Chapter 33, Section 4: Why Not?

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Chapter 33: Chapter 4. Why Not?

A face turned around from the passenger seat, its features filled with icy menace. Three guns were trained on Zhou Jinru’s head from front and back as the man asked coldly, “Who are you, exactly? Why are you impersonating our young master? Where have you hidden him?”

Three questions demanding his life.

If not for the identical voice, Zhou Jinru would never have believed that this was the same person who had just been snickering. He quickly organized his thoughts and said with a bitter smile, “You’ve kidnapped the wrong person. You can’t blame me for that. I don’t know your young master, Bison...”

Bison?!

At the mention of that name, it flashed through Zhou Jinru’s mind. He remembered now. Bison was one of the main characters in a medium-sized event that had opened at the same time as Contingency Contract—the young master of Fengchi Logistics, and one of the protagonists of Code of Brawl.

Shocked though he was, Zhou Jinru did not pause. He continued, “I’m a Rhodes Island operator officially invited by Lungmen. You can find proof of my identity on me.”

Damn it.

Having said that, Zhou Jinru looked down and realized that he had been dragged out wearing only his undershirt. His cash and identification were in his jacket. Where was he supposed to get his documents now?

“Hmph. You have nothing on you. Why should I believe anything you say?”

With no other choice, Zhou Jinru asked, “Can’t you think this through? Is the Grand Hotel Lungmen somewhere just anyone can stay? The fact that you managed to get me out so smoothly proves that someone named Du Mingyue must have been involved in this staged kidnapping. At the very least, he knew about it. I’m already in your hands, so I have nowhere to run. Why don’t you call back and ask? Then everything will be clear. How could my identity as a Rhodes Island operator be fake?”

In the end, he still had to rely on the tiger’s skin of Rhodes Island.

After saying this, Zhou Jinru shut his mouth and refused to utter another word. He had been trying to use his Talent to sense the emotions of these men, but for some reason, he kept failing. Could it have something to do with watching that recording tonight?

He glanced toward the edge of his field of vision. Beside his Sanity value, a level indicator had appeared. His current level was Lv. 14, but there was no experience bar.

Just what rarity of operator was he?

The Doctor was a special figure whose operator number began with the letter B. Across all of Rhodes Island, only Kal’tsit’s number also began with B. It was said that they had once belonged to the mysterious organization Babel in the world of Terra, and some experts had even speculated that Babel was the predecessor of Rhodes Island.

In any case, he certainly was not a low-rarity operator.

While Zhou Jinru’s thoughts wandered, the driver suddenly wrenched the steering wheel. Everyone in the vehicle was thrown about, and Zhou Jinru slammed into one of the kidnappers beside him. Then came a shrill sound tearing through the air. He saw something flying through the sky and immediately ducked his head.

A deafening explosion erupted behind them. The violent shock wave pushed the car several meters sideways, while dazzling flames surged into the air.

The windows hadn’t shattered!

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The shock wave hadn’t even broken the windows?!

Staring at the scene outside in disbelief, Zhou Jinru shouted, “If you’re going to put on an act, at least do it properly! Was this also arranged by your master?”

“Put on an act, my ass! If Third Brother hadn’t spotted it in time, we’d all be dead! It definitely wasn’t arranged by the master. We can’t take the road to the docks!”

“Brother Hu, we’ve got company behind us!” one of the kidnappers shouted.

“Turn around! Turn around! Head back into the city! The Guard Department is there. They won’t dare attack recklessly!”

Zhou Jinru had just begun to raise his head when one of the kidnappers beside him shoved him down. “You call yourself a Rhodes Island operator? You don’t even have a shield! Are you trying to get a bullet in the head?”

The driver suddenly slammed on the brakes and yanked the steering wheel. The car spun around on the main road, making a sharp one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn. It brushed past the pursuers behind them, and the Forte man known as Brother Hu shouted, “Everyone, stay behind the doors!”

Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat!

Before the words had even left his mouth, a dense barrage of bullets swept toward them. They struck the windows with a ringing clatter, yet failed to shatter the glass. The bullets that hit the doors likewise failed to penetrate their protective plating.

“Aren’t all firearms controlled by Laterano? You need a gun license to carry one in Lungmen. Do you Fengchi Logistics get into street shootouts this exciting every day?!”

Zhou Jinru crouched beneath the seats, afraid to show his head. He was so fragile now that a single bullet getting through would kill him. He clenched his teeth in frustration. If only he had the shield values of elite operators, at least his life would not be entirely in someone else’s hands.

Brother Hu roared, “Go! Third Brother, keep moving! Kid, remember this—we’re Fengchi Logistics, not those desperadoes from Penguin Logistics. You think we get into gunfights every day? Do you think the Guard Department is useless? In Lungmen, you could count on one hand the people who can take a single strike from Chief Chen!”

The bullet-riddled car started moving again. Another dense burst of gunfire came from behind, and bullets hammered the vehicle like raindrops. Suddenly, the body of the car sank lower.

A terrible thought rose in everyone’s mind.

The tire had been hit.

“Raythean Industries claims these cars are bulletproof, so why aren’t the tires bulletproof too?!” one of the kidnappers cursed.

“Ordinary bullets can’t penetrate a tire. The shooter is a sniper.”

Brother Hu exhaled heavily. He glanced at Zhou Jinru and continued, “In Rhodes Island’s terminology, anyone capable of firing bullets like that should be an elite sniper operator—at least a C-rank operator.”

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Staring at his field of vision, Zhou Jinru finally sensed one person’s emotions.

Hu Tianming was feeling anger, surprise, and delight.

The anger came from being attacked by an enemy of unknown identity.

The surprise came from the precision strike against a kidnapping that had been carried out in secret.

The delight came from the fact that the young master was not in the car. Even if no one else survived, at least the young master’s life would remain safe.

Zhou Jinru marked each explanation beside the corresponding emotion, then stared at the four faintly visible words below—the new function that had appeared after he leveled up: Emotional Guidance. Cost: 30 Sanity.

He looked at his remaining 102 points of Sanity and finally confirmed the activation of Emotional Guidance.

His Sanity plummeted. A lump rose at his temple, his eyes filled with blood vessels, and the veins on his forehead bulged. His heart pounded powerfully, sending blood coursing through every part of his body.

“Brother Hu, can the three people in the car besides the driver all join the fight?”

Hu Tianming’s brows drew tightly together. Lowering his voice, he asked, “What are you planning?”

Zhou Jinru closed his eyes and let his emotions guide him. “If Rhodes Island were attacked, we’d probably fight back on the spot. Even if we suffered a temporary loss, we’d settle the score afterward. I know a little about Penguin Logistics too. Their emperor is even more hot-tempered. If someone fired a whole magazine at him, he’d definitely return the favor with an equivalent amount of ammunition. Now that the tire has been shot out, it’s only a matter of time before this vehicle breaks down. Are we really going to sit here and wait to die?”

“There’s a saying in my homeland: those who defend for too long are bound to lose. There’s another: offense is the best defense. Everyone from Fengchi Logistics, why don’t we try fighting back?”

Why not?

Why not?!

They had been under fire for so long that everyone was burning with rage, yet had nowhere to vent it. If the young master had been in the car, then perhaps...

At that thought, Hu Tianming’s eyes reddened. He slapped the seat hard and shouted, “We’re going to die anyway. Old Hu will trust you this once! If we succeed, we live together, and I’ll buy you tea and apologize over honey-glazed char siu. If we fail, we die together, and I’ll apologize to you again in the underworld!”

End of Chapter