Like everyone else, Zhang Heng had been following the progress of this matter. Even at night class, he would bring along his laptop, seat himself in the lecture room’s last row, and check the latest news on the forum from time to time.
Class ended at 9.45 p.m. After returning to the dormitory, Chen Huadong and Wei Jiangyang invited him for a round of League of Legends. Zhang Heng agreed to play, and he chose a Jungler, where he occasionally glanced the forum while free-farming in the jungle. The first three rounds ended very quickly; all of them ending in less than 20 minutes. It was either Zhang Heng’s team annihilating the opponents, or their core players were being targeted nonstop. Zhang Heng, the Jungler, did not even need to step out of the forest to help the battle.
However, the fourth game was extremely challenging. A very skillful player on the enemy’s team was showcasing his mad skills, carrying the entire team. Unfortunately, four useless players had joined Zhang Heng’s team, and all they knew was to cheer. The enemy team kept killing their team with no respite, like wolves hunting a flock of chickens. Once Zhang Heng’s teammates were sent back to the base, they rushed to protect their towers, trying their best to maintain the fragile and precious balance. The fight was so intense that nobody seemed to get the high ground.
In the end, Zhang Heng had to sneak to the enemy’s base to destroy their tower, leading them on to win the battle. When he turned off the game, he had already read Horizon’s thread. At 11:32, the union, or rather, half-disbanded union, finally posted an announcement. It turned out they refused to hand their players over to Arc of Light.
There was also an attachment at the end of the post about the conflict with Arc of Light’s players. The union told a whole different story, where the ones being assaulted was actually the union team. This independent player team was rather powerful, and though they were forced to face both the monster and Arc of Light players, they managed to withstand the onslaught. The monster ran away in the end. However, they managed to kill five Arc of Light’s players, and only two on the union’s side were killed.
Quickly, the post caused an uproar in the forum. It wasn’t about the truth. In fact, even without the video evidence, many had already suspected that Arc of Light had fabricated the whole thing. It was Shen Xixi’s decision that upset everyone. When Horizon announced they were leaving the union, some were guessing that Shen Xixi might eventually go against Arc of Light. Even with that knowledge, they were still left in shock after reading the announcement.
The union was way weaker than Arc of Light, let alone in a semi-disabled state.
Shortly after Shen Xixi’s announcement, more and more players announced that they were leaving the union for good. If the union looked shaky earlier, it now looked like it was on the verge of dying. All these took place the moment Shen Xixi posted the thread.
The Arc of Light reacted to Shen Xixi’s decision very quickly. At 11:45, they responded to Shen Xixi, expressing their regret for the latter’s choice. This time, they wrote in a very polite tone. They believed that Shen Xixi had been confused by the perpetrators, and they would head to the union at midnight to deal with the four murderers.
Any player that wasn’t blind knew that the union had already collapsed. In other words, Arc of Light had achieved their goal. There was no longer the need for wonton obliteration. They did not want to cause more players to resent them.
At 11:49, the bartender sent Zhang Heng a message, telling him she placed the stuff he wanted at the designated spot. He didn’t express his gratitude in the end since she didn’t give him any discounts.
He then put all the things he might need in his backpack.
He never brought a powerful weapon, the Pestilence Bone Bow, back to the dormitory because he did not want anyone messing around with it. His dorm mates were baffled by his actions, knowing how it was normal that he didn’t return. This was their first time seeing Zhang Heng leaving at such a late hour.
The moment Zhang Heng said that he had gone to find Han Lu, Chen Huadong and Wei Jiangyang gave him a quick glare. Ignoring the strange looks and questions they asked, he hurriedly left the hostel before the dorm lady locked the gate.
As usual, the world came to a standstill at midnight. There were a lot of things to do tonight, but Zhang Heng wasn’t really anxious. He set the time and decided to take one thing at a time. For now, he planned to go to the parking lot to get his Polo.
Once Shen Xixi made up her mind, nothing would stop the collapse of the union. There was nothing Zhang Heng could do to stop it as well. But compared to the others, he got to know her earlier. He knew her better than them, and he knew what was really going on. With Shen Xixi’s character, she would never give up the innocent in exchange for peace.
Now, she had to bear the consequences of her choice. Things had become less complicated since her mind was made, though. After achieving its goal, Arc of Light would proceed to punish the murderers. As expected, Shen Xixi chose to keep protecting the four players.
Zhang Heng finally got to pay back the favor he owed Shen Xixi in Dreamland of Death. Earlier this morning, he sent her a WeChat message, asking if she needed any help. She rejected him, saying that the union was capable of solving the predicament themselves.
Although Shen Xixi was stubborn in certain matters, it certainly didn’t mean she was stupid or naive. Based on the circumstances at the time, Zhang Heng believed that she, being the decision-maker, had naturally considered the worst possible outcome. She refused his help only because she didn’t want to drag him into this pile of crap.
Shen Xixi also knew that Zhang Heng had been reluctant to join the union because he thought it wouldn’t end well. She had no reason to get him involved at the union’s most precarious moment. However, Zhang Heng did not really care about the risk. Even if she refused to let him help her, he could easily get her position with his Lv.2 hacking skill.
But instead of looking for Shen Xixi first, he drove his Polo to the address given by the bartender and found a black box hidden at the bottom of a dumpster behind the wall. A key was tied to the handle, and after closer inspection, he confirmed that he got what he wanted. He then tossed the object into the trunk.
He then drove leisurely to the next location without hurries.
Zhang Heng had been working nonstop for more than ten hours, and finally, he had done almost everything on the list. After that, he checked into a nearby hotel to replenish his energy with food and well-deserved sleep. He waited for his cellphone to ring on time, and only less than fifteen minutes left before the hour hand completed a circle.
Zhang Heng washed his face, opened the password-protected black box beside the bed. He took out a number of parts, assembled them before it was all finally combined into a CS5 sniper rifle, a weapon courtesy of American firearms manufacturer McMillan Firearms.
Unlike the famous Finnish Star or L115A3, the CS5 was not a sniper that could shoot super long range. It is more suitable for urban warfare. And it is also a rare sniper rifle equipped with a silencer to meet Zhang Heng’s needs. He noticed that a post-it note was posted at the back of the rifle. It was written by a Miss Bartender with the words: Happy Killing. She even drew a cute version of a gunman at the lower right corner.
