Chapter Six: The First Kill!
Chen Qi forcibly suppressed his urge to throw a grenade. He knew that facing a militarily trained adult man head-on would give him almost no chance of winning. And tossing a grenade in front of the enemy was unlikely to accomplish much.
“Hurry up and come out! I can see you! If you come out now, I’ll let you run for ten seconds!”
A mocking voice echoed from the classroom door, belonging to the man with the hood.
A wave of suffocation swept over Chen Qi; the ominous premonition he held was slowly becoming reality. Yet Chen Qi stayed motionless, pressed flat against the floor. He was certain that he couldn’t be seen from the direction of the door; he gambled that the hooded man was bluffing, and also that he wouldn’t bother to search the room thoroughly.
Perhaps Chen Qi’s hope worked its magic, or perhaps the hooded man had grown careless after searching so many classrooms, or maybe he simply didn’t believe anyone would actually be in such an abandoned classroom. Chen Qi heard the footsteps recede as the man walked away.
He swore it was the most beautiful sound he’d ever heard in his life. Finally, he could let out a slow breath and begin to strategize his next move.
Soon, from a nearby classroom, came the crash of a door being kicked open, followed by voices.
Suddenly, Chen Qi heard hurried footsteps! Then came a light, chilling laugh:
“Well, well, there really is a little mouse hiding here. I said I’d let you run for ten seconds, so ten seconds it is.”
Bang!
The words had barely ended before Chen Qi heard the sound of the trigger being pulled.
“I’ve changed my mind again,” the hooded man explained to the corpse. The corpse remained silent.
A surge of inexplicable rage rose in Chen Qi’s heart. He had never imagined that humans could so callously, even playfully, disregard the lives of their own kind. He resolved that he would use the grenade against the hooded man outside the door.
“How’s it going on your side? I just killed one,” the hooded man near Chen Qi called to his companion approaching from the other side.
“No one here. Forget it, the government’s coming, get the firepower ready!”
The other hooded man replied.
The man by Chen Qi tore off his hood, revealing a face crisscrossed with scars and tinged with madness.
He exclaimed excitedly, “Let’s give the damned Northern Alliance a real taste of pain right here.”
Chen Qi heard something heavy being placed outside.
“They must be setting up their guns,” Chen Qi guessed.
Just then, he finally heard the shrill wail of police sirens outside the school, and the harsh screech of brakes sounded almost mournful against the hellish backdrop of the school entrance.
The man outside, now hoodless, shouted fiercely, “Die!”
Then Chen Qi heard a series of heavy explosions.
---
Chen Qi could hardly believe it. “They have rocket launchers? Who are these people—terrorists?”
Thanks to the strict gun controls and good public safety in the Celestial Empire, Chen Qi found it hard to believe that such chaos could erupt in a place so similar to Earth.
The sounds of intense gunfire between the police and the terrorists rang out at the entrance. Chen Qi could hear the excited breaths of the man outside. Using the cover of gunfire, he slowly crawled toward the door.
He stealthily peered out, catching sight of the following scene: two terrorists, one manning a light machine gun, the other aiming a rifle at the school gate. Beside them lay a recently used rocket launcher and a constantly crackling walkie-talkie.
Terrified, Chen Qi quickly withdrew, listening as the gunfire outside grew sporadic. He didn’t have much hope for the hastily arriving police.
“How could ordinary police possibly defeat such ruthless terrorists?”
Chen Qi began to yearn for the arrival of the army and special forces. Just then, he heard the terrorists in the corridor outside cheering, celebrating the retreat of the police.
The sound stabbed at Chen Qi; he wished dearly he could throw his fragmentation grenade.
“It’s easy to throw it, but what then?”
His heart wrestled with the impulse of justice urging him forward. At that moment, a buzzing noise interrupted his inner conflict.
“A helicopter! The army is finally here.”
Eyes fixed on the sky outside the door, Chen Qi watched:
The helicopter hovered in mid-air, wary of the rocket launcher and keeping its distance. Fully armed soldiers aboard fired at the teaching building, sending clouds of dust billowing.
Chen Qi also saw troops occupy the administrative building across the way; soldiers crouched behind the three-story walls, engaging in fierce firefights with the terrorists in the teaching building.
“Five more minutes of fighting, then everyone retreat to the auditorium!”
The terrorists’ leader’s voice boomed from the blaring walkie-talkie outside.
Following the order, the terrorists outside became less stingy with their ammunition; the thunder of rocket launchers echoed repeatedly, and Chen Qi could smell the thick scent of gunpowder.
The arrival of the army emboldened Chen Qi. He crawled again to the edge of the door. The terrorists outside, suppressed by the military’s firepower, couldn’t raise their heads, only blindly firing their weapons from cover.
Now, the army’s drones drew closer to the teaching building, patrolling each floor, gradually seizing control of the situation.
Seeing this, Chen Qi grew anxious. Watching the terrorists prepare to leave, the vengeance that had just welled up in him left a bitter taste; he could no longer endure it.
With the terrorists fully focused on dodging stray bullets and suppressive fire, Chen Qi gritted his teeth and pulled the grenade’s pin. Every muscle in his body tensed, blood surging from nerves and adrenaline, so much so that he could almost hear the sound of it rushing through his veins.
Even so, his mind remained remarkably clear. He knew that if the grenade didn’t explode after landing, it might bounce away from the impact. To ensure a lethal blow to the terrorists six or seven meters away, Chen Qi decided to slide the grenade across the floor.
“Five! Four!” Counting down to four seconds, Chen Qi decisively slid the grenade along the smooth tiles toward the terrorists.
Without any obstruction, the dark green grenade glided behind the two men. The faint scraping sound was completely drowned out by the roaring gunfire, nearly inaudible.
The two terrorists, engrossed in firing, didn’t even turn their heads.
“One! Zero!”
Boom!
---
Under Chen Qi’s fervent gaze, the fragmentation grenade exploded behind the terrorists, its blast hurling their bodies through the air, shrapnel tearing their flying corpses into bloody shreds.
Chen Qi even saw a face frozen in shock, the knife scar on its cheek standing in stark contrast.
Perhaps this man never believed it would end this way.
[Notification: You have killed a terrorist]
Seeing the prompt flash twice, Chen Qi breathed a long sigh of relief and put his remaining grenade back into his storage space. Then he noticed a green-glowing chest beside the terrorists’ corpses.
Overjoyed, Chen Qi crawled straight over.
[You have obtained a green treasure chest]
With a green-glowing chest now in his storage, Chen Qi excitedly rushed back to the classroom. Judging by the situation, the army would soon storm the teaching building—he was about to be rescued!
Meanwhile, a hovering drone nearby captured Chen Qi’s figure clearly.
...
In a residential house outside the school, the owner had long since been evacuated. Two fully armed soldiers stood at the doorway, while inside, a room was crowded with soldiers operating drones.
“Report! Student sighted on the fifth floor of the teaching building!”
A soldier staring at the drone’s feed shouted.
The message quickly reached the temporary command center. Inside stood an elder, well past fifty, whose scant hair, now disordered by sweat from anxiety, gave him a frazzled look. He paced back and forth beside his chair, unable to sit.
Upon hearing the soldier’s report, the elder immediately ordered, “Helicopter, move closer! Special forces, take the teaching building now! Riot police, halt your rest and prepare as the second wave! Ensure the safety of the student on the fifth floor at all costs!”
As mayor of Stran City, he should have been sitting in his office drinking coffee, waiting for his secretary’s afternoon briefing. But now, under the weight of this terrorist attack, he bore tremendous psychological pressure.
In his recent call with General Zakayev of the Northern Alliance, the white-haired general commanded him to guarantee the safety of every student in Stran Secondary School, no matter the cost. He had endured ten minutes of the general’s tirade, and with the general about to arrive, he could not allow any student to die under his watch.
As a rocket struck the terrorists’ position on the first floor of the teaching building, the terrorists abandoned their comrades’ bodies and, together with those from upstairs, fled through the rear door in disarray.
13:47—The command center secured the teaching building!
At that moment, Chen Qi had no idea his appearance had sped up the rescue operation’s pace. He focused all his attention on the glowing green chest.
[Open green treasure chest? Yes/No]
Filled with the exhilaration of his first kill, Chen Qi chose to open it. Emerald light flooded his vision, dazzling him.
[You have opened the green treasure chest and obtained the following items:]
[Youth’s Resolve]
[Boots of the Fugitive]
Seeing the two pieces of gear shimmering green, Chen Qi was thrilled, immediately turning his attention to them.