For the sake of cover, Nie Yan pretended to go back to class to get something. Then making his way through the tree-shaded walkway, he arrived at the school entrance. He hopped in his thrawn and drove off toward the middle of nowhere.
The Thrawn sped along the road. Nie Yan took a few things out of the glove box, including an earpiece which he put into his ear.
「Nie Yan, you have at least five cars following you. You’re also being tracked by satellite. Be careful! I left some weapons under your front passenger seat,」Bayonet said.
Nie Yan glanced to his right. Sure enough, there was a black duffel bag under the passenger seat. He grabbed it and placed it on the seat. While paying attention to the road, he unzipped the bag. Inside was a gun, a KJ-382 Burstfire with a sniper scope attachment. It had a firing range of 1,200 meters and a firing rate of three rounds per second. The bullets were needle-thin. Once they entered the target, they would explode. There were six clips in the duffel bag, containing 3,000 rounds each. This was a terrifying weapon. Even kevlar was useless against it. Only something like the heavy duty plating of a mech suit could defend against it.
“Nice.” Nie Yan remarked in pleasant surprise. Bayonet was actually able to get his hands on something like this. Besides the gun, there was also a military-style combat knife inside the duffel bag. It was wrapped in black strips of leather.
“A dagger!” Nie Yan’s heart welled up with a sense of familiarity. His weapon of choice inside the game was precisely the dagger. Conviction’s simulation was extremely close to reality, to the extent there was practically no difference. So, he was just as adept with the dagger in the real world. Even though he couldn’t enter stealth, many of his techniques were still usable. His lips curved in a cold smile. He was well aware this was reality, but the enemy before him wanted his life. He naturally wouldn’t hold back.
The Thrawn gradually left the city behind. Nie Yan was still focused on driving, when three cars appeared out of nowhere and tried to ram him off the road.
Nie Yan was a moment away from being struck. Even a sturdily built car like the Thrawn would take heavy damage if hit. He jerked his steering wheel to the side. BOOM! His car swerved into the woods beside the road. He drove for several more minutes through the woods until it grew too thick for him to continue. Strapping the dagger to his waist, he opened the car door and jumped out with the gun in hand. Throwing a quick glance behind him, he bolted deeper into the woods.
Several vans came to a stop behind the Thrawn and almost 60 people jumped out.
These were all hitmen hired by Cao Xu. They normally operated solo, and were even now unwilling to share the bounty on Nie Yan’s head with the others. However, Cao Xu had instructed these lone wolves to work together as equals. Most of them felt sending so many after a single kid was excessive. If it weren’t for the ¥5 billion, they wouldn’t be here.
They fired their submachine guns at the Thrawn. Bullets struck the metal frame of the car and bounced off everywhere.
Afterwards, the hitmen went around the Thrawn and scanned the surroundings. However, there was no sign of Nie Yan.
「What’s the situation?」Nie Yan asked through the intercom while dashing through the woods using the cover of the trees.
「At least 300 people came, with 60 chasing behind you right now. About half of them are world famous hitmen. Our people are here too. This will be a bloodbath. You be careful. I managed to hack into their satellite and intercept their communications. We found Cao Xu. Shadow Killer is going after him right now. The rest of us will deal with the situation here,」Bayonet said, sounding even more serious than usual. The people that came today weren’t easy opponents.
「You’ve found Cao Xu already? Good, quickly eliminate him. Then we can finally put an end to this saga. As for the hitmen coming after me, we will kill them all!」Nie Yan said, his eyes flashing with a cold light. With Mo Yuntian’s people and his own, they had over 600 experts in total, most of whom were special forces. If they couldn’t deal with this ragtag bunch of hitmen, they might as well commit suicide by headbutting a wall.
…
After discovering Nie Yan wasn’t in the Thrawn, the hitmen immediately carried out a search. As they expanded their search area, more and more hitmen entered the woods. Originally, they had the help of a satellite that was constantly tracking Nie Yan’s position. However, just a moment ago, the signal went dead. No matter what they did, they couldn’t get it working again. They cursed the piece of technology Cao Xu had given them. In the end, they could only rely on themselves.
For Cao Xu to lose his satellite so quickly was a big loss. Unfortunately, with his contacts, he only managed to get his hands on a private, civilian-made satellite. It didn’t take long for a hacking specialist like Bayonet to disable it.
PSFHT! PSFHT! Suddenly, two of the hitmen that went into the woods to search for Nie Yan were lit up with bullets and collapsed to the ground.
“Enemy ambush! Take cover!”
“Shit! It’s special forces soldiers!”
These hitmen instantly went into a panic. Many of them could take on special forces soldiers one-on-one, but they were now facing a proper force. If a large unit came, they would be in serious trouble.
An intense firefight unfolded. The hitmen refused to go down with a fight and started retaliating fiercely.
…
Nie Yan hid within the woods. Thanks to Bayonet taking out Cao Xu’s satellite, the hitmen had lost track of him. Meanwhile, his satellites were still fully operational. They could pinpoint the locations of their own people as well as those of the enemy. They had the clear advantage.
Nie Yan’s body was hidden within the tall grass, resembling a cheetah waiting to pounce. He scanned his eyes over the trees and spotted a hitman in black clothes walking in his direction. He pulled out his KJ-382. After lining the sights, he pulled the trigger. A muffled bang rang out.
When the bullet pierced the hitman’s throat, it exploded, causing blood to spray out in the air.
A life-ending shot!
Not bad! Nie Yan was satisfied with his own gun skills. This wasn’t too surprising. After all, he had spent so much time training with Bayonet.
Nie Yan stealthily walked out of the grass and spotted two camouflaged special forces soldiers. They were Mo Yuntian’s men. Both sides spotted each other almost at the same time. A wave and a nod later, they went off in different directions.
With the help of satellites, they could effectively avoid friendly fire because they knew exactly who was who.
“Over there!”
“Kill those two bastards!”
Three hitmen came rushing over. They had likely noticed the two special forces soldiers from before. Nie Yan hid within the tall grass and approached one of the hitmen.
The hitman suddenly heard a rustle. He looked behind him, but didn’t discover anything. As he turned back, a shadow dashed from the grass. A cold glint was the last thing he saw.
PSHFT! Nie Yan pierced the hitman’s throat with his dagger.
The hitman tried to open his mouth, but no sound came out.
The two hitmen at the front sensed something wrong. Looking back, all they saw was the corpse of their comrade lying on the ground, blood still dripping from his throat. Their faces paled with horror. What frightening speed! Somebody had actually ambushed them from behind and killed one of their comrades without them noticing!
One of the hitmen took out his SMG and pulled the trigger, sweeping a patch of woods with a hail of bullets.
After he emptied his clip, he heard a muffled choke behind him. Turning around, his companion weakly collapsed to the ground, a gaping wound on his throat and eyes wide open. His heart trembled. From the corner of his eye, he noticed a dagger stuck to a tree, the blade still vibrating.
The hidden expert had killed his companion by throwing their dagger. Before he had any time to react,a bullet pierced his forehead, and his vision went black.
Nie Yan walked out from behind a tree, and pulled his dagger from the tree trunk. Sometimes, daggers were more useful than guns.
After killing the three hitmen, Nie Yan ran off in another direction, looking for new targets. Checking his phone screen, the black dots that represented the enemy were disappearing one after the other. Before long, they would be completely wiped out.
Bayonet was astonishing. He had killed over a dozen people by himself, and the targets he selected were all famous experts.
The hitmen Cao Xu sent over were quickly getting killed off. That wasn’t to say Nie Yan’s side hadn’t suffered any losses. 50 were dead and another 30 were seriously injured. Nie Yan couldn’t help but feel guilty. These men died for him. When this was all over, he would properly take care of the people they left behind and provide ample financial support.
Death followed him through both lifetimes. Nie Yan didn’t know whether what he was doing was right or wrong. However, sometimes, people had to do things they didn’t want to.
Before long, all the hitmen were taken care of. Bayonet used the satellite to scan the area. After confirming there was no one left, only then did he breathe a sigh of relief. He reported through the intercom,「That was the last of them.」
With all the hitmen dealt with, Nie Yan wondered if Cao Xu was still alive.
Everything seemed to be going too smoothly, giving Nie Yan a sense of uneasiness. However, he quickly dispelled this from his mind. All the hitmen Cao Xu had mobilized were neutralized. The person himself had also been located. In this situation, what other moves could he possibly pull? If there were any other plans, Bayonet would’ve already found out about it.
Right now, Nie Yan just had to wait to hear back from Shadow Killer. If Shadow Killer could kill Cao Xu, everything would be settled. Bayonet had locked onto Cao Xu’s location. He had no way of escaping!
