Chapter 51: Let's See Who You Are
[Bruce Wayne's Nervousness +33, +Astonishment 41...]
A silence fell over the lobby after David finished speaking.
"Bruce Wayne?"
Those huddled on the floor of the bank lobby, hands over their heads, exchanged confused and strange glances.
People in Gotham might not know who the mayor is or what his name is, but they couldn't not know Bruce Wayne. From birth to death, the Wayne Group's influence touched every aspect of Gotham citizens' lives—their food, clothing, housing, and transportation.
And Bruce Wayne was the heir to the Wayne Group, a company with wealth rivaling that of nations.
But Bruce Wayne had been missing for several years. How could he be here, and robbing a bank at that?
"Gotham has a gang called the Red Hoods, led by someone named Red Hood. He's not particularly strong, nor is he well-known."
David was also a little surprised.
Compared to famous villains like Bane, the Joker, and Scarecrow, Red Hood was just an obscure minor character.
However, in many worlds, the Joker's origin was as a former Red Hood. To escape Batman's pursuit, he fell into a vat of chemicals, which transformed him into the pale-skinned, green-haired Joker.
"I originally wanted to use the emotional points to see if this Red Hood was the Joker."
'Red Hood Five' looked at him with shock. A playful smile curved his lips as he sized David up.
"I didn't expect to see Batman when I didn't find the Joker."
When this Red Hood Five was ordered to teach him, the disobedient hostage, a lesson and walked up to him, an emotional notification from Bruce Wayne refreshed.
"Shut your mouth. If I were that brat whose body is probably rotting somewhere, would I still be standing here?"
'Red Hood Five' yelled angrily and raised his gun stock, about to smash it into David's forehead.
"Wait a moment!"
The leader of the Red Hoods suddenly raised his gun, aiming it at Five.
"Boss? I don't understand. You said to teach him a lesson, and I'm doing just that."
With the muzzle pointed at him, 'Red Hood Five' hurriedly raised his hands, his tone bewildered.
"Don't tell me... you believe this kid's nonsense?"
The remaining Red Hood thugs followed suit, pointing their guns at Five and David behind him.
"I don't know if you are Bruce Wayne.
But you're definitely not Five."
Red Hood shook his head with regret.
"Five is the craziest among us. He wouldn't hesitate to shoot if he could. You talk too much!"
'Red Hood Five's' expression changed beneath his mask. He had intended to kick the young man, who seemed to know no fear, and then knock him unconscious with his gun stock.
But his hesitation to shoot immediately had drawn the other's attention.
"Moreover... Five is left-handed." The Red Hood leader's lips curved into a contemptuous sneer.
'Red Hood Five' glanced at his right hand, the one holding the gun, and a look of displeasure flashed in his eyes. He had made more than one mistake.
David confirmed that the Red Hood thug before him was indeed Batman, Bruce Wayne, but it was likely the Batman who had only recently returned to Gotham to fight crime.
"This Bruce Wayne is like a rookie, not the mature and ruthless Batman who seems incapable of making mistakes in the future."
Speaking of which, where were the bank's security guards?
Ignoring the seven or eight assault rifles pointed at them, David looked around.
At the entrance to the security room, a figure lay on the ground, lips purple, foaming at the mouth, with another person lying on top of him, also in a similar state.
It turned out they had already been poisoned and dealt with.
"Now, take off your hood..."
Despite robbing a bank, with the police potentially arriving at any moment, the Red Hood leader showed no urgency, pointing his gun at David with amusement.
"Let's see who you are. Are you that infamous orphan from the Wayne family, or some police officer who thinks he can take us all down?"
"If you really are Bruce Wayne, you won't have to worry about your afterlife."
A few of the thugs holding guns burst into laughter.
"We're not like that idiot Joe Chill, who killed the richest couple in Gotham for a pearl necklace."
The harsh voices echoed through the hall. David saw 'Red Hood Five' raise his hand, the veins on the back of it bulging.
Joe Chill, a timid street thug whom even gangs wouldn't take in, became infamous after killing the Wayne couple, leading to the tragedy that everyone in Gotham knew.
Under the threat of the gun, 'Red Hood Five' had no choice but to stiffly remove his mask, revealing the face of a middle-aged man with a thick black beard, his expression one of indignation at being misunderstood.
"Five?"
In the brief moment a few Red Hood thugs hesitated, "Red Hood Five" flicked his wrist. A miniature remote control shot out from his sleeve, and he pressed it down with lightning speed.
*BANG!*
The bank's heavy, solid glass doors shattered.
The explosion's shockwave swept through the hall, sending shards of glass flying. The blast wave knocked the Red Hood thugs to the ground.
Almost simultaneously, a smoke bomb landed on the floor.
"Red Hood Five" spun around, intending to tackle David and dive behind the bank counter with him to avoid the gunfire that would surely follow.
But Bruce, who had turned and lunged like a wild beast, felt his shoulder hit something like a bronze statue weighing hundreds of pounds. He grunted and looked up in surprise.
It wasn't that he hadn't considered the young kid might know martial arts, but no matter how skilled, a person's body weight couldn't be changed. With a surprise attack, how could someone proficient in over a hundred martial arts styles not even budge him?
David, who didn't feel the need to dodge, glanced at a wrinkled patch of skin on the neck beneath the astonished middle-aged man's face. He chuckled and casually flung Batman behind the solid wood counter.
Batman, still green at the start of his career, was a bit unpolished in his planning, but he had always had the habit of leaving a contingency.
"Open fire, kill him!"
Seven or eight submachine guns opened up simultaneously. Bullets roared from their barrels, and the metallic torrent easily pierced the thick counter. Bruce Wayne ducked, covering his head as he lay on the ground.
One by one, the gleaming yellow bullets struck David's body, instantly losing all kinetic energy and clattering to the ground.
"Cease fire!"
After hundreds of bullets had been fired, the Red Hood leader commanded in a low voice.
From within the slowly dissipating smoke, a tall, slender figure with a blurred outline stood, unmoving.
The Red Hood thugs waited for the figure, which should have been riddled with bullets, to fall backward.
But in the smoke...
A dangerous purple light flickered to life.
"What is that?"
A thug frowned, raising his gun, squinting to make out what had lit up.
*Fzzt!*
A laser beam shot out from the smoke. A searing pain in his chest, he looked down in stunned disbelief.
A blood hole, about as thick as a thumb, had pierced straight through his heart from front to back.
*Bang!*
The body fell, and bright red quickly spread across the hall floor.
"Kill him!"
Aiming at the figure in the smoke, the Red Hood thugs fired in panic.
Using the counter as cover, Bruce Wayne peered out from behind it, his eyes wide with disbelief.
Fwoosh, fwoosh!
Not far in front of him, the handsome young man in the trench coat stood in place, raising an arm and forming a gun shape with his hand.
Like in a silent black and white film, imagining his finger was a gun, a cool cowboy dueling with bandits. Before his parents were lost, Bruce Wayne's childhood was no different; he had played with his fingers as guns in the fields of his family's estate.
But at this moment, something truly shot out from the fingertips of that figure, not bullets—but streaks of purple laser!
Time seemed to slow down at this moment. In the bank hall, seen from the side, the upright figure's expression was casual, as if playing a game, leisurely shooting out finger-beams one after another.
But it was like the Grim Reaper calling out names.
The laser, burning the air, seared through the chests of fleeing thugs, their hair standing on end, unable to escape. Blood holes bloomed in their chests, and bodies collapsed to the ground.
[Shock from Bruce Wayne +43...]
"How... how did this guy do that?"
I added an extra chapter close to midnight yesterday and slept a bit late. Woke up around noon, and my head still hurts a little. I'll adjust the schedule slightly. The updates won't be less, just a bit later. The update scheduled for early morning will be moved to tomorrow during the day, and I'll write more to make up for it then.
Sorry, please keep reading. (ω)
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