"Gurgle..."
Under the murky swamp water, Austin was disoriented, feeling as if he couldn't breathe. His mouth and nasal cavity were filled with water, and the oxygen in his lungs continuously escaped, forming bubbles that rose to the surface.
"Croak Croak"
He barely opened his eyes. All around him, gigantic frogs swam vertically upwards, while his body ceaselessly sank downwards.
He looked down at his feet; it was pitch black, nothing could be seen.
It's just a swamp, how can it be so deep?
This thought had just risen in his mind when he violently shook his head.
No, I've fallen into an illusion created by the enemy. Wake up!
Austin fiercely bit his tongue. It hurt, it hurt immensely, but he still couldn't clear his head.
Or rather, he was already conscious, but he couldn't break through this illusion.
"Austin!"
Suddenly, he heard a call, someone was shouting his name.
"Kōsuke..."
Austin, deep in the illusion, heard his old friend's name. For some inexplicable reason, hope ignited in his heart. The frogs around him rapidly vanished, and his breathing returned to normal.
"Hm?"
"Recovered so quickly?"
Julius looked at Austin, whom he was holding by the neck, his brows slightly furrowed.
"Swish!"
A white light flashed. Julius released his grip, dodging the sudden attack, and Austin fell from his hands.
"Cough..."
Austin squatted on the ground, coughing uncomfortably.
The time spent within the illusion was short; in reality, it was but a single breath.
He took a deep breath, lifted his head, and Kōsuke Tenshin stood before him.
"Where's your woman?"
"She's already..."
Kōsuke Tenshin's face was grim. When he arrived, Dannica had already fallen into the hands of a man in a black trench coat.
He didn't think he could rescue Dannica in such an urgent situation. Compared to that, it was better to first fight alongside Austin and break out of the encirclement.
Making a quick decision, he gave up on Dannica and turned to support Austin instead.
"How are you?"
Kōsuke Tenshin glanced at Austin, who had risen. Apart from the handprint on his neck, he had no other injuries.
"I'm fine."
Austin rubbed his neck, his right hand subtly moving behind his waist to grasp a hand grenade. He leaned close to Kōsuke Tenshin and whispered, "This guy's ability traps people in illusions, it's incredibly tricky."
"Don't look at his open palm. The things inside will make people fall into illusions."
As he spoke, Austin pulled the pin from the grenade. He deliberately waited for a moment before throwing the grenade towards Julius.
The moment the grenade flew out, Austin's left arm hooked around Kōsuke Tenshin's neck, and the two turned and dove behind a distant sofa.
"Grenade!?"
Julius's eyes precisely tracked the object flying towards him. His expression changed, and the grenade exploded in mid-air with a boom.
"Boom!!"
A deafening explosion echoed in the villa's living room. All that could be seen were shattered wood, flying shrapnel, and flames. This was no ordinary grenade; it was a high-explosive grenade.
Even the specially reinforced walls of the villa were shattered and collapsed by the shockwave from the explosion, sending countless broken stones and debris whistling in all directions.
"Crash..."
Inside the living room, the tattered sofa stirred, and an arm emerged, pushing aside the sofa and the many shattered stones and wood covering it.
"Cough cough..."
Austin and Kōsuke Tenshin knelt on the ground, shaking their heads painfully. Their ears rang, and their vision was blurred, unable to see clearly.
"Ugh~"
Kōsuke Tenshin felt even more dizzy and nauseous, dry-heaving as if he was about to vomit at any moment.
"Quick, let's go to the basement!"
Austin's voice seemed to come from far away, yet also close to his ear. When Kōsuke Tenshin came to, he was already being supported by Austin.
The two staggered. They pushed open the wooden door behind the living room and arrived at the wooden panel leading to the basement. Austin knelt down and pulled open the wooden panel.
After pulling open the wooden panel, there was another layer of steel plate. Austin struggled to pull open the steel plate.
"Bang!"
The wooden door behind them suddenly exploded with a loud bang. The right wooden panel was kicked away like a toy, hitting the wall with a "bang" and shattering into a pile of splinters.
"You... all must die!"
Julius, who had been devoid of emotional fluctuations for a long time, felt a rare surge of negative emotion: anger.
His expensive suit was shredded into strips and rags, and he himself was disheveled and covered in blood.
"Da da da da..."
But as soon as he finished speaking, Austin immediately materialized an Uzi submachine gun and frantically sprayed bullets at him by the door.
Facing the overwhelming hail of bullets, Julius flashed his feet, dodging behind the wall by the door.
"You go down first!"
While shooting, Austin kicked Kōsuke Tenshin, sending the lying Kōsuke Tenshin tumbling down the basement stairs.
"Bang!"
Just as Austin kicked Kōsuke Tenshin down, the other side of the wooden door was also violently kicked open. A large wooden board, three and a half meters long and one and a half meters wide, flew towards him.
"Swish!"
However, Austin lightly shifted his feet, easily dodging it. At the same time, the submachine gun in his hand didn't release the trigger, continuing to spray bullets.
"Hehe, such small tricks are useless against your grandpa."
"Pfft!"
As soon as the words fell, Austin felt a sharp pain in his neck, followed by a chilling sensation, as if something had entered his body through a needle piercing his neck.
Austin's free left hand touched his neck and pulled off a strangely shaped red bullet. The bullet's tip had a tiny needle.
"This is..."
Austin looked at the bullet, but the next moment he felt a weakness spreading through his body, as if he couldn't stand steadily.
"Anesthetic!"
"Pfft! Pfft!"
Immediately after, two more anesthetic darts shot out, hitting his chest and his gun-wielding right arm, respectively.
"Damn it..."
Austin was completely weak. He fell to his knees with a "bang" on the floor, holding a hand grenade in his left hand, biting the pin with his teeth, and throwing it towards the ground.
"Gurgle gurgle..."
The grenade rolled across the floor and exploded with a "boom."
"Austin, get down here!"
Kōsuke Tenshin shouted from the basement. After that rolling descent, he had finally fully sobered up.
"I can't go on, Kōsuke..."
"Behind the ammo box, there's a tunnel that leads all the way to a small cabin a kilometer away in the forest..."
Austin, however, knelt at the entrance of the basement. As he spoke, he covered the basement entrance with the steel plate and threw the key into the basement.
With a "clatter," the basement entrance was completely locked.
"Tap... tap..."
After sealing the basement, Austin's consciousness grew increasingly blurry. Before he passed out, he heard slow footsteps and vaguely saw two black figures entering the room.
Inside the basement, Kōsuke Tenshin looked at the sealed basement entrance, his expression changing for a moment before he finally turned in silence and walked to the ammo box in the basement.
"Austin, I will come back to save you."
Kōsuke Tenshin swore in his heart. His ex-girlfriend and his old friend of over ten years had both fallen into the hands of the Umbrella Corporation. The nature of this matter had completely changed.
"Click, click..."
Kōsuke Tenshin strenuously moved the heavy ammo box in front of him. If it were an ordinary person, it would require at least four or five people to move it together.
"So this is the tunnel Austin dug..."
Kōsuke Tenshin sighed. He took a large number of grenades from the ammo box and quickly set up a booby trap in the basement. As long as someone entered the basement, if they weren't careful.
Boom!
They would surely die a miserable death.
Not only that, after Kōsuke Tenshin entered the tunnel, he also set up a booby trap at regular intervals within the long, narrow tunnel until he ran out of grenades. Only then did he leave through the tunnel at his fastest speed.
As he left, at the entrance of the basement, Julius clenched his five fingers, and a large amount of aura condensed on his fist, striking the steel plate.
"Clang~!"
A metallic clang echoed. A layer of solid aura appeared on the steel plate; he couldn't break it.
"This person, before losing consciousness, even imbued this steel plate with aura."
Caesar squatted down in front of Austin and patted his rough face. He was completely unconscious.
"Sir!"
At this moment, five guards entered the room.
"To avoid any traps below, you will blow up this room."
Caesar, cautious, instructed.
He then lifted Austin by the leg, dragging his body towards the outside of the room. Julius followed.
"Yes, sir!"
The guards nodded. The five guards placed grenades in the corners of the room. After setting them up, the five looked at each other, signaling completion, and quickly exited the room.
In the living room, the guards who had been hit by Austin's psionic bullets had also woken up. Some had bad luck and were severely wounded in vital areas by the high-explosive grenade that was detonated. Others only suffered minor injuries.
Everyone retreated to the villa's entrance, feeling that this position was safe.
"Detonate it."
Caesar nodded. The soldier responsible for detonation nodded in response and pressed the detonator.
"Boom!!!"
The moment the detonator was pressed, terrifying flames and explosive shockwaves surged overwhelmingly. The entire land violently vibrated, and the first floor of the entire villa turned into countless fragments, mixed with large amounts of flames, erupting outwards in all directions.
A earth-shattering explosion echoed in this forest. Even a town ten kilometers away was affected, and lights illuminated in households across the town.
"Was that hit by a missile?"
Many residents in the town opened their doors, came out into their yards, and looked at the small mushroom cloud rising in the forest, their faces filled with terror.
Seeing this scene, residents hastily pulled out their phones or rushed into their living rooms to call the police.
"Rustle rustle..."
In the tunnel, Kōsuke Tenshin, who was running quickly, did not stop. Fine gravel and dust continuously fell from above, and the entire tunnel was shaking.
"They triggered the booby traps in the basement, which then detonated the ammunition in the basement, causing a huge explosion."
Kōsuke Tenshin guessed. Soon, he reached the end of the tunnel, and a small wooden cabin came into his view.
But he did not enter it. Instead, he first turned his head to look at the fiery mushroom cloud a kilometer away. The mushroom cloud was small and quickly disappeared into the pitch-black night sky.
"First, to the Kakin Empire."
Kōsuke Tenshin's face showed determination. He pushed open the small wooden cabin's door and stepped inside.
"Crash..."
Large amounts of shattered stones and wood rained down from the sky. With a "boom," the entire villa collapsed, turning into a pile of rubble.
The flowers, plants, and trees around the villa were all ignited by the raging fire. Many startled wild animals and birds in the forest fled towards the edge of the forest.
"Cough cough... Pfft!"
Outside the villa, Julius, whose body was scorched black, slowly stood up. After two coughs, he fiercely spat out a mouthful of fresh blood.
Although he had protected his body with aura at the critical moment, he still couldn't avoid being injured internally by the explosion's shockwave.
As for the other security personnel, those who were already severely wounded lay on the ground, lifeless. Those who had only been lightly injured were also dazed by the shockwave, their bodies aching, and they spat out a mouthful of fresh blood as they got up.
"Ah... my leg!!"
Someone lay on the ground, wailing and screaming in pain. The terrifying shockwave had dislocated their internal organs, and some even had their limbs broken.
"I'll go!"
Caesar also had many places on his body bleeding, hit by fragments of wood and stone carried by the shockwave, but these were all minor injuries and didn't significantly affect his combat ability.
As for the hostages they had captured, Austin and Dannica, they both lay on the pitch-black ground, covered in injuries, unconscious.
"Bang!"
In the rubble, Caesar accurately located the basement's position. He kicked open the debris blocking the entrance and leaped into the pitch-black basement, which had been bombed.
"Tunnel?"
Although the tunnel's entrance had collapsed due to the explosion, Caesar could still easily distinguish it from other areas.
"They escaped through the tunnel."
Caesar scanned the scene but found no traces of human bodies. It was clear that the opponents had escaped through the tunnel.
"It's a good thing we used a bomb. If we had gone in ourselves..."
Caesar felt a hint of relief in his heart. His cautious personality, cultivated over twenty years of espionage, had saved his life.
His bomb had detonated an ammo depot.
Even a Boss-level existence might not have been able to emerge from such an explosion completely unscathed.
"There's only one person in this villa. This tunnel must not be long."
Thinking this, Caesar turned and leaped out of the basement, returning to where the soldiers were gathered. He scanned the area.
"You, you, and you, come with me to search the tunnel."
"As for the others, drag the dead and severely wounded onto the vehicles. Be ready for withdrawal at any time."
"Yes, sir."
The guards with less severe injuries immediately responded. The three selected guards followed Caesar's steps and came to the basement.
"Move these stones."
Under Caesar's command, the three guards endured the pain from their wounds and strenuously moved the stones one by one.
Fortunately, they were not ordinary people. Even injured, they still retained a good amount of physical strength.
"Sir."
The guard who was moving stones suddenly spoke. Caesar, who had been smoking a cigarette in place for five minutes, tossed his cigarette butt and signaled the three to go ahead.
The three guards, helpless, activated the night vision on their helmets and carefully, step by step, entered the tunnel.
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