novelhk Chapter 177, Section 74: Escaping the Tower of Wayne
Chapter 177, Section 74: Escaping the Tower of Wayne
Chapter 177, Section 74: Escape from the Tower of Venn (Part 2)
"You can't kill me, I'm just a director!"
The Mad Hatter, Jervis Teach, was so frightened that he backed away repeatedly and finally fell to the ground with a thud.
As those red, glowing eyes drew closer, he kicked and rubbed his legs in vain, like a frog rolling over belly up.
Unfortunately, he encountered Thomas, a copycat dedicated to smearing the Knights of Judgment, a complete imposter.
The Mad Hatter could have saved his life if he had openly admitted to his crimes, since even Satan would have frowned upon hearing what he had done.
To satisfy his twisted and perverse desires, and to find young girls who could awaken his beautiful memories of his first love to act out a "Alice in Wonderland" with him, Jervis brutally murdered 12 people in just one month, including 8 teenage girls.
By using the guise of auditioning for a film set, he successfully evaded Tim's original "Oracle" monitoring system, and the Gotham Police Department's inaction only fueled his arrogance.
Until tonight, he unexpectedly met Thomas.
Thomas shattered Jarvis's ribs with a single punch, and amidst weak howls, he stepped on Jarvis's shoulder and ripped his head out along with his spine.
The splattered blood covered the bat armor with a hideous red layer.
Having finished these tasks, he continued deeper into the area, following the faint cries for help.
Upon seeing the couple bound to a chair, he realized he might have killed the wrong people, but it didn't matter much; he was merely using this body to spread fear.
"Please, please save me—"
One second Jaina was calling for help, but when she saw Thomas carrying the Mad Hatter's head walk into the studio, her throat seemed to be choked by immense fear, and she could no longer make a sound.
Blood dripped down the Mad Hatter's spine and onto the ground. His wrinkled and deformed face bore the pain and despair of his impending death. She could hardly believe that the predator had become the prey in the blink of an eye.
What devastated Jaina even more was that Thomas placed the head on her lap.
"Tell everyone you've met that the Knights of Judgment have been here."
Thomas's deep, fierce voice boomed and echoed through the studio amplified by his helmet, giving Jaina a splitting headache.
But the fear was far from over. Thomas stood up, reached out, and mercilessly pierced Gianna's boyfriend's heart.
"No!"
Thomas left satisfied amidst his desperate cries.
This was his first battle of the night, and he was quite satisfied with his performance. If Thomas had once looked down on using force to control the lives and deaths of others, after this experience he had even come to love the feeling.
He began to understand and approve of Qin Wei's behavior.
"Fighting criminals? You're just using that as an excuse to satisfy your bloodlust. Rather than smearing me, I've exposed your true colors to the public, Bruce Wayne."
The night was still long, giving Thomas plenty of time. He used his grappling hook to fly to the top of the factory, stepping onto the chimney pipes and looking up at the desolate full moon overhead.
Suddenly, the helmet's built-in communicator sounded an alarm, followed by news that the Venta had been hacked.
The last time the Dispute Arbitration Court was massacred, it has yet to be determined how Isaiah Thomas managed to infiltrate. The court had no choice but to strengthen security, but unexpectedly, even the "Cubs" army could not stop the intruders.
"Bruce was involved too?"
"Take a deep breath," Thomas asked.
Based on his understanding of Isaiah Thomas, breaking into the Dispute Arbitration Court was already the latter's limit, and to be able to reach the secret room on the top floor of the Tower of Venn, he must have had someone helping him.
"Yes, Cang'e has expressed strong dissatisfaction with your actions. You said you would recruit Bruce Wayne for the court."
But now he has colluded with Isaiah Thomas, severely damaging the court.
"Although He is immortal, without the blood catalyst, He will soon fall into a deep sleep. You must act quickly."
After hanging up the phone, Thomas clenched his fists so tightly they cracked.
He hadn't expected that after he visited the bat's nest and presented a gift, the other party would so quickly reciprocate with such a generous gift. And unlike his sinister actions, Qin Wei openly poured gasoline on the battlefield and set it on fire.
Thomas realized that peacefully absorbing Bruce Wayne might not be an option, and that only more drastic measures could lure him out, such as a night raid on Blackgate Prison and the massacre of Bruce's allies in their cages.
Incidentally, there was one person in the courtroom who made Thomas uncomfortable.
The "Cang'e" mentioned by the contact person just now.
This person wasn't present in either the Dispute Arbitration Tribunal or the Round Table, but just a few days after Thomas Jr. massacred the tribunal, this guy suddenly appeared and took over the provisional tribunal.
This made Thomas uncomfortable, after all, as the Elliott family was an elder family of the court, no one should be able to tell him what to do.
At the same time, Qin Wei and Thomas broke through the encirclement and fell into the elevator shaft inside the Wayne Tower.
Compared to their composure when dealing with the cubs, both of them are now covered in wounds.
Qin Wei, in particular, had his collarbone pierced by a sword, and two more cuts on his thigh. His Kevlar bulletproof suit was stretched open at the wounds, and blood was constantly seeping out as the muscles turned outward.
Although Night Owl was protected by high-density armor, he was still limping as his knee was injured.
As the two jumped down the elevator shaft, the five claws followed closely behind, clinging to the steel cables and falling.
"Hehehe, I was worried you wouldn't follow!"
Night Owl burst into maniacal laughter. After shooting his grappling hook toward the top of the elevator shaft, he steadied his falling body and pulled out the last two throwing knives from his waist, hurling them with all his might.
Two throwing knives shot out from the left and right, dodging the pursuing claws before hitting the wall, and using the momentum of the rebound...
It slid across the elevator cable like a pair of steel shears.
Boom!
With a crisp metallic snapping sound, the elevator, unable to withstand the weight, plummeted downwards. The claws that had been climbing down instantly lost their footing and screamed as they fell into the dark elevator shaft.
"Bruce, get out of the way!!"
Qin Wei had just stopped in mid-air when he heard the hooting of an owl overhead. The elevator shaft was pitch black, and all he could hear besides the howling of claws was the whooshing sound of the broken cable swinging in the air.
Wait—the cable!
Realizing something was wrong, Qin Wei hurriedly cut the rope around his waist and leaped towards the wall to one side. At the same time, the steel cable lashed out like a sharp whip, striking the concrete wall beside him and emitting dazzling sparks.
If Thomas hadn't warned him in time, he would have been split in two by the wildly swinging steel cable.
But Qin Wei was also in a bad situation. The smooth wall surface offered no foothold, and as he slid down rapidly, he managed to grab hold of the brick seams behind the peeling plaster.
At this moment, all his weight rested on his two fingers.
Just as he was about to give up, Thomas Jr.'s strong hand grabbed his wrist.
"Hold on a little longer, we'll be out of there soon!"
Locked in the elevator, Lucius felt suffocated and uneasy, especially with the faint sounds of fighting and explosions coming from the elevator shaft above him. He guessed that the Wayne brothers must have reached the top floor as planned and engaged in battle with the cubs, but he had no idea what awaited them behind that secret room.
Hopefully it's not cutting-edge technology and artillery, poor Wayne brothers.
Lucius prayed for the two of them with his eyes closed and his hands clasped.
Like Alfred, he also served in MI5, but while the former was in the intelligence department, he was in the technical department. When the military equipment he was researching was repeatedly rejected by the department's senior management because of its high cost, Lucius Fox had the idea of changing jobs.
It was at this very moment that his old friend Alfred introduced him to Thomas Wayne.
The young Thomas, full of talent and ambition, enthusiastically painted a blueprint for the future for Lucius.
"The world is becoming increasingly chaotic, and disputes arising from superpowers and mysticism are gradually replacing conflicts between people. If we want to gain some breathing space in the future world, humanity should not limit its technology and weapons to the scope of merely killing its own kind."
"I am preparing to establish a high-tech research and development department to prepare for future wars, and you, my friend, are my only choice."
Thomas's words opened Lucius's heart, and he discovered that this businessman shared the same views as his idol, Professor Lex Luthor.
The next day, he submitted his resignation to headquarters without hesitation.
Of course, the travel restrictions and confidentiality agreements were no big deal to Thomas, who was a man of modest means.
That very night, Lucius acquired a new identity that would allow him to cross the Atlantic.
Thomas kept his word; Wayne Enterprises' technology research and development department was established immediately upon the arrival of the private jet, and over the next decade, it became the most expensive department in the entire Wayne Enterprises. However, no matter how much trouble Lucius caused, Thomas would always shield him from any criticism from the board of directors.
Lucius was willing to die for scientific research, but if he had to choose a specific thing, he believed he would also be willing to die for his close friend Thomas.
This deep friendship was passed down through blood to the Wayne brothers. Although the court gave him more favorable treatment, he always kept the Wayne family in his heart.
So when Alfred pushed the disabled Bruce to him, Lucius agreed without hesitation.
The memory storage device, though confiscated and modified by the court, still holds Bruce's most primal memories and personality within his private cloud.
Finally, he handed this item over to Alfred.
"To ensure the continuation of the Wayne family line is the last thing I can do for Thomas."
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Suddenly, the elevator plummeted, but was quickly stopped by the braking system. Several muffled thuds echoed inside the elevator.
It was as if a sack full of sand had landed at the top of the elevator.
Lucius opened his eyes and was greeted by bloody claws hanging upside down from the gap in the top of the elevator.
These guys fell from dozens of stories high, their bones were smashed to pieces, but even so, Amber Gold was still repairing the broken body.
The flesh and blood, imbued with the Dionysian factor, bared its fangs and claws, grabbed the drooping eyeballs and stuffed them into the eye sockets, and the fatal wounds inflicted by the claws were completely healed within a dozen seconds.
"Are you in cahoots?"
The claws, whose brains had not yet fully recovered, used their incoherent tongues to launch a soul-searching interrogation of Lucius, forcing the poor old man into a corner of the elevator.
"Intruder—Kill!"
"Kill you my foot!"
Just as Claw raised his hidden sword, Qin Wei jumped into the elevator. He grabbed Claw's hair and slammed him against the elevator wall, once, twice, three times, until he was covered in blood and flesh before finally stopping.
He then passed the bodies through the opening to Night Owl on top of the elevator, who threw these last few undead pursuers to the bottom of the elevator shaft.
"So, did you guys take down the Court of Owls?"
"The trouble is over! We should be going."
Ignoring Lucius's questions, Night Owl wiped the blood from his hands and plunged his steel claws into the crack of the outer door. But when he saw Qin Wei reach out to Lucius, his discontent surged again.
"What are you doing?"
"Take him with you."
"Are you kidding me? You think there are only a few Claws? Bringing Lucius along will only hold us back, and in the end, no one will be able to escape."
Night Owl's words were cruel but reasonable. If they had been carrying a burden, they would not have been able to escape from the hands of the thirteen claws with only minor injuries. Not to mention that with such a commotion, the claws sleeping in the underground ice coffin might have all been awakened.
Lucius understood this as well and pushed away Qin Wei's outstretched hand.
"You should leave now. It's really not appropriate to carry on with a burden like me. To be honest, as long as I see that the Wayne family has a successor, I will—"
"Stop talking nonsense! I could have run two miles in that time!"
Before Lucius could finish his emotional outburst, Qin Wei scooped him up and tucked him under his arm, then turned and ran like a dog thief.
The three climbed out of the elevator shaft and rushed down from the 62nd floor.
Night Owl was clearly dissatisfied with Qin Wei's unauthorized actions, and he made sarcastic remarks throughout the journey.
"I don't understand, why are you doing this? Do you really want to see all three of you die together?"
"What does this have to do with me?!" Qin Wei retorted. "You were the one who spearheaded tonight's operation. There was no clear attack route, no backup plan, and you gambled all your chances of success on time and the enemy's lack of preparedness."
"You devised this whole set of tactics, and then you tell me it was because I saved people that everyone died?"
When it comes to arguing, Qin Wei has never been afraid of anyone, and even Night Owl was silenced by his series of complaints.
"Don't try to twist my words, I mean—"
"What concept did I mislead you about?! Find anyone to judge—Mr. Fox, do you think what I said makes sense?"
Just as Night Owl finally managed to organize his thoughts and was about to argue with Qin Wei, the latter, without any sense of martial ethics, called in reinforcements.
"From a generally rational point of view—I think the young master is right."
"Hmph, did you hear that? Before you criticize others, reflect on your own actions. With a plan like this, I'd be a dog to go on a mission with you again!"
At this moment, Night Owl just wanted to punch his rebellious brother. Putting aside how bad his plan was, with the Venn Tower heavily guarded, if he had known the situation first and the plan was so meticulously laid out, he wouldn't have chosen to take such a risk.
There's no other way, is there?
Of course, there are always oversights on the first intrusion. If we could let him try again...
The situation would be completely different.
After all, before leaving, Isaiah Thomas left a precious treasure inside the Tower of Venn.
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