All Fear Stems from Insufficient Firepower

Inside the house, the human trafficker seemed to think searching with just one tentacle was too slow.

He threw back his head and opened his mouth wide like a giant silver carp. More and more tentacles emerged.

There had only been one at first, but now four or five tentacles as thick as elephant trunks were reaching out from deep in his throat, as though his body were some Abyss from which monsters could crawl at any time.

The sight made Xia Chujian sick to her stomach.

She hated tentacles most of all and refused to get close to them, so she had never intended to enter the house for close-quarters combat.

Besides, she was a sniper. Long-range attacks were her specialty.

And she was not a Gene Evolver. Only someone tired of living would go inside to fight at close range, using their weakness against someone else's strength.

Xia Chujian knelt on one knee inside the Small Combat Aircraft. With a clang, its translucent canopy opened.

Holding her Judicator No. 7 Sniper Rifle, she used the objective lens's three-dimensional imaging to see through the wall and took aim at the tentacles on the other side.

Clang!

A shot equipped with a top-tier suppressor punched through the wall and straight through a tentacle that was rifling through the victims.

The tentacled human trafficker was completely unprepared. In an instant, the sniper round's powerful kinetic force sent him flying backward until he slammed into the wall and crashed heavily to the floor.

That blow completely enraged the tentacles.

Boom! The door to the small house was violently thrown open.

A fishy stench, like rotten fish and shrimp left to spoil for thousands of years, rushed out of the house.

Then three or four enormous tentacles shot out from inside, whipping toward the Flying Vehicle in the open space outside.

The stench nearly sent Xia Chujian straight to heaven.

"This is fucking biological warfare... The Empire clearly banned this! This is outrageous! No honor at all!"

As she muttered, she swiftly activated the microbial defense function on her visor, filtering out all foul odors and toxic auras. With her other hand, she activated the Mechanical Intelligence system of the Starling 800 Fully Automatic Machine Gun and locked onto the incoming tentacles.

Pitter-patter!

Although the Starling Machine Gun mounted on the Small Combat Aircraft was an entry-level model, it was already a technically mature Full-Intelligent Automatic Machine Gun capable of killing monsters by itself.

Its automatically cycling magazines and ammunition equipment crates fed bullets continuously into the Full-Intelligent Automatic Machine Gun like a highly precise assembly line.

It could fire far more than eight hundred rounds per second, sometimes reaching a terrifying thousand rounds per second.

Bullets rained down, all striking the open ground in front of the building.

The pungent Sulfur Scent of gunpowder actually suppressed the foul stench of deeply rotting carbon-based lifeforms.

Since Xia Chujian had activated her visor's microbial defense function, she could not smell anything now. But the system display built into her visor showed the pollution level in the air outside plummeting.

Those four or five tentacles were no pushovers.

They whipped themselves around like a Ferris wheel, forming an impenetrable barrier. But before they could coil around her, the all-encompassing barrage caught them off guard.

The tentacles were thick-skinned and grew quickly, but even they could not withstand such ferocious firepower.

In an instant, the overwhelming flood of ammunition turned them into sieves—long, narrow sieves.

The tentacles seemed stunned, as though they had never suffered such direct and violent attacks before and could not accept it psychologically. They froze in midair for an instant.

Then sucker after sucker bulged from the rough surfaces of each tentacle. The tops of the suckers opened and closed, making them look like octopus legs covered in mouths.

Waves of high-frequency shrieks poured from those densely packed, opening and closing suckers.

All of Xia Chujian's weapons came with top-tier sound suppression equipment, so even in the silent night they had not made much noise.

But once the tentacles began shrieking, countless residents in the surrounding area woke from their sleep, clutching their heads and rolling around in bed. The pain was so bad they wished they could chop their own heads off.

Xia Chujian, however, did not have a headache. She only found it noisy.

The sound was unbearable, like sandpaper grinding against a rough, rusted iron plate. It made her gums go weak.

"...What a powerful sonic attack..."

Muttering to herself, Xia Chujian pressed a button. Her Smart Helmet instantly activated Soundproof Mode.

The world immediately fell silent.

The tentacles immediately seized the chance to surge forward.

One of them actually evaded the fierce barrage and charged straight at Xia Chujian. It snapped into a straight line, its tip hard as a drill, attempting to pierce straight through her!

Xia Chujian remained calm. The Contender 800 Semi-Automatic Submachine Gun in her hands began firing in bursts.

Fighting alongside the Star Gatling Fully Automatic Smart Machine Gun, she fiercely fired at the incoming tentacle, mercilessly spraying it with bullets.

Within two minutes, the two guns fired nearly a hundred thousand rounds, almost emptying all the ammunition reserves inside the Small Combat Aircraft.

Those flailing tentacles grew rapidly and split at an even more astonishing rate. They could regenerate severed limbs and grow new ones within minutes, but under the powerful and rapid fire suppression, their rate of splitting and regrowth finally could not keep up.

Before long, the lifeless tentacles were blasted into pieces and scattered around the Small Combat Aircraft. No new tentacles emerged from the human trafficker's mouth.

Xia Chujian let out a long breath, slumped inside the Small Combat Aircraft, wiped the sweat from her forehead, and disabled the helmet's Soundproof Mode.

That had been fucking close.

A hundred thousand rounds in two minutes—while the Full-Intelligent Automatic Machine Gun had fired most of them by itself, the Contender 700 Semi-Automatic Submachine Gun in her hands still had to be fired manually.

Her entire right arm was numb. Half her body did not feel like her own.

After she took out those tentacles, her unconscious teammates inside the house gradually woke up.

Li Fu was the first to move.

Holding an extended Killer 850 Smart Aiming Pistol that could hold eighty rounds, he charged out of the house with a roar.

In the open space before the building, a Small Combat Aircraft the size of a box truck sat quietly parked.

A black, imposing Starling 800 Fully Automatic Machine Gun protruded from the Flying Vehicle's half-open upper hatch! It looked so damn reassuring!

Li Fu's eyes reddened, and he was so moved he nearly cried.

"Chujian! You finally came! Where's that Tentacle Monster?!"

Xia Chujian pointed at the ground. "Careful. Don't step on it."

Li Fu lowered his head and realized that the human trafficker, whose thick tentacles had emerged from his mouth after death, had been blasted until nothing remained but a sheet of human skin.

Long and short charred tentacles lay scattered across the ground, along with gleaming silver-black bullet casings. The air was thick with Sulfur Scent, like the smell of firecrackers going off all over the streets during the New Year.

Li Fu's eyes widened in disbelief. "...You killed that monster with guns alone?! You could actually resist the Tentacle Monster's Mental Attack?!"

Forget returning fire—inside the house, the pain had made him pass out completely, leaving him unable to move at all.

Ping Qiong, Song Mingqian, and Ye Shijie rushed out after him and saw the scene in the open space. All fell silent.

Staring at Xia Chujian, Ye Shijie said coldly, "The Tentacle Monster's Mental Attack was at least C-Class. Song Mingqian and I are D-Rank Gene Evolvers, and even our Mental Strength couldn't withstand it. You don't have any Mental Strength at all, so how did you endure it?"

Xia Chujian frowned. "Mental Attack? No—I only encountered a sonic attack."

She pointed at her helmet. "...I activated Soundproof Mode."

Still, that horribly grating broken-gong voice and the fishy stench like a biological weapon really did count as a Mental Attack. Xia Chujian silently grumbled to herself.

"It didn't use a Mental Attack on you? Impossible—why did it go easy on you?" Ye Shijie raised the Smart Bracelet on his arm and photographed the scene, occasionally shooting Xia Chujian puzzled glances.

Calm and Collected, Xia Chujian flattered him. "Maybe it ran out of Mental Strength. Captain, you weren't exactly easy prey either. It was already at the end of its rope after taking all of you down. By the time it got to me, wasn't sonic attack all it had left?"

In truth, she did not understand why either, but she really had not felt any so-called Mental Attack.

Of course, it might have had something to do with her not being a Gene Evolver and having no Mental Strength whatsoever.

She solemnly concluded, "Because I have no Mental Strength, Mental Strength can't attack me."

The fuck kind of logic was that—because I have no Mental Strength, Mental Strength can't attack me?! Her teammates stared at her as though they were saying, Say one more word of nonsense and we'll kick you out of the squad.

Everyone knew that ordinary people without Mental Strength were lambs awaiting slaughter before Gene Evolvers with Mental Strength, with absolutely no ability to resist.

If she did not believe it, she could ask the ordinary people casually slaughtered by Gene Evolvers. They would probably lift their coffin lids just to fight Xia Chujian! How could there possibly be any such thing as "I have no Mental Strength, so Mental Strength can't attack me"?! Xia Chujian had only been making it up.

In truth, being unable to undergo Gene Evolution and having no Mental Strength was Xia Chujian's everlasting pain.

She had no choice but to numb herself with bizarre excuses. Otherwise, life would be impossible to bear.

Li Fu scratched his head and said with a chuckle, "...Even a sonic attack would be difficult to block. Chujian, how did you fight back?"

Xia Chujian patted the immovable Full-Intelligent Xing Teling Smart Machine Gun beside her and smiled. "Of course, I fought fire with fire. I relied on my best comrade and used the most wonderful sound in the universe—Starling's Whisper—to strike back!"

The fuck was Starling's Whisper?! They had always known Xia Chujian was great at making things up, but today she had truly outdone herself! Her teammates' faces turned purple from holding back their laughter.

Xia Chujian even pressed her hands together with a devout expression. "Namo Star-te-lin Bodhisattva, merciful and compassionate, saving all beings. Repay grievances with grievances, repay grudges with grudges."

Ye Shijie's face darkened. "Speak properly!"

Xia Chujian spread her hands and explained seriously, "All fear stems from insufficient firepower. Conversely, as long as you have enough firepower, there is no fear in this world."

"As long as I have enough bullets, I'll shoot even a Grade B Tentacle Monster without hesitation!"

Hearing her say that, Ye Shijie seemed to remember something. He strode to the Small Combat Aircraft, and his face instantly turned livid. "Xia—Chu—jian! How many bullets did you use?!"

"A hundred thousand. What's wrong?"

Li Fu: "..."

Song Mingqian: "..."

Burning with rage, Ye Shijie lunged viciously at Xia Chujian.

Li Fu: "Captain, Captain, calm down!"

Song Mingqian: "Chujian, hurry up and make excuses!"

As Li Fu and Song Mingqian spoke, they rushed after him and grabbed Ye Shijie from either side to keep him from actually strangling Xia Chujian to death.

Veins bulged on Ye Shijie's neck as he roared, "You spendthrift girl! You can't use up all our ammunition reserves! Do you know how much a hundred thousand bullets cost?! Huh?! Huh?!"

Ping Qiong's eyes shifted. Rubbing her neck, she walked over with lingering fear, jumped into the Small Combat Aircraft, and pulled Xia Chujian's arm to the side, keeping her away from Captain Ye Shijie, who had transformed into a "fire-breathing dragon." Then she deliberately shouted, "Chujian, you're so lucky! You weren't even hit by a Mental Attack... We just took a trip through the gates of hell! Look at my neck—I was almost strangled to death by it!"

Gently stroking the Contender 700 Semi-Automatic Submachine Gun in her arms, Xia Chujian said calmly, "I'm not a Gene Evolver, and I don't have Mental Strength. You were all unconscious. If I didn't use bullets, what was I supposed to use?—Compete with it in screaming to see whose voice was uglier?"

Ye Shijie glared at her, about to continue lecturing her, when the excellent Bluetooth Embedded Earpiece picked up the buzzing of a large Drone nearby. Then came the ear-splitting roar of helicopters and the sound of brakes drawing closer.

"The Regular Army is here! We have to go!" Ye Shijie's expression changed. Unable to spare another moment to scold Xia Chujian, he nimbly jumped into the Small Combat Aircraft.

Li Fu and Song Mingqian jumped in after him.

Xia Chujian immediately closed the translucent canopy, entered an address, and activated autopilot.

The Small Combat Aircraft spewed a burst of dazzling flame, swiftly ascended in a straight line, then entered stealth mode and left the area.

Not long after they flew away, a low-key yet luxurious Large Private Flying Vehicle appeared in midair and slowly descended into the open space before the building.

The Flying Vehicle's hatch opened, and a woman with a tall figure, draped in a black fur cloak and wearing a hood and veil, stumbled out of the Flying Vehicle. She rushed into the house where many abducted young boys and girls had been hidden.

Several women who looked like guards followed her inside.

Before long, they escorted the hooded and veiled woman out of the room.

The woman was no longer alone. She had someone in the crook of her arm, and without the cloak, her slender, graceful figure was revealed.

The cloak she had worn earlier now covered the person in her arms.

The group hurried aboard the Flying Vehicle and swiftly departed.

After they left, more and more small Armored Vehicles, Drones, and helicopters finally came roaring in, sealing off the six-story small building completely.

Large Drones surrounded the small building from the sky and simultaneously switched on blinding white lights, illuminating the area like day from every angle.

Several people in black uniforms with silver trim stepped out of the small Armored Vehicles.

Holding their guns, they cautiously scanned the surroundings before entering the open space in front of the building.

When they saw the scattered tentacle fragments, the bullet casings covering the ground, a sheet of human skin riddled with holes, and the lingering Sulfur Scent in the air, they all fell silent.

This was... a Tentacle Monster killed with bullets? You could do that?

During the New Book Period, updates would be once a day, at 12:10 a.m.

After it was put on the shelves, two updates a day were tentatively planned. The timing had yet to be decided.

Thank you for your support, readers. Any Monthly Tickets? (^▽^)