Of course, this didn't mean the thugs were weak.
Eleven guns were no small threat against any player squad. Given the generally low-tier defensive gear most players possessed at this stage, firearms inflicted downright brutal damage. A single shot to a vital area could kill instantly, leaving no chance for healing items.
A well-equipped, coordinated team might have broken through their makeshift barricade of abandoned vehicles with covering fire from a dedicated sniper or heavy gunner. But the hastily assembled group of scattered players earlier? They couldn't afford such luxuries – roles requiring mountains of points just to gear up. That's why those Japanese players had ultimately abandoned Miyamoto Rei and beat a hasty retreat.
For Luo Jie, however, it was no problem at all.
The [USS CQC Armor - Prototype I], an F-Purple grade piece of equipment, didn't just negate ballistic damage below 260 points; it also absorbed 80% of the bullet's kinetic energy, barely hindering his movement. At this stage, few F-grade firearms could surpass that damage threshold. Even his own [Bloody Bride M92F Custom], boosted by Magnum rounds, barely scraped the 260-point mark. Against the armor? It still couldn't penetrate.
That was the core reason for his confidence in taking on the entire gang solo.
Double-checking the thugs' positions via the drone's monitor screen, Luo Jie swapped in a standard 9mm magazine for his [Bloody Bride M92F Custom]. He took a deep breath, then burst from behind the wrecked vehicles. Moving in an erratic S-pattern, he sprinted towards the pedestrian overpass roughly thirty meters ahead.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Gunfire erupted instantly from the overpass as Luo Jie reappeared. Dozens of rounds whizzed past him; several slammed into his abdomen and thigh. The [USS CQC Armor - Prototype I]'s rigid-yet-resilient exterior absorbed the vast majority of the kinetic force. The impact felt like being tapped by a stray badminton birdie – his sprint faltered almost imperceptibly before he regained full speed.
BANG! BANG!
Luo Jie wasn't one to take hits without retaliation. Using a car for momentary cover, he snapped off two shots towards the overpass. Between the 20% accuracy boost from his F-Gold skill [USS Bio-Enhanced Operative Training Manual] and the gun-sense honed over seven years in his previous life, missing at barely twenty-five meters was near impossible.
One thug, wielding a shotgun, jerked as a crimson flower bloomed on his chest. He toppled headfirst over the railing. Another, ducking too late, took a round in the shoulder. He dropped his pistol through the railing gaps, howling in agony while clutching the wound.
BOOM!
A distinct, heavier blast echoed from the overpass. The car Luo Jie was using for cover shuddered violently. Its side windows exploded into dust under a hail of pellets – the police-issue shotgun!
How the hell did these thugs get buckshot? Regardless, it was now his biggest threat.
Taking another sharp breath, he pulled a military-green fragmentation grenade from his inventory.
[M57 Fragmentation Grenade]
Type: Consumable
Grade: F (Green)
Description: US-made defensive grenade. Inflicts up to 300 points explosive damage at the epicenter, decreasing radially.
It was one of two hidden treasures he'd found in the gun shop back in Dead Rising. He'd used the first against the toughest USS operative, the close-combat specialist "Ninja." He'd intended to save this last one as a boss-killing trump card. But since acquiring [Meitou · Fugu] (Famed Blade · Pufferfish) and its exclusive skill [Secret Technique · Steel-Severing Flash], his single-slash damage now breached a thousand points. This 300-damage, area-effect grenade had become embarrassingly obsolete.
If the drone feed hadn't shown the thugs densely packed behind sandbag-and-junk barricades on the overpass, he might have forgotten he even had it.
Pulling the pin, the little olive-drab egg traced a perfect inverted arc through the air, trailing faint smoke, and landed dead center on the overpass walkway.
The thugs had practically sealed their own fate. Without the barricades they'd built along the sides, Luo Jie could never have made such a precise toss; the grenade would likely have rolled right through the railing gaps and fallen uselessly below.
"Nani?!" (What?!)
Staring dumbfounded at the spinning, smoking object at their feet, the dozen or so thugs froze for a critical second before panic erupted. They scrambled wildly. Some leapt straight off the several-meter-high overpass in sheer terror.
KABOOM!
The deafening blast lit up the overpass in a flash of fire. Shattered sandbags, debris, and unmistakable chunks of human flesh and limb were hurled skyward by the concussive wave.
A single grenade wiping out thirty thugs was wishful thinking. But the eleven gunmen on the overpass? Wiped.
One downed by Luo Jie's earlier shot. Four obliterated in the blast. The six who jumped? Two died on impact. The remaining four lay screaming below, limbs shattered – arms broken, legs snapped.
The thugs wielding melee weapons, stationed under the overpass, had ironically escaped unscathed. Yet the sheer shock of that perfectly placed grenade shattered their morale. As Luo Jie vaulted their chest-high barricade and charged, they didn't hesitate. They turned and fled in every direction, some even throwing down their weapons. Within moments, the area was deserted.
Luo Jie walked under the overpass, his eyes flicking instinctively to the basketball-sized hole in the bridge deck. He grabbed one of the screaming thugs with a broken arm. "Who's your leader?"
Terror filled the man's face. His gaze involuntarily darted towards a long-faced man nearby, shirtless under a leather vest.
"Thanks." Luo Jie smiled at the thug. Then, in three swift motions, he raised his pistol and sent the other three wounded thugs to meet their maker.
The long-faced man, dragging useless legs, desperately scrambled towards a police shotgun wedged in a car's undercarriage. He'd barely covered half a meter when the cold muzzle of Luo Jie's pistol pressed against the back of his skull.
"N-no! Don't shoot!" the leader shrieked, voice cracking with primal fear. "Anything! I'll give you anything!"
Luo Jie chuckled, squatting down to eye level, the gun still resting lightly against the man's temple. "Bold words. Like you actually have anything worth taking... Tell me this: Are there vehicles in that motorcycle shop? I mean real all-terrain vehicles. Don't waste my time talking about bikes."