In the dead silence of Li Jing Square, everyone stared blankly at the object hanging below the billboard—it appeared so abruptly, like the ovary of an alien suddenly hanging in the sky in a horror film.
One moment, people's attention was focused on Blue Arc and Green Wing;
The next moment, they saw such a strange object descending from the sky, hanging motionless below the billboard, having tied up five bandits.
At this moment, LED giant screens all around were reflecting this horrific scene.
Under everyone's gaze, the pitch-black "Insect Pupa" slowly opened, revealing the human form inside: dressed in a black tailcoat, wearing a mask with distinct angles, holding a gray book in his hands; his entire body wrapped in pitch-black restraints, like black water waves rippling in the air, slowly rotating around him.
Blue Arc probably could never have imagined that the person behind the mask of this "Insect Pupa Man"... was none other than the newly transformed Ji Minghuan, to be precise, it's a game character generated by Ji Minghuan using superpower in the real world, which is Blue Arc's brother—"Gu Wenyu".
As the giant pupa disintegrated, the restraints that formed the pupa now floated like tentacles in the sky behind him. This scene looked particularly bizarre; he seemed suspended upside down, lying in a black curtain that opened and closed, quietly flipping through The Outsider in his hands.
Just then, a delayed scream burst from the crowd.
"Oh, your screams are so enthusiastic..." Insect Pupa Man hung upside down below the billboard, a restraint belt connected to his back, the other end hanging at the top of the billboard.
He lowered his eyes as he flipped through The Outsider, playfully teasing, "I can see how much you all like me."
"I'm saying it again, get this person out of here, or I'll detonate the bomb on the hostages!" Green Wing shouted intolerantly, raising his hand to point at the strange object hanging in the air.
"I said... he's not one of us." Blue Arc emphasized again.
"Then who is he!" Green Wing's veins bulged, he raised his head and shouted at Insect Pupa Man, "No matter who you are, get out of here immediately, or I'll instantly detonate the bomb! Not just the hostages, half of Li Jing Square will be leveled by the explosion!"
However, this strong speech was met with deathly silence.
Insect Pupa Man, through his mask, remained motionless as he looked at Green Wing.
He closed the book, his expression calm as he said, "Calm down, Mr. Green Wing, but if you have the guts to blow up, then go ahead... but you probably won't be stupid enough to do that, because even if your brain is hard to use, you should realize: if the hostages die, then you lose your bargaining chip against us, then who would end up in a worse position between us?"
"You..."
Green Wing was stumped, Insect Pupa Man's words hit him right in the mind—he could use hostages to threaten characters like Blue Arc, but clearly, the weirdo hanging below the billboard is not a righteous character: he never cared about the hostages' life or death from the start, so Green Wing's tactics lost their meaning.
Blue Arc lowered his voice and asked his teammates through the built-in earpiece, "Who is this character, do you know him?"
"No." The female voice hesitated for a moment, "We've never seen him."
"I'm warning you, release my subordinates!" Green Wing brandished his wings, ready to attack, "Otherwise, I'll kill you."
"Release?" Insect Pupa Man paused, "Alright then, as you wish."
As the words fell, the restraint belts strangling the five bandits suddenly tightened, snapping their necks. Five heads slid down from the air in unison, landing with a clear "pop" on the ground, and then blood burst out endlessly from the severed necks of the five headless corpses like a fountain.
And below the blood fountain formed by five headless corpses, five hostages knelt in shock. Because their mouths were stuffed with rags, they couldn't utter a sound, but they were sprayed with blood, their heads red, surrounded by a pool of blood.
Green Wing was dumbfounded, his face extremely gloomy.
"Didn't I just follow your request and release them, Mr. Green Wing... although I just released the 'heads', why do you look so unhappy?"
Without lifting his head, Insect Pupa Man flipped the pages of the book, using the pitch-black restraints to pick up the bandits' heads, and respectively presented them before the eyes of the hostages, placing them on the ground in front of them.
Then, he used the restraint to untie the ropes binding the hostages' hands, and then tied the robbers' guns, handing them to the hostages.
Each person a gun, distributed very fairly.
The hostages stared blankly at the heads lying in front of them and then dumbly looked at the gun held by the restraint in front of them.
They hadn't yet come back to their senses, and amidst the sound of fingers brushing the pages, Insect Pupa Man casually opened his mouth, "They just held guns to the back of your heads, do you not feel resentful? Now it's your turn. Hmm..."
Reaching this point, he flipped to the next page, focusing his gaze on the text, the corners of his mouth slightly raised under the mask, "What goes around comes around, this is very fair."
In the next moment, one of the hostages suddenly screamed. It was a boy in school uniform.
Blue Arc furrowed his brow but didn't act rashly.
At this moment, Ji Minghuan suddenly heard a cold, icy alert sound in his ear.
[Warning: Role-playing anchor deviation: 0% → 30% (When deviation exceeds "70%", the character has a certain probability of going berserk)]
[Scenario Reminder: The character you are playing is defined as a "gray character," and your methods should be more "peaceful," otherwise you will not be able to gain the trust of "righteous characters."]
"Oh no... My God, how can I just twist off these scumbags' heads? Doing that means my story couldn't be adapted into a children's animated series, and everyone needs a less R18 model." Insect Pupa Man raised his hand to his forehead and sighed slightly, "But better late than never for remedying the situation, doesn't every villain deserve a chance at redemption?"
Saying this, he lifted the heads that had fallen into the pool of blood one by one with the restraint belt, then reattached them atop the mutilated bodies, tying a loop around the neck with the belt and making a knot, making it look as if... the heads were never separated from the bodies of the thugs.
"Yes, that's better... almost as good as new."
Insect Pupa Man nodded, looking quite self-satisfied.
The square fell into silence, and people's gazes toward him were even more filled with fear.
[Warning: Role-playing anchor deviation: 30% → 40% (When deviation exceeds "70%", the character has a certain probability of going berserk)]
"Never mind... it's okay, life inevitably has one or two blemishes, small flaws." Insect Pupa Man shook his head, casually flipping through the book as he spoke, "You know, like how the most popular in manga for young boys are hot-blooded comics, while the most popular animated films are those by Hayao Miyazaki. So it would be troublesome to have inappropriate scenes, after all, I'm hoping for my future biopic to appear in school textbooks."
After saying this, he glanced sideways at the screaming boy among the hostages, raised his right index finger, and pointed at one of the thugs hanging above, "Kid, it was just some kind of holographic projection effect, actually, their heads are still nicely attached to their necks, hmm... don't believe me, look."
Before finishing the sentence, the restraint belt slightly loosened, and a head fell from mid-air, landing in the pool of blood. Bright red liquid splashed at the boy's feet, staining his shoes red.
Immediately, a suppressed scream erupted again from among the hostages, snapping the others out of their daze, causing them all to start screaming.
For a moment, they didn't know if they had been rescued or fallen into the hands of someone whose methods were even more bizarre and unpredictable.
[Warning: Role-playing anchor deviation: 40% → 42% (When deviation exceeds "70%", the character has a certain probability of going berserk)]
"Pure accident..."
Insect Pupa Man raised an eyebrow, covering his ears with one hand to muffle the screams, while closing the book with the other.
"Who... are you?" In the silence, Blue Arc gazed at him, asking almost word for word.
"Actually, I've been wanting to ask who I am... Objectively speaking, I'm not a righteous character, but neither am I a villain. Hmm, so what exactly am I?"
Hanging upside down under the streetlamp, Insect Pupa Man murmured while raising his right hand, the restraint belt extended, grasping the bloody head on the ground, and then rapidly retracted, bringing the thug's head back into his palm.
Not far away, a row of police cars stood parked, red and blue lights alternately reflected on his mask, flickering like a phantom.
Along his right hand, the restraint belt surged upward like waves, systematically wrapping and covering the bloody head, making it look like a black "ball," perhaps a good hand-feel for bouncing.
Under thousands of eyes, Ji Minghuan under the mask lowered his gaze, casually bouncing the black ball while speaking indifferently, "I'm merely a... 'gray character,' neither wishing to be righteous nor can I be called a villain, strictly speaking, I don't want to be defined. Whatever you believe, Blue Arc, we will be good friends in the future."
Blue Arc murmured, "You killed those thugs."
Insect Pupa Man retorted, "Would you be happier if the hostages were the ones who died?"
"Killing is killing, you must be held accountable by law."
Insect Pupa Man shook his head and sighed, "Boring, I believe this isn't your true thought, just words pressured out by the camera... Let's talk privately, Blue Arc, let me hear your true thoughts."
With that, he slightly tightened his grip on the "ball" and casually threw it toward Blue Arc.
Blue Arc caught the black ball, the restraint belt on top slowly retreated, retracting back to Insect Pupa Man's body surface, turning the ball back into a grim, bloody head.
Holding the thug's head with both hands, blood drenched his metal gloves.
"Well, Mr. Blue Arc, whether you wish to meet is up to you..."
After finishing, Insect Pupa Man flipped through "The Stranger" while waving the restraint belt toward Blue Arc, as if waving goodbye.
Immediately after, his figure was pulled upwards by the restraint belt as if his entire body was free from the constraints of gravity, leaping and traversing through the neon, moving swiftly like a paper figure blown away by the wind, disappearing within seconds into the dense darkness of the night.