Matt's hearing was indeed remarkable. He could hear people's heartbeats and voices from incredibly far away, and even judge the shape and details of objects by the way sound bounced off them.
Unfortunately, Matt was blind. He couldn't distinguish colors, so it was difficult for him to tell an alarm from other objects by appearance alone.
"You don't need to worry about that. We can find out whether they have cameras or alarms," Luo Xia said confidently.
Just moments ago, Luo Xia had secretly sent out Violet and Li Bai, the two tiny robots, to scout ahead.
On the road, a cat leisurely padded toward the entrance to the underground parking garage.
But to Matt's ears, the cat was actually two tiny robots clinging tightly to each other.
"D-do we really have to do this princess-carry thing? I think I could ride on your shoulders instead. Then I'd be able to see farther," Violet said to Li Bai.
"Forgive me, young lady, but I cannot abide a woman riding on my shoulders. This is a matter of masculine dignity. I cannot compromise," Li Bai replied solemnly.
"Male chauvinist!" Violet protested, but she didn't struggle. She simply let Li Bai carry her along.
When they reached the entrance to the underground parking garage, the cat did nothing to put the two Russian gang members guarding it on alert.
There was a booth like a security kiosk at the entrance. From outside, they could see monitors inside, suggesting the area was equipped with cameras. A Russian was sitting in the booth, watching a computer.
Carrying Violet, Li Bai generated a magnetic force beneath his feet, allowing him to walk easily along the metal exterior of the booth. When he reached the window, the cat's appearance finally caught the attention of the Russian gang member inside.
He waved his hand, apparently trying to shoo the stray cat away. But in the next instant, a flash of light sparked in Li Bai's palm, and a fine metal sword had already pierced the man's right eye. The blade drove straight into his brain, then blossomed like a peacock's tail, turning his brain to mush.
That single strike killed him outright.
Li Bai then carried Violet through the open window and jumped into the booth.
"Miss Violet, I'll leave the rest to you. I'm going to deal with those two villains. Please wait here."
Li Bai set Violet down, then lightly leaped onto the head of the dead Russian gang member and pulled out the sword.
The blade was still smeared with blood and brain matter, but Li Bai didn't care. He leaped into the air and flew out of the booth as a white dove.
The two Russian gang members outside stared at the dove in confusion, wondering where it had come from and why they hadn't noticed it before.
The next moment, the dove flapped over to one of them. Before he could react, a flash of silver flickered, and his throat was slit open. His arteries and windpipe were severed, spraying blood all over the other man.
Neither of them could react to the sudden death. The second man soon followed in the first's footsteps: a sword pierced his eye socket, and his brain was churned to mush.
"Ten paces to kill a man, a thousand miles without a trace. What a pity, what a pity—this was more than ten paces," Li Bai remarked as he stood before the corpses.
It wasn't his fault. The two men had been standing close together, but that was by ordinary human standards. Li Bai was only fifteen centimeters tall, so those dozen or so steps of his amounted to just one human stride.
Li Bai's swift triple kill had taken less than ten seconds. In that brief time, Violet had also breached the computer system and taken complete control of every camera and alarm in the underground parking garage.
Unfortunately, the cameras seemed to be installed only near the entrance. They couldn't see what was happening inside.
Through the connection to the AllSpark, Luo Xia learned that Li Bai and Violet had succeeded. He hurried to the entrance with Matt.
Seeing the three corpses, Matt opened his mouth, about to say something to Luo Xia, but Luo Xia cut him off: "If we don't take them out, all it'll take is one of them shouting, and Harry will be in danger. You can choose not to kill when you're out fighting crime; I won't interfere with your freedom. But lives are at stake here, and I don't think the lives of these scum are worth more than the life of an innocent boy."
Matt hesitated, but in the end, he didn't argue.
He was a saint, possessed of an extraordinary sense of justice and kindness. But he was also a lawyer who could assess a situation rationally.
Luo Xia was right. If they wanted to rescue the hostages, refusing to kill could easily expose them and put the hostages in danger.
"Once we've rescued everyone, I hope you won't slaughter them all," Matt said to Luo Xia.
"Don't worry. I only want Harry safe. I don't care whether the others live or die, so I won't go out of my way to kill them all," Luo Xia readily agreed.
Matt felt a little helpless, but he had no choice but to continue working with Luo Xia.
Standing at the entrance to the underground parking garage, Matt listened intently to everything inside.
Luo Xia waited patiently. With Violet in control, there was no risk of triggering any alarms.
"There are two levels inside, with seventeen guards. They're all armed. Your Harry is being held on the second basement level, in a locked room. Wait... It sounds like there's more than one hostage," Matt said in surprise.
Luo Xia frowned. This didn't match the original plan. Besides Harry Osborn, had the Russian gang kidnapped someone else?
Luo Xia didn't know, but he wasn't about to give up because of this unexpected turn. They were already in action; there was no stopping the plan now. At most, they could free the other hostages while rescuing Harry.
After Matt confirmed it was safe, Luo Xia had Li Bai turn into a cat again and go inside to scout.
This time, they were lucky. The seven guards on the first level seemed so confident in the three men at the entrance that they were actually asleep when Li Bai went in.
It was a heaven-sent opportunity. With Sword Shadow Light Splitting, every flash of his blade struck another guard. This time, however, Li Bai didn't kill them. He drove his sword into their spines, leaving them paralyzed and helpless. The guards felt a sharp pain in the backs of their necks, then found themselves unable to move at all—or even speak.
Their injuries weren't immediately fatal, but unless their severed spinal nerves were reconnected in time, the rest of their lives would be little different from those of vegetables.
This was much more complicated than killing them with a single sword strike. Without his exquisite swordsmanship and thorough knowledge of human anatomy, Li Bai could never have done it. But Li Bai felt that since he had promised Matt he would avoid killing whenever possible, he had to keep his word.
Matt could hear that all seven men still had heartbeats. He understood that Luo Xia was accommodating him, and felt deeply grateful. He immediately focused and continued listening for what was happening on the second basement level.
Soon, Matt had "heard" every detail of the second level.
Matt walked over to the wall, removed the cover from a vent, then said, "If we go down this ventilation duct, we'll enter the hostage room directly. There are only two guards inside."
The vent was extremely narrow. An ordinary person could never fit through it, but Li Bai could crawl inside.
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