Chapter 145 - 143: Stress Response

Words : 1106 Updated : Sep 17th, 2025

Qin Lan said he didn’t hit them, it was she who did, out of goodwill. After all, as a special police officer and sniper, this wasn’t the first time her hands were stained with blood. It was part of her job. However, Chen Xin was different. He was not a soldier or a police officer. He was just an online writer, an ordinary civilian, and his hands had never been stained with blood. But such lies meant nothing to Chen Xin. Qin Lan might have thought that in the darkness, Chen Xin couldn’t see clearly what was happening, but in the upgraded tactical goggles’ night vision, everything was so clear. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to describe it as vivid. With the tactical goggles’ additional magnification, zoom, and focus functions, Chen Xin could almost say he saw the bullets he fired pierce into the heads of the three deceased, shattering them like smashing a watermelon, taking away most of their brain matter, and their skulls collapsed like deflated bags. The bloody and shocking scene greatly shook Chen Xin to the point that it took him a while to come back to his senses. Although he had seen headshot scenes in various films and played at least a thousand such kills in various games, neither movies nor video games could ever show the audience or players the most realistic headshot scenes because they were simply too gory. So even though Chen Xin didn’t think he lacked endurance and had seen headshots before, he was still terrified by the three burst watermelons, trembling all over. Fortunately, they weren’t far from the city bureau, and after Qin Lan called for reinforcements, a nearby patrolling police car soon arrived. The arriving officers were also taken aback by the scene in front of them. Three headshot kills—this wasn’t a scene from a game. In reality, this city had never seen such a brutal and bloody scene except during wartime. But after all, they were police officers, and they had sufficient mental resilience. After understanding the situation with Qin Lan, they quickly put the injured and Chen Xin into the car and headed to the city’s First People’s Hospital’s shelter, leaving two to handle the bodies. And Qin Lan wasn’t reassured about Chen Xin, so she jumped in the car and went to the hospital with him. In the car, Chen Xin still clutched his gun. Qin Lan tried to get him to put the gun down, but the usually weak-handed Chen Xin was gripping the gun so tightly that no one could take it from him. Seeing this, Qin Lan didn’t dare to forcefully take it, fearing it might provoke Chen Xin into firing, so she quietly turned on the safety of the gun while he didn’t resist. Though the norm would be for Qin Lan to take away Chen Xin’s gun, considering Chen Xin had just been greatly traumatized, she and the other officers in the car tried their best to avoid further shocking him. After all, a person in a state of shock is extremely dangerous and irrational. However, in fact, Chen Xin wasn’t as agitated as they thought. Earlier, he had indeed been greatly shocked and was in a state of stress, but now sitting in the car with Qin Lan comforting him beside him, Chen Xin had relatively calmed down a bit. The main reason he held onto the gun was because he didn’t want others to touch his newly upgraded gun. But to alleviate concerns or being mistaken for a dangerous person by the officers, he let Qin Lan turn on the safety of the gun. Though Chen Xin had been mentally prepared for the dangers and potential confrontations he would face since entering the end times, killing someone, especially using a headshot, was beyond what he had anticipated. This made Chen Xin somewhat regret upgrading his gun to such a high level. Initially just wanting to activate auto-aim, it turned into auto-headshot. Though both aim to kill, the magnitude was clearly different. Chen Xin was scared, not only from the mental shock of his first kill but mainly from the unbearably gory headshot scene. I must say, though the upgraded tactical goggles were powerful and a very useful tool for the user. Yet when the tactical goggles’ focus and zoom functions brought the scene so close, coupled with night vision making the killing process vividly clear like a game headshot animation, it was a relief Chen Xin didn’t throw up, remembering he wore a protective mask, or he would have suffocated in his vomit. After managing to calm down as best he could, making his hands stop trembling, Chen Xin then put away his gun. Seeing him putting away the gun, the surrounding police officers visibly breathed a sigh of relief. Facing a gunman who just shot three people in the head, even the police would be nervous. "A Xin, are you okay?" Seeing Chen Xin put away his gun, Qin Lan hurriedly asked with concern, very worried about his current state. Chen Xin nodded slightly, reached up to remove his protective mask, took a deep breath, and said to Qin Lan, "I feel a little breathless." Before Qin Lan could speak, Chen Xin grabbed her arm, asking, "A Lan! Did I just kill someone? I saw I hit those three people, and their heads burst open!" At this point, Chen Xin wasn’t exactly acting, but he was indeed taking advantage of Qin Lan’s concern because ultimately, the laws in Flame Country were strict before the disaster, and ordinary people couldn’t even own a decent knife, let alone a gun. Shooting and killing, even if it was assisting Qin Lan, a police officer, and even if he killed three criminals, the nature and consequences were still serious. "It’s okay, it’s okay! Those three weren’t shot by you, I killed them. Your shots missed." Qin Lan continued to emphasize that she killed the three people, looking at Chen Xin in this state, she absolutely did not dare to tell him the truth that he had killed. In case of provoking something in Chen Xin, the consequences would be far more severe than her lying that he missed. "But I saw their heads explode!" At this point, Chen Xin silently apologized to Qin Lan in his heart, but he still had to continue pretending. Seeing this, Qin Lan quickly said, "I shot them. I’m a sniper, remember? At such close range, hitting three headshots is normal. In fact, I should be apologizing to you, A Xin, for letting you see such a scene. That’s my fault."

Chapter 145 - 143: Stress Response

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