Iron Thorn Squad Annihilated!

"Y-You... I mean, Sir?" Number 9 and his two companions stood rooted to the spot, feeling as bewildered as they were awkward. Could this really be happening? The Iron Thorn squad usually targeted Extraordinaries. Why would they come to the Reflected Ruin Realm to capture a mere anomaly in such a thankless endeavor? Besides, these anomalies couldn't even leave the Reflected Ruin Realm... Yet Iron Thorn’s subsequent actions quickly verified Bai Zhou's words. A specially crafted net descended from above, hurtling straight toward Bai Zhou from a distance. Muzzle flashes flickered, and several bullets sliced through the air in near silence. Heavily armed, burly soldiers sprinted across the mist-shrouded playground, raising their weapons to fire ruthless single shots at "Senior Zhou." From beginning to end, their eyes were locked solely onto "Senior Zhou" standing behind the window. Farther back, a vast mechanical legion surged toward them like a dark, buzzing swarm. *Not fast enough. These bullets aren't fast enough!* Pumping spirituality into his eyes, Bai Zhou could clearly trace the flight path of every single round. Had this been half a month ago, facing such an overwhelming force, Bai Zhou would have leaped up with his hands raised in surrender. After all, back then he possessed neither a Cardinal's Robe of the Mind nor Aladdin's all-powerful lamp. Now, however, he was a Level 4 Adventurer, cloaked in destiny, encircled by wicked desires, and equipped with more extraordinary weapons than he could count. So whether it was special forces, drones, or mechanical hounds—he’d even slice bullets down for them to see! And so, Bai Zhou moved. He threw a punch. Qi erupted from his fist. Razor-sharp blade Qi pulverized the incoming hail of bullets, crushing the special alloys as though they had been fed into a hydraulic press. The specialized net swooped down with the wind. Who knew how many arrogant Extraordinaries had once been snared by it, finding themselves tighter bound the harder they struggled? Bai Zhou simply hooked his hands outward as if tearing through fabric. The air temperature spiked. A fiery red glow faintly blossomed in midair, and invisible Qi materialized into colossal hands, tearing the massive net straight down the middle. "Reassess threat level!" Iron Thorn coordinated over the radio. "Establish a forward position immediately." "The hunt continues!" Specialized heavy shields designated "Fortress-2" slammed heavily onto the ground with dull metallic thuds, instantly erecting a makeshift forward outpost. Behind the heavy shields, machine guns were mounted, their red laser sights fixed on Bai Zhou. Next to a machine gun, an operative carefully set down a black node, which emitted a low hum upon activation. Invisible ripples swept over Bai Zhou, rattling his spirituality from afar and causing it to fluctuate erratically, demanding extra focus just to keep it steady. Goggles gleamed coldly as Zijing Group’s renowned Hawkeye-4 sniper rifle remained utterly silent, its crosshairs locked onto Bai Zhou's head. The remaining operatives continued their charge toward Bai Zhou. Not a shred of hesitation could be seen in their movements, nor even a hint of bloodlust—only an inhuman, pure coldness. It made them look no different from the mechanical army behind them, far more unsettling than ravenous wild beasts. It had to be said that Iron Thorn lived up to its name; like briars forged of steel, they ruthlessly ensnared their prey. In the next instant, the roar of a sniper rifle echoed from behind a Fortress-2 shield, harmonizing with the snarl of enchanted assault rifles wielded by other operatives and the buzzing of the disruptor. If the nearby battlefield where four titans clashed was the rebirth of myth and the arrival of an epic—where heroes’ blades chimed in unison and demigods brawled in close combat—then this relentless hail of gunfire was the very pinnacle of mortal craftsmanship, where gunpowder and steel composed a symphony of war. Bai Zhou’s heart jolted. A modified sniper rifle was in a completely different league compared to ordinary firearms. Even with his current eyesight, he couldn't see the projectile clearly; he could only vaguely capture traces of its trajectory and evade preemptively through prediction. Yet he soon realized with dumbfoundment that evasion wasn't even necessary. *Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!* As if striking soft clay, the bullets landed on the walls and window frames, vanishing without a trace like clay oxen sinking into the sea. Even the window opening lacking glass seemed sealed by an invisible barrier, as though an arcane power severed the inside from the outside. Even after the Principal departed, this classroom building appeared to retain its wondrous protective effect. It was as if mortals had flaunted the peak of their craftsmanship before a god, provoking divine authority. And the god replied: "Forbidden!" Thus, the bullets were swallowed whole, leaving no trace behind no matter how many enchantments their payloads carried. The moment the gunfire ceased, the voice of the suited man, Liu Yisheng, rang out grimly in everyone's ears over the encrypted radio channel: "Fools, the inside and outside of the classroom building are two distinct mystical domains!" "You cannot harm those inside from the exterior! Breach the building first!" With that, the makeshift tactical outpost was rendered useless. The twelve-man squad split into waves and launched a fierce assault on the classroom building. *Here they come—* Right now, Bai Zhou suddenly wished he could snatch one of their rifles, or that he had a bow in hand. Standing in the classroom building, all he could do was watch them storm closer from afar; even dropping a few rocks would have slowed their advance. This naturally reminded Bai Zhou of the arcane ballistas mounted on the battlements of the Xiluo Empire. If only he had one of those—even those four behemoths locked in fierce combat over there could all be brought down from a distance! *Thud, thud, thud!* Footsteps overlapped. In the blink of an eye, the phantom squad had arrived. Divided into two fireteams of six, each unit moved with the cohesion of a single body. Their paces were synchronized as they advanced and flanked with alternating cover fire, their actions crisp and devoid of excess movement. Even while sprinting at high speed, they maintained an effective, loose tactical spacing. In an instant, they drifted into the classroom building like ghosts. *Boom!* With an explosion, the door was blown apart. The Iron Thorn squad filed inside, taking up tactical positions with seasoned discipline. No anomalies barred their path as anticipated, nor did they encounter any irregularities. They made their way smoothly into the decrepit interior of the classroom building. Moving down the long corridor, they tilted their heads up and finally spotted Bai Zhou at the top of the stairs. Bai Zhou seemed to have been waiting there for a while. Glancing down at them, he nodded approvingly. "Yo!" Though his face was masked, Bai Zhou radiated the enthusiasm of a brothel madam welcoming regular patrons, flashing a bright grin as he called out, "You made it!" Silence. An eerie hush fell over the hall. Cold as lumps of steel, the Iron Thorn squad had zero intention of humoring Bai Zhou. After a brief pause, the captain's calm voice sounded over the encrypted channel. "—Fire!" At the exact same instant, Bai Zhou moved. Like a tiger descending the mountain, Bai Zhou leaped downward, the hem of his school uniform snapping in the wind. A fist plunged from above. "I've got him!" With a low bark, the point man, clad in heavy bomb-disposal armor, braced the Fortress-2 shield at the very front to intercept the figure descending with blurring speed. A torrent of immense force slammed through the point man's hands, yet it failed to budge the shock-absorbing greatshield. *Another fool—* The point man sneered internally. Countless Extraordinaries placed too much faith in their raw strength, believing they could shatter the bulwark of a Fortress-2, only to fall victim to their own foolish arrogance. Before that thought could finish, over a dozen cascading waves of stacked force rippled violently through the shield. The next second, the barrier the point man considered impenetrable burst apart. One punch to shatter the shield! Like a steamroller crushing a metal trash can, a sickening screech of twisting, fracturing metal accompanied the deafening blast. The instant the Fortress-2 shattered, sheer horror filled the point man's eyes behind his goggles. No evasion, no feints—a plain, straightforward punch pierced clean through the center of the shield, hurtling straight toward the point man's face. The fist expanded in his visor, kicking up a biting gale. It was like a runaway semi-truck charging ahead with thunder and lightning, trailing sparks and arcs in its wake. *Bang!* The hurtling fist caved in and punched right through the point man's thick chestplate. *Boom!* It was as if an explosive had detonated against his chest. The immense concussive force blew the heavy armor into a shower of jagged metal shrapnel! His bulky body flew backward from the impact, crashing against the wall and sliding limply to the floor, leaving a jarring smear of blood behind. He fell completely still. The sheer violence of the display brought a momentary hush over the battlefield. Even the battle-hardened, impeccably trained Iron Thorn operatives felt a pang of disbelief and an instinctive shiver. Was this a Level 4 anomaly? Could a Level 4 anomaly possess such raw destructive power? Every Extraordinary and anomaly had their own specialties and inclinations. Some excelled at divination, some at escape, some at exploration, some at curses, and others had heightened perception for unusual phenomena... Extraordinaries who specialized purely in combat were fairly rare. Those who were extraordinarily gifted at fighting were rarer still. The same held true for anomalies. Whether referring to anomalies or Extraordinaries, people mostly used words like "bizarre" or "horrifying"; seldom did anyone describe them as "overwhelmingly strong" or "terrifyingly lethal." By all logic, a minor secret realm like a school, which wasn't an ancient battlefield ruin, had no reason to birth an anomaly so heavily oriented toward martial combat. To fight with such deadly skill and employ such brutal, tyrannical methods—what were you, an athlete on a sports scholarship?! "It's the stairs!" Liu Yisheng's grave voice came through the encrypted radio channel into the ears of every squad member. "That Principal is suspected of having the power to manipulate the school's grounds. There's no way this anomalous individual would stand on that staircase without reason." "I suspect it possesses the ability to control the stairs, gaining an empowerment as long as it stands upon them!" Remaining cautiously outside the classroom building, Liu Yisheng observed the fight through the Iron Thorn squad's body cameras with growing dread. He swiftly barked a series of orders: "Disengage from the stairs immediately!" "Deploy interference devices! Secure sniper perches! Open up distance and leverage our firearms—do not give this anomalous individual any opening!" The Iron Thorn squad reacted instantly. Under Bai Zhou's puzzled gaze, they rapidly fell back. *Trying to run?* Bai Zhou blinked and gave chase. The sniper in the lead whipped his rifle around. Without even pausing to aim, simply lifting the barrel brought the crosshairs naturally onto Bai Zhou's head. —And then he fired! *Bang!* The instant the muzzle aligned with Bai Zhou, a sharp, warning pain pierced his mind. In truth, even against ordinary rifles, being able to track bullets with dynamic vision did not mean his body could outrun their velocity. However, as a Level 4 Adventurer, his dynamic vision was exceptional and his reflexes razor-sharp. The moment a shooter raised their weapon, he could already deduce the point of impact. He could either intercept the bullet with Qi or dodge out of the line of fire before the trigger was pulled. In other words, firearms and enchanted ammunition still posed a tangible threat to Level 4 Extraordinaries; they certainly couldn't be disregarded. And against a sniper rifle far more lethal than an assault rifle, specially enchanted armor-piercing rounds were something even Level 5 Extraordinaries couldn't ignore! Bai Zhou closed his eyes, opening his Mind's Eye. The bullet's trajectory mapped out in his consciousness, allowing Bai Zhou to sidestep by a hair's breadth and dodge the round! *Bang! Bang, bang, bang!* More bullets rained in, weaving a crossfire net. Right then, a spark of inspiration flashed in Bai Zhou's mind. Keeping his eyes closed, he flipped backward and dropped to the floor, supporting himself on his hands in a grotesque, terrifying posture, crawling and slithering like an enormous python. His back skimmed the ground while his belly faced upward, head arched backward. Muscles throughout his body contracted and pulsed rhythmically, his limbs twisting as he darted along the floor like a giant serpent. The sight was horrifying to behold. "What the hell is that!" The operatives felt their scalps prickle, rattled by this nightmarish "demon crawl." Even as they thought to themselves that this was indeed fitting for an anomalous individual, they dumped the rest of their magazines into him. Yet Bai Zhou surged forward at blinding speed. Bunches of bullets repeatedly struck the floor inches behind or beside him, throwing up continuous sparks. The rush sent Bai Zhou's adrenaline skyrocketing, invigorating his spirituality until his slithering speed seemed to break through a bottleneck, climbing to another level. A twist of the waist, a tilt of the head. Bullets grazed past his cheeks, his nostrils filled with the scent of gunpowder and scorched metal. Just like that, Bai Zhou wove through the storm of lead. The Iron Thorn squad emptied their magazines without landing a single effective hit! Then, Bai Zhou arrived—he sprang up into the air like a king cobra flashing its fangs. One hand clamped onto a dark muzzle. With a casual jerk, he tore the rifle body apart. With another flick of his wrist, the barrel of another weapon was twisted into a pretzel. Soon, flesh and blood were flying in all directions. Like a tiger among sheep, someone was on an absolute rampage! A punch thrown, a man downed, a life ended. —It was that simple. *Bzzzzzz!* In the rear, the technician frantically operated the disruptor, cranking its output to the absolute maximum in an attempt to use spiritual turbulence to disrupt the monster's slaughter. To Bai Zhou, the machine's shrill buzzing sounded like flies hovering over an outhouse, extraordinarily irritating. Then, an elongated shadow fell over the crouching technician. Looking up with despair in his eyes, the technician indeed saw the blood-drenched figure of masked "Senior Zhou." From every fingertip of this demon's hands, blood dripped steadily onto the floor. That was the blood of his comrades! "Aaaaargh!" As if a string in his mind had snapped, the technician's psyche finally shattered. He clawed for the sidearm at his waist in a desperate last stand, but Bai Zhou's palm had already pressed down against the disruptor at his feet. With the disruptor buzzing noisily on one side and the technician screaming his lungs out on the other, an annoyed Bai Zhou knitted his brows. "Shh!" "Little mouth—" Bai Zhou placed a finger to his lips, bending down to shush the crouching technician. "Zip it!" At the same time, his other palm swept down. *Crack-crackle! Snap!* The disruptor was smashed, bursting with dazzling electrical sparks. Live cables connected to the disruptor flared with arcs of fire, completely enveloping the technician. The next instant, the technician convulsed violently as though struck by high-voltage current, collapsing to the ground trailing black smoke. That priceless, exorbitantly expensive spiritual disruptor was reduced to charcoal alongside the man himself. —And with that. Zijing Group's proudest armed force, the Iron Thorn squad that held Tinghai in trembling obedience, was completely annihilated! Outside the classroom building, watching the feed cut out, Liu Yisheng flew into a rage. "What?! A mere anomalous individual—!" Letting out a cold scoff, Liu Yisheng's eyes flickered as he glared at the classroom building before him. Shedding his lingering hesitation, he resolved to step inside. *This anomalous individual is exceptionally formidable in combat. Hardly any Level 4 Extraordinary could subdue it—which is all the better!* *It only proves this anomalous individual has immense value! Worthy of my personal intervention!* With that thought, Liu Yisheng decided to take the field himself and capture this anomalous individual in person! Yet the moment he took a step— *Clack-clack-clack!* *Bzzzzzz!* The army of mechanical hounds and drones finally arrived from behind, and then— They parted like a tide, surrounding Liu Yisheng in the blink of an eye. Liu Yisheng: "?" *Cough! Cough, cough, cough!* A gaunt man stepped out from the ranks, coughing. Commander Han knitted his brows. He cast a puzzled glance at the deathly silent classroom building before turning back to Liu Yisheng, who had just been about to move, and sneered, "Manager Liu, we've finally caught up with you..." "According to regulations, that anomalous individual inside is already in FZDC's bag." "I will not permit you to touch it!" With that, he pulled an ID badge from his pocket and casually flashed it at Liu Yisheng. "As the interim battlefield commander of FZDC, I hereby declare that everything within this classroom building has been completely commandeered by FZDC." "—There is nothing left for you here." "Furthermore, you are suspected of damaging official property. I will report this matter to higher authority and hold Zijing Group accountable." "You may try resisting, but I advise you to stay where you are and not make any sudden moves." Ignoring Liu Yisheng's darkened expression, the gaunt man chuckled softly and turned to face the classroom building. "It... that student 'Little Zhou'—" Commander Han's gaze burned with fervor as he studied the pitch-black window of the classroom building, his fists slowly clenching with absolute determination: "—It belongs to me!"