novelonline Chapter 4652 Desperate Escape (24)
Chapter 4652 Desperate Escape (24)
Chapter 4652 A Deadly Escape (Twenty-Four)
"No way, I didn't expect you to have this skill." Stark looked Greed up and down with some surprise. "How did you find the center of gravity of these bricks so accurately? Just by feel?"
“This is my talent,” Greed said, looking at the monitor. Their screen wasn’t that dark; it was equipped with night vision. Therefore, Stark could see Pride laying the bricks clearly. He also noticed that the force on each brick was correct.
"That's talent, that's talent. This dungeon looks like it's yours to run," the Scarecrow couldn't help but complain. "Oh, wait, it is yours. But you can't be so biased towards yourself, can you?"
Greed, however, seemed to have anticipated something and said, "Do you think the other me has an advantage? I can only tell you that there are gains and losses. It would be a miracle if he could be the first to pass the level."
“I see no hope that he won the championship,” Mephisto said, arms crossed. “In fact, they are the fastest right now, almost at Balance. They are in the first group.”
"It won't be that long," he said, his gaze fixed greedily on the arrogant expression.
"This level is way too easy, isn't it?" the clown muttered, somewhat dissatisfied. "You can pass it with acrobatics; it requires absolutely no skill. They should really electrify the ladder."
"But the next challenge is a big one." The scarecrow rubbed his hands together excitedly. "What will they choose? To donate blood or not to donate blood? To trust those behind them or not?"
"They're here, they're here!" Mephisto said, pointing at the screen. "Schiller and that Batman are here. Will they choose to donate blood?"
Then what happened next was completely unexpected, leaving them speechless. Having never seen anything like it before, Stark was the first to ask the existential question: "What are they doing???"
Everyone turned to look at Greed. Greed coughed twice and said, "What did I tell you? Even if they have an advantage, they'll quickly squander it. That's the downside of going crazy; you can't control when or what kind of madness you have."
"Hey! Hey! Hey!" Stark nearly jumped up. "What are you doing! What are you doing! Don't pry up the floor tiles! My machine!!!"
"Hiss..." Greed gasped. He quickly adjusted the panel data, but unfortunately the peak power had soared too high and he couldn't bring it down in time. Pride still managed to pry the floor tile off.
"Agent! Agent!!!" Greed shouted, "I knew this would happen! Agent, get in there now!!!"
The agent walked over, looking speechless. Greedy pointed to the equipment box next to him, "Hurry up, get ready, the next group is coming!"
After Bruce and the Arrogance Group left, a fully armed figure appeared at the checkpoint. It was an agent in full protective gear, pushing a cart full of tools directly out of the maintenance passage. He adjusted his mask and goggles and then began cleaning.
The detective looked at the blood everywhere and the messy floor tiles, and couldn't help but sigh deeply. Greed really knows how to give him work. If he were just a crime scene cleaner, that would be one thing, but these two were completely inexplicable; they made a mess of the place and now he had to clean it up.
But there was no other way; they'd already taken the job and were already here. The detective had no choice but to pick up the mop and start cleaning.
First, I sprinkled the special cleaner on the floor, then started mopping and scraping with a squeegee. A lot of blood had seeped into the grout lines, which couldn't be wiped away, and there wasn't enough time, so I just covered it with the original grout sealant.
The most troublesome thing was the brick that had been pried off. The detective stared at the brick, his cursing echoing throughout the monitoring room.
"How could we possibly go back home like this?! That damned arrogance even scraped off all the grout, and in his madness, he didn't forget to mess with the bricklayer!"
He filled the gaps back in with bricks, but because of the lack of adhesive, the bricks would sink when stepped on. Having no other choice, he used grout to seal the gaps, pressing all the bricks together as much as possible so that they wouldn't dent too much unless stepped on forcefully.
After finally cleaning up the blood and putting the bricks back in, Greed shouted again, "Wait! Check for any remaining marks. We can't let them leave any marks!"
The detective had no choice but to thoroughly inspect the entire room. Before he could finish, Greed shouted again, "Room number two! Charles and his men have carved something in room number two! Go and grind it off!"
The detective had no choice but to carry his tools back into the maintenance tunnel. Just as he was about to leave, Greed shouted, "Wait a minute, they're not gone yet!"
The agent waited in the passageway for a while, and once he was sure the people outside had left, he hurried out. He then discovered that Eric and Charles had used an iron rod to carve their names into the bricks on the ground, and even wrote "I was here."
"Can't you have some manners?!" The agent pulled a grinding wheel from his toolbox, opened it, and started grinding. Fortunately, the two felt pressed for time and didn't grind too deeply, just enough to remove a layer from the surface of the floor tile.
But simply sanding it off wouldn't do; the texture of the floor tiles was completely different from the others. The detectives had to first create some fake texture, and then sprinkle some water on it to make it look old. Just as they finished, they heard a noise from the passageway, so they quickly pulled the cart back into the maintenance passageway.
"Quick, quick, someone's carved graffiti in room three too!" Greed said into the walkie-talkie. "Go and remove it!"
The detectives then went through the corridor to room number three to investigate the traces. Meanwhile, those in the monitoring room began to examine the condition of the room filled with steel needles.
“Wait a minute, if the other one of you can’t control your power, then that lever… okay, they skipped the level.” Mephisto sighed.
On the monitor screen, Arrogance pulled down the lever that required the ceiling to be smashed down to open the secret passage. The lever was supposed to have a locking mechanism, requiring a sudden, immense force to remove it. But unfortunately, in addition to the ceiling collapsing, Schiller also possessed a sudden, immense force. He simply pulled the lever down.
The lever that would cause the ceiling to fall was located under the platform; if they didn't pull it, the ceiling wouldn't fall. They were the first to arrive, and the ceiling was very high, allowing them to walk directly into the secret passage.
Once they're inside, they don't need to worry about the levers under the platform anymore. They just need to wait for the ceiling to slowly lower until they can step on it, and then they can pass the level.
"A complete design flaw," the Joker commented. "More importantly, by not restricting this madman's power, they can skip over any level that requires strength."
“They’re both like that, so just let them jump,” Mephisto said. “They’ll just waste their time hurting each other anyway, they won’t get first place, and they won’t take your dear Batman’s place. Don’t worry about it.”
The Joker simply pursed his lips and remained silent. However, compared to what followed, the situation with Pride and Bruce couldn't be considered a design flaw at all. Because what followed was the truly major accident.
At that moment, they were cheering for Loki, who was huddled in the secret passage, unable to move.
"That's right, that's exactly what we want to see!" The scarecrow clenched its fist. "Step on it, green eyes, don't let us down!"
The clown, clearly excited, resumed his dramatic, rhythmic tone: "If you stepped on it, you could even feel your brother's spasms as he was crushed to death. Such a thrilling moment doesn't come often in your life, does it, Norse god? Hahahaha!"
Just as they were filled with anticipation for what was to come, the only surveillance footage still recording the previous room suddenly zoomed in. It showed Anatoly and Lucifer.
"Hiss..." Greed gasped, "Detective, what kind of work did you do? How did they find the bricks were... Oh! No! No, no, no!"
Greed and Stark's scream rang out almost simultaneously. Anatoly had begun digging into the soil beneath the floor tiles.
After digging a hole, use bricks to separate the crowbar from the machine, then place another brick under the crowbar and start prying the machine vigorously.
"Wait! Wait a minute!!!" Stark shouted, "You can't pry it open like that! It's a very sophisticated device, you'll break it!!!"
As the machine emitted a teeth-grinding screech and the entire device was pried askew, the protective shield surrounding the robotic arm collapsed with a clang. Anatoly glanced at the structure and instantly understood what it was supporting.
So he changed his angle slightly and continued prying. Not satisfied with just prying, he used the pried-off floor tiles as a shield in front of him and started pushing the already tilted device, even getting Lucifer to help him push.
This was even more alarming; the entire machine slowly tilted to a 45-degree angle. The edge of the machine's protective cover got stuck on the robotic arm, pushing it up and locking it in place so it couldn't move at all.
Suddenly, everyone in the room with the steel needle ceiling felt the pressure on their shoulders lighten abruptly.
At this point, Harley and Pamela were already so exhausted they could barely kneel, drenched in sweat, their hands on the exit button. Thor and Loki were panting heavily, and Charles collapsed the instant the pressure stopped. Batman and Superman weren't faring much better; Batman even fainted from blood loss and leaned against a pillar, prompting Superman to quickly reach out and pull him up.
It's fair to say that, apart from the arrogant and Bruce who skipped levels, the other teams were almost unable to hold on and nearly suffered a total defeat.
Anatoly stood in the room, listening intently. Although he couldn't hear any human voices, he could feel that some subtle vibrations had stopped. He gave a knowing look and smiled smugly.
“Looks like we’ve played the savior again,” Anatoly said to Lucifer. “Let’s go see what the next level is like.”
Everyone in the monitoring room looked grim.
“I think you can postpone considering bringing him to Hell,” Mephisto said, rubbing his hands together rather tactfully. “My palace is fine; there’s no need to move just yet. What do you think?”
"This is utter nonsense!" the scarecrow shouted in dissatisfaction. "Don't they know they can't just destroy the game environment?! Can't they have any sense of public decency?!"
“I should be saying that!” Stark roared. “I put in a lot of effort to build that mechanism! It was supposed to be a perfect design, and we almost succeeded!”
"Where did that guy come from?" The Joker frowned as he looked at Greed. "How come I've never heard of him before?"
"All you need to know is that recently, most Batmen in the multiverse were digging deep to find him, that's all." Greed's words were deadly. "I don't know how strong he is, I only know that the people in Arkham Asylum don't get this kind of treatment."
The Joker flew into a rage, leaping into the air. "Batman searched high and low for him?! A damn... damn..."
The clown stammered for a long time but couldn't find a suitable adjective. In this respect, he was quite principled, emphasizing precise attacks. But considering his observations, he found Anatoly to be a very difficult person to evaluate.
You say he's reckless, but he's actually calculated things precisely; you say he lacks artistry, but he has his own philosophical theory, which he explains very clearly; you say he doesn't follow the rules, but he's not doing it for his own benefit; you say he's cunning and treacherous, but in the end, he actually succeeded.
"Damn Soviets," Stark could only say. "They were born to be my nemesis."
"That's true." Greed shrugged.