The three Blue Cosmos lunatics moved swiftly. Zhou Tianming, short and stubby-legged, couldn't keep up with their pace, and soon they vanished from sight.
Arriving at a T-shaped intersection, Zhou Tianming craned his neck to check both directions.
Bang! Bang! Bang!—
A rapid, relentless burst of gunfire suddenly erupted from the right.
Frowning, Zhou Tianming sprinted toward the sound. From a distance, he spotted a young boy and a plump middle-aged woman unloading a hail of bullets into a room.
As he drew closer, their frenzied shouts pierced through the gunfire: "Die! Die! Die! Hahaha!!!"
The man was nowhere in sight, but the situation was urgent. Zhou Tianming raised his rifle and took aim as he charged forward.
This was his first time firing on the move, and the rifle's weight strained his slender arms. Seeing that the two hadn't noticed him yet, he didn't rush to shoot, silently closing the distance instead.
When they were about five meters apart—
The boy, still firing wildly, caught a glimpse of white in his peripheral vision. He turned his head, scanning once before finally spotting a white furball charging at him, wielding what looked like a white cloth-wrapped stick.
At first, he froze—then burst into laughter, releasing the trigger and lowering his gun.
Pointing at the furball, he turned to the woman beside him, about to speak—
In that split second, Zhou Tianming's deep brown pupils contracted. His mind calculated the bullet trajectory in less than a second.
Aim. Fire!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The bullets left the barrel, the recoil slamming Zhou Tianming's charging body to a halt.
The impact against his chest was surprisingly painless—the rabbit costume worked its magic again, its thick fur absorbing much of the rifle's kick.
The bullets struck before the boy could even react. His chest and head were riddled with shots, blood spraying.
The middle-aged woman gaped in shock, swinging her gun left toward Zhou Tianming.
Zhou Tianming used the boy's still-standing body as cover, shifting right.
The woman's bullets tore through the boy's back, splattering blood across her own face.
Meanwhile, Zhou Tianming ducked low and surged forward. The bullets that had pierced the boy whizzed past his back, embedding into the beige anti-slip tiles on the floor.
At point-blank range, Zhou Tianming tilted his lowered rifle and fired. The bullets shattered the woman's legs, reducing bone and flesh to pulp.
She screamed in agony and collapsed—
Her head landing right in front of Zhou Tianming's muzzle.
Bang!
A light squeeze of the trigger. One shot to the head.
But just then, a man burst from the room, spraying bullets at Zhou Tianming.
Adrenaline surged through Zhou Tianming's veins, his mind icy calm. His forward momentum halted as he threw himself backward, kicking off the ground while firing.
The rifle's recoil propelled him into the air, narrowly evading the man's bullets.
The man looked stunned, then his face twisted in fury. "You monster!"
The gun barrel swung around, but Zhou Tianming's feet barely touched the ground before he darted side to side. His earth-toned clothing made it hard for the man to track him, the gun barrel swaying wildly.
In that split second, Zhou Tianming closed the distance. Repeating his earlier move, he aimed the lowered barrel at the man's legs and fired.
The man cried out in pain and collapsed. In the next instant, Zhou Tianming raised the barrel slightly—pointing at his head.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The gunshots rang out, then abruptly stopped.
The man's face was torn apart by bullets, splattering crimson blood everywhere.
Huuuuuh—!
Exhaling sharply, Zhou Tianming slumped to the ground, his legs trembling from the intense exertion.
The brief confrontation had left him drenched in sweat and gasping for air, yet his strikingly handsome face, with its pale, almost translucent skin, flushed slightly.
After a few seconds of rest, Zhou Tianming got up and rushed into the room.
Inside, the furniture and equipment were shredded by bullets. Among the wreckage lay a woman in a white lab coat, her body riddled with bullet holes, flesh torn and bloody.
Sensing someone's presence, she lifted her head. Pain twisted her features, but her eyes still held a glimmer of light. Her right hand trembled as she slowly raised it, blood gushing from her mouth as she tried to speak.
Zhou Tianming hurried forward, his gaze catching the shattered name tag on her chest—*Hua.
Not Mom.
Relief washed over him, but sorrow quickly followed.
Her wounds were beyond saving.
A heavy weight pressed against his chest. Zhou Tianming stepped closer and gently supported her raised hand.
The woman clutched at him desperately, as if grasping for hope.
"It... hurts... help..."
Her grip was painfully tight, but Zhou Tianming didn't pull away. Instead, he held her hand firmly and nodded softly in response to her plea.
The pain on her face eased slightly, and she managed a faint smile before her eyes dimmed, her breath fading.
Closing her eyelids with his fingers, Zhou Tianming let out a slow breath.
"I'm sorry... I couldn't save you."
For a moment, the woman's figure overlapped with Zhou Hanxiang in his mind.
I can't let Mom die!
There's no time to search every workplace one by one.
Without hesitation, Zhou Tianming activated his Mindpower—[Sense].
127/129 → 30 = 99/99
When his Mental Power dropped below 100, a sharp, needle-like pain stabbed through his skull.
It wasn't unbearable, but the implication was dire—Mental Power below 100 triggered adverse physical reactions.
No time to dwell on it. The effects of [Sense] began to manifest.
His Mental Power rippled outward like waves, expanding in a spherical radius around him. Everything within that sphere materialized in his mind.
A 3D model formed in his consciousness, outlining the shapes of people and objects.
Yet, he still couldn't identify Zhou Hanxiang among them. But when he fed his own intent into the [Sense], it shifted.
A pulse emanated from Zhou Tianming, turning everyone it touched into gray silhouettes.
Zhou Hanxiang wasn't within the sphere.
[Sense] transformed again—the sphere contracted, then elongated into a straight line.
Like a radar, the line swept horizontally across the research facility.
On the second floor, inside a room, a green humanoid figure appeared.
Three gray figures stood nearby.
Danger!
The [Sense] effect faded, but the 3D model remained etched in his mind.
Zhou Tianming swiftly left the room. As he ran, his brain worked at full speed.
The 3D model was merely a static, lifeless construct—not a surveillance feed—and without the enhancement of [Sense], it couldn't display real-time updates.
But Zhou Tianming's brain, derived from an Ultimate Coordinator, transformed the 3D model into a dynamic simulation through calculation and logical deduction.
Though not 100% accurate, an 80% success rate was achievable.
In the mental 3D model, the possible routes and positions of those Blue Cosmos fanatics were marked, while a safe path was simultaneously deduced.
Following the route in his mind, Zhou Tianming swiftly advanced, avoiding the Blue Cosmos madmen.
...
Inside the hazardous chemicals laboratory, three Blue Cosmos members were searching for their prey in a hundred-square-meter room filled with chemicals, lab benches, and precision equipment.
Zhou Hanxiang's face twisted in pain, her forehead slick with cold sweat from the agony. Clutching the gunshot wound on her right arm with her left hand, she crouched beneath a lab bench, hiding.
The three Blue Cosmos operatives, armed with guns, fanned out across the room, scanning for her location.
Biting her lip, Hanxiang felt a surge of anxiety. The thought of Zhou Tianming being discovered and killed made her chest tighten, stealing her breath.
Holding a palm-sized makeup mirror close to the ground, she extended it slightly to observe the surroundings.
As she adjusted the mirror's angle, two of the men came into view—but the third remained unseen.
Just then, a blond-haired man passed by a large, silver-metallic freezer and noticed a smear of fresh red blood on its door.
A scornful smirk curled his lips. "Cheap trick."
He called out to the other two, "Hey! Over here!"
Even as he spoke, he raised two fingers to his eyes, then pointed toward the door.
The long-haired man and the bearded one exchanged equally disdainful smirks and nodded, raising their guns to train on the doorway.
Through the makeup mirror, Hanxiang kept her eyes locked on the blond man's movements—that was where she had left the smoke grenade.
The blond yanked the freezer door open. "Found you!"
Seizing the moment, Hanxiang darted out from her hiding spot and sprinted.
Without even glancing inside the freezer, the blond turned, gun raised, sweeping his gaze from left to right across the room.