Chapter 111: OMG, It’s Hacking!
“Click—”
“Clack—”
The sounds of weapons being cocked echoed as the Voodoo Cult members raised their guns, aiming at the red dot in the sky.
“Buzz—”
The approaching object was now within earshot, and confusion spread among them.
What was going on?
That sound… wasn’t that one of their planes?
Why had the Boss sounded the alarm if it was one of their own?
“Buzz—”
The flying object passed overhead, small, dark shapes falling from it.
They looked like… people?
Then, the all-clear alarm stopped abruptly, a high-pitched whine replacing it.
“Fire! Fire! It’s the enemy!”
The familiar, frenzied voice from the loudspeakers jolted them back to reality.
The enemy?!
“Bang—”
A sniper reacted instantly, firing at the giant insect in the sky.
The muffled shot seemed to be the opening salvo of a gruesome fireworks display. A hail of bullets followed, aimed at the falling figures.
“Thud, thud—”
“Splat, splat—”
Most of the falling figures were hit.
And even those who weren’t wouldn’t survive the fall from this height.
“Slap—”
The first body hit the ground, a wet, squishy sound, like clay hitting marble.
It burst on impact, a spray of gore, splattering the crowd below.
Some of the gore even landed in the mouths of the Voodoo Cult members who hadn’t had time to put on their masks.
“What the fuck… are they all committing suicide? Are they insane?!”
“Slap—Splat, splat—”
More bodies fell, bursting like fleshy bombs, though harmless without explosives.
Besides a few unlucky ones directly hit, they didn’t cause any casualties.
“Rat-tat-tat-tat—”
“Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang—”
The Voodoo Cult members ignored the falling bodies, continuing to fire at the large red dot in the sky.
A rocket, trailing flames, spiraled upwards, finally hitting its target.
The red light flickered and died, and the giant insect began to fall.
“Good shot, Brother Liang!”
“Haha! That was all me!”
Those below scattered as the insect fell, not wanting to be crushed.
“Crash—”
The insect slammed into a building, embedding itself in the side.
“Zzzt—”
A figure, trailing red lightning, appeared behind them, its movements so fast it left afterimages.
“Damn it…” Wu Hejun’s brown eyes flashed red, her rage building.
She wasn’t angry that a Voodoo Cult aircraft had been hijacked, but that most of her assembled men weren’t wearing masks.
And she could see… blood on their faces and mouths.
“Motherfucker… motherfucker… motherfucker…”
A growing sense of dread, a premonition of something terrible, washed over her.
She didn’t know what it was, just that… something bad was about to happen.
Suddenly, she felt a gaze on her. She turned and saw a Voodoo Cult member looking at her, his expression blank.
In his hands were two submachine guns.
“Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat—”
Muzzle flashes erupted as he opened fire, both weapons aimed at her, without warning.
“Zzzt—”
But the bullets stopped mid-air, inches from her body.
Each bullet, frozen in time, its tip connected to her by a thin, twisting arc of electricity.
“It’s you?! No… not you…”
“Zzzt—”
A wave of electromagnetic energy pulsed outwards, engulfing the nearby Voodoo Cult members.
And as it expanded, the suspended bullets reversed direction, flying back towards the shooter.
“Zzzt—”
The bullets, now charged with electromagnetic energy, embedded themselves in him, and his body, after flashing red, burst into flames.
As he burned, a charred black mass was expelled from his mouth, writhing on the ground before turning to ash.
“This is…” Wu Hejun frowned, looking at the fungal remains.
And the Voodoo Cult members who had been touched by the electromagnetic pulse were convulsing.
Almost half of them were vomiting fungal tendrils.
“Damn it…” Wu Hejun cursed, her surprise growing.
She’d been gone for only a short time, and almost half her men were infected…
If she hadn’t studied the fungus extensively, known how to use her ability to expel the tendrils with minimal harm, she would have lost even more men.
She looked up at the massive insect, half-embedded in the building.
It looked like it was dying, its legs twitching weakly, and the figure dangling beneath it was clearly visible against the white wall.
But the figure, bound and suspended, probably wasn’t important, likely just a low-ranking member who’d been caught during the fall.
“Zzzt—”
Destroy everything, and it’s all good.
She could see the insect, even in its dying state, still spreading spores.
The spores, carried by the wind, even if she destroyed the insect now, the resulting infection would still be a problem.
She had to kill it, now.
Wu Hejun clenched her right fist and swung it at the distant building.
Red electromagnetic rings, like ripples in a pond, pulsed outwards from her wrist.
The concrete beneath her feet cracked, and debris floated around her, pulled by the energy.
She casually reached out with her left hand, and a bright orange road roller, caught in the electromagnetic field, floated towards her.
“Haaa—” She pulled her left hand back and then pushed forward.
The road roller was heavy, even for her. Without using her ability directly, although her push dented the metal slightly, it only moved a short distance.
But that small movement was enough.
It was now fully within her electromagnetic field.
As it passed through the first ring, the ring flashed red and contracted sharply.
The road roller accelerated, reaching the second ring.
The second ring also contracted, and the road roller’s speed increased further.
“Buzz—Buzz—Buzz-Buzz-Buzz-Buzz-Buzz-Buzzzz…”
With each ring it passed through, the road roller accelerated, its orange body now glowing with electrical energy.
By the last ring, its speed was almost imperceptible, a blur of orange and red, a streak of lightning, slamming into the giant insect.
The Voodoo Cult’s prized flying transport exploded in a shower of bone fragments and flames, electricity crackling around it.
The road roller, its momentum undiminished, continued, punching a hole through the building and then, like a reverse lightning strike, shooting skyward.
“Boom—”
The deafening sound of the explosion reached them only after the insect had been completely incinerated. The ground trembled slightly.
“Holy shit…”
Those who had recovered from the electromagnetic pulse stared at the scene, awestruck.
This… this was the true power… of a B-rank Awakened!
Although it had taken a while to charge, that attack… that was beyond human… superhuman!
While they were still marveling at the display of power, no one noticed a burning piece of tendril, severed by the explosion, falling from the sky, carrying a small, charred, smoldering figure wreathed in electricity.
As it fell, the figure, a blonde woman, her eyes closed, slowly opened them, her blood-red pupils turning towards the Voodoo Cult members below.
She quickly adjusted her position, preparing for a rough landing.
But the burning tendrils wrapped around her twisted and spread, forming a thin, membrane-like parachute.
“Thud—”
The makeshift parachute slowed her descent, then burned away.
She continued to fall, but now only from a height of eight or nine meters.
“Thump—”
She landed, bending her knees to absorb the impact, raising a cloud of dust.
Golden scales erupted from her skin, then receded, as if resetting, extinguishing the flames and dissipating the lingering electricity.
She stood up and tore away the remaining tendrils, now just a small clump.
The tendrils coalesced, forming a small, white-clad figure, about the size of a child’s doll.
But the small figure’s face and clothes were covered in black burns, its expression exhausted, tears in its eyes.
As if it had been crying from the pain.
Seemingly unaware that the woman looking at it with cold, emotionless eyes wasn’t its Mommy, the small figure opened its arms and whispered weakly, “Mommy… Yibai is hurt…”
But the blonde woman, like a cold, unfeeling machine, seemingly not hearing, simply picked up the small, white figure and tucked it into her sweatshirt.
Then, she looked at the “blood crystals” scattered around her and at the extraction point, 1292.2 kilometers away.
“Fuck… fuck this…” she muttered, her words a string of censored beeps.
Then, without hesitation, she turned and ran towards the extraction point.
But a streak of lightning, faster than her, arced through the air, striking her in the lower back.
Her face twisted in a grimace, not of pain, but of annoyance.
A surprisingly expressive face, considering her earlier blank demeanor.
“Shhh—”
Her right hand twisted, a massive bone blade, almost half the length of her body, erupting from it, gleaming in the moonlight.
She turned, her foot shattering the concrete beneath it, and ran towards the “blood crystals.”
She ran low to the ground, her blade dragging along, carving a deep furrow in the asphalt.
As she sprinted, her short sweatshirt, barely covering her upper body, rode up, revealing glimpses of her breasts.
“Zzzt—”
Another electromagnetic charge, but this time, before it reached her, her head snapped to the right, the red lightning narrowly missing her left cheek.
“Boom—”
The lightning struck the ground behind her. Wu Hejun, and all the Voodoo Cult members, Awakened or not, froze.
A C-rank Awakened couldn’t dodge a lightning strike, not even one specializing in speed and reflexes.
Even a B-rank wouldn’t be able to dodge Wu Hejun’s electromagnetic attacks consistently.
But this… zombie… it had dodged?
And not just dodged, but anticipated the attack!
Its incredible processing speed had seemingly predicted the trajectory of the electromagnetic blast!
How… how was that even possible?!
It was like playing Xerath and having every skillshot dodged by a scripting bot.
For the first time, Wu Hejun felt a sense of… unease… in Chongyu City.
“Fire!!!”
As she shouted the command, the zombie instantly turned and, crashing through a wall, disappeared into the building.
“Rat-tat-tat—”
“Bang, bang, bang—”
The gunfire was too late, hitting only empty air.
The zombie’s reaction speed… was on a completely different level…
It’s her!!! It has to be her!!!
She’s back!!!
Leave a Reply