Boom!!
The tremendous force unleashed by the highly concentrated natural gas swallowed several nearby buildings in a raging inferno. Even the high-rises were toppled by the rampaging energy, crashing down with a deafening roar and reduced to rubble!
It was like a magnitude-seven earthquake!
Watching a dazzling ball of fire bloom in the distance, brilliant beyond compare, feeling the ground shudder violently beneath his feet and the heat of the explosion wash over his skin, Yin Kuang smiled. The flames illuminated his face.
His smile should have been one of relief after surviving a disaster, but slowly it turned into a sneer... Perhaps Yin Kuang, his face lit by the flames, hadn't even noticed the change in his smile...
Just as Isaacs had said, Yin Kuang had endured three gunshot wounds and still made it into the three-story building. Following Isaacs's directions, he activated the self-destruct sequence inside.
Nicholas and the other three had also sensed that something was wrong. But after receiving false information from an Umbrella Corporation supervisor—information Isaacs had secretly tampered with—the four of them had still stormed the three-story building. In the end, they were trapped inside by its mechanisms and wiped out in one fell swoop!
By then, Yin Kuang had already followed the escape route Isaacs had shown him out of the natural gas company. He was two hundred meters away, staring fixedly into the distance as he silently counted down...
Yin Kuang's timing was precise.
When he counted down to "2," he stopped counting silently. Gritting his teeth and furrowing his brow, he growled, "1!"
The next instant, a dazzling blaze lit up half the sky over Raccoon City...
As the thunderous roar gradually died away and the scorching flames began to recede, Yin Kuang finally breathed a sigh of relief. The tension in his nerves loosened all at once.
Unfortunately, Yin Kuang received no notification from the Headmaster. In other words, the Headmaster hadn't awarded him anything for killing those "elite mercenaries." Yin Kuang didn't believe they had survived the blast. So, in his estimation, he hadn't killed them with his own hands—and he'd relied on the "plot character" Isaacs, which made this a blatant case of taking advantage of a loophole.
According to Xiong Ba, the Headmaster was perfectly fair—or, rather, stingy and tightfisted! If something was yours, he'd give it to you. If it wasn't, you could forget about getting it!
"Hiss!!"
As soon as he let his guard down, waves of agony surged from his shoulder, thigh, and lower back, flooding his whole body. His face turned deathly pale. His nerves spasmed, leaving him unable to control his limbs. He stumbled and dropped to the ground, sweating all over from the pain!
"Damn it. I should've known better than to throw away the Quick-Acting Heart Pill... Next time, I'll make sure to exchange for some healing items." Since these were gunshot wounds and the bullets were still inside him, the injuries wouldn't heal until they were removed. The Hemostatic Bandage was useless.
Yin Kuang looked at the five points of life he had left and bitterly regretted it.
But just as he was gritting his teeth through the pain, a cold gun barrel pressed against his forehead. At the same time, a strong smell of blood, mixed with something burnt, filled his nostrils, making him want to cough!
In fact, even his instinct to cough was stifled by that cold gun barrel.
Almost instantly, every hair on Yin Kuang's body stood on end.
He wanted to turn around and see who was pointing the gun at him. But to his horror, his neck had gone rigid, as if it had been coated in cement. No matter how urgently his brain issued the command to "turn around," his neck simply refused to "carry out" its "important instructions."
"...The real tragedy isn't death! It's wanting to die, only for God to make you live. Living miserably, like a stray dog..."
A man slowly walked up in front of Yin Kuang, his shadow falling over him. The cold gun barrel never left Yin Kuang's head.
Yin Kuang could clearly feel the cold metal move from his temple to the space between his eyebrows, scraping painfully against his skin.
So this was what death felt like: the cold, hard touch of a gun barrel!
With the barrel pressed to his forehead, its painful, icy pressure forced Yin Kuang to slowly raise his head.
What met his eyes was a middle-aged man with a bristly, spiked beard. He was as strong as a tiger or leopard, and his eyes were cold and utterly devoid of feeling—or perhaps his feelings had been extinguished along with the lives of his closest teammates.
Now, he was a true avenger!
This man, who had come down from the battlefield, had lost everything: his family and his friends.
And now, after tasting what it meant to lose everything, he still couldn't earn God's mercy—he'd lost his comrades, too! The comrades who had fought their way through a hail of bullets and fire with him, the last thing he had to live for!
He longed for death!
To him, it would be a release. Living was like being bound in heavy iron chains, crushing his broad shoulders and keeping his spine from ever straightening!
Nicholas, a man of iron, pointed his gun at Yin Kuang's head. Two shining tears, reflecting the flames still burning in the distance, slid from his eyes.
The tears were warm...
One fell onto Yin Kuang's hand.
For a moment, a thousand thoughts churned through Yin Kuang's mind. Was I wrong...? Was I...? But does it matter? I just... just... want to live! Death... living... living!! I don't want to die. I want to survive! So... I'll kill you all!!
"If you don't die, then I will!"
Gradually, Yin Kuang's gaze focused. He stared straight into Nicholas's eyes without flinching. "You've chosen your path, and I've chosen mine. Surviving is my only belief! Surviving is the only reason I live!"
Nicholas gazed quietly at Yin Kuang. Four eyes, two pairs of gazes, locked on each other for nearly half a minute.
Clatter!
To Yin Kuang's surprise, Nicholas threw his gun to the ground, then took a few steps back. He pulled a Combat Knife from beside his leg and tossed it at Yin Kuang's feet. "I just want to die. You want to live. Kill me, and you'll survive! Kill you, and I'll keep carrying my sins..."
As he spoke, Nicholas drew another Combat Knife and gripped it in reverse. Its icy blade faced Yin Kuang, its glare so cold it made him squint. "Fight! Live... or die..."
Yin Kuang had no time to wonder why Nicholas hadn't been killed in the blast and had somehow circled around behind him without a sound. He couldn't spare a thought for why Nicholas hadn't simply shot him, choosing instead to fight with a blade—because there was only one thing he needed to do now: pick up the Combat Knife at his feet and fight Nicholas.
Kill him, and survive!
Though the pain from his three gunshot wounds still battered Yin Kuang's nerves and flesh, so what?
The intense pain, the pain of his flesh being torn apart, constantly proved one thing to Yin Kuang: he was still alive! Only the living could feel pain so clearly, as their nerves carried the signal to them, telling them with such certainty that they were alive.
And that all-consuming pain spurred Yin Kuang on. To keep feeling this agony, enough to make his nerves convulse, he had to survive, no matter what!
"Heh heh, enjoy that pain. Just don't get hooked on it..."
Xiong Ba seemed to have said something like that once...
Back then, Yin Kuang hadn't understood what the words meant. He'd thought Xiong Ba was just trying to scare him. But now, he suddenly grasped the... terror, helplessness, grief, fury, resentment, madness, numbness, unwillingness to give in... and even the aftertaste hidden in those words!
"Enjoy that pain... Don't get hooked on it..."
Yin Kuang's bloodshot eyes stayed fixed on Nicholas. His breathing grew faster, wheezing like bellows. Whether from the pain or the excitement, his body began to tremble uncontrollably, like a mad beast!
The next instant, Yin Kuang shot out a hand and clutched the Combat Knife on the ground. Then he pushed off with his feet and charged at Nicholas like a leopard leaping on its prey...
Before you continue