Chapter 28

Chapter 28

Chapter 28: Resistance

Li Zu bent down, stretched out his right hand, picked up the toy female warrior with a sword stuck in her chest, and gently placed her into his Prop Box.

It already held enough interesting things.

But they did not yet count as true collectibles, especially now that Li Zu understood these toys' real purpose.

They were not dead. They were merely asleep.

And those who slept could be awakened.

With a light kick to the box, it vanished without a trace.

The dark corner still carried the scent of the female warrior Adeline's blood. It seemed as though her cries of pain and curses still echoed in his ears.

Li Zu turned with a stern expression, but the corners of his mouth kept curling upward.

Nervous laughter syndrome. He suspected Martha Wayne, that female Joker, had affected him with her laughing gas. His mind definitely was not the problem.

Aside from occasionally acting a little outside the rules when he was mentally excited, he felt he was in excellent condition.

Li Zu emerged from the dark corner carrying the Helmet of Nabu.

He walked out with his chest raised and his head held high.

The toy pork hanging on either side swayed in the breeze from the factory fans, like guards lined up to welcome him.

The factory, reeking of greasy pork and fairy-tale plastic, was like a joyful party meant for him alone.

Several corpses lay on the ground.

They were invaders from World War III, Amazonian warriors from Paradise Island who looked remarkably like the *** of World War II.

Dick Grayson panted heavily, half-kneeling on the ground with a rusty iron rod supporting him.

A strip of flesh still hung from the hook, giving off a pungent odor.

Blood ran down the rusty iron rod and dripped into his hand.

"We let one get away!" Dick Grayson heard Li Zu's footsteps. His smile was strange, as if fear, excitement, and madness were three flavors of cheese squeezed into one bowl and messily stirred together with his fingers.

Li Zu had seen that look in many of his fellow patients at Arkham.

He had also seen it in Batman's eyes.

"You're a lunatic!" Boston Brand, one of the dead, floated beside Li Zu and mercilessly cursed him for making the circus's last young survivor take such a risk.

When Li Zu had proposed turning from prey into hunters, Dick had eagerly agreed.

To protect the only brat he knew, Boston had no choice but to take part, becoming the most crucial link in turning the Amazonians against one another.

"Mm-hm." Li Zu still ignored him.

"What do we do next? Let them kill each other, then swoop in at the end and wipe them all out?" Unable to hear the dead man, Dick pushed himself up with the iron rod and asked Li Zu.

His legs were trembling, something that should not have happened to a mature acrobat.

"They'll doubt each other, but they won't kill each other, Dick~" Li Zu explained, as though he were stating an obvious fact.

He turned and took two pieces of plastic pork from an iron rack hook, tossing them onto the ground. Then, seeming to find that inappropriate, he picked them up again and set them on the table.

Finally, he raised the plastic meat saw in his hand and brought it down hard.

In an instant, the plastic meat saw turned into a real iron tool. Its sheer weight smashed the plastic pork into two halves.

Satisfied, Li Zu turned the saw back into a toy and slipped it into the inner pocket of his suit. He crouched down, picked up a piece of plastic pork, and gave it a pat.

Only after confirming it was a size he liked did he stand up with the pork in hand.

Watching Li Zu's meaningless actions while waiting for an answer, Dick finally lost patience. "And then? We did all this, even deliberately let one of them escape to report back, and there's no follow-up? What's your plan?"

His voice shifted from questioning to manic, then to a roar.

A chance to kill his enemies was right in front of him. He could not bear to watch it slip away.

"Dick, it wasn't easy to create this chance to survive." Li Zu shook the plastic pork in his hand. "Come on, bring a gift. You don't want to meet Queen Diana empty-handed, do you?"

"What?"

The crazed Dick froze. He realized he could not understand the man before him at all.

Put simply, he could never grasp Li Zu's true objective.

Whether it was killing Amazonians for revenge or fabricating a rumor to make them turn on one another, those were merely means, not his objective.

"In a moment, we're going to walk out nice and slow, one step at a time."

"Walk out? Just walk out like this?" Dick could not believe it.

Those madwomen definitely wanted them dead, just as Dick wanted nothing more than to kill every last one of them.

"Of course~"

Li Zu walked out first, carrying the Helmet of Nabu in his left hand and a piece of plastic pork in his right.

More than a minute passed without Dick hearing any sounds of fighting. Doubtfully, he followed Li Zu out and found him standing at the entrance with both hands raised in surrender.

A red-haired woman in silver armor stared at the two of them.

"Take the Helmet of Nabu. And seize those two—throw them into the concentration camp first!" At the woman's command, people immediately came over.

After violently punching Li Zu and Dick twice each,

they snatched the plastic pork and the Helmet of Nabu from Li Zu's hands, then escorted the two away.

"You surrendered just like that? What was everything we did for?" Dick wanted to shout the question, but the longsword pressed against his throat only allowed him to speak softly.

"So we won't be killed as deadweight when we surrender. People with value can live a little longer... They only want that helmet!"

If he had no value worth keeping alive for, then he would make some up himself.

King Arthur would surely enjoy taking the blame, and Queen Diana would be willing to believe it.

Li Zu's eyes followed the Helmet of Nabu and settled on the woman in silver armor.

The woman's ugly expression improved slightly upon obtaining the helmet.

"What is this?" she asked curiously, looking at the plastic block.

"That's my toy. Can you give it back?" Li Zu raised his voice, ensuring most people could hear him.

The warriors who later rushed into the pork-processing factory to carry out their companions' bodies also reported what they had seen and heard.

The pork-processing factory, reeking of greasy raw meat, was indeed filled with such plastic toys.

"Freak!"

The woman threw away the plastic and turned to leave.

The two were blindfolded. They could see nothing and hear very little else.

Any slight sound they made while traveling earned them a heavy punch.

No one wanted to keep tasting the salty, bloody flavor filling their mouths.

"What did you do all this for?" Boston Brand, the dead man, asked beside Li Zu's ear. "To meet Diana, the Amazonian queen?"

"Mm-hm." Li Zu answered in his usual concise manner.

"Lunatic!" After leaving behind that brief curse, Boston Brand shut his mouth.

Their feet kept moving, and they walked faster and faster.

If their pace slowed too much, they would be shoved from behind.

They walked for who knew how long.

Boom!!

The explosion and blast of heat struck, knocking Li Zu to the ground and pinning him there.

He could smell the faint scorched stench of his hair.

Then came a woman's shout.

It was followed by the shouts of a group of women.

When the black cloth over his eyes was pulled away and light returned, several figures of different shapes stood before him.

A woman from England in heavy armor,

a strange man in blue cotton clothing, standing at the edge of the sea of flames with a pistol in hand,

and a red-skinned humanoid demon spewing fire.

The heavily armored woman smiled at Li Zu and Dick.

"We are the Resistance!"

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival, everyone. Enjoy the holiday.

End of Chapter.