"Tap, tap, tap..."
The solitary man walked deeper into the shadows. The city's bustle receded, leaving only the chilling sound of his footsteps echoing against the walls and through the air.
He was sending messages of mission success on his phone to the person on the other end.
The overall progress had been smooth. All he had to do was detonate a few bombs and release the contained Zombies. With the most troublesome person absent, he had ample opportunity to strike, though he couldn't confirm the life or death of the primary target.
"Tap."
The footsteps ceased.
The surrounding quiet was unusually unsettling.
Years of life as an assassin had honed his instincts and made him extremely sensitive to being watched. A sense of scrutiny from an unknown source made the back of his neck prickle.
Since someone had followed him, it meant the pursuer was certain of his guilt. Playing the part of a casual passerby would likely be useless now.
The man calmly closed his phone and reached his hand toward his inner collar pocket, feigning the action of looking for something.
"Bang!"
A bullet hole appeared at his feet, freezing the man's movement.
The immediate shot was a warning not to make any rash moves. If he made any other unexpected gesture, the next shot wouldn't miss.
But that shot also revealed the attacker's location!
A fierce look flashed across the man's face. Gritting his teeth, he snatched the pistol from his pocket and spun around, firing three quick shots toward the direction of the gunfire—
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
"Wh—"
His three confident shots missed entirely. The shooter had vanished from the spot immediately after firing, as if predicting the attack.
"Hoo..."
The sound of rushing air, to the right!
In the momentary shock, a black figure had already arrived beside him. A fist covered in knuckle armor was hurtling toward him like a cannonParty.
This was an emergency. He couldn't worry about anything else. The man instinctively used the pistol to block in front of him and gripped another object behind his back with his other hand.
"Boom!"
The two figures recoiled. Lin, whose strike failed, extinguished the lights on his visual display and merged into the darkness, moving swiftly into the man's blind spot to observe him.
The pistol was shattered and disassembled by Lin's punch, but the blow was obstructed for a moment, allowing the man to draw something that looked familiar to Lin.
A greatsword.
Yes, it was a greatsword, similar in shape to the one Himeko wielded. The man had drawn a folding device that transformed into this giant sword upon unfolding. This was the weapon folding technology that the Moth of the Flame was developing but hadn't yet deployed.
Judging by the man's practiced movements, he had faced such situations many times. Both his reactions and responses seemed specialized in fighting "humans."
He was not a Moth of the Flame warrior but an assassin specializing in killing "humans."
Lin put his pistol away, gripping the hilts of the two swords on his back, and slowly drew half of the blades.
[Lin, new mission communication]
"..."
A new mission, at this moment?
[The Fifth Branch is experiencing a Honkai energy leak. Proceed immediately to assist. The combat squads are rushing to MSA-079's coordinates to take over the arrest mission]
"..."
The coordinates of the combat squads appeared on the visual display, moving to surround Lin's current position.
The priority was indeed to assist the attacked Fifth Branch. Continuing the entanglement with this man would further escalate losses and casualties.
However, Lin sensed a different meaning in this perfectly timed mission.
[Lin, Dr. Mei is sending communication]
"...Understood."
Lin decisively sheathed his weapons, abandoned the standoff with the man, and sprinted toward the Fifth Branch.
After Lin left, the man sheathed his weapon thoughtfully. He made no attempt to escape and offered no resistance when the arriving combat squad arrested him.
Kevin pulled the trigger, spraying bullets, but the tall, white monster shimmered through the room like a gust of wind. The bullets only hit the pathetic afterimages left on his retina.
"A Loyal Ninja Zombie, is it?" Seeing that firearms were ineffective, Kevin decisively drew his tactical knife. He stomped his right foot on a pile of scorched documents, flipping them up. The paper scraps instantly obscured the vision of the Loyal Ninja Zombie that had shimmered in front of him.
"Shing—"
Kevin stabbed his knife out from behind the paper screen. The Loyal Ninja Zombie's scarlet eyes flashed. Ignoring the impending attack, it slashed its twin blades down toward Kevin's shoulders.
Faced with the crisis, Kevin calmly aborted the thrust. It was just a feint, so he retracted his force instantly, took a step back, letting the blades graze past him. He pressed the gun he had already readied in his left hand against the Loyal Ninja Zombie's head and pulled the trigger.
"Bang! Bang!"
Two shots blew two holes in the Zombie's head. Kevin kicked the unsupported corpse away and then raised his rifle to sweep the room for the remaining Zombies.
The Honkai energy released by the large number of Zombies had already begun to turn some researchers into Zombies. These people, who had been screaming moments before, now became walking corpses, lunging at their former colleagues.
"Was this an accident?" Kevin took a short breath after blowing the head off the last Zombie, then immediately sprinted to the small room where Mei was, opening the door to see Mei sending a message to Lin via the communicator.
"Mei! Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. I've already injected myself with the inhibitor. I can operate here temporarily." Mei entered the last word, stood up, and walked to Kevin's side. "Kevin, the fire containment system has sealed off the floors above the fifteenth. Now we just need to wait for backup."
"Good. Then you stay here for now and don't move."
"No, we have to save people. This incident is too suspicious. An explosion and Zombie containment breach happened immediately after we arrived... There are likely still survivors. We must go to the rescue."
"But you..."
"Don't worry about me. We survived Changkong City, didn't we?"
Kevin, who had been hesitating about whether to go on a rescue mission, immediately made up his mind, grabbing Mei and running toward the rooftop.
On their way up, Kevin eliminated every Zombie they encountered. He searched floor by floor for survivors.
The explosion's affected area was vast. Every floor above the fifteenth showed signs of explosion. This was not a typical accident but a deliberate attack with concealed bombs.
The horrifying carnage paled Kevin's face, but he forced himself to step over the mutilated corpses, trying his best to keep Mei away from them.
No one knew if the dead bodies, in this environment of high Honkai energy concentration, would truly remain motionless.
"Creak..."
Passing a small room that had been blown to shreds, Kevin heard the sound of shifting rubble. He cautiously aimed his gun toward the source of the sound.
"Who... is that?"
A human voice! A survivor!
Kevin paused, then immediately moved forward a few steps to the pile of rubble, putting down his gun and using both hands to dig through the debris.
Then, a familiar man's bloodied face appeared. He lay barely conscious in the ruins.
"Dr. Spaciel?"