Chapter 9.1 – The Next Time For Sure
Su sat next to a window on the thirtieth floor, coldly watching the troops below advance in an extremely careful manner. He did not aim his weapon, reveal any killing intent, or prepare to adopt any type of movement. He simply watched them and remembered everything he saw. Only when a person showed up alone, would he act. He was familiarizing himself with every person’s pace, posture, and every other movement down to their most customary actions. Only by acting like this could he avoid the sharp perception of his enemy.
During the past 24 hours, Su continuously drew closer to them and then quickly disappeared into the shadows. He used his consciousness to continuously lock on and then immediately erase his targeting on different enemies. Through these actions, he was able to test how sharp the enemy’s perception was as well as place them under pressure.
Su’s physical strength was quickly declining, but he believed that his enemies’ strength was being exhausted at an even faster rate. Their water supply had already been completely exhausted, and there was barely any high energy food left over. However, the biggest factor was that the enemy was not able to receive proper sleep. Su wandered around them, constantly looking for a moment to pick one of the sentinels off.
Su received two opportunities, but he didn’t take action. The sentinels’ expressions were a bit unnatural, and this was true for the other team members and underlings as well, putting Su on guard. Even though all ten people were present and Su didn’t believe there was anyone else lying in ambush, he still felt as if it was too easy to be true. The other party weren’t people who would make these types of mistakes. After carefully inspecting the surrounding terrain and silently take note of all positions suitable to snipe from, Su began to understand a bit of the other side’s trump cards.
The city’s topography was rather complex. It was not equipped with wide enough space for long-range sniping. During both of the times the other party rested, the furthest place that a long-rage shot could be made from was 700 meters away. This was true for both instances.
It seemed like there was someone among the other party that was definitely skilled at perception and detection, and that individual’s range should be 700 meters. In addition, Su immediately thought of the one that stopped his shot earlier, the shot that he was sure would hit its mark. He seemed rather delicate and even a bit weak. Moreover, when he followed silently behind the troop, he rarely expressed his opinion. However, it was precisely this young man that not only sensed his killing intent but also managed to block his snipe at a moment of imminent peril!
Exactly how many unknown abilities was this gray-haired, gray-eyed young man hiding?
Su’s head felt another wave of intense pain. He collected his gaze, and his two hands clasped his head as his entire body trembled lightly. After roughly half a minute, his body’s shaking slowly stopped. Su leaned against the wall while slowly breathing. Each time, he would release a long and silent breath. He couldn’t conduct any intense movements, because the pack of wolves was advancing not far away. Even the slightest sudden change would attract their attention.
At this time, a muffled gunshot sounded from the distance. It was like a pent-up thunderous noise, and it rang through the air.
At practically the same time the gunshot entered their ears, the troop’s subordinates each made evasive movements. Laiknar and O’Brien both took a step almost before the gunshot even sounded.
Only Li Gaolei stood in his original position without moving and continuing to smoke his cigar in a rather indifferent manner. If the one that Su had aimed at was him, then he would have already resigned himself to death. It would be pointless to try and hide. If O’Brien was willing to save him, then by standing still in his original spot, it would still make it a bit easier for O’Brien to do so.
There was only a gunshot. No bullet was shot.
Laiknar abruptly increased his speed. Even though he was running with seemingly no pattern, his speed was frighteningly quick. In the blink of an eye, he had already found the source of the gunshot, but it only made his face fall ashen.
This was an abandoned seven floor house, and it was one that was considered old-fashioned even in the olden era. The most distinctive traits of it were that the room’s ceiling was rather tall, and that the windows were narrow. However, because of the number of windows, it shouldn’t have affected the room’s lightning. However, due to the modifications made later to this construct, most of the windows were sealed up, so the few windows that remained made the room extremely dim. Even creatures like living corpses that feared the sunlight could move about here.
There was practically no furniture in this room, making it rather spacious. A large pile of burning flesh was piled up on the other side of the wall. Half of the living corpse’s chest as well as an entire arm had already disappeared, and it was currently rolling on the ground in agony. On the ground was an empty ammunition case. A few rocks and pieces of scrap metal were scattered randomly on the side. There was also a bullet embedded into the ground. It was an incendiary device, and on top of the bullet were blood and chunks of flesh from an unknown creature. It seemed like these living corpses thought that there was even more delicious bone marrow inside, and after continuously beating down, one of them ended up detonating the bullet. The living corpse struggling on the ground was clearly the unlucky one to have done so.
This was a simple yet effective trap.
It was a continuous trap!
When Laiknar suddenly realized what was going on, his mind was sudden suffused with an intense wave of chilliness! As if by instinct, he suddenly laid low and simultaneously pressed down a subordinate at his side.
A bullet flew from the window on the other side and closely stuck to the subordinate and Laiknar’s body as it flew past. It sped towards the window sill where O’Brien was unsteadily standing after just making his way up.
When the bullet reached its target, O’Brien had long deployed his force field. The bullet slowed down a bit just like before, and with its tremendous kinetic energy, it began to turn red and distort. However, it ultimately still broke through the force field. Turning into a stream of metal, it shot towards his chest.
O’Brien’s two legs were nailed to the balcony, and his entire body suddenly toppled over to the side, barely avoiding this fatal metallic stream. He gently pulled on a discarded electrical wire, and his body once again sprung back up, allowing him to stand up perfectly straight again.
Li Gaolei placed another cigarette into his mouth and climbed up along the drainpipe. He suddenly felt as if the top of his head was a bit hot, and as a result, he immediately released a cry from his bad feeling. He immediately jumped to the side, landing on the balcony of another house.
Over ten extremely hot drops of metallic fluid descended, and quite a few landed on Li Gaolei’s previous position. If not for his fast actions, he would have been struck by the metallic droplets, and each droplet that landed would mean one chunk of skin and flesh lost.
O’Brien stood perfectly straight on the balcony. Regardless of whether he was sitting or standing, he would always maintain the bearing of both a military personnel and a noble. His face at the moment was dreadfully pale, and sometimes, an abnormal redness would flush past his face. His lips were a pale purple color, and large beads of sweat fell from his forehead.
The moment the bullet was blocked, another vague stabbing pain transmitted from O’Brien’s head. This time, the message that was sent was again, “Next time, I will kill you.”
Inside an abandoned office building a thousand meters out, Su calmly sat on the ground where some cement was exposed while wiping down the gun barrel that had just released a shot. What remained of the glass screen covering the building reflected the light of day and also hid Su’s silhouette. Next to Su’s side was a row of ten extra rounds, and each bullet was a different color. The different colors respectively represented incendiary devices, armor penetrating bullets, highly explosive bullets, and various other types of bullets. In Su’s mind, the map continuously adjusted its angle as he recalled every detail of this area.
The afterglow of dusk reflected off the glass screen wall, producing a glaring multi-colored brilliance. Su knew that this kind of powerful radiance would only persist at most for another twenty minutes before this entire city would sink into a deep darkness.
