"What do you say? You said there were already three before me!"
Barbara seemed to have heard some earth-shattering news. Her eyes widened in shock like copper bells.
Just now, from this lilac-skinned woman, she had learned that Jin—the man she had liked since college—actually already had girlfriends… and more than one.
"Of course. You've clearly had feelings for him since the beginning of college, but because of your shyness you delayed everything until after graduation. That's simply the result of hesitation and defeat."
The bad woman, Black Lily, spoke like a demon whispering in someone's ear. After hearing her words, Barbara's pupils trembled slightly, and a strong sense of regret slowly rose in her heart.
"I…"
Before Barbara could continue thinking, a woman's scream suddenly rang out in the distance.
"Ahhh!!"
Everyone in the café—including Barbara and Black Lily—looked outside.
They saw a wooden puppet, less than a meter tall, drilling the sharp drill in its palm into a woman's temple.
Blood gushed out like a fountain.
Such a horrifying and bloody scene made the people around them weak in the legs. They stared at the murder scene with pale faces full of terror.
"Gahahaha!!"
The puppet laughed crazily in the spraying blood. It was clearly supposed to be an inanimate doll, yet its human-like laughter sounded extremely strange.
Some people called the police. Others ran away.
But no one dared to step forward to stop the puppet from killing innocent women. Everyone was terrified of the living puppet.
"Ahhh!"
Many people finally lost their courage and began running away in panic.
Suddenly, a dark shadow appeared above them.
They looked up—only to see a car flying straight toward them.
"Bang!!"
Several unlucky passersby barely had time to react before they were crushed alive by the falling car.
Thick scarlet blood flowed from beneath the vehicle, staining the ground of the square.
The culprit behind this massacre was a skinny woman hiding in the shadows. The long-haired woman had no intention of stopping.
She raised her hand.
Her telekinetic power lifted the knives from the dining tables and sent them flying toward several unfortunate pedestrians.
The knives pierced their necks with deadly precision.
No one knew how many people had already died in this slaughter.
Seeing this, Barbara's expression turned cold.
A bat-dart slipped out from her sleeve, and she threw it quickly toward the puppet.
"Clang!"
The puppet immediately raised its hand. The drill in its palm collided with the bat-dart, producing bright sparks.
There were no more civilians nearby now. The only people lying on the ground were those who had already died, so Barbara's actions were witnessed only by Black Lily.
"Huh?"
The puppet tilted its head, looking at the bat-dart on the ground.
Then it raised its eyes toward Barbara. Its wooden lips moved slightly.
"Batman? No… no. You're a woman. You're Batgirl."
Realizing the situation was bad, Barbara immediately turned to Black Lily.
"Madam, you should hurry and—"
But when Barbara turned her head, Black Lily was already gone.
Barbara sighed with relief. It seemed the woman had escaped safely.
"Damn… this isn't the right place to expose my identity… Hmm? What's going on?"
Barbara looked at the surrounding surveillance cameras.
But all the cameras were flickering—they had clearly been disabled by some external force.
Although she didn't understand what had happened, it was beneficial to her. At least her identity as Batgirl wouldn't be exposed.
However, the enemy clearly had the advantage in numbers. Among them there must be someone with superpowers.
Barbara dared not be careless.
She put the special communicator from her pocket onto her ear.
Pressing the headset, she said:
"This is Batgirl. I need backup."
Barbara intended to contact other members of the Bat Family.
But after a burst of static—
"Rustle…"
A woman's voice suddenly came from the headset.
"Miss Barbara, long time no see."
Barbara immediately recognized the voice.
It was Black Lily—the woman who had just been sitting with her.
"You… who are you?"
Barbara was shocked. She had no idea when the other party had hacked into the Bat Family's communication channel.
"This isn't the time for explanations."
"Watch behind you."
Barbara's expression changed instantly.
Without hesitation, she twisted her body sideways.
The drill in the puppet's palm barely brushed past her hair.
The puppet landed on the ground and tilted its head.
"Huh? How did you dodge that? Do you have eyes on the back of your head?"
"So close…"
If it hadn't been for the woman's warning through the headset, her skull would have been drilled open.
In the shadows, the thin-eyed ventriloquist stared at Barbara.
She raised her hand.
A knife floated into the air, its tip aimed directly at Barbara's neck.
"Whoosh!"
Driven by telekinesis, the knife shot toward Barbara like a bullet.
Barbara only saw a flash of cold light.
She had no time to dodge.
Because the ventriloquist was outside her line of sight—this was a sneak attack.
"Bang!"
A sudden gunshot echoed.
"Whoosh!"
A blue energy bullet shot from the side.
It struck the knife, forcibly changing its trajectory before it plunged into the ground.
From Black Lily's vantage point, Barbara, the puppet, and the hidden ventriloquist were all clearly visible.
No one could hide from her.
The combat visor of Black Lily's helmet slowly closed.
The muzzle of Black Lily's Kiss aimed at the ventriloquist, who had no idea death was approaching.
The red crosshair settled on the center of the ventriloquist's forehead.
The corners of Black Lily's lips curved into a beautiful smile.
"Sleep."
"Bang!"
"Whoosh!"
The energy bullet pierced straight through the ventriloquist's forehead, bursting out the back of her skull along with a spray of scarlet blood.
"Plop!"
Before she even realized what had happened, the ventriloquist was already a corpse.
The puppet sensed its partner's death and immediately screamed sharply.
"Shauna!!"
Barbara didn't know what had happened, but the gunshot had clearly helped her.
Her eyes narrowed.
Two special bat-darts slid from her sleeves.
"Swish!!"
The darts pinned the puppet's hands to a car in front of the café.
"Didi—Didi—"
"Boom!!"
The bat-darts exploded violently.
Flames swallowed the puppet whole.
Barbara had no intention of showing mercy to a non-human creature like that.
Thus, Shauna Belzer—the third-generation Ventriloquist—and her puppet Verdier were declared dead today.
Barbara looked toward the rooftop where the gunshot had come from.
But there was no one there anymore.
Combined with the voice she had heard earlier, Barbara was certain that the shooter had been Black Lily.
Although she didn't understand why the woman had helped her, cleaning up the crime scene was the priority now.
Barbara took out another phone—not her personal one.
She dialed the Gotham Police Department.
After slightly altering her voice, she said:
"I am Batgirl. There has been a murder here."
After reporting it, Barbara also left the scene.
___________
I don't know what I'm thinking, but I gave money to someone to get me pictures of my profile, so you can look at them. Secondly, I posted pictures of the characters in the chapter, so please go back to the previous chapter and see them.