No Hero Volume 6: Heaven or h.e.l.l
Original novel in Chinese by: 御我 (Yu Wo)
Heaven or h.e.l.l, Second Level—The Evening Sun Plaza, A Tangle of Noises, Ill Habits, and Bravery—translated by Ever (proofread by Cesium Black & Lala Su; C/E edited by lucathia)
Do you know Dark Sun? It seems like he"s been a hero for a long time, too. Did you or did he become a hero first?
First Wind replied with an uncertain att.i.tude, "Oh, Dark Sun? I"m not sure when he first started being a hero, since he keeps such a low profile. If it weren"t for the media relentlessly pursuing us heroes these days, then he might still be unknown to the world."
Can he be trusted?
"Heh, I don"t even know him, so how am I supposed to answer you?"
Then, do you trust me?
"Hmm? Oh, of course."
But you don"t know me either, and you neither know my true ident.i.ty nor what I do for a living. How can you trust me?
"Don"t I know you?" First Wind laughed, "Do I really not know you just because we wear masks? Would you claim that you don"t know First Wind?"
…You"re really optimistic. You look very happy, unlike someone who has been through a lot of hardships.
"Really?" First Wind said as he laughed, "That might be because I have a younger brother that I need to raise, so I don"t have any time to dwell on sorrowful thoughts… Ah, after hearing so much about me, will you discover who I am? Haha."
Even if I did discover your true ident.i.ty, I won"t tell anyone about it. I swear.
"Well, I am not worried about that at all."
For the sake of reaching the destination on time, I chose to travel on top of the buildings. As I jumped from roof to roof, I thought about how I should stop the young master from watching the TV wall.
The truth is, it is quite easy to prevent the young master from watching the TV wall once or twice. The real trouble is how to prevent him from watching the news for ten days in a row, regardless of whether it was from the television at home or the TV walls outside. I would even have to prevent the young master from searching for news in his own head…
No matter how I think about it, it seems like an impossible mission.
I stopped my footsteps and leapt onto the railings on the edge of a building. I looked down to confirm that no one was in the alley below before I finally took a step forward and started falling down.
On the way down, I continuously used blood ability to slow down my fall and finally landed without a sound.
Walking out of the alley, a large crowd of people appeared in front of me. Some of them hastily walked on while some of them stayed at the plaza or danced to the music. There were also people who were sitting on the rim of the surrounding small, minor stages, the chairs beside them, or even on the railings.
Most of them were fashionably dressed young people who glowed from head to toe, since the current fad was the glowing style.
This was the Evening Sun Plaza, a favorite gathering place of the younger crowd. It could be said that there was not a single moment of silence from day to night, and the plaza would even get busier as the night deepened.
The Evening Sun Plaza was a fan-shaped area. The handle of the fan was the large TV wall that would continuously broadcast various kinds of news and advertis.e.m.e.nts for twenty-four hours every day.
Incidentally, the TV wall was broadcasting the news of the Sun Emperor coming to Sunset City. This time, it did not appear as an interruption to the news but as a formal headline. The Sun Alliance"s representative was on screen, explaining the upcoming meeting of the Sun Emperor and Doctor Ni Cai.
It looks like there is no hope of this news becoming outdated by tomorrow and never broadcasted again…
If something is a.s.sociated with the Sun Emperor, then it is usually big news. I am afraid that the TV stations will continue to broadcast this until the Sun Emperor arrives in Sunset City in ten days, or maybe even until he leaves.
I lifted my head to look at the TV wall. The news story about the Sun Emperor had finished and the next one was coincidently related to the young master, which was also a popular topic these days—the Cities Representative Election.
In the previous elections, "the young master" had defeated "Dark Sun" and became Sunset City"s representative, but that was not the final result of the election. Next comes the compet.i.tion between the representatives of each city, which was when the election would reach its highest point. The news stations and various shows had all been reporting on the same topic for days and would even provide live updates of the newest vote counts.
The vote counts on the TV wall at the moment showed that the young master and the representative of another city had the most votes and were far ahead of the other candidates. That other city was also one I was familiar with; it was "Daystar City."
Daystar City was as well-known as Sunset City among non-humans since the Church had made the city their base of operations. As such, most non-humans would choose to avoid it, especially vampires.
However, for the same reason, Daystar City had become a very safe place, which was rare for big cities.
Go support and vote for the Angel! The Angel and that d.a.m.ned b.a.s.t.a.r.d from Daystar City have fallen into a tug-of -war situation, so everyone go and vote for him. Don"t let the Angel lose to that priest!
The reporter on TV sounded very pa.s.sionate about this; he even used d.a.m.ned b.a.s.t.a.r.d to describe the other candidate. He also reminded everyone to remember to vote and even carefully explained every detail on how to vote, as if he were afraid that the public might decide not to vote just because they did not know how to.
Come to think of it, I have not voted yet either. I will vote when I return home and tell the others to vote with me!
After the television program finished introducing the young master, they moved on to introducing the candidate from Daystar City. His name was Alex Simon and surprisingly, he was a priest.
That the candidate was a priest certainly fit the fact that Daystar City was the Church"s base, but the result was still quite unbelievable. After all, the majority of voters in the election were young people, so the representatives of every city were mostly the favorite idols among the younger generation, with few representatives coming from other industries. Even the young master had also become a representative because of his position as a model and singer.
But this Father Alex actually became the representative of Daystar City. I wonder what kind of story there is behind that?
Maybe it is only because the Church is strongly supporting him… No! What I should do right now is destroy the TV wall. Why am I watching the TV instead?
I observed my surroundings; there were too many people in the plaza and several of them had stopped to look at the TV wall. If I broke the TV wall directly, then the shards that would fall down may harm the people. What should I do?
Right, all I have to do is to cut the power cables. I will not need to destroy the television itself. As for where the power cables were located, I still had to search for them.
"Excuse me, you"re Charles, Ah Ye"s butler, right?"
I was startled for a moment and turned around. In front of me was a young woman who had short, pretty black hair and was wearing a sleeveless top and a leather skirt. She was not wearing any glowing accessories, which gave her a refreshing appearance.
I smiled and said, "h.e.l.lo Lin Ding, it has been a while."
Lin Ding looked at me up and down and said in disbelief, "It really is you? I was so unsure about it! I observed you for some time before I finally had the guts to come say hi. You"re wearing a completely different outfit from before. You look like a totally different person!"
"Is that so?" I chuckled, "I look better, do I not?"
Lin Ding blinked. Her eyes were actually purple, and judging from the pattern in her pupils, they did not look like eyes that a normal human would have. Perhaps she is wearing contacts or simply had surgery to change the color of her pupils?
"Really? I think you look more like yourself when you"re in your usual outfit, though this does look more fashionable! But it just doesn"t go with the vibes that you give. Instead, there"s this "you shouldn"t be wearing this" kind of feeling."
This is the first time that I have heard such an evaluation.
"Oh yeah, what are you doing here?" Lin Ding asked curiously, "Are you waiting for someone? Waiting for Ah Ye?"
… The television!
But under Lin Ding"s gaze, I could only answer, "Yes, I am waiting for the young master." I hoped that she would leave quickly so that I could go find the power cables.
"Really?" Lin Ding thought about it and said, "Then, I"ll wait with you."
… This is not good!
After being delayed for such a long time, perhaps the young master will arrive soon? Though I felt my heart burn with anxiety, I could not think of a reason not to wait with her, so I asked, "Why wait with me?"
"I need to ask Ah Ye some questions about his new alb.u.m, so I"ll wait with you! By the way, is Ah Ye going to stay in the music industry? Ever since he released his alb.u.m, a lot of people have asked me to write songs for them, but I…"
After saying so, Lin Ding stopped for a bit and looked at me hesitantly. I reflexively gave her a gentle smile and waited for her to go on.
Father had said that a smile was the best way to help people relax and express their inner thoughts.
She seemed to relax and calmly said, "If it"s possible, for the time being I would like to only write songs for Ah Ye, because I don"t have that much inspiration and can"t write that many songs. Just thinking about my own band"s and Ah Ye"s songs is enough to give me a headache."
"I think I understand now. You want to uphold a certain quality for all of your work, and would rather refuse others than release songs that you are not satisfied with."
Lin Ding looked at me and solemnly nodded her head, but then asked in confusion, "Do you know if Ah Ye still wants to be in the music industry? Or do you think he might just want to stay as a model?"
"The fact is, the young master is a very easy-going person. If you can write songs that he likes, then he will be glad to continue releasing alb.u.ms, but if you cannot, then he might just continue to be a model."
As I explained, I thought about how I should bid Lin Ding farewell so that I could go find the TV cables.
"Oh yeah, I think there"s a director who wants him to be in a movie!" Lin Ding suddenly said.
"Is that so?" I answered in surprise, but after thinking about it, I found the news to be very normal since many singers would leave their original careers and move to the movie industry. So I asked out of curiosity, "What kind of movie is it?"
"It sounds like an action movie, the usual story of a hero rescuing the beauty."
"And they want the young master to be the hero?" That would suit him perfectly!
Lin Ding looked at me with a face scrunched up from trying not to laugh, saying, "No, they want Ah Ye to be the beauty that would be saved by the hero."
No! Now is not the time to go speechless. Regardless of whether the young master is the hero or the beauty, what matters now is to destroy the television. How can I be led astray again by a conversation about movies?
"Eh? Is that Ah Ye"s new commercial?" Lin Ding looked at the TV wall.
The television was broadcasting the newest sneaker commercial: the young master was wearing shorts and the camera had starting filming from the sneakers and panned up, revealing the calves, knees, thighs, and finally a picture of the entire person. When I first saw this commercial, I was a bit confused as to whether they were actually selling sneakers or the young master"s legs.
While Lin Ding was focused on the TV, I used the moment to take out from my backpack the two pistols that the young master had given me … I never thought that I would actually use them.
At this rate, I would not be able to find the cables anymore. Though I felt sorry for the television company and the people below about having to break the TV, I would try to shatter the screen into small pieces to the best of my abilities. Since the TV should be made of safety gla.s.s, I did not think anyone would be hurt by it.
Using x-speed to leave my original position, sparks danced from the rim of the gun as I fired at the TV wall. But the sound of the gun shots was even quieter than a book dropping to the ground, so in such a noisy plaza, it would not even catch the crowd"s attention.
The moment I pulled the trigger, I used x-speed to return to my original position while placing the guns back into my backpack. At that same time, a series of cracking sounds came from the TV wall.
That was the fastest I could go. I will not be discovered with such a speed, right?
Right then, Lin Ding abruptly turned around. My heart leapt and just as I was getting worried about her becoming suspicious about my actions, she pushed me to the ground. I turned my face to the sky and saw gla.s.s shards falling down upon us. I hurriedly flipped the both of us over so that I was now on top. I even covered Lin Ding"s face tightly, afraid that the gla.s.s shards would fall into her eyes since she was now facing the sky.
The gla.s.s shards pattered onto my back. The comforting thing was that the shards felt very small. I looked to the side and confirmed that it was indeed safety gla.s.s. The gla.s.s had completely shattered into small pieces, and the edges were not sharp.
"Are you okay?"
I lowered my head and saw that Lin Ding was looking at me with widened eyes. Worry was written all over her face, so I smiled and tried to comfort her, saying, "I am fine. This is safety gla.s.s, so the edges are not sharp."
Looking around, I saw that the crowd had started to get up, and a lot of brash, young people were cursing loudly. Having seen that very few people looked harmed, I let out a sigh of relief.
"Uh, I don"t really mind this, and I actually feel like I"m the one benefiting here, but there are people watching us, and they look like they"re antic.i.p.ating further development. Anyway, since we"re not going to continue this, I feel a bit sorry for the audience."
"My apologies!" I hurriedly scrambled to my feet, but as soon as I stood up, loud gun shots rained upon us, making me reflexively lie down again.
Who was it that fired?
The plaza was filled with continuous screams. Right then, I heard two clicking sounds. I lowered my head to find that Lin Ding was holding a gun in her hand and had a keen look in her eyes. She was looking around. I a.s.sumed that she was looking for the source of the gun shots.
She told me, "Don"t stand up. Crawl away and find coverage. Alright, go behind the pillars of the veranda."
I would be glad to go, but must I crawl there?
"Go quickly!" Lin Ding said with a somewhat harsh tone, "Remember to crawl!"
Since she was so persistent, I had no choice but to follow her orders and started to crawl toward the pillar of the veranda. What a shame about the clothes that the young master bought me. I hope that the elbow and knee parts of the clothing will not become torn.
I did not have much… experience with crawling and there was a huge crowd of people in the plaza. With such a series of obstacles in the way, getting to the pillar while avoiding being stepped on when I crawled really was not an easy task.
As I crawled, gun shots and screams sounded from above me, but most of the noise was created by angry shouts and curses.
Finally, I reached the pillar and went behind it. I stood up to examine my elbows and knees. The clothing was a bit dirty but did not seem to be torn, which was very rea.s.suring. I was glad that I had not damaged the clothing that the young master had bought me.
I wonder how Lin Ding is doing? I looked out from behind the pillar. The situation outside seemed very chaotic.
The young people in the plaza looked like they had been through a lot of battles before, since they were either crouching on the ground or hiding behind large obstacles with various kinds of weapons in hand. They showed no sign of fear, but instead, wore ferocious expressions on their faces as they looked around for the audacious culprit.
Right then, a van boldly crashed into the plaza and started to spew out large amounts of something. The picture right now was very similar to the raining gla.s.s shards from earlier, but those things drifted slowly, so they were clearly not gla.s.s shards. Instead, they looked like pieces of paper.
A piece of paper landed lightly on the ground not far away from me. I settled my eyes on it and realized that it was…
Cash.
The flying pieces of paper in the sky are all cash!
Suddenly, the plaza fell into a rare silence, yet the silence only lasted for a few short seconds before the noise exploded once again. Everyone tucked their weapons under their arms and with their free hands, started to fight over the cash in excitement. Some reached out their hands to the sky to catch the money, while some bent over to pick up cash from the ground desperately.
I wonder where Lin Ding went? It had only been a short while and she had vanished to an unknown place. With the situation as chaotic as it was, I worried about her safety.
While the crowd was picking up cash, all four doors of the van suddenly opened and quite a few people who were dressed in black stepped out of the car. They carried large bags in their hands and tossed their contents out. Seeing so, the crowd quickly gathered around them, because what they had scattered was cash.
But why are they throwing away cash?
Just as I was wondering about this, ear-piercing sirens came from nearby and as the sirens got louder, flashing red lights appeared on the roads beside the plaza. At last, many police cars rushed into the outer sides of the plaza, firmly blocking the plaza"s main exit.
Judging from their large formation, there must be over twenty police cars here.
Right then, the doors of all the police cars opened and a lot of fully armed policemen rushed out of the cars, discourteously firing at the sky as signs of warning.
Even though their actions were very rough and rude, in Sunset City if the police did not fire first, then perhaps no one would listen to them, especially under such chaotic circ.u.mstances.
A policeman who had rushed to the front shouted, "Everyone outta the way! The police are on this case, so everyone leave the crime scene… Screw it! Everyone duck!"
I think that he might have realized in the middle of his sentence that it was a rather unrealistic request for "everyone" to leave the scene since there were just too many people here. Even though I did not know what the police wanted to do, the situation obviously looked like an emergency, so if they waited until everyone left the crime scene, then I supposed the police would miss the best time to solve the case.
That policeman"s att.i.tude was rude and unreasonable, but that was still not enough to make the people obey and squat down. Aside from the civilians being very fearless, the fact that they were busy picking up money from the ground might also be a huge factor… Could it be that the men clothed in black threw out the money for this very reason?
Even though I did consider that reason, throwing away money just to get away from the police seemed outlandish. There is so much cash, and all of these are thousand yuan bills. There might be over a hundred million yuan here. If they can throw away so much money without a second thought, then why would they live the lives of wanted criminals?
"Stop picking those up!" The policeman took off his helmet and shouted furiously, "Those are all counterfeits! Look closely, the serial numbers are all the same!"
How unexpected. It is Yue Gang!
It has been a long time. I looked at my friend… No, previous friend, with yearning eyes.
Another policeman walked to the front with a microphone in his hand. The moment he spoke, his voice resonated through the whole plaza.
"The cash on the ground is all fake. The serial numbers are all 000000000. This is a scheme that the bank robbers have churned up in order to evade the police"s search. Please do not fall for it. Now crouch down and let the police look for the criminals."
On hearing those words, the crowd finally started to calm down. A lot of people examined the cash in their hands, and their expressions changed drastically as they cursed, threw away the money, and then squatted down.
Seeing so, the others also squatted down, stopping the fight for the cash.
Many police stepped into the crowd with a flashlight in their right hand and a gun in their left, looking for the people that were dressed in black.
The bank robbers? Has not the young master and First Wind already gone over to support the police? Why were the robbers still able to escape? Did something happen?
Even though I really wanted to go ask Yue Gang what was going on, he had already broken ties with me… I looked at Yue Gang, and as I was wondering whether or not I should go ask him, he suddenly took out his cell phone to make a phone call. At the same time, the phone on me also rang.
I looked at the screen. The caller was actually Yue Gang.
I hesitated for a bit and rejected the call. I then stepped forward to call out, "Yue Gang!"
Yue Gang looked toward me, frowned, and then walked to me in large steps, asking bluntly, "What are you doing here?"
Put on the spot, I could not find a good reason, so I went along with my lie to Lin Ding, saying, "I am waiting for Ah Ye."
But at the same time I said these words, a sense of guilt flashed through my heart. Even now, I am still lying to Yue Gang… For him to break ties with me really is a wise choice.
Yue Gang locked his brows together and tried to ask, "Your younger brother… He isn"t a normal person, right? He"s just like you, a non-human?"
I was caught off guard but hurriedly said, "No, Ah Ye really is human."
Having heard my words, Yue Gang"s brows knitted even tighter, and he said, "Really? Your brother was taken hostage by the robbers."
… The young master was taken hostage?
Perhaps my expression was so shocked that Yue Gang flinched and blurted, "Your brother really is an ordinary human?"
The young master is a human, but he is definitely not ordinary. However, I could only nod my head and lie to him once again.
"This is bad!" Yue Gang scratched his head.
What is going on? Did something really happen to the young master?
Yue Gang suddenly patted my shoulder and said, "Don"t worry about it! Dark Sun is after the guys who have got your brother. He"ll definitely be saved!"
… Dark Sun went after them? The young master was taken hostage but it was Dark Sun who went for him? I could not understand under what kind of circ.u.mstance such an event could happen.
"Oh yeah, since you"re here, did you see those robbers get out of the car?"
I nodded my head and said, "They hid themselves among the crowd once they finished scattering the money. They have also taken off their black clothes, so unless you know what they look like, then it would be quite hard to find them."
On hearing this, Yue Gang"s expression looked as if he had eaten… Uh, something that should not be eaten. He scoffed and said, "Well, the money that they robbed won"t disappear, will it? They must have it on them, so if we searched them, we would find it right away!"
I smiled and said, "Among the young people here, half of them are carrying large backpacks. Are you going to search them one by one? And it will not be possible to seal this area off because there are just too many exits people can sneak away through, and the civilians might not be willing to cooperate either."
After hearing what I had to say, Yue Gang"s entire face scrunched up. He looked like he was very distressed.
"Do you see that person with a large black backpack and absolutely no glowing ornaments?" I pointed to a man who was standing not too far away from us. Waiting until Yue Gang nodded his head, I said, "He and the woman beside him are both criminals."
Both of Yue Gang"s eyes lit up, and he immediately picked up his handheld transceiver to order his comrades to quietly surround the two people.
I waited until after he had finished giving orders and said, "You can try searching the people who are not wearing any glowing accessories. Their clothes are mostly black and they are even carrying large backpacks. The backpacks are also dark colored, and I remember that six people came out from the car, all dressed in the same manner."
After hearing this, he relayed a few more points on where to search into his transceiver, measuring me up and down with a weird look in his eyes as he spoke. When he finished explaining to his comrades, he immediately said, "Aren"t you worried "bout your brother?"
I paused and went silent for some time. During my silence, the search continued on noisily behind me, but Yue Gang seemed to have no intention of joining the search. Instead, he stared at me intently, as if he could discover some kind of truth by staring at my face.
I sighed and said, "I am sorry, but Ah Ye is not actually my brother. I am merely his butler and the others are all his bodyguards, so there is no need to worry about his safety." Since even the people at X-Killer knew about this, it was fine to tell Yue Gang, too. The young master had also told me to tell Yue Gang the truth.
After I finished speaking, it was Yue Gang"s turn to fall into silence. But not long after that, he growled, "It"s too late to say this now!"
Shouting so, he turned around and joined the search. He even roughly grabbed some people up from the ground along the way and searched their bags, but it seemed like he found nothing.
I took out my cell phone and made a call. "Mr. Bramble, this is Charles. Can you please tell me what is happening right now? I heard that the young master was taken hostage, but the hero who is going to rescue him is Dark Sun?"
"That "young master" is DSII. Dark Sun is the real young master." Mr. Bramble gave me a short yet clear reply. "In order to get the criminals to release the other hostages, the young master ordered DSII to pretend to be himself and then become a hostage voluntarily. The only condition was to have the criminals release all the others."
I asked in confusion, "The criminals are in the Evening Sun Plaza right now, but I do not see DSII around."
"There are five groups of robbers this time. They purposely robbed five different banks at the same time and even chose to rob the five banks that were the farthest apart from each other, exhausting the police and the heroes. This plan has proved to be efficient until now since only one group of the five were caught. The other groups are all still on the run, and the heroes and police are going after them in teams."
It seems like the robbers these days are becoming more and more intelligent. But I still had a question. Even if someone can think of such a plan, where would they find others who also wanted to rob a bank?
Hmm… After thinking for a moment, I raised my head and saw that the drunken red sunset was already hanging in the sky, and therefore murmured, "It looks like it is about time to do that."
"Do what?"
I was confused for a bit and then realized that I had not ended the call yet.
Mr. Bramble"s voice came from the cell phone with a question filled with doubt. "You know how to capture those robbers?"
"No, I do not," Why would he think that I have the ability to do so?
"Then, what is that thing that you"re about to do?"
"Grocery shopping," I replied honestly.