Chapter 250 - 221: Confrontation (2)

Chapter 250: Chapter 221: Confrontation (2)

"Fuck, an outsider’s been here!"

The sturdy man quickly turned his head, wanting to warn his companion, but as he looked back, he felt something wasn’t right with a patch of road. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it...

The rain falling into that spot seemed to land behind a sheet of transparent plastic, as if it were just... disappearing.

"Hurry back and tell the boss we’ve got a live one..."

He muttered to himself while rubbing his eyes. The harder he focused, the less he saw anything unusual. He figured he was just jumpy and his eyes were playing tricks on him.

"No need. I’ll go myself."

A strange man’s voice sounded right beside them.

As the voice spoke, a young man in a soaking wet tracksuit abruptly appeared in the center of his vision.

’No, it feels like he was standing there the whole time, and I just didn’t see him.’

The man was also holding a dark gray metal spear. It was shorter than theirs, but its head had an unusual four-edged design that looked so dramatic it could have been a prop from a martial arts movie.

He held the spear so effortlessly it seemed to have no weight at all, as if it were made of plastic...

"Who are you... GHH..."

The sturdy man’s pupils shrank to pinpricks, and he instinctively tried to turn his spear around.

A blur flashed past. He felt a sudden heat in his throat. All he could see was the spear’s shaft—one end at the bottom of his vision, the other in the man’s hand. Then, his world began to spin violently.

He saw his own feet, the muddy water on the ground, and then his vision spun and soared uncontrollably into the air.

In his last moments of sight, he saw a familiar headless body, a pillar of blood gushing from its neck as it slowly toppled backward.

’The human body is so fragile.’

With a single thrust and flick of his spear, Lin Fan sent the man’s head flying. The feedback through the shaft felt less solid than any zombie he’d fought. Bright red arterial blood shot upward like a fountain against the downpour, only to be beaten down by the cold rain and splashed all over the lanky man’s raincoat.

"Ah... ah..."

The lanky man froze completely. The scalding liquid ran down his raincoat and into his collar. His eyes bulged, almost popping from their sockets. His mouth hung open, but no sound came out.

And now, the spotless tip of that spear hovered steadily at his neck. Raindrops shattered against the blade, spattering his face and washing away the warm, thick blood.

"I don’t like tough guys..."

Lin Fan pushed the spear forward a little, his voice cold.

"Start talking. What’s the deal in there?"

...

「Meanwhile, a few hundred meters away on the main road.」

Cheng Qi gripped the steering wheel, both hands tight. He had already tucked his pistol back into his waistband. The rifle lay on the seat beside him, a round in the chamber and the safety off.

"Someone’s coming..."

In the rear compartment, Ye Qingniao suddenly put down her drink. Her ears twitched; she had caught an unusual sound amidst the dull thuds of rain against the armor plating. She quickly whispered a warning to Cheng Qi, then picked up her pistol. Pressing herself against the vehicle’s wall like a gecko, she slid open a firing port just enough to peer outside.

Through the distant curtain of rain, five or six people were approaching from the north, walking along the sidewalk. Since the armored vehicle’s electronics and cameras were destroyed, Cheng Qi’s view from the driver’s seat was limited, so he hadn’t spotted them right away.

The six of them wore assorted raincoats, and each carried a long spear tipped with a hooked sickle.

They didn’t seem surprised to find a military armored vehicle parked here. Or perhaps it was more accurate to say they had discovered this prize long ago.

The men spread out, subtly forming an encirclement as they cautiously approached the vehicle.

THUMP. THUMP. THUMP.

A few seconds later, a series of dull thumps sounded on the front of the cockpit.

A middle-aged man in a black raincoat stood before the vehicle. He had deliberately unfastened it to reveal the clean clothes he wore underneath.

His hands were empty, held up to his chest to show he meant no harm, and his face wore an incredibly friendly, almost fawning, smile.

"Soldiers! Is anyone in there?"

He wiped the rain from his face and shouted through the thick, bulletproof glass:

"Oh, thank God! The army is finally here! We’re survivors from the area! Someone in the factory has collapsed! We need help!"

His voice was filled with excitement and the joy of a post-disaster survivor, but his eyes, narrowed against the rain, were like two vipers, staring fixedly through the glass and greedily peering into the cockpit.

Cheng Qi couldn’t decide what to do and whispered to Ye Qingniao, hidden in the back, "What do we do...?"

Ye Qingniao whispered back, "Feel him out."

The man was standing directly in front of the vehicle, out of the line of sight from Ye Qingniao’s firing port. This prevented her from getting a close look at him, making it impossible to determine if he was an Awakened One.

"Ahem..."

Cheng Qi gave a soft cough, slid open the firing port on the driver’s side, and shouted,

"We’re on a special mission. Tell me your situation, and I’ll report it to the main force. We’ll have them send someone to come get you."

’Main force?’

Hearing those two words, the middle-aged man’s smile clearly stiffened. But his eyes, narrowed to slits in the rain, quickly swept over the two broken communication antennas on the vehicle’s roof and the obvious scorch marks on its chassis.

"Heh... Soldier, now you’re just being formal."

The fawning smile on the middle-aged man’s face didn’t fade. In fact, it grew wider, but it never reached his eyes, which held a sinister chill.

Instead of backing away, he pushed his luck and leaned in, his face almost touching the bottom edge of the front viewport. The hot breath from his mouth and nose condensed into a fog on the cold metal.

"There’s no ’main force’ around here. Stop pretending. It’s just the two of you in there, isn’t it?"

"..." Cheng Qi’s heart sank. The thick armor in front of him suddenly felt as transparent as glass.

’If he’d said, "It’s just you," he would definitely be bluffing. But he said "two people"...’

He stared blankly toward the rear compartment. Even Ye Qingniao looked stunned, her eyes meeting Cheng Qi’s as she muttered under her breath,

"How does he know there are two of us?"

"To be honest with you, I’ve awakened a special ability. You should know about that; your army mentioned it in their broadcasts..."

The middle-aged man dropped his facade.

He made no further attempt to hide his intentions. He reached out a hand in a filthy glove and patted the vehicle’s thick steel plating, producing a dull THUMP THUMP. It was as if he were patting a tin can he was about to open. His tone shifted from pleading to threatening.

"We’re living pretty comfortably here. I’ll just ask you one thing, and then we can all go our separate ways..."

He moved away from the front of the vehicle, coming around to the driver’s side to speak directly into Cheng Qi’s firing port.

"We’ve lost a little girl, about seven or eight years old. I wonder if you two have seen her..."

The moment she heard the question, Ye Qingniao’s heart skipped a beat, and her breath caught in her throat.

She instinctively turned her head, staring through the observation port on the other side at the electric sedan parked on the roadside behind them.

The car was perfectly still, blending in with the row of other vehicles. No one would ever guess someone was hiding inside.

’I thought they were after the armored vehicle, but I never expected them to ask about the little girl so directly.’

’I can’t hand her over.’

She didn’t know what these men were really after, but his disgusting tone filled her with instinctive revulsion.

Besides, she could never bring herself to throw a child who had just begged her for help back into the fire.

However, her body still hadn’t recovered to its peak. With the enemy also being an Awakened One and possibly armed with guns, she wasn’t confident she could win if she attacked now.

Ever since waking up at noon, she could feel her body growing stronger and recovering with every passing minute.

"Tell him we don’t know. Stall for more time."

She thought for a moment before whispering her advice to Cheng Qi.

But before Cheng Qi could even speak, the middle-aged man suddenly shouted to his spear-wielding men:

"They’ve seen the girl! Spread out and search! When you find her, cripple her first!"

"!"

’What’s going on?’

Ye Qingniao’s eyes shot wide open.

’Mind reading?!’

But when she saw the men ignore the armored vehicle and spread out, using their spears to smash the windows of every nearby car that could possibly hide someone, she knew they were getting closer and closer to the little girl.

Ye Qingniao could wait no longer. She shot to her feet and smacked Cheng Qi, who was in the driver’s seat.

"Reverse!"

"Run over the one behind us!"