Chapter 901 - 729: Kill Steal?!_2

Chapter 901: Chapter 729: Kill Steal?!_2

But within that short stature, there was a terrifying strength completely disproportionate to its size.

The man from the Mechanical Department was in his grasp with almost no resistance, lifted horizontally with one hand, like holding a lifeless package, half tucked under his armpit in such an absurd and comical posture.

"Stealing the spotlight?!"

The sudden turn of events left even the battle-hardened Chen Ya stunned for a moment, and a surge of fury from being upstaged instantly flooded his heart.

"Hmph!"

Chen Ya made a disgruntled snort through his nose, his toes angrily tapping the ground.

"Whoosh—"

A sound louder than before burst out, and the ground beneath his feet even got pierced with a sharp hole.

Chen Ya pushed the speed of "Shave" to the limit, his figure flashing continuously, charging straight toward the short white figure with an unmatched ferocity.

Meanwhile, the man from the Mechanical Department, clutched under the arm like cargo being rapidly carried, was beyond simple fear to describe his feelings at this moment.

When his neck was seized, his entire body’s boiling, flowing blood seemed to completely solidify and freeze in a fraction of a millisecond.

The extreme cold from the point of contact instantly spread throughout his body, his limbs as if frozen by an invisible ice layer, stiff and unable to move, not even capable of the most basic trembling.

He could feel the wind violently scraping his cheeks, causing his hair to dance madly, whipping chaotically against his forehead and eyes.

His vision, due to the high-speed movement and the inverted position, spun dizzily, able only to vaguely see the grass-covered ground zipping by underneath and the distant still burning, exploding ruins of the buildings.

His brain was a chaotic mess, with only endless terror and questions spinning wildly:

"What does it mean... two groups of people are coming for me, no, I’m just an observer!!!"

"The one behind is in pursuit, moving in flashes corresponding to the white dashed lines marked on the computer before, but who is this sudden newcomer carrying me... the White Mask?!"

He frantically tried to use the corner of his eye to catch a glimpse of his captor’s profile.

That pure white, streamlined exoskeletal armor covered most of the other’s body, with the same-colored faceless mask covering the face.

This appearance was entirely different from any White Mask he had previously seen engaging with the Worries Relief Studio members in the bushes as captured by drone surveillance footage.

Neither the physique, the equipment, nor the aura lined up at all.

Is this a completely new, never-before-exposed White Mask?!!

"Strange... who is this? And why was this person never seen in the drone footage? Is he invisible?

No, the Worries Relief Studio can see invisible units, so what’s going on with him?"

The man from the Mechanical Department was unaware that someone else shared his confusion.

Only, that person’s confusion happened 2 minutes earlier, and he had also died 2 minutes earlier, perishing in the bushes at Point B.

....

A few minutes before.

In the thick and chaotic depths of the bushes, Chen Town suppressed his inner grief and continued crawling silently like a lizard, tightly pressed against the damp ground.

The death of his teammate made him extremely angry, longing to jump out of the brush and join his other teammates for a battle.

But he couldn’t; the more overwhelming the grief and anger, the more one needs to stay calm — a survival rule learned from countless lessons in blood and fire.

At such times, it was crucial to strictly follow the operation plan — evacuate to Point B.

Not because of cowardice or fear of death, nor to escape alone, quite the opposite, it was to eventually allow more teammates to withdraw safely from the chaotic battlefield.

Point B was carefully selected by the Worries Relief Studio as a rear support point, a pre-set safe haven and counterstrike point amidst the chaos.

Reaching and setting up defenses ahead of time was about building a last line of defense for the whole team.

"Calm... Calm... Reach Point B, establish a line of defense..."

Chen Town murmured the orders repeatedly in his mind.

Surrounding him from all directions were gunshots like bursting beans, clustered bomb detonations, the dull thuds of bodies colliding, the wails of the dying, and the angry roars of the furious.

The intense firefight drew most of the attention; whether the Worries Relief Studio’s team, the White Masks, or the strangely appearing Feng Mu, their focus remained on each other, no one sparing attention to notice if there was still a person hidden in an unremarkable spot in the bushes.

The chaotic environment provided him the opportunity for stealth.

His crawling movements became bolder and faster than before.

And so, unnoticed by him, about fifteen meters to his rear diagonal, a patch of grass parallel to his path moved with the same subtlety, matching the frequency and amplitude of his movements.

When he hastily accelerated his speed, forcefully parting the grass, the shaking of that patch intensified accordingly; when he paused briefly out of caution, the grass’s sway also appropriately slowed down.

Clearly, Chen Town hadn’t realized there was also a... invisible person hidden in the grass behind him.

It wasn’t surprising he didn’t notice this; he didn’t have eyes on the back of his head, and there was a natural blind spot in his vision; in such a tense march, it was normal not to mind what was behind him.

Oddly, however, from the sky overseeing most of the battlefield, the stealth drone equipped with multi-spectrum scanning and life detection features seemed to completely "ignore" the abnormality of that grass patch.

The "Intelligent Brain Xiaoyou," controlling the entire situation and capable of violently breaking through even invisible units, at this moment acted as if afflicted with selective "blindness," failing to send any warning over the encrypted communication channel.

This was very unsettling.

Finally, Chen Town crawled behind the slope at Point B.

He cautiously used the slope’s cover to slowly lift his body from a prone to a crouched position, his back tightly against the slope.

He first quickly scanned left and right to confirm there were no enemies or bullets directed at him nearby.

Immediately, he swiftly operated the tactical goggles.

The view from the goggles instantly switched, zooming in on several firefight points on the battlefield, also bringing the scene further along the road into his sight.

Seeing the convoy made of modified prisoner transport vehicles roaring down the road like a black dragon, Chen Town’s expression subtly changed, a deeper shroud of gloom covering his heart.

The enemy’s reinforcements had arrived, worsening the squad’s situation further.

He dared not delay any longer, immediately speaking in a low voice into his earpiece:

"Unit one, unit one, this is Chen Town; I have reached Point B. Repeat, I have reached Point B."

The communication channel first emitted a faint static noise, followed by a slightly urgent but stable male voice responding:

"Unit one received; we are on the way, expected to arrive at your location in half a minute. You may proceed with setting up the trap bombs, over."

Chen Town immediately responded:

"Understood!"

Ending the call, he quickly squatted down, swinging the assault rifle to his back, and swiftly unbuckled a specific catch on the side of his tactical storage bag.

Inside, two rows totaling twelve "trigger mines — ’Poison Needle’ type" were arranged neatly.

These mines, true to their name, were designed to look almost identical to an ordinary pen, entirely matte black and inconspicuous.

Yet the charge inside contained highly compressed nano-grade explosives, and once triggered, the directional explosion’s power could easily flip a heavy armored vehicle.

Even better was their unbelievably simple deployment method.

Chen Town used his gloved fingers to grasp the metal cap at the top of the "pen," gently twisting it counterclockwise half a turn, then pulling it outward.

A soft click sounded as the pen cap separated, revealing the slightly glowing red alloy pen tip with spiral grooves inside.

No need to find especially soft land; he merely aimed the pen tip vertically at the selected ground spot, then released his grip.

The "Poison Needle," under the force of gravity, dropped down, and the moment the pen tip touched the ground, the internal micro-energy core activated, the pen tip spinning rapidly, easily breaking through soil and hard rock layers.