In for a Penny, In for a Pound

In for a Penny, In for a Pound

The night sky was pitch-black, and moonlight, like silvery frost from an icy soul, draped the earth like gauze.

The cold wind cut to the bone.

Xia Chujian knelt on one knee atop the rooftop of a twelve-story building. With a click, she opened the gun case, her hands moving like lightning as she set up the 12mm Adjudicator No. 7 Sniper Rifle in an instant.

Through the sniper rifle's objective lens, Mulan City in the darkness resembled a rolling forest of dark gray steel.

There were skyscrapers soaring into the clouds, as well as gloomy, narrow winding alleys whose ends could not be seen.

Colorful neon lights glittered along the edges of the high-rises. Floating airships wandered through the night sky, trailing long self-illuminating advertising banners behind them. They adorned the dazzling nightscape, making bright places brighter and dark places darker, like two worlds with clear black and white.

She checked the time. It was already one in the morning.

There were few pedestrians on the streets, and the Inner City Maglev Train had long since stopped running.

Occasionally, several small private flying vehicles streaked through her scope, leaving trails of white exhaust that vanished in an instant.

Captain Ye Shijie's low voice came through the earpiece's Squad Channel. "Dark Night Hunter Association, Guiyuan Branch District 3 Group 9, Team 321. Roll call."

"Number 2, Li Fu. Left side. In position."

"Number 3, Song Mingqian. Right side. In position."

"Number 4, Ping Qiong. Left-side support. In position."

Xia Chujian was Number 5.

She spoke calmly. "Number 5, Xia Chujian. Straight-line distance: 1,200 meters. Twelfth-floor rooftop. In position."

Ye Shijie was the captain, Number 1.

He nodded and added, "Number 1, Ye Shijie. Captain and operation commander. Right-side support. In position."

"I'll repeat: today's mission is to destroy a human trafficking den in Mulan City West District. According to intelligence, Room 004 on the first floor of Building 334, West District 089, is harboring a group of abducted young boys and girls. They will be transported out of Mulan City tomorrow."

"There are five human traffickers, all Gene Evolvers. Two have D-Rank Mental Strength, and three have E-Rank. They are extremely vicious and responsible for countless bloody crimes."

"Our assigned mission is to kill these five human traffickers and rescue the victims."

The team answered in unison, "Received."

Xia Chujian lowered her head and patiently loaded each eighty-gram bullet into the sniper rifle. Then she lay prone on the rooftop, aiming her scope at the target of today's ambush.

It was a squat six-story building wedged between several skyscrapers hundreds of stories tall, nearly buried in the darkness.

The building was extremely dilapidated. Rather than modern building materials, it had been built from old-fashioned reinforced concrete.

The cement on the walls had crumbled away badly, exposing black steel rebar that looked like the bones of a ferocious beast in the night.

That group of vicious human traffickers and the abducted young boys and girls were in the fourth room on the first floor of that six-story building.

From where she was, the straight-line distance was exactly 1,200 meters.

The other four teammates were already lying in ambush at the entrances on either side of that room.

As for her, she was their long-range support, responsible for dealing with any human traffickers who burst out of the room and tried to flee.

The position she had chosen allowed her heavy firepower to provide indiscriminate, all-directional coverage from above.

Even if the other side suddenly called in armed helicopters, she could guarantee one shot per helicopter without missing a single round.

Xia Chujian focused intently on her scope.

The target room's windows were tightly shut, and even the curtains had been drawn securely closed.

Ordinary people would not have been able to see inside.

But her sniper rifle's scope possessed a high-precision thermal imaging penetration system. The room's walls were only old reinforced concrete and could not block thermal imaging penetration, so she could clearly see what was happening inside through the wall.

At that moment, people lay sprawled all over the roughly twenty-square-meter room.

They all appeared to be very young men and women. They should have been the abducted young boys and girls Captain Ye Shijie had mentioned.

She said in the Squad Channel, "Report: twelve girls and twelve boys in the room. They should be victims and are all unconscious. There are also five adult men, likely the human traffickers. They are drinking. Requesting permission to engage. Report complete."

The helmet eyepieces of the other team members were equipped with the same high-precision thermal imaging penetration system. Its functions were identical to Xia Chujian's sniper scope, allowing them to clearly see through the walls.

Captain Ye Shijie took a look and shook his head. "Those two D-Rank Gene Evolvers have very sharp instincts. Don't aim your sniper rifle at them for now. They've been watching the windows."

Xia Chujian pursed her lips and shifted the barrel a millimeter to the side.

Several more minutes passed.

The five human traffickers rose drunkenly from the floor, belching alcohol.

They walked over to the motionless young boys and girls lying on the floor, bent down, and began fiddling with the unconscious victims one by one as though selecting merchandise.

Xia Chujian's face darkened as she shifted her sniper rifle's barrel back.

One of the burliest traffickers grinned viciously, unfastened his belt, and lashed it savagely at a young girl lying on the floor.

Smack! The girl's clothes tore open over her right shoulder, exposing snow-white skin. At the same time, a vicious red welt appeared on skin as pale as fresh snow—the mark left by the belt.

Xia Chujian's finger on the trigger tightened slightly. She spoke in the Squad Channel again. "Report to Captain: one of the human traffickers is assaulting a victim. Requesting permission to engage."

Ye Shijie saw it through his helmet's lens as well.

His voice remained calm, without the slightest ripple. "He is a peak D-Rank Gene Evolver. Only Song Mingqian and I are D-Rank Evolvers on this team. I am intermediate rank, while Song Mingqian is only beginner rank. Li Fu and Ping Qiong are both E-Rank, while you are an ordinary person whose genes cannot evolve. Do you think we have an absolute chance of victory if we act now?"

"Then when does the captain think we'll have an absolute chance of victory?" Xia Chujian's voice was equally calm, though she spoke a little faster.

Because she saw that the trafficker had already thrown away his belt and begun tearing at the young girl's clothing, slapping her across the face from time to time.

The girl was completely unconscious, manipulated like a rag doll.

Ye Shijie fell silent for a second before saying, "Wait until they're... halfway through it. That's when their guard will be lowest, and it will be our best opportunity."

"What do you mean, halfway through it?" Xia Chujian was baffled and did not understand at first.

Ye Shijie awkwardly tugged at the corner of his mouth.

Ping Qiong sighed. "It means... when they're violating the victims."

Li Fu explained even more bluntly in the Squad Channel, "It means when they're halfway through raping the victims."

Xia Chujian exploded the moment she heard that. "So the captain means we wait until they actually violate the victims before we act?! Don't you think that's already too late?!"

The moment she finished saying "too late," she pulled the trigger without hesitation.

An eighty-gram, 150mm-long heavy sniper bullet silently spun out of her sniper rifle!

It traced an arc invisible to the naked eye through the night sky. In only 1.5 seconds, it pierced the already dilapidated wall and, with a boom, struck the back of the man's head. It burst out through his forehead and punched through the wall opposite him!

Blasted by the sniper bullet's immense kinetic energy, the man who had been about to bend over the unconscious girl collapsed forward with a thud. Blood sprayed from his forehead, immediately dyeing the girl on the floor red.

The other four men turned their heads in astonishment. Alcohol had slowed their reactions, and although they were all Gene Evolvers, they still had not reacted.

Xia Chujian was in for a penny, in for a pound. Bracing her sniper rifle, she did not even need to adjust the settings. She simply turned the barrel and used her naked eye to aim through the scope for precision shots.

At a time like this, she no longer specifically targeted their brains. She only aimed at vital areas—the chest, the femoral artery, or the neck.

In short, she aimed wherever was most convenient and quickest.

Rage burned in her heart, but she remained composed and calm, displaying the fine qualities of a sniper.

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

Holding the Adjudicator No. 7 Sniper Rifle, her hands moved at blazing speed as she smoothly cycled the bolt five times in succession.

In less than three seconds, the sniper rifle equipped with a top-tier suppressor lived up to its name: an Adjudicator that eradicated evil completely.

After several vibrations from the barrel, all five human traffickers in the room had died beneath her sniper rifle.

Xia Chujian rose to one knee and put away her weapon. At the same time, she said in the Squad Channel, "All five human traffickers killed. Report complete."

Ye Shijie narrowed his eyes. Without saying much, he ordered, "Enter the room. Operation begins."

The other three teammates exchanged glances, then swiftly emerged from their hiding places.

Li Fu ran the fastest. He was tall and powerfully built, dressed in a dark brown fur coat, like a full-grown brown bear.

With a boom, he kicked the door open.

The room was a complete mess.

Besides the more than twenty abducted young boys and girls, there were five men lying in pools of blood—the very human traffickers they had been assigned to kill tonight.

Li Fu gave a strange laugh and raised a thumbs-up toward the window. "Chujian, that was amazing!—When Chujian goes to war, not even grass survives!"

Ping Qiong poked her head in behind him. Seeing the scene in the room, she clicked her tongue twice. "We picked up a merit for free tonight. Little Chujian, thank you!"

Song Mingqian walked in, flicked the lock of long bangs he had deliberately kept, and struck what he thought was a dashing pose. "Quick, take pictures! My Smart Bracelet needs a new cover!"

"Pervert!" Ping Qiong rolled her eyes, but she still used her Smart Bracelet to take a series of photos for him.

Xia Chujian shrugged and said calmly in the Squad Channel, "Caliber is justice, and range is truth.—You should thank Zong Military Industries' newly developed Adjudicator No. 7 Sniper Rifle."

Ye Shijie was the last to enter.

His expression was not very pleasant. He walked around the room, taking numerous scene photos with his Smart Bracelet and uploading them one by one to the Star Net Cloud System of the Dark Night Hunter Association's Mulan City branch.

Though Li Fu looked rough, he was actually quite attentive.

One look at Ye Shijie's expression told him what the captain was thinking. He smiled, nudged him with his elbow, and said in a low voice, "Captain, don't hold it against little Chujian... She's only seventeen and not even an adult yet..."

Ping Qiong and Song Mingqian nodded along with him and said, "Captain, please be magnanimous. Don't hold it against little Chujian!"

Ye Shijie glanced at them and said mildly, "You keep indulging her... That won't help her grow. As long as she apologizes and promises not again, I'll pretend this never happened."

"Got it, got it! We'll definitely straighten her out later!" Li Fu said with a grin, trying to smooth things over. At the same time, he beckoned to Song Mingqian, and the two of them swiftly dragged two of the killed human traffickers outside.

Xia Chujian heard her teammates pleading for her in the Squad Channel, and warmth filled her heart. But she had no intention of apologizing to the captain.

She planned to change the subject and let the matter of apologizing slide.

Just then, a scream suddenly rang out in the earpiece's Squad Channel.

It was Ping Qiong's voice.

Xia Chujian hurriedly looked through her sniper rifle's scope.

A sudden change had occurred in the small room! The human trafficker Xia Chujian had shot dead first was actually swaying as he rose from the floor!

He turned around, his face covered in blackish-red blood stains. There was an egg-sized hole in his forehead, through which the wall behind him could be seen. It was the exit wound from her shot.

A person whose brains had been blown out could not possibly be alive! Ping Qiong, who was closest to him, screamed uncontrollably.

The trafficker who had clearly already been killed staggered several steps forward, then suddenly opened his mouth wide.

A thick gray tentacle, like an elephant's trunk, shot out of his mouth and whipped toward Ping Qiong, who was closest to him! The tentacle instantly wrapped around the neck of the screaming Ping Qiong, strangling the rest of her scream in her throat.

Ye Shijie, Li Fu, and Song Mingqian immediately raised their guns on reflex and aimed at the trafficker.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Gunfire erupted. Bullets ricocheted through the cramped room, nearly striking Ping Qiong and the unconscious victims.

Their shooting should not have been this bad.

But the moment they raised their guns, an intense pain exploded in their heads, as if someone had split open their foreheads with an axe and shoved a red-hot branding iron inside. The pain was so severe they felt like smoke was about to rise from them.

They could not concentrate, and the guns in their hands could not aim at all.

Their fingers spasmed as they pulled the triggers. How could there have been any accuracy?!

Xia Chujian's expression changed drastically on the distant rooftop. She immediately lay prone and aimed her sniper rifle at the tentacle.

But the tentacle seemed to have eyes that could see for miles.

The instant Xia Chujian aimed at it, the tentacle withdrew. It hid behind Ping Qiong, clamped her by the back of the neck, immobilized her, and used her as a human shield.

She could not use the sniper rifle now.

Xia Chujian's gaze turned cold as she made a decision in an instant.

She grabbed her sniper rifle, slung the gun case half her height onto her back, took a stride forward, and leaped onto the Small Combat Aircraft parked at the edge of the rooftop. Then she sped toward her teammates.

The straight-line distance was only 1,200 meters. This kind of Small Combat Aircraft could cover it in one minute.

Rather than searching for a chance to snipe the tentacle monster from here, she might as well get there immediately and adapt to the situation.

The Small Combat Aircraft Xia Chujian was riding had an excellent autopilot function.

This freed up her hands. In only twenty seconds, she set up the aircraft's built-in automatic Star-Telling 800 Smart Machine Gun.

Automatic Machine Gun bullets were not as long or as heavy as sniper bullets, but their firing rate was far faster.

Driven by the same kinetic energy, it could fire eight hundred bullets per second.

A quantitative change could still produce a qualitative change.

By the time her Small Combat Aircraft landed on the open ground in front of the six-story building, her teammates inside had all collapsed to the floor. Like the unconscious abducted young boys and girls, they were all completely unresponsive.

Meanwhile, the trafficker with tentacles growing from his mouth was searching among the unconscious young boys and girls in the room, seemingly looking for something.

Xia Chujian arrived and saw the situation inside through the high-precision thermal imaging penetrator on her helmet. She first let out a breath of relief.

Fortunately, they should all still be alive.

She did not act rashly. Instead, she remained inside the Small Combat Aircraft and quickly took out loose parts from the gun case, assembling a Contender 700 semi-automatic compact submachine gun.

Dear Readers, after dragging this out for so long, the new book is finally here. (^▽^).

This newbie author is writing on Xiaoxiang for the first time. I'm new here and don't understand anything, so please take good care of me!

If you have votes, please support me with votes. If not, please support me with your presence. (^o^)/~