Chapter 81: Is There a Ghost Here?

Saddie took a while to find the bullet buried in Summer’s shoulder.

The pain stung badly every time she moved the tools, but Summer could not exactly move around as she pleased, so she stayed still and endured it.

Besides, this was not the first time she had been on an operating table.

The only difference was that this time, someone was cutting into her body because they wanted to save her, not because they wanted to hurt her in the name of making her stronger.

"Summer, are you still awake?" Saddie asked again, at least she had been checking on her every couple of minutes.

Summer could barely move her lips anymore, so all she managed was a weak hum. "Mm."

"Good," Saddie said softly. "Stay awake. It won’t take much longer."

Summer honestly did not expect much from that promise. But it turned out, Saddie really meant it.

Around three minutes later, she finally found the bullet. "There you are," Saddie muttered.

She carefully caught it with a pair of surgical forceps and slowly pulled it out of Summer’s shoulder. Summer’s fingers twitched slightly from the sharp sting, but she still did not move.

"You’re good. You’re good," Saddie kept repeating as she checked Summer’s pulse again. "You’ll be fine, Summer."

Her voice stayed steady, but Summer could still hear the worry behind it.

After making sure there were no bullet fragments left inside Summer’s body, Saddie finally started stitching the wound closed.

On the other side of the room, Julie was still standing near the door with her rifle ready.

She barely looked away from the outside. Every time she noticed even the smallest movement, she quickly checked it through the rifle’s scope. Most of the time, it was only polluted creatures wandering nearby, no suspicious people.

At least, not yet.

Even so, Julie did not relax because she could not let the polluted creatures get too close, but she also did not want to fire before Saddie finished treating Summer.

The rifle was not completely silent, after all. If she fired now, the sound could give away their location and if the person who shot Summer was still nearby, that would be exactly what they needed to find them.

Julie tightened her grip on the rifle as she saw a few more creatures were starting to move closer.

They seemed braver now, probably because they had not sensed any danger for a while.

"Miss McKay," Julie said without taking her eyes off the scope, "there are several polluted creatures getting closer."

She paused for a second. "Should I keep waiting?"

Without taking her eyes off Summer, Saddie answered, "Shoot them if they get too close." Her hands kept moving as she added, "I just need a little more time."

"Understood," Julie said.

She tightened her grip on the rifle and focused on the area outside again.

For a few seconds, everything looked the same, then something moved in the distance.

Julie quickly raised the rifle and looked through the scope again, making sure she had not imagined it.

Her body immediately became tense. "Miss McKay," Julie said, her voice lower this time. "I think I just saw a human figure in the distance."

Saddie’s hands paused for only a second before she continued working on Summer’s wound.

"What are they wearing?" she asked. "Man or woman? And where are they standing?"

Julie pressed her eye closer to the scope.

"I think it’s a man," she answered carefully. "He’s wearing dark clothes, but not a military uniform. There’s no badge or symbol anywhere."

She adjusted the scope slightly. The figure stood partly hidden behind the remains of a broken wall several hundred meters away. Most of his face was covered by a dark mask, and he wore gloves that completely hid his hands.

Even from this distance, something about him felt wrong.

His clothes were simple and fitted closely to his body, without anything loose that could get in the way. He carried very little equipment, and the way he held his rifle looked far too calm and practiced.

"He keeps using the ruins as cover," Julie continued. "And he has a long-range rifle."

Saddie’s expression immediately changed. "Where is he aiming?"

Julie watched him for another few seconds. "I’m not quite sure," she said slowly. "He looks like he’s aiming at us, but sometimes he moves his rifle like aiming at the polluted creatures."

"He’s probably just wanting to confuse us," Saddie said. "Sounds like an assassin."

Summer’s fingers moved slightly. By now, enough feeling had returned to her face that she could finally speak again, although her voice still sounded weak. "Don’t kill him."

Both Saddie and Julie looked toward her.

Summer swallowed before continuing, "Someone probably hired him to shoot me. If we kill him now, we might lose our only chance to find out who sent him."

Summer knew that if they did not get rid of the source behind the trouble coming after her, then everything else would be pointless.

"I’ll keep watching him," Julie said hesitantly. "Or maybe I can shoot his arms instead."

"Good," Summer murmured.

Julie placed her finger against the trigger again. She waited for a while, but the assassin still had not fired.

Julie slowly started to wonder if she had misunderstood the situation.

Maybe he really was aiming at one of the polluted creatures. But then she noticed the barrel of his rifle move.

It was subtle, but Julie immediately realized that he was aiming at them.

She quickly pulled the trigger, but the man did the same thing at the exact same time.

The two bullets met in the air. Julie’s eyes widened when the assassin’s bullet tore straight through hers and it flew toward her so fast that her mind almost went blank.

Her heart beat so fast that her chest hurt, but the bullet was moving too quickly for her to react.

For one terrifying second, Julie was completely sure she was about to die.

However, just when she thought the bullet was about to pierce the space between her eyes, it suddenly stopped moving.

The tip of the bullet was floating only a few centimeters away from her face. It slowly spun in place, as if something invisible had caught it in the air and refused to let it move any closer.

"Julie!" Saddie grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the door.

For a moment, Saddie thought she had been too late to save her, but then she froze when she saw the bullet floating in the air.

Her eyes widened. "What the hell..."

Summer knew this was a serious moment. But precisely because it was serious, it was also the perfect time to bring the livestream back.

More viewers meant more witnesses. And if an assassin was really trying to kill her, then having thousands of people watching would make things much harder for whoever was behind it.

[Livestream reactivated.]

The comments immediately flooded the screen and moved so quickly that they were almost impossible to read.

[Damn, what the hell is happening?! Summer, are you okay?!]

[She’s fine! Look! She can already sit up!]

[WHY IS THERE BLOOD?!]

[Wait, what happened while the stream was off?!]

Fortunately, Saddie had already covered Summer with her jumpsuit, so the viewers could not clearly see her body or the wound.

Then someone finally noticed the strangest thing in the room.

[What the hell?!]

[THERE’S A BULLET FLOATING IN FRONT OF SADDIE AND JULIE!]

[WHY IS IT JUST HANGING THERE?!]

[Did someone shoot at them?!]

The comments became even more chaotic.

On the other side, the bullet floating in front of Saddie and Julie suddenly shot sideways.

It moved so fast that neither of them had time to react. A second later, it slammed straight into a polluted creature standing beside the abandoned bar.

"Is it..." Saddie pressed her lips into a thin line because she was not completely sure, but somehow, she already had a feeling. "How the hell—"

She had not even finished speaking when she suddenly saw a medical team arriving by helicopter instead of a jeep.

At the same time, the assassin clicked his tongue and decided to leave.

However, before the assassin could take more than a few steps, his body suddenly froze in place.

At first, he thought something had caught on his clothes, but when he tried to move again, nothing happened.

His legs would not respond, his arms would not move, even his fingers were stuck around the rifle.

The assassin’s eyes widened behind his mask. "What the—"

Before he could finish, an invisible force suddenly pulled him backward.

His boots scraped hard against the ground as he was dragged out from behind the ruins.

He immediately tried to fight back, but it was useless because whatever was holding him was far stronger than he was.

A second later, his feet left the ground. The assassin was lifted straight into the air. His rifle slipped from his hand and fell below him with a loud clatter.

[WHAT THE HELL?!]

[WHY IS HE FLOATING?!]

[IS THERE A GHOST THERE?!]

[Knock, knock. Mr. Ghost, can you tell me today’s lottery numbers?]