Enemy attack

"What? Sis, are you saying I never went home?" Lin Jie found it hard to believe.

Lin Zhi nodded. "Right. Normally, you would have gotten home early."

"But that day, you still hadn't come back by late at night."

"I called you, but no one answered."

"Then a strange man appeared and shot straight at me."

Lin Jie felt a little dizzy.

He held his forehead, thinking anxiously.

Could Zhou Yun have been telling the truth?

Were all those scenes of going home that Lin Jie experienced just illusions?

Had I actually never made it back?

Fox's cunning face surfaced in his mind.

"Heh."

Lin Jie silently swore that the next time he saw Fox, he would make him pay.

Zhou Yun came out of the cab.

"Everyone, less than two kilometers to go. We're almost there!"

He sat cross-legged on the floor, relaxed, and struck up a conversation with a soldier beside him. "Our leader's going senile."

"He keeps going on about protecting Lin Jie, saying something might happen along the way."

"With me handling things, what's he still worried about?"

"We're almost there. What danger is there?"

"If you ask me..."

Before he could finish, a violent jolt suddenly struck.

Lin Jie felt himself flung into the air, spinning endlessly.

...No, he wasn't the one spinning...

It was the entire vehicle!

The whole truck overturned, sending all the soldiers inside tumbling.

"Enemy attack! We're under attack!" Shouts came from the cab.

Alarms blared incessantly, and red lights flashed wildly.

Boom-

The piercing explosion left Lin Jie's ears ringing.

Buzzz...

Shattered glass fell from the windows.

Lin Jie instinctively threw himself at his sister, shielding her beneath him.

Zhou Yun reacted swiftly too, rushing toward the siblings and shielding them behind him.

"Everyone! Hold the line!"

Zhou Yun roared.

"Quick, follow me! The truck's about to explode!" he shouted to Lin Jie and his sister.

With a sweep of his arm, Zhou Yun pushed them both out of the truck.

Then he raised his leg and leaped.

His trailing foot had barely left the truck when flames shot into the sky.

A violent boom followed.

In an instant, the truck exploded into a burning heap of scrap metal.

Zhou Yun landed and wiped the blood from his face. "Everyone, protect Lin Jie!"

The trucks following behind had also come under attack.

Not many soldiers had escaped before the explosions.

The surviving soldiers gathered together with the newcomers rescued from the death game.

Fewer than a few dozen remained.

Ahead, a squad of soldiers clad in purple armor formed a line, then slowly closed in around them.

In an instant, the purple-armored troops had completely surrounded Lin Jie and the others.

They held their guns motionless, aiming at the few dozen remaining Realm of Life soldiers.

Their leader was tall and thin, with an eye patch over one eye. He was the One-Eyed Dragon.

The One-Eyed Dragon stepped forward, raised his gun, and fired several shots into the air.

"Hand over Lin Jie, and we'll spare your lives!"

Zhou Yun quickly dropped flat, stripped the uniforms from the soldiers' corpses beside him, and tossed them to Lin Jie and his sister.

Lin Zhi caught a uniform and stood there, at a loss.

Lin Jie moved quickly, swiftly pulling his uniform on.

"Put it on! Pretend you're an ordinary soldier!" Lin Jie said urgently to his sister.

Only then did Lin Zhi realize that their casual clothes made them stand out among the surrounding soldiers.

She quickly pulled the uniform on as well.

The One-Eyed Dragon continued shouting up ahead.

"Lin Jie, you're our target. I suggest you come out now, of your own accord!"

"Don't force me to shoot innocent people!"

He slowly advanced, gun raised, scanning the white-armored soldiers one by one.

"The first person to give up Lin Jie gets to live!"

After the explosive attack, every Realm of Life soldier was in poor condition.

They clutched their bleeding wounds. Some had crippled legs, while others had lost arms in the blasts.

But they all kept their mouths firmly shut, saying nothing.

Soon, the One-Eyed Dragon was about to reach Lin Jie.

Zhou Yun quietly shifted, blocking Lin Jie and his sister behind him.

He was so large that, from the front, it was hard to tell anyone was hiding behind him.

The One-Eyed Dragon reached Zhou Yun and suddenly stopped.

Zhou Yun swallowed, shifting nervously.

The One-Eyed Dragon's gaze swept up and down.

Two seconds passed before he opened his mouth in a strange grin.

"This one's certainly well-built."

He shook his head and walked past.

When he reached the back row, he still hadn't found anyone who looked like Lin Jie.

The One-Eyed Dragon grabbed a white-armored soldier.

The soldier's face was covered in blood and grime, and he looked gravely injured.

"Talk! Where's Lin Jie?"

He aimed his gun at the soldier's forehead.

The soldier said nothing and spat in his face.

A lackey beside him worked his bolt and swiftly aimed at the soldier.

"Hey, don't be so jumpy." The One-Eyed Dragon chuckled and waved a hand.

The lackey lowered his gun.

The One-Eyed Dragon grabbed the soldier by his collar and lifted him with one hand.

Then he stepped onto the wreckage of a truck.

He stood above them, looking down.

"Lin Jie, take a good look! This soldier would rather die than give you up!"

He held the soldier high and shoved the gun barrel into his mouth.

"Can you live with yourself? Hiding behind everyone, watching the soldiers protecting you die because of you?"

Lin Jie gritted his teeth and clenched his fists.

Beside him, Zhou Yun whispered.

"Don't go out there, whatever you do. He's trying to provoke you!"

Seeing that the crowd still hadn't reacted, the One-Eyed Dragon changed tactics.

"Look, everyone! The Lin Jie you're protecting is nothing but a selfish coward!"

"He'd rather hide like a turtle than step forward!"

"Is someone like that worth dying for?"

The crowd finally broke its silence, and a slight commotion arose.

The One-Eyed Dragon felt smug, believing his words had finally shaken their morale.

However...

"Pah! Who the hell do you think you are?" A soldier in the front row spat at him and cursed.

"I'm Lin Jie! Take me away!"

The soldier beside him also stepped forward. "I'm the real Lin Jie!"

The other soldiers spoke up one after another, wiping the blood and grime from their faces and standing tall.

"I'm Lin Jie!"

"I'm Lin Jie too!"

"That's right! If you're going to kill someone, kill me!"

At first, the shouts were scattered, but gradually, everyone stepped forward resolutely.

"I'm the one you're looking for!"

"We're all Lin Jie!"

Their voices rang out in a mighty chorus, one after another.

Every one of them impersonated Lin Jie, prepared to die.

The One-Eyed Dragon's expression turned ugly, and he spoke in furious exasperation.

"Damn it! Since none of you will cooperate, you can all die!"

With that, he made to pull the trigger.

The lackey beside him hurriedly stopped him. "Captain, the boss said to capture Lin Jie alive. If we kill him by mistake..."

But the One-Eyed Dragon shouted harshly, "Fuck that! These people don't know what's good for them! Kill them all! Don't leave a single one alive!"

The One-Eyed Dragon held the soldier high, gripped his pistol in his other hand, and squeezed the trigger.

A gunshot rang out.

But the shot hadn't come from the One-Eyed Dragon's pistol.

It had come from a boy in the distance.

"Aaah..."

The One-Eyed Dragon sank to one knee, wailing loudly.

He held out his hand and looked. A bullet had pierced straight through his palm.

Blood poured from it.

"Who was it? Who the hell was it?" the One-Eyed Dragon cursed, clutching his hand.

"It was me!" a boy's clear voice rang out.

He looked over.

Lin Jie stood on a rock, holding his pistol high.

A faint wisp of smoke rose from the barrel.