Chapter 188: Hunt

"Once you start loving yourself, you'll start wondering what took you so long."

- Unknown

...

"What? Where is he?"

The Black Mask heard the voice of the White Skull and looked around anxiously.

"There! I saw a figure running in that direction just now!"

The White Skull pointed towards a sturdy tree not far away.

"Split up and surround him."

The Black Mask signaled to the White Skull, who understood immediately.

When they split up, they each went in a different direction toward the tree. However, there was nothing behind the tree.

There wasn't even a trace of a person, not even a footprint.

"This can't be right! I... I really saw someone hide here, boss. I'm telling the truth."

The White Skull couldn't believe it.

"Could I have been mistaken? But that figure looked so real..."

Black Mask paid no attention to his subordinate's self-doubt. He observed the area nearby with a stoic expression.

"Ah, maybe I was just too nervous and had a hallucination. Boss, let's continue—"

The White Skull sighed and was about to suggest leaving when the Black Mask suddenly pointed in a direction.

"Look!"

The White Skull was surprised and followed the direction pointed by the Black Mask.

About thirty meters away, a shadow was moving swiftly while constantly running between the trees.

The shadow was fast and silent, with barely any sound of footsteps.

That was already hard to see in this dense forest, and it was getting darker, so it was even harder. If anyone didn't pay close attention, it would be easy to miss this shadow.

"He went there! I told you I didn't see anything wrong! Could that be Bruce Wayne?"

The White Skull asked excitedly.

"Go after him!"

The Black Mask gave a quick command.

They immediately chased after the shadow.

White Skull was moving in excitement, and Black Mask would look down at the ground a few times in a while with a meaningful expression.

The dark figure seemed to sense that he was being chased and suddenly increased its speed, almost losing Black Mask and White Skull.

"Why is wealthy Bruce Wayne running so fast? He should be weak, right?"

White Skull panted.

The exciting and tense chase began.

The Black Masks gradually caught up to the White Skull, who had been running ahead just moments earlier, and created a space between them.

However, the dark figure of the speed was fast earlier, and it seemed as if its endurance had already reached its limit.

After a short burst, the gap between them and the Black Mask began to shrink.

"Boss, look! It seems like he's getting tired; his speed has slowed down a lot!"

Not long after, White Skull pointed to the shadow ahead, which was getting closer.

Black Mask didn't say anything and silently chased the dark figure.

At that moment, the fleeing dark figure suddenly stumbled, as if tripped by something, and fell to the ground.

"Hahaha! He fell! Even if God himself comes, he won't be able to save him now!"

The White Skull laughed maliciously. In this moment of excitement, his speed even increased slightly.

He closely followed behind the Black Mask.

As the distance closed, the appearance of the dark figure became clearer.

It was a man in a high-end suit; although the clothes were covered in dirt, it couldn't hide the top-quality fabric.

The man was tall and good-looking and looked almost 1.90cm at first glance.

All of these clues matched what the image of Bruce Wayne was like.

Before he could even get up from the ground, the two had completely caught up to him and surrounded him.

The man's face looked exactly like Bruce Wayne's when they got close.

"You've won, Roman. You caught me."

Seeing this, Bruce Wayne may have known he couldn't get away, as he stopped trying to stand up and stayed on the ground.

"What do you want, Roman? Are you going to kill me or torture me?"

Black Mask huffed while staring at Bruce on the ground without speaking.

The Black Mask huffed and stared at Bruce, who was lying on the ground.

The eyes were strange, showing no sign of excitement when seeing his enemy nor the joy of about to kill his enemy.

Instead, all that was present was an extreme coldness and a hint of suspicion.

Black Mask pulled a pistol from his pocket and approached while pressing the muzzle against Bruce's head.

"Oh no!"

In that instant, when the gun was pressed against Bruce's forehead, a cry of alarm sounded.

It wasn't Bruce's voice, nor was it the voice of the Black Mask or the White Skull. It came from the news reporters who were watching the live streaming.

"Is Bruce going to die? Is Black Mask going to kill Bruce?"

The media people thought nervously.

"Where is Batman? Where is Batman? Someone, save him!"

While the death of the head of the Wayne family would definitely be a sensational news story, no reporters felt excited about it.

They only felt fear.

Bruce's death would have a far greater impact than the deaths of Thomas and Martha Wayne because at least they had Bruce as a legitimate heir.

But Bruce only had an adopted son with no blood relation...

What would happen to Wayne Enterprises if Bruce died?

What would happen to Gotham?

...

On the other side is Robinson Park.

Black Mask held his gun to Bruce's forehead with his index finger on the trigger.

"Boss, you're amazing. How did you know that Bruce Wayne would take this route?"

Beside them, the White Skull exclaimed in admiration.

"When are you going to stop pretending?"

Black Mask suddenly said.

"Pretending? Boss, are you saying that Bruce Wayne's current appearance is just an act? Is there an ambush nearby?"

White Skull quickly became alert and carefully examined the surroundings.

"I'm talking about you, White Skull."

The Black Mask spoke slowly while moving the gun from Bruce's forehead and aiming it at the White Skull.

"You are not a member of the False Face Society; who are you?"

"This, this, this... Boss, you must be joking, right?"

The White Skull laughed nervously.

"I have to say, you did a great job making this realistic dummy; I almost thought he was the real Bruce Wayne."

The Black Mask kicked Bruce with force and rolled backward. Strangely, Bruce didn't make a sound, as if he couldn't feel any pain.

"Do you want to say you don't know what's going on with this dummy, White Skull?"

"You probably thought I wouldn't remember every member of the False Face Society personally because this organization was just founded today. You're right; I don't remember every of my subordinates' names. But you've forgotten something..."

"Who provided hundreds of different masks for the False Face Society?"

White Skull's face froze, and his expression became calm in an instant.

"I see, I didn't expect you to have so many masks kept away personally, and you even remember the appearance of each one. I thought those masks of the Blackgate prisoners were stolen from some store."

"You don't look like Bruce at all; who are you?"

The Black Mask's gaze sharpened as they stared at the White Skull and asked.

...

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