Surprise, Departure

"Since that's the case, let them kill the monster first. Then use your summon to snatch the rewards it drops. But before that, figure out their positions and numbers."

After getting a general grasp of the situation, Wang Zhifan gave this suggestion to the short-haired girl before him.

His thinking was that since rewards dropped by Ash Domain monsters belonged to no one, it was not necessarily a bad thing that the other side was willing to shoot the monster. They could simply wait until the monster was dead and the rewards had dropped before taking them.

Of course, facing a player who seemingly possessed high-powered firearms, Wang Zhifan, who was only Lv1, was not arrogant enough to rush out and challenge them directly. As a miserable melee fighter, going after someone with ranged burst damage was far too dangerous. It was better to leave treasure-snatching to the girl, whose summon possessed natural physical immunity.

"I'll give it a try."

The short-haired girl did not object to Wang Zhifan's suggestion. She had already sensed some threat from outside the bus, and she also wanted to obtain as many rewards as possible.

So, for the next stretch of time, neither of them left the bus. They remained completely hidden inside, lest the gunman outside notice them by accident.

Wang Zhifan crouched between the seats, carefully observing the situation outside through a corner of the window. Meanwhile, the short-haired girl remotely controlled her summon to continue attacking the huge monster that had been hit by a sniper round, seemingly trying to create the illusion that two Ash Domain monsters were fighting each other outside.

A few seconds later, another ear-splitting gunshot rang out. The powerful bullet instantly blasted through one of the huge monster's lower limbs. At the same time, Wang Zhifan saw that a large hole had appeared in the body of the short-haired girl's Long-Haired Female Ghost summon! It seemed that the bullet had pierced through both targets in a single shot!

"Damn! That person has Spirit Bullets!"

The short-haired girl let out a startled cry nearby. She immediately controlled her badly injured summon to flicker away and return directly to her side.

"Hide quickly. We've probably been exposed."

Seeing this, Wang Zhifan immediately stopped even secretly observing outside. He swiftly crawled beneath the nearby bus seat, afraid that the skilled gunman outside would notice something was wrong and pick him off from a distance.

At a time like this, the advantage of ranged classes became painfully clear. As a Blademaster, Wang Zhifan could only hide. He did not dare show his head for even half a second, or his life could be in danger at any moment.

The bus immediately fell silent, but the deafening gunshots outside the windows did not stop.

Had Wang Zhifan continued looking through the window at this point, he would have discovered that the gunman who had disrupted things was not paying much attention to their bus. Instead, the gunman was hiding somewhere and continuously firing at the thick-skinned huge monster, while also releasing a hawk-like creature to circle above the monster's head, seemingly waiting for an opportunity.

Throughout this process, the two people in the bus, who had originally intended to protect their rewards, barely dared to breathe, much less take a look outside.

Finally, more than ten seconds later, accompanied by the thunderous sound of a massive monster collapsing to the ground, the gunfire outside stopped completely. Only a few shrill cries from the hawk could be heard. They first sounded near the bus, then above it, before rapidly fading away into the distance.

Wang Zhifan had already prepared himself for the gunman outside to come after them. Even the beating of life in his chest had grown more intense. But then he suddenly noticed several things appearing before his eyes that were quite familiar to him, and surprise inevitably appeared on his face.

A few seconds later, the roar of car engines and the screech of brakes suddenly came from outside the bus. This was followed by a series of synchronized door-opening sounds. Then, amid chaotic yet somewhat orderly footsteps, a man's booming voice suddenly rang out:

"First squad, surround the scene!"

"Second squad, prepare to move out!"

"Third squad, prepare to evacuate the trapped civilians!"

After the man's booming orders came several loud responses from both men and women:

"First squad, acknowledged!"

"Second squad, acknowledged!"

"Third squad, acknowledged!"

Faced with such an extraordinary display, Wang Zhifan, who was hiding beneath a seat in the bus and pondering something, immediately realized that the Xia Kingdom's official Special Administration Bureau had arrived this time.

His tense state of mind immediately eased somewhat, but he was still unsure how he would be treated next. He hesitated over whether he should crawl out from beneath the seat.

However, he did not have to struggle with the decision for long. Several people soon jumped through the bus windows at once. Then, only seconds later, a dark, gleaming gun barrel was thrust beneath the seat where he was hiding, pointed right at his face.

"You. Extend both hands and crawl out slowly."

Although the newcomer had pointed a gun directly at his head, Wang Zhifan saw the official uniform on the person and quickly did as instructed, crawling out from beneath the seat.

At the same time, he saw that the short-haired girl had also been found by these officials in the seats at the rear corner of the bus.

These official players from the Special Administration Bureau acted with remarkable efficiency. After finding the two people who had been hiding, they opened the bus doors and began quickly transferring all the passengers trapped in their wooden, dazed state.

As Wang Zhifan and the short-haired girl were led off the bus by one of the officials, Wang Zhifan also saw several researcher-like individuals outside using syringes to collect something from the huge monster's corpse.

However, he had no chance to investigate such matters closely, because he and the short-haired girl were soon taken into a vehicle and driven out of the Ash Domain.

Aside from the driver, there was only one young female official in their vehicle. She looked quite kind, and during the drive, she took the initiative to speak with them.

"Don't worry, you two. Once you finish recording the incident, you'll be free to go."

"First, let me introduce myself. My name is He Qianqian. I'm an investigator with the Special Administration Bureau, and also a Lv12 player."

"Could you tell me about your specific experiences just now?"

Under the gentle gaze of the young woman in the car, Wang Zhifan and the short-haired girl began taking turns recounting what had happened. They described the entire process of their bus encountering the Ash Domain, including discovering the Ash Domain, being attacked by monsters, killing monsters, and the gunman's interference.

What neither of them knew as they explained the situation to the official was that, near the block where the Ash Domain invasion had originally occurred, a tall, thin man with glasses was quietly moving away from the area while frowning in puzzled thought.

"Why didn't I get any rewards after killing that Ash Domain monster? Has my luck really become this bad?"