The battle between Zhang Heng and 0 was less intense than the previous battle. However, its circumstances were far more dangerous. Like Zhang Heng, 0 too should have reached Lv3 marksmanship. The only thing that placed Zhang Heng at a disadvantage was his slower shooting speed compared to 0. Zhang Heng first learned how to shoot from Simon, but the place he got to practice his marksmanship was the quest he got sent to western America. From there, he learned how to draw guns and fire them as fast as possible.
In the first two minutes of the battle, Zhang Heng and 0 were evenly matched, where both sides adopted the same strategies and rhythm. Even the consumption of bullets was similar. After that, Zhang Heng chose a completely different combat strategy against No.5 and No.7. He deliberately increased his rate of fire. In contrast, 0’s reaction was slower than usual. After being pressured by Zhang Heng, he realized that Zhang Heng had disrupted his battle rhythm. He, too, started intentionally slowing down his firing rate, intending to buy himself some time and regain the judgment and precision he had in his previous battle.
The battle between the two was no longer about their marksmanship. It now leaned more toward their ability to read their opponent and control the game.
But what surprised 0 was that Zhang Heng’s combat experience wasn’t inferior to his. Unlike combat skills, although battle experience could be written into their memory, it provided nothing except the ability to use those skills, especially the rhythm of battle and the ability to read it. All these abstract things were difficult to explain through a single battle.
After all, written memories did not make a person omnipotent. If the person who wrote the memories for them lacked combat experience, it also meant their creator would have no way to make the clones understand what they did not know how to describe and define.
0, however, was a rare clone who had broken through his shackles. In addition to his solid learning ability, he had completed hundreds of missions that provided him with enough combat experience. 0 always felt that he was the clone with the most combat experience until he met Zhang Heng.
Although 0 still failed to figure out what had actually happened to Zhang Heng, the impact of that wasn’t as big as this battle. It had even shaken his worldview. 0 could not imagine how Zhang Heng accumulated so much combat experience at such a young age. He looked like he had started fighting since he was born, with decades of combat experience.
Although 0 had worked as hard as he could and perfectly executed all his given tasks, he still felt that Zhang Heng was slowly gaining victory. And there was nothing he could do about it.
He also felt like he was stepping into a swamp, and he could only let himself sink further. 0 knew that both sides were reaching their limit soon. The gap in their strength would then determine the course of this battle.
The real turning point of the battle came from the breaking of the conference room’s door. The door was already damaged during 0’s battle with the last special operations team member. After another onslaught of bullets, it was now completely destroyed.
Instead of retreating, 0 chose to move forward, not looking for cover before charging out of the conference room. He realized that if he decided to fight against Zhang Heng with an orthodox combat method, the battle would go nowhere. Instead, he decided to risk his life by moving quickly and unpredictably to dodge some of the bullets. As for the bullets, he couldn’t dodge. His bulletproof vest would absorb the damage.
At the same time, 0 was getting closer to Zhang Heng, and he also realized that he could lose his life. In order to not get hit, he moved in an extremely bizarre way. It caused him to be unable to control the direction he moved, and any stray bullets that came his way could potentially end his life.
But tonight, the God of Destiny seemed to be on his side. 0 dashed all the way to a spot only ten steps away from Zhang Heng. And he wasn’t hit by any bullets. At the same time, he counted the number of shots that Zhang Heng had fired. When he counted to a certain number, 0 made an extremely crazy move: he suddenly stopped moving.
Zhang Heng wasn’t one to let such a golden opportunity slip off his hand. The next second, 0 stretched out his right hand to grab a piece of the metal shell from the exoskeleton to block Zhang Heng’s shooting.
After that, he pulled the trigger again, but he found out that there were no bullets left in his rifle.
0’s eyes lit up. He knew that the golden opportunity he had been waiting for was finally here. He threw away the alloy shell in his hand, and at the same time, aimed his gun at Zhang Heng. And he was about to pull the trigger.
Given another 0.1 seconds, he would’ve been able to eliminate Zhang Heng.
Unfortunately, 0 did not have the chance to make use of that 0.1 seconds.
Zhang Heng remained unworried after realizing that his rifle was out of bullets. He directly drew the pistol from his waist, a trick he performed many times in the quest he completed.
The cowboys’ duel was all about speed, and Zhang Heng would always be the fastest person to draw a gun. This time was no exception.
The moment 0 was about to pull the trigger, Zhang Heng had already sent a bullet to the spot between 0’s eyebrows.
This 0.1 second had determined who lived and who died in this battle.
The joy in 0’s eyes was forever frozen, and he would never be able to pull the trigger. After ending this mentally exhausting battle, Zhang Heng let out a long sigh of relief. In all fairness, the emergency response team did bring him a lot of trouble, especially 0, their captain. It was rare that a one-on-one battle could bring so much threat to Zhang Heng.
However, it was not the time for him to relax yet because Zhang Heng had not gotten the memory encoder yet. But the good news was that he knew where to get it. Zhang Heng then put on the fire suit again. The fire had now completely spread to the entire floor, not only on the twelfth floor but also on the two adjacent floors.
Zhang Heng climbed up to the fourteenth floor. The fire there was not too widespread yet. However, the smoke on this floor was very thick. After that, Zhang Heng went around and searched room by room, but he did not manage to find the female hotel staff that came to this floor to seek refuge. And he finally cast his gaze on the small door to the rooftop.
Zhang Heng tried to push it from below, managing to open it easily, and he saw her hiding behind the water tower. The terrifying fire had traumatized her, and she did not know where else she could hide. When she saw Zhang Heng coming to her while taking off his oxygen mask, her eyes lit up, overjoyed.
