The gun went off.
Without the slightest warning—at the very instant Theodore had not even had time to deliver the grandiose declaration he had spent hours preparing—John’s body abruptly vanished, then abruptly reappeared. Along with his flickering silhouette, the bullet that had long since finished charging, after being enhanced by Tomboy, turned into an orange-red beam of light. Before the sound of the shot even rang out, it had already arrived before Theodore.
Time seemed to freeze—then suddenly accelerate.
A flash of silver passed through the eyes of the bodyguard on Theodore’s left as his Sianwistan cyberware activated at full power.
John’s shot had indeed come with extreme suddenness, but the orange halo lighting up at the muzzle had, in the end, exposed his intent.
His body seemed to teleport as he blocked Theodore’s front. His force-field shield and the phase-shift function of his subdermal armor overclocked at the same time. Yet at that moment, when anyone would have thought it foolproof, just as the remaining bodyguards were already preparing to charge forward and kill this dangerous element, the force-field barrier that should have been able to withstand anti-behemoth armor-piercing rounds, together with the bodyguard’s body equipped with four-star subdermal armor, was pierced clean through.
The Sianwistan they had not shut off in order to attack the enemy became the bodyguards’ final salvation. Under the tacit combined effort of the three bodyguards, Theodore—who had not even understood what had happened and had not even heard the gunshot yet—was finally shifted some distance to the left. And immediately after, what he faced was unbearable agony!
“Ahhhhh—”
A shrill scream burst from Theodore’s mouth—the greatest pain he had ever suffered since childhood had been installing cyberware—almost shattering the tavern’s bulletproof glass. Only now did the gunshot finally reach the ears of the “patrons” ahead of that scream. John flicked his right hand, and the handgun in it had already switched into a shotgun!
“Boom!”
Without even giving the patrons a chance to reveal their true forms, John blasted the nearest few people away with a single shot. Under the wash of buckshot carrying the [Pojun] entry, he actually shot them into a texture of flesh and bone separating, of ashes scattering and smoke vanishing.
The Haitiehui thugs, who did not understand the characteristics of a purple entry, all retreated in unison. The thing they had arrogantly believed to be courage, accumulated in training programs, vanished without a trace after they witnessed the terrifying power of this firearm.
But John would not stop killing because of that. His left hand gripped a handgun and pointed it from afar at Theodore, forcing the bodyguards who had just wanted to move back into place, while the shotgun in his right hand kept firing, blasting the small fry until not even bones remained.
However, the shotgun’s magazine capacity was truly limited. Even with perfect reloading, there was still bound to be an opening. And at the very moment one shell was spent, a massive figure suddenly leapt out from behind the bar. It was the Haitiehui’s Double-Flower Red Pole—
Chariot!
But ambushes held no meaning against John. The instant that figure was about to arrive, John’s left hand had already made a minute adjustment on its own. The entry named [Protect the Master], embedded in the Second Son arm hidden blade, took effect at that moment, firing a bullet at the big man.
Unfortunately, without charging, a handgun bullet enhanced only by Tomboy could not produce enough damage. With a muffled thud, that thick, powerful giant arm stiffened only briefly before continuing to smash toward John’s face.
At the same time, Theodore’s bodyguards seized this rare chance and immediately prepared to escort Theodore out of the tavern. It was not that they lacked combat power. In fact, if they casually sent out any two of them, they were confident they could kill John within ten seconds. But after witnessing the power of John’s attack, these bodyguards had completely lost any intention of leaving Theodore’s side. After all, they were not confident they could prevent John from firing a shot at Theodore, nor were they confident that a single person alone could protect Theodore under that shot.
But while the bodyguards wanted to run, John might not be willing to let them. Two tongues of flame suddenly jetted from his legs, and he avoided Chariot’s explosive strike with incomparable smoothness. The handgun in his hand, however, once again aimed at Theodore’s position!
This time, the bodyguards were prepared. One of them pushed Theodore toward his companions while he turned and activated the force-field shields over his entire body. The energy beam struck the shield, causing it to ripple violently, but it did not break.
“He didn’t charge this time! As long as—”
“Boom!” The voice in the corner of the tavern came to an abrupt stop. A headless corpse collapsed limply. Judging by the clothes, who else could it be but Edwin?
“John!” Chariot’s roar came from behind him. This two-meter-thirty giant had fully entered combat mode. The buzzing sounds paired with his enormous figure made him truly like a chariot, ready to crush everything completely.
Under the propulsion of his overloaded legs, that terrifying physique erupted with terrifying speed. Though he might not necessarily be able to kill John, with such a “wall” flying at him, John no longer seemed capable of stopping anything!
“Now!”
The three bodyguards instantly completed their exchange through a thought link. One of them blocked the direction of John, while the other two lifted Theodore—who had already become somewhat dazed after a large amount of painkillers had been injected—using a standard rescue posture.
John tried to raise his gun again, but Chariot’s figure had already pressed down. Yet before the big fellow could show an excited expression of success, he first saw the upturned corners of the other man’s mouth.
“He’s smiling?”
“Why?”
“Ahhhhh—”
A burning pain that seemed to rise from the depths of his brain marrow instantly destroyed Chariot’s ability to think.
As a gang enforcer, pain enough to make an ordinary person lose consciousness on the spot failed to rob him of awareness. But when he recovered from that brief daze, a dark gun muzzle was already aimed at his head!
“Boom!”
Brains mixed with metal exploded apart. John was not in a hurry to chase Theodore. Instead, he casually felt around Chariot’s corpse twice, then clicked his tongue in disgust.
“Tsk, all street-stall junk!”
Kicking aside the corpse that could at least be worth tens of thousands, John came to the unlucky bastard who had fallen after blocking the shot. But merely looking at the wound where flesh buds were sprouting gave John a bad feeling.
“Fuck! My Kerenzikov!”
Although he said that, he still swiped his fingertip, cutting open the bodyguard’s back. Looking at the cyberware that had been one-fifth contaminated, he felt a pang of heartache.
Fortunately…
“The Sianwistan can still be used…”
John pulled out that small plug-in, but he did not see the familiar prompt indicating it could be recorded. A hint of disappointment inevitably appeared on his face, but immediately afterward, his attention was drawn to the red exclamation-mark bubble on the cheat icon.
“What the hell?” Casually tapping open the icon, John looked at the flashing crafting bench and felt his heartbeat suddenly accelerate. His consciousness completed the selection and click in an instant. Looking at the complex information spreading out before his eyes, his eyes instantly went wide.
“Shit! This thing is the main material for the Fanyin Beat?!”