(You still can't break the habit of voting only after leaving a comment, Yanzu. -(￢￢)σ)
Roman went blank.
"Y-you're sure you're not joking?" After a long moment, Roman finally came back to his senses and hurriedly asked, "He can really beat Toretto? Could it be that Toretto was going easy on him, like he did with you?"
O'Conner's face darkened. "..."
I roughly knew Toretto had probably gone easy on me before, but could you stop bringing it up every single time?
"He's right. Zhou Yi is indeed a better driver than I am," Toretto chimed in from the side, clearly enjoying Roman's misery. "Roman, keep it up. I believe in you."
"Oh no!" With Toretto himself confirming it, Roman covered his face in despair. "Can someone go slap the me from ten minutes ago?"
After hanging up, Zhou Yi smiled and took out his laptop.
What he needed to do was simple, yet difficult.
Hackers were not omnipotent, much less Zhou Yi, who had learned everything on his own. Although his learning ability and speed had indeed allowed him to master a great deal, completely taking control of an entire city's traffic lights... required a little internal assistance. For example, a USB drive plugged into a computer inside the traffic control center and directly connected to the server, loaded with a Trojan Horse specifically prepared for this purpose.
Fortunately, that was just as simple for him.
"Did you buy him off?" Zhou Yi asked, gesturing for one of his men to come over.
"We bought him off and gave him a little warning," his subordinate replied. "Just in case he tries anything undesirable."
"Good." Zhou Yi nodded, unplugged the USB drive containing the Trojan Horse he had created from his laptop, and handed it to the man. "Have him plug it in, then pay him what he's owed. He doesn't need to concern himself with the rest."
"Yes."
"Are you ready?" Zhou Yi asked through his earpiece.
"Ready."
"No problem."
"Good to go."
...After everyone answered, Zhou Yi nodded. "I'll be responsible for adjusting the route and controlling the traffic lights in real time. If anything unexpected happens, adapt as needed."
After everyone confirmed once more—
"Begin!"
Because Zhou Yi had stepped in directly, Toretto and the others had never exposed themselves while buying supplies or doing anything similar. Zhou Yi's men had also moved them somewhere even more concealed.
As a result, there would be no showdown between Hobbs and Toretto at the abandoned factory, no one-on-one battle between men as they discussed philosophy. Hobbs was still recuperating at his base, waiting for the satellite to successfully locate Toretto and the others.
Still, compared to the original story, where all the teammates who had fought through life and death with Hobbs were killed, Zhou Yi felt this outcome was much better.
As for the armored vehicle originally meant to draw fire?
On the road, one vehicle drew the attention of most people.
It couldn't be helped. Not only did it look like an armored vehicle, but there was also such a huge thing mounted on its roof.
Firearms were common enough in Rio, but heavy weapons like a Gatling gun were practically never seen!
After all, a weapon capable of firing thousands of rounds per minute, nearly enough for one gun to form an army, was truly overkill in urban combat.
The vehicle had not gone far, only a few blocks, when it suddenly turned right before the police could react, smashed through the barrier, and charged into the police station!
Yes, Zhou Yi had his men rent a large warehouse a few blocks from the police station, then used trucks to move everyone into it. Toretto and the others had been making preparations in that warehouse these past few days, truly pulling off a hidden-in-plain-sight maneuver!
Whether it was the Rio police, Reyes's men, or Hobbs's men, all their searches and focus had been directed toward Rio's slums and abandoned factories.
It was only natural. Unless someone had an omniscient perspective, who would have imagined that a group of wanted criminals were in a large warehouse just a few blocks from the police station, preparing a mad plan to rob the safe holding one hundred million US Dollars inside that very station?
Just as no one would imagine that a wanted fugitive would spend thirteen years as an actor in Hengdian, appear on television many times, become a well-known actor, and even be nominated for Best Supporting Actor, only to be recognized by chance and arrested by the police handling the case—Ji Shiguang!
What people called hiding in plain sight was sometimes not because people were stupid. It was because no one dared to think that way, nor would anyone think that way.
Mental inertia was a terrifying thing.
The police station had plenty of officers, yet nowhere near enough.
The armored vehicle charged through the hail of bullets and into the garage, then accelerated at full speed toward a wall!
With a deafening crash, the wall shattered. Zhou Yi's modified vehicle was fully capable of producing such an effect!
After smashing through the wall, they arrived at the location of the safe: the police station archives room!
In truth, this was indeed the most heavily guarded part of the entire station. If Toretto and the others wanted to charge in from the front, they would have needed to break through countless checkpoints defended by innumerable fully armed police officers.
But the garage...
Their subconscious had made them overlook that.
Who would go through the garage? What would they rob from a garage, police cars?
Rigid thinking led to stiffness. They subconsciously assumed that the wall could not be destroyed, or rather, they had never realized that Toretto and the others would be so reckless as to smash through the wall and come straight before the prize itself, and—
Click! ×2
Toretto and O'Conner connected one end of the steel cables they had prepared in advance to the safe, while firmly securing the other ends to their two cars.
Pfft-pfft-pfft!!! A string of incredibly dense sounds, like farting, rang out. (You can look it up online.)
The armored vehicle had been driven by Zhou Yi's men. After smashing through the wall, they backed it out so Toretto and O'Conner could attach the steel cables to the safe. Meanwhile, they operated the armored vehicle, activated the Gatling gun mounted on it, and began intercepting the police officers preparing to rush in!
That dense fart-like sound was precisely the sound made by the Gatling gun when it went, "Namo Gatling Bodhisattva, six roots purified by the big barrel, three thousand six hundred revolutions in one breath, great compassion delivering all people from the world!"
At once, shell casings poured out like rain, while the ammunition belt rapidly shrank into the gun's barrels as though a gigantic, genuine gold-eating beast lurked inside. Yet Zhou Yi's men showed no reluctance whatsoever, nor any fear or excitement. Their hands did not tremble in the slightest.
Come on, they had played with this thing until they were sick of it back then!
Still, after several years, it seemed rather nice to savor it again.
Guess what world and profession the one after next will be?
Before you continue