HBWnovel Chapter 54 Swelling
Chapter 54 Swelling
The time has quietly come to eight o'clock in the evening.
Atal was a little curious about whether the time in the dream was the same as the flow rate outside, because he had the feeling of staying here for several hours.
Because of carrying the key, the police station attaches great importance to Atar, and Connor told him not to show up before he plays the piano, so as not to leave an opportunity for the strange thief.
His expression looked very serious, so Atar wisely didn't point out the fact that he might not be able to play the piano, and even if he could, he should have completely forgotten about it.
In fact, he was suddenly a little curious, because inferring the real room layout, he can play the guitar, maybe some cello, and now Connor said he can play the piano again...
Atal was deep in thought. He couldn't figure out where he would find the time to develop an art sideline, but this at least showed one thing, that is, if he fell into the street one day, he might be able to support himself by relying on these.
He secretly made up his mind that if he really wanted to play at that time, he would just pretend to be unwell suddenly, so as not to embarrass Connor in his dream.
Atar paced in his room boredly, walking around with his hands behind his back, reaching out from time to time to flip through the books on the table to pass the time.
He could vaguely hear the elegant and relaxing music coming from downstairs, indicating that the banquet below was still going on as usual, but unfortunately he could only stay here.
During this period, Dick brought his detective Bruce cat to visit once, and the former dutifully translated the meow language on behalf of his mentor, which made Atal's curiosity almost explode.
Because no matter how he listened, Bruce Cat seemed to be meowing perfunctorily, with the same frequency and tone, but Dick could translate it into different meanings, and the length of the sentence was different.
Could it be talking nonsense...
Perhaps seeing Atar's suspicious gaze, Dick covered his heart with his bamboo shoot-wrapped hand as if hurt, and said sadly, "I'm hurt, you're insulting my police professionalism."
Atal: "..."
I don't know if it was his illusion, he saw Dick just finished speaking, Bruce Cat gave him the same disapproving look as Batman, his tail swept back and forth on the back of Dick's neck, and those blue eyes that stood up Se. Maotong made Atal tremble.
Although he didn't do anything bad, there were really few people who could withstand Bruce's eye attack.
As we all know, Batman's three major weapons: cat ears, subwoofer and disapproving eyes.
Either way it's deadly.
"The symbol of the Phantom Thief is a poker card, and he is good at using magic tricks, etc. You have to be careful."
After he asked, he found that Bruce Cat was still staring at Atal.
So, Dick excitedly said like a silly boy: "...Look, he likes you very much."
Thank you, but this kind of love is too heavy, he thought with some trepidation.
Dick, like a guy suffering from feline disease, meowed happily at Bruce the cat, acting like no one else, as if he forgot that they were here to tell Atar, so that the latter would be brainwashed by the meowing, and opened his mouth , I stumbled a bit even how to speak English.
Being surrounded by them, Atar subconsciously gave a "meow", tentatively responding to the meow echoing throughout the room.
Dick was shocked, he held Bruce cat in one hand, and covered the other's ear with one hand: "It's too much, how can you say dirty words to Bruce?!"
Atal: "..."
Then, under his forceful explanation, Dick finally half-believed that he was not swearing, and then walked away with Bruce cat in his arms.
Atal finally breathed a sigh of relief. He really regretted that his brain just imitated a sentence. He didn't expect that the exact same meow would have different meanings, so he was struggling to speak.
For the rest of his life, he didn't want to argue with Dick anymore, he was full of nonsense.
He took a few steps back, and then fell down on the soft bed in a large shape, sighed, turned over and buried his face in the pillow.
After resting for a while, Atar raised his wrist and glanced at the time. It has only been half an hour now, far from the time for his appearance, which means that he will have to measure the room again with his steps here idly.
He was distracted by the melodious music, so he slowly got up from the bed, walked to the door, and put his hand on the knob.
But just after opening it, I met the person standing outside, who was obviously blocking him here to prevent Atar from sneaking out.
Peter met his eyes, a little embarrassed, but still said in his mouth: "I'm sorry, Atar, I promised Connor that I will guard you here."
Seeing Atar's discouraged expression, he hastily added: "Just wait a little longer, the time written in the monster thief's notice letter is nine o'clock, and it will end soon."
"There are surveillance cameras all over here, just ring the bell and someone will come, so please stay in the room."
"Okay." Attar said, he didn't intend to embarrass Peter, he just looked at Peter's attire up and down, and there was a camera hanging around his neck, "But aren't you a reporter?"
Peter smiled shyly, and he reached out to touch his camera: "Well, yes. I applied to the editor-in-chief of Clark, and I must take pictures of the strange thief."
Hearing Superman's name, Atar was a little excited at first, because it wouldn't be troublesome if he was there.
But the excitement quickly faded, and he suddenly realized the fact that since a cheater like Bruce had turned into a cat, Clark was probably an ordinary person.
While thinking, Atar said, "I see, come on."
Encouraged by his words, Peter clenched his fists: "Don't worry, I won't let go of even a trace of a bird!"
Seeing that Peter in the dream was so energetic, Atar couldn't say anything about shock, so he nodded and planned to close the door of the room again.
"I, I applied for this position on purpose." The other party said stutteringly.
Atal: "..." A slightly familiar formula.
He continued the action of closing the door that had not yet been completed. Before he was about to succeed, Peter suddenly stretched out his hand against the door and stared at Atar with a blushing face: "Actually, I have always wanted to tell you something, I like it..."
With a premonition of a crisis coming, he immediately slammed the door neatly, blocking back the unfinished terrible words, leaving no time for Peter, leaving only afterimages in his quick movements, blocking the any possibility.
...Is this a detective game or something weird?
He can guarantee that Peter in real life has absolutely no intention of this, and they are very pure and good friends.
Could it be to find another way and try to destroy their relationship from another angle?That was too despicable and insidious.
He was suffocating just thinking about the scene where he got embarrassed seeing Connor and Peter's faces when he was back in real life.
Atar raised his head to the roof and sighed, pinched the position of the key again, and felt the touch of the pendant through the fabric, which made him relax a little.
He couldn't stay idle, and planned to walk around the edge of the room again.
But at this moment, he heard a knocking sound from the window, like a small stone thrown to hit the window to attract his attention, and the sound stopped after a while, which aroused people's interest.
He cast his eyes quickly over vigilantly, but there was nothing.
Only a white pigeon stopped on the window sill, its ignorant black eyes looked around, its white wings folded, and it made a fluttering sound.
Atal watched for a while, then walked to the window sill, pushed the potted plant and opened the window, looking at the white pigeon.
The white pigeon tilted its head and looked at him innocently, noticing that the human in front of him didn't reach out to touch his thoughts, so it jumped forward a step, got closer to Atal, and raised a hand towards him. paws, raising the wings to reveal the strips of paper tied to the legs.
Attar took it down and unfolded it, only to find that there was only a hand-painted heart drawn on it, and a "J" was signed on it.
He thought to himself, "J", is this meant as a joke?
Atar felt a little speechless, because he felt that the person who wrote the note seemed to be teasing him on purpose, which made him feel a little uncomfortable.
Is this an open challenge to him?
Suddenly, a dangerous breath flew towards him like an arrow.
The next moment, he turned sideways sensitively, and a playing card flew in, and stuck it on the window sill with a whistling sound.
Atal's expression turned serious, and he immediately tore off the playing cards.
Just when he was about to turn over to take a look at the card, one hand wearing a white glove suddenly took the opportunity to support it on the window sill, and the other hand "swiped—" pulled up the half-open window, and the white pigeon was caught The person flew away in shock, but after circling, he landed on the side of the leather shoes stepping on the window sill again, with an intimate gesture.
The person who appeared suddenly said in a frivolous tone, "Hello."
Atar took a small step back to widen the distance, looked up, and the other party was squatting on the window sill, looking down at him.
The uninvited guest was wearing half-rimmed glasses, with a provocative smile on his lips, but for some reason, he couldn't see the other person's real appearance.
It should be that the unilateral lens has the function of changing the face.
When Atar was distracted, the opponent moved again, the pure white cloak blocked all movements, he jumped easily, and landed in the room silently.
The cloak was like a white ocean. After fluctuating, it calmed down and fell behind the opponent again. Then he stood up straight, half a head taller than Atal.
He pushed up the top hat, and leaned forward to touch Atar at a close distance, with only a few inches of width between them, and then he gently lifted Atar's chin.
The air was silent for a few seconds. For some reason, Atar felt the other party's eagerness to move and a trace of expectation.
This familiar frivolous tone, familiar approaching action...
Although the voice did not belong to anyone he was familiar with, he would not admit it wrong.
"..." Atar didn't dodge any more. He had a delicate expression, facing the person close at hand, and asked helplessly, "Is that you? Lionel."
"How did you come up with this? Are you the same as me?..."
His words were more tactful. Since they are all produced by Lex, it is quite possible that Lionel also possesses this power.
Unexpectedly, the opponent's body froze, and the calm aura was slightly distorted, and it took a few seconds for it to return to normal, quite a bit gnashing of teeth.
"—Lionel? Who the hell is this?"
Atar immediately realized that the other party was not Lionel. He showed vigilance, and immediately took a big step back to distance himself from the stranger.
His gaze instantly became unfriendly at all, ready to attack at any time, like a little beast sticking out its sharp claws.
"You know I can succeed if I just want to call the police." Atar said, he looked at the man who was obviously a strange thief, "so..."
This move made the latter even more upset: "Do you think I won't come prepared?"
As soon as he finished his words, Atar heard screams from downstairs, followed by a noisy noise, and the clear and loud sound of knocking over the glass.
Apparently, the young man standing in front of him created such a mess that no one had time to care about what happened upstairs.
If Atal had been downstairs, he would have known what had happened a few minutes earlier.
……
When the hour hand pointed to nine o'clock, Connor was about to give a speech. He stepped up the steps and tugged on the tie of his suit slightly distractedly.
However, at this moment, the melodious music changed, distorted and transformed into a crackling sound like sawing wood, which resounded throughout the banquet.
When everyone was stunned, a small ball rolled silently to the center of the stage. In less than half a second, the ball was spinning in place, and the smoke released, quickly filling the entire hall.
Everyone in Connor immediately covered their nose and mouth. Dick frantically helped Bruce Cat put on the mask, and then covered it himself, squinting his eyes to try to see the specific scene clearly, but there was only a blurry figure.
"Bruce?" he asked.
Dick felt a light on his shoulder, and Bruce Cat jumped down quickly, and his figure disappeared into the smoke.
"Wait a moment--"
But Dick was only one step slower and lost track of Bruce the cat. Cold sweat broke out on his brow, but he forced himself to calm down.
The smoke gradually dissipated, and a man in a white suit appeared in front of the crowd out of nowhere, bowed slightly to them, and then raised his head, revealing the iconic half of the lens.
"It's a strange thief!" Clarke's voice sounded, and he immediately set up his camera, trying to capture the figure of the other party, but no matter how he adjusted it, his camera showed that he couldn't recognize the portrait, "Damn, why can't I take a good picture..."
The next moment, a card was inserted into his camera from a tricky angle, and it let out an overwhelmed groan, and it was completely scrapped, turning into a pile of white smoking machines.
Clark shook his hand, and the camera hit the ground directly.
Dick ran past Clark, kicked the camera away, and immediately contacted Tim on the other end of the monitor: "Tibao, the target mission has appeared."
On the tree in front of the Quinn Manor, Tim, who had been dozing off, woke up immediately. He quickly got up, took out the binoculars from his pocket, and adjusted it several times before he could see the scene in the hall clearly: "Well... I saw……"
As a technical supporter, he still has a few brushes, and without looking at the screen, he freed his left hand to start analyzing the imaging, and stared at the scene in the hall intently.
In his line of sight, Connor, who had stopped in place due to a sudden accident, suddenly moved, and rushed towards the strange thief on the stage with anger.
Tim was surprised, and immediately said to the communication end: "Dick, stop Connor—"
The strength of the monster thief should not be underestimated either. He was worried that Connor would lose to the opponent and be taken hostage on impulse. It would be difficult to do it at that time. More confusion.
Dick heard the words and stepped forward to stop Connor.
"Let's see what he's going to do first!"
After Dick's reminder, Connor managed to calm down. He avoided his hand, took a deep breath and said, "I see."
But Dick hadn't had time to relax. The next moment, a figure ran past them, so fast that Dick didn't even have time to grab his collar.
The opponent had already approached the strange thief on the stage, and punched him without hesitation, but the strange thief didn't seem to react, and had no intention of avoiding it at all.
Tim, who witnessed everything in the binoculars, held his breath.
Then the figure of the strange thief flew out, as if he was really tricked by the young man who appeared suddenly, and fell heavily to the ground.
No...impossible, it is absolutely impossible for the Kaitou to be knocked down so easily.
"Is this a success?" Dick's voice hesitated, and he turned to the young man who attacked, "What's your name?"
"Chris." The other party replied with moving fingers, and he frowned and walked towards the direction where the strange thief fell.
But Tim didn't have time to be happy at all, he reacted instantly, and shouted in a flash of inspiration: "—Dick, pay attention, that's not the Phantom Thief at all."
Dick followed closely behind the young man who stepped forward to beat someone, and upon hearing this, he quickly jumped in front of the monster thief who was flying to the side, and found in disbelief that it was just a simulated doll.
He let out a wail: "...What?! Tibao, we have been tricked by puppets again."
"Don't worry, Dick, I can analyze..."
Before Tim could finish his sentence, the screen of his telescope was suddenly covered by a piece of white. He was startled, and subconsciously made an attack, but the white disappeared quickly.
He was quickly drawn away by this glare, and put down the binoculars to look, only to find that it was just a white pigeon flying to the window on the second floor.
Then Atal, their protector, opened the window, and the white pigeon jumped in, not afraid of life at all.
Tim subconsciously breathed a sigh of relief.
...It should be a pet raised by a rich family.
But there was still something strange in his heart, it was a kind of self-consciousness, as if some details were ignored by him.
"——what's wrong with you? What happened?" Dick couldn't hear the second half of Tim's words, and asked anxiously on the other end of the communication, "Did something happen to you too?"
Tim came back to his senses and comforted him softly: "It's nothing, it was just a white dove—"
His words were cut off in the middle, and the next moment, the old trick was repeated with a piece of pure white, blocking Tim's sight through the telescope again, and it returned to normal after a few seconds.
Because of the experience of the white dove just now, Tim didn't move the binoculars to waste time, he moved quickly, trying to find the location where the real monster may appear.
He can't waste time, Tim thought deeply, especially not letting the Phantom Thieves get close to Atal and take the key.
"Where is he?" he said involuntarily to himself.
But suddenly, there was a playful sneer from behind him.
"...are you looking for me?"
Tim was startled, he threw away the binoculars in his hand, and turned his head sharply, but the opponent moved faster than him, and a roundabout kick attacked the unsuspecting Tim.
The latter crossed his arms to quickly block, but this was on a narrow tree. Although he prevented the thief from kicking his face, he was still pushed off the branch by the recoil and fell into the neatly trimmed grass, making a muffled sound , rolled angrily into the depths of the bushes.
Afterwards, the strange thief jumped up quickly with a kick from the branch, and landed his hand on the balcony of Atar's window, and successfully rolled over in his body smoothly.
……
Attar said with a blank expression, "I won't tell you where the key is."
As soon as he finished speaking, he heard the sound of running from the corridor outside the house.
Obviously, if the strange thief cannot be found, going to Atal's room is the best choice. After all, no matter how the strange thief lays out, he must eventually appear here.
"What should I do? I suggest you leave," Attar asked, "You might as well play less tricks, because I can't tell, just spend tonight."
During the few seconds of their stalemate, a black cat lightly fell in through the open window of the strange thief, and he recognized its identity from its unusual attire at a glance——
After all, there is no other Detective Bruce cat.
"Look, you've been arrested," Attar said, pointing to Bruce Cat. "Our bat detectives are on the scene."
Bruce the Cat meowed, but the Dick Card Reader wasn't here, so they didn't know what he was saying.
Atar guessed that it was probably to make the strange thief give up resistance.
Although he couldn't see the strange thief's expression clearly, Atal had a feeling that the other party showed a disdainful expression because of his words.
"Oh... I was arrested by this cat?"
There was no fear at all, and even a bit of feigned surprise, which was very ironic.
Atal said angrily: "...scratch him, Bruce."
But maybe because he didn't speak cat language, Bruce the cat ignored him, but stared at the strange thief while licking his paw.
"I only got a message to get the key." Atar heard the voice of the strange thief, he looked up, "but I'm not sure which message it refers to. Because from the news I got in reality, you It is also the 'key' that can achieve the purpose of the Necronomicon."
"—So, is this a language trap?"
They could already hear a voice from outside the door, it was Dick speaking: "Peter is here, he passed out."
It should also be the hands and feet of the strange thief in front of him.
But at this moment Atal already had confidence.
"You can keep wasting your time and get caught, or you can choose to get out of here now," he said. "Either you can only steal the antiques, or you can only take me."
Atar still believed in Connor's plan, that is, the strange thief thought that the counterfeit in the showcase was the key, but the other party's next sentence dispelled his idea.
"I don't have time now, but the key is with you," the strange thief shook his head, "and, I am different from a guy like you."
"...What?" Atar suddenly had an ominous premonition, "What are you going to do?"
The next moment, his premonition was confirmed.
The strange thief approached, he grabbed Atar's waist, shortened the distance between them, and leaned into his ear and said, "Because I'm an adult, I don't make a choice—that is, ,all I want."
"Don't think that I don't know that the key is with you." The strange thief's tone was rare and brisk, "How should I say, thank you for your boyfriend Connor Hawke."
The other party insisted on the word boyfriend friend very heavily, as if he had a deep resentment about it.
Afterwards, Atar heard the low voice of his complaint: "Why is reality so close...the dream is still..."
And Atar himself was simply powerless to complain.
You ask yourself? !Didn't you mess up my dreams like this?
As if hearing Atal's complaints from the bottom of his heart, the strange thief said to himself: "Anyway, it can't be true."
Then, under his surprised gaze, the other party carried him to the window, quickly threw a hook and hooked it somewhere on the top floor, and jumped out easily in the night wind.
At the same time, Connor had already knocked open the door, and the wind from the open window was blowing in, ruffling the opponent's blond hair, but the last thing he saw was the phantom thief's pure white cloak rising and disappearing in front of them.
Connor cursed that they were late, then turned to Dick and said, "It's on the top floor."
On Atar's side, almost as soon as he touched the ground of the top floor, he struggled out of the arms of the strange thief and distanced himself from the other party.
In fact, it is not so easy to take him away, but the moment the other party hugged him and threw the hook line gave him a familiar feeling, so he followed the meaning of the strange thief.
The name of a familiar person emerged in Atar's heart...
However, he hesitated for a moment, because Jason obviously wouldn't be so frivolous, so he couldn't make a clear judgment.
Now that they had won the time to talk again, everyone couldn't rush to the top of the building for a while, so the strange thief also seemed very leisurely, almost like a date with Atal blowing the night breeze on the top of the building, which seemed extraordinarily weird.
I don't know if it's done, Jason thought to himself, but he didn't ask aloud, because he still wanted to be alone with the other party for a while.
This is a rare opportunity in reality. After all, Atal seems to be surrounded by people forever, and it is difficult for Jason to find such time.
He looked at Atal's face quietly.
"I know that you also remember the memory of the main world," Atal said suddenly, "This is a dream, and you have distorted it."
The strange thief was stunned, bit off the white gloves with his teeth, and said vaguely: "...so you also remember?"
"Yeah." Atar nodded, his words were ambiguous, "Are you... well-intentioned?"
He thought of the system's guess that the opponent might be someone from the Assassin's League.
The strange thief said: "Even if I get hurt, I won't hurt you."
Atar looked at him, the other party's pure white cloak floated gently under the blowing of the night wind, and the hem of the cloak swept his trouser legs again and again, and he remained motionless.
In the end, he came to the conclusion that this person would not hurt him.
"So...you are Constantine?" Attar said suddenly.
The strange thief looked like he was about to explode on the spot: "No, don't guess randomly!...Wait, you know him anyway!"
Jason suddenly felt very stressed and sulked.
"Okay, then, I won't guess," Atar spread his hands, "Did you hear any strange noises when you came in?"
Worried that the other party would not understand, he added: "It is similar to whispering, or other voices, with temptation or threat."
As soon as he finished speaking, Jason heard the lazy female voice coming from his ear again, and said with interest: "Oh...he is very sharp."
This sentence made Jason feel vigilant: "...What did you say?"
Wait a moment--
Did he fall into a misunderstanding before, subconsciously thinking that what the female voice said was right?
But in fact, it is not necessarily true at all.
Jason gritted his teeth: "So you're trying to deceive me?"
He shouldn't have been so gullible. If it wasn't for the people he cared about, he wouldn't have made such a low-level mistake.
"You got the key—" the female voice was interrupted by laughter before she could finish speaking.
——The accident happened suddenly!
A bullet swirled out from the position of the tree that Jason stepped on before, tearing the air towards Jason's position and attacking.
He didn't expect someone to shoot at that position at all, so he was stunned for a moment, but the second of hesitation was enough for the bullet to come to him. its mirror.
Atal looked in the direction of the bullet, and Lionel blew a kiss at him in a funny way, mouthing and saying, "We Tim have a partner."
He was still holding the gun in his hand, and Tim, who was messed up by the leaves of the bushes, was standing under the tree, and the other party smiled at Atal with a hint of joy.
Atal looked away, turned his head, and the face-changing lens was destroyed. Jason caught the broken glass that fell like snowflakes, and then slowly raised his head.
He met Atal's gaze.
"...Jason." The other party called out his name briskly, "You are the strange thief."
[The true identity cannot be discovered, otherwise the task will fail]
Maybe this is the way to crack the dream at this moment, Atal uttered the shortest spell "Jason".
……
"Tsk," Jason said irritably, throwing away the broken glass, "So, did you really recognize it now?"
"I'm just being cautious."
He cannot bear any consequences.
The next moment, their vision was blurred, as if thousands of kaleidoscopes were spinning in front of their eyes, and the entire dream world collapsed, dissipating into the air like a shattered lens.
... The dream is over.
But who is that female voice?
"It's really interesting. I remember you killed my moon beast when you were hovering on the edge of the dreamland." A voice suddenly interrupted, "Although I don't care, this kind of scene is still very rare."
"——You don't need to come to Dreamland to seek my help, I will come to Gotham to see you."
The voice that induced Jason appeared in his mind. It was mellow and pleasant, making one's scalp tingle.
People can't help but imagine the image of an extremely beautiful and irresistible woman, as if a fan is used to cover the face, and the looming facial features appear more mysterious and moving.
But there was an extremely terrifying color in this beauty, which made Atar tremble all over.
He remembered the monster he met on the stairs in that absurd town at the beginning...
Yes, he killed it.
Was it originally called the Moon Beast?
Such a monster is actually the subordinate of some kind of creature——
"Keep it fun the next time we meet," she giggled, "and then I won't treat you like food."