Chapter 238 - 235: Where There Is Combat, There Is Sacrifice

Chapter 238: Chapter 235: Where There Is Combat, There Is Sacrifice

At that very moment, similar scenes were unfolding all across Kyoto City. Progress varied—some operations went smoothly, while others did not.

In the fourth-floor hallway of Building 16, located within an old residential complex.

Six Soldiers had taken up positions outside apartment 401. Faced with the metal security door and the wooden door behind it, the Soldiers chose not to breach.

Because they weren’t the main assault force.

On the rooftop, the rappelling ropes were already in place.

The Commander, a Special Security Team agent, communicated with several Soldiers using hand signals. Then, all six of them grabbed the ropes simultaneously.

They began their slow rappel.

With their guns slung and their vision obstructed, they descended slowly, hearts pounding the entire way.

Sixth floor... fifth floor... fourth floor. They finally reached the target level.

Through the agent’s night-vision goggles, the living room appeared empty. He gestured to the Soldier beside him, who signaled back that the bedroom was also clear.

The agent frowned. ’The target might have gone out to "forage,"’ he thought, ’or it could be hiding somewhere inside.’

After considering for a few seconds, he looked back, waved to a spot away from the building, then gave a forward motion with his open palm.

The next moment, the figures hanging on the exterior wall all braced their feet on the window’s security bars, using the ropes to support their upper bodies. Hands gripping their weapons, they remained vigilant of the situation inside.

Sweat trickled from one Soldier’s forehead into the corner of his eye, causing a sharp sting, but his arms didn’t move an inch, keeping his muzzle perfectly steady.

Meanwhile, a command came through the earpieces of the six Soldiers waiting outside apartment 401.

"Cover is in place. Breach and enter."

One of them placed C4 plastic explosive, nicknamed "chewing gum," on the lock and hinges. He inserted the detonator and, once the personnel were clear, triggered the explosion.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

After the three synchronized blasts, the entire security door came off.

Two Soldiers immediately stepped forward to pull the security door down, while two others followed right behind, smashing open the wooden door with a battering ram.

The entire process, from the explosion to breaching the inner door, took less than five seconds.

As they stormed the living room, the breaching Soldiers could clearly see their comrades standing guard outside the security-barred window.

They cautiously searched the living room, then the bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen, remaining on high alert as they checked every closet and even the refrigerator.

But there was no sign of the target.

"Target Hua Rong not found..."

BOOM! With a loud crash, the heavily rusted security bars on the fifth-floor window were suddenly smashed out from the inside.

All the Soldiers hanging outside the fourth floor looked up. As the security bars fell, they all did their best to get out of the way.

CRASH! "Ughh...!!"

The metal bars first slammed against the fourth-floor security window, then ricocheted off. A Soldier hanging in the center, with too little room to evade, was struck directly in the head. Blood immediately started pouring out, and he lost consciousness.

CLANG!

The security bars finally hit the ground.

While everyone’s attention was fixed on the falling security bars, a figure with long hair and a baggy T-shirt leaped directly from the fifth-floor window, landing in the residential complex’s greenery.

"Damn it, she’s getting away! Fire!"

The five remaining hanging Soldiers and the several Soldiers who rushed to the window all raised their guns and opened fire on the greenbelt.

The sound of the explosive breach might not have been enough to cause a major disturbance to the residents.

It was like hearing a loud bang from upstairs while trying to sleep—most people would just curse a few times and figure they’d deal with it in the morning, if they didn’t just forget about it by then.

But the successive loud crashes of the security bars breaking off and impacting the building made many residents in the two nearby buildings turn on their lights.

Some had even seen the muzzle flashes blinking outside the fourth floor of Building 16.

Weapons with suppressors aren’t completely silent; they just muffle the sound and limit its travel. If you listened carefully, you could still hear a "THWUMP-THWUMP-THWUMP" sound.

"Holy shit! Are they filming a movie?"

A young man in the opposite building stared at the scene, dumbfounded, and quickly pulled out his phone to record.

Reloading in shifts, the Soldiers extended their fire across the greenbelt, guided by a team member with thermal imaging calling out the target’s location.

The Soldiers in ambush below joined the coordinated attack, but after more than a minute, they still lost the target.

The target was faster and more agile than anticipated. Darting back and forth within a small area, combined with the obstruction from the greenery, drastically reduced the accuracy of their long-range fire.

However, it was impossible to escape such a barrage of fire unscathed. Hua Rong had definitely been hit; the only question was how severe her injuries were.

"Command, this is White Blood Cell Team 34. Assault failed. Target has escaped. I repeat, target has escaped. We need reinforcements!"

The Soldiers still inside the building and their rappelling comrades all made their way to the ground.

The Soldier struck by the security bars was still bleeding profusely from his neck. To the other Soldiers on site, the unnatural angle of his neck and the condition of his body made it clear that their comrade had died.

Two of them carried his body, while the other Soldiers, eyes red with fury, pursued the blood trail.

Acting on orders from public security, the property management staff quickly arrived with officers from the local police station. They began placating the residents, explaining that an operation to capture a dangerous criminal was underway.

...

In the Special Security Team’s Tactical Command Center, updates flooded in from all over Kyoto City. Information analysts processed and simplified each report before relaying them to Tao Xingzhi and the other tactical staff.

"White Blood Cell Team 72, assault successful. Captured target and proceeding to observation point."

"White Blood Cell Team 12 has reached Observation Point Three. Target eliminated. A team is transporting it to HQ, ETA 32 minutes."

"White Blood Cell Team 34, assault failed. Target escaped. One Soldier KIA. Currently pursuing wounded target. Macrophage Team 4 has been dispatched as reinforcements!"

"White Blood Cell Team 16, assault successful. Captured target and proceeding to observation point."

...

"White Blood Cell Team 9..."

"Macrophage Team 6 has eliminated its seventh roaming ’foraging’ target..."

...

"White Blood Cell Team 124, assault failed. Nine incapacitated, three dead, four missing... Team 124 is unable to pursue. Nearby patrol teams are en route to reinforce!"

When this report came in, the command center fell silent for three seconds. Even Su Su was stunned.

"What?"

"What the hell happened?"

Tao Xingzhi immediately strode over to the analyst and snatched his headset. A stream of detailed information about the assault was coming in from the field.

He had the analyst patch the comms for that team to the auxiliary main console. Immediately, the audio was loud enough for the staff members who had gathered around to hear clearly.

"Team 124, is anyone there still breathing? Report! What did you encounter?"

At the entrance to a residential complex outside the Fourth Ring Road, an agent lay with his left leg and arm twisted at unnatural angles. Drenched in sweat, he fought through excruciating pain to keep the comms channel open.

He recognized Tao Xingzhi’s voice.

"Chief... Sir... The assault... it had just begun... we... *huff, huff*... we ran into four of them... We fought them... off... but they took..."

...

Listening to the broken, pain-filled voice on the comms, Tao Xingzhi slammed his fist onto the console.

’Sacrifices are a part of battle.’ Everyone knew that, but it didn’t make it any less painful.

Paramedics were already en route, with an ETA of five minutes.

On the secondary screen, the map was zoomed in on Team 124’s location. The team’s locator beacons were glowing, and four of them were moving at high speed—undoubtedly the four missing Soldiers.

Just then, one of the four moving signals blinked out. Everyone knew what that meant: that Soldier was most likely dead.

"What’s the position of the nearest patrol and reserve teams?"

"Macrophage Team 2 is approaching now!"

Su Su didn’t usually bother memorizing the dizzying number of teams in the operation plan; she just had to manage her own responsibilities.

But there were exceptions, like the team her Mentor was on, or teams that included certain familiar or noteworthy individuals.

Macrophage Team 2 was one such exception.

In addition to twelve elite Soldiers and two agents, its core was a true Silent Knight: Kiel Otos, a former colleague of Baru.

P.S. Crap, it’s so late...