Group A retraced its steps to the main gate and regrouped with Group D.
"Groups B and C might have been wiped out. I'm going to call for reinforcements and hold the exit gate."
The Group A captain glanced at the people present.
There were thirty-one guards in all, with thirty-one guns aimed down the corridor. The moment Zero appeared, they could tear him to pieces in a storm of metal!
Suddenly, the Group A captain sensed that something was wrong... Wait, weren't there supposed to be thirty of us?
"Beep, beep."
The access panel lit up green, and the gate suddenly opened.
Everyone looked back in confusion. A black-clad agent with a tactical backpack stood beside the gate, holding a white card. He tipped up the brim of his cap, turned toward them, and gave a cheerful whistle.
"Bye-bye."
The man yanked down the gate-locking mechanism and rolled across the ground, slipping outside before the gate closed and locked.
All the guards froze, utterly dumbfounded.
Veins bulged on the Group A captain's forehead. The locked gate seemed to be mocking him in silence.
"When did Zero slip in among us?!"
The eighty-centimeter-thick alloy gate slammed shut.
Finally, I'm out!
Sunlight he hadn't felt in ages shone down on him, pleasantly warm. The tension in his chest gradually dissipated. Judging by the sky, it was around four or five in the afternoon. A star radiating light and heat hung high overhead, and against the canvas of blue sky and white clouds, the outlines of several planets were faintly visible at varying distances. The nearest was so close that he could even make out its craters. These planets were the source of Planet Aquamarine's "moonlight," reflecting the star's light at night.
Han Xiao took a deep breath, the fresh air clearing his nostrils. The scent of freedom lifted his spirits.
From the beginning, Han Xiao had never intended to fight all the guards head-on. Even though the base was at its least guarded right now, whether he could beat them was a secondary concern. If the guards suffered too many casualties and saw no hope of winning, the sentries at the gate would certainly activate the locking mechanism without a second thought.
Even if he became Rambo and pulled off a "First Blood," killing every guard, they only had to lock the gate and his escape plan would be GG. Then it would be Han Xiao's turn to be dumbfounded.
After pretending to be a member of Group B and drawing Group A away, he had stripped a relatively clean uniform from one of the corpses littering the floor, removed his light powered arm and packed it into his tactical backpack, then hidden around the bend between the second and third levels. It was a blind spot, and unless someone deliberately looked, he would be hard to spot.
The guards had spent too long in a safe environment, and their vigilance was low. Han Xiao knew this full well. Group A had been wholly focused on providing support and hurried past the bend, so Han Xiao had quietly fallen in at the rear, keeping a low profile and pulling his cap brim down.
The Group A guards clearly hadn't expected Han Xiao to be so bold. Who would count their teammates for no reason? For a while, no one noticed the extra person at the back of the group.
So Han Xiao followed Group A safely to the gate. When the guards' attention was elsewhere, he quietly approached it, opened the door wide, and locked every guard inside the base.
It was a risky move. One mistake, and dozens of guns would have riddled him with bullets at close range. If he'd had a choice, he wouldn't have resorted to such a gamble, but Balotta had ruined his original plan, leaving him no choice. Han Xiao was willing to try as long as his odds of success were around fifty percent.
There was an abandoned farm nearby. Han Xiao spotted tire tracks left by an SUV and followed them to a garage, where several pitch-black bulletproof SUVs sat quietly. The keys hung beside the garage door for easy access, which naturally made things convenient for him now.
"Reinforcements could show up at any moment. I can't stay long."
Escaping the laboratory was only the first step. Germinal's pursuit was bound to follow.
He tossed the backpack containing the mechanical arm onto the passenger seat, started the car with a key, and put both hands on the steering wheel. Oh, it was genuine leather.
He floored the accelerator. The powerful engine roared, and the SUV shot forward like a wild dog off its leash, smashing through the farm fence and charging onto a dirt track through the forest.
Han Xiao knew nothing about the surrounding terrain, so he could only pick a direction and stick to it.
Aboard the Black Harrier helicopter, Hila's phone rang. She frowned and answered it. "Who is this?"
"Supervisor Hila, something happened at the base. Zero went out of control. He killed more than thirty guards, Deputy Supervisor Balotta, and Dr. Lin Weixian, and destroyed the base's experimental data..."
The Group A captain sounded dejected. They were certain to take the blame for mishandling the situation, and if they failed to notify the supervisor now, their careers wouldn't be the only things in jeopardy-their lives would be too. Besides, a whole bunch of their brothers were still locked inside the base. If no one came to open the gate, were they supposed to sit there staring at one another forever?
Hila looked astonished. Are you kidding me?! She had brainwashed Zero herself. Had he been pretending even then? There hadn't been the slightest problem with the brainwashing on the other test subjects.
Had I been fooled the whole time?
Hila hurriedly contacted the leader and repeated what the Group A captain had told her. Over the phone, the leader's breathing grew heavy, as though he were suppressing his anger.
"Turn around immediately and go after him."
Hila was reluctant. "My sister..."
"Shut up. You're in no position to bargain with me."
Hila bit her lip in frustration and reluctantly shouted to the pilot, "Turn around! Back to the base!"
"Executive Hila, the helicopter needs to land and refuel first."
"Hurry up."
The Night Owl Squad received the leader's orders en route. Their SUVs turned around and drove back the way they had come, and they opened the base's gate from outside. The agents who had been locked inside came out looking miserable.
At the sight of the devastation inside the base, Number One's face filled with shock and anger, mixed with disbelief. He pointed at the Group A captain and demanded, "There were dozens of you, and you couldn't stop one man? Was there a traitor among you?"
He didn't think he could have done it himself, and he likewise couldn't believe Han Xiao had done it.
The guards' expressions changed drastically. None of them could bear the accusation of betraying the organization.
"All right, that's enough. The leader ordered us to pursue him."
Silver Blade cut the conversation short. His expression cold, he led the Night Owl members to the vehicles.
"Wait, our test subject squad is coming too," Number One called, leading his team into two other vehicles. He had always considered himself the perfect test subject and looked down on Han Xiao, whose codename came before his own. Yet Han Xiao's exploits had inevitably made him doubt himself, leaving him irritated. Number One felt that only by defeating Han Xiao could he prove his value to the organization.
The Night Owl Squad had ignored the surviving guards from start to finish. Their indifferent disregard made it clear that they too thought the dozens of guards were a bunch of useless fools for failing to stop Han Xiao.
The guards were indignant.
"Once they actually run into Zero, they'll know what they're up against."
The guards instead hoped Zero would escape. If even the Night Owl Squad failed, wouldn't that make their own mistake look understandable?
Night fell. Through gaps in the trees, several small planets could be seen in the sky, their outlines giving off a hazy blue glow. The "moons" came in different shapes, ethereal and mysterious, while the starry river glittered brilliantly. It was a breathtaking sight.
Every planet in Galaxy had its own distinct environment. In his previous life, there had even been dedicated casual players who enjoyed interstellar travel, photographing beautiful sights on different planets and compiling them into albums. They had sold so well on the official forums that they ran out of stock.
Now, moonlight could barely penetrate the woods, and visibility was poor.
Han Xiao drove carefully, afraid of crashing into a tree. Night was working against him: the engine noise gave away his position, and the darkness kept him from driving too fast.
"Driving at night puts me at too much of a disadvantage. I'd better go on foot."
Han Xiao decided to abandon the car. He stopped and pulled out the key, killing the engine.
Without the sound of the engine, the silence of the forest closed around him. In the moonlight, the shadows of the trees were like ghostly hands fading in and out of sight, creating an eerie atmosphere.
〔Obtained military compressed biscuits x5, bottled mineral water x3〕
There were several bottles of water and some military compressed biscuits in the trunk. Han Xiao packed them all into his bag and walked alone into the woods. The car had left tire tracks on the forest dirt road, and he had no way to erase them, so he could only get out and flee in a different direction.
Without the car, the dark of night became his camouflage.
His body was exhausted and he had little stamina left, but Han Xiao didn't dare rest. He wasn't completely out of danger yet.
"Vroom-"
After he had walked for a while, the roar of engines came from behind him. Han Xiao hurriedly hid behind a tree and carefully peeked out. Six beams of headlights flickered in and out among the trees, heading in three different directions.
"Three cars full of enemies!" Han Xiao pressed his lips together. By abandoning the car and fleeing, he had left the enemy without a trail, forcing his pursuers to split up.
Han Xiao stealthily moved in another direction.
Suddenly, a gunshot shattered the silence of the night!
Alarm bells rang in Han Xiao's head. He threw himself to the ground, a searing pain in his shoulder. Glancing back, he saw a bloody graze where a bullet had clipped his right shoulder, and a hole shot into a tree trunk more than ten meters away.
A vehicle had stopped over three hundred meters away. The entire Night Owl Third Squad got out, wearing pitch-black wraparound goggles. The one who had fired was their captain, Silver Blade, who held a sniper rifle.
"Six Cyclopses?!" Han Xiao was startled by their appearance, then realized, "Night vision goggles!"
Cursing his bad luck, Han Xiao hurried behind a tree.
〔Your right shoulder was grazed by an SWP Sniper Rifle! You took 18 damage!〕
Good grief. Just a graze from a sniper rifle had done as much damage as a pistol.
〔You have entered combat. Based on your level, you have obtained detailed information on the enemy!〕 -- Night Owl agent: Total level: 15 Classes: [Agent] lv10, [Elite Agent] lv5 Attributes: strength 18, dexterity 15, endurance 25, intelligence 10, mystique 3, charisma 8, luck 1 Energy: 0 Power level: 40 Health: 350 Talents: Well-Trained (increases base health by 100), Pain Ignorance (combat effectiveness does not decrease due to injury) Skills: Basic Combat lv4, Basic Shooting lv5, Precision Shooting lv2, Sniping lv1 (captain's loadout) Equipment: 〔SWP Sniper Rifle (captain's loadout): quality - gray, large-caliber sniper rifle, attack 70-88, fire rate 0.5 rounds/s, magazine capacity 5 rounds, output power level 30, requirement - mastery of [Sniping] lv1〕 〔Thermal imaging night vision goggles: quality - gray, essential for night combat〕 〔Type 73 Wasp Pistol: quality - gray, small-caliber portable firearm, attack 28-35, fire rate 1.1 rounds/s, magazine capacity 10 rounds, output power level 13〕 〔Type G Fragmentation Grenade (x3): deals 50-80 area-of-effect explosive damage within a twenty-meter area, chance to deal multiple instances of damage, output power level 45〕 〔Jason Submachine Gun: quality - gray, attack 36-42, single-shot fire rate 1.5 rounds/s, automatic fire rate 4 rounds/s, theoretical maximum fire rate 10 rounds/s (overheats after three seconds), magazine capacity 30 rounds, output power level 33〕 〔Kaila Light Bulletproof Vest: quality - gray, ranged defense 10-12, durability 50〕 〔Alloy dagger: quality - gray, attack 8-12, length 0.28 meters〕 --
These six Night Owl agents were elite enemies. Although their total levels were lower than his, they had tier-two classes specialized in combat, high panel attributes, and were fully armed.
"This is trouble..." Han Xiao's expression grew grave.