“Schlik~”
Amid the sound of blood spraying, Tiemian drew the mantis blade from the still-warm corpse, dragging out a string of viscous blood beads.
“Now every stinking fish and rotten shrimp dares make a move on me.” Tiemian’s voice came through his metal face. He lifted a foot and kicked the fool who didn’t know the immensity of heaven and earth over to his underlings—
“Deal with it. Send it to the recycling station.”
Hearing their boss’s order, the underlings quickly stepped forward. Seeing that it wasn’t flesh-source energy, they were too lazy to carry it off and simply began dismantling it on the spot.
Listening to the rustling beside him, Tiemian turned his back and walked a few steps away. A cadre like him neither needed nor ought to show his face in front of bottom-rung lackeys, but now he had no choice but to come out and steady morale.
Ever since those two pieces of trash, Duxie and Tiechui, had died, the Skeleton Iron Society seemed to have become a soft persimmon anyone could step on. In the past, even if it was only a bounty on some underling, no one would dare take it. But now, those commissions that had hung there for who knew how long—some so old no one even knew whether the client was dead or alive—had all come back to life. Even a notorious cadre like him had run into five assassins in just two days!
And yet at a time like this, the chairman refused to show his face at all, leaving everything to the strategist. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust the strategist, but calming people’s hearts was work that required prestige. If even the boss with the backing wouldn’t appear, how were the underlings below supposed to feel at ease?
Tiemian wiped the blood from his mantis blade, his fingers wrapped in a layer of bionic skin making a faint rasp against the velvet cloth. Looking at his own reflection in the mirror-bright blade, Tiemian’s thoughts could not help drifting—
What exactly was the chairman thinking? Why had he not appeared for so long? Why was he allowing the situation to worsen?
All manner of doubts coiled around his thoughts like venomous snakes, but he could not show any of it in front of his men. The image of the Skeleton Iron Society had to be maintained, especially at a time like thi—
“Danger!”
The intuition honed through countless brushes with life and death made his nerves snap taut. Without waiting for his brain’s feedback, his body had already reacted. The cyberware clinging to his spine discharged violently, and his whole body curled up like a startled inchworm.
A streak of silver flashed past almost the instant he reacted, carrying a strange smell of metal scraping, and a spray of blood suddenly shot out!
Pain?!
Tiemian, who had long since replaced his face along with his facial bones with metal, could no longer remember how long it had been since he had experienced that sensation with his face. The last time seemed to have been when some towering, muscular figure had grabbed him by the neck and ground him against the floor?
A flood of memories flashed by like a revolving lantern, but as an old hand who had been running with gangs since the age of ten, he had experienced this trifling near-death sensation countless times. Those chaotic memories did not even distort his evasive movement for an instant!
“Kerenzikov, activate!”
His perception was stretched to the limit in that instant. Almost by instinct, he judged the source of the attack. His cyber-eye drive fully deployed, locking almost instantly onto the top floor of the abandoned freight tower in District Three, four hundred meters away—and onto that figure whose movements seemed “sluggish.”
“Found you.” Tiemian murmured. His legs erupted with astonishing force, launching him toward John’s position. Only then did the strange, thunderous boom of the arrow leaving the string finally reach him.
……
“As expected, it went wide…” John missed with his first shot and immediately took out a second crossbow bolt. He had already anticipated this failure.
Because he had already exhausted all three uses of Foresight Eye and both uses of Truth Gaze.
In the first foresight, he had outlined a perfect trajectory and asked whether the crossbow bolt could kill the target. The answer was No.
In the second foresight, he repeatedly factored in Tiemian’s possible evasions, used a charged strike, and asked whether Tiemian at the edge of his vision would die beneath this blow. The answer was still No.
And so, in the third foresight, he chose to believe in himself.
Unfortunately, it was only a graze.
Looking at that “Visage of the Ancient God” twisted by the erosion of flesh-source energy, John raised the crossbow once again. However, with Kerenzikov activated, how could Tiemian give him another chance to aim?
This place was the Skeleton Iron Society’s territory to begin with. Relying on his familiarity with the terrain, Tiemian’s sprint could be described as utterly unpredictable. Seeing that the other party was about to close in, John stomped the core of the crossbow mechanism to pieces, drew his handgun at the same time, and leapt down along the escape route he had chosen in advance.
Using the awning to cushion his fall, he did not even need to activate any ability before completing the nearly twenty-meter free fall. With a kick of both legs, he plunged straight into the complex alleyways.
To ensure the structural stability of the buildings in the district, the streets had no choice but to include many load-bearing structures whose structural significance far exceeded their practical use. This further complicated an already chaotic layout. Tiemian was a local after all. Seeing where John landed, he immediately understood his plan. Instead of pursuing along the route, he turned and slipped into an old storefront.
……
“As expected of a cadre. Looks like he won’t be that easy to kill without using a trump card.” John activated Dark Canopy, disrupting all the electronic devices around him, while he began withdrawing according to plan. One failure meant nothing. Once Mirage cooled down, he would sneak right up and shoot at close range. He refused to believe that guy could still dodge then!
Though there was plenty of inner monologue, John did not stop moving. The alleyways were narrow and complicated, forcing him to keep his nerves taut at all times so that a single lapse would not make him miss a turn.
Only…
“Creak—”
The sound of metal scraping was so faint that if Feng Xue’s main body had not been in a quiet indoor room, John alone absolutely would not have noticed the abnormal noise. But noticing was noticing. Without hesitation, he grabbed the shotgun and fired a round in the direction of the sound—
“Bang!”
Metal pellets bearing the [Po Jun] entry sprayed out. As long as ten of them struck the same—
“Missed!”
Although it was essentially the same field of view, one had to admit that the main body, situated in a quiet room and equipped with a frontal cortex implant, could indeed capture far more information. The instant John pulled the trigger, the main body had already seen that silhouette through the smoke, and John completed his evasion in the same motion.
He threw himself forward. A streak of silver swept past right behind him. Tiemian was hanging upside down from the overhead pipes, his mantis blade glinting coldly in the dim light.
“Pretty sharp.” His voice echoed through the alleyway, but his figure vanished once more.
It was not optical camouflage, merely high speed combined with familiarity with the terrain.
“Your shielding device isn’t bad. Unfortunately, choosing this place was a lousy move. Just from the landing point you chose, I can tell the route you used while scouting earlier. Hmm, let me think. You’re planning to go to [Wind Chime]? That is indeed a good idea… if the one chasing you weren’t me…”
Tiemian’s deliberately processed mockery rang out from all directions, disturbing John’s state of mind. But he clearly had no intention of wasting words. He raised his hand and fired three shots.
The pellets imbued with Po Jun riddled the surrounding obstacles with holes, but all they earned him was Tiemian’s laughter—
“Your gun is fast, and powerful too. But if it doesn’t hit, it’s meaningless.”