Era of Mist

Shi Tiexin crept forward through the darkness.

His large frame and height were ill-suited for stealth. He wished he could float like a ghost, but he was far too big to pull it off. With his huge feet, he couldn’t find a single silent spot to land in an old building like this one. Trash paper and plastic bags littered the floor, making it impossible to move without making a sound.

But the sky was dim, and the hallways were pitch-black. On top of that, the enemies were making a huge ruckus, and the fleeing homeless were creating a cacophony with their frantic screams. All this noise actually made him seem silent by comparison.

Compared to the panicked escapees, his stealth seemed far more professional. It was all about who you were compared to. Shi Tiexin kept his ears open, avoiding the gunfire as he prowled the hallways like a savage ghost.

The enemy numbers were high, and their firepower was strong.

He crept to a corner where he could see the crackle of muzzle flashes lighting up the opposite wall. Under the cover of darkness, Shi Tiexin peeked his head out for a quick look before immediately pulling it back.

There weren’t that many enemies, only five or six men scattered across the floors. But they had heavy firepower, showed no hesitation in using their ammunition, and spared no one. The moment they kicked open a door and found someone inside—man, woman, or child, armed or not, it didn’t matter—they’d unload a few rounds.

The scent of cordite and blood was rapidly filling the hallways.

Shi Tiexin frowned. ‘This doesn’t look like a targeted hunt. This is an indiscriminate massacre!’

These gunmen were certainly inflexible. They had been ordered to “kill them all,” and they were executing that command to the letter, leaving no loopholes to exploit.

‘So much for trying to blend in with a disguise.’

Shi Tiexin quietly slipped into a nearby stairwell.

Peeking from the stairwell, he saw someone standing guard. The guard continuously scanned up, down, and straight ahead, as methodical as a programmed surveillance camera.

‘This could be trouble…’

Shi Tiexin realized that while these enemies were rigid, they possessed some huge, irreplaceable advantages.

Their physical conditioning was far above average. Their skin was tough, and they were highly resistant to the elements. Their execution was flawless, unaffected by factors like morale or confidence. They did whatever they were told, no matter how dirty or difficult, without complaint. No pity, no pain, no emotion—they were almost the perfect tools.

They were completely useless in small-scale, flexible combat or in situations that required improvisation and strategy. But for large-scale sweeps and frontal assaults, their advantages were undeniable.

At least, they wouldn’t run away at the first sign of fear like street thugs.

‘These guys aren’t meant for street brawls.’ The knot of consciousness in his mind quivered slightly, and a peculiar thought surfaced. ‘They’re built for war.’

The thought gave him a jolt.

‘War?’

‘War with whom?’

Shi Tiexin didn’t dwell on it. Instead, he turned and slipped into a dilapidated room.

He gently pushed open a window and peered out. Below, searchlights mounted on vehicles were casting bright white circles across the building’s exterior, though they hadn’t yet reached his position.

Shi Tiexin spotted a drainpipe nearby and planned to slide down it like a ghost in the movies. But as soon as he grabbed it to test its hold, there was a loud SNAP. A section of the pipe broke off right in his hand, leaving him with a palm full of rust.

“Uh…”

Speechless, Shi Tiexin stared at the broken pipe in his hand, then quietly left the room and returned to the stairwell. He looked at the guard, who was still scanning methodically, then glanced back at the pipe in his hand and tossed it down lightly.

The broken pipe landed with a CLANG in front of the man.

A normal person would have looked up, assuming it was a prank and wanting to see who was responsible. These tools, however, strictly followed their tactical training. The guard’s eyes widened as he stared at the pipe, trying to determine if it was just debris or a grenade before deciding whether to look up or take cover.

The next moment, with a muffled WHOOSH, Shi Tiexin descended like a savage specter and brought a flying knee down on the guard’s neck with a sickening CRACK.

The enemy crumpled to the ground with a dull THUD.

He listened carefully. The chaos outside was still raging; no one had noticed a thing.

‘Can’t pull off “ghostly stealth,” but “savage ghost stealth” isn’t much different,’ Shi Tiexin thought, secretly pleased. He was still in a perfect state of stealth.

Shi Tiexin picked up the broken pipe. He glanced at the USP in his right hand, then holstered the powerful handgun at the small of his back without a second thought. Pipe in hand, he continued his savage, ghostly prowl.

Moving between floors, he took out several more guards with the pipe, gradually getting a feel for the enemies’ positions and patrol patterns.

When they were alone, these rigid-reacting goons were ridiculously easy to deal with. The pipe was all he needed.

But when they formed a squad, they strictly adhered to tactical roles. The six-man squad on each floor maintained a tight formation of lookouts, attackers, and reserves. Someone was always watching their surroundings, and they never let more than two of them reload at the same time.

Shi Tiexin was once again convinced: these men were built for a conventional battlefield, not for special operations in confined spaces.

Shi Tiexin wanted to observe them a little longer.

But then he heard gunshots from upstairs—BANG! BANG! Someone was firing back!

From the sound of it, it wasn’t coming from where Ah Fei and his group had been. It was probably someone else with a gun fighting back. But who knew where Ah Fei was now? It could very well be them.

With a shuffle of movement, the tools all looked up. They looked ready to converge on the location en masse and snuff out the resistance completely.

‘I can’t wait any longer!’

Shi Tiexin’s heart clenched, and his eyes grew sharp.

He suddenly hurled the pipe. It ricocheted off the ceiling and walls—CLANG, CLANG—before clattering to the floor on the far side, drawing the gazes of several men.

One of them was still watching his position, but Shi Tiexin had no time to worry about that.

He launched himself out like a flying fish breaking the water’s surface. As he went horizontal in mid-air, the muzzle of his gun locked onto the man who was still looking his way, and his aim tightened as the targeting reticle shrank.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

He fired three consecutive shots, landing in the opposite doorway and mentally calculating the accuracy of his Lingkong strike. ‘That was my first time actually shooting at someone. The pose was so cool, the results must have been great, right?’

RAT-A-TAT-TAT! A fierce volley of gunfire erupted. ‘A quick count… six of them. Not one was down.’

‘Well… this is a little awkward.’

‘But that’s normal. It’s my first time shooting at a real person, so of course it’d be different. I’ll get better with practice. Just need more practice.’

‘But when am I going to get time to practice?!’

THWIP-THWIP-THWIP-THWIP! The wall he was hiding behind erupted in puffs of dust. The office building’s interior walls weren’t thick enough to completely stop the large-caliber rifle rounds. The enemies advanced on his position without a word, spraying bullets wildly as they came.