Chapter 22: Do You Think We Are Not Monsters?

"Click!"

With a soft sound, the enemy closest to Chen Jian collapsed.

Chen Jian did not pause. Having identified the leader among the residents of Xiamazhen, he quickly marked his thermal signature on his smart visor. Immediately, he shifted his aim to another enemy facing him. Another soft click, and a spray of blood erupted from the enemy's head as he fell straight to the ground. Simultaneously, Lei Jie and Shen Yue, positioned to his side, opened fire.

The engagement distance was less than 40 meters—a bit far for pistols, but it did not affect their lethality in the slightest. In just a few breaths, half of the nearly 20 enemies on the shore had been eliminated. Chen Jian noticed weapons dropping to the ground, but before he could react, He Shuo, positioned in an advantageous sniper spot, fired and took down an enemy attempting to reach for a weapon.

The enemy squad fell into chaos. In the dim moonlight, they had no idea where the lethal threat was coming from; they could only see flashes of fire in the distance, followed by their comrades falling one by one.

"They have guns! They have guns!"
"Get down! Don't move! They can't find us!"
"Hit them! Hit them!"

The leader of the residents shouted orders in a panic. Some listened, while others did not. But regardless of whether they obeyed, nothing could break the rhythm of the squad's harvest. Chen Jian had pushed within a 20-meter engagement range, and at this distance, every one of his shots was fatal. In an instant, several more enemies lying on the ground were finished off.

It was not that Chen Jian did not want to spare them, nor was it that he was unwilling to raise his muzzle an inch. But he was well aware that decisions about life and death must either not be made at all, or be finalized before the battle begins. Once the first bullet leaves the chamber, there is no room left for either side. It is either you die, or I do.

His hands were steadier than ever. After putting down an enemy who had picked up a weapon with two consecutive shots, he quickly changed magazines and dove to the side for cover. Simultaneously, gunfire from the enemy finally erupted.

"Bang!"
"Bang-bang!"
"Rat-tat-tat!"

The hoarse, tearing sound of the gunfire hinted at the inferiority of the opponents' weapons. Chen Jian was not suppressed by the noise; instead, he rose again after clicking the bolt-catch, taking down an enemy who was raising his gun to fire. Meanwhile, Lei Jie and Shen Yue provided cover through intermittent fire. The three of them had not exchanged a single unnecessary word since the fight began, yet their coordination was effortless. In less than a minute, no one remained standing on the shore.

He Shuo, who had been observing and keeping watch from afar, routed the drone's perspective to the smart visors. After a quick analysis, he provided crucial information to the three men on the front line.

"Three high-threat targets remain, excluding the high-value target. Positions marked."

The moment the voice in the earpiece faded, the locations of the enemies who were playing dead on the ground appeared on Chen Jian's visor. Without the slightest hesitation, after a rapid distribution of targets, Lei Jie, Shen Yue, and Chen Jian each locked onto their marks, adjusted their positions, and killed them with a single shot. Those men would never know in death how they had been discovered or which bullets had finished them off.

The only remaining leader curled up on the ground, shivering. He no longer dared to make a sound, as if hoping to escape disaster by burying his head in the sand. But that was absolutely impossible.

Chen Jian had already reached his side. Before the man could react, Chen Jian stepped on his arm and retrieved the QSW06 that had originally belonged to him. It was the innkeeper.

"What is in the lake?" Chen Jian asked, his voice cold as he pointed his gun at the man's head.

"Impossible... impossible... how are you here... how are you still alive?!"

"Aren't you alive too?" Chen Jian instinctively retorted. But soon, he realized something was wrong. He himself was alive because he was wearing a mask; the small rebreather allowed him to survive in an oxygen-deprived environment for 15 minutes. But why could this innkeeper survive? The surrounding carbon dioxide concentration had risen to 90%, and the heavier-than-air gas was settling toward the ground, reaching a depth of at least two meters. Within this range, how could he still be breathing, let alone talking?

Chen Jian reached out and pinched the innkeeper's face. With a slight force, the man struggled to open his mouth, and a wriggling, tentacle-like object slowly extended from his throat.

"Damn it!"

Chen Jian shoved the innkeeper to the ground. Lei Jie, who had just arrived, immediately asked, "What's the situation?"

"A monster, or at least a mutant!"

"How is that possible? If they are monsters, how did the Holy Bloods not notice?"

"Who the hell knows? He Shuo, patch into Xu Lie's channel and wake them up!"

"Understood!"

With the order given, Chen Jian turned back to the innkeeper and pressed his gun against the man's head. "What the hell is going on here?"

The innkeeper's eyes were filled with terror. He looked at Chen Jian, whose face was completely covered, and said in a trembling voice:

"It's you... it's really you!"

"You are the monsters crawling out of the graveyard... you are the ghosts of the Cataclysm... you shouldn't be here! You should have died in the Cataclysm long ago!"

"Enough with the nonsense!"

Chen Jian slammed his gun butt into the innkeeper's head. The man's head lolled to the side, but he continued to mutter incessantly.

"...I've seen you... I've seen you..."
"I thought it was a lie..."
"It's real... it's real..."

The oxygen reserve in the rebreather was dropping. Chen Jian did not want to waste any more words, so he pulled the trigger.

"Click!"

The bullet grazed the innkeeper's cheek and buried itself into the ground. Chen Jian asked, "Where did the ammunition come from? What is this 'Machine Cult'?"

He did not ask foolish questions like "Why did you want to kill us?" but went straight to the heart of the matter. The innkeeper seemed to regain a fraction of his sanity and answered with a miserable laugh, looking up at Chen Jian:

"Dug out, it was all dug out..."
"We are all miners of the Machine Cult; none of us can escape..."

Miners? Another new term. Chen Jian did not understand, so he simply stopped paying attention.

"Tie him up and take him with us. There is something in the lake that we cannot handle; we need to hide for now!"

"Understood!" Lei Jie replied immediately. Just then, Xu Lie's voice suddenly came through Chen Jian's earpiece.

"God-Chosen! God-Chosen! Chen Jian!"

"I can hear you!" Chen Jian replied briefly while holstering his pistol. A moment later, Xu Lie's anxious voice sounded again.

"Why did you kill them all?! What did they do?!"

"They tried to kill us! And they are all monsters!"

"Damn it! Do you think we Holy Bloods aren't monsters too?!"