Buying someone's life and leads on the black market was not something ordinary people could afford. Though the brother and sister earned decent money, they had not been in this line of work for long, and their savings were nearly gone.
With revenge the only thing in her eyes, Shen Bixin sold off most of her belongings and quickly returned to work.
She hated this company, but she had no other choice.
To ensure every squad could continue operating normally, the company swiftly assigned a new A-ranked team member. Clearly, her brother's death had not affected the company's normal operations in the slightest.
Shen Bixin came to understand those designations in a new way.
Facilitating communication was a lie; facilitating replacement was the truth. To the company and her teammates, it was as though nothing had happened.
Watching the new A-ranked member burn with the same fiery zeal as her brother, Shen Bixin finally realized that she, her brother, and most people in this city were merely tools that could be replaced at any time.
The life one supposedly chose for oneself was more like a set of words for self-consolation, or something one had been hypnotized into believing.
Everything returned to normal, until midnight two weeks later, when another platinum-tier client's distress signal sounded.
The squad set out once more. This time, their destination was a gang den at the intersection of Xin Dong Street and West Prosperity Street. They did not know whether the client had been kidnapped there or what exactly had happened.
Because of the unusual circumstances, the rescue helicopter departed as usual, with a backup armed helicopter following behind to provide support.
They had originally assumed the client had been kidnapped, so the rescue squad planned to infiltrate quietly and carry out a secret extraction. Yet when they arrived, fierce sounds of battle erupted from inside the building like fireworks going off.
With no other choice, they landed the helicopter on the roof again and sent the rescue squad down to bring the person up.
This building was much shorter than the previous one. Seeing such a familiar scene, Shen Bixin became cautious as well. She crept down the stairs inch by inch, searching according to the locator the client had activated.
The gunfire and explosions drew closer and closer.
After descending two floors in succession, passing through dark corridors and the abandoned rooms along the way, they finally reached the location confirmed by the client. When they pushed open the door, they saw a thin figure in a battered police helmet that obscured his face, wearing a bulletproof vest and slumped against the corner. Blood was still streaming from his arm.
After checking the rescue activator implanted in the client's prosthetic body, the squad members prepared to take him away. Shen Bixin applied spare hemostatic skin to him, then gave him an injection of cardiac stimulant.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Before they could even leave the room, unsettling gunfire rang out from outside. E fell in response.
"Found them! They're here! It's the Security Mobile Unit! Kill them!"
A dense barrage of gunfire followed. Clearly, the gang here had not been strictly obeying the gun ban.
This was not the first time the squad had encountered such a situation. After A threw two high-explosive grenades outside, B swiftly raised a portable defensive shield and covered the client's retreat toward the rooftop.
Before Shen Bixin could decide whether to save E, several more bullets struck him, and the gangsters charged in after them.
The squad could only retreat quickly, but just as they backed into the stairwell corner, thugs from this side came rushing up the stairs as well. The ones charging in front were even Qi Practitioners.
Shen Bixin did not remember how they broke through the encirclement. She only remembered that it was the most terrifying Asura Arena she had ever experienced.
"Get the client up first!"
Being closest to the client, Shen Bixin could not worry about anything else. Supporting him, she ran for the rooftop.
The three people behind her withdrew while covering their retreat. Explosions boomed in great numbers from behind them, and Shen Bixin gritted her teeth as she brought the weakened client to the roof.
But upon reaching the top, she discovered that fanatics who had climbed up the outside of the building were firing at the helicopter. For safety, it had already taken off and moved out of the line of fire.
Noticing that the target had been brought up, the fanatics who had reached the rooftop ahead of them turned to fire in their direction.
Just as Shen Bixin was preparing to take the client back and avoid the edge of the storm for the moment, the client she was supporting broke free. He stepped forward and smashed a fist into the ground. Several streaks of azure lightning burst from the floor like a rain of swords, knocking every fanatic standing at the roof's edge down below.
After throwing that punch with all his might, the client rolled over and collapsed helplessly. It was obvious that move had nearly drained all his strength.
This guy was a Qi Practitioner?
It was rare for a client to be able to help. With the explosions below the stairs continuing to close in, Shen Bixin supported the client to a corner. As she used her locator to call the pilot back, she set up remote-controlled Nerve Blockers across the rooftop, then raised her gun to greet any fanatics who emerged onto the roof.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Not long afterward, several people ran out onto the rooftop, and Shen Bixin shot every one of them down.
Their appearance meant the other three teammates who had stayed behind to provide cover were likely doomed. Perhaps because of her brother's death and the rage she had nowhere to vent, Shen Bixin used nearly every weapon on her body this time.
In the blink of an eye, more than a dozen fanatics' corpses had piled up by the rooftop entrance.
To stay alive and avenge her brother, Shen Bixin had even considered abandoning the client and fleeing. But the punch with which the client had just saved her also made her sincerely want to save him.
At that moment, Shen Bixin seemed to understand a little of how her brother had once felt.
Click—
Hearing her magazine run dry, Shen Bixin drew her pistol and aimed it at the entrance. But before she could fire, she slumped to the ground and began to laugh foolishly.
The client lying on the ground panted heavily and asked, "We can't get out of here. What are you laughing at?"
"We held on. Rescue is here."
The moment her words fell, a tremendous roar came from behind the building. An armed helicopter loaded with weapons landed brazenly on the rooftop.
Seeing the client in the corner and spotting a large number of fanatics rushing upward, its autocannon swept madly toward the stairwell.
This was not power an ordinary Qi Practitioner could withstand. In an instant, nearly half the rooftop had been blasted through.
Another squad came down from the aircraft. Only then, with a sigh of relief, did Shen Bixin inspect the client's injuries again.
She discovered that the client's prosthetic body and even his internal organs seemed to have been replaced recently, and there were fractures elsewhere on his body as well. It appeared that he had suffered severe injuries not long ago.
"Hehehe, so this is platinum-tier service. I knew you people could do it."
Because he wore a helmet, the client's voice had been muffled all along, yet Shen Bixin still found it somewhat familiar.
She raised a hand and removed the client's helmet, intending to conduct a further examination.
But what Shen Bixin never could have expected was that she saw a face she had been searching for days.
Six Nerve Interfaces were arranged across his forehead like scars left by religious vows, and there was a fresh diagonal scar across his nose.
Tie Kuang Seng! Though his build and appearance might have changed because he had replaced his prosthetics and undergone surgery, Shen Bixin would never forget that face even in death.
Without paying any attention to Shen Bixin, who had frozen where she stood, the squad that had come down swiftly placed the client on a stretcher.
Shen Bixin's mind was filled with scenes of her dead brother and the teammates who had just died. With only one thought in her heart, she stood, raised her gun, and shouted, "Tie Kuang Seng?"
Tie Kuang Seng on the stretcher merely turned his head in confusion.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Several bullets struck his head with unerring precision, blood and brain matter splattering all over the stretcher.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
At the same time, though the second squad had been startled and had not understood what was happening, their instinctive reaction to protect the client made them swiftly raise their guns and open fire without hesitation on Shen Bixin, the C Team Member who might have been a fanatic in disguise.
The affairs of the world were brief as a spring dream, human feeling thin as autumn clouds. There was no need to weigh the bitter labor of one's heart; all things had their fate.