Chapter 555: Ghost In The Mirror
Before Song Jinbo completely woke up, A’Ji snuck away to hide in the darkness.
Song Jinbo bit his tongue so the pain would clear his head faster.
He also heard the constant gunshots and cries for murder not far in distance. He sensed the spirit energy ripples crashing into each other like fierce waves. He did not understand what was going on, and when he looked at Meng Chao, his gaze was filled with puzzlement.
“Rattlesnake Xiang Wei’s pursuers were ambushed by monsters,” Meng Chao explained patiently.
Song Jinbo’s eyes immediately went wide, and his gaze was filled with animosity. It was as if he was saying “Aren’t you the one who lured Xiang Wei and the others into the ambush?”
“I know that you won’t believe no matter what I say right now, but you’re not blind nor are you deaf. If you’re the manager of Glory Entertainment, it means that your brain isn’t full of rust. You can see, hear, and think for yourself,” Meng Chao said.
“In a moment, I won’t have the time to be bothered with you. I can only cast you to the side. If you want to run, you can. But I will give you the reminder once more, and this will be my last reminder to you. The lair… No, all of Dragon City is facing a crisis that will destroy the city, and the key to our victory might not be at the borders of the city, but in front of us. Tell me, do you have a wife and children?”
Song Jinbo said nothing, but his gaze clearly flickered.
“Looks like you do. Then, think of your wife and children. Don’t do anything that will bring grief to your close ones while causing joy to your enemies. It’ll be too late for regrets when your wife and children end up in the mouths of monsters!”
Once he finished speaking, he tossed Song Jinbo to the side.
Song Jinbo exercised his limbs. When he saw that Meng Chao really did not have the intention to kill him, his eyes roved about, and the puzzlement and hesitation in them grew.
Meng Chao ignored him. He bent his back and moved forward with Su Mulian.
The tunnels ahead of them were interconnected with each other. There were observation holes and embrasures all over the walls, making it look like a killing maze, and it was very suitable for ambushes and chaotic battles.
In truth, when they first began building underground spaces, they planned to use them for military purposes.
Their original expectations were that once the surface was completely occupied by zombies and monsters, humans would have to hide in the shelters underground and use these killing mazes to fight against their stupid enemies.
However, the threat of zombies and monsters grew weaker day by day, and the killing mazes were slowly abandoned. Now, one of them turned into a slaughterhouse for the abnormal beast to ambush humans.
After taking the last corner, the two stepped on wet blood and sticky organs.
What appeared ahead of them was hell.
The tunnel was filled with smoke so thick they could see nothing ahead of them. It was mixed with poisonous gas that could corrode the lungs and pollute blood.
Rattlesnake Xiang Wei and his squad were caught off guard, and when they were ambushed, they instantly broke down.
There were torn limbs all over the ground and many armed men struggling in pain in the smoke and poisonous gas. Everyone was dying.
The pursuers who were still standing were stunned and lost. They could not tell just who was their enemy, and their mental strength indexes plummeted.
They pulled the triggers madly and fired at the smoke in vain. Aside from setting off sparks of their comrades’ motorized armor and walls, they did not land any effective damage on their ambushers.
Meng Chao minimized his breathing, heartbeat, and temperature, then started crawling forward to save the injured. He dragged those who could still be saved behind the corner so that Su Mulian could treat them.
Then, he held his breath and slithered forward like a moving shadow into the center of the battlefield.
The corpses all over the ground were a perfect disguise for him.
He shut his eyes and released his spirit energy magnetic field so that he could quietly scan the area around him. The ceiling and wall lights in the underground space as well as the searchlights from both parties were destroyed immediately at the start of the battle, so there was nothing to see with one’s eyes.
The ambusher had also thrown in a large amount of smoke bombs and poison bombs.
The flickering lights from the torchlights were like candle flames in the wind and only appeared occasionally. Yet they were the only source of light they had. The visibility of pursuers, ambusher, and Meng Chao was nearly zero.
Meng Chao could only use his spirit energy to make an outline of his enemy and his comrades.
The space in the killing maze was uneven and narrow. The pursuers and the ambusher were entangled in a mess. The best weapons in this case were not the powerful heavy machine guns, but sabers and daggers.
Most people from both parties were wearing airtight protective suits and motorized armor. Those who did not wear at least a poison filtration mask covered their mouths and noses. Even after fighting in confusion for a long time, they could not see each other’s faces.
Meng Chao found two fighters whose motorized armor had sprayed emblems of Black Bone and Poison Scorpion. They were on the same side, but one of them had unhesitatingly used a hot saber to pierce the other person’s chest armor, pectorals, sternum, and heart.
‘Are they killing each other in a panic? No, even though some of these people are wearing the motorized armor and fighting suits of the gangs, these are clearly people from a different side. One of them was panicking, and the other was calm, brutal, and fatal!
‘They’re the subordinates of the Vortex. These wanted criminals and former Reaper Squad members put on the motorized armor and fighting suits of the gangs, snuck into the crowd, and started murdering people!’
Now, he had to solve a problem.
How did the Vortex’s subordinates distinguish between friend and foe?
Communications and the wireless internet in the lair were intercepted and blocked.
It did not matter whether it was the gangs or the puppets of the monsters, no one was able to contact and identify other people.
So, the ambushers who were pretending to be gang members had to have some simple emblem on them, just like how the ambushers in ancient times tied white clothes on their arms to state their identity when they launched ambushes at night.
That way, they would not descend into confusion with their enemies.
Meng Chao searched patiently.
Soon, he noticed a few people with three bright dots that formed a triangle on the chest plates and backs of the motorized armor and fighting suits.
They should have been made with paint mixed with crystal powder. They created a strong reaction with spirit energy ripples at a certain fluctuation.
If he used his eyes to observe, the light was too weak and he could barely see it, but Meng Chao believed that if he gathered spirit energy into his eyes and created a specific shape on his retina, the sparkling dots would become bright and clear.
Also, the people who had the triangle dots on their chests and backs might be few in number, but they were really calm and active. They moved like catfishes with mouths full of teeth and created chaos.
‘Found you! You’re the ones!’
Meng Chao’s pupils shrank swiftly.
The pursuers came to kill him, and the ambushers came to ambush the pursuers.
He instantly located all the ambushers nearby, and in his mind’s eye, he saw the word “prey” at the center of the triangle formed by the three sparkling dots.
When an ambusher pretending to be a gang member targeted a real gang member near Meng Chao who was pretending to be a corpse, Meng Chao jumped up like an alligator lurking in a swamp. He swung his thin Ghost Blade up and drove it fiercely into the most fragile part of the motorized armor—the spot between the legs.
The person was about to scream in pain when Meng Chao locked his throat with his chains.
Electrical arcs and flames tore through the neck guard and tore apart the man’s Adam’s apple and voice box. He could only make gurgling sounds with blood spilling out of his mouth.
The moans were soon drowned out by loud gunshots and screams.
The person fell sideways and became limp.
Meng Chao used Bloody Soul to crudely rip off his neck guard and the armor under his armpit.
Just as he expected, he saw a barcode on the person’s nape—it was the barcode of a Reaper Squad member.
Under the man’s armpit, Meng Chao also found the scar left by a minimally invasive surgery.
This was another man who was supposed to have died a long time ago.
‘Vortex. I’ve seen through your tricks!’
Once Meng Chao was certain of his guess, he became confident and stopped hiding. Bloody Soul released a burning red light, and with a momentum that could destroy armies, Meng Chao started fighting against the people with three sparkling dots on their chests and backs.
The ambushers were shocked.
They could not understand why Meng Chao suddenly appeared among them, much less why his saber looked as if it had the All-seeing Eye and always managed to hit their vitals, even though they wore the exact same fighting suits and motorized armor as the real gang members. He didn’t injure a single real gang member by accident.
When the ambushers were faced with Meng Chao’s frenzied attacks, they did not want to stay to fight him. They retreated unhesitatingly.
They had almost completed their predetermined goal, anyway. The real gang members had suffered major casualties, and most of those who managed to survive had sucked in too much smoke and poisonous gas. They were heavily injured, deaf, and almost blind. They did not know what had happened.
Meng Chao was about to move the casualties to Su Mulian’s side when he suddenly heard Rattlesnake Xiang Wei’s scream ahead of him.
Meng Chao’s pupils shrank into two dots, and he quickly rushed over with his saber. Then, he saw something shocking.
Rattlesnake Xiang Wei’s limbs were stiff as he stood deep in the black poisonous fog. His limbs were spread eagle.
A sharp blade that was as red as blood had pierced his chest. Flames gushed out of the blade, and the blade vibrated madly while it tore and shredded his organs.
The astonishing vitality possessed by superhumans saved Rattlesnake Xiang Wei from dying instantly.
When he saw Meng Chao rushing out of the tunnel, his eyes went wide in shock as if he had seen a ghost that should not exist.
Meng Chao also saw a ghost.
It was a ghost that seemed to have crawled out of a mirror.
Behind Rattlesnake Xiang Wei’s shoulder was a familiar yet unfamiliar face that slowly took form in the dark.
His lips were curled slightly in a brutal smile. When he saw Meng Chao, he not only wasn’t surprised, he even nodded at Meng Chao in a greeting.
His face was Meng Chao’s own.
The other Meng Chao used a weapon that was similar to Bloody Saul and thrust it through Rattlesnake Xiang Wei’s chest from behind him!
Meng Chao was only stunned for 0.1 seconds before he swung the real Bloody Soul and rushed over.
He was still a step too late.
The person who had disguised himself as Meng Chao used a chain saber that was like Meng Chao’s signature weapon to bind Rattlesnake Xiang Wei’s neck.
And at that moment, with a vicious yank, he tore Xiang Wei’s head off his shoulders!