Crash

Elsewhere, Xiao Miao jumped out of the cabin, landed on both feet, raised the ZF-1 at a Little Bird helicopter, and pulled the trigger. A rocket screamed out, hit the helicopter, and exploded with a thunderous boom.

The helicopter detonated in midair. Its rotor blades, sharp as knives, scattered under the force of the blast wave and embedded themselves deep in the concrete.

The other helicopter dodged in time and was not struck by the flying debris. Furious, the pilot aimed the crosshairs at the man who had killed his teammate, only to see him make a strange movement.

Xiao Miao stepped forward with his left foot and drew back his right arm, taking the stance of someone throwing a shot put. After pressing the red button on the ZF-1, every muscle in his body tensed as he hurled the oval-shaped weapon with all his strength.

Whoosh!

The egg-shaped gun tore through the air like a heavy artillery shell, flying straight at the second helicopter.

The pilot's pupils constricted. He hurriedly yanked the controls, and the helicopter rapidly shifted aside as the ZF-1 brushed past it.

A smile had barely appeared on the pilot's face when the ZF-1 exploded. An even larger fireball erupted and swallowed the entire helicopter, its blaze illuminating Xiao Miao's back.

They said real men never looked back at explosions, but Xiao Miao was not trying to show off this time. Time waited for no one. After throwing that three-pointer, he did not wait to see the result and instead sprinted at full speed toward the transport helicopter that had just taken off.

The hot airflow from the explosion disturbed the air. The transport helicopter was affected, its previously stable hover turning into a sway from side to side and up and down as it tilted out of the plaza.

Inside the cockpit, Jill and Carlos fought desperately with the controls, but they could not stabilize the aircraft.

Xiao Miao changed direction to chase the helicopter, then leaped sharply when he reached the edge of the plaza.

The tactical boots on his feet were crushed by the immense force and burst apart instantly. Xiao Miao flew into the air, crossed more than ten meters, and firmly grabbed a protrusion at the edge of the cabin door. He flexed both arms and pulled himself inside.

At that moment, the Character Card expired, and a wave of weakness washed over him. Xiao Miao had not truly exhausted his strength; the enormous gap between his physical capabilities before and after had simply created an illusion.

The cabin door had not yet closed, and violent wind poured inside. Xiao Miao's feet slipped, and he nearly got blown out, but a pair of hands reached for him just in time.

"I've got you!"

Alice grabbed Xiao Miao's arm and pulled him back into the cabin with all her strength.

The two clung tightly to the safety net along the cabin wall until the hydraulic cylinder slowly pushed the door shut. Only when the raging wind stopped did they let out long breaths.

As the effects of the hot airflow gradually faded, the helicopter began climbing rapidly. Jill left Carlos alone in the cockpit and rushed into the cabin. Only after confirming that Xiao Miao was unharmed did she finally settle her pounding heart.

"Everyone, hold on tight. Things might get even more exciting from here," Jill said.

Little Angela looked worried. "We'll be okay, right?"

The adults around her exchanged silent looks. No one could answer Angela's question.

After all, it was everyone's first time being nuked. None of them had any experience.

Xiao Miao could not bear to see the little girl so scared. After thinking for a moment, he comforted her. "It'll be fine. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were nuked before too, and they're doing just fine now."

Angela immediately breathed a sigh of relief and looked at Dr. Ashford with her big blinking eyes. "Really, Daddy?"

Dr. Ashford: "..."

The cabin fell silent.

A notification sounded beside Xiao Miao's ear. After the Character Card ended, several messages popped up one after another, and a warm current appeared from nowhere and flowed through his body.

His Physical Constitution had increased again!

But Xiao Miao had no time to focus on such minor details. He was grieving for the ZF-1. What a fine weapon it had been, and it was even system-certified equipment. It was such a waste for it to explode like that. Even if he could not replenish its ammunition, he could have sold it to the government after bringing it back and earned quite a few Fate Points.

The thought passed in an instant. It hurt to lose it, but there had been no better choice at the time. If he had not acted decisively, everyone would have been finished. If he had to do it again, Xiao Miao would still make the same choice.

Forget it. The gun had already exploded. I don't care. I don't care. I don't care...

"Uncle, you look terrible. Are you okay?" Angela's voice came from beside him. Xiao Miao turned and met the little girl's innocent gaze.

"...You unlucky kid, do I really look that old? Big brother's fine, so quit asking nonsense." Xiao Miao rolled his eyes.

The cabin fell silent again. Everyone could feel the helicopter accelerating, and with a tactical nuclear bomb approaching, even the most unflappable person would grow nervous.

The Black guy was so scared that his face had gone pale!

Everyone prayed silently, Xiao Miao included. He focused on the Fifth Element Character Card and muttered under his breath.

"Boss, bless us. If this helicopter lands safely, then whenever I make AI videos of you in the future, I'll definitely add more beautiful women!"

As the saying went, leave professional matters to professionals. Xiao Miao figured that something like a plane crash should fall under the domain of Boss, the cyber-immortal.

Boss: man! son of the b￥#%, fu*k@#￥...

Boss was muted for 24 hours due to excessively abusive language.

Dawn pierced the darkness, and the horizon turned pale. A missile cut through the sky like a sword, leaving a straight trail behind it.

On the streets of Raccoon City, chain collisions and gas explosions had destroyed everything. Countless zombies wandered through the ruins. Human civilization was like a fragile sheet of paper, easily pierced with a single poke.

The missile descended. Its growing roar agitated the horde of zombies, which instinctively moved toward the source of the sound.

Like the Sword of Damocles, the tactical nuclear bomb suddenly detonated after reaching the skies above City Hall.

Time seemed to freeze completely at that moment.

All sound vanished. A ghastly white flash instantly tore through the darkness, and a sphere of light more than a kilometer in diameter hung high in the sky. A terrifying shockwave, visible to the naked eye, spread outward from the sphere, flattening weaker buildings outright.

Then the sphere of light rapidly expanded, and a sea of pure white radiance swallowed building after building, like the sun falling from the heavens into Raccoon City.

Xiao Miao's group had no chance to witness that spectacular sight with their own eyes, but no one felt any regret. They only wanted to get away as quickly as possible, to fly as far as they could.

At that moment, the helicopter had just passed the outskirts of Raccoon City and entered the skies above the forests of the Arklay Mountains. The air around them suddenly turned violent, and the cabin began to shake.

Bzzz! Bzzz! Bzzz—!

The piercing alarms shrieked madly, the needles on the instrument panel jumping wildly. Carlos gripped the controls tightly as Jill shouted, "Everyone hold on! The shockwave is here!"

The cabin shook violently. The raging, chaotic air currents could no longer provide stable lift, and the heavy aircraft began spinning as it fell.

Xiao Miao felt as though he had been thrown into a washing machine. The entire world spun around him, and the intense sensation of weightlessness sent his heart into his throat.

Boom!

The fuselage jolted violently, the circuits cut out, and the cabin instantly plunged into darkness. Women screamed, metal collided, branches snapped, and agonized cries blended into a mess before all of it finally fell silent with a deafening crash.

The helicopter had crashed!

Cough, cough, cough!

Xiao Miao coughed up blood. His entire body burned with pain, but fortunately, he had not suffered any serious injuries.

Several faint rays of light shone through cracks in the cabin, and he could vaguely hear rushing water. Using the light, Xiao Miao checked the others' injuries and found that they had all fallen unconscious.

Or they were dead.

It was too dark to see clearly. Xiao Miao unfastened his seat belt, picked up Alice, who was closest to him, and left the cabin through a gap.

Splash!

The sound of rushing water suddenly grew louder. A stream, a forest, and a waterfall came into view. Looking into the distance, Xiao Miao saw a grotesque mushroom cloud slowly rising in the far-off sky.