Chapter 22: You Think We Aren't Monsters?

Chapter 22: You think we aren't monsters?

"Tap!"

A soft click sounded, and the enemy nearest to Chen Jian collapsed instantly.

Chen Jian's motion did not cease; after identifying the leader among the Xia Ma Zhen residents, he swiftly marked the man's thermal signature on his smart goggles.

Immediately, he swung his gun barrel sideways, aiming at another foe facing him.

Another soft click rang out, and a blossom of blood mist erupted over the enemy's head as he fell straight down.

At the same moment, Lei Jie and Shen Yue on the flank opened fire together.

The engagement distance was under forty meters—slightly far for a pistol, yet it hardly diminished their lethal efficiency.

Just a few breaths later, nearly twenty enemies on the shore were reduced to half.

Chen Jian noticed weapons dropped on the ground, and before he could react, He Shuo, positioned advantageously for sniping, had already fired, knocking down the enemy trying to reach the arms.

The enemy force fell into chaos; beneath the dim moonlight they had no idea where the deadly threat came from, only seeing distant flashes of fire, then watching their comrades drop one by one.

"Guns! They have guns!"

"Get down! Don't move! They can't find us!"

"Shoot them! Shoot them!"

The resident leader shouted orders in panic, some obeyed, some did not.

Whether they listened or not, it could not interrupt the squad's rhythm of slaughter.

Chen Jian had advanced to within twenty meters of engagement; at this range his bullets were unfailingly deadly.

In an instant, several more enemies lying on the ground were finished.

Chen Jian was not unwilling to spare them, nor did he hesitate to raise his barrel an inch.

Yet he also knew clearly that the decision between life and death either must not be made, or must be completed before the battle begins.

When the first bullet left the barrel, both sides had no room left.

Either you die, or I perish!

His hand was steadier than ever; after two consecutive shots felled a weapon-wielding enemy, he quickly swapped magazines and dove sideways into cover.

At the same moment, gunfire from the enemy finally erupted.

"Bang!"

"Bang-bang!"

"Pop-pop-pop——"

The hoarse, tearing-gunfire sound hinted at the enemy's inferior weapons; Chen Jian was not overwhelmed, but after slapping the empty-chamber hold-open button he rose again, a single shot taking down the enemy raising his gun to fire.

Meanwhile, Lei Jie and Shen Yue provided covering fire with intermittent bursts, the three of them having exchanged no unnecessary words since the fight began, yet coordinating with effortless ease.

In less than a minute, no one remained standing on the shore.

He Shuo, observing from afar, switched the drone's view to his smart goggles, quickly analyzed the scene, and fed crucial information to the three closing in.

"Aside from high-value targets, three high-threat enemies remain; their positions are marked."

The voice in the earpiece had just faded when Chen Jian's goggles displayed the location of the enemy feigning death on the ground.

Without hesitation, after swift target assignment, Lei Jie, Shen Yue, and Chen Jian each locked onto a target, adjusted their positions, and killed with a single shot.

Those men would die never knowing how they were spotted, or which bullet had killed them.

The sole remaining leader curled on the ground, trembling, too afraid to make a sound, as if trying to hide his ears while stealing a bell to escape fate.

But that was utterly impossible.

Chen Jian had closed to his side; before the man could react, Chen Jian stepped on his arm, wrested away the QSW06 that rightfully belonged to him.

This was the innkeeper.

"What's in the lake?"

Chen Jian pressed the gun to his head, voice cold as he asked.

"Impossible, impossible—how are you here? How are you still alive?!"

"Aren't you alive too?"

Chen Jian asked reflexively.

But soon he realized something was off. He himself survived because he wore a mask; the small rebreather let him endure fifteen minutes in an oxygen‑free environment.

So why could this innkeeper stay alive?

The surrounding carbon dioxide concentration had risen to ninety percent; heavier than air, the CO₂ was settling toward the ground, accumulating to at least two meters high.

Within that zone he should not be able to breathe, let alone speak—

Chen Jian grabbed the innkeeper's face, gave a gentle squeeze; the man struggled to open his mouth, and a writhing, tendril‑like thing slowly slipped out.

"Damn!"

Chen Jian flung the innkeeper to the ground; the newly arrived Lei Jie immediately demanded,

"What's going on?"

"A monster—or at least a mutant!"

"How could that be? They're monsters; didn't the Holy Blood detect them?"

"Who knows? He Shuo, tap into Xu Lie's channel and wake them up!"

"Understood!"

The order given, Chen Jian instantly turned back to the innkeeper, pressing the gun barrel to his skull and demanded,

"What the hell is happening here??"

Fear shone in the innkeeper's eyes as he beheld Chen Jian's fully covered face; his voice trembled as he said,

"It's you—you!"

"You crawled out of the graves, you are the wraiths of the Great Cataclysm; you have no business being here! You should have died in the Great Cataclysm!"

"Enough talk!"

Chen Jian smashed the gunstock into the innkeeper's head; the man's head lolled to the side and he hit the ground, yet he kept muttering without pause,

"I've seen you. I've seen you."

"I thought it was fake."

"It's real. It's truly real."

The rebreather's oxygen supply was dwindling; Chen Jian had no patience for more chatter, so he pulled the trigger.

"Tap!"

The bullet grazed the innkeeper's cheek and buried itself in the earth; Chen Jian asked,

"Where did the ammunition come from? What's with the Machine God Cult?"

He didn't bother asking foolish questions like "Why do you want to kill us?" but went straight to the point.

The boss seemed to regain a bit of his senses, giving a grim smile as he looked at Chen Jian and replied:

"What we dug up, it's all what we dug up."

"We are all miners of the Machine God Sect; none of us can escape."

Miners?

Another new term.

Chen Jian didn't understand, so he simply ignored it.

"Tie him up and take him away; there's something in the lake we can't handle—let's hide for now!"

"Understood!"

Lei Jie immediately replied, and just then, Chen Jian's earpiece crackled with Xu Lie's voice.

"Chosen One! Chosen One! Chen Jian!"

"I can hear you!"

Chen Jian holstered his pistol while giving a brief reply.

A moment later, Xu Lie's anxious voice sounded again.

"Why did you have to kill them all?! What did they do?!"

"They were the ones trying to kill us! And besides, they're all monsters!"

"Damn it! Do you think we, the Holy Blooded, aren't monsters too?!"

(End of Chapter)