Crimson Embers Chapter 6: Smart, patient, calm, and most importantly, bald!
The headquarters city of the Council of Hope is called "Hope City", which sounds like a sloppy name that was decided in seconds.
Maybe those bastards hoped to pin some of their beautiful expectations for the world on this, or maybe it was a trick to cover up their evil purposes. In short, there was nothing particularly attractive about this city to Mason.
But there were some things about the city that the Captain liked very much.
For example, it was built on the basis of New York City. Although the council made drastic repairs to the ground part of the city and divided it into different functional areas, its underground part was ignored and maintained as it was.
Especially the intricate sewers and long-abandoned subway sections, which are like the blood vessels of a city hidden beneath the earth, connecting to every corner of the city.
The premise is that you will not get lost in these complex maze-like underground tunnel systems. As long as you have a sufficiently precise map, these tunnels that used to mean danger and darkness can become your kingdom.
The good news is that Mason has the complete map in his head.
The better news is that the Council did not make any modifications to the place but simply blew up some nodes roughly, so the Captain-General did not even need to make minor adjustments to his position and was able to easily and quickly approach the area of activity of the underground rebels marked by the Arbitration Tribunal.
Judging from the surrounding environment, these rebels have been here for quite some time.
This seemed to indicate that the Council was in a state of "carelessness" regarding the cleanup of its own headquarters, but considering that the qualities of the rebels in various worlds varied greatly, and this was still the Council's home base, Mason was basically certain that it was not that the Council was unable to eradicate these guys, but that they did not think it was necessary.
It is a very hopeless career plan to rebel under the nose of the headquarters. If you wipe out this group of people with lightning speed, sooner or later another group will set up their own camp.
It would be better to keep them and supervise them secretly, just like planting leeks and waiting for them to grow and sprout, and then swinging the sickle when the growth is promising.
"Captivity" is not a very smart strategy at all times, but it is very useful most of the time.
"Woof~"
The Amazon war hound that Harry was leading sniffed east and west in the dark tunnel, then let out a deliberately suppressed neigh, indicating the direction to move forward to its owners.
Although Mason and the other two do not need such primitive tracking methods to help them lock on to the target, they should be encouraged rather than discouraged when the dog returns to his old job.
So the three people with the three dogs followed the dogs' instructions and turned at the fork in the road ahead, as if they were trekking in a maze that would never have an end.
Mason sees it as a relaxing hike.
He was in a good mood and would joke and tell some stories to Harley and Quinn from time to time. Although they were not very clever, the two little cuties still cooperated well and laughed. This scene was like a family with a weird relationship going out for an outing.
To be honest, after the Star Club was screwed and the old devil was killed, Mason's mental state has been maintained at a very good level. Although this trip is to conclude it, it is actually more like fulfilling a wish in his heart.
The basic living allowance has been received as the matter progresses smoothly to the end, so no matter how the battle goes on, it will be a victory. In this case, if a person has no pressure, then what is the difference between being carefree?
"What are we going to do if we find them?"
Harley was holding her dog and carrying her own Isu artifact, a baseball bat. The bat glowed in the dark, illuminating the surroundings, eliminating the need for torches or lighting devices.
She asked Mason in a low voice, and the captain walked while assembling a sophisticated mother box device in his hand and answered casually:
"Let's talk to them first and find out what these rebels are planning. Since they were noticed by the Chief Arbitrator, Old A, and he ordered the Conquerors to go out and suppress the bandits, I can guess that what these guys are planning must be beyond the ordinary petty fighting.
It sounds great to start a rebellion in the heart of the enemy, although without our strong intervention, these guys will likely end up in a miserable state.
But now is not the time to be nervous.
I just want to understand their thoughts and plans to see if we can use them for our own benefit. Although the target is clearly Doom, if we can do something pleasant in this "Heart of Darkness" world, why not do it? "
"That's what I said."
Quinn, who was wearing a black combat leather jacket, curled his lips and said to Little Sweetheart:
"But bringing two conquerors to find the weak resistance army won't scare them to death? Or, sweetheart, are you planning to hand these two guys over as a token of your loyalty?"
“It’s not impossible.”
Mason turned around to look at the vampire Batman and Ms. Becca in white who were sitting on the Mobius chair behind him. The mechanical chair had changed its form into a "double seat". If both of them had not been restrained in different ways to a weak state, they would have looked very comfortable at this moment.
But there was a meaningful light shining in the captain's eyes.
He stared at the vampire Batman, whose blood-red pupils kept dodging the captain's overly sharp gaze. This guilty attitude made Mason snort.
He said no more and continued forward with the two little cuties.
It was still two hours until dawn.
Mason decided to resolve the matter before dawn. After all, he had important work to do tomorrow. The new identity assigned to him by the Mobius Chair allowed him to enter the Council Headquarters freely, and the Captain-General did not intend to miss this opportunity to conduct personal reconnaissance in the enemy camp.
Just think of it as a check-in at the last moment of a game, open any unopened maps, clear any uncleared side quests, and maybe you can get a few surprises or something.
“In front!”
In the darkness, the hat on Mason's head suddenly spoke up and reminded:
"You are being targeted."
"Yeah, I feel it. This feeling of being pointed at by a gun always makes my hair stand on end."
Mason nodded, put the unfinished Alien Mother Box in his hand back into the bag, stretched his shoulders and pulled out the Destiny pistol from his waist. He flicked the cylinder with his finger and put ordinary bullets into it with the quick loader. He returned the rotating cylinder to its position while swaying in the wind, and the next moment a faint light flickered on the pistol.
That means the law of luck has been triggered, and these bullets have been given at least three enhanced effects.
This made the captain frown, and under the surprised gazes of Harley, Quinn and the two captives, he threw out the magazine again and reloaded. This time, the faint light flickered once, which still made Mason dissatisfied, so he started reloading for the third time. He nodded with satisfaction only when the faint light stopped flickering.
"What is this doing?"
Becca in white couldn't help but sneered:
"Are you practicing some kind of evil witchcraft, you bastard? Are you praying that your bullets can kill everyone here with one shot?"
"No, quite the contrary."
Mason raised his pistol and aimed at the body of water he sensed in the darkness. His finger was on the trigger, and he turned back to explain to Becca:
"I'm just afraid that the power is too great and someone might be killed accidentally. Then it will be difficult to cooperate again. Having too much equipment is also a problem. For a capture mission like this, we need some low-deterrent weapons.
So, whiteboard equipment actually has its uses.”
"Bang"
The trigger is pulled and the bullet is fired.
With the help of quick-drawing, the captain fired six bullets in one second. The blessing of the causal pistol made him not worry about missing the shot, but as a super marksman who had reached Lv10 in the endless war, Mason still chose to do something fancy.
It was not a precise lock, so the bullets flew randomly into the dark tunnel in front of them that was guarded by the rebels. Six bullets hit the wall and scared the defenders, but before they could ridicule the newcomer for being a blind man with a rifle, the bullets that hit the wall entered the "ricochet" mode.
With Mason's amazing shooting skills, each kinetic bullet with a modified warhead can bounce at least four times on different planes, which means that his six bullets instantly have the effect of a salvo of fire.
After twenty-four very pleasant ricochets like a storm, the tunnel in front of them was cleared.
No one died.
But all the guys were lying on the ground, covering their wrists, necks, cheeks, ears and other non-lethal parts. The paralyzing effect of the bullets prevented these guys from even shouting out in pain or giving warnings.
“Woof woof woof!”
All three dogs were unleashed, and the two brave Amazon war hounds rushed out roaring, but Wick's dog stayed beside Mason, not showing any interest in the battle in front of him.
This is also normal.
It was just an ordinary, elegant, clingy and timid golden retriever, unlike the crazy war hounds that Luther and Luke had raised specifically to assist the Amazon warriors in charging.
No matter how Luke and Luther tried to lure it to join the battlefield, or how they described how refreshing and pleasant it was to bite off the enemy's neck in one bite, the big golden retriever would not choose to join in.
"Bring the dog back before it's bitten to death."
Amid the howling screams of ghosts and wolves in the tunnel before him, Mason said something to the two little cuties.
Harley blew a whistle, and the two dogs rushed back obediently, bringing back a few blood-stained explosion remote controls and delivering them to their owner.
"The explosive device buried in advance will collapse all the surrounding tunnels once it is activated."
Mason glanced at the detonator and said:
“It’s very well made. It seems that the leader of these rebels is also a well-hidden guy. Such fierce resistance shows that we have found the right place.
Either this is their base camp, or they must have hidden something quite important here.
Walk.
Go in and take a look.”
The captain walked in first and gave first aid to the unfortunate guys who were still bleeding to prevent them from dying too soon. Going further in, it was obvious that this place had been reinforced with military-grade weapons, and there were even quite advanced defense robots patrolling here. Although the place was not big, several doors were locked by mechanical devices.
After a few minutes of cleaning, Mason quickly opened one of them. This underground warehouse was filled with a variety of individual weapons and a huge amount of explosives.
This is the rebels' arsenal!
Even just these explosives discovered before us can turn one-fifth of Hope City into a sea of fire if used properly. These guys hiding in the sewers are really going to cause big trouble!
They either intend to seize power by force or take the city with them.
Although the means were a bit rough, being able to achieve this fully demonstrated the determination of these rebels and the council to fight to the death, which also made the captain quite satisfied.
The fact that they were able to obtain so many contraband items in the core area of the Council fully proves that these guys are indeed quite capable.
With the same goal and confirmed abilities, such a collaborator is exactly what Mason needs when he comes to the enemy camp alone. He walks out of the warehouse and comes to a group of captured resistance fighters. Without saying anything to them, he just takes away their communication devices.
This thing has been encrypted multiple times and can only maintain a single-line connection, but in front of Mason, this level of technology is completely insufficient.
After a simple modification with the help of the Mobius chair, the two lines were connected. Then, the captain activated the communication and waited for the online response of the resistance army amid the beeping sound.
After dialing four times in a row, the call was finally connected when the busy tone sounded on the fifth time and I was about to hang up.
A blurry optical projection appeared, and a guy sitting in the dark appeared in front of Mason. He said in a hoarse voice:
"Who is your Excellency?"
"Anyway, he's not a lackey of the Council."
Mason leaned against the box of explosives and said to the man in front of him:
“Come meet me, right here, and we can talk.
I am very interested in getting involved in what you are going to do. I have not harmed your people, touched your things, and have no intention of reporting you. I think I have shown my sincerity.
This rebel, sir."
The captain waved his finger, and the Mobius chair immediately activated some kind of pixel repair program, optimizing the blurry image in front of him frame by frame.
But the other party was obviously not an easy person to deal with. The last layer of visual blur and disappearance could not be cracked, but a certain feature exposed in front of him was enough for Mason to grasp the other party's identity.
He stared at the silent guy in the dark. After the restoration of the latter's projection, he could clearly see the other person's shiny head in the dark.
Big bald head!
This feature alone is enough to infer a lot of things.
After all, although many men worry about hair loss, it is still rare to find someone who can go bald so stylishly and build such a force under the nose of the board of directors.
"We have no connection with your Excellency."
After a few seconds of silence, the man replied:
"And the matter you want to discuss with us is too important. It is not a good idea to have a hasty meeting before mutual trust is established. Therefore, I refuse.
If you really want to cooperate with us further, please show your sincerity again and release my subordinates. They are all very brave and elite soldiers, and their lives should not be wasted in a conflict without reason.
I will contact you after my subordinates return to the organization."
"Okay, Luther."
Mason waved his hand and said:
"I'll do as you say, okay? You in countless worlds all have the same shortcomings. For example, not trusting others is not a good habit."
"Um?"
The leader of the resistance army, Luther, who had his name revealed, paused in the darkness. A second later, the lights were turned on. It would be very disgraceful to play tricks when his identity had been exposed.
The light shone down, allowing Mason to see the other person's face clearly.
Compared with the two Luthors in the new Legion of Doom, the Luthor in front of him is obviously older.
He sat in a wheelchair with a cane in his hand. Although he no longer had the sharpness of his youth, the calmness and wisdom brought by the years still made this guy have an awe-inspiring aura that could not be ignored.
In addition, Mason also noticed that this Luther had a kind of silent elegance in his every move, which was completely different from other Luthers who advocated simplicity and efficiency.
He leaned on his cane, stared at Mason, and said:
"Please wait there, Your Excellency. I will be there soon."
After saying that, the call was disconnected.
Mason threw the communicator aside, stretched his body, and walked towards the tunnel outside the armory while saying to Harley and Quinn:
"Hold on here, I'll be back soon. This ruthless Luther has already made up his mind to kill. It seems I have to survive the assassins he sent before I can see him.
And I already know his identity, he will definitely send out the most powerful people.
Oh, I knew it would always be so tiring to deal with this bald guy. "
