Chapter Twelve: A Formidable Adversary

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Vanessa watched the mercenaries disappear into the distance.

Rather than forcibly confiscating their equipment to support the battle ahead, she had used her own savings to transform this ruined city along the unavoidable route into a trap capable of swallowing the enemy whole.

She had no confidence of certain victory.

Even judging by the intelligence available on the surface, she was a military cyborg, while the prey she intended to hunt was merely an ordinary human. Yet her emotional-control system continued to malfunction.

Fear that should have been eliminated, along with suppressed hatred and disgust, suddenly surfaced and throbbed within her heart.

She had never met him before, and yet she was certain that the enemy she was about to face was one with whom she shared an irreconcilable blood feud. Even though she was merely passing by and had nothing to do with the matter, she could not help wanting to break the rules and eliminate him in advance.

Perhaps this was what they called a psychic’s intuition.

Dream Entertainment had the deepest understanding of psychics apart from the Consortium, yet they had inexplicably chosen not to eliminate that sworn enemy. They must have been plotting some other vile scheme.

But it did not matter. She would correct their mistake.

Minute by minute, time passed. Under her hands, the ruined city grew ever more dangerous, until at last the convoy entered the range of her surveillance.

She showed not the slightest trace of arrogance. Instead, she carefully reviewed all the intelligence she had gathered so far, striving to imagine how she could bury her target completely.

But… was it truly necessary to kill the ordinary mercenaries as well—men deceived by the target and knowing nothing about him?

No. To arrogantly assume that she could kill the target with precision was itself a form of pride. In the face of such absolute evil, she had to pay any price. She could not allow him to continue existing in this world.

If he remained alive, the consequences would surely be unimaginably disastrous!

Vanessa waited quietly for the target to reach the optimal ambush site.

Mo Wen felt a chill in his heart.

This ruined city along the unavoidable route was practically the perfect location for an ambush. He could easily imagine the traps the enemy might have filled it with. Yet on the reconnaissance drone’s display, it was merely a deserted city, devoid of significant heat sources.

It was possible that the enemy had chosen another location for their preparations. But it was more likely that they had concealed them.

What could they be?

Explosives placed at critical points, bringing down the surrounding high-rises? Genuine heavy firepower positioned at commanding heights, ready to bombard them directly? Stealth drones hidden in corners and crevices, waiting to swarm them at a single command?

More importantly, how would the enemy deal with him next?

His perception of death was not impossible to circumvent. Even peculiar little creatures from other worlds had occasionally managed to kill him. Would the enemy choose to bypass him first, eliminate the others, and then surround him? Or would they kill him directly and deal with the rest afterward?

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“Wait. Guildmaster, go to the armored vehicle at the rear. Leave this one to me alone. I’ll go first.”

The Guildmaster thought for a few seconds and more or less guessed that Mo Wen intended to act as bait, but he could not come up with a more ingenious alternative.

As he walked toward the rear vehicle, he reminded Mo Wen over the team channel, “Stay safe. You’re very valuable, but if you die, you’re still dead.”

Vanessa felt a flicker of pleasant surprise. She watched with satisfaction as the target advanced alone and reached a critical ambush point.

“Boom! Boom! Boom!”

A continuous series of explosions erupted. Every tall building around Mo Wen collapsed, tens of thousands of tons of mass crashing toward the earth under the pull of gravity.

The sky belonging to Mo Wen was swallowed completely by the shadows of the falling ruins. Yet it was not reduced to darkness alone; flames continued to flash amid the wreckage.

Stealth drones hidden within the buildings darted through the rubble, constantly shifting to avoid being locked on while pouring fire toward the target’s position. Atop the high ground, heavy cannons nearly indistinguishable from the surrounding buildings fired heavy shells and plasma.

The entire city seemed to erupt into chaos around Mo Wen.

Vanessa’s objective was clear: she would make certain that her sworn enemy died beyond any possibility of resurrection.

Even if it meant emptying her savings! Even if everyone else misunderstood her and her future was ruined!

If she died here, a nuclear-strike drone carrying a hundred-thousand-ton tactical nuclear warhead would descend upon the battlefield.

In the distance, the Guildmaster and the others had expected Mo Wen to face, at most, a few sniper shots or several waves of gunfire. They were stunned.

What the hell was this supposed to be? Was this the kind of firepower a legitimate mercenary force was meant to possess? Those bastards had come to erase the evidence!

This was not proxy warfare at all!

“Damn it!” the Guildmaster cursed. “Contact Dream Entertainment immediately. The enemy isn’t following the rules—they’re bombing fish in a barrel!”

But why had the enemy not taken the opportunity to kill them as well?

There was no time to worry about such a minor question. The Guildmaster immediately piloted a reconnaissance drone toward the place where Mo Wen was under attack.

The building debris was too thick to see through. Heat-source recognition could not distinguish human bodies amid the explosions and flames. But no matter how one looked at it, no one could possibly survive such an ambush.

And yet the bombardment continued without pause. Explosions rolled on incessantly, as though intent on reducing the entire area to absolute ruin.

Vanessa’s intuition told her that the target was not completely dead.

Why hadn’t he died yet? She could not understand.

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But she had already realized that indiscriminately pouring out firepower was of limited use. She might have to launch more precise attacks.

The cannon fire gradually subsided. She linked her vision to that of a stealth drone, but in the very next moment, the drone was damaged. She had to switch through five drones in succession, exhausting one full load of the enemy’s ammunition before finally reacquiring the target.

Mo Wen was still alive.

His exoskeleton had suffered severe damage, his combat suit was almost completely destroyed, more than half his skin had been badly burned, and his abdomen had been blasted straight through.

Yet his limbs remained relatively intact. He could still grip the firearm in his hand, and he could use a grappling hook he had concealed earlier to maneuver rapidly through the ruins.

He could still fight after taking that kind of damage? How could he still be considered human?

For Mo Wen, this was not even his most desperate condition. He had avoided nearly every lethal attack, taking only a few strikes that he truly could not evade. He still had enough strength to counterattack, while the Dream Type I system in his eye had suffered only minor scratches and could even maintain communications.

Unfortunately, that did not mean he could survive. At most, he could hold out for a little longer before returning to the respawn point.

Misfortune had arrived faster than he had expected. He had thought this was truly going to be an easy payout, yet it had ended with him in this state. Just how valuable was this cargo? How could the enemy be willing to spend so much?

In any case, before he died for good, he had to find a way to take down his attackers in exchange.

The Guildmaster, nearly certain that Mo Wen was doomed, saw the message arrive through the team channel.

“I’m still alive. Prepare for battle. This time, I’m the bait.”

The Guildmaster was so furious he nearly laughed.

You stupid bastard. What battle is there left to prepare for? Look at the firepower they’re using! Can’t you see that something is wrong?

He and his men ought to flee.

But he remembered Mo Wen’s silence not long ago, and the fleeting trace of compassion in his eyes.

At the very least, he should hear him out.

The Guildmaster calmed himself. “What’s the plan? If it means throwing away my life, I’m not joining in. I still have a whole bunch of children to support.”