Marvel: The Sole Player

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At night, a fishing boat slowly approached from the distance on the river.

"It’s finally coming."

At this moment, Darian sat by the shore, wearing a bucket hat and an assault jacket, holding a fishing rod in his hand, pretending to be an angler.

Being a professional, Darian was clearly much more detailed than those peripheral members of the False Face Society.

He had been fishing for so long, frantically chumming the water, and had scattered at least half a bucket of bait, yet he hadn’t caught a single fish. The bucket was completely empty; anyone looking at him wouldn’t doubt he was an angler.

Darian’s lips twitched. "If I had known, I wouldn’t have given the automatic fishing rod to Wanda."

The fishing boat gradually approached the shore. The blonde man then put down his fishing rod, stood up, took out a flashlight, and flashed it three times quickly toward the river.

Quickly, the fishing boat flashed back several times with its lights.

After the signal matched, the fishing boat slowly docked. The bow rope was thrown onto the concrete bollard of the pier, and two crew members on the deck quickly set up the gangplank.

A thin man was the first to walk down the gangplank, his gaze sweeping over the faces on the pier before finally stopping on Darian’s face.

"Why does this face look a bit unfamiliar?"

"He’s Li. You met him once before; don’t you recognize him so soon?"

The blonde man stepped forward to explain. Li was an Asian member of their False Face Society, and his status was relatively high.

The thin man looked surprised. "But it doesn’t quite look like him. I remember Li wore glasses."

Darian looked calm and took a pair of glasses out of his pocket to put on.

"And now?"

"It really is you, Li."

Darian: (∇)

Just as Asians think all foreigners look the same, foreigners are equally face-blind toward Asians; everyone looks like Jackie Chan, and they can only identify others based on specific features.

After a few pleasantries, the thin man put away his smile and warned in a low voice, "The goods are all on the boat. Be careful when moving them. These are important goods personally ordered by Mr. Black Mask. If anything goes wrong, all of us here are finished."

The blonde man nodded and called over the others to board the ship and move the goods, while Darian went to get the vehicle.

Dozens of cargo boxes were stacked on the deck, all labeled as frozen seafood.

The blonde man used a crowbar to open one of them, and a strong fishy stench immediately wafted out. The top layer of the box was filled with frozen squid and sea fish; on the surface, it looked no different from an ordinary aquatic transport box.

He reached his hand into the layer of seafood covered in ice shards, felt for the edge of the upper partition, and lifted it up with force.

The entire camouflage layer was lifted, revealing the hidden compartment below, where firearms and ammunition were neatly stacked.

The blonde man quickly counted the number, and after confirming it was correct, he snapped the partition back into place.

"There’s no problem with the goods."

He waved his hand, signaling everyone to start moving them.

By this time, Darian had already driven a box truck to the edge of the pier and opened the rear door of the cargo hold.

With several people moving back and forth, in less than twenty minutes, all the cargo boxes were loaded into the truck’s cargo hold.

After confirming everything was correct, Darian had the blonde man drive while he sat in the passenger seat, with the others staying in the cargo hold to guard the goods.

According to the original plan of the False Face Society, they were to transport this batch of arms to a hidden warehouse on Kane Street.

The truck traveled through the night for about twenty minutes and turned into an old factory area at the end of Kane Street.

The barbed wire fence around the factory was rusty, and a few dim yellow streetlights barely lit the entrance. A rolling shutter door was half-open, and two gang members on sentry duty stood at the door, chatting in low voices with their heads down.

The blonde man slowed down and honked twice, giving the agreed-upon signal.

Hearing the horn, the two guards looked up and recognized the blonde man. They casually pulled up the rolling shutter door and signaled for the truck to enter.

The truck slowly drove into the warehouse. Darian quickly scanned the surroundings through the window. The warehouse was quite large, estimated at several hundred square meters, with many boxes similar to those they were transporting stacked around. Over a dozen gang members were counting goods.

After the truck came to a halt, the rear door of the cargo hold was pulled open.

A burly man with a crew cut stepped forward, holding a clipboard, and glanced at the cargo boxes inside the truck.

"Is this the batch?"

The blonde man jumped out of the truck and nodded. "Yes, it’s all here. Twenty-four boxes, the count is correct."

The crew-cut man made a few marks on the clipboard and waved his hand behind him. Several gang members immediately stepped forward to unload the goods.

Darian also stepped down from the passenger seat. Just as he stood firm, he felt the crew-cut man’s gaze fall on him.

He thought there was a flaw in his disguise and was about to speak when he saw a smile suddenly break out on the crew-cut man’s face as he patted Darian’s shoulder familiarly.

"Li, long time no see. I didn’t expect you to come too."

Darian:"....."

After going back, he should suggest to Gordon to recruit more Asians into the department.

With how face-blind these guys were, even if he went undercover right in front of them, probably no one would recognize him.

The crew-cut man turned to the blonde man and said, "You guys stay and help sort the goods. Mr. Black Mask is coming personally to inspect them tonight. All goods must be sorted and organized by category before he arrives. Not a single mistake is allowed."

The blonde man nodded. "Understood."

The gang members immediately took action, picking up crowbars to unpack and sort the goods, taking out all the firearms and ammunition hidden in the seafood compartments and placing them into different boxes by category.

Darian also mingled with the crowd, pretending to seriously put firearms and ammunition into boxes, but in reality, he threw them all into his game storage.

He hadn’t replenished his firepower for a while, and with so many free weapons delivered to his door, there was naturally no reason not to take them.

With the blonde man and the others providing cover, along with the busy scene of people coming and going in the warehouse, Darian’s actions went completely unnoticed.

After about another half hour, the roar of car engines came from outside the warehouse.

The rolling shutter door was pulled open again, and several black sedans filed in, stopping in the open space in the center of the warehouse.

The car doors opened, and figures wearing strange masks stepped out, each of them burly, holding guns, and exuding a powerful aura.

The rear door of the second car was opened by a masked man, and a pair of polished black leather shoes stepped onto the concrete ground.

Immediately after, a slender man stepped out of the car.

He wore a well-tailored white suit with a silver skull brooch pinned to the lapel, forming a sharp contrast with his subordinates dressed in black.

Most strikingly, his face was covered by a black skull mask. The matte surface didn’t reflect any light, and a pair of cold, bone-chilling eyes were visible through the mask’s eye sockets, making one shudder.

[NPC: Roman Sionis]

[Codename: Black Mask]

[Favorability: -80]

[Evaluation: A Gotham gang boss with no prestige, a master of torture, Gotham’s ’filial son’ who wears a mask made from his parents’ coffins, one of Gotham’s purest gangsters]

Darian glanced at the favorability; it was almost at the maximum negative value.

Clearly, Black Mask already knew about him killing Baso and wanted to tear him into pieces.

In fact, Black Mask didn’t need to make this trip personally, but his capable assistant Baso had suddenly died, and he couldn’t find a lackey to replace him in time, so he had to come himself to inspect the goods and ensure this batch of important arms was safe.

He hated the police officer who killed Baso even more.

Not only did he kill his most capable general, but more importantly, he ruined his reputation, making him a laughingstock in Gotham’s criminal circles.

If it weren’t for a huge arms deal currently in progress, making it inconvenient to cause extra trouble, he would have long ago sent people to search for that officer, kidnap him, and let him experience his best execution methods to satisfy his hatred.

Seeing this, the crew-cut man hurried forward and said respectfully, "Sir, all the goods have arrived. We have finished packing them according to your requirements."

Black Mask said calmly, "Show me the goods."

The crew-cut man quickly led the way, stopped in front of the shelves, and gestured, "These are them, sir."

Several rows of boxes of various sizes were stacked on the shelves, neat and orderly, with each row having a corresponding label, looking very organized.

Black Mask coldly spat out two words: "Open them."

"Yes, sir."

The crew-cut man didn’t dare to be slow. He immediately responded, bent down to take down the first box, and flipped open the lid.

However, the expected firearms and ammunition did not appear; the box was empty.

The crew-cut man’s expression froze instantly. He stared at the empty bottom of the box, paralyzed on the spot.

He quickly took down the second box and opened it; it was also empty.

The third, the fourth, the fifth...

He opened more than a dozen boxes in a row, and every single one was empty. Not to mention firearms, there wasn’t even a trace of a bullet.

"This..."

The crew-cut man broke into a cold sweat and looked up to meet Black Mask’s eyes, which were filled with murderous intent.

"What is going on?"

The crew-cut man couldn’t help but tremble all over, his voice becoming stuttered. "Sir, someone must be playing tricks. I swear this batch was just here. Everyone is here, no one has left. I don’t know how they disappeared either."

"Are you going to tell me that the goods vanished on their own?"

Black Mask’s tone was bone-chillingly cold, without a hint of warmth.

The crew-cut man was so scared his legs went weak, and he almost knelt on the spot. "Sir, I really don’t know. Please give me another chance. I’ll look carefully again. I’ll definitely find the goods!"

Black Mask saw that the crew-cut man’s panic didn’t seem faked. His sharp gaze slowly swept over everyone in the warehouse like a knife, as if trying to see through each person.

Suddenly, his gaze fixed on Darian. "Who is this guy?"

The crew-cut man was stunned. "He’s Li, an old member of our gang."

Black Mask’s lips twitched. "Where are your eyes? He’s not Li at all!"

"Huh?"

Seeing his disguise exposed, Darian simply stopped pretending. "As expected of Black Mask, I didn’t think my exquisite disguise would still be seen through by you."

Black Mask sneered. "Your disguise was too clumsy. Li has a beard, and you don’t."

Darian: "...."

So you recognized me just because I don’t have a beard?

The crew-cut man finally reacted, pointing at Darian with anger and fear. "You’re not Li! Who are you? How dare you impersonate one of us and sneak in to cause trouble!"

Darian took off his glasses, his face carrying a sense of righteousness. "Gotham City Police Department, Darian. People call me the Gotham Gun God."

"It’s you!?"

Black Mask’s expression changed abruptly, and the air pressure around him instantly dropped to freezing point. "Very well. I didn’t expect that before I went looking for you, you’d deliver yourself to my door."

He raised his hand and made a gesture. His subordinates immediately moved; someone stepped forward to lower the rolling shutter door, completely sealing the warehouse and cutting off all exits.

A dozen masked subordinates surrounded him, drawing their guns and aiming at Darian.

At a single command from Black Mask, they would immediately pull the triggers.

"I haven’t settled the score for Baso with you yet, and you dared to actively sneak in and ruin my business."

Black Mask walked toward Darian step by step, the murderous intent in his voice almost overflowing.

"Tell me, where did you hide my goods?"

"Remember, you only have one chance to answer. Think carefully before you speak, or I will definitely let you experience the most painful torture in the World, making you wish you were dead and regret coming into this World."

Darian didn’t answer but asked, "Black Mask, aren’t you curious how I found this place?"

Black Mask paused and narrowed his eyes. "How did you find it?"

Darian’s lips curled up. "Naturally, it’s because there’s a police mole by your side. Do it!"

Before he finished speaking, the blonde man and the others suddenly pulled out their pistols and indeed pulled the triggers at Black Mask and his group.

Bang bang bang bang bang—!

The sudden betrayal caught Black Mask’s subordinates off guard.

The masked men in the front row were shot before they could react, groaning as they collapsed.

Black Mask, however, reacted extremely quickly, dodging behind cover and shouting, "Fire! Kill these traitors!"

The masked men immediately organized a counterattack.

With the disparity in numbers, the blonde man and his group couldn’t suppress the opposing firepower and were shot one after another.

But there wasn’t a hint of retreat on their faces; instead, they charged into the crowd opposite them with all their might.

Boom—!

Explosions sounded consecutively, as flames and shockwaves tore several holes in the crowd.

Gunsmoke filled the air.

Darian walked out from behind a partially collapsed shelf and brushed off the debris on his shoulder.

He looked at the site of the explosion and said with great admiration, "The undercover agents died heroically. You may rest in peace; I will avenge you."

"You bastard!!"

Black Mask was covered in soot from the explosion, half of his white suit charred black, and a fine crack had appeared on his mask.

He crawled out from behind an overturned table and roared at his remaining subordinates, "Kill him!"

Receiving the order, the masked men immediately raised their guns and fired at Darian.

Darian dodged the bullets with an invincible roll, and the moment he steadied himself on one knee, a Golden Desert Eagle was already in his hand.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Four gunshots rang out, and four masked men fell to the ground, each with a bullet hole right in the center of their forehead.

Everyone was startled by Darian’s marksmanship.

He really is the Gotham Gun God!

As expected, names can be wrong, but codenames never are.

One masked man gritted his teeth, fished out a grenade, pulled the pin, and threw it at Darian.

Darian didn’t even blink. He reached out with his left hand, steadily caught the grenade in mid-air, and casually tossed it back.

"Back to you."

Boom!

The grenade exploded in the crowd, and several nearby masked men were instantly blown away, hitting the ground and moving no more.

Just then, a dark shadow suddenly darted out of the smoke and dust, grabbing Darian’s wrist that was holding the gun.

The strength was considerable; for an ordinary person, the bones would have made a sound from being squeezed.

Under the cracked mask, Black Mask revealed a sinister smile. "Gotham Gun God? I want to see how you can use a gun when this hand is useless..."

Bang!

Before he could finish, a fist the size of a sandbag slammed into Black Mask’s face.

The pieces of Black Mask’s parents’ coffin lid shattered upon impact, shards flying everywhere, and Black Mask himself was sent flying over a dozen meters away, crashing heavily into the wall.

Darian slowly withdrew his fist and chuckled. "Don’t you know that while ranged damage is high, melee damage is also high?"