Hundred-Man Slash

After Marilyn said, "I don't know," Heidi in her arms raised her head. "Mommy, is it..."

"Don't say it."

Marilyn hurriedly covered the little girl's mouth, but Tang Jingyao had already heard her. Smiling, he started toward them. Marilyn held her child tightly, her entire face turning pale. Suddenly, a massive explosion boomed, and the whole building shook as if struck by an earthquake. Tang Jingyao braced himself against the back of the sofa and was about to pick up the intercom beside him to ask what was happening when gunfire abruptly erupted!

The lights in the inner room where the Mafia men were suddenly went out. Because of the explosion, the lights in this room flickered on and off like lightning. Machine guns, pistols, and the shouting of those Italians blended into a chaotic din. Muzzle flashes flickered violently like firecrackers. Marilyn clutched Heidi and fell onto the sofa, while Tang Jingyao raised his pistol and stared at the door in terror. The Mafia man standing by the door had barely drawn his gun when a stray bullet from inside pierced his forehead, and he slowly collapsed.

After a long while, the trembling finally ceased, and the frenzied gunfire from the inner room fell silent. All the three people in the room could see was the Mafia man's corpse and blood at the doorway. Tang Jingyao held his gun and did not dare move for a long time. When nothing happened, he finally gritted his teeth, yanked Marilyn up from the sofa, shoved her in front of him, and approached the inner room.

By then, Marilyn roughly knew who had come, and she was not afraid. When she reached the doorway, using the light from outside, she sucked in a breath. A faint joy rose in her heart as well. The room was a complete mess: five corpses and blood all over the floor. The window facing outside had fallen into the room. Clearly, that person had rushed in from outside, fought through this cramped space, killed everyone, and then retreated through the window again.

A moment later, Tang Jingyao saw the scene and nearly started shaking all over. He glanced at Marilyn, then shouted into the intercom, "Report! Quickly! What... what just happened?"

"Boss, the sloped stairway on the west side where the conveyor belts are was blown up. We... we probably have five brothers buried underneath."

The voice over the intercom was tense and frantic. Tang Jingyao shouted furiously, "Forget that side! Everyone get up here! All of you, get to me!"

The other side had barely replied when another voice suddenly cut in. "Help! Help! He's outside! He's outside! He jumped down from above just now! Second and Fourth were both killed by him! He's a child—no, he's..."

Then the transmission cut off.

"A child? Impossible... I get it. It's a dwarf, a dwarf..." He hurried to the window and looked out. The third floor of the factory was equivalent to the height of a normal five-story building. He had no idea how that person had gotten up there or come back down. Outside was pitch-black, and he could see nothing. He had just turned around when the intercom sounded again.

"Boss, the stairway is blocked by a collapsed slab of concrete. We're pushing it aside. We'll be through soon..."

Gunfire suddenly erupted.

"...He's charged in! He's charged in!"

Hearing the nonstop gunfire outside, Tang Jingyao felt his whole body tremble. He walked back into the room and looked at Marilyn and her daughter. As the gunfire gradually grew sparser, he finally pressed the intercom. "How is it? Did you get him?"

A tense, frantic voice came from the other side. "No, not yet. He's too agile, like a monkey. Several brothers were shot dead the moment they showed themselves. Now, now..."

Only then did Tang Jingyao understand why the gunfire had become sparse. His teeth clenched in fury. "What? You mean he's alone, and all of you... are being pinned down by one person?"

"Boss, he, he, he... his shooting is too accurate! Whoever goes out dies immediately..."

"I @#￥%&*..." Tang Jingyao was so incoherent that even he did not know what he was saying. Then he pressed the intercom and shouted, "Everyone, listen! When I count to three, rush out and fire together! I refuse to believe he can kill all of you at once! One, two, three..."

The instant he finished saying "three," everyone began rushing out. As if responding to him, a voice over the loudspeakers rang through the factory at the same time. "Do you really think so?"

The men rushed out in a hotheaded frenzy, only to realize they could not find the enemy at all. The broadcast voice shook them to their core. As they fired wildly in every direction, a burst of machine-gun bullets rained down from above and to the side, piercing four people on the spot. Everyone immediately scrambled back to their hiding places. Only the minor leader switched on the intercom and said tremblingly, "Boss, be careful. He's in the... broadcast room..."

"Then why aren't you getting up here already?!"

Tang Jingyao trembled uncontrollably.

After Tang Jingyao had taken over this factory, he had indeed set up a broadcast system. But the broadcast room was right next to his own room. How was that possible? Although the stairway below was blocked and the men downstairs could not get up, he had also stationed several men outside. They had all been silently killed...

As he imagined it all, he seemed to see that murderous demon drawing closer and closer to his door. He hurriedly took another submachine gun from a drawer. Just as he considered using Marilyn and her daughter as hostages, the voice that had come over the loudspeakers suddenly spoke through the intercom.

"Mr. Tang, allow me to introduce myself. My codename is Vermilion Bird. Someone paid a high price for your life. After you die, please do not hold it against me."

Tang Jingyao's teeth chattered slightly. Thinking of how those Italians had died just now, and how that person had not rushed into the room, he realized that he had not come to save the mother and daughter at all. He was simply... here to kill him...

"How much did he pay you? I think I can..."

With a bang, someone slammed into the door. Tang Jingyao's finger tightened instinctively, and the submachine gun spat fire wildly at the doorway. Yet over the intercom, the other party's voice remained leisurely.

"Don't be stupid, Mr. Tang. If money could sway me at a time like this, I wouldn't deserve to be an assassin. At this point, accept your fate." The voice was hoarse and gentle, almost earnestly persuasive.

If many people had attacked him, Tang Jingyao might not have become so terrified. But what had happened tonight was simply too bizarre. One person had climbed to the height of a fifth floor, rushed in amid the explosion, calmly killed six experienced Italian Mafia members, then left. After that, with his strength alone, he had suppressed everyone in the entire factory. This person could control everything he wanted to control, strike wherever he wanted, appear wherever he wanted. He was like some ghost or god...

The door had suffered too much from the savage barrage of machine-gun fire and crashed down. What fell with it was one of the men Tang Jingyao had stationed outside, his body long since riddled with bullets like a sieve. Tang Jingyao continued firing madly without pause. Finally, with a click, the bullets ran out. In that instant, two shots came from outside, piercing both his hands. A childlike figure walked in through the doorway.

"Daddy..." Although she roughly knew her father was a bad man, Heidi could not bear to see Tang Jingyao screaming on the floor. Marilyn grabbed her back. The two of them looked toward the door, both stunned.

"Uh..."

"B-Brother..."

They had never expected the harmless little boy from before to have become a middle-aged dwarf with a scar on his face. As they froze, the dwarf waved a hand. "There's not much time. Marilyn, take a gun and get ready to leave." After a moment, he asked hesitantly, "Do you know how to shoot?"

"Yes, I do." Marilyn now understood that this man was the little boy. As for which was his true form, that could wait. She nodded and picked up a pistol from beside Tang Jingyao. The little girl ran over. "Brother... are you really Brother? How... how did you become like this?"

"Heidi, be good. I'll explain after we get out." The little girl reached toward his face, and Jiaming quickly turned away, looking toward the stairwell corner outside the room. He could leave easily by himself, but with two women in tow, things were less certain. At that moment, gunfire came from behind him. He spun around on reflex and was already at Marilyn's side. Marilyn held the pistol in both hands and had shot Tang Jingyao dead as he struggled on the floor.

He had seen wives kill husbands who had betrayed them, but never one who did it so decisively. Was this what they meant by love turning into hatred...

The thought flashed through his mind, but he did not dwell on it. Turning back, he said, "All right, get ready..." Before he could finish, Heidi screamed, "Mommy—" A sudden intuition struck Jiaming. He reached back and grabbed her hand. Sure enough, Marilyn had turned the gun toward herself and pulled the trigger. With a crash, the entire pistol exploded into parts in midair.

"You big-chested, brainless idiot!" Jiaming nearly slapped her. Looking at Marilyn's tear-filled eyes, he roared, "I risked my life to save you two, and this is how you repay me? Let me tell you, you owe me two lives! As we say in China, you'll have to work like an ox and a horse for this life and the next to repay my great kindness! Want to die? Then I'll leave right now and let those bastards rape and kill you and your daughter! Rape you again, then kill you again!"

He usually let his imagination run wild, and now all that came out of his mouth were obscenities. Hearing that he would leave her and her mother behind, Heidi timidly clutched Jiaming's hand. Marilyn trembled slightly, tears covering her face as she looked at the dead man on the floor. After a moment, Jiaming shoved another pistol into her hand and said coldly, "Follow behind me. I'll tell you which way is safest. I don't want to waste words. Anyway, if you die here today, I'll definitely abandon Heidi! I mean what I say. Decide for yourself!"

Someone who had already pulled the trigger on herself once would generally not have the courage to commit suicide a second time. Jiaming raised his compact submachine gun, and the two men who poked half their heads out around the stairwell corner were immediately finished off. The rubble below had already been cleared away, and men were rushing up. It meant the real battle was about to begin.

This is getting a little difficult. It has to be this way...

A faint smile curved Jiaming's lips. Combined with the scar on his face, it looked cold and ferocious. He ignored the blonde beauty still standing there in a daze, patted the little girl's head, and softened his voice.

"We're going home."