Chapter 38: Plunder

Chapter38: Plunder

"The enemy is gathering, moving toward the northeast."

"A small contingent remains to guard the camp, no more than thirty, with no heavy weapons detected."

"I have reached the camp's edge, concealed, awaiting the opportunity to strike."

"The main enemy force has arrived at the Phoenix Hotel; conditions for attack are ripe."

Shen Yue's reports kept coming, and at that moment Chen Jian also led the remaining five to the assault point a hundred meters from the camp.

After another aerial reconnaissance of the camp, Chen Jian gave the decisive order:

"Enter silently, clear silently!"

"Understood!"

At the command, everyone sprang into action.

Still, Lei Jie, wielding the suppressed QCQ201 submachine gun, led the charge, while Shen Yue and He Shuo provided cover from high ground with their rifles, and Chen Jian, armed with a 1911, guided the four Holy Blood warriors along the pre‑scouted route straight into the camp's heart.

All heat signatures had been marked; Chen Jian had no intention of sweeping every building, instead he cleared a direct line to the central armory, aiming to reach the objective in the shortest time.

Their movement was inevitably exposed, and Lei Jie's 9mm rounds tore mercilessly through each demon that lunged forward.

Any that slipped past were felled by the four Holy Blood sentinels fore and aft with cold steel.

The battle unfolded in silence, save for the demons' howls; even gunfire was barely audible.

After advancing two hundred meters, they reached the vicinity of the target armory without incident.

The shallow crater left by a mortar shell lay half‑buried under a heavy steel framework; the demons had tried to shift those beams before the team arrived, but lacking effective organization, they could not budge it in time.

Thus they left only a few strong demons to continue hauling debris, and those few were swiftly wiped out by the squad.

The whole camp had fallen into a death‑like stillness; from the aerial reconnaissance feed Chen Jian could not be entirely sure no other foes lurked within, but he could be certain that even if any remained, they would not dare charge again.

After all, they are sentient beings, and they too know fear.

Do they truly think the blood god's blessing makes them invincible?

A single 9mm round will teach them what it means to be human!

"Clear!"

"Secure. We can begin the sweep!"

He Shuo's reply came from the rear; Chen Jian glanced at Li Shi, who raised his shield, understood instantly, and without further instruction lowered it and strode forward.

Xu Lie stared, dumbfounded.

Who, exactly, is the leader here?

I haven't even spoken, and you just stepped up on your own?

Not only him, but Xie Liu and Zeng Yi had already scrambled onto the building's roof, taking it upon themselves to watch the squad's flank.

This troop is impossible to lead.

Xu Lie muttered complaints under his breath, yet his body moved obediently; he crept to the wreckage of the armory, sniffed, and then spoke:

"There are still living things inside, but I can't pinpoint where."

Chen Jian nodded and signaled Lei Jie.

Lei Jie produced a portable wall‑penetration scanner, using the moment Li Shi shifted the steel beams to circle the debris, then marked the position and expected angle of entry with a simple gesture.

The next second.

Bang!

A 12.7mm round slammed through the air, and immediately Shen Yue's machine gun opened fire in unison.

Rat‑tat‑tat‑tat——

The frail half‑brick, half‑timber wall was pierced instantly; a glance at the wall‑penetration scanner showed the live target had vanished.

Xu Lie froze.

These god‑chosen ones never cease to surprise him.

Or rather, to frighten. The script he had imagined was to wait for Li Shi to clear the entrance, then charge in with Zeng Yi, striking down the last demon with lightning speed—not for show, but as a gesture of goodwill.

After all, the god‑chosen have always been at the forefront of danger; now the battle is nearly over—surely it's not too much to ask to take the vanguard once?

But he hadn't anticipated that, in their plan, there was no notion of charging in to fight again.

Watching Li Shi finish clearing the heavy steel beams, Chen Jian and Lei Jie slipped inside using a standard two‑man breach position, first clearing dangerous corners, then without hesitation putting rounds into the corpses on the ground.

Secure! Search the gear, prepare to withdraw!

Chen Jian rushed to the building's center, where a narrow door led down to the basement.

The door was still shut; Xu Lie finally saw his chance to lead the way, readying himself to rush in—only to be blocked by Lei Jie.

He pulled the movable steel door open just a crack and dropped the lone flashbang through the gap.

Whoom!

The deafening blast rang in everyone's ears, and in the instant the flashbang detonated, Lei Jie surged ahead, leading the charge.

Pop! Pop!

After two shots, the basement fell silent again.

In the darkness, two bodies lay on the floor, each with a bullet to the head.

Xu Lie stepped forward, glanced, and said:

"They might have been prisoners; they bore no blood‑skull mark—you killed the wrong ones."

No mistake.

Lei Jie shook his head.

"When I entered, they were holding weapons—would you arm a captive?"

As his words faded, Xu Lie noticed the two pistols fallen beside the corpses, and stood frozen.

"How could they have weapons? What were they doing?"

Closer inspection revealed the women's exposed skin covered in elaborate, gaudy tattoos; even with half their skulls blown away, their faces still radiated a lurid, frenzied aura.

Especially when he saw the huge piercings in their nostrils, Xu Lie finally understood.

"These are the demon‑women of Huadu—damn, how did they end up here?!"

Chen Jian picked up a serviceable pistol from the floor, bewildered, and asked:

"Huadu?! What the hell, is that Dongguan?"

"It's a modest town where the people are a little off, worshipping fleshly stimulation and sparing no effort to propagate."

"But they're mostly human—how could they be found alongside the blood‑skulls?"

"Mostly?"

Chen Jian frowned, brushed the topic aside, and barked the order:

“There’s no time to dwell on it now—everyone, spring into action and haul every useful piece of equipment off the ground.”

“Li Shi, ditch your shield; I’ll rustle up a finer one for you on the return.”

“Fashion a makeshift rack and pile it high with whatever you can carry.”

“Understood.”

Li Shi accepted Chen Jian’s command without a murmur; as Xu Lie lingered, tormented by the bodies littering the earth, Li Shi had already taken to imitating Chen Jian’s crew, scouring the site for any scrap he could salvage.

The clean‑up sprang to life in a flash and was over before the echo faded.

The armory was stockpiled with blunt blades and a hodgepodge of miscellaneous odds and ends.

In just over ten minutes, every piece was bundled and ready.

“Fall back!”

At Chen Jian’s barked order, the six‑strong team fell back along their ingress trail, spilling out of the camp’s perimeter.

Within the hushed encampment lay only corpses flung in disarray and a slick of blood seeping over the earth.

(End of chapter)