That Attack Helicopter hovering overhead like a reaper didn't actually unleash its munitions after issuing its final warning.
Its honeycomb rocket pods and rotary cannon slowly tilted up, then its fuselage veered away. With a massive roar of airflow, it began heading back toward the airport.
This abnormal scene caused the air inside the abandoned logistics center to freeze for several seconds.
"It... it's gone?" Four Eyes pushed up the thick glasses on the bridge of her nose, her eyes behind the lenses filled with confusion and unease. "According to my calculations, there was a 98% probability it would level this floor within five seconds. Why?"
"Don't ask why! This is our chance!" Ruper didn't hesitate. As "Wolf Mother," she made an immediate decision. "Everyone, evacuate now!"
The six members of the Wolfpack Squad didn't hesitate for a second. They quickly packed their gear, rappelled down the back of the building, and vanished into the complex city alleys. Ruper didn't have time to think about why the enemy had spared them; her intuition told her it certainly wasn't out of mercy.
They sprinted all the way, their heartbeats and footsteps echoing through the deathly silent streets.
...
Meanwhile, on the roof of a skyscraper two blocks away.
A pitch-black utility helicopter hovered at the top of the building, its rotors whipping up a frantic gale. The moment the hatch swung open, six black figures leaped out of the cabin.
Specialized rappelling ropes dropped from the fuselage. They snapped their descending carabiners shut and sped down the ropes in tactical postures, their boot soles occasionally brushing against the walls and kicking off small fragments of debris. The entire sequence was as fluid and swift as a flock of crows descending.
There was no unnecessary noise, only the faint tautening of ropes and the low hum of rotors. This group of killers that had suddenly arrived was a Black Watch assault team—code-named "Cleaner."
"Targets locked. Count: 6. Direction of travel: Grid 77-42."
"Commander's orders: Capture alive. Repeat, non-lethal force authorized. Target brains must remain intact."
"Copy that."
After all six "Cleaners" finished landing, they quickly melted into the night.
...
After weaving through the maze-like alleys for ten minutes, the Wolfpack Squad finally reached their designated rendezvous point—a crossroad located behind a commercial street.
Just as they turned the corner, several fully armed figures suddenly shifted in the shadows fifty meters ahead.
*Clack, clack, clack—*
The highly strung members of the Wolfpack Squad almost subconsciously raised their weapons, muzzles pointing straight ahead.
"Don't fire! Friendly! Friendly!"
The figures opposite immediately shouted in low voices while making the specific identification hand signals of the Umbrella U.S.S. units.
By the faint moonlight, Ruper saw the other side's attire—the same black tactical vests, the same gas masks. It was the U.S.S. support unit sent to meet them, the "Dark Horse" Squad.
"Damn it, Ruper! Is this the mess you guys made?"
The Dark Horse Squad's Commander was a burly man, followed by seven fully armed elite soldiers. Looking at the Wolfpack Squad's disheveled state, his tone was full of shock. "Headquarters said this was just a simple recovery mission, but what was with that helicopter just now? What the hell happened here?"
The two squads merged, bringing the total to 14 people. This was a force that couldn't be ignored in any conventional special operations mission.
"Stop asking! This isn't the place to talk!"
Ruper shoved the Dark Horse Commander aside, her tone urgent and stern.
"This place is already controlled by another faction. We have to evacuate immediately! Move! Everyone, head toward the harbor!"
Hearing Ruper's unquestionable tone, the Dark Horse Squad soldiers also realized the gravity of the situation. They quickly adjusted their formation, preparing to evacuate with the Wolfpack Squad.
However, just as a Dark Horse soldier responsible for the rear guard turned to take a step.
*Whoosh—*
An extremely faint muffled sound, like air being torn apart, shattered the silence.
*Splat!!*
A mist of blood instantly erupted from the soldier's thigh. A large-caliber armor-piercing round precisely pierced his femoral artery and femur. The massive kinetic energy snapped his entire leg backward.
"Aaaaaargh—!!!"
A shrill scream instantly echoed through the alley. The soldier fell heavily to the ground, clutching his severed leg and rolling in agony.
"Enemy attack!! Sniper!!!"
The Dark Horse Commander roared, reacting instantly by diving toward the cover of a nearby dumpster.
The remaining 13 U.S.S. soldiers were well-trained; they scattered instantly, seeking cover behind corners, abandoned vehicles, and concrete barriers.
"Over there! Three o'clock! High ground!" Spectre's sniper rifle rose quickly, his thermal scope scanning the surrounding buildings.
But before he could pull the trigger.
*Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat—!!!*
A dense and precise hail of bullets poured down from all directions.
This wasn't just a sniper; it was a perfect ambush encirclement.
Those six "Cleaners" didn't launch a frontal assault like conventional troops. Instead, they occupied the rooftops, windows, and high ground on both sides of the alley, forming a three-dimensional crossfire net. Their weapons were equipped with high-efficiency silencers, and muzzle flashes were suppressed to a minimum; only the "patter" of bullets hitting cover and the muffled sounds of flesh being torn could be heard.
"Suppressive fire! Suppressive fire!!"
The Dark Horse Squad soldiers fired wildly in all directions, their muzzles spitting tongues of fire as they tried to suppress the enemy with volume.
But to their despair, every single one of the enemy's bullets seemed to have eyes. If anyone exposed even a bit of their helmet or shoulder, it would immediately draw two or three precise shots.
"Damn it! I can't see them! The thermal is full of interference sources!" Spectre shouted anxiously. His scope was filled with decoy signals, making it impossible to lock onto a target.
"Viktor! Go take out that fire point on the flank!" Ruper shouted.
"Copy."
Viktor pressed the controller on his arm. A blue light instantly rippled across his specialized tactical cloak as the Optical Camouflage activated. His figure distorted in the air before vanishing completely, turning into a transparent phantom.
He moved swiftly along the base of the wall like a ghost, attempting to flank the Black Watch Soldier who was suppressing them.
However, just as he thought he was approaching the target undetected.
*Bang!*
A "Cleaner" standing in the shadows of a rooftop didn't hesitate. He dipped his muzzle slightly and pulled the trigger toward the seemingly empty air.
The bullet precisely grazed Viktor's shoulder, kicking up a shower of sparks and blood.
"Ugh!"
Viktor groaned as the Optical Camouflage system was damaged, his form instantly becoming visible. He looked up in terror at the black figure standing on the high ground—on the enemy's helmet, a blue tactical eye was staring fixedly at him, as if mocking his clumsy invisibility trick.
In front of the Black Watch's Multi-spectral visual sensors, ordinary Optical Camouflage was like running around naked.
"Get back, Viktor! Your camouflage is useless!" Ruper pulled the staggering Viktor back into cover, her heart filled with horror.
Just six people had pinned down two full elite U.S.S. squads totaling 13 people to the point where they couldn't even raise their heads. This was no longer a battle; it was a dimensional strike.
"Ah! My hand!"
A Dark Horse Squad demolitionist was about to lean out and throw a grenade when a bullet precisely pierced his wrist. The grenade fell outside the cover and exploded with a "boom." Although it didn't kill anyone, the kicked-up dust and smoke caused him to lose all combat effectiveness.
"This is ridiculous! How many of them are there? A whole platoon?" the Dark Horse Commander roared in despair. Three of his soldiers had already fallen, all shot in the limbs—incapacitated but not dead, lying on the ground wailing, which severely damaged morale.
While changing her magazine, Ruper calmly observed the situation. She realized the enemy didn't seem to be in a hurry to kill them, but rather... were capturing them alive. They were methodically stripping away the targets' mobility by shooting their limbs, like they were capturing rare animals.
"They're taking us alive!" Ruper instantly understood the enemy's intention. "They want to take us prisoner!"
"I'd rather die than be taken alive by them!" Four Eyes cried out. She knew all too well what happened to prisoners in this apocalypse.
"No one is going to die! Listen!"
A flash of ruthlessness crossed Ruper's wolf-like eyes. She looked at the crippled Dark Horse Squad nearby and made a cold decision. Someone has to be sacrificed for us to survive.
"Bellwei! Get all your C4 out! I want you to blow a hole in that load-bearing wall! Create the biggest smoke screen possible!"
"Hehehe! That's more like it! I've been waiting for those words!" Bellwei let out a manic laugh. He had long since had enough of this stifling fight. He quickly stuck all six of his remaining C4 charges onto the base wall of the dilapidated building on one side of the alley.
"Dark Horse! We need covering fire! Concentrate fire on that roof! Give us three seconds!" Ruper shouted at the Dark Horse Commander.
Although the Dark Horse Commander felt something was off, he had no other choice in this desperate situation. "Everyone! Focus fire on twelve o'clock! Open fire!!"
The remaining Dark Horse soldiers risked their lives to lean out, their guns roaring frantically. The dense hail of bullets finally forced the "Cleaner" on the roof to retreat.
In that exact moment.
"Bellwei! Blow it!!"
*BOOM————!!!*
The violent explosion was earth-shattering. The power of the C4 directly snapped the load-bearing pillars of the three-story dilapidated building. The entire wall collapsed with a crash, tons of brick and concrete pouring down, kicking up a massive cloud of dust and thick smoke that instantly split the alley in two.
The massive dust cloud temporarily obscured the Black Watch's vision and thermal imaging.
"Go! Into the sewers!"
Ruper didn't care about the Dark Horse Squad stranded on the other side. She kicked open a manhole cover by the roadside and was the first to jump down. "Quick! Quick! Quick!"
The six members of the Wolfpack Squad took advantage of the chaos and smoke, filing into the sewer one after another.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the smoke.
As the dust cleared, the Dark Horse Squad discovered in despair that they had been completely abandoned.
In the shadows around them, six black figures stood silently like wraiths. The dark muzzles of their guns were already pressed firmly against their foreheads.
"Target Group A escaped. Target Group B (Dark Horse Squad) capture confirmed."
...
Inside the sewer, the Wolfpack Squad trudged through knee-deep sewage.
"We... we left them behind," Bertha panted while bandaging Viktor's wound. There wasn't much guilt in her voice; it was more a sense of relief at having survived.
"That was a necessary sacrifice." Ruper walked at the front, her gun still held at the ready. "In nature, those who run slow get eaten. We survived; that's the result. Now, we need to find a way to leave this damn Drop Zone."