Simulation Game: Crisis Management-Chapter 221 - 123: Trapped Beast

Five seconds, ten seconds, fifteen seconds...

Bzzz—!

Suddenly, a piercing buzzer echoed through the entire mall. The crowd gathered at the entrance panicked instantly, with many police officers even drawing their handguns from their waists.

"What the hell! What's happening? Why's it suddenly so chaotic?"

"Sounds like a fire alarm!"

"Did the streamer start a fire?"

"Smart, causing chaos to perhaps use the opportunity to escape!"

...

While the online viewers were eagerly discussing, Gu Ji stood on a bucket and pushed open the ventilation cover. Peeking inside, he saw a wide ventilation duct!

Yes!

This was his real escape plan!

The life-and-death experiences from the previous rounds weren't for nothing, especially when combined with the Russian SOBR Rapid Response Mechanism and reaction mark bonus, which made his tactical thinking quite lively.

From the moment he took a photo of the building's fire structure map with his phone, he thought about the idea of leaving through the ventilation duct. Because this shopping center was quite old, the outside of the vent didn't have the kind of steel mesh found in airports, but rather an exposed vent fan that could be easily kicked open.

However, the ducts were all made of sheet metal, and even if he was as quiet as possible, the repeated creaking would still make the policemen watching the livestream suspicious.

So, to facilitate his escape, create chaos, and cover the sound of crawling through the ducts, he deliberately created a fire pit smoke.

He first recorded a segment of a fire alarm sound with his phone.

Then, enduring the tearing pain of his rib injury, he crawled inside the duct.

Gu Ji confidently, almost as if "returning to an old haunt," pulled up the photo and, following the duct route map, quickly crawled towards the exhaust fan at the outlet.

With the fire alarm sound and sprinkler system masking him, the viewers truly couldn't hear him inside the duct.

In contrast, it was utter chaos on the first floor of the mall.

York anxiously grabbed the walkie-talkie: "Nevia, you must keep the scene under control. Don't let the suspect escape, and if necessary, fire a warning shot!"

"Yes, Mr. York, rest assured!"

Nevia quickly enlisted two police officers, "You two, go to the control room immediately and check what's going on..."

Boom—!

Just as she was issuing orders to her subordinates, a sudden explosion was heard in the distance of the lobby. Though not very loud, the officers, already on high alert to capture the suspect, all immediately drew their handguns and aimed at the source of the explosion!

"Ah! Run fast!"

"The bomb exploded!!"

...

Bam! Bam!

Nevia fired two shots into the ceiling and shouted, "No one is allowed to leave the scene without identity verification. The emergency task force is entering for backup immediately!! Team One, Team Two, follow me!"

"Holy crap! I heard the explosion and gunfire!"

"Does the streamer have other bombs?"

"This is crazy! Are they planning to take hostages?"

"It's going to be a do-or-die situation!"

"Could the streamer have dismantled a remote bomb and committed suicide?"

...

The sudden explosion frightened the crowd, police, online viewers, and even Jillian on the way there.

But only Gu Ji remained expressionless, continuing to crawl seriously.

Because he knew it was the sound of a camera battery exploding from heat, something he had calculated beforehand. If it weren't for the two rounds of bombs below that hadn't been dismantled yet, and without FBI showing up, he would have considered using the Poison Needle Trap.

With great difficulty, he crawled to the edge of the ventilation fan.

Staring at the thin vent fan in front of him, Gu Ji first looked through the rotating gap to observe the outside environment.

This location was the side of the shopping center, with no doors, so there were very few police officers stationed there. Plus, the earlier explosion had drawn too much of the police's attention, and now the main force was busy with "bomb disposal." 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

Gu Ji carefully switched his head and foot positions inside the passage, clamped his calf, and—bang, kicked open the vent fan with his heel.

Such a loud noise couldn't be suppressed even by a fire alarm.

York thought it was some weapon, once again urging the police team to speed up their actions, while Gu Ji jumped from the vent to the lawn, rolled over, and hid behind the bushes.

Only when two identity-verified pedestrians came out of the mall did he emerge, wearing a hoodie with a wizard hat, and confidently tailed them out through the police blockade, successfully reaching the main road to hail a taxi.

"Where to, buddy?"

"York College, please turn down the radio a bit."

Inside the taxi, a citywide manhunt announcement about "Baron" was playing. Gu Ji turned up the fire alarm volume on his phone, covered the live-stream pickup, and then lowered his voice to say,

"Hehe, alright."

The driver didn't think much of it and stepped on the gas, sending the vehicle speeding off.

Just as he crossed the traffic lights, two blue-black Ford police chargers drove towards him, and at the moment they passed each other, Gu Ji saw through the side window that the vehicle prominently bore an FBI cactus badge and three white letters:

HRT!!