CH 5

In the Batcave under Wayne Manor, the old butler Alfred sat in front of the cool Batcomputer, sipping his third cup of coffee with a tired expression. The twenty-four screens in front of him were monitoring various important locations throughout Gotham City in real-time. When Batman was out on patrol, monitoring the city was something that Alfred helped with. Of course, when Robin was still around, he would handle this task.

"Young master is currently attacking the Black Mask's drug factory on Naihe Island. Progress is smooth. The East District bank was robbed by thugs. If we calculate the time and plan the route, the young master can take care of them on his way back. There's a heavy gunfight in the Odyssey District. The firepower density is quite high. Let me take a look..."

Alfred pushed his reading glasses and drank some strong coffee to enlarge the surveillance. A few seconds later, the old man's expression became serious, and he immediately made a call.

"Alfred, I'm busy," Batman's low voice came through.

But the butler ignored him and spoke briefly, "Mason Cooper has been attacked. He's in Gordon's safe house and is running away. He may need support."

"What?"

Master Wayne asked in surprise, "That safe house was arranged by Lucius and has a high level of confidentiality. How could...wait! The attackers aren't from the mafia?"

"No."

Afuo stared at the fast-moving black-clad figures on the screen and pursed his lips. "Young master, the assassins of Lei Xiaogu have returned to this city."

"Immediately plan the best route for the Batmobile! Deploy the Batwing to support Mason and rescue that young man!" Batman's voice also raised a few degrees, and Afuo immediately got busy in the Batcave.

On the other side, Mason Cooper, who was in the combat zone, had no idea that Batman was on his way. He felt like he was going to die. These killers in front of him were indeed the Penguin's aces. Their combat skills were much higher than those of the mafia members. For example, even with the help of a BUG-like combat assistance and a preset trajectory configuration with a sight, it was difficult for Mason to hit them. These guys were constantly on the move. Anyone who has played FPS games knows that shooting moving targets is much more difficult than shooting stationary ones.

In this sparsely populated four-story apartment, the silent black-clad figures moved in groups of three, like they were playing a game of cat and mouse with Mason. However, their attack methods were very brutal, and they would explode through obstacles. The gunmen with night vision goggles in front guided them, making Mason's escape very difficult.

Fortunately, the floating crosshair of the combat assistance could at least mark the movements of the enemy when they got close, like a small radar, which allowed him to barely maintain an advantage in the dangerous gunfight. Commissioner Gordon's gun had run out of bullets and was used by Mason as a "hidden weapon" to hit the approaching black-clad figures. Taking advantage of this opportunity, he stepped forward and turned the umbrella handle to eject the spear and fiercely stabbed forward, showing some rifle assassination skills.

"Successfully executed a melee attack. Combat skill branch opened, currently at Lv0."

The attacked black-clad figure widened his eyes, probably not expecting this black umbrella to have such a trick. But being pierced through the heart made him fall to the ground instantly. Mason quickly grabbed the gun in his hand, but he didn't have time to aim accurately in this chaos. He raised his hand and fired a burst of bullets to force the killers outside the door to retreat. He didn't have time to read the prompt and rushed to the window, smashing the glass with the butt of the gun, and looked down. This was the second floor. Falling down might mean death..."Ding!"

A round object was thrown into the house. Mason only had time to turn around and curse before grabbing the window frame and jumping out.

There was a loud explosion.

The hand grenade that exploded in the room caused a blinding flash of fire to spray out of the window, and the impact force was like a heavy punch pressing down on the young man, causing him to tumble and fall onto the lawn outside the apartment.

The soft ground saved Mason from a fatal fall, but the fall from a high place made his legs hurt badly.

Could it be a fracture?

"Pfft."

Mason picked up the Batman's self-use hemostatic agent given by Commissioner Gordon earlier and injected it into his own leg.

The cold liquid injected into his bloodstream allowed him to barely regain his mobility in a few seconds, but the darkness lurking with danger around him made him hobble forward.

The Penguin's assassins had already come around.

There were several cars parked at the intersection ahead. In the light screen in front of Mason's eyes, the free-floating aiming reticles had already locked onto dozens of enemies. The situation of being ambushed on all sides made the young man feel despair.

But before those guys could surround him, the familiar sound of bombing came from the dim sky.

Mason looked up and saw the ghost-like Batplane diving down from the sky. The high-speed rotating machine gun continuously fired at the ground, forcefully blowing up the vehicles in front of him and creating an escape route for the young man.

"It's still you, Master, who comes to the rescue at the critical moment."

Mason was overjoyed at his narrow escape. He hobbled towards the direction of the Batplane's cover, holding the Penguin's umbrella and dragging a gun he had snatched, firing at the enemies behind him as he ran.

He didn't know that it was Alfred who was remotely controlling the Batplane at this moment, but Mason knew that the Batplane was his only chance to escape.

He had to get to an open area and catch the plane before it landed.

Under the darkest night sky of the day, the Batplane patrolled back and forth, and the firepower coverage of the continuous firing covered the black-clothed men back into the apartment. The exchange of fire between the sky and the ground behind him had a sense of a frontline battlefield.

But this was happening in the main city area of Gotham.

It must be said that the fact that the city's super heroes had to come forward to save people from the sudden attack of the gangster assassins in the police's safe house was really typical of Gotham.

"I'm here! Hurry up!"

Mason gritted his teeth and climbed onto the roof of a two-story building. Apart from his leg, he had at least two bullet holes bleeding on his body.

Thanks to the hemostatic and analgesic injection just now, otherwise the pain alone would have been enough to crush the young man.

But even so, he was already at the end of his rope.

Fighting against the well-trained black-clothed assassins had already exhausted Mason in just seven or eight minutes. The small pride that had risen from beating up the gangsters earlier had long since dissipated.

There was really nothing to be proud of in defeating the lowest creatures in the Gotham food chain.

He waved his hand in the dark and watched as the Batplane flew towards him. A sense of relief from surviving a disaster made the young man, who was now covered in dirt, smile.

But before the smile could fade, three rockets flew out from the darkness behind him, trailing long tails of flames and hitting the ghost-like plane.

Afuo's control skills were really good. He made the Batplane perform a classic leaf falling evasion to avoid the first two rockets, but the last one hit the tail wing.

In the huge ball of fire that rose into the sky, the Batplane, trailing black smoke, flew over Mason's head diagonally like a bird with broken wings, and finally crashed into the large square three blocks away, becoming a burning torch in the dark night.

"!"

Mason stared in disbelief at the scene.

A cold breath enveloped his heart in that instant.

To be able to shoot down the Batplane, this was definitely not an ordinary gangster assassin!But now he was being chased by these lunatics, with no firepower support from his fighter jet, tired and injured, he immediately felt hopeless.

"Penguin's henchman, Pals, is too crazy, isn't he? I know he bought you insurance and treats you well, but is it really worth it to go this far for a boss who's been sent to prison? What are you playing with your lives for, with such a small amount of money every month?"

Mason cursed as he lay down on the roof of the second floor, aiming the gun he had snatched at the direction where the black-clothed men were coming from.

With his leg injured, running away recklessly would only lead to death. His only hope now was to hold out here until Batman's divine weapon arrived.

Fortunately, he had created some distance and could delay the chase with the help of his combat aids...

Bang!

A sudden gunshot made Mason cover his face and roll to the side. The bullet had shattered the scope of his rifle and grazed his cheek, almost blowing his head off.

"There's a sniper!"

The thought rushed into the young man's mind, and he immediately propped up Penguin's umbrella. Almost at the same time, the second bullet hit the armored umbrella hard.

In Mason's gaze, the sharp bullet rotated like a dagger on the umbrella surface, drilling a hole into the ground next to him and splashing sparks.

Penguin's umbrella could defend against small-caliber bullets, but not against sniper bullets!

Mason's heart sank.

Are Gotham's mafia hitmen so professional? They even used a sniper to chase after an ordinary person like me?

Mason quickly took off his jacket and wrapped it around the closed umbrella, then put his baseball cap on the tip of the umbrella. This was the method he had learned from movies and TV shows to deal with snipers.

He didn't act recklessly.

Instead, he lay on the ground and quietly picked up the rifle with the shattered scope on the other side of the eaves.

He no longer paid attention to the constantly moving reticle on the screen and focused all his attention on the sniper's position.

After taking a deep breath, Mason squinted and lifted the disguise tool in his other hand. But the other side obviously didn't fall for it and didn't go for the disguise. Instead, they fired three shots towards Mason's possible location.

The random eaves brick next to his head made the young man break out in a cold sweat, but at the moment the other side fired, a small reticle finally jumped out in front of him.

From the distance, it was at least five hundred meters away!

The gun in his hand was a short-range submachine gun, and at such a distance, the preset trajectory even showed an arc. But it didn't matter, Mason adjusted the height of the gun barrel to make the preset trajectory coincide with the reticle.

He pulled the trigger.

Bang.

The flying bullet caused a spark.

There was no prompt for a shooting execution, it seemed he missed.

Mason was a little disappointed.

But the situation quickly didn't allow him to continue to be disappointed. He turned the gun towards the black-clothed assaulters who had already rushed to the perimeter of the building and began shooting.

And at a window of the apartment five hundred meters away, a small figure dressed in black frowned as he looked at the shattered scope of his sniper rifle in his hand and touched the faint scratch on his cheek.

Find the original at "pawread dot com".

"Such precise shooting at this distance is already in the realm of 'super marksmanship.' The intelligence from the Penguin's gang was wrong! Is that guy really just a 17-year-old dropout?"

The small figure said to the two black-clothed commanders standing behind him:

"Change the mission objective, capture him alive!"

A few seconds later, Mason, who was under great pressure, suddenly felt that the number of bullets fired at him had significantly decreased, which made him breathe a sigh of relief but also feel even greater pressure.

The black-clothed hitmen had an absolute advantage.They're not shooting now, they must be planning to capture me and subject me to torture. The Penguin's gang probably doesn't have any strict rules, but the fate of a traitor like me who's been caught won't be good.

"I have to fight for my life!"

Mason threw away his rifle, which was out of bullets, and grabbed the Penguin's armed umbrella. He took deep breaths and waited for the moment when the first wave of black-clothed men rushed onto the roof. He opened the umbrella and emptied all the bullets in the handle in one breath. Then, he twisted the handle to release the green gas from the tip of the umbrella when he was surrounded by people.

After a few seconds of gas injection, he switched to flame injection, causing several black-clothed men to scream and fall off the roof. However, Mason was also cut several times. He was forced to the corner of the roof and twisted the handle of the armed umbrella to the end. With a bang, the hollow and sharp tip of the umbrella shot out, piercing the heart of a black-clothed man directly.

Mason couldn't even stand steadily. He felt dizzy and saw black-clothed men surrounding him. He used his last bit of strength to grab the handle of the umbrella and pulled out the hidden sword cane.

This was his last resistance.

"Buzz."

The low engine roar came from the other end of the street, and after smashing through two walls in a row, the black bat-themed tank-like car that Mason had been waiting for finally entered the battlefield.

This was the "divine intervention" that Mason had been waiting for!

Although the car was still nearly a kilometer away from where Mason was, the entrance of the Batmobile immediately caused the black-clothed men to adjust their focus of the battle.

Especially the short commander, he seemed particularly excited.

"Batman has appeared! He's mine! Surround him!"

"Batman has appeared!"

The same thought also appeared in Mason's mind.

The tension that the young man had been holding on to suddenly relaxed at this moment, but he lost too much blood and felt dizzy. He fell off the roof of the two-story building while holding the sword cane.

This action would definitely lead to a headshot.

But just before Mason completely lost consciousness, he felt his body being caught by a pair of strong hands, and what he saw was a face with a strange mask.

"Hello, Penguin traitor."

The man spoke in a gentle tone and injected a sedative into Mason's neck. He whispered to the young man who was about to collapse:

"It was a wonderful performance. It made me feel that it was worth running here tonight. Well, sleep now. After you become one of us, you will realize what a great honor it is. Anyway, welcome to join us. Welcome to the Star Association..."

"Let him go!"

Several black-clothed assassins surrounded them from all sides.

Obviously, this sudden guy was not one of them.

Facing the shining swords and guns in the hands of the black-clothed assassins, this guy holding Mason sneered disdainfully, and with a flick of his hand, a golden sword hilt like a golden eagle spreading its wings jumped into his hand.

He waved it lightly.

The dazzling light burst from the sword body, making the unsuspecting black-clothed assassins blind. Then, the sound of sharp blades piercing the body echoed in the dark alley.

The one-sided slaughter ended in just three or four seconds. While still surrounded by the bleeding bodies, the mysterious guy carried the unconscious Mason and thoughtfully helped him retract the tip and accessories of the armed umbrella. He walked quickly to the end of the alley and pushed open a door.

He looked back at the battlefield for the last time.

With a little greed and longing, he looked at the black figure in the distance who was beating the assassins' league killers with the help of the Batmobile, and then shook his head regretfully and disappeared into the door.