking up cash, all four doors of the van suddenly opened and quite a few people who were dressed in black stepped out of the car. They carried large bags in their hands and tossed their contents out. Seeing so, the crowd quickly gathered around them, because what they had scattered was cash.

But why are they throwing away cash?

Just as I was wondering about this, ear-piercing sirens came from nearby and as the sirens got louder, flashing red lights appeared on the roads beside the plaza. At last, many police cars rushed into the outer sides of the plaza, firmly blocking the plaza’s main exit.

Judging from their large formation, there must be over twenty police cars here.

Right then, the doors of all the police cars opened and a lot of fully armed policemen rushed out of the cars, discourteously firing at the sky as signs of warning.

Even though their actions were very rough and rude, in Sunset City if the police did not fire first, then perhaps no one would listen to them, especially under such chaotic circumstances.

A policeman who had rushed to the front shouted, “Everyone outta the way! The police are on this case, so everyone leave the crime scene… Screw it! Everyone down!”

I think that he might have realized in the middle of his sentence that it was a rather unrealistic request for “everyone” to leave the scene since there were just too many people here. Even though I did not know what the police wanted to do, the situation obviously looked like an emergency, so if they waited until everyone left the crime scene, then I supposed the police would miss the best time to solve the case.

That policeman’s attitude was rude and unreasonable, but that was still not enough to make the people obey and squat down. Aside from the civilians being very fearless, the fact that they were busy picking up money from the ground might also be a huge factor… Could it be that the men clothed in black threw out the money for this very reason?

Even though I did consider that reason, throwing away money just to get away from the police seemed outlandish. There is so much cash, and all of these are thousand yuan bills. There might be over a hundred million yuan here. If they can throw away so much money without a second thought, then why would they live the lives of wanted criminals?

“Stop picking those up!” The policeman took off his helmet and shouted furiously, “Those are all counterfeits! Look closely, the serial numbers are all the same!”

How unexpected. It is Yue Gang!

It has been a long time. I looked at my friend… No, previous friend, with yearning eyes.

Another policeman walked to the front with a microphone in his hand. The moment he spoke, his voice resonated through the whole plaza.

“The cash on the ground is all fake. The serial numbers are all 000000000. This is a scheme that the bank robbers have churned up in order to evade the police’s search. Please do not fall for it. Now crouch down and let the police look for the criminals.”

On hearing those words, the crowd finally started to calm down. A lot of people examined the cash in their hands, and their expressions changed drastically as they cursed, threw away the money, and then squatted down.

Seeing so, the others also squatted down, stopping the fight for the cash.

Many police stepped into the crowd with a flashlight in their right hand and a gun in their left, looking for the people that were dressed in black.

The bank robbers? Have the young master and First Wind not already gone over to support the police? Why were the robbers still able to escape? Did something happen?

Even though I really wanted to go ask Yue Gang what was going on, he had already broken ties with me… I looked at Yue Gang, and as I was wondering whether or not I should go ask him, he suddenly took out his cell phone to make a phone call. At the same time, the phone on me also rang.

I looked at the screen. The caller was actually Yue Gang.

I hesitated for a bit and rejected the call. I then stepped forward to call out, “Yue Gang!”

Yue Gang looked toward me, frowned, and then walked to me in large steps, asking bluntly, “What are you doing here?”

Put on the spot, I could not find a good reason, so I went along with my lie to Lin Ding, saying, “I am waiting for Ah Ye.”

But at the same time I said these words, a sense of guilt flashed through my heart. Even now, I am still lying to Yue Gang… For him to break ties with me really is a wise choice.

Yue Gang locked his brows together and tried to ask, “Your younger brother… He isn’t a normal person, right? He’s just like you, a non-human?”

I was caught off guard but hurriedly said, “No, Ah Ye really is human.”

Having heard my words, Yue Gang’s brows knitted even tighter, and he said, “Really? Your brother was taken hostage by the robbers.”

… The young master was taken hostage?

Perhaps my expression was so shocked that Yue Gang flinched and blurted, “Your brother really is an ordinary human?”

The young master is a human, but he is definitely not ordinary. However, I could only nod my head and lie to him once again.

“This is bad!” Yue Gang scratched his head.

What is going on? Did something really happen to the young master?

Yue Gang suddenly patted my shoulder and said, “Don’t worry about it! Dark Sun is after the guys who have got your brother. He’ll definitely be saved!”

… Dark Sun went after them? The young master was taken hostage but it was Dark Sun who went for him? I could not understand under what kind of circumstance such an event could happen.

“Oh yeah, since you’re here, did you see those robbers get out of the car?”

I nodded my head and said, “They hid themselves among the crowd once they finished scattering the money. They have also taken off their black clothes, so unless you know what they look like, then it would be quite hard to find them.”

On hearing this, Yue Gang’s expression looked as if he had eaten… Uh, something that should not be eaten. He scoffed and said, “Well, the money that they robbed won’t disappear, will it? They must have it on them, so if we searched them, we would find it right away!”

I smiled and said, “Among the young people here, half of them are carrying large backpacks. Are you going to search them one by one? And it will not be possible to seal this area off because there are just too many exits people can sneak away through, and the civilians might not be willing to cooperate either.”

After hearing what I had to say, Yue Gang’s entire face scrunched up. He looked like he was very distressed.

“Do you see that person with a large black backpack and absolutely no glowing ornaments?” I pointed to a man who was standing not too far away from us. Waiting until Yue Gang nodded his head, I said, “He and the woman beside him are both criminals.”

Both of Yue Gang’s eyes lit up, and he immediately picked up his handheld transceiver to order his comrades to quietly surround the two people.

I waited until after he had finished giving orders and said, “You can try searching the people who are not wearing any glowing accessories. Their clothes are mostly black and they are even carrying large backpacks. The backpacks are also dark colored, and I remember that six people came out from the car, all dressed in the same manner.”

After hearing this, he relayed a few more points on where to search into his transceiver, measuring me up and down with a weird look in his eyes as he spoke. When he finished explaining to his comrades, he immediately said, “Aren’t you worried ‘bout your brother?”

I paused and went silent for some time. During my silence, the search continued on noisily behind me, but Yue Gang seemed to have no intention of joining the search. Instead, he stared at me intently, as if he could discover some kind of truth by staring at my face.

I sighed and said, “I am sorry, but Ah Ye is not actually my brother. I am merely his butler and the others are all his bodyguards, so there is no need to worry about his safety.” Since even the people at X-Killer knew about this, it was fine to tell Yue Gang, too. The young master had also told me to tell Yue Gang the truth.

After I finished speaking, it was Yue Gang’s turn to fall into silence. But not long after that, he growled, “It’s too late to say this now!”

Shouting so, he turned around and joined the search. He even roughly grabbed some people up from the ground along the way and searched their bags, but it seemed like he found nothing.

I took out my cell phone and made a call. “Mr. Bramble, this is Charles. Can you please tell me what is happening right now? I heard that the young master was taken hostage, but the hero who is going to rescue him is Dark Sun?”

“That ‘young master’ is DSII. Dark Sun is the real young master.” Mr. Bramble gave me a short yet clear reply. “In order to get the criminals to release the other hostages, the young master ordered DSII to pretend to be himself and then become a hostage voluntarily. The only condition was to have the criminals release all the others.”

I asked in confusion, “The criminals are in the Evening Sun Plaza right now, but I do not see DSII around.”

“There are five groups of robbers this time. They purposely robbed five different banks at the same time and even chose to rob the five banks that were the farthest apart from each other, exhausting the police and the heroes. This plan has proved to be efficient until now since only one group of the five were caught. The other groups are all still on the run, and the heroes and police are going after them in teams.”

It seems like the robbers these days are becoming more and more intelligent. But I still had a question. Even if someone can think of such a plan, where would they find others who also wanted to rob a bank?

Hmm… After thinking for a moment, I raised my head and saw that the drunken red sunset was already hanging in the sky, and therefore murmured, “It looks like it is about time to do that.”

“Do what?”

I was confused for a bit and then realized that I had not ended the call yet.

Mr. Bramble’s voice came from the cell phone with a question filled with doubt. “You know how to capture those robbers?”

“No, I do not,” Why would he think that I have the ability to do so?

“Then, what is that thing that you’re about to do?”

“Grocery shopping,” I replied honestly.

“…”