Fatal Shot

“Hurry, hurry!”

In Roguetown, a fleet of vehicles comprising of a firetruck and three patrol vehicles drove slowly down a limestone road. Surrounding the vehicles was a huge group of panic-stricken tourists and citizens following with frantic footsteps. At the rear and to the side were guard soldiers, as well as a few citizens holding guns in their hands, firing at the zombie horde that was relentlessly pursuing them.

The result of the hurried breakout was still relatively successful. At least, until now. The group had already rushed through the zombies’ encirclement and was progressing toward a location chosen by Harley.

Amid the rumbling sound of the energy-powered firetruck’s engine, moving the truck that weighed over a dozen tons, the vehicle pushed away or crushed the debris as well as the corpses on the ground, opening up a path of survival for them.

It was a good thing that, due to the town’s pursuit of a primeval style, apart from the exterior of the Guard Bureau, the town did not have any other vehicles around, so at that time, they did not have to worry about the road being blocked by abandoned vehicles.

However, was everything going to proceed so smoothly?

******

“100,000, Ashui, both of you have to pay absolute attention!” Holding a silver alloy sword in his hand, Brother Ling walked behind the third patrol vehicle and spoke to the two Heavy Armor Warrior players in front of him, who had their large alloy shields raised, blocking the side and flank of Locke. He spoke through the party voice messaging system. “You must protect the NPC. He is the key to completing the city-building mission. If he dies, then all our previous efforts will be in vain!”

“The others are fine. What we’re afraid of are snipers. It will be hard to react if they can insta-kill Locke.” Brother Ling’s tone and expression showed some worries.

In truth, in regard to how they were to escort the fat director out of the area, Brother Ling and Feng Luo had differing opinions.

Feng Luo did not agree to such high-profile protection, since it would be too obvious. Anyone with a brain would know that the fat NPC was important to them, so the probability of Locke being attacked would increase. His opinion was to simply tie up the person and throw him inside the patrol vehicle. He’d even suggested that they simply change his outfit before throwing him straight into the crowd and completely ignoring him. This was because, in a situation where there was no certainty of safety, this fat, cowardly director would never muster enough courage to escape. Then the players would have spare strength to directly deal with the ambush of the opposing players.

However, Brother Ling also had his reasons for his choice. Locke was, after all, the key to the city-building mission. Moreover, as the Bureau Chief, he had long been in cahoots with the Umbrella Corporation, so it was possible he had long made it onto the hit list of the Umbrella Corporation. One of the mission objectives of the opposing players might even be to kill the fat director. As such, although throwing him into the crowd might have reduced unwanted attention, it did not mean that it was safe.

Apart from that, although they had checked earlier, it was possible there were infected people within the crowd who had not spoken up. There were a lot of people. If anything were to happen, they would scatter everywhere, and it would be practically impossible to control anything—or anyone. By then, it would be too difficult to protect Locke.

As for throwing him into a patrol vehicle, it was feasible. However, Harley had strictly prohibited Locke from getting in a patrol vehicle. They were only to be occupied by the elderly and the children.

“In this light, the accuracy of Snipers shouldn’t be too high.” As a Heavy Armor Warrior, Ahshui raised his head and saw that dark clouds had covered half the sky as if rain were coming. His eyes continued to survey the tops of the surrounding buildings with vigilance. “However, if it were a Sniper, this sort of city terrain is certainly advantageous, especially in our current situation. They are in the dark while we are in the light. We don’t even know how many of them are there or what their professions are…”

“If it’s a Sniper, they should be left for Snipers to deal with!”

“We have two Snipers; moreover, both of them made it into the top 15 in the killing mission. If the enemy Sniper still manages to gain the advantage, then we really can’t do anything about failing the mission.” Although 100,000 Volts was right, he was clearly trying to blame someone.

“Oh, right! Brother Ling, where did Brother Feng go?”

“There’s also that Sha Lang,” said Ahshui. “Ever since the first day we got here, I’ve never seen even a trace of him. Did he actually retreat with us?” Ashui asked this at an odd time.

“Brother Feng is just close by. As for Sha Lang, I’m not sure!” Brother Ling replied.

“I haven’t seen him throughout the entire mission. Just what kind of guy is this?” Ashui said, a bit irritated. “The acting chairman actually replaced you with him as the safety supervisor—”

“Ashui!” Brother Ling frowned and interrupted him. “In this game, everyone has their own opinion. In truth, in the beginning, it was because I was not thorough in my considerations. Young Brother Feng and his opinions were correct. We should have entered in waves. It was my fault for oversimplifying and underestimating the game and the mission…”

“All right…” Ashui stopped talking while 100,000 Volts rolled his eyes twice as he heard that.

“Ah!”

At that moment, an exasperating cry suddenly came from somewhere behind them.

“What happened? Damn it!” Brother Ling turned around to look, and as he did, his expression changed.

A male zombie suddenly jumped from the second-floor window of a building without any warning. It fell on the young guard soldier NPC called Sam. It had already opened its mouth and sunk its teeth into his neck.

Bang, bang, bang…!

The guards and tourists with guns beside him quickly rushed forward to shoot continuously, creating multiple holes in the head of the zombie.

However, after the zombie was “killed” and no longer moved, Sam also stopped moving. He used his hand to put pressure on the part of his neck that was bitten, his face pale. A huge chunk of his neck had been bitten off by that zombie. More importantly, blood poured out of his vein nonstop. One could clearly tell from the zombie’s mouth that an artery had been bitten out of his neck.

“Ah, he’s infected. Let’s kill him. Otherwise, he’s going to become a monster!”

“His artery was bitten. He’s dead!”

Upon seeing this situation, the originally pale and frightened tourists began to move forward in a hurry, especially the few who had previously invented all kinds of reasons to stay in the Guard Bureau. They were even shouting to have Sam killed.

“Shut the f*ck up!” a strong and burly guard soldier shouted.

“Sam!” Harley, who was initially giving commands from the rear, rushed to him. As he saw Sam’s condition, his eyes—bloodshot from not taking any rest in all this time—almost jumped out of their sockets.

“Uncle Harley, it looks like… I can’t… with you guys…”

Sam pressed tightly on his neck, but he still could not stop the bleeding. The ground beneath him had already turned into a sea of blood.

“Sam!” Harley’s eyes were red. He rushed forward.

Sam stopped him. His words were slurs that could not be heard clearly due to the amount of blood coming out of his mouth. “No! Uncle Harley… kill me. I… can’t live anymore. I don’t want to become like those monsters after I die…”

The young guard soldier was only 19 years old when Harley introduced him to Feng Luo and company. He was the son of a war buddy of his, and, just a month ago, he had just advanced from a recruit to a low-class soldier. However, he was now going to die. In this situation, with people escaping frantically all around him, even players who knew that this was only the story of the game felt somewhat heavyhearted.

Sister Rui walked, overextending her hands into her tactical backpack pocket for something. However, after a brief pause, she brought nothing out. An injury like that was no longer just an issue of T-virus infection. Even if she gave him the antivirus serum, it would be useless. Currently, it was impossible for them to save him in that condition.

However, although many people walked away, Xiao Jiu, who wore a Doctor’s robe, walked forward with her medical box. Her gloved right hand held a light yellow syringe, and she said softly to Sam, “This is a unique calming agent. After the injection, you will temporarily lose all senses. After that…”

She did not finish the rest of the sentence, but everyone understood.

Previously, Xiao Jiu had followed Brother Ling and the others to explore the hospital, and although she had not obtained the antivirus potion, it was not as if she’d gained nothing at all. When used on NPCs and monsters, even if one were to be infected by the T-virus, this sort of calming agent could temporarily control the subject, who would be sent into slumber.

“Thank you…” said Sam in a slur. After that, he stopped talking because the massive blood loss caused his brain to lose function.

“I hope God will look over you…” Xiao Jiu mumbled before injecting the syringe into his body.

However, just as she stood up after the injection, an incident occurred!

Bang!

−3599

A sudden gunshot rang out. Xiao Jiu—whose doctor’s robe had multiple blood stains due to battles and treating people throughout the journey—had a bullet hole appear between her eyes. A light blue sniper bullet exited while rotating through the back of her head, accompanied by fresh blood.

“Xiao Jiu!” Mu Zi, who had just run over, shouted. His expression changed when he saw Xiao Jiu falling backward while staring into the sky.

“It’s a Sniper! Nine o’clock direction! Hurry up and hide in the crowd!” Sister Rui’s expression was just as dreadful. However, she did not lose her cool just yet; she extended a hand and pushed Mu Zi into the crowd.

However, she remained in place and raised her hand to tap on a spot on her chest over her SUV combat uniform. After that, an invisible badge flashed, and a layer of white light flashed by.

“Ah, a Sniper!”

“Run! Someone has their gun aimed at us!”

“Run! Run! Forget the fleet of vehicles—!”

“Don’t panic, don’t!”

“Quietly hide. Do not run. If you run, you will become a target!”

Some people shouted, some people screamed, and some tried to maintain order. However, the chaotic scene was something that could not be contained.

A breakout group of over 300—with just one gunshot, several people ran away in different directions, and, as a result, the entire breakout group collapsed into chaos. This was a situation that most of the players had not predicted.