Chapter 323: The Boss Who Made a Profit by Accident

Seeing the slightly concerned (gossipy) look in Ma Ma Zhaodi's eyes, Denton decided not to tell the truth.

Why drag him in? If the other party didn't support him, would he have to shoot him? And if the other party did support him, he certainly couldn't drag him down either.

Thinking carefully, since Elizabeth fell ill, her health had not been very good; she couldn't go out, couldn't exercise, had put down many hobbies, and her diet had become much lighter, yet she still asked him to buy Old Ma's pastries, which were not heavy in flavor, tasted very good, and suited her well.

She had once said that if she got better, she wanted to learn one or two moves from Old Ma to make herself a few pastries to taste.

Denton looked at Ma Ma Zhaodi, fell silent for a moment, and then said to him: "Recently... some things have happened; I haven't been sleeping well and often stay up late."

"Are you short of money?" Ma Ma Zhaodi asked: "You even came to work part-time at the gun shop—if you really are short of money, you can borrow from me."

Denton gave a bitter smile; if it were merely a problem of lacking money, he wouldn't have come to this point today.

"It's nothing, Old Ma, I can solve it myself." He reached out to take the pastry bag: "Go do your business; next time I'll come to you to buy pastries again."

"Alright, remember to find me if something comes up—say hello to Elizabeth for me."

"... Mm."

Watching the old acquaintance walk out of the shop, Denton couldn't help but sigh; now there was no need to silence anyone; as soon as the police asked Ma Ma Zhaodi, his identity would be locked down immediately, and killing the gun shop owner at this moment was meaningless.

While pondering, the shop door opened with a crack, and Ma Ma Zhaodi walked back in.

"By the way, Denton, there's one more thing."

"What now?"

Sensing a hint of impatience in Denton's tone, Ma Ma Zhaodi smiled awkwardly yet politely and handed him a portion of pastries.

"I brought you some green dumplings; take them back to Elizabeth; you said she likes to eat these."

"Thank you."

"For a regular customer, it's only right."

Ma Ma Zhaodi waved his hand, turned his head, and left; the shop door clicked shut again.

"Old Ma cannot be touched," Denton thought silently: "That guy is a good person."

He raised his hand to check his watch; at this moment, the remaining time was extremely scarce.

"I must hurry."

He rushed quickly into the gun shop warehouse; his body began to spasm and tremble rapidly; after only a few seconds, Denton's body, like biological cells self-dividing and replicating, directly split another Denton out from within his own body.

Identical black jacket, identical thin face, identical voice, gait, and movements—looking completely identical, with no difference whatsoever.

The eyes of this differentiated individual seemed somewhat empty; he didn't even look at Denton once, and like a robot, rushed quickly to the ammunition and firearms in the warehouse, rapidly packing things into bags.

Meanwhile, Denton's own replication continued.

One, two, three... until five of himself had differentiated and the space in the warehouse seemed somewhat crowded, only then did Denton stop the replication behavior.

Each of the six Dentons hoisted a large backpack on their backs; each controlled the weight of their own backpack, because once it exceeded twenty kilograms, Denton's flexibility would be greatly reduced.

At the same time, Ma Ma Zhaodi, driving while hidden, stood at the warehouse entrance, expressing awe at the scene before him.

"Good news," he said to San San Bengzi: "Denton doesn't plan to make a move on the gun shop owner."

"Bad news?"

"The bad news is, I didn't expect him to be the villain of the second episode; I originally wanted to secretly knock him out and take him away, but now I can't; five people is a bit too many; moving them to the street would be easily noticed."

"I can use a semi-trailer to load them away."

San San Bengzi had just said he didn't like the semi-trailer truck form, so Ma Ma Zhaodi was deeply moved by its spirit of actually doing something when needed—then decisively rejected the proposal. "A semi-trailer is even worse; the target is too big and easier to notice."

"Then what do we do?"

"Let him fail the robbery first; otherwise, he'll become a real criminal."

As the sound of sirens rang out on the street, Denton's expression suddenly startled; fortunately, all six bags were already packed; he immediately lifted the bags and walked toward the door.

Rrrrip—!

The sound of the nylon bag tearing suddenly rang out; golden metal bullets scattered onto the ground like raindrops, tinkling and clattering until they were completely spilled out.

The handguns and automatic rifles inside the bags also fell to the ground; at this moment, Denton looked at the empty backpack and was almost stunned in place for three seconds.

Three seconds later, the sound of police cars grew closer; he raised his hand and slapped himself hard several times; he squatted down, quickly picked up two guns from the ground, stuffed two magazines into his pockets, and then immediately sprinted out of the gun shop.

The six Dentons filed out of the shop entrance, taking away a total of twelve handguns and twenty-four magazines, jumped into the van at the shop entrance, floored the accelerator, and sped away from the scene.

Meanwhile, Ma Ma Zhaodi walked back into the gun shop warehouse; he took out several stacks of US dollars, totaling twenty thousand, and placed them in the owner's trench coat pocket and the cash register counter.

"Sorry, this is compensation for your losses."

After Ma Ma Zhaodi rode his motorcycle and disappeared from the shop entrance, the police cars of the Central City Police Department also arrived at the scene.

"To be honest, the efficiency of the Central City Police Department is quite high," Ma Ma Zhaodi, riding his motorcycle, checked the time: "About three minutes have passed since Denton entered; if the Gotham Police Department had this efficiency, Commissioner Gordon would wake up laughing in his dreams."

He rode his motorcycle, looked at Denton's vehicle position on the display, and thought for a moment: "Let's not follow him for now to avoid being discovered; wait until he stops the car first—how is Elizabeth's condition?"

"It has already been checked; she is in the intensive care unit at Central City Hospital; the situation is not very good."

"Intensive care? Why the hell didn't Denton say so earlier... how bad is the situation?"

"According to her electronic medical records, she suffers from degenerative valvular heart disease, which began to worsen within a few months after the laboratory explosion; it has now progressed to the late stage—it cannot be determined if there is any connection to the explosion."

"No hope?"

"Time is running out; according to past cases at the hospital, surviving until today is already a miracle."

"... Let's put Denton's matter aside for now; let's go to Central City Hospital first."

"I want to remind you that 'Wine's' healing effect restores health points; this kind of organ developmental deformity probably belongs to an abnormal life state; you cannot root it out."

"Are you joking? Who do you think I am?"

With the roar of the motorcycle engine, Ma Ma Zhaodi sped toward the direction of the hospital.

At this moment in the gun shop, the completely bewildered owner had woken up again; looking at the bullets and firearms scattered all over the floor, he felt somewhat puzzled in his heart.

"Very strange, why does it feel like not much was taken..."

"Mr. Barton, is it?"

A police officer walked up and asked: "You reported a robbery earlier; may I ask what items were robbed from you?"

"Oh, I—"

Just as he was about to answer, the boss habitually slipped his hand into his pocket and unexpectedly felt a thick stack of paper inside his trench coat.

"Emm, is there any chance this is some weird customer playing a prank on me?"

"Huh?"

(End of chapter)