In what remained of the hooded man's mind, Shenzhou's authorities were enemies too, but being captured by them would not threaten his life.
They were far safer than the blue-eyed monster behind him!
That was why, with most of his brain already burned away, he called to Liu Yaowen and the others for help.
But to the countermeasures team and the SWAT unit, this half-wolf monster screaming for help was no different from the wolf in grandmother's clothing inviting Little Red Riding Hood to the bedside...
They couldn't trust him one bit!
"Team leader, should we attack that monster?"
Some team members were already asking whether they should engage.
"Fall back to a safe distance first. Let Lieutenant Colonel Huang take a 'look' before we do anything."
With that, Liu Yaowen raised a hand and signaled a slow retreat.
Everyone kept their guns trained on the hooded man's every movement as they withdrew from the building.
Meanwhile, Huang Qingque widened her eyes as she retreated with the group. A faint golden light flickered deep in her eyes as she scanned the hooded man's monstrous, mutated body from head to toe.
"Team leader, it's him. He's the culprit who's been invading the victims' dreams and putting them into comas."
Liu Yaowen nodded, then asked, "Understood. So how did he end up like this?"
"Let me see... He drank some kind of compound enhancement serum. It came from a mysterious person whose identity he didn't know... The only information available is a code name: 'K.'"
"K? As in the king of spades?"
Liu Yaowen raised an eyebrow at that.
He seemed to have thought of someone.
"I don't know. His mental sanctuary has almost shattered under the drug's effects. All the information is tangled together. This is all I can make out for now."
Huang Qingque shook her head.
Besides, his mental sanctuary was flooded with terror of death and an instinctive urge to survive. She had no idea what had driven him to this state.
By then, the group had retreated outside the building, and the snipers had switched to large-caliber weapons and headed for elevated firing positions.
Yet the moment Liu Yaowen stepped outside, he saw silhouettes behind the windows of every surrounding building. They were either recording on their phones or livestreaming.
The sight nearly sent his blood pressure through the roof.
When he found Li Rongbin sweating profusely, he couldn't help snapping, "Didn't I tell you to evacuate the civilians?"
"Team leader, I did everything I could..."
Li Rongbin explained that he and his men had indeed evacuated everyone from the area, but shortly after they left, someone had risked sneaking into a tall building with a phone.
Once one person did it, others followed, until the surrounding high-rises were packed with spectators.
"We've protected them a little too well..."
Liu Yaowen pressed a hand to his forehead helplessly.
"But that's why we're here, isn't it? To keep the people of Shenzhou safe from danger."
Beside him, Huang Qingque rubbed her aching eyes and offered her opinion.
"True."
Liu Yaowen smiled, reassured by her words.
Their smiles lasted only a few seconds, however. The next instant, an almost hoarse roar came from the building's lobby, putting everyone on alert again.
"Aaaaargh!! Help me! Why won't you save me?! Hurry and save me-uuurgh!!!"
Perhaps the hooded man's body, pushed to its limit, was experiencing one final rally. Or perhaps some residual effect of the enhancement serum had begun to kick in.
His muscles first contracted, then abruptly swelled like an inflated balloon, forcing the chains apart. With a powerful kick of his legs, he charged out of the building!
"Open fire!"
Liu Yaowen gave the order without hesitation.
The SWAT officers' guns instantly spat searing tongues of flame. A dense barrage of bullets struck the hooded man's mutated body like raindrops sending ripples across a lake, only to bounce off his absurdly dense muscles and incredibly tough skin.
Then the snipers above opened fire too, their large-caliber rounds successfully piercing his skin.
"Aaaaargh!!!"
The hooded man let out a piercing howl.
The spectators in the surrounding buildings were startled by the scene. They had assumed the SWAT officers would use a shield wall to force the target-the suspect-into a corner, then look for an opening to subdue him...
They had never expected them to open fire right away, much less unleash a classic full-scale barrage!
"The SWAT team's shooting! Did you guys see that?! They're really shooting! Those aren't firecrackers! Those are real guns!"
"I'm not lying to you! Those aren't special effects! It's not AI! They're really opening fire! This day is going down in history!"
"We're witnessing history!"
"Holy... With that much firepower, are they trying to grind the criminal's bones to dust?"
"Dig bullets out of the corpse? No, they'll be digging through a pile of bullets to see if there are any scraps of meat left."
For a while, the surrounding buildings rang with chatter.
But the gunfire below was louder, so it did not affect Liu Yaowen and the others.
"Cease fire!"
Only after they had emptied two magazines did Liu Yaowen raise his hand to halt the shooting, his expression growing increasingly grave.
"Team leader, our bullets aren't doing much damage to him."
A team member beside him pointed at the motionless hooded man in the smoke.
"I can see that. His body's probably tougher than an ordinary werewolf's now."
Other than the Alabachia Federation, Liu Yaowen couldn't think of a country capable of producing something this extreme.
"Huuurgh..."
Just then, the hooded man staggered to his feet in the smoke. Before the SWAT officers could pull their triggers, the monster, his eyes now entirely consumed by bestial instinct, suddenly lunged at them.
"Watch out!"
The instant Liu Yaowen shouted, that gaping, bloody maw was already about to close over an officer's head!
Clatter-bang!
Just as everyone's hearts lurched and they instinctively shut their eyes, expecting a death-perhaps even a gruesome, savage killing-in full public view, a chain rattled. The hooded man's airborne body slammed into the ground like a guard dog yanked back by its leash!
Everyone: ...!
The startled SWAT officers hurriedly withdrew to a safe distance. The officer who had nearly lost his head was now drenched in sweat.
The spectators breathed a small sigh of relief, while some livestream chats flooded with messages of "Keep that bad luck away!"
"So those chains aren't his weapons."
Liu Yaowen discreetly wiped away his sweat. When he had seen the hooded man bound in chains earlier, he had thought it was an act. He hadn't expected the restraints to be real.
Only then did everyone turn their attention to the chains behind the hooded man. The long black chains stretched taut in midair, their far ends leading into the building.
Vroom, vroom...!
The roar of a motorcycle, along with the crunch and clatter of crushed stone and glass, reached the countermeasures team and the SWAT officers outside the building with startling clarity.
"Argh?!"
Lying on the ground, the hooded man raised his head and looked back in utter terror.
"Who is it?"
The spectators in the high-rises zoomed their cameras in as far as they could, hoping to see the savior who had rescued the SWAT officer!
Vroooom!!!
The next instant, a pitch-black combat motorcycle burst out of the building. A petite figure rode the steel beast, her right hand on the throttle and her left gripping the chains. Her coat whipped in the wind, and her twin tails, one long and one short, streamed behind her head.
With a heavy crash that shook the ground, the pitch-black combat motorcycle slammed down. The concrete cracked, and the dust that had just settled rose once more!
"Ah!"
Huang Qingque suddenly widened her eyes, staring incredulously at the figure in the dust.
Then the girl, her silhouette still obscured, slowly raised her head and opened her unnaturally brilliant blue eyes, revealing the azure flame burning in her left eye!
Before you continue