Chapter 69 Centipede Mutant

The team members each called out their count, tallying up to just over a hundred rounds left. The Mutants seemed to have sensed something, for they suddenly grew restless, emitting terrifying howls and charged forward, trampling the bodies of their fallen comrades. Gunfire erupted immediately. The dense assault formation of the Mutants significantly increased the hit rate of the action team, but their ammunition was depleting faster as well. One Mutant after another fell, charging within a fifteen-meter range, when suddenly, one team member’s gun jammed—its energy cell depleted. Then a second gun failed, and a third... The team leader let out a loud roar, firing three consecutive shots, felling the three Mutants at the very front. His ammunition was also spent. He drew his combat knife and stood tall, unflinching in the face of the black tide of Mutants rushing toward him, raising the knife in a battle-ready stance. "Come on! I’ve already made a profit by taking down eight of you!" The team members stepped forward shoulder to shoulder, forming their last line of defense. The Mutants howled and charged from the ground of the passageway, the walls, and the ceiling. Just as this black tide was about to engulf the action team, a series of energy flashes flew from behind the Mutants, accurately piercing through their dense formation and shattering the heads of the Mutants in the forefront. The claws of the foremost Mutant were just inches from the team leader’s nose. The Mutants were thrown into chaos, furiously turning back, only to see a person darting out of the passageway. He agilely charged into the midst of the Mutants, moving with unbelievable agility, his body twisting in any direction while his dual pistols ensured that "not a single shot was wasted"! With every crack of the energy pistols, a Mutant’s head would explode. Dozens of furious, agitated Mutants kept trying to encircle him, but he weaved through them; their sharp claws and gaping, fanged maws always just missed him, falling short by a hair’s breadth of killing him. After twenty-four Mutants had fallen, his two Wilderness Howler energy magazines were depleted. The man efficiently reloaded, barely pausing before firing another twenty shots, turning all the remaining Mutants into corpses. The team leader and his group stood there, mouths agape. Compared to him, our marksmanship is... shameful! Watching the man approach, the team leader hurried forward. "Brother, which team are you from? I haven’t seen you around before." He gave a thumbs-up. "Impressive, truly impressive!" Chen Gu said, "I’m here to report for duty. What exactly happened at the Zhaojieze City branch?" "So you’re a Professional!" the team members realized. The team leader sighed, his expression gloomy. "Mutants have infiltrated. The whole branch is locked down by them, and they’re massacring people everywhere. The situation is very bad; the city outside has begun to evacuate." Chen Gu was also shocked. What in the world are you guys doing? You’re the Bureau of Mystic Security, specifically tasked with handling Mutants, yet you’ve allowed them to infiltrate! But after seeing these people bravely protecting their administrative counterparts, he swallowed the words he was about to speak. "Where can I find weapons?" Chen Gu asked. His pistols held twelve shots per energy magazine. He now had only two shots left in the two currently loaded. Additionally, he had two energy blocks, totaling twenty-six shots. The team leader thought for a moment. "The nearest armory is in C-9 Area, three floors above us." "Take me there." The team leader hesitated. "We retreated from there... There’s a very powerful Mutant on that floor." Chen Gu didn’t say a word and just confidently walked towards the staircase leading up. The team leader gritted his teeth. "Follow!" Staying here meant certain death. In the stairwell, Chen Gu dealt with two ordinary Mutants without even firing a shot; his combat knife was enough. Reaching the C-9 Area, the team leader led the way cautiously for a while, then pointed to a large door ahead. "It’s behind that door. We’re lucky; it seems that powerful Mutant has already left this area." However, Chen Gu stared at the door and shook his head slightly. "You guys fall back." The team leader immediately retreated ten meters. Chen Gu shook his head. "Back up some more." The team leader led his men back another twenty meters, but Chen Gu still shook his head. "Further back." The team kept retreating until they were sixty meters away. Only then did Chen Gu step towards the large gate, having already holstered his pistol. Even the Wilderness Howlers would be useless in the fight to come. Chen Gu’s hand pressed against the large doors, and with a gentle push, a violent force erupted, shattering them with a BANG. Behind the doors, all was quiet. The spacious hall was filled with thick blood oozing across the floor. Office furniture lay scattered and broken all around, leaving a large clear area in the center. There, bodies were piled up to form a small hill! A six-meter-long Mutant lay next to the bodies, feasting! It looked like a centipede but was immense, with a pair of skeletal wings growing on its back, the tips of the bones sharp as spikes. It had a strange, large mouth at each end, filled with rows of sharp teeth. At that moment, it was gnawing on a corpse with each of its mouths, the crunching sound chilling to the bone. The sound of Chen Gu shattering the door alarmed the Mutant. It shifted its body slowly to face Chen Gu, and small red dots—its eyes—lit up around both its toothy maws. This was no ordinary Mutant; it was very powerful. Chen Gu stepped in. The centipede Mutant suddenly quickened, its massive body unnaturally agile—its previous slow movements had just been a tactical deception. Had Chen Gu been fooled, that pounce could have killed him on the spot. But the "Star Battle Instructor" possessed a terrifying insight into the battlefield, and the centipede Mutant’s trickery seemed childish and laughable to him. Chen Gu dodged, slipping under the lunging Mutant, while his combat knife slashed upwards, SCRAPING against the entire underbelly of the creature. However, the sharp blade only produced sparks against the Mutant’s skin, leaving it unharmed! Chen Gu glanced at the combat knife in his hand. Its edge had become serrated, so he tossed it aside without a second thought. The centipede Mutant twisted its body, its two large mouths opening and closing as if in triumph. Its insectile legs moved rapidly as its huge body rumbled towards Chen Gu like a small mountain. To its surprise, Chen Gu neither dodged nor fled but fiercely raised his hands and pressed them onto the centipede Mutant’s body. SWISH! SWISH! SWISH! The bone wings abruptly stabbed down, one spike after another aimed at Chen Gu, who merely smiled coldly. "Too late!" Bright light flared from within the centipede Mutant’s body, melting its organs first. Chen Gu leaped backward, leaving the Mutant twisting in agony as the light inside grew brighter, now lancing out through the gaps in its carapace. BOOM! A loud explosion followed, and a foul, sticky fluid sprayed everywhere as the centipede Mutant was blown to pieces! The explosion created a terrible shockwave, which reached dozens of meters away. The team leader and his men, who were hiding far away, were struck by a powerful blast of air that stung their faces. "No wonder he told us to back off farther," the team members murmured, shaken. The team leader, who had some knowledge, blurted out, "This is... the Radiation Missionary!" "Outside the Atomic Holy Church, you rarely see Radiation Missionaries or Nuclear Explosion Nuns." Chen Gu took cover behind a low wall, only twenty meters from the blast site. The shockwave completely destroyed the wall, and Chen Gu was sent flying several meters. As he got up, pain wracked his body, and he inwardly grumbled about this ’bull-headed, reckless fool’ of a Profession: Indiscriminate slaughter! Dammit, you have to rely entirely on faith to withstand the fallout...