"Ah!" This was the scream of Gotham City's citizens.
"Khada Jhin actually showed up..." This was the live report from the television reporters.
Among the crowd, a down-and-out youth named Jerome stared blankly at the gorgeous flower of flesh and blood outside the bar, muttering to himself, "This feels amazing..."
A seed called madness quietly took root in his heart.
Li Wei did not care about any of that. All he had eyes for now was art!
Art had to be perfect!
At that moment, he stood atop a distant high-rise, dressed in a theatrical costume and wearing a pale mask. One foot rested on the edge of the rooftop, while the extravagantly designed sniper rifle in his hand aimed at Maroney Bar.
"Our performance has begun. Let us open the show..."
"Beginning with a perfect finale—this will be a most unique performance..."
Absurdity Was the Ultimate Aesthetic
With that gunshot, this grand performance finally raised its curtain.
It had to be said that the gang members sent to Maroney Bar possessed at least some professional competence.
After their second-in-command had been turned into a flower of flesh and blood by Li Wei, another minor boss immediately took command.
"Everyone, find cover and return fire through the windows! The enemy is a sniper!"
Under his command, the other gang members hurried through the bar, trying to find windows from which to strike back.
Their strategy was not wrong, but their mistake was that their opponent was Li Wei—and Li Wei was no ordinary sniper!
As early as that afternoon, Li Wei had planted Invisible Lotuses of Universal Admiration beneath every window of the bar.
With this movement, nearly all the Invisible Lotuses of Universal Admiration were triggered at once!
"Boom! Boom! Boom..."
Explosions rang out one after another.
Dark-purple, translucent lotuses bloomed in frantic succession.
In an instant, brilliant colors filled the air, forming a sea of flowers so dazzling it left people entranced.
Yet beneath that romantic sea of flowers lurked a chilling killing intent.
Under the explosions' chain reaction, even the roof of Maroney Bar was blasted to pieces by the shockwaves.
The situation inside the bar was even more miserable.
The gang members who had triggered only one lotus were relatively fortunate. Though losing hands or feet was unavoidable, they still had a chance of surviving.
Those who triggered two lotuses at once were far less fortunate. They did not even have time to groan before being blown into chunks on the spot.
Those chunks scattered across the floor, and many were even flung onto the ground outside the bar.
After landing, the severed pieces of limbs likewise transformed into strange, resplendent flowers of flesh and blood that carpeted the ground.
The sight possessed a beauty that made one's skin crawl.
The surviving gang members inside the bar, however, had no mood to appreciate such beauty. Fear was gradually eating away at them.
No one knew how Khada Jhin had managed to stuff so many explosives into the bar under such tight security, just as no one knew what the hell those explosive translucent lotuses were.
But every gang member in the bar knew one thing now: the bar was no longer safe. No one knew whether more explosives were hidden inside!
This was only the opening act. They had not even seen Khada Jhin yet, and they had already lost two-thirds of their men!
Without cover, facing a sniper in the open plaza was no different from becoming a group of live targets. But their only option was to rush out. Perhaps, by relying on their superior firepower and using the crowd outside as cover, they could kill Khada Jhin and earn themselves a chance to live!
Fear was useless. The gang members from Scott Mental Hospital had already shown everyone else that through their fate.
Khada Jhin's men left no survivors!
"Everyone, grab your weapons! Charge out with me! He's at three o'clock!" The minor boss roared, his eyes bloodshot.
He had survived the explosions, and fortunately, his injuries were not too severe.
At his command, the surviving gang members rushed out of the bar in a single wave.
The gang members' strategy was completely correct.
Just as they had guessed, there were still untriggered Invisible Lotuses inside the bar.
Besides exploding, these Invisible Lotuses could also provide Khada Jhin with vision around them.
With that vision, Li Wei could use the sniper rifle in his hands to pick off the gang members inside the bar one by one!
The sniper rifle in Li Wei's hands was not one of those ordinary weapons made in an arms factory. It was Khada Jhin's Magic Sniper Rifle—Whisper.
Piercing ordinary walls was effortless for it.
Of course, even if those gang members rushed out of the bar, they would not pose any trouble for Li Wei.
They had ultimately underestimated Khada Jhin.
From the rooftop, Li Wei watched the gangsters charge from the bar into the plaza through his scope. If he wanted to kill them, it would take no more than ten seconds—and that was while avoiding harm to anyone else!
From the very beginning, this had been an inescapable killing game!
But Li Wei did not do that, because art needed to be entertaining!
A simple, brutal performance was ugly and vulgar!
When Li Wei noticed the officers outside the bar, led by Gordon, following close behind the gang members and charging in his direction, the corners of his mouth curved beneath his pale mask. A hoarse whisper slipped from his throat.
"Now, the performance will become even more spectacular!"
"Dance for me. Sing for me!"
After his position was exposed, Li Wei did not panic in the slightest, because he had expected this all along.
He had chosen this location because he had never intended to hide.
Could a performance without actors taking the stage still be called a performance?
As his position was exposed, more and more people looked toward the rooftop where he stood.
Gotham TV's cameras also turned in that direction.
"Oh, my God, Khada Jhin is actually up there! That costume of purple, white, and gold reminds me of the emperors of ancient Rome..."
The television reporter promptly began explaining the scene to the audience in front of the camera.
Li Wei also noticed the activity below. Smiling faintly, he straightened atop the rooftop, bent at the waist, and gave the people below a humble bow.
This was the first time everyone had truly seen Khada Jhin's real appearance: theatrical costume, pale mask, and an aura that made people shudder as a chill unconsciously rose from the depths of their hearts.
At that moment, everyone had the illusion that the man standing on the rooftop was not a butcher, but a professional opera actor!
Li Wei raised his gun again and began firing at the gang members below in full view of everyone.
The gang members carried all kinds of light and heavy weapons. They also held other Gotham City citizens hostage as human shields while constantly charging toward the building where Li Wei stood.
This made the officers who wanted to stop them hesitate, afraid of accidental injury. They had no way to act and could only charge after them.
But unfortunately for them, the moment Li Wei opened fire, the situation began to reverse.
Human shields? Hostages?
There were none!
The people held by the gang members usually only heard a soft "whoosh." By the time they came to their senses, the gangster who had just held them hostage had already turned into a gorgeous flower of flesh and blood, lying quietly on the ground behind them.
Gotham TV's cameraman was quite talented. Through his lens, the transition from stillness to motion created an aesthetic of extreme contrast.
The gang members gradually realized that this idea was useless. In their panic, they began pouring firepower toward the rooftop where Li Wei stood.
But that method was equally useless. Setting aside the range and accuracy of their firearms, even when the occasional bullet happened to fly toward Li Wei, he could evade it at any time with an elegant motion.
Instead, the gangsters' blanket fire wounded quite a few other Gotham City citizens.
Seeing that they had no chance of winning, the gang's minor boss understood that only one final method remained—using lives to pave a path forward.
"Brothers, charge with me! As long as we get into that building, he's dead for sure!" The minor boss shouted, his eyes practically splitting apart.
His shout was filled with tragic grandeur, adding a discordant sense of disconnection to the entire scene.
Li Wei frowned from the rooftop. "Noisy!"
The next second, a faint purple gleam pierced through the minor boss's heart. Then, he transformed into a brilliantly blooming flower of flesh and blood.
Li Wei nodded in satisfaction. Now the performance was finally harmonious.
Under the camera, the entire plaza resembled a grand stage, where an exquisite opera was being performed.
The countless noisy sounds of the plaza seemed to become the stage's background music, while the leading actor was the man in theatrical costume standing atop the rooftop.
Everyone present had become supporting characters.
An indescribable elegance surrounded him.
The atmosphere was mad, and people danced gracefully within that eerie mood.
The flowers of flesh and blood spreading outward from Maroney Bar resembled an ever-extending sea of flowers, filled with a suffocating sense of horrifying romance.
At that moment, countless viewers seated before their televisions lost the power of speech. Only shock remained in their hearts; their limited vocabularies could not possibly describe the scene before them.
Yet the host reporter's murmur before the camera spoke their hearts.
"I never thought grotesque, gorgeous, chaotic, elegant, terrifying, and dazzling could describe the same thing..."
"Sure enough, all absurdity is the ultimate aesthetic..."
Hell Joke
Though stunned by the scene before him, Gotham TV's cameraman remained highly professional and did not forget his job.
The camera remained locked on Li Wei and the other lead actors.
Through the live broadcast, all of Gotham saw what was happening here.
After such a huge commotion, even Gotham citizens who had not watched the broadcast at first for various reasons began tuning in after recommendations from their friends.
Even the homeless people on Gotham's streets gathered outside shop windows, watching the broadcast through the televisions inside.
The name Khada Jhin echoed throughout Gotham!
Li Wei's mission was more than halfway complete.
Next, he only needed to bring this grand performance to a perfect close.
On Li Wei's side, under his precise sniping, more and more gang members fell on the path of their charge.
The resplendent sea of flesh-and-blood flowers continued stretching forward, while the number of surviving gang members dwindled.
The officers of the Gotham Police Department also continued following right behind the gang members as they approached the building where Li Wei stood.
"Move it, move it! Hurry up!" Gordon roared.
But at their fastest, the officers remained five meters behind the gang members. No matter how Gordon shouted, they would not overtake them.
"Fuck! We only make a few thousand bucks a month, and we have to take part in something this dangerous. The most ridiculous part is that now we even have to fight alongside these pieces of trash! I really want to shoot them!"
One officer cursed under his breath while reloading.
"Easy, buddy. God knows why the Police Commissioner agreed to Gordon's request. We just need to keep this distance," said the older officer beside him. "Do as I do—just fire a couple shots into the air. No need to risk your life for these scumbags."
As he spoke, he raised his gun and casually fired two shots into the air.
"You've got a point, buddy..."
It was not that Gordon was not trying; he simply could not carry a group of actors and atmosphere extras!
And Li Wei on the rooftop maintained quite a tacit understanding with these Gotham police officers—these police department actors.
Before you continue