Before six in the morning.
At the cusp of day and night, the lone moon still hung high, the sun yet to rise.
Even the most dedicated night owls would have long since fallen asleep at this hour.
The entire Black Serpent Camp was deathly silent.
Perhaps it was just her imagination, but Bai Wei felt the air growing heavier and more oppressive, the silence under the night sky becoming terrifyingly profound.
"Lin… Lin Ge, are… are you still there?"
She swallowed involuntarily, glancing at the front door, then back at the other door, which had been tightly shut for an unknown amount of time, seemingly for years, before finally calling out in a trembling voice.
"Tch, idiot. I've never seen anyone so easily manipulated. Knowing that scumbag, he probably ran off a long time ago, deliberately leaving you here to distract them."
From the bathroom connected to the living room, the door ajar, Rupert first glanced at the Mech workshop's door, waited for a moment of silence, then scoffed, before changing his tone and saying in a low voice:
"Get me out of here. This has nothing to do with you. The transport unit is after Lin Yu. If you and I leave now, nothing will happen to us. I can also help you inquire about your sister's whereabouts."
"You…"
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Bai Wei glared at him, about to retort, when a series of hair-raising bursts of gunfire suddenly ripped through the night sky.
Faster than the gunfire were countless steel needles, thin as hairs, like a torrential downpour, transforming Lin Yu's door into a literal sieve.
"Electromagnetic rifles!"
The moment the gunfire erupted, Rupert's pupils constricted, he cried out in alarm: "Cease fire! Cease fire! I'm in here! I'm still inside!"
Unfortunately, the barrage outside showed no sign of stopping, his cries drowned out by the gunfire.
The metallic storm of hair-thin needles swept from the door across the entire living room, shredding furniture, tearing apart appliances, and instantly pulverizing his arm as it tore through the bathroom.
However, the severed arm was only the beginning.
The insidious nature of electromagnetic weaponry lay precisely in this: it purely used electromagnetic rails for acceleration, eliminating the need for gunpowder loading, allowing each round to be made into a hair-thin steel needle.
This not only increased the rate of fire but also inflicted the most excruciating pain.
Each flexible, hair-thin needle pierced the flesh, spinning, bending, twisting into a knot, like tiny meat grinders, shredding and stitching together the flesh, a torment far exceeding a thousand cuts.
"Ah!"
A hellish scream of agony almost drowned out the roar of the weapons.
Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, aside from the initial blast that shattered his arm, the subsequent barrage never grazed him again, but this only prolonged the intense agony.
"Lin Ge! Lin Ge!"
Bai Wei, the young woman, was considerably luckier than Rupert.
Having heeded Lin Yu's warning, she had hidden in a corner, successfully avoiding the initial assault. The subsequent barrage, though occasionally reaching her, was blocked by a faint blue light shield that shimmered around her.
The pale blue shield rippled like water in a storm under the electromagnetic rifle's blasts and stray shots, seemingly on the verge of shattering, but it bought her enough time to react and hide in a spot beyond the reach of the hail of bullets.
She anxiously called out towards the Mech workshop's door, a mixture of worry and instinctive reliance.
Unfortunately, there was still only silence, no response.
Even the door, along with the concrete wall, had been reduced to a sieve at some point.
The young woman stopped calling out, biting her lip, her eyes gradually revealing a resolute determination born of despair.
Bang!
After a few breaths, the storm subsided, the electromagnetic rifle fire ceasing abruptly.
A metallic mechanical foot shattered the already battered door to smithereens, stepping into the living room.
On either side, armed personnel in unmarked black tactical gear, their faces completely concealed by respirators, poured in.
Boom!
The young woman, who had been waiting for this moment, suddenly threw an iron can. The can exploded on impact, engulfing a group of people in a raging inferno.
This was followed by the sharp reports of more homemade weapons and air-powered guns.
It must be said that the young woman's preparations were extremely effective.
The human body, while not exactly fragile, was no match for the weapons meticulously crafted for mutual destruction.
Flames, high temperatures, bullets—in an instant, several of the black-clad armed personnel were consumed.
But… only several.
Among those who entered the room, the leading figure stood unmoved, engulfed by the flames and then spat out unharmed, as if the fire had merely polished his already gleaming silver skin.
Others also displayed various skills, some rolling to dodge, others, like the leader, directly withstanding the attack, some raising their arms to shield vital areas, effectively neutralizing the offensive.
Even those who failed to react were wearing body armor, so only the high temperatures and a few stray bullets caused any casualties, and the number of casualties was minimal.
The young woman's success was largely due to the enemy's unexpected encounter with someone who could still move freely after the electromagnetic rifle barrage.
Having lost the element of surprise, and with her improvised weapons exhausted, she could no longer achieve the same results.
Looking at the black-clad armed personnel flooding the living room, then past them, through the shattered door to the outside, where even more troops had surrounded the area,
"How… how many are there…"
The despair in Bai Wei's eyes could no longer be suppressed.
She knew there would be many enemies.
But she couldn't understand.
This was Black Serpent Camp, after all.
She didn't expect them to maintain order like in the city.
But at least they shouldn't allow so many foreign armed personnel to operate in such a large group, right?
Weren't they worried about a hostile takeover?
"Hyena Harold…"
Unlike Bai Wei's despair over the number of enemies, the barely alive Rupert focused his despair on the almost entirely mechanized iron-faced man at the forefront.
He recognized the man.
This guy wasn't just a normal cybernetically modified human; he was a cybernetic madman!
His body was almost entirely cybernetically modified, even his brain was half-replaced, coupled with severe cybernetic psychosis. It was said that the only two things left in his mind were the implanted instructions to continue enhancing his cybernetics and the instinctive pleasure of slaughtering enemies.
This guy was a pure war machine, killing indiscriminately, let alone expecting him to rescue anyone.
Seeing Hyena Harold, he knew he was truly doomed.
Even if he didn't die in the after
math of the battle, or at the hands of Lin Yu and the others, he would probably be casually killed afterward.
(End of Chapter)