2: Chapter 2 The real culprit kneels down, and you call that acting?

In the bank lobby, one could hear a pin drop.

The air felt as if it had been sucked dry, so oppressive that it made people gasp for breath.

Qin Feng stood in the center of the hall, his comical clown mask exuding an eerie chill under the cold fluorescent lights.

Just as everyone was being suppressed by this sudden Bandit Aura, a shadow in the corner moved.

Gui Jianchou pulled his baseball cap low, a ruthless light flickering in his triangular eyes. As an A-list wanted criminal with three lives on his hands, the word "fear" did not exist in his dictionary.

In his eyes, the masked kid before him was nothing more than an ignorant amateur trying to rob a robber.

"Seeking death."

Gui Jianchou licked his dry, cracked lips, his right hand silently reaching behind his waist. The cold touch of the dagger's hilt steadied his heart slightly.

Like a venomous snake, using the commotion of the crowd as cover, he hugged the wall and crept step by step toward Qin Feng's back.

Ten meters.

Five meters.

Three meters.

Gui Jianchou could even see the loose threads on Qin Feng's windbreaker.

"Too green." A cruel, cold sneer curled at the corner of Gui Jianchou's mouth. His back was completely exposed, his whole body relaxed and defenseless; this kind of amateur wouldn't last three days in the underworld.

Since you're blocking my path, I'll send you on your way.

Gui Jianchou's gaze sharpened, his wrist flipped, and the cold glint of a dagger flashed as he prepared to strike—

[Ding! Strong hostility detected!]

[Bandit Aura (Active) at full power.]

The system's mechanical voice exploded in Qin Feng's mind.

At almost the exact same instant, Qin Feng, who had been facing away from Gui Jianchou, suddenly spun around.

There were no wasted movements.

With just a single turn, time seemed to stretch out in that moment.

Gui Jianchou's forward steps abruptly halted, as if he had been struck by a freezing spell.

He met a pair of eyes.

What kind of eyes were they?

Through the black eye-holes of the mask, Gui Jianchou didn't see human pupils, but a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood. There was no killing intent in that gaze, because killing intent only exists when one needs to exert effort to kill.

In this gaze, there was only indifference.

An absolute indifference toward life, like a god looking down at an ant, or a butcher looking at a pig or sheep waiting to be slaughtered.

Cold, hollow, and bottomless.

Weng—

Gui Jianchou's brain instantly went blank, and a sharp ringing sound echoed in his ears.

In his vision, the surroundings began to distort and fade. The bank lobby vanished, replaced by an endless dark abyss. And Qin Feng was the Demon Lord standing above the abyss, looking down and judging his soul.

A primal fear originating from the depths of his genes instantly shattered the psychological defenses Gui Jianchou was so proud of.

It was the despair of prey facing an apex predator, too terrified to even run.

Clang!

A crisp sound of metal hitting the floor broke the dead silence.

The dagger that Gui Jianchou usually valued as much as his life now felt like a red-hot iron, slipping from his hand and falling to the ground.

Then came the dull thud of knees hitting the floor.

Thump!

Under the gaze of hundreds of pairs of eyes and the witness of tens of millions of live-stream viewers, this fierce bandit Gui Jianchou, who had escaped police encirclements seven times, actually collapsed like a pile of mud, his knees buckling as he knelt heavily before Qin Feng.

Even through his thick jeans, everyone seemed to hear the sound of kneecaps cracking.

"Bi... bi... big brother..."

Gui Jianchou was shaking like a leaf, his upper and lower teeth chattering wildly, making a series of crisp "clack-clack-clack" sounds.

At this moment, where was there even a trace of the ruthless wanted criminal?

He propped himself up with his hands, his forehead pressed tightly against the cold marble floor, his cold sweat instantly forming a puddle on the marble.

"Don't... don't kill me! I was wrong! I failed to recognize greatness! You... you are the real grandmaster!"

Gui Jianchou's voice carried a sob; he was truly scared out of his wits.

That one look just now had confirmed one thing: the number of lives this man held in his hands was definitely more than the amount of rice Gui Jianchou had eaten! He had run into a literal god of the underworld!

The entire hall was deathly silent.

Even Qin Feng himself was momentarily stunned.

He looked at the middle-aged man trembling at his feet, his brow twitching slightly under the mask.

"Are the background actors these days of such high quality?"

Qin Feng was secretly amazed.

Look at the frequency of that shaking, look at the flow of that cold sweat, and listen to those lines delivered with a terrified vibrato.

Incredible!

This acting was ten thousand times better than those young idols who could only stare blankly and rely on post-production editing!

"For the five thousand yuan appearance fee, I can't let myself be outshone by a background actor."

A professional competitive drive surged within Qin Feng.

He lowered his eyes slightly, casually twirling the prop gun in his hand, and spoke in a voice that sounded like it was laced with ice shards:

"Crawl into the corner."

This voice wasn't loud, but it carried an unquestionable authority.

Like an imperial decree.

"Yes! Yes, yes, yes! Crawling now! Right away!"

Gui Jianchou felt as if he had been granted a reprieve from death, scrambling and rolling toward the corner. To show his submission, he even literally rolled twice on the ground, then squatted with his hands behind his head, face toward the wall.

The movement was so standard and the posture so practiced that it was more textbook than a textbook.

"..."

In the bank hall, hundreds of hostages watched, dumbfounded.

Even the well-traveled Su Tang couldn't help but gape, the milk tea in her hand wobbling.

At the same time.

In the official live stream of "simulated crime," after a brief lag, the bullet chat completely exploded.

The screen was covered in "???" like snowflakes.

"Holy crap! Holy crap! Holy crap! What just happened?"

"Have I seen this script? Wasn't this supposed to be a bumbling thief's debut? Why does it feel like I'm watching 'The Godfather'?"

"Who is that kneeling extra? I want his full profile in three minutes! This acting is god-tier! That shivering—I can feel him wetting his pants through the screen!"

"I just want to ask, did anyone screenshot Qin Feng's look? I just made eye contact with my Husky, and the dog is still shivering under the bed and won't come out!"

"Is this the legendary bloodline suppression? This isn't a drill; this is a large-scale 'recognizing your daddy' scene!"

"I beg the director to give him a bonus! This is a real actor! This is what you call a bandit!"

...

Outside the studio, inside the broadcasting van.

Chief Director Wei Guanqi stared intently at the monitor, his hand squeezing the walkie-talkie until it was sweaty.

He wiped a non-existent cold sweat from his forehead and turned to the assistant director behind him, his voice a bit shaky: "Old Zhang, in the script... is this part in there? Did you find that kneeling extra?"

The assistant director looked bewildered and shook his head frantically: "Director, I'm innocent! The extras I found are all waiting outside and haven't entered yet! This person... I don't know him at all!"

"You don't know him?" Wei Guanqi's heart skipped a beat. "Could it be a partner Qin Feng brought himself? This kid has such wild connections?"

...

At the same time.

Jianghai City Police Headquarters, Command Center.

A massive electronic screen occupied the entire wall, showing the live feed from inside the bank.

Bureau Chief Zhao Shanhe sat in the primary seat, his police uniform crisp and the insignia on his shoulders shining under the lights.

As an old criminal investigator who had worked his way up from the grassroots, what scene hadn't Zhao Shanhe seen? But at this moment, his face was so dark it could drip ink.

"Bam!"

Zhao Shanhe slammed the table, sending the unfortunate teacup lid flying and spinning several times on the marble tabletop.

"Enlarge the image for me! Yes! That person kneeling! Give me a close-up of his face!"

The technician flinched at the chief's roar, his fingers flying across the keyboard.

The screen image zoomed in instantly, freezing on Gui Jianchou's sweat-drenched, slightly distorted face.

On the left cheek, a faint scar was clearly visible.

Triangular eyes, aquiline nose.

Inside the command center, several veteran detectives gasped and stood up in disbelief.

"Is that... the A-list wanted criminal, Gui Jianchou?!"

"It's him! I'd recognize that face even if it turned to ash! This bastard just committed a crime in the neighboring province last month; how did he end up in our Jianghai City?"

"Wait... if that's the real Gui Jianchou..."

Everyone's gaze shifted stiffly to the figure wearing the clown mask in the center of the screen.

A desperate criminal with hands stained with blood who didn't blink at killing.

A madman who wasn't even afraid of a SWAT Team's encirclement.

He actually knelt down to an "actor"?

And he knelt so decisively, so fearfully, so submissively?

What did this mean?

This meant that in Gui Jianchou's subconscious judgment, this young man named Qin Feng was ten thousand times more terrifying than the police!

"You call this acting? Who are you kidding!"

Zhao Shanhe felt his temples throbbing, his blood pressure soaring to two hundred.

He pointed at Qin Feng on the screen, his finger trembling—not from fear, but from anger, the anger of being fooled.

"I knew the way this kid held the gun was wrong! That look... that definitely wasn't acted! That's killing intent! It's materialized killing intent!"

"Investigate! Investigate him immediately!"

Zhao Shanhe kicked his chair aside, his roar echoing through the entire command hall:

"Pull up Qin Feng's file! I don't care if it's his kindergarten records or where his ancestors are buried, find out everything!"

"Also, notify the SWAT Team! All leaves are canceled; assemble immediately!"

"Tell them, this is not a drill!"

"This is real combat! The opponent is a... super bandit who can make an A-list wanted criminal kneel!"