Chapter 200: Violent Arrest! The Butcher Plans to Take Su Ming Hostage?

“Butcher.”

“We’ve arrived in Mordu—aren’t you getting off?”

That calm, emotionless voice suddenly rang in the Butcher’s ears, as if it had cut through the surrounding commotion and silenced the noisy crowd around him.

Unlike Rose, who had been stunned back then, the cautious and ruthless Butcher reacted instantly, even though he hadn’t yet identified the exact direction the voice had come from.

He immediately let go of the briefcase in his hand—one hand shot toward the spot where Su Ming had just been standing, aiming to grab him, while the other reached for a weapon hidden at his waist.

It was clear—

Even though he had set up so many distractions and had been extremely careful in observing his surroundings, he still didn’t understand how he’d been exposed—how an undercover officer had ended up right next to him.

But at this moment, the Butcher made the right choice. He didn’t try to identify the officer who spoke.

Instead, he aimed to take a hostage—specifically, the nearby college student—to threaten the police and gain a slim chance to escape.

Because once a single officer confirmed his identity, it meant the rest of the police had already done so too. They were either hidden nearby or rushing to converge on him.

In his mind, everyone around him—except for that college student—could potentially be a cop. Even the white-collar worker who had just asked him to move could be one.

It was obvious.

The Butcher was now a frightened, paranoid prey. His faith in his own counter-surveillance skills was crumbling. He couldn’t understand how he’d failed to detect an undercover cop hiding in the train car.

His only consolation was—

He clearly remembered that the college student who had mistaken his seat earlier and was now standing right next to him definitely couldn’t be an undercover. There was no way the police could disguise someone that convincingly.

So as long as he could take that student hostage, he still had a shot at escape.

…

After quickly assessing the situation in his mind—

The Butcher reached out and grabbed Su Ming’s left arm. He immediately began pulling with force.

At the same time, his head, which had been lowered, turned forward in an attempt to assess the current situation.

But in the very next second—

As soon as the Butcher turned his head, intending to fully control Su Ming and scan for the plainclothes officer nearby, revealing the side of his face—

Bang———

A tightly clenched fist, carrying tremendous force, smashed into his jaw, violently distorting his face.

Crack———

A teeth-grinding collision followed immediately. The Butcher’s upper and lower jaws crashed together, shattering most of his teeth. Blood and broken fragments sprayed onto the train window.

The sheer force of the punch knocked the Butcher flat onto the aisle floor.

With his jaw—the most vulnerable part—taking the hit, it may have even caused a concussion. His eyes turned vacant, clearly dazed, briefly losing consciousness.

The most critical detail was—

The Butcher hadn’t been on guard at all. While holding Su Ming’s arm, all his attention had been focused elsewhere, trying to assess the direction of the threat.

He had never imagined that the college student he had confidently ruled out as a cop—the one he fully trusted not to be undercover—would land such a heavy blow.

At that moment—

As Su Ming’s punch dropped the Butcher in the middle of the aisle—

The passengers who had remained on the train—especially the white-collar woman—saw the blood splatter on the window and immediately let out ear-piercing screams.

The nearby male office workers also stared at Su Ming, shocked by his emotionless face.

But none dared to step forward or say anything.

Instead… they all quickly backed away from Su Ming and the Butcher, afraid to get dragged into the chaos.

This was typical behavior for most Dragon Country citizens: curious about drama in everyday life, but instinctively staying far away when real violence broke out, to avoid being caught in the crossfire.

Only once the situation became clear would someone consider stepping in.

Because of this—

The crowd dispersing actually gave Su Ming the room he needed to subdue the suspect without interference.

Or rather… Su Ming had long factored in how other passengers would react during the arrest.

Meanwhile, in Carriage 9—

As soon as the train stopped, Guo Ping began moving swiftly toward Carriage 14, exactly as Su Ming’s earlier message had instructed.

But as he passed Carriage 11—

He already heard screams from the rear cars.

Without hesitation, Guo Ping shoved past the crowd in the aisle and sprinted toward Carriage 14, pressing the mic in his earpiece as he ran.

“Move in!”

“The arrest operation is underway!!!”

Elsewhere, in Carriage 8—

Liu Yang, hearing Guo Ping’s call over his earpiece, immediately turned serious. He glanced at the conductor next to him and urged,

“Quickly. Please open the door now!”

Seeing how urgent Liu Yang and Bai Yu’s team was, the conductor didn’t bother with standard safety procedures. He manually opened Carriage 8’s door in advance.

Hiss———

As the door opened—

Liu Yang, Bai Yu, and others charged out without hesitation, drawing their service pistols and chambering rounds as they sprinted toward Carriage 14 at the rear.

…

Back in Carriage 14—

Through Su Ming’s eyes, the Butcher—just struck down moments ago—was now slowly pushing himself up from the floor after a couple of seconds of unconsciousness.

His hands trembled on the floor, knees bent, head shaking slightly. He was still clearly disoriented, dizzy, possibly concussed.

He couldn’t even stand up. His brain had clearly short-circuited; all his movements were now just raw instinct.

Seeing the Butcher trying to recover, Su Ming raised an eyebrow, a little surprised.

He hadn’t expected the Butcher to still be conscious, let alone struggling to rise after taking that full-force punch.

After all—

He had specifically aimed for the most vulnerable part of the human body—the jaw.

Even professionally trained boxers would’ve gone down for the count if they took that kind of blow to the chin.

Of course, the reason Su Ming had dared to throw that punch, fully intending to knock the Butcher out, was because he had enough experience to accurately judge his own strength.

Plus, in such a confined space, there was no room to execute grappling techniques.

Knocking the suspect unconscious with one punch was the most effective way to neutralize resistance.

As for whether the punch would break any poison capsules in the Butcher’s mouth or trigger any kind of suicide mechanism—

Su Ming had already ruled those possibilities out after observing the man for over half an hour.

A criminal like the Butcher—someone always ready to take a hostage and unwilling to surrender—would never choose suicide, not even in a cornered state.

As for carrying explosives—that was even less of a concern. Train security checks might seem lax, but they’d never miss something as blatant as a bomb.

At this moment—

Seeing the butcher trying to get up, Su Ming shook his slightly sore right hand, clearly not planning to give him any room to struggle.

Without hesitation, he stepped forward and stomped his right foot down hard on the butcher’s waist just as he was trying to straighten up.

“Bang———”

The heavy thud of his body slamming into the ground rang out instantly.

Right after that—

Su Ming reached out and grabbed the butcher’s collar, lifting his head slightly. Then he slid his left arm under the butcher’s neck and, ignoring the blood dripping from his mouth, locked his arm tightly around his throat.

It was a rear naked choke, a common move in no-holds-barred combat—capable of quickly knocking an adult unconscious.

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

……

In just under five seconds—

The butcher, who had still been putting up some resistance and clinging to consciousness, quickly lost it under the choke, slipping into a complete blackout.

“Pa———”

Su Ming let go of the chokehold, allowing the butcher to fall heavily to the ground again, then slowly exhaled the breath he’d been holding.

He had to admit—this arrest had been somewhat tricky.

Su Ming wasn’t afraid of facing the butcher alone, but the real risk was the man committing suicide out of guilt, or taking civilians hostage.

He didn’t spare a glance for the civilians still frozen in shock.

Instead, Su Ming bent down, wiped the blood from the back of his hand on the butcher’s expensive suit, then pulled a compact, transparent zip tie from his pocket and securely bound the man’s wrists.

Just as he grabbed the collar to drag the unconscious butcher up—

Guo Ping arrived at Car No. 14. He had intended to step in right away, but froze when he saw the butcher already unconscious.

The next moment—

Liu Yang, who had sprinted over at top speed, pushed through the crowd to the entrance of the car and shouted:

“Group Leader Su! Squad Leader Guo!”

“What’s the situation—did you manage to capture the Butch—”

Before he could finish, Liu Yang caught sight of the unconscious butcher being dragged up by Su Ming, and the words caught in his throat.

Seeing Liu Yang, Bai Yu, Guo Ping, and the others arrive, Su Ming calmly gave the limp butcher a slight shake and said in a steady tone:

“Director Liu, it’s all under control.”

“Now I’m honestly curious just how much intel we’ll be able to dig out of this guy…”