Professional soldiers loved this kind of heavy fire suppression. Within a single minute, the trained ones had already assembled their guns from the piles of scrap. On their side, only Ling Ling really knew her way around firearms with any degree of expertise. The rest weren't exactly pros, so the match quickly turned into a grinding positional standoff. Jing Shu wasn't that lucky either. She had taken down two enemies already, which, of course, drew immediate and hostile attention.
Ratatatata!
"Get down!"
The huge boulder behind her saved her life at the last second as lead chipped away at the stone. Even though she was wearing a stiff bulletproof vest, one shot to her head would still send her straight to hell. She had never in her life experienced what it was like to have bullets scream past her ears with such terrifying, high-pitched whines.
Scared, rattled, pissed off, furious!
Jing Shu had wanted to stay lowkey and maybe take a sneakier route. But she gave up on that idea fast. She wasn't stupid enough to trade bullets with them in the open either. With two machine guns trained her way, sticking her head out was just asking to get it blown off.
But those two soldiers' gunfire didn't exactly thrill the audience. Instead, panicked screams erupted across the stands. Their aim was so bad they didn't even hit Jing Shu, but they sure hit a bunch of spectators behind the glass. Several people were killed instantly. More were bleeding and howling in pain while trying to flee. The 'safe zone' crowd refused to move, blocking their escape and turning the stands into a sea of chaos.
The nobles, of course, just laughed and clinked their glasses together. The bulletproof glass really was worth the money they had paid for it.
The host ducked his body behind the stage and yelled, "Oh, for fuck's sake! Can't these bastards aim straight? I was almost hit! Damn these ugly, toe-scratching brutes, though; they're definitely pros! They're closing in fast. Looks like those two Asian contestants are about to die. End this damn spray-and-pray already!"
But just as he finished shouting, the two soldiers who had been dominating the fight suddenly let out bloodcurdling screams. Their machine guns spun wildly in a full 360-degree arc, riddling each other with bullets and mowing down another dozen spectators in the chaos.
No one knew what the hell just happened. Before anyone could react, the two soldiers were already dead. Their faces were crawling with tiny, frantic black bugs that devoured their flesh in seconds. The insects left nothing but gleaming white skulls behind in the sand.
Gasps rippled through the crowded stands. The nobles were stunned. The audience was horrified. The host practically screeched, "Oh my god! Is this some kind of Eastern witchcraft? That venomous beauty must be an eighty-year-old witch in disguise!"
The black bugs withdrew as fast as they had appeared. They left behind nothing but goosebumps and a sea of terrified faces. Everyone silently agreed they needed to stay the hell away from that terrifying woman.
Xiao Hei swallowed hard and instinctively shuffled several steps back from her. He had seen it all up close; the bugs were the stuff of nightmares.
Quadra Kill!
Meanwhile, the battle on the other side of the arena finally ended, and Jing Shu couldn't help but raise a brow. She had gone one-versus-four, yet her teammates in a four-versus-two matchup had taken forever to finish their fight.
Here is what happened: Monkey got spotted right at the start. He was being sniped and shot at by a damn crossbow, taking a hit before he could even blink.
And what were the other three doing?
Ling Ling was busy scavenging for small parts to assemble her gun. Jing Shu could kind of understand that. Without her rifle, Ling Ling's combat ability dropped to zero. Once she finally finished building the weapon, she managed to outshoot the enemy sniper and take him down with one clean headshot.
Monkey, injured and pissed, then managed to beat the crossbow guy in a straight-up brawl. So they barely survived that encounter.
As for Tank and Snake Spirit… well.
While Jing Shu was holding off half the enemy's firepower and Monkey was fighting two-on-one, Snake Spirit somehow got lost. Completely. Without his little pet snake to guide him, the guy had zero sense of direction and wandered off like a headless chicken through the maze of huts.
Tank? He had charged straight into a snake pit from an earlier match. The pit was four or five meters deep. By the time he climbed his way out, the whole fight was already over.
Jing Shu could only stare. "...Emmmm."
Honestly, she didn't even want to complain about Tank anymore. The guy was dumb but harmless. Snake Spirit, though? A literal snake getting lost? Seriously? They all had amazing individual strength, but put them together and it was a disaster.
The match ended with Jing Shu stealing the spotlight. She earned the nickname "The Witch" and pocketed an extra 2,000 black market coins. Her team advanced to Rank A; just one step away from S-rank.
Peggy made a killing off their victory. The black market couldn't stop talking about the all-Asian team. They were the hottest news of the week.
When the bloodbath was over, all the wounded spectators were carried off. Jing Shu knew better; they were probably going to feed some kind of creature. In an underground market with tens of thousands of people, losing a few dozen a day was nothing.
The black market didn't stop either. The next round of fights started soon after, though half the audience had already left, visibly shaken.
Jing Shu's team looted their fallen enemies' gear and cashed everything in for credits. Each of them walked away with another thousand black market coins. It was a damn good haul. It was enough for she to start preparing for Xiao Dou's next mission.
Except, of course, Xiao Dou was being a pain again. From afar, they could hear Ah Huang's pitiful, high-pitched howls. Monkey, grim-faced and clutching his bandaged arm, rushed ahead into their rental unit.
Sure enough, Xiao Dou was chasing Ah Huang around the room.
When Ah Huang saw Jing Shu walk in, he immediately tucked his tail, whimpered, and started sobbing. Patches of yellow fur were missing from his trembling body. A few spots were even pecked raw. He looked completely wronged. He looked as if he was saying, "Wuu wuu, the fat chicken bullied me and plucked all my fur!"
Xiao Dou, meanwhile, had a beak full of yellow fur. She was trying to stick it to her own body. When she saw Jing Shu, she blinked like she was tattling. "It wasn't my fault! He called me a bald chicken first!"
Monkey looked like his soul left his body. His C-rank attack dog—famous for hunting wild chickens—had just been beaten up by an ugly, fat hen.
Snake Spirit clicked his tongue. "Damn, it really is a battle chicken."
Monkey's face darkened even more.
Jing Shu cleared her throat. "Alright, come here. I will take the bullet out and stitch you up. Only 100 contribution points."
Poor Monkey. First he got shot in the shoulder, now his arm was busted.
Jing Shu didn't have proper surgical tools or a doctor's mindset. She heated up a small knife until it was red-hot. She sliced into his arm, used a pair of chopsticks to dig out the bullet, then stitched him up with a steel needle. There were ten quick sutures and she was done. Finally, she smeared her magic ointment over the wound, and the bleeding stopped instantly. He would be good as new in three days.
She tossed Tank 5 contribution points as a thank-you for holding Monkey down during the surgery. It saved her a ton of effort.