Cheng Ming had some confidence in his marksmanship. After all, given his abilities, firearms were the only thing that could effectively harm anomalies. In addition, the Anomaly Research Institute received large quantities of ammunition nearing its expiration date every year for training. Whenever Cheng Ming had free time, he would immerse himself in the shooting range—only then could he completely lose himself, forgetting his mother's illness, his memetic infection, the trivialities of life, and the loan payments that were about to come due.
Aim, hold his breath, pull the trigger.
Feel the recoil travel from his palm to his wrist, up his arm, and into his shoulder...
"Bang! Bang! Bang bang!!"
The first shot struck the center of the forehead. Then, as if driven by muscle memory, he fired two shots into G09's chest before moving the muzzle back to its head and adding a final shot.
G09 stopped moving.
The metal mask on G09's face apparently was not bulletproof. The two bullets that hit its head pierced straight through the mask and buried themselves in its skull.
The places on its chest where the bullets had struck were left with two obvious holes. The Anomaly tissue around them rapidly turned purplish-black and swelled up—like ruptured blood vessels in human tissue causing rapid subcutaneous congestion.
"G09 can't keep up with him," the burly man said quietly to the technician. "Raise the Anomaly cell activity limit by five percent, and double the mechanical skeleton's output."
Cheng Ming had yet to lower his gun when G09's electronic eyes, which had already gone dark, lit up again, brighter than before.
The bruised, swollen areas rapidly subsided, and the Anomaly tissue wriggled as it expelled the bullets embedded in its body.
The bullets fell onto the floor with crisp clinks.
In just three seconds,