Chapter 519: Performance Begins

Although this service area was abandoned, its basic facilities were all intact, especially the surveillance system, which largely covered every corner of the gas station, the front of the main building, and the two commercial streets.

However, the service area's power supply was currently off, rendering everything unusable. Yet, this was not a difficult problem for Chen Ling.

As long as the power could be restored, the surveillance cameras covering the entire service area would reconnect. They could record everything happening there and simultaneously broadcast it to anyone on the internet.

In this era of the internet, even if there wasn't a single person present, countless viewers could "witness" this brutal performance online!

But the current problem was... where to find these viewers?

Chen Ling could, of course, project the footage onto every electronic device, easily allowing millions to watch. But since this was a performance involving murder, doing so would cause extremely severe social repercussions. Moreover, the police or military would likely arrive before he even finished fighting Nie Yu.

The audience didn't need to be too large, and it shouldn't include any children or innocent people. Ideally, they also wouldn't call the police.

Perhaps there was only one place to find such an audience.

Chen Ling took a step, his figure descending from the clouds.

He lightly landed on the roof of the service area's main building, a five-story structure that served as the highest point nestled between the two commercial streets.

"He's here after all..."

At that moment, on the second floor of a shop along one of the commercial streets, Nie Yu watched the scene through a gap in the curtains, a chilling glint flickering in his eyes.

He took a deep breath, his hand gripping the hilt of the hunting knife embedded in his chest, and slowly pulled it out.

The sharp blade withdrew from his flesh, a trickle of blood splattering across the ground as it cut through the air. Nie Yu's face, reflected in the rain-streaked glass, was as pale as paper.

Although he hadn't yet purged the Demonic Blood Map, and his rank was still locked at Tier 4, the current situation left him no time for a slow cleansing. Only by killing Chen Ling and leaving this place would he have the opportunity to do more.

With one hand gripping the blood-stained hunting knife and a hunting rifle on his back, his eyes fixated on the figure on the nearby rooftop, he resembled a patient hunter seeking a weakness.

But Chen Ling's next action exceeded his expectations.

Chen Ling walked up to a cabinet resembling a transformer. With a slight touch of his palm, fine electrical arcs burst directly from within the cabinet. Simultaneously, a rumbling thunder echoed from the clouds!

Boom—!!

As a bolt of lightning streaked across the sky, Nie Yu saw Chen Ling on the rooftop, a faint smile playing on his lips.

Immediately after, neon signs that had long been dormant in the darkness began to light up one by one, extending from the building beneath Chen Ling's feet towards the two commercial streets!

Neon signs of various colors on every shop tore through the rapid curtain of rain in the darkness. The abandoned service area seemed to be completely awakened by Chen Ling, blossoming with a dreamlike radiance in the desolate night rain.

These neon signs gradually illuminated the streets, casting light on Nie Yu's face in the shadows, lighting up everything under his startled gaze.

At the same time, what Nie Yu didn't notice was that the surveillance cameras scattered throughout the streets had also silently activated.

Dazzling electrical sparks gushed from the electrical cabinet, like bright spotlights before a stage performance. Before these spotlights, Chen Ling raised his hand and forcefully tore at his chin!

Rip—

A mask of skin drifted away into nothingness with the wind, his large red opera robe dancing wildly in the torrential rain. The surging electrical sparks illuminated half of Chen Ling's face, his smile, a play of light and shadow, growing increasingly brilliant.

The audience was in place, the stage was set, and the actors were ready.

He slowly crouched down, touched his fingertip to his lips, then let it fall onto the puddle beneath him, like an actor gently kissing the stage before a performance. A ripple in the puddle shattered his reflection into shimmering starlight.

He murmured to himself:

"The performance... begins."

The United States.

Las Vegas.

A man in a white suit, holding a glass of red wine, calmly walked through the opulent casino, his ears filled with the excited shouts of gamblers or the desperate, red-eyed roars of those making their last bets.

Some people's chips flew across the card tables, some people's fates were crushed by the roulette wheel, and some people's red wine swayed in their glasses.

The man simply passed quietly among the gamblers, like a non-existent ghost.

Just then, the phone in his pocket suddenly vibrated as if a call was coming in. The man naturally pulled it out and, seeing the image on the screen, suddenly stopped.

A hint of surprise flashed in his eyes.

"Mr. Zhang, would you like me to arrange lunch for you?" a blonde server approached him and asked respectfully.

"No... no need."

The man's attention was entirely focused on his phone screen. He waved his hand and said, "I need to rest for a while; don't let anyone disturb me."

"Yes, sir."

As he spoke, the man opened the door to the casino's VIP room. Luxurious crystal chandeliers illuminated everything within. He walked directly to the desk and sat down, only to find that his computer had also started at some point, displaying the exact same image as his phone.

On the computer screen, the dark web address had automatically opened, and the website's main page was covered by a live stream. The crucial point was that there was no option to close the window.

"A forcibly popped-up window, and it can't be closed?" The man crossed his legs in the chair, watching the screen with interest. "The dark web... can actually be hacked? Interesting..."

In the upper right corner of the screen, the number of viewers was still rapidly increasing. The "forcibly popped up" and "unable to close" features had practically trapped all dark web users there, leaving them no option but to watch.

The number of viewers had now exceeded ten thousand.

Since he couldn't close it, the man simply put the screen into full-screen mode. The red wine in his glass swayed gently as his gaze fixed on the screen. The image quality wasn't clear, as if recorded by a surveillance camera. In the footage, numerous neon signs lit up in the torrential rain, and on the rooftop of a distant building, a figure in red was dancing in the wind.

"The location is in the mainland?" The man saw the Chinese characters on the neon signs and raised an eyebrow slightly in surprise.

The footage remained static, leaving the man somewhat bewildered. Just as he was beginning to lose patience, a blood-soaked figure suddenly emerged through the rain, holding a hunting knife and slowly walking towards the red-clad figure.

Although it was only for an instant, the man still managed to catch a clear glimpse of his profile. The red wine swaying in his glass paused slightly, and his eyes narrowed into slits.

"'The Hunter'... Is that him??"