Explosion

Just as David was quietly reading about the history of this world in the book, he suddenly felt a palpitation in his heart. He cast his gaze toward the translucent, invisible shadow beside him, as the sensation of palpitation had been transmitted to him by that shadow.

Inexplicably, he understood what the translucent shadow was trying to convey: there was danger, extreme danger.

He had experienced this feeling in his previous life when he saw a runaway semi-truck; that sense of despair and helplessness, that fear of life being ruthlessly stripped away. At this moment, every hair on David's body stood on end.

High in the sky, Abbott, who was piloting his personal flight shuttle at top speed, had pushed the craft to its maximum velocity. While these personal shuttles were capable of short-range space travel, they could not reach super-high speeds within an atmosphere.

However, he did not need to consult a map at this moment; by simply utilizing the scanning device on his personal flight shuttle, he could clearly see Peilan City below.

"Find me the location with the highest concentration of people in Peilan City, quickly!" Abbott commanded urgently.

The auxiliary artificial intelligence on the personal flight shuttle quickly identified an outdoor location with the highest relative density of people based on the scan results.

The personal flight shuttle adjusted its direction slightly according to the coordinates. When he saw the scene of nearly a hundred people gathered beside a building on the ground, a triumphant smile appeared on Abbott's face.

Meanwhile, on the other side of Skynet, Major Bisfam was watching the information sent back by the Interceptor drones, a gleam of delight flickering in his eyes.

Based on the data returned by the Interceptor drones—especially since the arrogant Abbott had made no attempt to disguise himself—Skynet had successfully analyzed Abbott's identity.

Before Major Bisfam lay Abbott's dossier, along with a stack of attached arrest warrants, including several with massive bounties.

As long as he captured or killed Abbott, it would be a monumental achievement. It was highly likely he would cross the rank threshold that most officers could never pass, becoming a lieutenant colonel, not to mention the wealth brought by the massive bounty.

Of course, he would only receive a portion of the total bounty, but that was already enough to make him incredibly excited.

"Execute elimination!" Major Bisfam steadied his emotions and ordered in a deep voice.

Receiving the command, the four Interceptor drones simultaneously activated their small rapid-fire cannons, pursuing the personal flight shuttle.

"Major, there are a large number of civilians below!" Just as Major Bisfam turned his head back to look at Abbott's file, a monitoring staff member shouted.

The staff member was also feeling quite stifled. Although he had seen the city and the increasingly conspicuous crowd, this was an order issued by Major Bisfam. He had no authority to cancel it; he could only inform Major Bisfam to rescind the command.

Just as Major Bisfam looked up, the small rapid-fire cannons of the four Interceptor drones all struck Abbott's personal flight shuttle.

The personal flight shuttle was merely a civilian craft, possessing no weapons or defenses. Being struck by four Interceptor drones was an absolutely fatal situation.

Until his death, Abbott never imagined that the Interceptor drones would ignore so many civilians just to attack him.

Sharing a similar sentiment to Abbott was Major Bisfam, the man who had issued the order.

"Cease fire, cease fire immediately!" he roared the command.

But it was already too late. If he hadn't been distracted by the file in his hands just moments ago, fantasizing about his promotion, this tragedy might have been avoided.

Of course, if Abbott hadn't dived downward but instead used the speed of his personal flight shuttle to evade in the air as he had before, he might have held out for a longer time.

But now, everything was too late. Amidst Abbott's deep unwillingness, the personal flight shuttle was struck by several shells.

As a mercenary and fugitive who had lived quite comfortably, he possessed decent combat abilities, but in this situation, he was shot down without even being able to put up a fight.

The wings and stabilizers of the personal flight shuttle were shattered, and several holes appeared on the fuselage, two of which were right at the cockpit where Abbott was located.

When he was still twenty meters from the ground, Abbott suffered grievous wounds. His right leg being completely obliterated was a minor injury; the penetrating hole in his abdomen was a fatal wound.

If Abbott had any conscience, given his piloting skills, he could have attempted to control the personal flight shuttle to minimize the harm to the crowd on the ground.

Instead, he made an even more insane move before his death. He used all his remaining strength to aim the personal flight shuttle directly at the most densely packed area of the crowd, a cruel smile appearing on his face in his final moments.

At the same time, on the other side of Skynet, Major Bisfam watched in horror as the personal flight shuttle crashed into the crowd, followed by a blaze of fire that engulfed the entire area.

"It's over!" Major Bisfam slumped into the chair behind him, this thought being the only thing left in his mind.

The feeling of extreme danger transmitted from the invisible, translucent shadow made David's skin crawl. He looked toward the glass curtain wall of the entrance almost instinctively. Although he discovered nothing, he still followed the panic in his heart to search for a place to hide.

He did not scream, because he did not know if this sense of danger was real or imagined. The only thing he could do was immediately find a relatively safe place.

He soon saw the restroom not far away. Perhaps due to the unique philosophy of sturdiness here, the door to the restroom was actually a metal door.

David took two quick steps, pushed open the restroom door, and went inside.

Just as he entered the restroom and closed the metal door, a violent impact followed by an even more intense explosion erupted outside the bookstore. Then, he saw the metal door in front of him being pushed flat by a massive shockwave, carrying his body as it flew horizontally into the restroom.

The moment the metal door flew off, David's body pressed tightly against it, his hands instinctively shielding his head to minimize injury.

He did not want to have just transmigrated, without even understanding this world, only to be crushed to death.

His strong muscles played their part now. As his body was pushed by the metal door, these muscles protected him when he collided with the restroom partitions.

Although he smashed through two wooden restroom partitions in succession, surprisingly, his body did not suffer much damage. At the very least, he only felt skin abrasions on his back, and there were no signs of injury to his limbs or head.

The fire shockwave caused by the explosion was also blocked by the metal door in front of him. The worst of it was that his unprotected hands, pressed against the metal door, suffered minor burns.

Having prepared in advance allowed him to hold his breath in time during the fire blast, preventing his internal body from being scorched; only his hair and body hair were singed off.

At this point, David could not care about that. Even if the metal door was scorching hot, he dared not let go. The sound of debris hitting the metal door continued to ring out.

Fortunately, this was a restroom. The impact had ruptured many water pipes, creating a mist of water in the room, which reduced the searing heat in the air, and the temperature of the metal door quickly dropped.

The choice David made in that instant was correct. Aside from the explosion shockwave shattering the metal door and part of the wall, the restroom remained mostly intact, which was why he only suffered minor injuries in the explosion.

The personal flight shuttle was a short-range space craft, and the energy it used was Krypton Crystal, an incredibly stable and high-energy power source.

Since this impact was completely incapable of triggering an explosion of the Krypton Crystal, the blast from this collision was primarily caused by the small amount of backup energy in the personal shuttle.

It was fortunate that this was the case; otherwise, given the abundant energy of the new Krypton Crystal Abbott had just installed in the personal shuttle, there wouldn't have been a single living thing left within a kilometer radius had it exploded.

David waited for a while longer until that sense of danger vanished completely. He shook his dizzy head and casually pushed aside the metal door that was pinning him down.

Only then did he realize that the strength of this body far exceeded his imagination. A metal door like this weighed at least a hundred kilograms, yet he hadn't felt it to be heavy at all.

However, he had no time to study his own body, as the translucent shadow that had been hiding in his perception was now actively moving away from his side and flying toward the outside.