Bad-Tempered Loli

"Heh... this mascot's getting more and more like that bunch of desperadoes in Group A... not cute at all! Scaring people with a handgun loaded with blanks!" Miller gave a soft snort and rolled his eyes.

A military jeep drove up smoothly and stopped beside him. Miller quickly opened the door and climbed in, and the jeep headed straight for the airport.

He looked toward the east coast, his eyes ice-cold-someone wanted to take this chance to wipe out Group A! And the mastermind was a high-ranking official from Munich!

But now that those people had crossed Group A, their good days were over! They had better pray the members of Group A would be merciful.

Merciful?

Ha! What little mercy Group A had was probably all reserved for that violent mascot. As an old friend of Group A, this was all he could do. Hopefully, that mascot really could bring Group A luck!

With one hand on the steering wheel, Song Zhi pressed the other to her headset and switched to Group A's radio channel. A burst of static sounded, followed by a stretch of silence. Only when Song Zhi heard a rapid volley of gunfire did she know the connection had gone through, but none of them spoke.

As if they were saying their final goodbyes in silence.

Furious, Song Zhi clenched her back teeth and gave a cold snort.

"Lieutenant, do you still remember what I said at the shooting range?" Her voice trembled with the intensity of her anger.

Heavy breathing came through the headset, as though the chest it came from were stuffed with cotton, stifled and clogged, suffocating to hear.

When Lai'en didn't answer, Song Zhi went on, "I'm not interested in taking five men's death benefits and holding some memorial service for them. I'd much rather tear that death-benefit confirmation form to shreds and throw it in their faces!"

A long silence followed on the other end of the radio. The heavy breathing paused for a moment, then became ragged and irregular. Another rapid volley of gunfire followed, and finally the connection was ruthlessly cut off, leaving only crackling static.

"Fuck!" Song Zhi roared.

She slammed down on the accelerator and drove toward the east coast.

Transport planes at the airport took off one after another and flew overhead. Several pursuit missiles traced white lines across the sky as they chased after the planes.

One of the transport planes was hit and exploded in midair. Its fuselage instantly broke apart into countless fragments that fell like a meteor shower, scattering across the wasteland around the airport. The flames turned half the sky red.

Song Zhi's gaze followed its descent, and her heart sank. She clenched her teeth and gripped the steering wheel with both hands, shutting out the sporadic gunfire and explosions in the distance as best she could, silently praying the remaining transport planes would escape safely.

The closer she got to the east coast, the denser the gunfire became. Howitzer shells exploded too, the blasts making her cheeks go numb.

Several steely-faced mercenaries lay hidden in the dense woods along the beach, holding their position and shooting down enemy troops trying to land.

The enemy's identity was unknown, but they had already infiltrated Sri Lanka's base station with spies and sabotaged its defense system. The base station's counterattack had been hampered, and its defenses had completely collapsed.

Lu Yu lay in a ghillie suit among the thick bushes. A countermeasure armor-piercing round shot from the barrel of the Barrett and pierced a speedboat attempting to land. The instant the boat exploded, Lu Yu used the towering flames and deafening blast as cover to quickly change hiding spots.

Hill piloted a drone into the midst of the enemy and dropped explosives. With a boom, the enemy troops were blown apart, blood and flesh flying everywhere.

Lai'en, Kelante, and Wilk lay behind a barricade of sandbags, taking turns firing to clear out the scattered enemy troops who had already landed.

Wilk hoisted a rocket launcher onto his shoulder. Under covering fire from Lai'en and Kelante, he aimed at the enemies ahead and fired a rocket.

The instant the rocket launched, all three ducked behind cover in unison. The shock wave from the violent explosion kicked up fine gravel that rained down on them.

They had held the position for more than two hours. Their ammunition was nearly exhausted, and there were no supplies coming from the rear. They couldn't hold out much longer.

"Count your ammunition and fall back!" Lai'en ordered over the radio.

Kelante and Lai'en fired in alternating bursts, covering Wilk as he withdrew first. Only after Wilk reached the jungle did the two slowly retreat from the sand pit, one behind the other.

Lu Yu provided covering fire from time to time, putting away the sniper rifle only after everyone had retreated into the jungle, then quickly searched farther back for a suitable sniper position.

"We don't have enough ammunition to counterattack. We can only retreat into the city," Hill said after counting his ammunition.

"The city?"

Lai'en frowned, quickly sketching out a map of the city in his mind as he tried to find the safest route. But the enemy was moving far faster than expected, and their encirclement was tightening at a visible pace.

"First, fall back to the road. We'll resupply along the way and hold them off as long as we can." Lai'en's voice was still cold and unyielding as iron.

He looked up at the sky and saw the transport planes taking off one after another. Presumably, Song Zhi had already left safely. The girl had just been losing her temper over the radio!

His arm had been grazed by shrapnel, and he had only given it rudimentary treatment. The bandage he'd used to stop the bleeding was now stained red, so he looked down and wrapped another layer around it.

The others had also sustained injuries of varying severity. After giving themselves basic treatment, they quickly withdrew from the dense woods toward the coastal highway.

Flames soared into the sky in the direction of the beach, and explosions erupted one after another. The once peaceful and beautiful beach had become a living hell.

Song Zhi scanned the road ahead. In the distance, she could just make out thick smoke rising like a giant beast devouring everything. She pressed harder on the accelerator, and the engine let out a low roar.

Just as the car reached the east beach, she came upon several rather disheveled mercenaries. Song Zhi fixed her eyes on them and gunned the car toward them, then hit the brakes beside them.

The window rolled down, revealing Song Zhi's dark expression. She raised her chin and said, "What are you standing there for? Get in!"

The others looked more startled than delighted. Lu Yu was the first to react, crying out, "Fellow countrywoman! You didn't leave?! Commander Miller..."

"Get in, quick! The higher-ups have already locked an intercontinental ballistic missile onto this place. In half an hour, it'll be razed to the ground—no, blown under..."

Song Zhi frowned as she waited for them all to get in. Then she quickly shifted gears, turned the car around, and headed for the airport.

"Fellow countrywoman..."

"Song..."

"Honey..."

"Kitty..."

The blood-soaked men all rushed to speak at once, trying to explain something.

"Shut up!!!" Song Zhi roared like a lioness, and the world fell silent in an instant. Even the gunfire and artillery outside could no longer be heard.

Song Zhi scattered a shredded document over the back seat. She'd done it! She really had torn that lousy document to pieces and thrown it in their faces!

That felt good!

So good!!

Fucking satisfying!!!

But she hadn't dared throw it at Lai'en! She didn't dare!

The men in the back seat let the scraps of paper fall on them and turned their heads away.

"Where are we going?" Lai'en's voice held its usual cold gravity, but there was a barely perceptible tremor at the end.

"The airport. Commander Miller left a helicopter in hangar five." Song Zhi kept her attention on driving and didn't look at Lai'en in the passenger seat.