A Light Power Arm with only 130 durability left, an Enhanced Type 73 Wasp Pistol, a Light N9 Machine Pistol, and fifteen magazines-that was everything Han Xiao owned. Compared to the well-equipped Night Owl Squad, his gear was so pitiful it made his heart ache.
Bang! The sniper rifle fired again. A scorching bullet tore through the tree he was hiding behind, nearly hitting him. Han Xiao groaned inwardly. The enemy had night-vision goggles, while he could only locate them by their muzzle flashes.
The sniper rifle was too powerful. With his health, three shots would probably finish him off. He still had eighteen free attribute points, and without hesitation, Han Xiao put fourteen into endurance and four into strength. The former would keep him alive, while the latter would ensure he could land crushing attacks on the Night Owl operatives. He had already realized that trading shots with the enemy meant playing to his weaknesses. Close combat was dangerous, but it was his only chance. In this situation, trying to run would only leave him open. The enemy had night-vision goggles; unless he killed them all, there was no escape!
His strength reached twenty-nine, and combined with the mechanical arm's +10 bonus to strength checks, it was just enough to give him a crushing advantage. His endurance rose to thirty-six, bringing his health to 460. The points instantly increased his health, giving him an immediate 140 extra HP, which was crucial. He had recovered some health while fleeing earlier, so he now had nearly 400 HP and was in decent shape.
Han Xiao had watched them for a while. To stop him from escaping, the Night Owl Squad had spread out in a fan-shaped encirclement, leaving them unable to provide close support to one another.
The enemy's spread-out formation + the forest terrain + the darkness = a five-to-eight-second delay before reinforcements arrived!
In other words, he had only a few seconds for each close-quarters fight. If he couldn't kill his chosen target instantly, he would surely find himself in a desperate situation.
He had killed quite a few enemies in the base, and with what he had saved earlier, he had 116,000 experience points left in total.
This was a fight for his life. There was nothing to hesitate over. He poured all his experience into his combat skills.
[Grappling increased to lv5: +7% parry and counterattack rate, +10% unarmed attack power.] [Basic Combat increased to lv8: +8% unarmed attack power.] [Basic Combat has reached level 8 and Grappling has exceeded level 3. Please choose one of the following three advanced skills: Special Combat, Jujutsu, Strong Fist!]
Special Combat focused on explosive bursts of power, assassination, and weapon use. Jujutsu focused on submission holds, while Strong Fist increased the power of punches and kicks and resistance to blows. Each represented a different path of development, and what Han Xiao needed most right now was explosive power.
[Advanced skill acquired: Special Combat lv1: +6% melee critical hit rate, +4% unarmed attack power!]
With all his experience spent, his melee attack power had risen by nearly 15%, instantly improving his combat ability. He could feel that he could instinctively execute all sorts of fighting moves with great proficiency.
"Too bad I don't have an active combat skill that uses energy." Han Xiao regretted it inwardly. Mechanics had few active skills in the early stages, making it hard to put energy to use. Attribute bonuses were not its main function; its real purpose was powering active skills.
Stamina could be consumed to quickly "recover energy," in keeping with the setting that energy was extracted from cells. When to use skills, when to recover energy, and how to avoid wasting any stamina or energy were all details that affected victory or defeat, the sort of micromanagement experts mastered.
Han Xiao put on the Light Power Arm. Like a leopard lying in wait, he took a deep breath, filling his lungs with air. Oxygen passed through his alveoli into his blood vessels, then through cell membranes into his red blood cells. By raising the oxygen content of his blood, he brought himself to peak condition.
The next moment, Han Xiao drove off with both legs and sprang forward like a cheetah, sprinting low toward the target he had already chosen-the Night Owl operative on the far left of the enemy formation, the one closest to him. The instant he leaped out, gunfire erupted. Six Jason Submachine Guns immediately concentrated their fire on him, tracking his movements and kicking up clods of dirt.
The forest provided natural cover. Han Xiao raised the mechanical arm to shield his side and ran around the trees, dodging a hail of bullets. With his other hand, he sprayed fire from the machine pistol, suppressing the Night Owl Squad. The faint, scorched smell of bullets cutting through the air rushed into his nostrils.
Three seconds! Han Xiao reached his target and flung the machine pistol at him, knocking the Night Owl operative's muzzle aside. His mechanical arm shot out and slammed into the operative's hastily raised arms with the crack of breaking bone. Bone had met metal, and the former had clearly come off worse.
The Night Owl operative endured the pain, drew his pistol, and fired at Han Xiao's head. Han Xiao's agility was no mere decoration. He reacted in a flash, clamping his steel hand over the muzzle. With a bang and a jolt, he caught the bullet in his fist. Han Xiao trapped the operative's gun arm under his right armpit and yanked hard, throwing him off balance. The operative stumbled into him, and Han Xiao seized the chance to drive his knee viciously into the man's groin. He could distinctly feel two spherical objects deforming under the pressure.
[You hit an enemy's vital point! Dealt double critical damage! The enemy is stunned for 2 seconds!]
He couldn't make out the expression beneath the Night Owl operative's goggles, but the scream told him the strike had worked well. With life and death on the line, Han Xiao had no time to worry about how vicious his moves were. While the man was stunned, he frantically drove his knee into his groin again and again!
Thud! Thud! Thud! -78! -81! -84! The two spherical objects bounced up and down!
Sorry, brother. I can feel your pain. I wasn't the one who designed bulletproof vests without ball protection...
The enemy's health drained away like water. Han Xiao delivered one last elbow strike with his mechanical arm, crushing the man's vulnerable throat. The Night Owl operative crumpled to the ground. A foul, bloody stench filled Han Xiao's nose; presumably, the white, yellow, and red in the man's crotch had mingled into a mess. Before Han Xiao could celebrate, a sudden pain flared in his back. He hurriedly dropped prone and dragged the corpse behind a nearby tree.
[You were shot in the back by an SWP Sniper Rifle! You took 68 damage!] [You have been hit by a large-caliber bullet and are suffering moderate bleeding. Lose 3 HP per second for 15 seconds. Please bandage the wound as soon as possible!]
With powerful enemies all around him, how could he find time to bandage it?
Han Xiao's face went pale with pain. The shot had taken a huge chunk out of his health. Its attack power was terrifying.
"Damn it!" The five remaining Night Owl operatives had clearly been enraged by Han Xiao's fierce attack on their teammate. They quickly closed in from both sides, their muzzles spitting fire as they maintained suppressive fire and sent wood chips flying. Han Xiao couldn't even poke his head out.
Han Xiao stripped the dead Night Owl operative of all his equipment and quickly put on his bulletproof vest. It should stop a shot or two. His most important find was three Type G Fragmentation Grenades. They were good stuff, and he promptly flicked one out.
"Boom!"
The explosion rang out, and the enemies hurriedly sought cover. The suffocating suppressive fire stopped at once.
"That's for shooting at me!" Han Xiao was full of resentment. He tossed another grenade, and the five Night Owl operatives, who had just been about to get up, hurriedly dropped back down.
Again! A third dark object flew out. The five men instinctively hit the ground, but after waiting two seconds, they found that nothing had exploded. Looking closely, they saw it wasn't a grenade at all, but a rock. They immediately realized they had been tricked. Han Xiao seized the chance to rush out, spraying them with his submachine gun. Paying no attention to the overheating barrel, he emptied almost the entire magazine in an instant, riddling a Night Owl operative lying in the grass with bullets.
Han Xiao threw away the submachine gun, turned, and hurled another grenade, once again blasting the remaining four into halting their counterattack. This time, he pounced like a tiger and knocked down a Night Owl operative in another direction. This time, however, he didn't escape unscathed. Silver Blade fired in the chaos, and his submachine gun hit Han Xiao in the lower leg, wounding him again.
Han Xiao gritted his teeth. The injury slowed him down. With difficulty, he dragged the operative he had tackled and rolled behind a tree, then quickly pounded him to death. Against Han Xiao's upgraded combat abilities, these Night Owl operatives were no match for him in close combat.
Only three enemies remained! He had only half his health left! Faced with such a dire situation, Han Xiao grew even calmer, quickly considering and discarding one tactic after another. As a veteran power-leveler who had been through countless battles, he knew himself and his enemies. No matter the circumstances, panic was useless.
"If I'm right, the enemy will next..."
Han Xiao's eyes narrowed sharply, and he thought, This is bad.
Silver Blade's face was livid. At first, he had paid no mind to a mere test subject, never imagining he would lose half his men here. He had put aside his contempt, but he had also lost his patience. "Blow him up!" he shouted.
The three remaining men all used their grenades, sending them in graceful arcs to land behind the tree where Han Xiao was hiding.
"Boom!"
Swelling flames, thunderous explosions, and clouds of dust filled the air. When it was over, everything fell silent.
"Is he dead?"
"Hard to say." Silver Blade shook his head and signaled them forward. The three moved slowly toward the blast zone in half-crouches, staying on guard.
Behind the tree, a corpse lay motionless on the ground, charred black by the blasts and trailing white smoke. Its tattered uniform identified it as Zero.
"We finally killed him." One operative breathed a sigh of relief.
"Something's wrong!" Silver Blade's eyes went wide. He hurriedly leaned back and roared, "Get down, now!"