"Put the word out. I'm putting up a million, and whoever takes out Zuo Ci gets the cash."
"Ha, what an old-fashioned tactic. Can't these mobsters come up with something more creative? Every day it's the same old bounties."
Inside the grocery store, Zuo Ci lowered his head and meticulously polished the blue-and-white porcelain vase in his hands, casually chatting away with the inexplicable Batman standing before him.
Last night, after Zuo Ci ambushed the upper echelon meeting of the Falcone Family, those mob boss bigwigs grew to deeply hate him. Not even waiting for the next day, they dispatched a squad right that night, rolling in with heavy firepower to flatten him.
As a result, they didn't even make it out of the neighborhood before being speed-run by the patrolling Batman.
Though this affair didn't have much to do with Zuo Ci, Falcone still chalked the casualties and weaponry losses up to his account, issuing a death bounty on the black market immediately.
"You need to be careful. You shouldn't be this careless."
Batman's voice was as low as ever. His current focus was on Gotham's recent string of large-scale missing persons cases involving vagrants, and his visit today was simply because he'd seen the bounty and dropped by to check on Zuo Ci on his way.
The saying that wealth moves the hearts of men applied anywhere. Even though he'd only been here a few minutes, at least three different batches of people had come by wanting to take Zuo Ci out, including professional assassins he even recognized.
Despite the fact that these people were all easily dealt with by Zuo Ci and stripped down naked before being tossed into the neighborhood dumpster, Batman still felt that Zuo Ci shouldn't let his guard down like this.
He was indeed much stronger than ordinary people, but it still wasn't enough. After all, if things went south, this bounty order might draw in some truly special freaks.
"Relax, don't worry. I'm not an idiot, I'll make preparations."
After wiping the porcelain vase clean, Zuo Ci placed it back on the counter. Honestly, even though this was just a cheap item redeemed from the system, it really did look nice.
Seeing Zuo Ci's utterly unconcerned demeanor, Batman didn't say much more. Based on his understanding, Zuo Ci wasn't a guy who would make a joke of his own life, so he should have a foolproof plan.
"All right, if nothing else is going on, please leave. Having a bat this big in the shop interferes with my business to some extent.
Oh right, take this."
With that, Zuo Ci pulled out a brown flowerpot from who knows where, looking exceedingly plain.
That is, if it didn't have eyes and a mouth.
"This-this magic flowerpot, ten thousand bucks a pop. Don't look at it like it's ordinary; with this thing, no matter what plant it is, it'll survive. As long as you regularly water and fertilize it, the plant inside will grow lush and strong.
Those Pumpkin Shields you bought previously-though you can keep them alive with ordinary pots, using this will yield even better results. I figured you'd really need it.
Also, it's limited to land plants. If it's aquatic plants, you'll have to swap to a water basin."
Looking at this flowerpot, Batman had to re-evaluate Zuo Ci once again.
Though the man was an unscrupulous merchant, he had to admit he really knew how to push merchandise.
Ultimately, Batman bought ten flowerpots from Zuo Ci along with a large quantity of matching fertilizers and insecticides before leaving, still without a single word of greeting.
"Such an impolite Batman. But speaking of which, how on earth does that cape of his hold so much stuff?"
Zuo Ci could carry a lot of items purely because he had a system. Yet every time Batman finished buying something and gave a sweep of his body, it was like they vanished into thin air-it was simply too magical.
After pondering for a good long while, Zuo Ci couldn't come up with any rhyme or reason for it, and could only chalk it up to some miraculous bat-force.
After Batman left, Zuo Ci carried on with his business as blandly as usual. However, because of the Falcone Family's bounty, people kept dropping by to stir up trouble every now and then, drastically reducing the foot traffic.
Decided. Next time, I'm definitely going to use a beanstalk to whip their asses raw.
"Sigh, it's almost time to close shop, and yet not a single interesting person came by. Feels like all these preparations went to waste."
At ten o'clock at night, seeing that there was practically nobody left on the streets, Zuo Ci flipped the sign and prepared to close up shop.
Originally, to ensure foolproof security, he had used all his assets to reinforce his shop and himself from top to bottom. But looking at it now, it seemed he might have made a bit of a fuss over nothing.
The crowd of miscellaneous losers who came looking for trouble today hadn't even triggered his defensive measures, let alone scratched the most basic custom bulletproof glass. They were truly useless...
Bang!
In an instant, a bullet precisely struck Zuo Ci's temple, effortlessly and completely piercing through his brain.
"A guy like this is actually worth a million? What a joke."
At the far end of the street, a guy cosplaying as Batman, merged into the shadows, looked mockingly at the blood-spattered shop. Upon seeing that bounty, he had originally held some expectations for this so-called "old man."
Now it seemed like pure, unadulterated overkill.
Still, whatever. Since the employer was willing play the fool, why shouldn't he gladly cash in?
Waiting slightly a few seconds to confirm that there truly was no movement inside, he rapidly approached the shop, then without the slightest hesitation shattered the bulletproof glass with an elbow strike and tossed in a bundle of linked grenades.
"What the fuck, you already killed someone and now you're trying to desecrate the corpse too?!"
The very next second, the linked grenades that had just been thrown in were tossed back out, and Zuo Ci, having changed into a mage robe, walked out of the shop while cursing a blue streak.
Taking a bullet to the head hadn't caused any real damage, but Zuo Ci realized that someone who wasn't a pushover had finally arrived, so he had intended to play dead to trick him for a bit.
Who could have expected this bastard to chuck grenades straight inside right off the bat? Are you out of your mind? If you blow me into a crisp, what are you going to use to collect your reward?
"As expected, I knew it wouldn't be that simple."
Bending down to pick up the grenades, he looked at Zuo Ci with a slightly mocking tone.
"A fake that only smokes, just like your little tricks."
"I didn't expect the legendary King of Mercenaries, Deathstroke, to have such a motor mouth either. No wonder you and that guy Deadpool are cousins."
Seeing Zuo Ci recognize his identity, Deathstroke didn't show any surprise-after all, it would be strange if someone didn't recognize this outfit of his.
Still, the fact that he actually knew Wade did give him a minor surprise.
You had to know he wasn't exactly active around these parts.
"Alright, let's talk first. I'm not someone who likes all this fighting and killing, and I know you like money even more, so let's make a deal.
I'll pay you a higher bounty to go take out the Falcone Family instead, how about it?"
"What's your offer?"
Hearing Zuo Ci's words, Deathstroke seemed somewhat tempted, actually halting his actions to seriously haggle with him.
"How about two million? Compared to me, those people in the Falcone family are just ordinary folks. It shouldn't be much of a difficulty for you, right?"
"Two million isn't enough. They're all big shots, you know; two million a head sounds about right."
"No way, no way, that's way too expensive. No matter how you spin it, they're just a bunch of upper-crust thugs in white gloves. One million a head, tops."
"Deal."
"Good, pleasant cooperation."
Bang!
Bang!
The moment the transaction was struck, two bullets fired from opposing directions hurtled straight toward each other's faces.
"Tch, old foxes." x2
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