In the darkness, the roles of hunter and prey were quietly shifting.
The cement debris from the tunnel ceiling hadn't even fully landed yet, the air full with dust and the heatwave from the explosion. Hiding in the shadows, Li Chuan and his team quietly waited for the Nightfall assassin's move.
The man with the silver-white mask staggered a few steps back. Even though his magnetic field defense system blocked most of the blast wave, he still had to retreat for now when facing the collapsing tunnel.
"Heh…" The man let out a low chuckle, his voice distorted slightly through the mask. "Not bad. Looks like you all really not some biasa-biasa target."
Li Chuan's gaze was cold as water. He didn't speak, only raising his hand slightly to signal the team to take action.
Su Man adjusted her sniper position in the dark. Cheng Mo gripped his knife tightly, moving silently towards the side flank. Meanwhile, Shen Qiu's fingers danced over the keyboard, attempting to hack into the enemy's tactical system.
Nightfall's tech was not unbreakable—
Shen Qiu's eyes didn't blink, fingers typing rapidly. "His magnetic field protection can tahan bullets, but not absolute resistance to high-frequency electromagnetic interference… If we can get his system frequency, we can disable it."
"Then apa tunggu lagi?" Cheng Mo whispered, already prepared to strike.
"Gimme five more seconds." Shen Qiu's focus was razor-sharp as he analyzed the enemy's equipment data.
At the same time, the Nightfall assassin seemed to sense danger too. He didn't rush to fight back but instead took slow steps backward, looking for a more advantageous position.
"You all too naive." The man's deep voice echoed. Then, his right hand pressed on a device on his wrist, unfolding a transparent holographic interface displaying a 3D map of the tunnel.
He was calculating the best counterattack route.
Li Chuan's eyes turned sharp. Within a fraction of a second, he made his decision.
"Go."
Su Man's sniper rifle fired first. The bullet was once again deflected by the magnetic defense, but she never expected a one-shot kill. Her goal was to test the limits of his defense.
Meanwhile, Cheng Mo moved like a shadow, his combat knife slicing through the dark without a sound.
The assassin sensed the threat at the last moment and twisted his body to dodge. The magnetic field shimmered, blocking the knife. But Cheng Mo was never aiming for his vital spots—
He was aiming for the device.
The blade slashed across the man's wrist. The magnetic shield protected his skin, but it couldn't stop his tactical terminal from being sliced in half.
The holographic screen instantly went dark. His tactical computing system was completely disabled.
"Not bad…" The man's voice was still calm, even carrying a hint of amusement. "Quite interesting."
Just then, Shen Qiu's voice cut in: "Got it!"
A split second later, he pressed the final command on his device.
A faint electric crackle sounded. The assassin's magnetic field flickered and then—
The transparent energy shield vanished completely.
"Shield down! Finish him!" Shen Qiu shouted.
Su Man immediately locked onto the target again and fired—
But at the very moment the bullet was about to hit, the man's figure vanished!
"What the—?!"
Everyone's pupils shrank. Shen Qiu quickly pulled up thermal tracking, but the screen only showed faint heat traces—no sign of a human figure.
"It's optical camouflage," Li Chuan said coldly. "He has backup equipment."
"This guy is harder to deal with than expected." Su Man adjusted her breathing, finger still resting on the trigger, ready to fire at any moment.
Li Chuan didn't respond. Instead, he closed his eyes and listened carefully to the changes in wind and footsteps around him.
One minute… Thirty seconds… Fifteen seconds…
A subtle shift in the air.
Li Chuan's eyes snapped open. "Left side!"
Cheng Mo's blade slashed through the darkness, striking an invisible target.
A sharp tearing sound echoed. The optical camouflage failed, revealing the assassin's figure once more.
But instead of retreating, he seized the opportunity and swung his knife in a deadly arc—aimed straight at Cheng Mo's throat!
At the last second—
Bang!
Su Man's bullet struck his shoulder. The impact sent a burst of blood flying.
The assassin staggered but smirked. "Not bad."
Then, in one swift motion, he threw a small stun grenade. A blinding white flash engulfed the tunnel.
"Shield your eyes!" Li Chuan shouted.
By the time their vision cleared, the man had already disappeared into the far end of the tunnel.
The air slowly returned to silence. The team exchanged glances, but no one rashly chased after him.
"He's injured. He won't get far," Su Man said coldly.
"But he's clearly not just some random hitman. Nightfall's people… are on another level." Li Chuan's expression darkened. "This isn't just a simple assassination. This is something bigger."
Shen Qiu's face was unusually serious. "There's one thing we need to confirm fast—why is Nightfall after us? What's their real objective?"
Cheng Mo muttered, "Maybe it's about the last mission."
"No," Li Chuan's gaze sharpened. "If it was just about Falcon's death, they could've hired any assassin to kill us. They didn't need to send someone this high-level."
Shen Qiu's fingers moved rapidly, pulling up intercepted data. His face tensed as he read it.
"…His device briefly connected to Nightfall's central system before it got cut off. And his mission objective wasn't to kill us…"
He raised his head, eyes flashing with disbelief.
"It was to capture us."
A heavy silence fell over the group.
Su Man frowned. "Capture us? For what?"
"There's only one reason," Shen Qiu said grimly. "We know something they don't want us to know."
Li Chuan's fingers tapped lightly against the tunnel wall, his gaze icy. "Looks like we're more dangerous than we thought."
Cheng Mo exhaled through his nose, a slow grin creeping onto his face. "If they want to hunt us…"
His fingers curled tightly around the knife.
"Then we hunt them back."
The air was thick with unspoken killing intent.
The game of hunting in the dark—had only just begun.