The First Order

483 What“s with the posturing?

The bounties paid out for missions conducted in the Wang Consortium’s strongholds had always been higher than those conducted at other strongholds. This was because most of the hitmen were put in a very dangerous position for conducting a mission here. Furthermore, they would have to escape from all strongholds under the jurisdiction of the Wang Consortium after completing such missions. If they got spotted by the surveillance cameras again when entering the Wang Consortium’s strongholds, an arrest order would be immediately triggered.

Ren Xiaosu realized there would be surveillance cameras appearing on the tall buildings of this stronghold from time to time. It seemed that the Wang Consortium had also taken into consideration that there could be supernatural beings like him flying over roofs and scaling walls. So he had to remain extremely cautious to avoid getting spotted by them.

However, Ren Xiaosu felt that as long as the cameras were not placed everywhere and covered all the blind spots, he would have a chance to take advantage of it.

At the bottom of the text he received earlier, a map with the approximate location of 476 Xianyang Street was attached. It was simple and easy to understand.

Ren Xiaosu lithely advanced in the direction of the neon lights. During this period, his presence was almost captured by the cameras several times. Fortunately, the speed of the cameras’ rotation was relatively slow and he managed to get to the vicinity of the mission’s target.

Ren Xiaosu found a 12-story building and climbed to the roof with his bare hands. After ensuring there were no surveillance cameras on the roof, he carefully laid in wait there.

This location was not exactly the best spot to observe 476 Xianyang Street from. That was because there were some buildings blocking his view, and the distance was 900 meters away. Usually, snipers would not choose to shoot from this distance. Moreover, the target was Midnight, whose strength surpassed that of normal people.

However, Ren Xiaosu did not choose to go to the best observation spot since if he could judge where the best positions were, the A-rank hitmen would surely know as well. Who knew if there might already be someone waiting there at this moment?

476 Xianyang Street was a apartment complex five stories high. Ren Xiaosu could not tell which floor the Pyro Company’s Midnight squad was hiding in, so he could only wait patiently in the shadows.

To be honest, Ren Xiaosu was a little impressed by the Anjing House at this moment. He wondered how they managed to discover the whereabouts of the well-hidden Midnight in a sea of people.

Ren Xiaosu conjured up his black sniper rifle out of thin air and quietly scanned the surroundings of 476 Xianyang Street through the scope. However, he was puzzled by why there were no suspicious people around. The faces of the pedestrians walking past were never repeated and no one loitered around in the vicinity either.

Something was strange. Could it be that he was the first qualified account holder of the cell phones to arrive at the scene because he was the nearest to the target?

Ren Xiaosu sat on the top of the building with his large sniper rifle and continued to wait quietly.

No one would expect a strange person could have sneaked his way into the middle of an A-rank mission. He wasn’t here to do the mission and just wanted to watch the commotion.

Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu turned serious when he saw five people walking out of the apartment complex. The demeanor of the Pyro Company’s Midnight squad was totally different from that of the normal stronghold residents. Normal people might not notice it, but how could Ren Xiaosu, who often dealt with supernatural beings and elite soldiers, not be able to tell? Moreover, Midnight had always been a group of five, and it just so happened that there were five of them here.

Ren Xiaosu placed his sniper rifle in position and began to slow his breathing. Yang Xiaojin had said that controlling one’s breathing was one of the keys to unlocking the shackles of the body.

If no one from the Anjing House came here to carry out the mission, then he would not mind helping Yang Xiaojin kill off some members of the Pyro Company.

He had nothing better to do anyway.

All of a sudden, fireworks shot up into the sky in the western part of the stronghold for some reason. The brilliant fireworks made crackling sounds as they burst open in the sky and emitted a colorful glow. This loud sound caused all of the stronghold residents to look to the west.

Not far away, a flash suddenly came from a tall building just as the fireworks exploded in the sky. A member of Midnight was immediately killed on Xianyang Street.

Ren Xiaosu quickly shifted his scope and saw that that building was the most ideal location for shooting. With a firing distance of 600 meters, it had the best view of that building at Xianyang Street.

A young man was lying on the roof of the building. It looked like he was already taking aim at his next target. Ren Xiaosu could even tell that the sniper was using a Blaser R93 Tactical.[1] The best feature of this gun was that the bolt action design allowed for much steadier follow-up shots.

Bang! Another shot rang out from 600 meters away. Then another member of Midnight was sniped dead before they could even find a place to take cover.

Ren Xiaosu pondered this for a moment and realized snipers were actually among the A-rank hitmen. In truth, it was rather expensive to train a sniper these days. Meanwhile, this sniper who could maintain his accuracy even though he was firing continuously and at such a fast rate was definitely not an amateur. He might even previously be the trump card of a certain elite unit.

But how could the Pyro Company be so easy to deal with? No matter how powerful and sneaky a sniper was, how could they possibly wipe out the entirety of Midnight on their own?

But before Ren Xiaosu could dwell further on it, he suddenly saw through his scope a person climbing up the building across from where the sniper was located with his bare hands. In an instant, the sniper was attacked and killed by the person.

This person’s speed and strength were far superior to the Midnight squad that Ren Xiaosu had previously fought!

Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. The information provided by the Anjing House was erroneous. It turned out there was more than one team from the Pyro Company here, and they actually had a contingency plan too! Moreover, it was a technologically advanced fighting force that was lying in ambush.

The members of Midnight that were shot by the sniper were merely bait.

Seeing that the member of the Pyro Company on the opposite building had killed the sniper, Ren Xiaosu got an ominous feeling. Wasn’t it said the Pyro Company’s fighting forces always consisted of five people per team?

Then where were the other combatants? When he looked at the member of the Pyro Company on the opposite building through his scope, that combatant suddenly turned around and grinned at him. Then he made a throat-slitting gesture.

In that instant, another person pounced from the edge of the building onto the rooftop where Ren Xiaosu was. The enemy was dressed in black, and it was as though he had merged with the night.

But an even darker shadow suddenly appeared from the darkness beside him. When the shadow raised the black saber in its hand and slashed, it cut the approaching member of the Pyro Company in half.

From the beginning to the end, Ren Xiaosu did not even turn around to look. He continued to maintain his steady breathing.

Distance: 617 meters. Wind speed: 15m/s. Humidity…

The moment the opponent made that throat-slitting gesture, Ren Xiaosu pulled the trigger with a sneer. From a distance like this, the firepower of his anti-materiel sniper rifle[2] was enough to ignore any external factors, unless strong winds were blowing.

With a shot, the exhaust from the sides of the gun swept up the dust around Ren Xiaosu. Meanwhile, that member of the Pyro Company was sent flying backwards by the huge inertia of the bullet.

Ren Xiaosu was afraid his enemy would be wearing a bulletproof vest, so he even resorted to using armor-piercing bullets that could shoot through tanks.

Seeing that the enemy was utterly dead now, Ren Xiaosu stowed his gun and muttered, “What the fuck is with your posturing!”

Ren Xiaosu quickly moved in another direction as he said that. As the gunshot was incredibly loud, it would attract the attention of many people.

Meanwhile, three members of that advanced fighting force from the Pyro Company still had not shown themselves.

[1] The Blaser R93 Tactical is a German bolt action sniper rifle, based on the Blaser R93 design. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaser_R93_Tactical

[2] An anti-materiel rifle (AMR) is a rifle that is designed for use against military equipment (materiel), rather than against other combatants (“anti-personnel”). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-materiel_rifle