Chapter 69

"They know what you did. They might even be watching our shelter. We have to root them out completely—take down everyone who knows about you, everyone who was against Boluo—to protect the shelter." Lin Tu didn't care whether war broke out or whether the news got out. Disaster was coming sooner or later. All she wanted was to complete her side mission in the coming flood, to inherit and hold the civilian shelter.

"You're insane..." David tried to find a trace of joking on Lin Tu's face, but it was too dark to see. He tried to reason with her. "That's a full squad of eleven heavily armed men."

Lin Tu asked him, "How many troops does the Government Army have in total?"

"Twelve thousand." David was certain. "The Rebel Army is a bit fewer, but not less than ten thousand."

Lin Tu looked at him with deep eyes, coaxing him along. "If we want to end the war, don't we have to join one side and annihilate the other?"

"I suppose so." David hesitated, then nodded. "If war breaks out, we should join the Rebel Army."

"So compared to twelve thousand, eleven doesn't seem like that many, does it?"

This made David even more hesitant. He felt it somehow made sense, but also that he was being talked into something.

Wait—wasn't the real point to get out of Government Army territory and spread the news that war was coming? Just as David's thoughts straightened out, Lin Tu said in a serious tone, "That being the case, I, and everyone who wants peace, we need your help."

.

Five minutes later.

David looked at the iron plate that had somehow ended up strapped to his back and became convinced of one thing: Lin Tu must have been in sales before, a talent her boss valued greatly. Otherwise there was no way she could have charmed someone who had lived through the internet fraud wave of the peaceful era into this mess.

But what was done was done. All he could do was stake everything on this gamble.

David, carrying the iron plate, counted down the seconds, recalling what Lin Tu had said just now—"The bookstore across the street is the nearest empty spot. I'll go in and set up a trap. Six minutes from now, lure them all over. Remember, all you have to do is jump out, shout that you know where the Rebel Army people are hiding, and run toward me. Don't worry, they won't shoot you. But wear this iron plate, just in case."

Of all sentence patterns, David feared the "but" that followed. If Lin Tu was truly that confident, why would she have him wear the iron plate at all? Wasn't that gambling with Uncle David's life?

But she was the one who had killed the officer and saved his life just now. And she was the one who would stay alone in that bookstore.

David's countdown reached 360. He gritted his teeth and, with the iron plate on his back, burst out of the dark ruins into the floodlit street.

Hearing the commotion, the patrol in the distance immediately turned around—then witnessed a sight that made their breath stop.

"Well, well, look what we have here. A filthy rat daring to scurry out onto the street!"

The insult sent David's blood rushing to his head. "Your daddy is standing right on this street! What about it? You animals who turn your blades on your own people! I'm telling you, there are more of our Rebel Army brothers out there. If you've got the guts, come follow your daddy!"

He turned and ran toward the bookstore, iron plate still on his back. Behind him, the furious patrol urgently called out, "Sir! Officer Pulusi!"

Pulusi wasn't far. In fact, he had heard the noise the moment David spoke. He sprinted over, only to see a tortoise-like iron plate racing across the road. An almost unbelievable fury flooded through him.

"Let's see who dares to provoke me on my turf!" Pulusi shouted. "Leave one to watch the rat. The rest of you, with me!"

Instantly, the silent street erupted into chaos.

Several gunshots rang out behind him. David felt like his legs were about to catch fire. Fortunately, in the final moment, he made it into the bookstore's courtyard, tossed the iron plate at the entrance, and crawled into the shadows beneath the wall.

With a loud clang as the iron plate hit the bricks, the bookstore door creaked open, as if welcoming the guests about to arrive—the patrolmen behind David, likely emboldened by being on their own turf, charged without hesitation into the pitch-black opening.

"My part's done..." David breathed a sigh of relief, but only grew tenser. "It's up to you now, little lady."

The bookstore was like a gladiatorial arena, about to host a silent slaughter—and only one side would walk out of the darkness. David stared unblinkingly at the door, waiting.

One minute. Two minutes. Three minutes. Time dragged on, yet no sound came from the black doorway. As if everyone inside was dead.

David grew more and more tense. His eyes, strained from prolonged focus, even began to blur.

As he was wondering whether he should go in, a hand gently patted his shoulder.

David jolted and turned around—

"Carrot!"

Not just Carrot. Cheese, Luo Te, and the five other brothers the patrol had captured. All except Cheese and Carrot were battered and bruised, clearly subjected to brutal abuse.

"Damn! We took care of that patrolman." Carrot spat fiercely on the ground. "That piss-pants piece of shit who sided with the informers—thought he could grab us?"

"Thanks to you for drawing them off," Cheese said, patting David on the shoulder. "By the way..." He asked, "What are you doing here? It's been a full twenty minutes. Where are those damn patrolmen?"

Twenty-plus minutes? David stared at the dark doorway, a bad feeling growing stronger.

.

At that moment, Lin Tu was not doing well.

After surveying the bookstore's layout, she placed one of her three barbed wire traps at the entrance, one on her escape route, and kept one on her person for later. Then she waited for the patrol to arrive.

The instant the iron plate clanged against the bricks, Lin Tu quickly pushed open the bookstore door.

She stood calmly beside the barbed wire, and the moment the patrolmen stepped in, she activated [Barbed Wire]. The small wire on the ground, just as she had predicted, began to grow wildly, quickly filling the entire entrance hall. It climbed upward, its curved, thorned branches constructing a dark cage through which neither light nor sound could pass, trapping everyone inside.

Lin Tu popped a [Night Blueberry]—a special item she had deliberately bought to pair with the [Barbed Wire]. Besides boosting agility, it granted night vision. There was no time to waste. She drew her long blade and stepped forward, intending to enter the cage, only to find that the barbed wire, which should have parted to make way for her, was baring its thorns, trying to attack its own master.

Lin Tu: "?" She pulled up the special item description and read it again—it clearly said, "As the master of the barbed wire, you will not be attacked by it."

Had her senses deceived her? In the moment of her shock, the eager barbed wire lunged at her like a snake, swift and sharp.

"Ugh!" Her left shoulder, wounded by the monster's claw not long ago, was swollen and useless. Caught off guard by the barbed wire, had it not been for the Night Blueberry, she might not have dodged in time—and this place would have become a murder scene.

There was a saying: better a formidable foe than a useless ally. Lin Tu had doubted herself, but never the expensive barbed wire. She stared in disbelief at the dark branches, unable to accept that she had been betrayed.

But the Night Blueberry was already in effect, and its duration was only a few dozen seconds. Without hesitation, Lin Tu hacked through the offending wire, then turned her blade toward the cage.

It took her nearly seven or eight seconds to cut open a gap and slip inside. The barbed wire resealed behind her. Lin Tu stood in a dark, chaotic world—the patrolmen inside were scrambling blindly, screaming in panic. Lin Tu stayed still in the corner, a killer lurking in the shadows, her eyes shimmering with a faint blue glow from the Night Blueberry.

After a moment, her scanning gaze froze—found him: Officer Pulusi.

She was just about to step toward him when she felt a wire coiling beneath her foot, ready to strike, while another damned wire came at her head. Lin Tu slashed the one at her head, then bent down to deal with the one at her foot.

"Within the barbed wire, any movement will be obstructed and may be attacked." How had she not thought of it—the same effect applied to its master?

She cursed herself, and mentally cursed Professor Lü ten thousand times over.

She ate another Night Blueberry and pressed forward, severing wires that came from every direction while slitting one patrolman's throat. It was hard to say whether the barbed wire or the patrolmen were the greater obstacle.

In any case, after Lin Tu barely managed to kill the fourth man, a scream exploded within the wire cage.

"Someone's dead!"

"Protect the officer!"

"Sir! Officer Pulusi!"

The men were already bleeding profusely from the wires. They groped their way toward Pulusi, pressed close to him, and formed a human pyramid.

Seeing this, Lin Tu knew she had lost her opening.

She stopped, drew her gun, and aimed at Pulusi.

The patrolmen all wore helmets and bulletproof vests. But with supplies scarce, only Pulusi was fully outfitted. Lin Tu thought for a moment, then shifted her aim to the patrolmen beside him, who were shouting frantically as they tried to protect him.

The old saying went: capture the chieftain first. But if all the bandits were dead, what was a lone chieftain worth?

Lin Tu's aim was deadly. Two shots took down two heads, then two more pierced two chests. The remaining two shots went astray in the chaos, but they weren't entirely wasted.

The blood splattering onto him made Pulusi feel as if he were in hell. Lin Tu fired a tentative shot at him, then quickly withdrew from the wire—the Night Blueberry was about to wear off, and if she stayed here, she might not dodge the wires' attacks again.

Escaping the cage, Lin Tu stumbled and collapsed to the ground, but she didn't rest. Like a dead dog, she kept crawling forward until she hid behind a scorched bookshelf.

The barbed wire had held this long; it was about to give out.

Sure enough, with a crisp snap, the dark cage shattered like weathered paper, revealing the gory, horrifying scene within, and...

Pulusi finally saw the light of day. Scrambling backward in terror, he caught sight of Carrot, Cheese, Luo Te, David, and the others behind the bookstore door, and looked at them like long-lost lovers.

"It's you—thank God..."

Carrot stared at his miserable state in astonishment, then without a moment's hesitation, pulled a silenced pistol from his coat and put a bullet through his head.