The Type 95 Rifle wasn't weak, especially at close range. Unless you had an Agility stat of over a hundred, there was no way to dodge its bullets. Li Wei was no exception.
Every bullet the fat man fired hit Li Wei. But to his surprise, Li Wei didn't fall dead as he'd expected. He merely staggered back a few steps, then stood where he was.
Did he miss?
The fat man shook his head, unable to believe it. He was about to shoot again, but Li Wei wasn't about to let the bastard run wild. He raised his hand and struck with a Cloud-Piercing Palm.
Although the Cloud-Piercing Palm reached its full power only upon contact with the target, it could still be unleashed from a distance. Its power was greatly reduced, but it was still more than enough to deal with the fat man, who was little stronger than an ordinary person.
Li Wei's palm struck the air, leaving a phantom imprint. The fat man's bulky chest caved in as if an invisible hand had struck him. With a howl, he flew two meters through the air and landed on the ground.
That strike from a distance had broken several of his ribs and bruised his internal organs, but it hadn't been fatal.
The display stunned the few newcomers watching nearby. Until now, Li Wei had seemed like nothing more than a strategist to them. They hadn't expected him to be hiding his true abilities—not only were bullets unable to hurt him, but his attack had also been utterly unexpected.
Who had ever seen someone knocked down by a palm strike from a distance?
Li Wei watched as the rifle fell from the fat man's hands and sneered. If he hadn't been wearing the Earth Fiend Set he'd gotten from Guo Jian, he might really have been caught off guard.
Li Wei wouldn't have dared hand someone a weapon without first gauging their character and intentions unless he had something to rely on. This protective armor was his trump card.
He'd tested it back on Shadow Street: bullets from ordinary firearms couldn't pierce the armor. That was why he'd decided to hand out weapons to the newcomers.
Looks like I was still too "kind."
He picked up the dropped rifle, then walked over to the fat man, who was groaning on the ground. "You ungrateful bastard. If it weren't for me, the zombies might've eaten you by now. Since you dared to kill me, you should've been ready for me to kill you!"
Li Wei fired twice, hitting the fat man in both legs. Now he wouldn't be able to run even if he wanted to.
The tremendous pain made the fat man howl like a slaughtered pig. With a helpless sigh, Li Wei struck him on the neck and knocked him unconscious.
He put away the rifle and turned to look at the other newcomers. The remaining five seemed decent enough. At least they didn't seem inclined to cause trouble. Now that he had a better understanding of his own defenses, he knew that even in its invisible state, the Earth Fiend Set could withstand gunfire at close range. If he canceled its invisibility, its defenses would surely be even stronger.
With this armor, he had little reason to worry, even if the newcomers had ulterior motives!
"You must have a lot of questions, but I'm not going to explain anything. I'll ask you once more: if you want to stay with the group, you'll have to follow my orders without question from now on. Of course, you can leave if you want. But if anyone has bad intentions, you'll end up just like that fat man."
No one left. Of the three men and two women who stayed, only the middle-aged man spoke much; the others were mostly quiet. That didn't mean they lacked sense. Even if they'd been harboring ideas of their own, Li Wei's impressive skill had driven those thoughts deep into their minds.
"Good!"
Li Wei nodded. Suddenly, he sensed someone approaching at high speed. But when he caught a familiar scent, his grip on his firearm loosened.
Zheng Yutong suddenly appeared with Wind Walk, startling the newcomers. At the same time, their last traces of suspicion vanished. Li Wei had clearly known how capable the woman was, which was why he'd felt safe leaving her behind.
That meant he wasn't the sort to betray his companions. Maybe following someone like him really was a good choice.
Leaving the newcomers' thoughts aside for now, Li Wei briefly asked Zheng Yutong about the zombie they'd just encountered. When he heard that it had Regeneration, he thought of Wang Kai.
He was the one who'd had T-Virus Enhancement during the Heroes of Might and Magic mission. But Wang Kai clearly hadn't been as strong as that zombie. Otherwise, the Heroes of Might and Magic mission wouldn't have ended the way it had.
"Li Wei, doesn't this look like a dead end?" Zheng Yutong asked, glancing around in puzzlement. Li Wei had assured her there was a passage out.
The other newcomers watched Li Wei expectantly, waiting to hear his explanation.
"There is a passage, and there isn't!" Seeing Zheng Yutong's expression darken, Li Wei quickly continued. She was different from the newcomers; if he angered her, she might actually get mad.
He rolled up his sleeves and walked over to the wall in the corner, knocking on the concrete with his fist as he explained. "According to the building's design plans, the underground garage doesn't have any other passages. But nothing is absolute. I checked the computers in the monitoring room and the city map on the Yellow Paper, and found that a subway line was built nearby. So I compared the building plans with the subway map. Guess what I found?"
Li Wei's animated words immediately drew everyone's attention. As he moved along the wall, knocking on the concrete, their hearts seemed to beat faster with every thump.
A bang that sounded distinctly different from the others rang out. Li Wei smiled. He wanted to show off a little, too; otherwise, if he couldn't keep these newcomers in line, he'd have failed miserably.
He took a deep breath and circulated his Innate Skill throughout his body. At the same time, he used the Cloud-Piercing Palm. With his Strength stat of 27 backing him, he slammed his palm into the wall. A thunderous crash followed, along with the clatter of falling chunks of concrete. Li Wei had punched a hole straight through the dead end that had seemed to have no exit.
Beyond the hole lay a passage that had been abandoned for a long time.
"As you can see, the underground garage in this building is separated from the subway maintenance room by just one wall. It's made of hollow bricks and concrete. If you hit a single spot with more than a thousand kilograms of force, you can break through and open this passage!"
Li Wei turned around to find all six of them, including Zheng Yutong, staring at him in a daze. The middle-aged man, who'd been holding a firearm, hadn't even noticed when it slipped from his hands.
Li Wei had known they'd be startled, but he hadn't expected them to be this shocked.
Was this guy even human?
All six of them, including Zheng Yutong, had the same strange thought. He'd not only discovered all those clues in such a short time, but had also calculated the exact location. How could a human possibly do that? Suddenly, they remembered something Li Wei had said.
"Congratulations. Joining this group was the smartest decision you could've made!"
Thinking about it now, they had reason to celebrate. Without Li Wei, they'd probably still be debating whether to leave the building. Outside waited an army of hundreds of thousands of zombies.
It wasn't easy to earn someone's trust, but Li Wei had done it. From that moment on, the newcomers truly accepted him and no longer had any doubts about his orders. From the start of the mission to now, he hadn't overlooked a single detail. From gathering intelligence, calculating and choosing a route, to opening the passage in such a stunning way, everything showed just how precise his calculations and analysis were.
Having someone like him as a teammate really was lucky.
"Once we pass through this passage, we'll reach Raccoon City's main subway station. From there, we can take the special light-rail train that goes out of the city and leave Raccoon City..."
Before he could finish, Li Wei suddenly sensed danger.
Someone was coming!
Zheng Yutong reacted the fastest. In a flash, she raised her bow and fired an arrow toward the darkness more than ten meters away, beyond the reach of the lights.
The arrow's flight echoed through the underground garage. Strangely, it sounded as if it had fallen into a swamp; not a single noise came back.
"Who's there?"
Her question still echoed through the empty garage. This time, a series of low footsteps answered her.
"Could it be that zombie from earlier?" one of the girls asked in a trembling voice.
The newcomers had heard Li Wei and Zheng Yutong talking. The zombie clearly hadn't died, so it might well be the one approaching.
A chorus of weapons being cocked rang out. The newcomers were still afraid, but with Li Wei and Zheng Yutong beside them, they had more courage.
But when the figure in the shadows came into view, they were startled. It wasn't a zombie, but it was even more frightening than one.
Number 114, Shao Yang!
The madman who'd killed over a hundred newcomers smiled at Li Wei and the others, looking just as he had the first time they'd met.
"Everyone, we meet again. I didn't expect you to find a shortcut out of the city here. I'd like to bring my teammates along and leave through it, too. Would that be all right?"
No one answered him.
"Relax, I won't get in your way. I just want to use the passage. There are too many zombies outside..."
It seemed Shao Yang still didn't know that Li Wei and the others had seen him slaughter those newcomers. That made sense. He'd taken them to the eleventh floor to avoid being seen, never realizing he'd overlooked the surveillance cameras.
If they didn't know what he'd done, they might really have been fooled by that hypocritical smile.
"Of course you can." Li Wei slowly stepped out from the crowd. As he passed Zheng Yutong, he quietly signaled to her.
Get everyone out of here. Now.
Before you continue