Chapter 97: The Bloody Battle [5800 words]

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Information-Flow Interference Bomb.

A nonlethal bomb manufactured with a super amplifier and a special Ruin Beast chip.

Its detonation principle was to use a coil to continuously raise the voltage, then bombard the special chip with an ultra-high-voltage current. This triggered violent oscillations within the chip, further spirally magnifying the signal strength before culminating in an explosive release of pulse information streams resembling electromagnetic waves.

Its mechanism bore some resemblance to the electromagnetic-pulse bombs used on Earth in the twenty-first century.

The shock wave it released did indeed contain electromagnetic pulses, but what truly took effect was the pulse information stream.

Within the brief duration of a single second, these pulse information streams would inflict devastating damage on chips within a radius of several hundred meters.

An entirely unprotected chip would be ruined on the spot.

A chip installed inside equipment and serving as the core of its auxiliary brain would exhibit different responses depending on the performance of its outer shielding. In severe cases, it would be rendered useless; in mild ones, its operation would become sluggish.

This was an abandoned mine pit, and also an extraordinarily large geomagnetic anomaly.

The geomagnetic field here was already far wilder than elsewhere. It could even give birth to more powerful mutated Ruin Beasts.

Here, information streams propagated more efficiently than in ordinary locations, and their rate of decay was much slower.

In short, detonating an Information-Flow Interference Bomb here and now would produce the greatest possible effect.

This level of control over every detail was another manifestation of Ren Zhong’s true intelligence.

Lin Wang immediately sensed that something was wrong.

As befitted a veteran Level Four armored warrior, he instinctively tried to sprint aside.

Yet after the command was issued by his brain, the exoskeleton armor that had always responded as readily as his own limbs failed to provide an immediate, precise response.

At that moment, Ren Zhong suddenly raised his left hand and pressed downward with his fingers held together.

The five people behind him reacted at once.

They had been hunting as a team for nearly a month, and their coordination had grown increasingly polished.

Over that month, under Ren Zhong’s deliberate tutelage, Zheng Tian and the others had developed a tacit understanding. A mere glance at one of his simple gestures was enough for them to understand what tactical plan he intended to execute and what they needed to do next, without a word being spoken.

It was instinctive, like a knee-jerk reflex. It required no thought or analysis of the situation.

All five retreated in unison, dropping back once more beneath the edge of the abandoned mine pit.

Ou Youning performed one additional action.

Although he did not remember setting any explosive traps, he still slammed a fist into his own thigh.

His Number Five remote detonator was in that pocket.

Earlier, Ren Zhong had forcibly insisted, without offering any explanation, that the detonator be fitted with a reinforced anti-pulse shielding layer.

The normal procedure was to take it out, open the shielding casing, and press the button.

With time running short, Ou Youning adopted the expedient method of deforming the casing by smashing it against his thigh.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

The ground directly beneath Lin Wang and Bei Lihui erupted in a succession of explosions.

Beneath Lin Wang’s feet, more than seventy Level Two and Level Three explosive devices—impact bombs, shaped-charge bombs, and fragmentation bombs—unfurled like a scarlet lotus in bloom.

The scarlet lotus beneath Bei Lihui was somewhat smaller, but still contained more than twenty charges.

Concentrated shock waves, focused jets of molten metal, and lethal fragments scattering like heavenly maidens strewing flowers swept outward together with the shattered pieces of shielding casings. Lin Wang and Bei Lihui, unable to evade in time, were swallowed on the spot. The Qingfeng heavy transport truck in the center, already disabled by the Information-Flow Interference Bomb, was violently hurled into the air.

This array of explosive bombs was the arrangement Ren Zhong had secretly prepared here in the early hours of the morning.

Ou Youning, the designer of the explosive array, was ecstatic.

He had not known that Ren Zhong had buried bombs in advance. He only knew that whenever Ren Zhong made that gesture, he was to press the Number Five detonator.

Mr. Ren truly never fought an unprepared battle!

We can win!

This round of explosions can injure an ordinary Level Four professional!

We demolition experts may appear utterly helpless, but if given the right opportunity, enough explosives, and sufficient time for thorough preparation, we can use traps to overcome those above our level!

Elsewhere, Ren Zhong, who had dropped flat ahead of time, shattered the shielding patches on his body. Adopting the starting stance of a hundred-meter sprinter, he charged ferociously toward the still-fading scarlet lotus.

At the same time, he shouted, “Three!”

The instant his voice fell, Zheng Tian shot backward and to the left.

Wen Lei likewise drove his energy output to the limit, shattered the shielding layer on his body, and charged forward and to the left—toward Bei Lihui—with his shield raised.

Bai Feng, meanwhile, lunged toward the right flank. A metal rod was quietly rising from the ground there.

Ren Zhong had already reached the front of the enormous scarlet lotus.

At the same time, he shouted again, “B2!”

Ou Youning immediately smashed another trouser pocket against his opposite thigh.

Thirty meters to Ren Zhong’s right, the soil churned as two high-thrust rockets burst simultaneously from the ground.

A sturdy alloy cable was fastened around the middle sections of the two rockets.

Beneath the cable hung a square metal mesh with sides twenty-seven meters long.

Dragged by the metal mesh, the two rockets failed to rise smoothly into the sky. Instead, they traced a semicircle with a radius of twenty-seven meters before plunging headfirst back into the earth.

The huge mesh flipped over at precisely the right moment, covering most of the scarlet lotus.

Ren Zhong violently drew his extensively modified arc-light saber and raised both arms. The propellant engines on his back roared and erupted.

He transformed into a straight bolt of lightning and charged headlong forward.

The arc-light saber in his hands, blazing with dazzling electric radiance, swept out in a long semicircular arc and cleaved directly toward the center of the metal mesh.

On the other side, Bai Feng had already seized the exposed metal rod with both hands.

While rushing there, he had gulped down the ionization-enhancement drug Ren Zhong had ordered him to purchase from Sun Miao.

The pure-white bands of light along the outsides of Bai Feng’s arms suddenly flared brilliantly.

Two streams of plasma, nearly solid in appearance, poured from his arms into the metal rod.

At almost the same instant, tiny flashes of lightning began to flicker across the enormous metal mesh.

Beneath the mesh, amid the boiling smoke, a burst of white light exploded as ultra-high-voltage current surged through it.

The brittle crackle of ionization piercing rang out incessantly, like a string of firecrackers.

With a resounding bang, Ren Zhong’s saber cleaved through the white radiance.

Electric flashes surged and burst as gray smoke whirled wildly through the air.

Ren Zhong immediately slipped past and continued forward, withdrawing his saber as he went.

At the precise instant he passed through, the Qingfeng heavy transport truck, which had earlier been flung into the air, descended from above and crashed directly into the point where the white radiance had erupted.

A violent chain of explosions ignited from the truck’s cargo compartment.

A colossal mass of flame writhed and lashed about as the shock wave carried it along, like a swarm of serpents dancing in frenzy.

A massive mushroom cloud rose into the sky!

From the moment Ren Zhong decided to launch his attack until now, every movement and every detail had remained under his control.

He had carefully arranged all the equipment and ammunition carried by every member of the team.

Since he was the one paying for it all, he could require the others to prepare everything exactly as he demanded, without conditions.

His long-term planning had never been intended merely to charge forward with a blade in hand.

From every possible angle, sparing no cost and leaving no opening, he was comprehensively weakening his enemies.

He had remained still until the moment came—then struck like thunder.

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To overcome those above one’s level, every link had to interlock without leaving the slightest margin for error!

Even so, Ren Zhong did not dare lower his guard.

With his brain-reaction index now as high as 3,137, he rapidly analyzed the vast quantity of information gathered by the multiple detectors in his tactical helmet.

Judging solely by his brain-reaction index, Ren Zhong had already reached the Level Four realm. It surpassed his other three parameters by two major levels.

Once again, he experienced the strange sensation of having his mind race far ahead of his body when one ability stood out above all the rest.

But this was not a bad thing. His brain already possessed abundant experience in carrying two burdens with a single core.

After reaching Level Two, his hearing had already begun resonating with his equipment.

Now, although his other parameters remained only at Level Two, his brain-reaction index—already at Level Four—had once again forcibly carried his entire being across that immense divide.

His sight and hearing had begun to resonate synchronously with the detectors in his exoskeleton!

Before reaching Level Three, he was exploring and sensing in advance, at the cost of his own life, the mysterious sensations involved in transforming into a Level Three armored warrior.

Even amid such chaos, with information flooding in from every direction, he could still clearly observe each new detail.

At the very center of the mushroom cloud’s detonation site, an energy-level reaction exceeding 1,600 kilowatts had not yet dissipated. It resembled a primordial beast about to burst from its cage.

Moreover, the figure was still climbing at a rate of 100 kilowatts per second.

Lin Wang had certainly been injured, and his injuries had worsened, but he was not dead.

In this era, Lin Wang had become one of the three professional team captains in the town. He had not earned that position through the so-called strategy he so arrogantly believed in.

His true reliance had never changed. It was his strength—second only to Ma Xiaoling in the town and above all others.

Ren Zhong now understood this even more deeply.

Even after his strength had been damaged in their earlier accidental clash, and even after Ren Zhong had trapped him in one interlocking ambush after another, he still would not die easily.

Ren Zhong was not discouraged.

This, too, lay within his contingency plans.

“B3! A5!”

He issued another set of commands.

The first was for Ou Youning. The second was for Zheng Tian.

Ou Youning smashed his own waist once more.

A chain of explosions began radiating outward in every direction from the battlefield.

This time, Ou Youning detonated Level Two seismic gas bombs.

Violent, banded waves of yellow smoke rolled upward, instantly spreading into a semicircular sector with a radius of three kilometers.

A maze of dust walls took shape in an instant.

Ren Zhong activated the added ultra-high-power sonic scanner.

A three-dimensional projection, like a bat’s “vision,” immediately appeared across the display of his tactical helmet.

He changed direction and charged toward Bei Lihui.

On the other side, Zheng Tian was retreating rapidly, half her body already hidden behind the walls of the dust maze. Following the instructions of the A5 command, she used the Level Two rapid-fire weapon in her hands to empty a magazine in moments.

The magazine was loaded with explosive gel rounds, resembling the smoke shells fired by anti-aircraft guns.

The bullets did not strike Bei Lihui. Instead, taking the point where he stood as the center, they detonated throughout the two-hundred-meter area surrounding him.

Each exploding bullet left behind countless tiny droplets of gel in the air, like the dense fog of early morning.

These seemingly transparent gel droplets had an extremely low density, only slightly greater than that of air, and remained suspended for an extraordinarily long time.

Yet the droplets’ greatest characteristic was not their lightness or their small size, but their refractive index.

In simple terms, the speed of light would fall to an appalling degree when passing through the gel.

A vast quantity of gel surrounded Bei Lihui, forming a ring of optical-illusion mist!

Under the cover of that mist, human vision was severely restricted.

Bang!

A dazzling beam of white light shot straight out from where Bei Lihui stood.

It was a heavy sniper round from the Scorpion-Lion 191, traveling at incredible speed and carrying tremendous kinetic energy.

Aside from Lin Wang, no one present could withstand a shot from that heavy sniper rifle.

Yet the round struck the ground two meters to Wen Lei’s side, blasting out a deep crater like one made by a tank shell.

Bei Lihui’s first shot had missed.

Temporarily setting Lin Wang aside, Ren Zhong came howling in from the flank and pounced toward Bei Lihui.

Since he had failed to kill Lin Wang instantly with the traps, Ren Zhong’s next move was naturally to eliminate Bei Lihui first—the gunner capable of executing anyone with a single heavy-sniper shot, and therefore the greater lethal threat.

This time, Ren Zhong did not fly. He landed ahead of time.

Relying on the performance of the superconductive transmission lines made from Fission Beast sinew, he used an improved amplifier to raise the armor’s power output to 1,000 kilowatts.

Then, with the four biological-metal bearing hubs located at his knees and ankles, he pushed the exoskeleton’s ground-charging capability to its absolute limit.

Holding the arc-light saber horizontally in both hands, trailing a ghostly blue radiance, he surged forward along a winding curve.

Within the small scarlet lotus that was about to disperse completely, Bei Lihui’s Scorpion-Lion 191 began firing armor-piercing heavy sniper rounds toward Ren Zhong at a rate of fifteen shots per second.

Though no one could see Bei Lihui’s expression, everyone knew that his eyes must be filled with profound fear of death.

Yet every one of Bei Lihui’s shots missed.

Although the impact points drew closer and closer to Ren Zhong, each was off by the narrowest margin.

Ren Zhong had reduced the distance between them to 220 meters.

A Level Four gunner was formidable. But if Ren Zhong, whose armor output had reached 1,000 kilowatts, managed to close in, Bei Lihui would certainly die.

At that moment, a streak of blue descended upon Ren Zhong from behind.

It was Lin Wang. He had finally broken free of the metal mesh.

The flames surrounding the great scarlet lotus had long since faded. The electrified mesh had been cleaved apart down the middle, yet electric arcs still flickered and spat across it.

On the other side, Bai Feng stood holding the metal rod, his eyes wide with bewilderment.

There was a human-head-sized hole in his abdomen.

Even so, the two bands of light on his arms had not gone out.

Though Bai Feng was already dead, his body still followed the instincts it had possessed in life, pouring high-voltage electrical energy outward without regard for the cost.

Several dozen meters behind Bai Feng, a silver short spear approximately 1.1 meters long was spraying flame from its tail. Like a tactical interception missile adjusting its posture in midair, it rapidly turned and came tracking after the blue figure lunging toward Ren Zhong.

With a sharp snap, Lin Wang reached sideways while running and caught the silver short spear pursuing him.

His mottled blue exoskeleton was covered in burn and impact damage, with electric light flickering from many of the ruptured sections.

The display of his tactical helmet had been pierced clean through.

Beneath the hole, one half of his pale face was drenched in blood, while the other remained ghastly white.

“Ren Zhong! Die!”

Lin Wang glared with both eyes, filled with endless, blazing fury.

He had thought killing Ren Zhong would be easier than crushing an ant. He had never imagined that Ren Zhong would surprise him again and again.

Lin Wang suddenly planted his foot forward and twisted his waist. His upper body arched backward, his right hand drawn far behind him. His entire body resembled a divine bow pulled to its full extent.

Flames once again burst from the tail of the silver short spear in his hand, and more than a dozen tiny Mach rings appeared in an instant.

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A guided tactical throwing spear!

The short spear tore through the air with a violent tremor, roaring from his hand and generating a sonic-boom cloud at the instant of release.

Ren Zhong had already completed his turn, but now he had no choice except to halt head-on and transfer all his power to the four biological-metal bearings in his elbows and wrists.

The arc-light saber, reinforced with fused Ayman Beast-Armor alloy, swept horizontally across.

With a resounding clang, Ren Zhong was knocked sideways through the air for more than ten meters.

If the structural components of his armor had not been strengthened with Ayman Beast-Armor alloy, that single blow would have reduced his exoskeleton to scrap on the spot.

After being successfully deflected, the silver short spear continued to howl and spin. It swept in a great arc around the entire battlefield before returning once more to Lin Wang’s hand.

In that brief opening, Bei Lihui, who had been trapped deep within the optical-illusion mist, finally staggered free.

One lens of his Level Four gunner tactical glasses had shattered, and his hair had been burned away in uneven patches.

His biochemical combat suit was covered in scorch marks and torn openings.

Beneath those openings, his body was crisscrossed with wounds deep enough to reveal white bone.

He raised his weapon in fury and tried to aim at Ren Zhong, who had just been knocked away and had not yet fully stabilized himself.

But Ren Zhong was on the other side, with optical-illusion mist still separating them.

Bei Lihui had no confidence in a guaranteed hit, so he turned the muzzle toward Zheng Tian’s position instead.

By then, Zheng Tian had already slipped quietly behind one of the dust-maze walls.

Bei Lihui’s ears twitched sharply. He swung the muzzle again, this time aiming toward the edge of the abandoned mine pit on the opposite side.

Fire!

A rotating heavy bullet roared forth. It first struck the ground at the edge of the mine pit, then punched through.

Ou Youning was leaning against the cliff wall of the abandoned mine pit.

He was gasping heavily, gripping the Number One and Number Four remote controllers in his hands.

Earlier, to ensure a faster response, he had removed the outer shielding casings from the two remaining controllers.

He had never expected the faint sound made while dismantling the casing to be detected by Bei Lihui amid the chaos, with rubble still flying everywhere.

A tremendous shock struck from behind. Ou Youning suddenly threw himself forward, blood rising in his throat as he nearly collapsed face-first onto the ground.

He looked down and saw a fist-sized hole torn through the center of his chest, like a pit of muddy sludge.

“Damn it all!”

Ou Youning raised his head and cried out in despair. With the last of his strength, he pressed the switches with the index fingers of both hands.

He could no longer wait for Ren Zhong’s command.

Half a second later, four three-meter-tall square boxes emerged from around the battlefield.

Each square box contained one hundred rockets arranged in a ten-by-ten grid.

Following the programs Ren Zhong had set in advance, all four hundred rockets instantly locked onto Bei Lihui in his blue combat suit and Lin Wang in his blue exoskeleton.

They ignited simultaneously.

They launched simultaneously.

More than one hundred flew toward Bei Lihui, while more than two hundred flew toward Lin Wang.

Bei Lihui reacted with extraordinary speed. Within 0.2 seconds, he completed an ammunition change. As he swung the Scorpion-Lion heavy rifle, two self-detonating shock sniper rounds left the muzzle, flying toward opposite sides to intercept the rocket barrage and detonate it prematurely.

One rocket after another exploded in midflight.

On the other side, Lin Wang had been preparing to hurl his spear for the third time and kill Ren Zhong, but he was forced to alter his move at the last moment and activate the array of thumb-sized interceptor missiles mounted on his back.

Ren Zhong took the opportunity to disappear into the walls of the dust maze.

After another round of violent explosions, Lin Wang charged in the direction Ren Zhong had fled and plunged headlong into the dust maze. He caught only a fleeting glimpse of Ren Zhong’s shadow vanishing on the opposite side.

At the same time, Ren Zhong’s taunting shout carried from far away:

“You worthless bastard! Your grandpa is right here! Come and get me!”

Lin Wang ground his teeth in fury.

Blood was still streaming from the top of his head, blurring the vision of one eye.

The display of his tactical helmet was damaged, and his ability to gather battlefield intelligence had fallen sharply.

Wounded upon wounded, Lin Wang hesitated for a brief moment.

Ren Zhong was simply too sinister, too vicious, too difficult to deal with.

In that instant, he was afraid.

He regretted it as well.

Had he known this man possessed such foresight, he would never have come here rashly to intercept and kill him.

“What’s wrong? Too scared to come, you little wretch? If you’re not coming, your grandpa is leaving! I gave you a chance, and you were useless!”

This time, Ren Zhong even switched to the professional team’s communications channel and taunted him right to his face.

Lin Wang immediately came to his senses.

The two sides were now mortal enemies. If he allowed Ren Zhong to escape, then even if he later sought refuge with one of the powerful figures in Chongyi County, he feared he would never again know a moment of peace.

Lin Wang clenched his teeth and once again activated the reserve power supply of his damaged armor. He raised the output back to 4,000 kilowatts and allocated most of the power to the self-guided beam guns on the armor’s outer layer, charging headlong toward the place where Ren Zhong had just disappeared.

Elsewhere, Bei Lihui changed ammunition yet again.

This time, he selected Level Four explosive-air shells.

He intended to whip up a gale and blow away the dust-maze walls obstructing his vision.

He had fired only three explosive-air shells before catching sight of Zheng Tian.

Bei Lihui changed ammunition again, switching to incendiary rounds.

At that moment, a warning instinct suddenly flared within him. He sharply swung the muzzle upward and fired into the air.

A peal of thunder erupted in the distance. A cold glint arrived first.

An electrically driven motorcycle had just vaulted over a mountain ridge and hung suspended in midair.

On the motorcycle, a red-faced youth gripped a Fang heavy sniper rifle with both hands.

The heavy sniper’s muzzle was aimed at Bei Lihui’s forehead.

Thin wisps of white smoke still curled from the barrel.

A Level Three impact round came screaming through the air and collided head-on with the incendiary round Bei Lihui had fired moments earlier.

The two bullets detonated against each other in midair.

The impact round shattered and melted in the sky.

The incendiary round transformed into brilliant fireworks and shot straight ahead like a meteor crossing the heavens.

The youth Yu Jin had joined the battle, rifle in hand.

[I had originally planned to finish this section in this chapter, but it truly proved impossible. I’m sorry for the delay.]

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