Chapter 599: Arms Dealer
Chapter 599: Arms Dealer
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Reston Street, Queens.
Reston Street would usually be occupied with office-workers, tourists, and locals strolling up and down the street at this hour, but now it took on a completely different form.
The street was decorated with shards of broken glass and down the street, most of the buildings were burning and the street took on a bright red and orange hue.
This was the scene the Superpower Combative Police Force was greeted with. Upon their arrival, they spotted a monstrous figure standing on a rooftop. This person was shooting columns of flames from the center of his palm!
The Dragonfly Man Jeff was the first to spot this evildoer who was undoubtedly the one who was responsible for the current state of Reston Street. He immediately hopped off the drone and charged toward the fire element psionicists. The moment Jeff prepared to launch an attack on the enemy, John spotted a beam of light appearing from a building on the opposite street from the corner of his eyes!
It was... A sniper!
John immediately realized that this must be a trap set up to draw out the Superpower Combative Police Force!
John made every second count. He exited the drone immediately and charged toward the window of the building where the sniper lurked!
In the Superpower Combative Police Force, John and Jeff were the only ones who possessed flight abilities but John’s was vastly superior and he could accelerate up to the speed of sound. However, he usually kept in the backlines of the group and only served as a commander. He only stepped in when the situation became particularly tricky. He recognized this moment as one where his presence was vital since if he did not make a move now, the life of his teammate would be in danger.
Despite John’s timely reaction, he was still a little too late. Just as he burst through the windows of the building, he heard a shot go off. The sniper positioned in the building had pulled the trigger and fired at one of the drones. The high-caliber rifle fired a shot so powerful that it obliterated Elastigirl’s drone in an instant and sent her tumbling to the ground below, shrieking as she fell!
“You...”
A chilling glow appeared in John’s eyes. His eyes began to radiate and the corners of his sockets glowed red. Before the sniper could put up a resistance of any sort, a powerful beam of laser pierced through both the sniper and the weapon!
“D*mn it!”
The eliminated sniper had another accomplice with him. The accomplice immediately drew a gun at John and fired! Just as the bullet exited from the barrel, a harsh beam of laser melted it mid-air!
“Zoom!”
John swept the laser sideways and sliced the poor fool in half!
After taking out two perpetrators in the mere blink of an eye, John turned to the window just in time to see Elastigirl crashing into the ground. Fortunately, her body was made of resilient rubber and she bounced nearly fifty meters into the air upon her initial landing. Then, she gained her footing and planted herself into the ground unscathed.
“Boom!”
The drone that Elastigirl rode on was not as fortunate. With its engines destroyed, it lost control and crashed into a nearby high-rise building. It burst open with a tremendous explosion!
“Capture them!”
John looked distraught. The drone crashing into the building must have caused at least several unintended casualties. This alone was considered a major slip-up for the Superpower Combative Police Force. If they did not handle the rest appropriately and efficiently, the reputation of the police force would suffer gravely.
By now, the rest of the Superpower Combative Police Force members had landed and they took out the remaining criminals as effortlessly as an adult would handle a bunch of children at the park. The only criminal that managed to put up anything resembling a fight was the fire element psionicists. In the end, he was still taken out with a swift blow from Thor Leon and lost consciousness.
After most of the criminals were taken out, something captured John’s attention. He immediately turned to where the criminals had parked their cars just in time to see a bearded man about to get into a car. He had a panic-stricken lady in a chokehold with one arm and brandished a gun in the other arm. He shouted at the top of his voice and commanded the police to drop their weapons.
Upon realizing that they had a hostage situation on their hands, everyone turned to John to seek guidance.
John cursed silently and leaped off the roof of a building, landing a short distance away from this desperate villain.
“You won’t get away. If I were you, I’d let the hostage go and surrender nicely.”
John declared with a quick smirk. He took slow, composed steps toward the bearded man. The aura he emitted was suffocating and crushing.
“Stop, stay right there!”
The bearded man started to grow frantic and howled like a cornered beast. “I’ll never surrender, Guardian. You better stay back or else...”
“Zoom!”
John fired a beam of laser from his eyes in an instant. His aim was so precise and concentrated that it landed directly on the gun the bearded man held in his arm. The extreme temperature of his optic blast melted the gun in an instant and the corroded metal fused with the bearded man’s arm. Tortured with pain, all he could do was let out a deafening, sorrowful cry.
After that, the bearded man collapsed to the ground, still whimpering in pain while the hostage immediately fled. However, John would not show mercy just yet. He continued concentrating his optic blast on the gun until it had melted in a puddle of molten iron!
“Thump!”
The bearded man collapsed face down. His entire hand was completely scorched by the molten iron and he passed out because of the severe pain.
“Clap clap clap clap!”
“You’re the best, Guardian!”
“Marvelous, you’ve saved the people again!”
As the dust settled, the people who had been hiding in nearby shop lots emerged into the now safe Reston Street. The crew of superheroes stood in the center of the ruins and received well-deserved applause. There was even a young mother who led two of her children to John and asked for a picture.
As usual, the Superpower Combative Police Force handled the reception with familiarity and elegance and after the interview session with the reporters was concluded, they entered the designated vehicles that arrived at the scene to fetch them.
The moment John entered the vehicle and ensured the public could not see him anymore, he turned to the other members and stated sternly, “This entire incident is just an attempt to draw us out to assassinate us.”
“Luckily, my body is made of rubber, otherwise, the fall would’ve killed me.”
Elastigirl brushed her hair and said, “If it was Catwoman or Invisible Man, we’d have a frozen corpse on our hands by now.”
“You’d wish I’d die so easily.”
Catwoman glared venomously at Elastigirl. The two had a fair share of history between them.
“Me neither.”
Blake shrugged nonchalantly and turned to Elastigirl with a coy smile. “Aren’t you underestimating my steel body fortification? If I fall several hundred meters from the sky, I’m going to punch a deep, wide hole into the ground!”
“Alright, that’s enough!”
John frowned at their pointless banter. “This isn’t the time to mess around. The reporters asked me about our drone crashing into the building. Expect to see something misleading in the headlines tomorrow suggesting that we made a mistake.”
“Well, it can go both ways.”
Lane noted, “It depends on if the company can cover this thing up effectively.”
“This group has something against us.”
Catwoman interjected. “I think it’s pretty obvious by this point that this incident is just to draw us out and the two snipers the leader took out were the assassins. If they didn’t shoot down Elastigirls’ drone, they’d have fired at somebody else one way or another.”
“We have to investigate further.”
John agreed with Catwoman. “If my suspicions are correct, this should be the work of the ‘Psionic Threat Association’. I wasn’t expecting them to make a move so soon, especially considering we only just received news of them.”
“Everyone...”
While the members were speculating among themselves, the display built into the car suddenly turned on and Austin appeared on it. “Don’t worry, just leave it to the company to handle the rest.”
“But they’ve already made a move on us.”
Dragonfly Man Jeff remarked, quite upset, “They are only going to raise their aggression from here on. Even if we have steel body fortification and other abilities, it’s only a matter of time before they get one of us.”
“Don’t worry, this will be the last time they have their way.”
Austin stated sternly, “The B.S.S. department will take care of everything behind the scenes, so don’t worry about it. We’ll only request your involvement if it is necessary.”
With that, the matter was settled. They too were aware of how much the company was capable of and did not question Austin’s promise for one moment.
...
Meanwhile, in a desolate small town in the Middle East, a military truck slowly strode into a small town.
The war in this continent had been raging for years and the situation was not showing many signs of improvement even in the current day, it had only intensified. The drawn-out war had unsurprisingly resulted in a major drop in population in the continent and countless cities and towns had been laid to waste and turned into ruins of destruction.
The small town of Kut that spanned over a radius of 50 kilometers was no exception.
The small town was currently occupied by a small band of local warlords. At the current hour, as the military truck entered the town, bands of soldiers emerged from the abandoned, destroyed houses. In an instant, the abandoned town was suddenly riled to life.
“Hiss...”
The military truck stopped in the middle of an empty plaza in the town and was immediately surrounded by soldiers in all directions. The soldiers readied their weapons and kept the barrel pointed at the drivers inside.
Three men in clean suits stepped out of the truck. Although they could be riddled with bullet holes at any given moment, there were no signs of panic on their faces. The man leading the charge had long and narrow cheeks partially covered by a pair of large sunglasses. Upon stepping out of the truck, he steadily approached a bearded man who emerged from the ruins. The bearded man sported a bright red cap and flashed an eager, friendly smile upon making eye contact.
“Stand down, all of you.”
The man in the red hat gave an order. His voice was thick with the local accent. The group of soldiers immediately obeyed their leader’s orders and stood aside to form a passage for the men in suits.
“My dear friend Olof, you sure have kept me waiting for some time...”
The man in the red hat glowed with a passionate smile and stretched his arms wide open for a warm embrace.
“General Rocky, I’ve been looking forward to our meeting as well!”
The man referred to as Olof took off his sunglasses and shared a warm embrace with the general. Then, they exchanged some pleasantries.
“So, how’s the shipment this time?”
After some short, friendly conversation, the general stated, “Both you and I know that I’ve always been an impatient man. There are more than five hundred boys here that I’m responsible for. Let me take a good look at the goods as soon as possible.”
“It’d be an honor, General.”
Olof nodded and waved to the other two members behind him. The two of them promptly went to the rear of the military truck and unveiled the curtains to reveal the contents inside it.
Lo and behold, the contents were revealed to be rows upon rows of sausages.
The red hat general’s expression remained fixed upon seeing this. He turned to Olof and Olof responded with a short chuckle. Then, he hopped into the truck and shuffled the sausages out of the way.
With the sausages out of the way, large crates of wooden containers covered with straw were exposed.
With a crowbar they prepared ahead of time, the containers were pried open. The contents of the container were an assortment of large rifles.
The general turned up with fascination when he saw these rifles shaped like AUGs. “So, these are the electromagnetic weapons?”
“Certainly, these are Cousar Crowe Pulse Rifles.”
Olof picked out one of them and handed it over to the general. Then, he played out his role as the salesman. “This here is the standard weapon of the four major continents. The muzzle fires kinetic energy of 3 megajoules at a rate of one thousand rounds per minute. It can easily cripple most tanks of the 21st century. Most combat vehicles are only good for target practice when faced with this gun.”
“Excellent, I can’t believe you got your hands on these...”
The general licked his lips eagerly. He could not be any more delighted.
“There’s more where that came from.”
Olof teased the general, then flipped the containers out of the way to reveal another iron container underneath them. He cranked it open violently with the crowbar to reveal a slender, jet-black skinned weapon.
“The Asgari Chemrail is also an electromagnetic weapon. You wouldn’t believe the sheer explosiveness of its rounds.”
Olof strained every part of his muscles just to lift this behemoth of a weapon that measured more than 1.5 meters long. He stated excitedly, “Its effective range reaches up to five thousand meters and its rounds reach up to 12 megajoules. This bad boy here can obliterate high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft with one shot.”
The general’s satisfaction continued to shine radiantly on his face. With a quick signal, the soldiers gathered nearby quickly stepped into the truck one after another and transported all the crates outside and proceeded to tabulate the total haul.
“A hundred pulse rifles, twenty chemrails, fifty thousand rounds, not bad at all!”
After receiving the total count of his men, the general showered Olof with more praises. Then, his tone suddenly darkened. “But my dear friend Olof, aren’t you forgetting something?”
“General, of course, I remember your specific requests.”
Olof quickly snapped his thumbs at his subordinates. One of them dug into his pocket and presented a small metal box no larger than the average palm.
The general’s face flashed with impatience. He hurriedly received the metal box like it was a royal gift and saw that it required a code to be opened.
Olof saw the general looking at him quizzingly and he presented a three with his fingers, then followed it up with a one, then another three.
The general entered the code himself and the lock on the metal box unlatched itself obediently upon receiving the correct code input.
A vial containing an azure blue solution glowed enchantingly from within the box.
Olof inspected the general’s expression attentively. He could immediately tell that the general was far more impressed with this tiny vial than the large batches of firearms he was shown.
The general gazed at the blue vial that seemed like an ancient, exquisite gemstone. He was caught in the daze and could not utter a word for a moment.
“General Rocky? Sir General?”
Sensing that the general seemed to be caught in a daze, Olof reminded cautiously. “Now that you’ve verified the condition of the shipment, shall we tally the total cost of this shipment?”
“Sure.”
The general awoke from this state of daze and wiped the dizzied smile from his face. He signaled at the vice general and within minutes. A crew of soldiers carried a sturdy wooden crate from one of the abandoned houses. It kicked up a cloud of sand when it clapped against the ground. Without needing a prompt from the general, the vice general opened the cover.
A mesmerizing, bright golden glow beamed through the opening of the container.
“One box here is a hundred kilograms, which equals roughly 177,000 ounces of gold.”
The vice general directed to Olof. “We have four more crates of this which total to about 27.5 million U.S. dollars worth of gold. This should be enough payment for the weapons you brought to us. As for the vial of L compound, we’ll pay you back soon enough.”
“General?”
Olof’s expression changed. He quickly turned to the general himself. “What do you mean by that?”
“Exactly what it sounds like.”
The general smiled unkindly. “We’ve known each other for a long time so there’s no need to worry. I’ll pay it back before you know it. You only need to wait till I finish mining the gold mine.”
“I’m sure you know how much the L compound costs.”
Olof seemed very disagreeable, his voice was icy. “This thing costs at least 300 to 500 million U.S. dollars in the black market. I’m the only person in the market who has the connections to acquire it. After all the work I’ve gone through to acquire it, this is the answer you give me?”