Battle Breaks Out, Slave Suicide Squad

Yu Yuan studied the Land Hotel's position on the Virtual Map.

He had chosen this sewer after careful thought.

It lay just west of the intersection of Golden Orchid Avenue and Waterfront Street, opposite the Land Hotel. Waterfront Street was straight ahead of him.

He had already unlocked the manhole cover. If he needed to, he could open it at once.

Perhaps because the typhoon was approaching, the sky had grown remarkably dark despite it not yet being seven thirty. It felt like a storm was about to break.

"It's getting dark. Good. The darker, the better!" Yu Yuan murmured as he peered through a hole in the manhole cover.

Before long, he heard engines and tires scraping against the road.

Yu Yuan immediately worked out where the sound was coming from.

"They're here. From Waterfront Street."

He resisted the urge to lift the cover and look outside, waiting quietly for the fighting to begin.

Vroom, vroom, vroom...

The engines drew closer. Perhaps because the vehicles were nearing the intersection, they began to slow down.

Yu Yuan had already moved away from the cover. He climbed back down into the sewer and covered his ears.

Sure enough, he had barely landed when a string of explosions erupted overhead.

Then came an unbroken burst of gunfire and shouts.

Rat-a-tat-tat... Boom... Rat-a-tat-tat...

Amid the explosions, the machine guns became the deadliest reapers in the dark.

Yu Yuan could even hear vehicles exploding and rolling over.

Rat-a-tat-tat...

Another machine gun opened fire, close to the manhole. Yu Yuan guessed the Black Shield Police Department had begun fighting back.

But after only a few shots, a deafening crack rang out, and the machine gun fell silent.

"A sniper?"

Figuring the mines had already gone off, Yu Yuan climbed the ladder again and quietly pushed the manhole cover aside.

Gunfire flashed across his view, and flames roared in the street.

In the middle of the road, several Wasteland Battle Vehicles, modified beyond recognition, lay overturned and burning fiercely.

From windows on the Land Hotel's third and fourth floors, two machine guns spat fire, pinning down the Black Shield Police Department below.

Every so often, someone hurled a Molotov Cocktail into the street. Flames splashed across a radius of three or four meters. One thug was accidentally splashed with the burning liquid, and fire immediately spread across his body.

A terrible scream rang through the street, but before the thug could strip off his armor, bullets from somewhere punched through his body.

The smell of gunpowder and burning fuel filled the air as bullets flew in every direction.

Grenades exploded one after another, making Yu Yuan's ears ache with a faint, stabbing pain.

Pew, pew...

Several stray bullets struck the wall near the manhole. Yu Yuan promptly shut the cover, but a few seconds later, he eased it open again and narrowed his eyes to watch.

"This is only medium Danger Level? That's absurd." The place was a small battlefield.

Clearly, the Marauder Prison's ambush had worked.

The Black Shield Police Department's people were all sheltering behind the vehicles' thickened steel armor plates, waiting for chances to return fire.

A dozen or so meters ahead of Yu Yuan, seven or eight Black Shield Police Department thugs in full armor had their backs to him as they attacked the Land Hotel. The machine guns kept them pinned down, though, and none dared raise their heads.

Rat-a-tat-tat... Pew, pew, pew...

As Yu Yuan scanned the battlefield for a target to strike later, the thugs ahead suddenly shouted:

"Grenade!"

The seven or eight Black Shield Police Department thugs abandoned the vehicle they had been using as cover, took two quick steps, and threw themselves forward.

Boom!

A grenade exploded right where the thugs had been sheltering.

All seven or eight were blown off their feet. The Marauder Prison's people then picked them off one by one.

One man was thrown near Yu Yuan's manhole. Before he even hit the ground, more than a dozen bullets tore through him. He landed, rolled a few times, and lay still.

Yu Yuan felt a burning pain at his temple. A piece of gravel had just grazed him, but he ignored it. His eyes were sharp as he rapidly assessed the situation.

At that moment, Yu Yuan was like a hunter poised to strike, waiting for the perfect opening.

Less than a minute had passed since the battle began.

The Black Shield Police Department began its counterattack.

Whoosh... Boom!

Yu Yuan saw a flash of fire. Someone had taken out the machine-gun position inside the Land Hotel, and the room was now engulfed in flames.

With the machine gun no longer pinning them down, the Black Shield Police Department immediately fought back and began moving toward Waterfront Street.

At the same time, a red flare shot into the sky.

The Black Shield Police Department was calling for help.

Bang!

A muzzle flash appeared on an upper floor of the Land Hotel. The sniper.

He had killed the Black Shield Police Department thug who had fired the flare.

Yu Yuan frowned. Idiot! The flare's already up. Killing him changes nothing. It only gives away your position. He was beginning to suspect the Marauder Prison's sniper was an amateur.

Sure enough, a second later, he heard the same sound as before.

Whoosh...

This time, Yu Yuan saw it clearly.

A rocket streaked down Waterfront Street, trailing a white-hot flame. It flew into the sniper's room and exploded violently, blasting a hole in the hotel's outer wall.

Two mangled bodies flew out and hit the ground like scraps of cloth. No one paid them any attention.

"They even have an RPG? The Black Shield Police Department's firepower is that heavy?" Yu Yuan's eye twitched. Both sides were far more formidable than he had imagined.

The Marauder Prison's ambush had been ruthless, but the Black Shield Police Department's response was just as decisive. More importantly, its equipment was clearly superior.

Could a neighborhood Thug Faction really have weapons like these?

And yet something bothered Yu Yuan.

As longtime enemies, the Marauder Prison had to know how strong the Black Shield Police Department was.

If it had chosen to set an ambush, why was it being beaten back so easily?

Yu Yuan soon got his answer.

Several figures appeared above the thug wielding the RPG Launcher on Waterfront Street and leaped down.

Some hit the ground and died on the spot. Others landed among the Black Shield Police Department's vehicles.

Yu Yuan was still wondering what they were doing when he saw something he would never forget.

Boom, boom, boom! The bodies exploded violently.

The blasts sent the Black Shield Police Department's vehicles flying and left several large craters in the road.

Flames swallowed the street. The Black Shield Police Department had only just mounted a counterattack, but it was in danger again, and the Marauder Prison stepped up its assault.

Yu Yuan drew a sharp breath. He suddenly remembered a name mentioned in the information he had read about the Marauder Prison.

—The Slave Suicide Squad.