There Are Other Hostages

Matt's hearing is truly formidable; not only can he hear the heartbeats and voices of people from an extreme distance, but he can even determine the detailed shape of objects through sound reflection.

However, it is a helpless fact that Matt is blind and cannot distinguish colors, making it difficult for him to differentiate alarms from other objects based on appearance alone.

"You don't need to worry about that; we can find out if they have any cameras or alarms," Luo Xia said confidently.

Just moments ago, Luo Xia had quietly deployed two miniature robots, Violet and Li Bai, to scout the path ahead.

On the street, a cat strolled leisurely, heading toward the entrance of the underground parking garage.

Under Matt's auditory perception, this cat was actually two miniature robots clinging tightly together.

"Must we use this princess-carry style? I actually think I could ride on your shoulders; that way, I could see further," Violet said to Li Bai.

"My apologies, young lady, but This Humble One cannot tolerate a woman riding on his shoulders. This is a man's dignity, and it must not be compromised," Li Bai replied righteously.

"Male chauvinist!" Violet protested, but she didn't act out, instead allowing Li Bai to carry her forward.

By the time they reached the entrance of the underground parking garage, the cat did not alert the two Russian mobsters guarding the gate.

There was a structure resembling a security booth at the entrance; from the outside, one could see monitors inside, suggesting the area was equipped with surveillance cameras. Inside the booth, a Russian man was staring at a computer.

Li Bai carried Violet, a magnetic force generating under his feet that allowed him to walk easily on the metal exterior of the security booth. Once they reached the window, the cat's form finally caught the attention of the Russian mobster inside.

He waved his hand, seemingly trying to shoo the stray cat away. But the next moment, a flash of electric light sparked from Li Bai's palm, and the man's right eye was pierced by a thin metal longsword. The blade drove straight into his brain, then fanned out like a peacock, churning his brain into mush.

With a single strike, the man was thoroughly dead.

Then, Li Bai carried Violet through the open window and jumped into the security booth.

"Miss Violet, I leave the rest to you. I shall go deal with those two villains; please wait a moment."

Li Bai set Violet down, gave a light leap onto the head of the dead Russian mobster, and pulled out his longsword.

The blade was stained with brain matter and blood, but Li Bai didn't care in the slightest; he leaped up and transformed into a white dove, flying out of the security booth.

The two Russian mobsters outside looked at the white dove in confusion, wondering where this bird had come from and why they hadn't noticed it earlier.

However, the next moment, the white dove fluttered in front of one of them. Before he could react, a flash of silver light appeared, and the man's throat was slashed wide open, his arteries and trachea completely severed, spraying blood all over his companion.

Neither of them could react to this sudden death, and the other man soon followed suit, his eye socket pierced by a sword, his brain churned into mush.

"Ten steps to kill a man, leaving no trace for a thousand miles. A pity, a pity, this was well over ten steps," Li Bai lamented before the corpses.

This couldn't be blamed on him; while the two men were standing close together, that was relative to a normal human's size. Li Bai was only fifteen centimeters tall, so those dozen steps were equivalent to only one human step.

Li Bai's clean and efficient triple kill took less than ten seconds, but in that short time, Violet had already breached the computer system, taking full control of all the cameras and alarms in the underground parking garage.

Unfortunately, the cameras seemed to be installed only near the entrance of the garage, making it impossible to see what was happening inside.

Through his connection to the AllSpark, Luo Xia knew that Li Bai and Violet had succeeded and quickly brought Matt to the entrance.

Seeing the three mangled corpses, Matt opened his mouth, wanting to say something to Luo Xia, but was cut off by Luo Xia's words: "If we don't take them out, the moment any one of them shouts, Harry will be in danger. You can choose not to kill when you are upholding justice, and I won't interfere with your freedom, but human lives are at stake now. I don't think the lives of these scumbags are worth comparing to an innocent boy."

Matt hesitated for a moment, but ultimately did not argue back.

He was a saint, possessed of a sense of justice and kindness that ordinary people could hardly reach, but he was also a lawyer capable of rationally analyzing problems.

Luo Xia was right; if they wanted to save the boy, not killing might very well lead to their presence being exposed, causing harm to the hostage.

"After you save him, I hope you won't kill everyone else," Matt could only say to Luo Xia.

"Rest assured, I only care about Harry's safety. I don't care about the lives of others, so I naturally won't go out of my way to kill them all," Luo Xia promised readily.

Though Matt felt somewhat helpless, he could only continue to cooperate with Luo Xia.

Standing at the entrance of the underground parking garage, Matt carefully tilted his head to listen to everything inside.

Luo Xia waited patiently as well; with Violet in control, they wouldn't trigger any alarms.

"There are two levels in here, with seventeen guards, all armed. And your Harry is hidden on the second basement level, in a locked room. Wait... there seems to be more than one hostage in here," Matt said in surprise.

Luo Xia frowned upon hearing this; this didn't match the original plan. Could it be that besides kidnapping Harry Osborn, this Russian gang had kidnapped others?

Luo Xia didn't know, but he wouldn't abandon the mission because of this development. Since they had already started, there was no possibility of stopping the plan. At most, he would just release the other hostages while saving Harry.

After Matt confirmed it was safe, Luo Xia had Li Bai transform back into a cat to scout ahead.

This time, their luck was decent; the seven guards on the first level seemed to have great confidence in the three men at the door, and they were actually sleeping when Li Bai entered.

This was a god-given opportunity. With Sword Shadow Light Splitting, every flash meant someone was struck. However, this time, Li Bai did not kill; he simply drove his blade into their spines, turning them into paralyzed cripples. These guards only felt a pain in the back of their necks, and then they were unable to move their entire bodies, unable to even speak.

Such injuries were not immediately fatal, but if the severed spinal nerves could not be reconnected in time, they would be no different from vegetables for the rest of their lives.

This was far more troublesome than simply killing someone with a sword; if Li Bai's swordsmanship weren't so exquisite and his knowledge of human anatomy so profound, this would have been impossible to achieve. However, Li Bai felt that since he had promised Matt he would avoid killing if possible, he should keep his word.

Matt could hear that the heartbeats of these seven people were still steady, and he was quite grateful that Luo Xia had given him this face. He immediately focused his attention and continued to listen to the situation on the second basement level.

Soon, Matt "heard" the situation on the second level clearly.

Matt walked to the wall, removed the cover of an air vent, and said, "Go down through this ventilation duct, and you can enter the hostage room directly. There are only two guards inside."

The ventilation duct was very narrow, and it would certainly be impossible for a normal person to go down through it, but Li Bai could easily crawl inside.