Fatal Shot

The dim moon hung on the night sky, shaped like a crescent as it drifted quietly toward the west.

In the hotel, all of the players who participated in the mission were gathered in a room, except for Sha Lang, Young Master Lin and two other players who were in the same group. At that moment, a heated argument broke out from the room.

“What? You want to go explore the Umbrella’s sanatorium at this hour? Absolutely not!” Brother Ling’s voice boomed loudly through the team channel as he sternly refused their proposal.

One of Young Master Lin’s followers, the Earth Energy Manipulator channel replied coldly over the team channel. “Do you expect us to just sit here and do nothing? You must be aware that the identity camouflage chip only lasts for five days. If we cannot complete our mission within that time frame, who knows what might happen? It has already been three days since we did anything at all—it’s as if we really came to sightsee as tourists!”

“If it wasn’t for your team who acted impulsively, we wouldn’t have been forced to waste three days doing nothing, complained a Heavy Armor Warrior player with the ID “100,000 Volts” with a discontented tone. “Aren’t you ashamed to speak such words to us?”

“Back then, everyone’s main purpose was to gather information, and the sanatorium was our best shot at a lead. Therefore, it was naturally a main target of ours. Who knew that the sanatorium would be so well protected? We were only noticed because of our carelessness. Fortunately, our cover wasn’t blown, and nothing serious happened, so there wasn’t a huge effect. But some of you were rather timid and would not dare to act. You chose to cower in the room.”

Not only did the Earth Energy Manipulator refused to own up to his mistake, but he even raised his voice. “Look at it this way. If our mission hadn’t started off on the wrong foot, all of us wouldn’t have known that the security team and the Umbrella Corporation have connections. Our mission could have failed right from the start!”

“Are you kidding me? Are you saying that the three of you should be awarded in this matter?!”

The Heavy Armor Warrior player’s voice rose in volume. If not for the fact that NPCs couldn’t hear the conversations of players over the team channel, they would have been noticed by the NPC guards ages ago.

“No matter your decision of whether to join us, we have already decided to sneak into the sanatorium for further investigation. We are just here to inform you.”

The Earth Energy Manipulator did not say anything further and even switched off the team channel’s communication function.

“F*ck!” The Heavy Armor Warrior player was fuming.

“Young Master Lin, do you think they will sneak in tonight?”

Not far from Feng Luo, the Earth Energy Manipulator was smiling as he stood behind a curtain, observing Young Master Lin with a telescope from a luxurious room opposite Feng Luo’s hotel room.

“Three days have already been wasted. There is no doubt that many of them probably can’t hold their patience any longer. Besides, based on the bullet I’ve seen, I have a hunch that there must be some internal disagreement that’s been going on for a while now, but it has been repressed by Ling Lei. However, now…”

Young Master Lin’s eyes were full of arrogance as he coldly answered, “We do not have Scouts in our team, so it isn’t suitable for my team to blaze trails. Instead, let them take the lead and see if they can draw the attention of both the guards of the security team and the Umbrella Corporation. Then we will go to the sanatorium.”

“I’m pretty sure they have no idea about you possessing a rare talent that enables us to sneak into the sanatorium easily. What happened the last time was purely an accident!”

“Hey, in the end, they’ll finally realize that they didn’t contribute much to the mission, and it was us who accomplished it. Until then, we can get your dignity back, Young Master Lin!”

“Dignity? Hmph!” Young Master Lin answered in a proud and cold manner. “Do you know what they secretly nicknamed you? Boot Licker! And do you know what they called me? Trust Fund Baby! These idiots. They have no idea I was using them all along!”

“What a good scheme, Young Master Lin. But if Sha Lang joined us, our operation would have had a higher chance of success. He does have some skills up his sleeves, but who knew he had the guts to reject you directly when you personally invited him?” The Earth Energy Manipulator grinned as he spoke.

“He was personally recruited by Brother Lu. Even my father asked of me out of respect for him. I wouldn’t provoke him if I were you. Anyhow, what’s that noise outside?”

Before he had finished his sentence, Young Master Lin furrowed his eyebrows and turned toward the source of the sound.

******

A few seconds prior…

“D*mn this Trust Fund Baby!”

In the room, looking at the team channel monitor that showed three people at a disconnected state, even Brother Ling—who was a patient man—couldn’t help but swear.

“Brother Feng, we cannot wait any longer. Who knows what sort of tricks they have up their sleeves this time? They might just cause trouble again! I think we should act tonight. I have observed the NPC guards downstairs, and they seem less aware today. It wouldn’t be difficult to sneak in without alerting them.”

As Brother Ling turned around to look at him, Feng Luo replied, “Indeed, we should act tonight. Someone mentioned before that things could happen if we waited for a few days. But three days have passed since then, and nothing has occurred. If we wait any longer, we might as well be sitting ducks waiting to fail the mission.”

Meanwhile, the Heavy Armor Warrior player who had previously cursed made a comment, and his choice of words had brought on some anger. The Earth Energy Manipulator snapped back at him and switched off his communication function before the Heavy Armor Warrior player could even reply. This made the Heavy Armor Warrior player furious. To vent his anger, he spoke to Feng Luo in a rather harsh tone.

Surprisingly, Feng Luo did not respond. At that moment, he snapped his head toward something outside.

“I don’t think we should wait either,” a Scout with the ID “Gunfire” added. In the middle of it all, no one had noticed that the look in his eyes had changed. “We should just attack the sanatorium right away. I’m sure there must be some important evidence that we can get ahold of. All we need to do is send a video of the evidence back to them, and even if we don’t survive, the mission will still be considered as a success.”

“Aaah!”

However, at that moment, everyone heard a loud, ear-piercing scream.

It was known that the town took certain measures to maintain its original ecology. All stores were required to close when the clock struck 12 a.m.; thus, the streets would be completely empty by midnight. The scream pierced through the peaceful night, making everyone’s hair stand on end.

Before it subsided, two loud and panicky shouts erupted from the floor below them.

“Aaah!”

“Help!”

They were the voices of a male and a female.

Everyone’s expressions immediately tensed as they looked at one another before running to the window to search for the source of the cry for help.

A young tourist couple who wore matching outfits were seen running frantically out from a small, dark alley opposite the hotel. Their clothes were a mess, and panic was written all over their faces.

“Dang! What in the world are those two doing in an alley in the middle of the night—?” said a wretched-looking Wind Manipulator in the team. But before he could comment any further, he was interrupted by something else.

“Quick! Look! What’s that?” said the team Doctor, Xiao Jiu. She let out a soft yelp as she pointed toward something that was behind the NPC couple.

Suddenly, two black, canine-looking shadows which were taller than a meter in height appeared in the dark alley behind the couple and started charging at them.

At first glance, the Wind Manipulator gasped. “Godd*mn it! What kind of monster is this? A skinless dog? It’s quite disgusting!”

The canine beasts appeared in front of everyone. Almost all of their fur had fallen off their bodies. The skin was severely rotten, and muscle tissue with black and crimson patches of blood clots covered most of their bodies. Their lungs and hearts could be seen pulsating between their ribs.

The scariest part of it all was their eyes—blood-red pupils sharpened in the middle of the white sclera as red veins spread like networks throughout their eyes. Their canine teeth were more than ten centimeters long and almost touched the floor, and the reverse cutting edges of the claws on their paws were covered with blood, leaving a trail of gore behind as they moved.

At that moment, Feng Luo’s eyes were fixated only on the creatures. Because deep down, he knew that he was truly familiar with this species.