Chapter Eight: Unknown Email

It seized one of the Special Security team members from the ground and hurled him forward. Seventy kilograms of flesh and blood, propelled by bullets, crashed into the rearguard, toppling him with devastating force that snapped tendons and shattered bones. Then, with a single stride spanning ten meters, Adonsa’s formidable agility allowed it to catch up with the fleeing man effortlessly.

Adonsa gripped his cervical spine and, as though handling a puppy, flung him through the air. A sharp, staccato crackle rang out, like dried beans being stir-fried. In the command vehicle, Tang Haoming felt every hair on his body stand on end. Astonishingly, Adonsa had wrenched the Special Security officer’s spine completely out of alignment with just two bursts of force! What kind of monstrous strength and anatomical knowledge would that require?

The agony of a dislocated spine, followed by paralysis, was even more excruciating than being sliced in half, and the officer’s screams were blood-curdling. Thus, the entire eight-man Special Security squad was wiped out. Yet, none were actually dead—only so grievously wounded that they could not move.

Adonsa intended to use these hostages to hamper the enemy’s advance. But what it failed to realize was that the complexity of human behavior could not be captured by such simplistic analysis. Tang Haoming, though thoroughly terrified by Adonsa’s ruthless efficiency, still affected a posture of arrogance and said, “Officer Yuan, is this the extent of your combat strength? I wonder just where all your security funds have gone.”

Yuan Liming shot him a furious glare, loathing his own cowardice that had doomed so many subordinates. He snapped, “Prepare heavy weaponry. Eliminate the enemy completely!”

Tang Haoming cried out incredulously, “Are you insane? Using heavy weapons in the city? Do you want to be executed for dereliction of duty?”

Yuan Liming roared back, “Shut up, you bastard! Do you know how much I want to shoot you right now?”

Tang Haoming pressed his hands to the table, his body trembling with anger. “Officer Yuan Liming, you had better be careful what you say.”

Time ticked by as they argued, Yuan Liming’s unease and agitation finally breaking through his ingrained fear of bureaucracy. All his pent-up grievances erupted at last. He suddenly drew his pistol, and at the sight of the dark muzzle, Tang Haoming stumbled back, trying to spit out another threat but tripping and falling, thus exposing his own weakness. In panic, he scrambled out of the command vehicle, half crawling, half running.

“Yuan Liming, you’re finished! You’re finished!”

From afar, Tang Haoming’s shrieks echoed.

At this moment, a messenger hesitated, “Sir, the entire First Squad is still alive…”

Yuan Liming took a deep breath and replied coolly, “They’re dead.”

“But—”

“They’re dead!”

If this monster was not destroyed now, even more would die. The fallen would not have wanted their colleagues to perish for the sake of misplaced scruples.

The messenger stiffened, then barked, “Yes, sir!”

Yuan Liming seemed to age ten years in that instant. He holstered his pistol and ordered grimly, “Heavy fire, suppress all resistance, and quickly!”

Otherwise, there would be no time.

A veteran of countless battles, he was suddenly haunted by a terrifying vision that compelled him to attack at any cost, even if it meant sacrificing his own career. But it was too late; his ominous premonition had become reality.

As the Special Security squad hauled out grenade launchers and grenades, a dark figure suddenly shot out from the mouth of the alley. Before Yuan Liming could give the order, the Special Security officers dropped their grenade launchers and opened fire.

In an instant, hundreds of small craters pocked the ground and walls around the alley, turning them into a honeycomb. Yet the black figure, after only a moment’s pause in the hail of bullets, burst forward with a ghostly agility, darting toward the cordon while a series of craters trailed relentlessly behind.

“Damn it, he’s wearing body armor!” one of the officers shouted over the comms.

Though its language and conversational skills were still lacking, Adonsa’s logical thinking had become highly developed. Not only had this enabled it to modify its own body for greater strength, but it had also granted it a grasp of tactics. As it devoured human brains, fragments of human knowledge seeped into its consciousness. Sifting through the dross, it came to recognize both the terror of firearms and the intricacies of these violent tools. Thus, after capturing the Special Security officers, it immediately stripped them of their body armor and donned it itself, an incongruous sight.

Clad in high-grade body armor, Adonsa was now more formidable than ever. Scattered bullets could no longer harm it, and even concentrated fire was nothing to fear against its superhuman reflexes. Several officers brandished riot shields, trying to block its advance, but with a single leap, Adonsa—its bulky, muscular frame like a cannonball—crashed into them, breaking wrists and sending shield-bearers sprawling.

Once Adonsa breached the crowd, the gunfire fell silent. No matter how cold their commanding officer was, these men who ate and lived together could not bring themselves to fire without hesitation.

This time, Adonsa’s judgment had finally been correct.

But at that moment, several thick gun barrels turned toward Adonsa and fired without hesitation. For an instant, Adonsa thought they were throwing grenades and feared it had miscalculated again, but quickly realized something was amiss.

The launchers did not shoot explosive rounds, but rather a web of high-fiber elastic netting. The net nearly covered all of Adonsa’s escape routes, but it kicked up several submachine guns, striking the center of each net, causing them to collapse limply. The rubber tips at the edges, driven by inertia, wrapped the nets tightly around the guns instead.

As the crowd surged, a length of pipe was raised. Milky-white liquid sprayed toward Adonsa. Alarms blared in its mind. It hooked its foot, scooping up a door-sized riot shield and bracing it in front of itself. The powerful stream not only forced Adonsa back, but also clung stickily to the shield—it was clearly an extremely adhesive glue.

Ignorance could be deadly.

Adonsa’s incomplete knowledge was, after all, gleaned only from ordinary people. It knew little of the ever-evolving arsenal of anti-terror weapons, with no real concept of net guns or adhesive sprays, relying solely on instinct to survive these dangers.

These bizarre attacks forced it to reevaluate the threat posed by these humans. However fragile their bodies, their collective intelligence and resourcefulness could bring about a qualitative shift. In the presence of these endless traps and advanced weapons, a single effective strike could reduce Adonsa to a pile of charred remains.

Realizing this, Adonsa immediately abandoned the idea of annihilating the hesitant Special Security officers. From behind the shield, it hurled a submachine gun, knocking the pipe askew, then dodged the net fired from behind. Targeting a weak point in the cordon, it charged, constantly shifting its form and angle of movement, evading all the net gun attacks.