"Stop the moving target!"
"Requesting fire support!"
The black MPV sped at full throttle, charging aggressively through the hail of bullets, sparks flying.
"Boom!!!"
Without slowing down at all, amidst several dull crashes, the MPV slammed directly through the barricades and traffic cones, rushing into the area outside Konpeki Plaza, finally being forced to stop only after violently colliding with an armored vehicle.
Dozens of Special Operations Personnel were alerted and immediately raised their weapons, firing frantically at the intruding car.
Bullets rained down like water on the car's armored shell, creating sparks and leaving dense, concentrated dents on the exterior from the impact.
"Cease fire! Cease fire!"
The Commander raised his hand, and the gunfire gradually died down until silence returned.
The car body was now heavily pitted and completely motionless.
At the Commander's signal, several Special Operations Personnel slowly approached the vehicle, maintaining their firing stance.
The driver must be dead; no one could survive that level of firepower.
But just as the leading special operations member reached out to open the car's sliding door, it clicked open by itself.
Inside, a pair of cold eyes were revealed, along with... dense clusters of missile ports.
"Shit!" The curse from the special operations member was only half-uttered before it was completely drowned out by the whistling sound of the Swarm Missiles launching.
"Boom!!! Boom!!! Boom!!!"
True to its name, the Swarm Micro-Missiles, trailing smoke, drilled into the crowd, setting off several waves of chain explosions, instantly obliterating everything, living or dead.
The surroundings gradually quieted. Berry tossed aside the smoking Single-Soldier Missile Launcher, and the blue glow of her kinetic arm guards slowly faded.
Without hesitation, she grabbed "vitamin b" and "star" with both hands and rushed out like a bullet, heading straight for Konpeki Plaza before her.
V, you must wait for her!
Watching Konpeki Plaza grow closer, urgency flashed in Berry's eyes.
Please, you must wait for her!
"Intruder detected! Open fire!"
Startled by the previous explosion, the Special Operations Personnel inside the building rushed out from the side Corridors.
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Both guns fired simultaneously, the muzzles spitting crude flames with every shot. Blue light flashed intermittently from the neatly arranged seams of the kinetic arm guards, completely neutralizing all recoil.
The Prelude High-Caliber Revolvers, modified to their strongest state, now possessed even more terrifying power. The charging Special Operations Personnel were struck by the high-caliber bullets, which pierced straight through their body armor and flesh, causing them to fall with screams.
As the orange-yellow muzzle flash erupted rhythmically, Berry single-handedly dealt with over a dozen Special Operations Personnel until there was no more movement.
Berry flipped open the cylinders of her twin revolvers, and spent brass casings fell to the floor. She smoothly retrieved pre-loaded Speedloaders from her waist and slapped them in. She looked at the dark lobby and rushed in without hesitation.
"Run, you little bugs! Because I will definitely drag you out and tear you into pieces!"
Deep inside the lobby, the towering cyborg Adam Smasher stood on a half-collapsed platform, gripping a long submachine gun and firing frantically at the broken bricks and rubble below.
"Shit, we can't fight this!"
Amidst the remaining ruins, V and Jackie were running for their lives. A frantic hail of bullets chased them, striking the open ground around them. It was only thanks to the widespread debris in the lobby that the two weren't swallowed up by the flood of gunfire.
"The moment we show our heads, that guy will kill us!" Jackie's white shirt was now reduced to rags, and his body was covered in scratches. He looked utterly wretched.
V was in a similar state. Her beautiful blue hair was now covered in ash and debris, making her look completely different from her usual self.
"Da da da da da~!!!!"
"Jackie! Look out!" The gunfire suddenly intensified, shattering the surroundings into dust. In her haste, V only managed to push Jackie out of the way.
But she couldn't escape herself. With several wet sounds, a few bullets exploded out of her abdomen, trailing blood.
"Damn it!" Her body felt struck by lightning. V instantly lost all her strength and painfully fell to her knees.
She touched her numb abdomen, raised her hand, and found her palm covered in thick, sticky blood.
It was over now.
V's face was pale, and she was so exhausted she nearly fainted.
"V!"
Jackie, who had been pushed away, saw V's condition. His eyes instantly widened with rage, and he moved to rush over.
"Rumble!"
Behind V, Hammersmith's massive body landed heavily, kicking up a pile of debris.
"Got one first!"
An unpleasant metallic synthesized voice sounded as Adam Smasher strode forward on his mechanical legs, stopping in front of V.
V no longer had the strength to run. She simply raised her head stubbornly, her face pale, but glaring defiantly at Hammersmith's inhuman face, completely unafraid.
"Say goodbye to this world, Meatbag."
Looking at V's expression, Hammersmith laughed scornfully. He didn't know how many times he had seen that same look, and without exception, they had all died.
He raised his arm, and the dark muzzle of the gun aimed straight at V's head.
"Shit, no!" Jackie scrambled and crawled, trying to rush over, but it was too late regardless.
Just as the muzzle aimed at those angry blue eyes, the guns fired.
"Bang! Bang!"
Two shots rang out, and Jackie, who had just managed to climb out of the rubble, closed his eyes in pain.
But then he suddenly realized that the gunshots were dull and brief—definitely not from the submachine gun Hammersmith was holding. He immediately raised his head again.
In front, the submachine gun that Hammersmith had just been holding was now on the ground, shattered into several pieces, while Hammersmith, standing upright, turned his head to look in one direction.
"Hammersmith, your opponent is me!"
In the distance was Berry. She glared furiously at Hammersmith, smoke still drifting from the muzzles of her raised twin guns.
She had fired those shots.
"Hmph!" Seeing this, Hammersmith laughed scornfully. He watched Berry mockingly, slowly raising his foot and aiming it at the half-kneeling V.
Even without a gun, he could still take the life of the human before him.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Seeing Hammersmith's provocative movement, the fury in Berry's eyes nearly materialized and jumped out of their sockets. She continuously pulled the triggers, and several brass bullets tore through space, shooting toward Hammersmith.
But Hammersmith was faster. His massive Metal Foot Support had already descended, kicking up a fierce gust of wind. V was seconds away from meeting her demise.
"Shit!" It was V. At this critical moment, V roared and used her last ounce of strength to lunge forward.
Hammersmith's foot landed with a heavy thud right in the pool of blood V had spilled, crushing a deep dent into the floor.
The bullets arrived immediately after, but they didn't fail to penetrate his Steel Body as Hammersmith expected. The bullets struck Hammersmith with tremendous force, sparking electrical fire and forcing him to stagger backward, making Hammersmith feel as though he had been struck by a heavy hammer.
"Jackie, take V and go! The car is outside!"
Seeing V escape danger, Berry no longer restrained herself and charged toward Hammersmith, her eyes blazing with fire.
"Alright!" Jackie stopped talking, rushed over, picked up the still-bleeding V, and sprinted outside. V's face was pale and she was so weak she could barely keep her eyes open. If they didn't hurry, she might die.
"Hmph? Trying to escape!" Hammersmith managed to stop his retreat and grinned menacingly at Berry, who was charging toward him, full of fighting spirit.
She was a prey worth fighting.
However, before engaging, he should first deal with those two little bugs.
"Wait for me to finish dealing with those two before I handle you!"
As he spoke, Electric Arcs began to crackle and coil all over Hammersmith's body.
It was Sandevistan!
Hammersmith was equipped with Sandevistan, specifically a model custom-made by Arasaka Corporation, which was several times stronger than the common models on the market.
A blur flashed past, and a trail of electric light shot rapidly toward Jackie, who was about to exit the main entrance. That speed was absolutely beyond what the naked eye could follow.
But Berry's eyes never left him for a second.
Her System Fourteen Points of reaction rapidly intensified. Berry felt as though time had frozen at that moment. Her eyeballs quickly tracked the electric light, allowing her to clearly see Hammersmith's movements.
Raising her handgun, she instantly calculated the distance in her mind and moved the muzzle to aim at Hammersmith's path of advance.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Several more shots were fired.
As Hammersmith sped forward, his combat Sixth Sense instantly vibrated wildly. He watched the bullet flying toward him in disbelief. He clearly calculated that in the next thousandth of a second, he would collide directly with this preemptively fired bullet.
His body's Central Nervous System operated frantically, and under conditions of near-instantaneous overload, Hammersmith struggled to shift his body and darted sideways.
Coincidence!
Hammersmith was shaken. He refused to believe that a flesh-and-blood human without a Sandevistan system could detect his movement Trajectory, which was nearly supersonic.
But in the next millisecond after he narrowly twisted his body away, another bullet was suspended, about to shoot toward the direction he was moving.
No, impossible!
Hammersmith stared in disbelief at the bullet head, which appeared almost stationary in his field of vision. He knew that if he allowed his body to continue being propelled by inertia, this bullet would pierce his skull.
And it wasn't just one.
Hammersmith's Radar activated, and only then did he discover that in this near-frozen space created by the Sandevistan activation, seven or eight spinning bullet heads were suspended around him.
These bullet heads were suspended, seemingly aimed in various unrelated directions, but Hammersmith knew that they had completely locked down every possible direction he could dodge.
Whether he moved left, right, up, or down, or even remained perfectly still, he would be struck by a bullet. His entire range of movement, every possibility, was completely locked down.
Out of the corner of his eye, Hammersmith glimpsed the culprit behind all this: the human female.
In the blue Bullet Time, the human female moved and fired as if in slow motion. All the bullets seemed to be shooting in unrelated directions.
But Hammersmith estimated the trajectories of those bullets and realized they were continuously locking onto him. If he was hit by any single bullet, a portion of the fired bullets would invariably strike him.
What terrifying calculation! Was this truly possible for a human?
For a moment, Hammersmith began to doubt his core values—that flesh could never surpass machinery—but the current situation shattered that belief.
Even more terrifyingly, Hammersmith realized that the woman, despite her cold, angry eyes, was watching him. He could clearly feel that she was watching him.
How could the naked eye track him when he was moving faster than sound! Humans absolutely couldn't do this! Impossible!
Hammersmith's mind was rocked, and he let out a silent roar.
Time was delayed to its limit, yet it was still flowing, and in the next millisecond, Adam Smasher collided with the first bullet in front of him.
---------------------------------
If you'd like to read the next 40 chapters in advance, you can support me on Patreon.
I regularly post chapter previews there, so you'll always be up-to-date and won't have to wait too long.
👉 patreon.com/SolyuraMT
And if you enjoy the story, don't forget to give me a Power Stone. Your support really motivates me to continue translating!