Through the lens of her night vision goggles, Kyoko could clearly make out the chaos on the ground.
Torn-apart corpses. Chunks of blasted flesh. Blackened tactical gear. Twisted firearms.
Those thugs who usually bullied ordinary survivors had probably never imagined that their lives would end to something as cheap as a handful of landmines.
What a grimly ironic way to go.
"People like this dying isn't a loss. At least they'll feed the soil. Maybe the greenery here will grow better next year."
She clicked her tongue.
"The real waste is all this equipment."
Miranda, Brent, and the other three had already come down from upstairs. Brent, still carrying her sniper rifle, waved a hand. The hallway was pitch-black, and Kyoko still hadn't switched on a flashlight.
After that sudden ambush, none of them could be sure there weren't still enemies outside.
Any light at all could bring more trouble.
"You're a hell of a shot, Brent. That was beautiful."
"Thanks for the praise, but it wasn't much," Brent replied. "The other side was just too stupid. Otherwise I wouldn't have been able to pull it off so cleanly."
It had been Brent who had taken out the sniper team in the opposite building with the rocket launcher. Then she had killed the fleeing sniper with her Remington M24. That sort of precision with firearms wasn't something Kyoko could compare with at all.
Kyoko genuinely admired her for it.
So Brent definitely had experience with this sort of thing before.
Maybe she had been a soldier once. Maybe she had even seen combat.
But now wasn't the time to dwell on that.
With her nerves finally settled, Kyoko slipped back into her usual mode. While it was still dark, she wanted to sort through the loot one more time.
And if that many thugs had come here, then they couldn't all have walked.
Maybe there were vehicles downstairs. Maybe even military supplies.
The others didn't have Kyoko's reflexes or her ability to sense danger, so there was no question of bringing them along. Her Bullet Time had still not been triggered; that meant she still had two uses left, and as long as she could sense danger first, she could keep herself alive.
The others, though, were safer upstairs.
"At least for now."
"You three come with me to somewhere safe first," she said. "Then wait there until I come back for you."
"Kyoko, are you sure you can handle it alone? Do you want me to come with you?" Miranda asked.
She wanted to go with Kyoko. No matter what, she couldn't sit still knowing Kyoko was heading out alone.
But Kyoko shut the idea down immediately.
"Miranda, you're going back upstairs too. I'll handle this myself."
Her tone left absolutely no room for argument.
Miranda and Brent could only swallow their objections.
"Then be careful."
There was a trace of bitterness in Miranda's voice. She and Brent were both older than Kyoko by several years, yet in the end they were the ones being protected by a high school girl.
There was nothing to be done about it.
Neither of them had the ability to ease Kyoko's burden right now, and that stung.
After bringing everyone back inside, calling Huaxiu over, and settling the four of them in a secure room, Kyoko geared up fully and headed downstairs alone.
The NV8300 night vision device on her head still had eighty percent battery left—enough to last until dawn.
"This rope is frozen solid," she muttered, flicking the line hanging outside the building. "It's practically turned into a steel cable."
She gave it a knock and it answered with a hard, brittle sound.
The rope ladder they had forgotten to bring in yesterday had been buried under snow. Meltwater had seeped into the fibers, then frozen again, leaving it harder than iron.
"Fine. I'll leave it hanging there for now."
There were other ways down. This was the fifth-floor exterior platform; from here she could cross to the neighboring building and descend from its side. Since she hadn't explored it before, she still didn't know what kind of trouble might be waiting there.
Still, it was the quickest route—and it also happened to lead toward the dead sniper's position.
As for the machine gunner, he had probably been blown into little more than scraps by the rocket hit. There was no need to go admire the mess.
Kyoko slipped through the apartment on her side, reached the neighboring building's large balcony, and kicked the window in.
Glass shattered.
Once inside, she found nothing worth noting. It was just an ordinary apartment. Still, she swiped a few candies from the table in the living room, tore one open, and slipped it into her mouth beneath her face covering.
Sweetness spread across her tongue. Her body, starved for quick energy, greedily absorbed the sugar.
For all her enhanced physical abilities, Kyoko still had one glaring weakness: she needed to eat often. If she didn't, all that frightening power would vanish, leaving her weak and miserable.
"Watermelon flavor," she murmured. "Not bad."
Gun in one hand, she moved quickly through the stairwell. After all the chaos she'd caused, there weren't many infected left inside this housing block.
Most of the ones that had once been trapped indoors had already smashed their way out the windows to chase after all the noise.
And besides, the intruders had already swept this building once tonight. The place was eerily quiet.
Even if a few infected had been left behind, Kyoko wasn't worried.
She even walked loudly on purpose, almost inviting anything lurking in the shadows to come try its luck.
Nothing did.
When she reached the upper floor where Brent had killed the fleeing sniper, she finally stopped and stared at the body.
"Damn," she muttered. "This guy got the full presidential treatment."
The corpse sprawled on the ground had no pulse, no breath, and barely half a head left. Kyoko only found the missing portion after looking around—the man's scalp and skull had been blown clean into his fallen helmet.
The 7.62 round had struck through the gap near the helmet strap. The force had ripped the scalp and upper skull loose, and when the one-kilogram helmet tumbled to the ground, it had dragged the remaining shreds of flesh and bone with it.
"What's this?" she said, crouching beside the body. "And are these… 12.7mm rounds? Huge."
Digging through the loot around him, Kyoko brightened instantly.
The sniper rifle he had been carrying was a KSVK.
Even with her only moderate knowledge of firearms, she recognized the odd-looking Russian-made anti-materiel rifle. Heavy-caliber, manually operated, lighter than one would expect for a weapon of its class, and equipped with an effective recoil-reduction system—perfect for long-range precision fire.
This thing wasn't even in the same category as an ordinary sniper rifle.
Get hit by this, and body armor would mean very little. Victims rarely ended up crippled. Most just died on the spot—so fast their brains never had time to register the pain before they were gone.
Kyoko worked the bolt a few times, testing the feel in her hands.
She wasn't fond of bolt-action rifles.
Still, she kept it.
She also rummaged through the man's rig and found several round grenades, plus snacks, medical supplies, and a few small tools.
Once she was done, there was nothing else worth taking from the room.
"These bastards were carrying some pretty good equipment."
She made her way downstairs, picking her path along the barely passable trail through the small park below the building.
The ground wasn't littered only with corpses. A few of the men were still alive—if barely. Their bodies were mangled by shrapnel, and all they could do was make wet, gasping noises through ruined throats.
As a kind-hearted person, Kyoko decided to put them out of their misery.
"So you thought ambushing me was a good idea?" she muttered. "Then die."
She didn't bother using bullets on them. Ammunition was hard to come by, and these men were no longer a threat. Cold steel was enough.
Thrust. Thrust. Thrust.
Every stab was precise, each one driven cleanly into a skull or straight through the brain. There was no point trying to pierce their chest plates or tear off their body armor when a single downward thrust to the head would do the job faster.
Every strike was fatal.
Kyoko felt absolutely no guilt.
Even the ones already confirmed dead didn't escape her mercy. Anyone whose limbs hadn't been completely blown off got one more blade through the head just to make sure.
"You just had to come make trouble for me before I even left, didn't you?" she muttered under her breath as she worked. "Cause problems, cause problems, cause problems…"
Fresh blood still steaming in the snow, scattered limbs, burned gear, and the remains of shattered rifles surrounded her like silent witnesses.
The land around the minefield had been torn apart, and smoke still curled up from blackened patches of ground. Kyoko stripped the dead of anything useful, then piled their bodies and unwanted gear together. To keep from triggering any remaining mines, she moved with extreme caution. The battlefield had been so thoroughly churned up that even she no longer knew where every last explosive was buried.
She only advanced through places where mines had already gone off, gathering any usable firearms, ammo, and tactical gear into a single heap.
As for the corpses, she sentenced them to fire.
She poured medical alcohol over their clothing, snapped open a lighter, and tossed it onto the pile.
The alcohol, fabric, nylon webbing, and blood-soaked flesh all caught at once. The reek that rose from the fire was sharp and nauseating.
Even after backing away, Kyoko could still smell the burning—along with the crackling of melting gear.
"Five forty-five already…" she muttered, rubbing her face. "I'll sort this stuff out, take one more look outside, then go back and sleep for a few more hours…"
Yawning, she began sorting through the captured weapons one by one.
She kept only three or four primary firearms. The handguns, though, she took all of them. Tactical gear could be selected case by case.
Then something under her foot crunched.
"Hm?"
She looked down, brushed the snow aside, and uncovered a cylindrical device.
A scope?
She picked it up, then stared.
"Oh, so it's one of these. These bastards were carrying thermal optics too. What a waste."
She was holding a destroyed helmet-mounted thermal imaging device.
Anything broken beyond repair—guns, optics, damaged gear—she fed straight to the system in exchange for points. Then she slung the remaining loot over her shoulders and headed for the armored vehicle in the underground garage.
It stood right where she had left it, waiting for her in the dim concrete silence.
She yanked open the hatch and dumped all the gear inside in a heap.
So tired.
Time to go home and get some sleep.
For the past several days she hadn't had a proper night's rest, and she had barely been eating enough to support her body. Kyoko didn't like overeating in front of the others, so even though she always ate slightly more than the other four, she still ended up sneaking extra candy and snacks whenever no one was looking just to keep herself going.
Then—
Bang.
A single gunshot cracked through the predawn silence.
A flash in the distance.
There was still another enemy alive.
The minefield hadn't killed all of them after all. One unbelievably lucky bastard had survived. Unlike the bald leader, who had been loaded down with heavy armor and combat drugs, this man had escaped with nothing fatal. The shrapnel had missed every major artery and organ. Terrified, he had abandoned his comrades and fled.
What now?
The whole team was dead.
How was he supposed to go back like this?
Panicked, he had hidden behind a statue several hundred meters away, unable to decide whether to run or fight.
Then he saw Kyoko.
His scope, fitted with low-light optics, gave him just enough visibility to pick her out.
So he chose violence.
At the entrance to the underground garage, Kyoko heard the shot and every alarm in her body went off at once.
The Bullet Time she had never once needed until now finally triggered.
Everything in her perception slowed.
She turned sharply and, through the night-vision goggles, saw the shooter crouched behind the statue in the middle of the square.
Even slowed several times over, the bullet was still terrifyingly fast.
Too close.
It shaved past the side of her helmet.
If it had been half an inch closer, her head would have opened like a melon.
She didn't give the man time for a second shot. Dropping low, she dove behind cover.
She knew where he was now. Behind the statue. But he wasn't a fixed target. He could move.
No time to think.
Kyoko rushed to a firing angle, leaned out around the corner of the building, and brought her rifle up.
One more use of Bullet Time left.
One shot.
One kill.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 138)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter160)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter98)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter175)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 163
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 150
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 100
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 170
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 145
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 125
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 69
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 90
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 66
Uma Musume: From Beginner 100
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 70
Uma Musume: I Want All 90
I Can Copy Unique Skills 65
Summoning an Evil God, but the 52
Supernatural Multiverse 65
My Harem Is Indescribable 55
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 55
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 66
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 55
Still playing traditional Honk 35
The Most Filial Son Under Heav 35
What Should I Do After Switchi 24
Reincarnated as a Demon, Skill 35
Hell-Difficulty Dungeon? 27
Transmigrated as Sukuna 27
Checking In in Demon Slayer 32
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