The Performance Begins
Although this service area was abandoned, its basic facilities were all available. In particular, the surveillance system basically covered every corner of the gas station, the front of the main building, and the two Commercial Streets.
It was just that the power supply to the service area was currently shut off, so nothing could be used... But to Chen Ling, this wasn't a difficult matter.
As long as he could restore the power supply, the surveillance covering the entire service area could reconnect. They could record everything here and simultaneously broadcast it to anyone on the Internet.
The Internet existed in this era. Even if there wasn't a single Audience member here, there could be countless Audience members online "witnessing" this Performance of slaughter!
But the problem now was... where to find these Audience members?
Chen Ling could naturally broadcast the footage to every electronic device, easily letting millions of people watch it. But this was, after all, a murder Performance. If he really did that, it would cause an extremely terrible social impact. And he was afraid that before he and Nie Yu even finished fighting, the police or military would arrive here.
The scale of the Audience didn't need to be too large, and there couldn't be children or innocent people among them. It would be best if they also wouldn't call the police...
Such an Audience, perhaps there was only one place to find them.
Chen Ling took a step, his figure walking downwards from the clouds step by step.
His figure landed lightly on the roof of the service area's main building. This was about five stories high and was also the highest point sandwiched in the center of the two Commercial Streets.
"He indeed came..."
At this moment, on the second floor of a certain shop on the Commercial Street, Nie Yu saw this scene through the gap in the curtains, his eyes flashing with sinister cold glints.
He took a deep breath, his hand gripping the hilt of the Hunting Knife in his chest, and slowly pulled it out...
The sharp blade withdrew from his flesh and blood. Gurgling fresh blood splashed all over the ground as the blade broke through the air. In the reflection of the rain-covered glass, Nie Yu's face was as pale as paper.
Although he hadn't cleared the [Demon-Suppressing Blood Map] and his Rank was still locked at the Fourth Order, the current situation left him no time to slowly clear it... Only by killing Chen Ling and leaving here would he have the opportunity to do more things.
Holding the bloodstained Hunting Knife in one hand and carrying the Hunting Rifle on his back, his eyes were fixed on the figure on the roof not far away, like an extremely patient Hunter looking for a flaw.
But Chen Ling's actions in the next moment exceeded his expectations.
Chen Ling was seen walking in front of a cabinet resembling a transformer. With a light touch of his palm on it, fine electric arcs directly exploded from the cabinet. At the same time, roaring thunder echoed in the clouds!
Rumble—!!
As a bolt of lightning tore across the sky, Nie Yu saw the corners of Chen Ling's mouth on the roof slowly curl into a smile...
Immediately after, neon signs that had long been silent in the darkness lit up continuously from the building beneath Chen Ling's feet towards the two Commercial Streets!
Clack clack clack clack—
In various shops, neon signs of different colors tore through the urgent rain curtain in the darkness. This abandoned service area seemed to be completely awakened by Chen Ling, blooming with a dreamlike radiance in the Unregarded night rain.
These neon signs gradually lit up the streets and also lit up Nie Yu's face in the darkness. Amidst his astonished gaze, they lit up everything here...
At the same time, what Nie Yu didn't notice was that the surveillance cameras scattered throughout the streets also silently activated.
Blinding electric sparks spewed from the electrical cabinet, like the bright spotlights before the opening of a Stage. Before these spotlights, Chen Ling raised his hand and forcefully tore at his own chin!
Riiiiip—
A layer of facial skin scattered into nothingness with the wind. The Great Crimson Theatrical Robe danced wildly against the wind in the rainstorm. The surging electric sparks illuminated half of Chen Ling's face, and his smile interspersed with light and shadow grew increasingly radiant...
The Audience was in position, the Stage was in position, and the actor was in position;
He slowly crouched down, his fingertip tapping his lips and then landing on the puddle beneath him, like an actor lightly kissing the Stage before a Performance. A ripple in the puddle shattered his face into surging starlight.
He muttered to himself:
"The Performance... begins."
...
America.
Las Vegas.
A man wearing a white Suit held a glass of red wine, calmly walking through a resplendent Casino. The excited shouts of gamblers or the red-eyed roars of those making desperate bets filled his ears.
Some people's chips flew on the card tables, some people's fates were crushed by the roulette wheel, and some people's red wine swayed in their glasses.
The man merely passed quietly among the gamblers, like a ghost that didn't exist.
Right at this moment, the phone in his pocket suddenly vibrated, as if a call was coming in. The man naturally took it out, saw the footage on the screen, and suddenly stopped in his tracks.
A look of surprise flashed in his eyes.
"Mister Zhang, do you need us to arrange lunch for you?" A blond waiter walked to his side and asked respectfully.
"No... no need."
The man's attention was now entirely on the footage on the phone screen. He waved his hand. "I want to rest for a while, don't let anyone disturb me."
"Yes, Mister."
While speaking, the man opened the door to a VIP room in the Casino. The luxurious crystal chandelier illuminated everything in the room brightly. He walked straight to the desk and sat down, only to find that his computer had also booted up at some unknown point, jumping to the exact same footage as on his phone.
On the computer screen right now, the URL of the dark web had automatically opened, and the main page of the website was completely covered by a live broadcast... The most crucial point was that this footage unexpectedly didn't even have a close option.
"A forced pop-up window, and it can't be closed?" The man crossed his legs on the chair, looking at the footage on the screen with great interest. "The dark web... can actually be hacked? Interesting..."
Right now, in the top right corner of the footage, the number of viewers was still frantically increasing. "Forced pop-up" + "cannot be closed" almost completely locked all the users of the entire dark web here. Besides watching, they couldn't do anything else.
The number of viewers right now had already surpassed ten thousand.
Since it couldn't be closed, the man simply set the footage to full screen. The red wine in his glass swayed gently as his gaze focused on the footage... The image quality wasn't clear, as if recorded by a surveillance camera. In the footage, a large number of neon signs lit up in the rainstorm. In the distance, on the roof of a building, a crimson robe was fluttering in the wind.
"The location is on the mainland?" The man raised an eyebrow in surprise when he saw the Chinese characters on the neon signs.
The footage remained fixed here all along, leaving the man somewhat clueless. Just as he was gradually losing his patience, a bloodstained figure suddenly stepped through the rain curtain, holding a Hunting Knife, and walked slowly towards that crimson robe.
Although it was only for an instant, the man still clearly saw his side profile. The swaying red wine in his glass paused slightly, and his eyes narrowed into slits...
"The 'Hunter'... it's him??"