That night, the other side.

A no-name bar, with a battered exterior, like any bar you'd find in any part of the city where the poor live. It has an old sign, with neon lights emblazoned with the words "Bar", and many parts of it have been extinguished due to bad connections, but no one has bothered to fix it.

The bar door opened. After get off work, Agent Liang Ye came out with an unfinished bottle of wine after a night of carnival.

He was ruddy and wobbly on his feet, but he seemed in a good mood. The bartender at the front desk today is a young girl in fishnet stockings, new here, with a sweet accent that almost melts away.

That made him have a few extra drinks tonight, more fun than usual. So when he got out from a group of men with blue dragon and white tiger tattoos on their bodies, the time was already much later than usual.

Liang Ye hummed a ditty, while picking up the wine bottle and pouring wine into his mouth from time to time. At this moment, he didn't look like a well-trained warrior, much less a superhuman with extremely dangerous power. He looked like a completely ordinary drunk, still immersed in the pleasure of sleepless nights and couldn't get over his nerves.

It's also possible that the shambling gait tricks others into making him look harmless—especially those who are spying on him with nefarious intentions.

Liang Ye staggered across the deserted street, and when he passed a certain shadow, he filled up the rest of the liquor in the bottle in one breath, then picked up the bottle abruptly and slammed into the darkness on one side. hit.

clatter.

The wine bottle was blown to pieces on someone's body, and glass shards splashed in all directions. Liang Ye stretched his arms, and pulled a man out of the darkness. Unprepared, the watcher was slammed onto the sidewalk by him, and let out a low, muffled groan.

Alcohol did not anesthetize him, but instead paralyzed the watchers who watched him.

Liang Ye laughed: "If you think I can...

......Huh? "

When he saw the person trampled on, he froze for a moment.

The man was clearly wearing the uniform of Secret Service Nine.

It's one of our own.

"Are you from the Nine Offices?" Liang Ye frowned, "Then why...?"

Before he could finish asking, there was a dense tingling sensation behind him.

Liang Ye immediately realized that there was more than one person in ambush.

In the darkness around, around the corners and on the high platforms, soldiers were ambushed everywhere. They fired an anesthetic bomb at Liang Ye, and a large piece of anesthetic needle hit his back, and the anesthetic quickly flowed into the blood.

But he didn't fall. With a low growl, he kicked away the soldiers under his feet, and dragged his staggered body into the back of the building next to him. Unexpectedly, several soldiers immediately grabbed the zip line and fell from a high place, stopping in front of him.

With a low growl, Liang Ye rushed between them, kicked and kicked one person head-on, and then locked on to the second person. The second soldier tried to shrink back and dodge, but the skills he had learned all his life were vulnerable in front of Liang Ye. With a long arm, Liang Ye grabbed his shoulders and pulled him to the front with all his strength. A knee blow knocked him to the ground.

But during the period, he had a few more anesthesia needles on his back and waist.

More soldiers jumped down and surrounded him.

"The target is still moving! The threat has not been lifted!"

"Damn how is this possible, this dose is enough to bring down..."

"There is a change in the action, and the target has not fallen." The leader shouted while pressing the headset, "Request to re-evaluate the feasibility of the mission. If the target releases a phantom..."

"No need, continue to implement as planned."

A warm voice came from the other end of the headset.

"Don't worry, captain, what you're worried about won't happen. He won't release the phantom. After all..."

On the aircraft carrier, Professor Miyazaki paused before the microphone on the other end, showing a confident smile.

"...No one understands the peculiarities of the Nine Branches better than me...any one of the peculiarities is no exception."

Sure enough, as he said, until the end Liang Ye did not release his destructive phantom that made everyone fearful.

But other than that, he almost struggled with all his strength, his whole body was almost turned into a hedgehog by anesthesia needles, but he still tenaciously knocked down several agents in a row.

The last four ropes bound his limbs separately, and his limbs were pulled apart into a large font, and the veins all over his body were bulging due to the force.

He raised his head and roared like a trapped animal. At that moment, everyone's heart trembled violently, as if they had seen the thunder and electric current explode in the next second, and all of them instantly turned upside down like fried fish fry.. ....

...but that didn't happen.

Liang Ye fell down.

"Report, target taken. Ready to bring it back now."

The team leader wiped off his cold sweat, and at the same time glanced at Liang Ye who was lying unconscious on the ground, secretly feeling strange in his heart.

As long as the phantom is summoned, it is clear that it has the power to knock them all down easily. But why would he refuse to do anything even if he was forced into this situation?

 …

"Very well, thank you for your hard work, bring him back."

After Professor Miyazaki cut off the communication, another line was quickly connected.

That was another operation team, and the object of arrest was another special person with phantom power from Secret Service Nine, the little girl named Fana.

The reason is also a mental issue. Fana's problem is not a secret in Secret Service Nine. Everyone knows that she imagined her phantom as her mother who is no longer there, but the opinions on her mental evaluation so far are all controllable.

Apparently, someone judged that she was not so controllable now.

"Report, no trace of the target was found." Someone reported.

"What is no trace?" Professor Miyazaki frowned.

"There is no one in her room," said the leader, "It is speculated that she may have heard the wind, or discovered our existence in advance.

Judging from the traces at the scene, she should have escaped through the window. "

"Hmm... alright. According to the previous observations, the Phantom in Red does have the acuity independent of the abnormality itself, so it's not surprising that you were discovered." Professor Miyazaki said, "Then you all should leave the team first. , I will talk about it later."

After speaking, he frowned and thought for a while. But after a while, someone came in in a hurry.

"Sir!"

"What now?" He turned his head and glanced at the agent.

"It's Agent Luo Yajun..." the agent hurriedly said, "He disappeared from the interrogation room."

Professor Miyazaki: "..."

 …

Somewhere in Jiangdu, an abandoned factory.

Katsa.

The electronic shackles released by the universal breaker fell to the ground. Luo Yajun glanced at Batman beside him, showing a somewhat strange expression.

"So you really want to come in and out as you want." He rubbed his wrist and glanced at Batman, "I thought you would take me to a bat safe house or something. I just Still wondering what a lair like you would be like...you don't live in a cave, do you?"

Batman ignored it. He didn't care, he just pondered for a moment, then looked at Batman, and said seriously: "I didn't do it."

He was referring, of course, to the video that proved he assaulted his teammates.

Honestly, he doesn't care what other people think of him, and he doesn't even really care if they condemn him for it. None of that mattered to him.

But only with Batman, he wants the other person to believe that he is innocent, even if the rest of the world doesn't think so.

"I know." Batman said calmly, "That's why I'm here."

"you know?"

Hearing this made Luo Yajun feel a little relieved, but at the same time he was also puzzled.

"But how do you know? I mean... after all, the evidence seems convincing, doesn't it? I only have empty testimony here. Maybe I have a mental problem due to too much pressure in the underground.

But the child who was killed was wearing a closed-circuit surveillance system, and the real-time video~lightnovelpub.net~ is almost impossible to fake..."

"Almost." Batman interrupted him, and continued with a hoarse voice, "Someone recorded that video in advance, and manually overwrote one part of the camera's monitoring screen.

It was a video that was taken in advance, and it was replaced with your appearance using AI face-changing technology. The technique is mature and the ambient light is dim, so it is difficult to find flaws. "

Luo Yajun was taken aback for a moment, but he quickly came to his senses.

"So they need someone who can manually overwrite the monitoring content..."

"People inside Secret Service Nine, and have high enough clearance." Batman continued, "This is not a single incident. You are being targeted."

"Yeah, it's obvious." Luo Yajun rubbed his temples, "I didn't believe it before, but now I think what those pharmacists said may be true.

It's hard to say about the others now, only that Liang Ye is probably a little stronger. I've seen him take shots, he shouldn't be so easy to control..."

"No." Batman said calmly, "He won't summon the Phantom."

Luo Yajun was taken aback: "Why?"

"Because it's against the rules. Agent Liang Ye is afraid of the power of his own phantom. He is afraid that he will not be able to control it, so he imposes the constraints of 'rules' on himself. He will only release the power of the phantom when he is allowed."

Luo Yajun was stunned for a moment: "Even if someone wants to harm him?"

"I'm afraid so," Batman continued in that eerie voice, "someone is targeting you, and someone with power and who knows all about you.

and......"

He paused, his voice seemed to be a few degrees lower.

"...I think I already know who that guy is."

Luo Yajun: "!"