Another member of the Hyena Gang fell in the hallway.
Bres loaded his pistol while pricking up his ears, listening for sounds outside.
The gunfire had just ceased, but it was replaced by a man’s shouting.
‘Could something have gone wrong?’
Thinking this, Bres’s mood grew heavy.
‘I need to check the situation.’
He turned his head and looked at the people trembling in the room.
‘If I go help Qiao Anni, what will happen to these people?’
Bres took out a spare pistol, but then remembered something.
“Life Support Group…”
“M-Mr. Bres, what do we do now?”
Oliver asked timidly from the corner.
Bres thought for a second, then handed the gun to Oliver.
“Mr. Oliver, please take this. If any Hyena Gang members try to break in, don’t hesitate to shoot,”
Bres said solemnly.
“I haven’t learned…”
“Aim, pull the trigger. That’s it. I believe you can do it.”
Bres walked out of the room and piled as many objects as possible in front of the door as obstacles.
Before going to find Qiao Anni, he remembered one more thing.
So he poked his head back into the room and shouted:
“Mr. Oliver! If you hear the sound of an aircraft, immediately! Immediately! Throw the gun away! As far as you can!”
“Okay… I understand.”
After seeing Oliver nod with his own eyes, Bres immediately sprinted toward the direction the gunfire had come from.
“Please, we just need to hold out long enough…”
‘If you can’t rescue directly, just stall for time…’
Bres’s warning before the action echoed in her ears.
‘How much time had passed? Three minutes? Four minutes? Why isn’t that damn Life Support Group here yet?’
“I’ll say this one last time! Drop the gun! I’m counting down from five!”
The leader pressed the muzzle closer to the vagrant’s head.
“Five!”
‘Should I just rush in?’
“Four!”
‘No, the distance is too close. He also has a combat prosthetic. This position is too risky.’
“Three!!!”
The leader’s voice became somewhat hysterical.
“Two!!!”
‘This is no joke. If this continues, he’ll really shoot.’
“One!!!”
thud
Qiao Anni threw her gun aside.
“Now, turn around.”
The leader’s order wasn’t finished.
Qiao Anni had no choice but to comply and turn around.
This was a completely unequal Western duel.
One side was not only unarmed but also had their back to the opponent.
In this extremely dire situation, Qiao Anni instead became unexpectedly calm.
She let out a breath and closed her eyes.
The sound of gravel rolling.
The sound of the leader panting.
The breathing sound of the unconscious vagrant.
And the sound of the hammer being cocked.
‘Now.’
Qiao Anni turned sideways as fast as she could.
Accompanied by the gunshot, a burning sensation grazed the side of her face.
The sense of pain seemed to be blocked.
She didn’t know the exact injury, but she had clearly avoided a fatal wound.
Qiao Anni paid it no heed.
She just bent down and charged fiercely toward the leader.
From the exchange just now, she had confirmed the firing interval of that large-caliber weapon mounted on his combat prosthetic.
Seeing that the first shot missed, the leader released the other hand that had been choking the vagrant and aimed another gun barrel at Qiao Anni.
At this moment, Qiao Anni was still a few meters away.
As long as he forced her back with this shot, the leader could suppress her again with non-stop fire.
“I win.”
The leader grinned hideously.
The gun fired.
Contrary to the leader’s expectations, Qiao Anni did not dodge.
She directly raised her right hand and placed it in front of the muzzle.
A huge impact transmitted from her palm.
All the fingers on Qiao Anni’s right hand bent backward at a horrifying angle, and her palm was charred black.
“You moth—”
The leader was shocked and furious, but Qiao Anni didn’t care at all.
The pain sensation was turned off.
For her, all she could feel now was the concept of “temporary loss of control over the right arm.”
She raised her left hand, clenched it into a fist, and slammed it fiercely into the leader’s face.
“Gah?!”
The leader was immediately sent flying backward, smashing the wall behind him into pieces, and finally collapsed in a pile of rubble.
“Hah… hah…”
Recovering her breath, Qiao Anni used her still-intact hand to pick up the pistol that had fallen to the ground and shuffled step by step toward the leader’s location.
Just then, she heard hurried footsteps behind her.
“Qiao Anni! Are you okay?”
“Mr. Bres?”
At first sight of Qiao Anni, Bres breathed a sigh of relief.
But when he saw her gruesome arm, his expression became complicated.
“Your hand…”
“Looks like I’ll have to trouble Miss Yifulin again.”
Qiao Anni just smiled lightly.
Bres didn’t know if it was an act.
“Yeah, the cleanup—”
Before he finished speaking, a rustling sound came from the rubble opposite.
“Still not dead…”
The leader crawled out.
More than half of his face was caved in, and exposed wires and an electronic eye dangling limply added to the horror.
He raised his gun again.
“Just die quietly, you scumbag…”
Qiao Anni also aimed her gun at him.
At that instant, Bres suddenly noticed a tiny red dot appear on Qiao Anni’s back.
At the same time, a faint whoosh of air came from outside the window.
“Get down! Drop the gun!”
Bres shouted at Qiao Anni.
“Drop the gun? Now?”
In less than a second, Qiao Anni had already realized, but it was too late.
BANG!
The leader’s head not far away exploded into a red mist like a burst watermelon.
BANG!
Bres blocked in front of Qiao Anni.
The impact of the bullet sent Bres crashing into Qiao Anni’s arms.
“Bres!”
Qiao Anni screamed.
Before she could check Bres’s injuries, she heard the sound of something rolling on the ground.
BANG!
“What?”
Qiao Anni suddenly felt her body go limp.
Then the world before her eyes turned pitch black, and she collapsed to the ground in an instant.
A pair of huge hands pressed her down, locked her hands behind her back, and with a click, Qiao Anni’s hands were cuffed by something.
“Fourteen Hyena Gang members eliminated outside the venue, fifteen eliminated on the perimeter, one eliminated inside the venue. Additionally, two unknown third-party mercenaries have been subdued and disarmed. Requesting instructions.”
“Priority is to retrieve the client. Non-threatening personnel can be ignored.”
“Roger.”
Soon, with her vision and hearing restored, Qiao Anni found herself firmly pinned to the ground.
Several fully armed soldiers were staring at her, their faces hidden behind helmets and visors, revealing no expressions.
Their gear was almost entirely blue, only the axe-shaped patch on their shoulders shimmered with a golden light.
‘So this is… the Banyang Life Support Group?’
Although her condition was terrible, she had indeed had almost no chance to fight back just now.
Turning her head, she saw Bres lying on the ground.
“Mr. Bres!”
She struggled to get up, but her whole body had no strength.
These limbs were not obeying her.
“I suggest you stay still.”
A cold voice came from above her head.
“Mr. Bres! Are you okay?”
No matter how she called out, Bres lay on the ground motionless.
Dark red liquid was seeping from his chest.
“How could this…”
Qiao Anni felt as if a bucket of ice water had been poured over her head.
Despair soaked through her entire body.