Retreat!

What did it mean to be elite?

It meant obeying orders without question. No matter what the order was—even if they were told to draw their guns and shoot themselves—they would carry it out without hesitation. Clearly, the "Black Snake" team led by Nicholas were elite, the best of the best!

When the team members received Nicholas's order, not one of them hesitated or questioned it. They carried it out swiftly and decisively. They also gave their leader, Nicholas, their full trust and support.

More bullets, a denser hail of bullets, poured from their guns, whipping up a storm of metal that forced Li Shuangmu and Yin Kuang back into their respective hiding places.

Yin Kuang had already decided to kill the enemy inside the clothing store, but he hadn't expected them not only to stay out, but to unleash a mad torrent of bullets into the shop. He had no choice but to take cover again.

"This is a disgrace!"

Yin Kuang gritted his teeth.

Elsewhere, Li Shuangmu was crouched by a wall when another stray bullet struck his left foot, making him grimace in pain. But he had no time to dwell on the agony. Instead, he furrowed his brow. "Something's wrong! This is all wrong! But... what exactly is it?"

"First, the Type 54 shots from above... then the Barrett... Zeng Fei's AWM... and now the sudden increase in firepower... Could it be... No!!"

As if he had just realized something, Li Shuangmu's face changed dramatically. His already pale face, drained by injury and blood loss, lost its last trace of color.

Li Shuangmu took a deep breath, then shouted at the top of his lungs, "They're going to escape!"

"Escape... They're running..."

His voice echoed down the street, mingling with the fierce gunfire.

Yin Kuang was not far from Li Shuangmu, so he heard him clearly.

"Escape?" Yin Kuang was taken aback, then his face brightened. "They're running? We've won..." But before he could even finish raising his eyebrows in delight, his expression suddenly froze. "Run!? This is bad!"

Wasn't it good that the enemy was running away?

Not only was it not good, it was very, very bad!

Why?

The reason was simple.

Even in a head-on fight, they had been pinned down so badly they couldn't even raise their heads. Once the enemy vanished into the shadows, with the enemy hidden and them exposed, they would face nothing but swift and certain death.

A group of high school students who had only just graduated, hunted by mercenaries who had clawed their way through blood and fire—one of them could be shot in the head even while drinking water. What hope did they have of surviving?

This mission... they couldn't go on!

Abandoning the mission? That was impossible now!

They had already killed several of the enemy. The feud was beyond mending. The mercenaries were probably eager to hack them all to pieces. And better to fear a thief than to have one watching you—except the ones watching them now weren't thieves, but a pack of desperadoes, with bullets to spare!

So, if they didn't want to be killed, the only way was to... kill every last one of them!

At the thought, Yin Kuang tensed his jaw, his teeth clenched tight. "We've been driven this far... We'll die whether we advance or retreat! Fine, very fine! Let's see... Let's see..."

Yin Kuang's face flushed red as he gritted his teeth. Then he spotted a mannequin lying nearby. Without a second thought, he grabbed the shapely mannequin and hurled it away with all his strength!

Rat-tat-tat!!

A storm of bullets swept over it, riddling the mannequin with holes in an instant.

Taking advantage of the less-than-one-second shift in the enemy's fire, Yin Kuang quickly vaulted out of the clothing store. He knew that once he was outside, he would be completely exposed to enemy gunfire, but he had no choice! Even if he was about to be shot full of holes like the mannequin, he had no other option.

He squeezed his eyes shut.

As he vaulted over the low wall outside the store, every hair on his body stood on end. It felt as if he had plunged into an icy lake in the middle of winter.

Silence!

A strange silence came over him! As if he had gone deaf!

But before he could savor that deathly quiet, a stabbing pain shot through his back.

"So this is... what it feels like to be shot? It really hurts... so much."

As soon as his body hit the concrete outside the low wall, he used the momentum and all his strength to roll forward. An overturned car lay ahead. If he could just reach it, he could escape the storm of bullets.

But in the distance, William, the white man, suddenly emerged from who knew where. His face twisted with rage as he bit the pin from a grenade and roared, "Rona! I've avenged you!!"

Then, with his still-functioning left hand, he began to throw it...

"William!!"

Not far away, Nicholas's eyes were bloodshot as he screamed in anguish.

But it was too late!

Another bullet came from the shadows, flying through the night before piercing William's bulletproof vest and burrowing into his heart!

A spray of blood burst out.

William felt his whole body grow light. The strength he had gathered in his left hand drained away like floodwaters released from a dam. "Shit..."

Boom!

The grenade exploded, and roaring flames instantly swallowed his entire body.

Nicholas, who was not far away, hurriedly hit the ground and avoided the blast wave.

The flash from the explosion also revealed the positions of several mercenaries.

"Damn you, William!" Nicholas gritted his teeth and gave his orders decisively. "Blue Whale, Sagittarius, stay behind and cover our retreat! Everyone else, increase your fire and break contact immediately. Then regroup at the usual place. Don't worry, everyone... We'll settle the score with them."

"...Yes, boss!"

A long-haired young man answered from the other side, then turned to his teammate. "Sagittarius, the boss wants us to stay behind and cover the retreat."

"Cover the retreat... All right." The man gave a bitter smile, then said with grim resolve, "The time has come! This is the final judgment. May the Lord forgive my sins... Even if I stand beside Satan... my heart will forever serve You..."

He drew a cross over his chest and prayed like a devout believer.

The lingering flames cast a red glow over his soot-stained face. Even with a centipede-like scar across it, he looked utterly devout.

Blue Whale watched him pray in silence, flames dancing in his bright eyes. "It's good to have faith. Even in death, you don't have to let your will be broken..."

"That's enough." Sagittarius kissed the silver cross in his hand, then tucked it inside his shirt.

"Mm," Blue Whale replied lazily. "This time... as the old Chinese saying goes, we've capsized in the gutter. Come to think of it, we still don't know who our attackers are or why they ambushed us. Their tactics are terrible—or you could even say they have no tactics at all. I could tell they were fighting individually, with no coordination whatsoever. Even now, I still can't figure out where we went wrong."

"Does it matter?" Sagittarius asked.

"..." Blue Whale gently wagged a finger, his long, narrow face full of ease, as if he were sunbathing on a beach in Hawaii instead of on a battlefield of gunfire, bullets, flames, and darkness. "The Chinese say, 'Know yourself and your enemy, and you will never lose a hundred battles.'" His Mandarin was impeccable, complete with a Beijing accent. Just hearing him speak, you might have taken him for a born-and-bred Beijinger. "If we knew who they were... why they attacked us... perhaps we could start there and turn the tables on them. Unfortunately, headquarters hasn't sent us the slightest bit of information. We've lost five comrades without even knowing what our enemy's objective is."

"Now is not the time for you to play detective, Blue Whale," Sagittarius said coldly. "Pick up your gun. Use your bullets to forgive your enemies. That's what you should be doing."

Blue Whale sighed softly, deep disappointment showing in his eyes. It was unclear what exactly disappointed him. "Fine... Let's carry out our mission."

The two of them had time to chat because their teammates were buying them a chance to rest and regroup. As they spoke, the curtain of bullets in the air never let up. Clearly, the "Black Snake" team had poured their fury into their bullets. They were going to empty their magazines, venting all their anger and resentment!

They retreated as they fought. Gradually, their figures were about to disappear into the night...

In the shadows beyond their sight, a pair of eyes glinted with a cold, eerie light...

One belonged to Yin Kuang, who had crawled all this way, his elbows and knees rubbed raw and bloody by the concrete.

The other belonged to...