Chapter 53 - 47: You Are Surrounded by Me

"COUGH, COUGH, COUGH..."

The brawny man under the mask coughed violently a few times, spitting out a large amount of blood and organ fragments. The moment of impact, his organs and bones had been pulverized by the Vibrating Hammer’s resonance effect. He went silent just a few seconds later.

"This hammer is something else."

Zhou Chen couldn’t help but marvel. Its power was truly astonishing—it could even smash Exoskeleton Armor to pieces with a single blow.

"Jiang Che, where is the meeting point for that group?" he asked.

He had the gear. Now it was time to bring the hammer down.

"Out the door and to the left. The warehouse three hundred meters away. They’ve already realized something’s wrong. If you’re going to make a move, you’d better be quick," Jiang Che said, her tone unhurried.

With such a huge commotion, the Star Association’s surveillance equipment had already detected the anomaly. A suppression squad was currently en route. There was no way those smugglers could escape.

Zhou Chen walked out of the factory, hammer in hand. He scanned his surroundings and quickly located the warehouse.

As he approached the warehouse door, he heard several people shouting inside.

"What’s going on? Why are there gunshots?!"

"Calm down, calm down! Put the gun down! This is our turf, there won’t be any problems."

"Fuck, are you guys trying to double-cross us?"

"Bullshit! If we wanted to make a move, why wait until now? Calm down and put your guns away. It could be Birdman and Snow White sending people to cause trouble!"

"...Listen, the gunshots have stopped. They’ve probably been dealt with. I’ll contact the boss and see what’s going on."

Outside the warehouse, Zhou Chen thought for a moment, cleared his throat, and yelled, "Listen up in there! You’re surrounded by me! Drop your weapons and surrender immediately! Don’t put up a useless struggle."

—I’m a man of my word. Surrender your weapons and you won’t be killed!

"Oh, right, the Star Association asked me to pass on a message. As long as you surrender obediently and confess to every single dirty deed you’ve ever done, you’ll be spared the death penalty. Outstanding performers can even take over their boss’s position and live the high life, happy and carefree for the rest of their days!"

"Positions are limited, so sign up quick! First come, first served!"

The warehouse instantly fell silent.

Two or three seconds later, a dense barrage of gunfire erupted, and countless bullets pierced the iron door, flying toward him.

"It’s the Star Association’s lapdogs!"

"Dammit, kill them! I’d rather die than fall into the hands of the Star Association!"

"Where’s the rocket launcher? Where’s my fucking rocket launcher? Blow that Star Association lapdog to hell!"

"What the fuck, you actually brought a rocket launcher to a deal?"

"..."

Zhou Chen dodged the bullets. He never expected to subdue these smugglers with just a few words. After all, irredeemable criminals like them knew exactly what would happen if they fell into the hands of the Star Association. It was far worse than a simple death sentence.

Drug experiments, Alchemy Ceremony experiments, Ascender Ability experiments, Forbidden Object Ability experiments, Forbidden Object containment protocol experiments...

All sorts of experiments, crueler and more terrifying than death itself, awaited them.

That was why they would rather die than be captured alive.

’But what does that have to do with me?’ Zhou Chen thought. He was just going through the motions to avoid trouble later.

’I don’t care about getting a demerit, but I’m terrified of being forced to write a several-thousand-word report justifying the killings. That would be torture. What would I even make up?’

"Jiang Che, you saw it all. They chose the hard way when they could have had it easy. They resisted arrest and even attacked a Star Association Operator," Zhou Chen said self-righteously.

Jiang Che couldn’t be bothered to reply.

Once the gunfire paused, Zhou Chen kicked open the warehouse door. Using the "Trial Version Conversion Array," he created a small metal sphere with his bare hands and threw it inside.

In the next instant, an intense flash of light erupted inside the warehouse.

The smugglers inside didn’t have the Goggles that came with Exoskeleton Armor. They all screamed and clutched their eyes, feeling the searing pain of their retinas being burned.

Seizing the opportunity, Zhou Chen rushed in. He took out the nearest armed smuggler with one swing of his hammer, snatched the gun from the man’s hands, and fired single shots with one hand. He gave headshots to several smugglers who were still blinded—these were the ones holding destructive weapons like grenade launchers and rocket launchers.

After eliminating the most threatening individuals, he tossed the gun aside, stepped behind a smuggler, and knocked him unconscious. Then he moved on to the next... In less than half a minute, he had captured several prisoners alive.

"Hm?"

Suddenly, Zhou Chen turned his head to the side. From behind a pile of junk, he heard faint breathing and a heart pounding with extreme tension.

"Come out, or should I toss a grenade over to say hello?"

"I-I’m coming out... D-Don’t kill me..."

Unexpectedly, the voice that responded was quite young. A teenager who looked to be only eighteen or nineteen walked out from behind the junk pile with his hands up, trembling with fear.

Zhou Chen raised an eyebrow slightly and pointed at the ground. "Drop the gun and the knife."

"Y-Yes..." The teenager carefully unbuckled his tactical belt, throwing it to the ground along with the dagger and pistol attached to it. Then he dutifully knelt down, put his hands on his head, and forced a sycophantic smile at Zhou Chen.

"Boss, d-don’t kill me! I’ve disarmed and surrendered! I have a good memory. I know lots of Lady Grey’s secrets, I know where their secret warehouses are, I know their trade routes..."

"There are smugglers this young?"

Zhou Chen couldn’t help but ask over the comms channel as he looked at the young face.

"It’s quite normal. Some people are influenced by family or external factors and end up on a path of crime."

Jiang Che glanced at the data on a nearby screen and said coolly, "The person in front of you is named Sun Xiaojun. His parents were both criminals involved in the black market. Not long ago, his parents’ gang was smuggling an Abyssal Cursed Object when it went out of control during transport, wiping out the entire group. He then went to seek refuge with his ’big brother’ in the black market."

"A month ago, he raped a woman. Fearing she would report him to the police, he doused her in gasoline and set her on fire... The woman was saved in time by a passerby and taken to the hospital, but she remains in the intensive care unit to this day."

Zhou Chen lowered his eyes, impassively studying the extremely subservient, fawning smile before him.

He bent down, picked up the tactical belt, opened the holster, and took out the exquisitely crafted pistol inside.

"A Desert Eagle, no less. You were doing pretty well for yourself."

"N-No... The boss lady gave it to me... I’m a coward, I’ve never done anything bad..." Sun Xiaojun said, his voice trembling. With his life on the line, he didn’t dare admit he was a bad seed...

Zhou Chen ejected the magazine and glanced at it—it was full.

He pushed the magazine back in, chambered a round, and aimed the dark muzzle at Sun Xiaojun’s forehead.

Sun Xiaojun’s pupils contracted. Cold sweat beaded on his forehead as he hurriedly begged for his life.

"Didn’t you say you wouldn’t kill those who surrender their weapons... Don’t kill me, don’t kill me... I-I know lots of Lady Grey’s secrets—"

The thick shadow of death was so close it made him tremble uncontrollably.

"Oh, I did say that."

Zhou Chen shrugged nonchalantly. "But I suddenly changed my mind."

BANG.

With the sound of a gunshot, a bloody hole appeared in Sun Xiaojun’s forehead. Blood splattered as his body went limp and crumpled to the ground.

Zhou Chen casually tossed the pistol aside without a single glance at the corpse and turned to securely tie up the smugglers he had knocked out.

Once he was done, he walked out of the warehouse, ready to go take out Iron Python’s key subordinates and finish the mission.

"Iron Python’s steward has gathered everyone who’s left to kill you..." At that moment, Jiang Che’s warning voice suddenly paused.

"What is it?" Zhou Chen asked.

"...Two of them have injected themselves with the Abyss virus. They’re currently undergoing mutation. You’re about to run into them," she said.

"What?"

Zhou Chen was stunned. Just then, two wolf-like howls echoed from the distance.

They were crazed, filled with bloodthirsty killing intent.

Even without Jiang Che saying anything, Zhou Chen had already guessed.

—Abyssal Creature·Werewolf!