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"Boss, run! Someone's coming!" The seventh brother, who was on lookout duty, ran back with the second brother. Neither of them intended to leave anyone behind to flank the enemy. What a joke! Under the starlight, there was a dark mass of people, at least seventy or eighty. Everyone you could clearly see was carrying a gun. Flank? How could they flank them?!
"What's the panic? So what if they're here? How many people are here?" A hoarse voice came from behind.
"There are so many, we can't even count them all, and they're all holding guns. Boss, let's run!" The second brother was slightly out of breath. He rubbed his chest with his hand as he said anxiously.
"Run? How can we run? What will happen to Third Brother and Fifth Brother if we run? We escaped together, we can't abandon any of them!" The leader finally stood up, walked to the torch, and patted the pistol on his waist. "What's there to be afraid of if we have guns? We have guns too, and we have so many hostages. I don't believe they would dare to do anything reckless!"
"Let me tell you, in the world of martial arts, everything revolves around the concept of 'loyalty.' Right now, the third and fifth brothers are unable to move, but if any one of you were lying there, as long as you had a breath left, I, Zuo Jian, would never abandon you!"
Hearing his boastful words, Zhang Lei, out of curiosity, peeked over and discovered that all his previous guesses about him were wrong. This boss was not an old man at all; he looked to be at most in his early twenties or even under thirty. He was shirtless, and his muscles were bulging all over his body, making him look like a group of bodybuilders on TV in the firelight.
"Boss, staying here is a dead end. We might as well run away before they surround us. The third brother and the others have already passed out. They wouldn't have survived without medicine..." The second brother continued to persuade him, somewhat unwilling to give up.
He was interrupted halfway through his sentence by the boss's slap. "Shut up! Don't say such heartless and unjust things in front of me. If I thought like you, why would I have protected you when the car fell down? If I hadn't protected you, would I have gotten hurt?"
"Listen up, all of you! No matter who you are, if you try to abandon your brothers and run away, don't blame me for shooting you dead!" Zuo Jian said, brandishing his pistol.
Episode 2: Metropolis, Chapter 15: The Robbery
At this moment, the sound of footsteps could be heard in the corridor. The second and seventh brothers had run back when they realized something was wrong. Those people didn't stroll over slowly; they had clearly run all the way over.
Hearing the footsteps, many students couldn't help but cry out. They had suffered a great injustice today, especially the girls. Not only did they have to endure the glares of the bandits, but they also had to endure the lecherous gazes of the boys. If you were to ask which of these boys didn't have such lecherous eyes, it would probably be Zhang Lei, whose fate was almost even more tragic than theirs.
"Bang!" The gunshot was especially loud in the semi-enclosed space, and the students' previously boisterous voices instantly cooled down.
"Shut the hell up, all of you! Anyone who makes another sound, I'll send them on their way!" Zuo Jian brandished his pistol, the muzzle still emitting wisps of smoke.
He stuck half his head out from around the corner and yelled, "Stop right there! Anyone who takes another step forward, don't blame me for killing them!"
The footsteps in the corridor gradually thinned out. Although there were still sounds of walking, it was clear that they were no longer coming from here.
"Everyone be careful, the thugs have guns!" Although the voice was very low, it could still be roughly heard from Zhang Lei's position due to the echo effect in the cave, not to mention Zuo Jian at the corner.
"You, hurry up, stand up and move inside!" Zuo Jian used his pistol to direct the girls sitting on the other side of the corner to move to a place where they could not be seen from the other side.
At this moment, the security personnel seemed to be gathered together discussing something, whispering among themselves. Because there were so many people talking, it became difficult to hear clearly from a distance.
"Damn it, what are you saying? I'm warning you, don't cause any trouble. We have quite a few hostages here. If you don't listen to my advice, don't blame me for making these kids pay with their lives!" Zuo Jian said, turning around.
"Second brother, let them...!" Only then did he realize that his companions had already tiptoed far away, and the faster ones had even walked out of the cave.
It turned out his companions had all made up their minds. Zuo Jian was used to their subservience and never expected these guys to dare escape while his attention was focused on the hostages and the pursuers. Clearly, they were all of the same mind; a few glances later, they abandoned him and the two unconscious, seriously wounded men, and left on their own. Zhang Lei and the others could see this, but none of them were idiots; none of them thought to be a Good Samaritan and remind him.
"You bunch of bastards, get back here! Or don't blame me for being ruthless!" Zuo Jian said, pointing his gun diagonally upwards as if to fire a warning shot, but only a slight clicking sound came from his guard post. Clearly, the pistol had jammed.
They simply chose a pistol that appeared undamaged; in that situation, how could they possibly fire a shot first to test its effectiveness? Moreover, if they had fired first, the intimidating shot might have been rendered ineffective, as it would have become a second shot.
Rolling down such a high mountain, it's already quite a feat that the pistol fired the first shot. The gun isn't young either, and it's actually lucky that it didn't explode in his hands after all that abuse.
Sounds travel far in the empty cave; the whispers of those people could reach Zuo Jian, and so could the sound of the pistol being pulled dry.
"They're out of bullets! Everyone, charge! Catch them!" With a shout, the team, which had stopped, started moving forward again.
Zuo Jian had never handled a gun before and didn't know how to handle this situation. He slammed the gun to the ground and shouted, "Stop! I still have an axe. Even without a gun, I'll chop you little brats up with this axe! All of you, stand still!" As he spoke, he pulled out an axe with a slightly brittle blade from his waist.
The line of people that had just started running immediately came to a stop, and those who couldn't stop their legs from running behind bumped into the backs of those in front. Fortunately, the bayonets didn't break off.
What Zuo Jian didn't know was that Zhang Lei had already used the bone sword on his wrist to cut the ropes on several boys' hands. These guys were very good at tying people up; the knots they tied were not only difficult to untie, but they were also all on the inside, making it virtually impossible to untie them. That's why they were so confident in piling people together.
At this moment, Zhang Lei did not consider the idea of ladies first or saving his friends first. He cut the strongest boys in the class first, including Leng Weifeng and Zhao Luwei. On the contrary, he did not cut the ones he was close to, such as Tian Zhiguo.
Seeing that Zuo Jian was about to turn around and pull a girl to the front as a pretense, Zhang Lei knew there was no time and untied them all. The group made a hand gesture and quietly went around behind Zuo Jian.
Zhao Luwei was the strongest in the class, and he was the only one to get a perfect score in the shot put. He was the first to make a move, grabbing the axe in Zuo Jian's hand and desperately trying to wrest it downwards.
Almost simultaneously, Leng Weifeng and two other boys rushed forward, swinging their fists to strike the more vulnerable areas of his back.
But unexpectedly, Zhao Luwei failed to snatch the axe from Zuo Jian's hand; it seemed as if the axe was welded to Zuo Jian's hand.
Zuo Jian turned around, with a boy hanging around his neck on his back. "You little brats, if you don't want to live, I'll grant your wish!" He said, raising his axe to chop it down. Zhao Luwei couldn't hold him back with either hand, and was lifted up by Zuo Jian along with the axe.
Leng Weifeng didn't know why he reacted so quickly. Perhaps it was because the dangerous environment stimulated his potential. Leng Weifeng jumped up and grabbed the axe in his hand.
Just as Zuo Jian was about to use his left hand to push away the two annoying guys, another boy had already tightly hugged his left hand to his chest, and the one on his back also jumped down and hugged his left hand as well.
Although Zuo Jian was not knocked down and could still move his hands, he could not increase his speed at all and could only crash into the wall with the four people hanging on his body.
Just then, Zhang Lei also rushed up. To be honest, he was really scared by Zuo Jian earlier. Zhang Lei's nature was still somewhat cowardly, although he had covered it up. But when things suddenly went differently from the plan, he still didn't react as quickly as those few who were born to fight.
The few sneak attacks had already landed, but Zuo Jian didn't seem to react at all, so it seemed to have no effect. Zhang Lei also knew that he wasn't necessarily that strong, so he naturally couldn't do anything useless.
But if they hugged him like they did, Zuo Jian didn't seem to care much about having one more or one less person. At most, it would slow him down a bit. He definitely had time to pin them all against the wall before the others arrived and take back control of the axe.
Episode 2, Metropolis, Chapter 16: Hitting the Ox Across the Mountain
It is obvious that once he regains control of the axe, his destructive power will be fully unleashed, and none of these people will be able to escape.
Moreover, those adults might not know what happened here. Given the warning from the left shoulder earlier, and for the children's safety, they might not dare to approach. In a situation like this, doing nothing is better than doing something wrong. If someone's mistake leads to a child's injury or death, and every child is precious, how can they hold their head high in the factory?
Fortunately, Zhang Lei still had a weapon in his hand. There was a small bone blade on the outside of Zhang Lei's left wrist. The sharpness of this bone blade had just been tested on the rope. It could be said that even the sharpest electrician's knife could not achieve the effect of being as if it were nothing.
Zhang Lei's left wrist slashed viciously across Zuo Jian's right arm.
"Ah!" Zuo Jian screamed in agony, disbelief flashing in his eyes. A half-inch long gash had appeared on Zuo Jian's right arm. It was described as half-inch because the bone spur on Zhang Lei's wrist was also stuck there, preventing the gash from slicing through along with Zhang Lei's punch.
Caught off guard, Zuo Jian lost his grip on the axe, which was snatched away by Leng Weifeng and Zhao Luwei. Zhao Luwei probably didn't expect him to let go, and due to the excessive force, he fell to the ground. Fortunately, he managed to release the axe in time, leaving it to Leng Weifeng, who had stopped in his tracks after seeing Zhang Lei rushing over.
Zhang Lei held his left wrist with his right hand. Not only had the bone spur torn his wrist, but Zhang Lei even felt as if his left hand had been broken. The resistance from the muscles in his left arm was unimaginable, and it had actually broken the bone spur in Zhang Lei's arm. You should know that Zhang Lei had specially thickened it beforehand, because he had a feeling that he would need it again.