The Passageway and the Sniper

Return countdown: 120:00:00.

12 o'clock at night.

Several cars slowly pulled up to the side of the road outside the "Microcosm World" residential area.

A man got out of one of the cars, casually surveyed his surroundings, and then tossed a black button into the air.

But then a black button was seen tumbling and spinning in the air, clinging tightly to a surveillance camera.

Inside the vehicle, a young man dressed in combat gear, his brain gleaming with metallic light, pulled a data cable from a mechanical limb at his temple and connected it to the laptop in front of him.

The young man closed his eyes and saw a torrent of data rapidly moving across the computer screen, much faster than any hand tapping on a keyboard.

Nan Gengchen once wanted to be a hacker, but he later gave up.

Because he discovered something very serious: hackers in the Inner World use their own brains as processors.

To keep up with others, it is necessary to connect neurons with nanobots and create data ports outside the brain.

The human brain has long been underestimated. It was only after many years of technological advancement that people realized that the brain possesses computational capabilities that ordinary processors cannot match...

The next moment, the young man disconnected the data port from the computer. "Resolved. The surveillance camera is now displaying a still image, and the infrared alarm has been deactivated."

As soon as the words were spoken, twelve people jumped out of the four new energy vehicles and swiftly grabbed the community wall, climbing over into the Microcosm World community.

The leader was a burly man. He quickly surveyed the surroundings and then headed straight for Building 2, Room 101.

This time, the assassins were clearly much more well-trained.

When they arrived at the door with the combination lock, one of them simply took out Black Box about the size of a cell phone, scanned it across the door, and the door clicked open.

One person went into the house to investigate, another stood guard at the entrance of the building, and the third pressed his ear against the door of room 102, listening carefully to the sounds coming from inside.

In room 102, Jiang Yichen pressed his eyes against the peephole, not daring to even breathe.

He stared wide-eyed at the scene outside the door, wondering who his neighbors were. A group of people came two days ago but didn't come out, and today even more people showed up.

At first, he thought that the four people who went in last time knew his neighbor, and that the house across the street was likely a hiding place for some kind of organization.

But now he felt something was wrong.

Jiang Yichen watched the entire process of the other party sneaking in and unlocking the door; it was clearly a murder plot!

Two minutes later, the assassins in room 101 confirmed it was safe, and then all the assassins filed in and closed the door tightly.

Only then did Jiang Yichen breathe a slight sigh of relief.

He was filled with doubt and uncertainty, and couldn't even figure out what was happening.

Qing Chen returned to the Autumn Leaf Villa from Longhu today and hasn't left the house since.

As he walked down the street, he felt that the way those spies were looking at him was a little strange.

At first, he thought he was just being paranoid, until he saw two young women from the Li family see him, giggle, and run away...

As the two young women ran away, words like "Joyful Sect" and "improper" still lingered in the evening breeze.

It's true what they say: good news doesn't travel far, but bad news travels fast.

Qing Chen suspected that after a while, the Li family's Privy Council might present him with a banner that read "A person who has made meritorious contributions to promoting the Li family's birth rate."

Back at the Autumn Leaf Villa, Qing Chen would select a few people every four hours to receive the empowerment, using up all of his Knight True Qi in one go.

During this time, he also specifically checked the bright spots on Nan Gengchen and Li Yinuo, and was surprised to find that the kid had lit up two more spots at some point.

This progress is incredibly fast!

Before returning, Nan Gengchen might have already completed the first Great Cycle. Now, even Li Tongyun, a cultivation genius, is not as fast as Nan Gengchen!

Fortunately, apart from his Knight True Qi, no one else could detect how many bright spots had lit up in Li Tongyun and Nan Gengchen's bodies, so it didn't matter if they pretended to have just started cultivating.

Qing Chen thought to himself, "Looks like these two really haven't been idle during the day either..."

He just couldn't understand it. It wasn't him who was being improper; it was the students. So why was he the one who ended up bearing the brunt of the Joyful Sect's reputation?

You know, he's never even been in a relationship!

The progress of Li Yinuo Nan Gengchen's cultivation made Li Shu and the others somewhat envious.

But simply being envious won't help; they can't find wives anytime soon, so they can't train at all...

After all the students had left, a copper bell hanging on the southwest corner of the Autumn Leaf Villa suddenly started to ring.

Qing Chen was stunned. He hadn't expected that the real Heartless Bronze Bell was actually hanging right next to him.

The old man said that he should rely on himself, but in reality he still left him a backup plan.

Qing Chen knew very well that only two Heartless Bronze Bell in the entire Banshan Manor were real; one hung here with him, and the other was in Baopu Tower.

Even the Privy Council doesn't receive such treatment.

Thinking that the old man had used such a precious thing to protect himself, Qing Chen's last bit of resentment disappeared.

The old man said that the range of the Heartless Bronze Bell's perception is within a radius of three kilometers, so the assassin should have arrived by now.

Inside the house.

The burly man at the head of the group looked around and said, "It's very clean, which means someone has been here recently. The four men we sent earlier probably encountered a 'ghost'."

The ghost he was referring to was someone who had encountered an "accident".

The B-Class expert examined it carefully. "There's no smell of blood, not even a trace. Something's strange."

Logically speaking, if someone has killed someone and shed blood here, then no matter how much the other party cleans within two days, unless the entire house is disinfected, the smell of blood will definitely remain.

However, there was no smell of disinfectant or blood in the room.

"Could it be that none of our men died in here?" one of the assassins frowned and analyzed. "Or perhaps they were afraid that if they continued to follow us on missions, the Li family would find them and kill them, so they all fled?"

"We can't be certain yet," the B-Class expert said calmly. "Let's find the entrance to the tunnel first. Only after we find it will we know the answer."

This group used very professional search methods; they found the mechanism without even tapping the floor.

An assassin gently turned the vase on the coffee table, revealing a deep underground passageway to everyone.

"001, shall we go in?" one of the assassins asked.

001 is the code name of that B-Class expert.

This combat team consists of 12 people, numbered from 001 to 012. The assassins are spies hidden in City No. 18. Even when they operate together, the principle of secrecy does not allow them to reveal their real names to their comrades.

They only shed their ordinary identities and gather together to form tactical infiltration teams when summoned by the organization.

"We've found the tunnel. Should we proceed? Or should we report the missing persons to the organization first and find the four of them?" 009 asked.

001, the burly man pondered for a moment, "The organization has issued me an ultimatum. The transfer of the 081 Garrison Brigade was too sudden. The organization urgently needs to know what is happening at the Banshan Manor."

The remaining eleven assassins exchanged glances.

The ultimatum meant that the mission had to be completed at all costs; if it wasn't, each of them would pay the price for failure.

And their families.

001 said in a deep voice, "There's no way out. Go down into the tunnel! I'll escort you into the tunnel and then wait for you there. Remember, no matter how fierce the pursuit, you must escape back into the tunnel and pass the information to me."

The remaining eleven people replied in succession, "Understood."

After saying that, the twelve people entered the passageway one after another, while the B-Class 001 walked at the very back, as cautious as a vicious wolf.

The passageway leads straight to the Banshan Manor. According to the map, they need to travel 2.7 kilometers to reach their target area. As for what lies at the end of the passageway, they have no idea.

What does 2.7 kilometers mean?

Even during the day, you need a telescope to see a target 2.7 kilometers away.

Looking at the tunnel walls, 001 saw that the reinforced concrete structure was strong enough to support the entire tunnel 7 meters underground without collapsing.

Many of the tritium lamps on the wall were damaged, but strangely enough, 001 could clearly tell that those tritium lamps were not damaged naturally, but were smashed from the outside.

Strange, who is deliberately damaging the tritium lamp?

But just then, a deafening roar suddenly came from the end of the tunnel.

The sound couldn't penetrate the ground, yet it roared and howled angrily in this narrow passage like the tides of the Qiantang River.

A tungsten-core armor-piercing projectile pierced the darkness of the straight tunnel, and in an instant, four members of the 12-man tactical infiltration team were pierced through!

The blood mist exploded in the one-meter-wide passageway, and the assassins behind felt as if a rain of blood had fallen on them, staining them red from head to toe.

The assassins were startled!

Sniper!

There was a sniper hiding in this tunnel!

Generally, snipers are positioned in the most open areas, possessing the most terrifying firepower suppression capabilities on the battlefield.

Who would have thought that a sniper was hiding in this tunnel?

When anti-materiel sniper rifles fire in this narrow and straight passage, the sniper doesn't even need to aim deliberately to achieve 100% effective kills!

No matter how powerful you are, if you're not at Rank A, being hit by this shot will almost certainly mean certain death.

Most importantly, this armor-piercing round is incredibly powerful; it can easily penetrate three or four people!

"Get down! The firing position is about a kilometer away. It's very difficult to hit a lying target!" someone roared in the tunnel. All the assassins crawled on the ground and retreated backward toward the tunnel exit.

Lying down is wise, because when the firing range exceeds one kilometer, the lying assassins are blocked by the fallen corpses, making it difficult to catch their movements in the field of vision.

But when the assassins looked back at the long tunnel behind them, they were filled with despair.

The assassins realized that the sniper was extremely ruthless and vicious. He had already discovered that the tactical infiltration team had entered, but he waited until they had traveled nearly two kilometers before finally opening fire.

At this point, if they wanted to advance, they would be 1000 meters away from the sniper.

If you want to back up, you are still 1700 meters away from the exit of the tunnel.

Whether we move forward or backward, it seems there is only one way out: death.

"Smoke grenade," 001 said from the back of the team. "Throw a smoke grenade to block the sniper's line of sight, and we'll crawl out quickly."

Although smoke grenades were not part of the plan for this infiltration and there was nothing to use them for, how could professionals like them not carry them with them at all times?

It's better to have something cumbersome than nothing when you need it.

An assassin pulled the pin on a smoke grenade and threw it with all his might, but it was pierced by a sniper rifle while still in the air.

The smoke-generating agent, which should have burned completely, was unable to function properly after being pierced by the bullet, so the smoke that should have filled the entire tunnel became sparse.

"What kind of marksmanship is that? The opponent is at least 1,000 meters away from us. How could they hit a target the size of a smoke grenade with a single shot at that distance? And they even threw it with force? Is it a coincidence?" one of the assassins asked.

"In the battlefield, don't rely on coincidences," 001 said calmly. "How many smoke grenades are left?"

"1 piece."

"Don't throw it out, just throw it next to you."

As soon as he finished speaking, one of the assassins immediately pulled the safety pin off the smoke grenade and placed it beside him.

However, the sniper bullet arrived as expected, piercing through a corpse and destroying the smoke grenade placed on the ground.

The assassins were startled; what had just happened was no accident! The enemy had actually determined the location of the smoke grenade from the direction the smoke was drifting!

Fortunately, the smoke generator in this smoke grenade was not completely dispersed; the drifting smoke at least obscured some visibility.

"Get out of here, quick!" 001 roared. "This smoke bomb won't last long. Get as far as you can."

At this point, 001 had lost its previous confidence.

B-Class experts are indeed very powerful. In any organization, B-Class experts are among the highest-level combat forces and are the backbone of an organization.

However, the terrain was so awful that he couldn't even think of a way to successfully dodge sniper bullets.

001's abilities were all confined to this narrow passageway, while the sniper was not restricted at all.

The remaining eight people struggled to crawl outside, hoping for a sliver of hope.

They are all powerful genetic warriors, moving as swiftly as snakes when crawling close to the ground.

However, they had only climbed 700 meters when the smoke in the tunnel was blown away by the air duct above the tunnel.

"Shoot and shatter the tritium lamps, that will make him lose sight of us," someone said. "We're at least 1600 meters away from him now. Very few snipers can maintain accuracy at this distance. Anyway, there's only one way out of this tunnel, we can definitely crawl out in the dark without any problem."

The only light source in this passageway was the tritium lamps hanging on the walls.

The next moment, someone raised their hand and accurately shattered a tritium lamp.

But before he could turn his arm to aim at the next light, the hand that was holding the gun had vanished.

The sound of anti-materiel sniper rifles was deafening, even from 1.7 kilometers away, in the tunnel.

The assassins were shocked. Not only was there a sniper hiding here, but this sniper was also able to accurately shoot their hands from such a distance!

That's a distance of 1700 meters! What does 1700 meters even mean? Even in such a narrow passage, a sniper shouldn't be that skilled.

This kind of sniper could easily win the shooting championship in any inter-army competition among the Federation Group Army!

There are at least fifty more tritium lamps at the back of the passageway. How many hands could they possibly have knocked off?

At the other end of the passageway, Qing Chen had already set up the tripod at the front of the Black Sniper and calmly lay prone on the ground.

The roar seemed to have no effect on him at all. The three small bones remained completely still, no longer transmitting any vibrations.

The changes that the nine Dragon Fish brought to Qing Chen were greater than he had imagined.

Just then, Qing Chen suddenly stood up, held the Black Sniper out to the sides, and slowly walked forward.

He pulled the trigger again and again, reaping the gifts that came to him.

Qing Chen didn't even care what level the other party was. The old man's words yesterday had made him think it through. A true master would disdain taking the secret passage and might not dare to come to this Banshan Manor to die.

Therefore, anyone who enters this secret passage cannot resist the power of "Conquer by Virtue".

Qing Chen moved forward quickly step by step. It wasn't that he was daring or liked to take risks, but if the other party continued to crawl forward, the high angle of the parabolic trajectory would not be high enough when he wanted to shoot at a target at a very long distance, and the bullet would directly hit the ceiling.

As the gunshots drew closer, two of the assassins panicked and jumped up, trying to rush out of the tunnel as fast as they could.

The two assassins ran forward, stepping over their crawling companion. 001 muttered to himself, "Idiots."

A shot rang out, and the bullet pierced through both men simultaneously. Keep in mind that these assassins were wearing thin bulletproof vests, yet the sniper managed to hit them in the neck.

The next moment, the bodies of the two men fell right on the path that 001 and the others were crawling along.

In other words, if they wanted to continue climbing out of the tunnel, they would have to climb onto the corpse and pass over it.

In that case, they would all be exposed to the sniper's line of sight.

001 said in a deep voice, "Stop climbing. There's only one way left. Let's gamble! Charge at him together and kill him! With my strength, even if you all die, I can still lift two people as shields and charge forward. Bullets can go through two people, but at most they'll only hurt my muscles. That's the only way we'll have a chance to survive."

The assassins hesitated.

001 continued, "Think about your families. With a sniper of that caliber in the tunnel, you're all doomed, but what about your families?"

The other five assassins gritted their teeth. "Kill him!"

001 said, "Okay, I'll count down to three, then we'll all get up and charge towards the sniper!"

"3."

"2."

"1."

The five assassins simultaneously rose and rushed towards Qing Chen's direction.

However, instead of rushing with them as agreed, 001 got up and shot towards the exit of the tunnel like an arrow!

The sniper rifle roared like thunder.

With the first shot, two suicide bombers fell, leaving three remaining.

With the second shot, two more suicide bombers were shot through the neck and fell, leaving only one survivor.

Hearing the gunshots behind him and seeing the exit almost within reach, 001 felt a glimmer of hope.

The third shot.

Unexpectedly, Qing Chen's shot didn't even bother with the last assassin who was still charging forward. Instead, it flew past the assassin's neck and struck him precisely in the neck.

The world went dark.

A faint rumble came from the tunnel.

001 understood. From the very beginning, the sniper who had been lying in ambush in the tunnel had no intention of letting any of them escape.

No one knew that a brutal massacre was taking place seven meters underground in the Upper Third District, and that the dead were B-Class gene warriors, while the victor was a cultivator who had just been promoted to D-Class.

Qing Chen, smelling the heavy stench of blood in the passageway, finally exhaled a breath of stale air.

That B-Class expert was too fast; he almost got away.

Moreover, we were really lucky today. If this passageway were any wider, given the other side's mobility, it would have been difficult for us to aim at them.

Even if his mind can keep up, his hands can't.

Qing Chen felt Qing Xing and wary. Before he reached C-Class, if he encountered a B-Class expert in the wild, he would have to be extremely cautious even if he had a sniper rifle.

At this moment, the Puppet Master on the boy's wrist was eager to try, and the transparent little snake raised its head, extremely excited.

The chapter is 5,000 words long. 10,000 words have been updated today. I'm Huan Yu one chapter back, and I still owe him one.

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