"What are you doing! They have guns! Aaaah!"
The fragility of the intellectual was fully exposed at this moment.
Watching Wei Cheng screaming and weeping in the face of death, David thought to himself while controlling the man's body.
With psionic energy precisely governing every muscle of the physical frame, David leaped from the bushes at an incredible speed, swinging the steel pipe toward the back of Pan Han's head.
Crack.
The sound of snapping branches and Pan Han hitting the ground rang out simultaneously. Crimson liquid flowed from the body, quickly staining the earth. As Pan Han collapsed, the thick scent of blood drifted through the forest.
"One more."
David did not display any power beyond the limits of Wei Cheng's physical body. He knew Sophons would eventually pay attention to this location, so he had to remain cautious.
Even so.
"Handling a few little rats hiding in dark corners..."
David stepped over Pan Han's unconscious body. He used psionic energy to plant a marker on the man, who was currently exhaling more than he was inhaling.
David charged straight toward the ETO member nearby who was darting through the trees with an automatic carbine.
"...is more than enough."
The distance between them was less than a hundred meters. Despite David's startling speed, the ETO member displayed impressive tactical discipline. Facing David's charge, the camouflaged operative didn't hesitate. He dropped low, aimed, and fired in one fluid motion.
Within seconds, he emptied a thirty-round magazine of 7.92×33mm Kurz ammunition.
As a weapon designed by the German army in WWII to fill the gap between submachine guns and assault rifles, the shooter was confident. Having fired over a hundred thousand rounds with this model, he knew its capabilities. Within a hundred meters, a trained shooter using a modified ZF-4 optic could achieve a perfect hit rate.
However—
Looking at the attacker who was covered in blood but seemed to be moving faster and faster, a flash of bewilderment appeared in the shooter's eyes. He swapped magazines in two seconds and began rapid fire at a lower angle.
The attacker was now less than ten meters away. At this range, aiming was unnecessary. The shooter was certain his instincts would turn the intruder into a pincushion.
But—
He clearly saw bullets hit the left thigh, creating gruesome exit wounds twenty to thirty times the size of the entry holes due to the cavitation effect.
Why! Why was the man still running!
Is this even a human being?
Ignoring the man's shock, David looked at the shooter with indifference. He reached out with his right hand and shoved the firing barrel upward. In the next second, his left fist slammed into the shooter's face.
"Die!"
The moment David swung, the shooter's hand reaching for a belt knife ceased to be a threat. With the dull thud of a fist and the ear-piercing sound of shattering bone, the shooter's features collapsed inward. One eye burst, spraying dark purple and white fluid; the other was knocked out of its socket. Teeth and tongue tangled into a slurry of bone and flesh beneath the flattened face.
David paid no more attention to the ETO shooter twitching like a fish out of water. That single punch had ended all life in him; the movement was merely a dying reflex.
He closed his eyes, sensing Pan Han's position through the psionic marker.
"Interesting."
Sensing the moving signal, David guided Wei Cheng back to where the confrontation had started. The area was empty, save for signs of trampling. Shen Yufei had chosen not to kill Pan Han; instead, she had taken him and fled.
This was unexpected. David had originally intended for Shen Yufei to kill Pan Han so he could use the evidence to blackmail her into becoming a mole for the authorities. It was meant to be a small hint to guide the stalled government investigation.
However, following Pan Han would still lead to the ETO's domestic headquarters and their Beijing stronghold.
But the biggest gain was something else.
David looked at the bleeding wounds on Wei Cheng's body. With his increased psionic level, he could now possess "special" individuals and control their bodies. Furthermore, looking at his current combat value, small arms were basically useless against him in a direct confrontation.
David recalled the fight. Even without psionic power, his superior physical intuition allowed him to dodge shots by predicting the shooter's movements. If he had used psionics, he could have snapped the shooter's neck the moment he spotted him.
"I'm bleeding... I'm bleeding out—"
As David tracked Shen Yufei and Pan Han speeding toward downtown Beijing, Wei Cheng's trembling voice rang in his ear. Wei Cheng's body was pale from blood loss; his pulse was becoming faint.
"Don't worry. Do you have a phone?"
David sat down. He felt the difficulty in breathing and the pervasive cold. He realized this body had reached its limit.
"I did."
Though Wei Cheng couldn't feel his nerves, looking at his blood-soaked legs with bone exposed made him sob. He pointed to his jacket pocket. David pulled out a domestic smartphone with a shattered screen. A bullet casing was embedded deep inside it.
"But now, my body! My phone! Waaaaah—"
"Shut up!" David snapped. "You won't die. Now, for the next step of the plan."
Monks from the temple were running over, and several police cars were arriving at the foot of the mountain with sirens blaring. When they saw Wei Cheng sitting there covered in blood, staring blankly at his wounds, everyone was horrified.
"What is the next step?"
Seeing his body manipulated like a toy, Wei Cheng knew he couldn't escape this "ghost." After the initial shock of the shootout, the mathematical genius calmed down quickly.
"Surrender," David replied.
He looked at the special police officers—fully armed and moving in combat formation up the mountain after receiving reports of gunfire.