Chapter 38: Plunder

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“The enemy is assembling and moving northeast.”

“A small number of enemies remain in the camp, no more than thirty. No thermal weapons detected.”

“I’ve reached the edge of the camp and taken cover. Awaiting an opportunity to attack.”

“The enemy’s main force has reached the Phoenix Hotel. Conditions are favorable for an assault.”

Chen Yue’s reports continued to come through. By then, Chen Jian had already led the other five men to the assault position one hundred meters from the camp.

After conducting another round of aerial reconnaissance, Chen Jian gave the order without hesitation:

“Enter quietly. Clear quietly.”

“Understood!”

At his command, everyone sprang into action.

As before, Lei Jie, armed with a suppressed QCQ201 submachine gun, took the lead. Chen Yue and He Shuo set up their weapons at a high vantage point to provide cover, while Chen Jian carried a Type 191 rifle as additional firepower and led the four Blood Chosen straight toward the center of the camp along the route they had scouted in advance.

All thermal signatures had been marked. Chen Jian had no intention of searching every building. Instead, they carved out a direct route to the central arsenal, with the clear objective of reaching their target in the shortest possible time.

Their movements were inevitably exposed, but the 9mm rounds from Lei Jie’s weapon ruthlessly tore apart one Fear Demon after another as they rushed forward.

Any that slipped through were swiftly dispatched with melee weapons by the four Blood Chosen, who maintained front and rear security.

The battle unfolded in silence. Apart from the Fear Demons’ snarls, even the gunfire was barely audible.

After advancing two hundred meters, they successfully reached the vicinity of the target arsenal.

Shallow craters left by mortar shells had been half-buried beneath the heavy steel framework. Before their arrival, the Fear Demons had apparently tried to move the steel beams, but without effective organization, they had been unable to accomplish much in such a short time.

They had therefore left several of the stronger Fear Demons behind to continue clearing the wreckage. Needless to say, the squad wiped them out in an instant.

The entire camp had fallen into deathly silence. Judging from the images cycling through the aerial reconnaissance feed, Chen Jian could not be completely certain that no other enemies remained in the camp. But he was certain that even if there were, they no longer dared to charge forward.

They were intelligent creatures, after all. They felt fear too.

Did they really think the Blood God’s blessing made them invincible?

One 9mm round was enough to teach them a lesson!

“Clear!”

“Clear. Begin the cleanup!”

He Shuo’s reply came from the rear. Chen Jian looked toward Li Shi, who was carrying the shield. The latter understood immediately. Without waiting for any further order, he lowered the shield and hurried forward.

Xu Lie was dumbfounded.

Who exactly was the leader here?

I haven’t even said anything, and you’ve already gone ahead on your own?

It was not just him. Xie Liu and Zeng Yi had already climbed onto the roof of the building and voluntarily begun watching over the squad.

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This squad was impossible to lead...

Xu Lie grumbled inwardly, but his body obediently moved all the same. He approached the ruins of the arsenal and sniffed at them before saying:

“There are living beings inside, but I can’t determine their positions.”

Chen Jian nodded and signaled to Lei Jie.

Lei Jie took out a portable wall-penetrating detector. While Li Shi was moving the steel framework, he walked once around the ruins, then used a few simple hand signals to indicate the target’s position and the estimated angle of entry.

The next second—

Bang!

A 12.7mm round tore through the air. At the same moment, Chen Yue’s machine gun opened fire.

“Bang, bang, bang, bang—”

The fragile half-brick, half-wood walls were instantly pierced. When they checked the wall-penetrating detector again, the life signs it had displayed were gone.

Xu Lie stood frozen.

These Chosen Ones were always capable of surprising him.

Or perhaps startling him was more accurate.

The plan he had devised was to wait until Li Shi cleared the obstruction at the entrance, then charge inside with Zeng Yi and eliminate the last Fear Demon with lightning speed. Even if it did not earn them much recognition, it would at least show their goodwill.

After all, the Chosen Ones had always been the first to throw themselves into danger. Now that the battle was nearly over, surely it was not too much to let them take the lead just once?

But he had never expected that, in their script, there was no such thing as charging inside and fighting at all...

By the time Li Shi had finished clearing away the heavy steel framework, Chen Jian and Lei Jie entered in standard two-man breaching formation. They swept the dangerous corners first, then calmly fired additional rounds into the bodies on the floor.

“Secure! Search for equipment. Prepare to withdraw!”

Chen Jian rushed toward the center of the building, where there happened to be a narrow door leading down to the basement.

The narrow door was still closed. Xu Lie finally found his chance to lead the charge and was just about to rush inside when Lei Jie once again stepped in front of him.

Lei Jie pulled the movable steel door open a narrow crack and tossed in the last stun grenade.

A tremendous buzz shook everyone’s ears. The instant the stun grenade detonated, Lei Jie had already charged inside.

Crack! Crack!

After two shots, the basement fell silent once more.

In the darkness, two bodies lay sprawled on the floor, each shot through the head.

Xu Lie stepped forward and glanced at them before saying:

“They might have been prisoners. There are no Blood Skull marks on them—you killed the wrong people.”

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“We didn’t kill the wrong people.”

Lei Jie shook his head.

“When I entered, they had weapons in their hands. Would you give weapons to prisoners?”

Only then did Xu Lie notice the two pistols lying beside the bodies. He stood rooted to the spot.

“What happened here? How did they have weapons? What were they doing here?”

Looking more closely at the corpses, he saw that their exposed skin was covered in elaborate, vividly colored tattoos. Even with half their skulls blown away by bullets, their faces still clearly radiated a lurid, manic allure.

It was especially when he noticed the enormous piercings in their nostrils that Xu Lie finally understood.

“They’re the Sirens of Flower City—damn it, what are they doing here?!”

As Chen Jian picked up one of the pistols from the floor—it was still in fairly good condition—he asked in bafflement:

“Flower City? What the hell is that, Dongguan?”

“It’s a small town. The people there are all somewhat abnormal. They worship the pursuit of physical stimulation and exhausting every effort to reproduce.”

“But most of them are human. Why would they be here with the Blood Skulls?”

“Most of them?”

Chen Jian frowned, then skipped over the subject and gave an order:

“There’s no time to think about that now. Everyone move. Take all the useful equipment from the floor.”

“Li Shi, leave your shield behind. I’ll find you a better one when we get back!”

“Make yourself a frame and carry as much as you can!”

“All right.”

Li Shi did not question Chen Jian’s order in the slightest. While Xu Lie was still fixated on the bodies scattered across the floor, Li Shi had already begun imitating Chen Jian and the others, picking up anything that might be useful.

The cleanup began swiftly and ended just as quickly.

There were quite a few things in the arsenal, but most of them were melee weapons and assorted miscellaneous items.

In barely more than ten minutes, all the equipment had been packed.

“Fall back!”

At Chen Jian’s command, the six-man squad retraced the route they had taken in and withdrew from the camp.

In the silent camp, only the bodies sprawled in disarray and the blood flowing across the ground remained...

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