Volume 2 The Assassin's Nightmare Chapter 458 Gunfire
They really came quite decisively...
Zhou Ziwei was slightly surprised by the reaction of the bearded man and the black network members. He had thought that they had lured him here for the things he had brought from the pilot plane. If that were the case, they would try to capture him alive and then use various means, such as coercion or high-tech methods like copying memories, to extract those precious data from him.
However, the two sides had barely met when the other side unleashed a barrage of attacks. This was quite a bloody spectacle... It seemed that they were no longer hoping to extract anything from his brain, but rather to completely annihilate him right here.
What Zhou Ziwei didn't expect was that... this black market assassin network really had a lot of resources... they were able to deploy so many warships disguised as fishing boats all at once, and they even launched an attack so openly in the waters off the island nation.
This small island is not too far from the main island of the island nation. With such a large-scale operation, it is impossible that the island nation's Self-Defense Forces would be completely unaware of it, and the media of various countries are not deaf and blind. Could it be that... these guys really can cover up everything and act with complete impunity?
A barrage of shells came whistling in. Zhou Ziwei glanced at them and noticed that none of the shells had fuses at the front. Clearly, these were not trigger-activated shells, but rather shells with adjustable fuses.
In other words... these shells don't need to hit the target; they will detonate automatically once they reach the designated location. So, it's useless for Zhou Ziwei to try to dodge these shells in the air with agile movements.
With such an attack range that almost covers everything, unless Zhou Ziwei can quickly fly away from this large area before the shells arrive, he will inevitably be affected by the blast waves of several shells.
Zhou Ziwei has an alloy suit to protect him, so as long as the power of these shells isn't too outrageous, he's not too worried about being blown up here. However... Kyzylmer, who came with him, is definitely going to die.
Although Zhou Ziwei strongly suspected that Kyzylmer had set up this trap with these people long ago, just to lure him into it, these people were now completely disregarding Kyzylmer's life and death, and it seemed they were planning to kill them both here.
From this perspective, it's quite possible that Zhou Ziwei wronged Kyzylmer. Of course... there's another possibility: Kyzylmer was merely a dispensable pawn manipulated by the Black God. Even if Kyzylmer successfully completed his mission and lured Zhou Ziwei into this deadly place, the Black God wouldn't care about losing Kyzylmer's life as long as he could eliminate Zhou Ziwei.
However, before confirming that it was indeed Kyzylmer who betrayed him, Zhou Ziwei did not want to sacrifice Kyzylmer's life like this. Moreover, even with the protection of his alloy suit, being hit by so many shells would probably leave him covered in dust. Therefore, Zhou Ziwei had no intention of waiting for the shells to hit him. He looked down again at the black-clad bearded man standing on the small building below, and then suddenly dispelled the tornado surrounding him. As a result, he and Kyzylmer became two free-falling objects falling from the sky, rushing towards the ground.
This speed is still not fast enough...
Seeing the shells getting closer and closer, Zhou Ziwei's soul consciousness flashed and he immediately pulled back the tornado he had just driven away. However, this time the wind did not wrap around the two of them and help them float in the air. Instead, it turned into a strong airflow and propelled the two of them down rapidly from behind.
Driven by the wind, Zhou Ziwei and Kyzylmer fell at more than twice the speed, but even so, they still could not escape the range of the shells in time. Although they had reached the edge of the shell attack zone, there were still at least five or six shells that could threaten them.
Zhou Ziwei raised his eyebrows and, with a wave of his hand, three bright silver lights suddenly shot out from his pockets.
Those were the three butterfly darts that Zhou Ziwei had seized from Ono Yuko. If he had used the Soul Bead, he could have destroyed these cannonballs completely in an instant. However, Zhou Ziwei had just obtained these three butterfly darts and wanted to test their power, so he naturally released the three butterfly darts.
As for his new-style cross-shaped darts, although he still had four left, their power was far less than that of the butterfly darts. To think that he could use the new-style cross-shaped darts to fight against cannonballs was just wishful thinking.
"Whoosh—" When the butterfly dart collided with the cannonball, the sound was not the kind of hard collision, but rather like a sharp kitchen knife cutting into a piece of tender tofu, instantly splitting the three menacing cannonballs in half from the middle.
The shell had a caliber of 180 millimeters, while the butterfly dart was only the size of a bottle cap. So it looked like the butterfly dart cleaved the shell in two in one go. But in reality, the butterfly dart circled the shell five or six times before successfully destroying it.
It's just that the butterfly dart is so incredibly fast that even people with excellent eyesight would find it difficult to see these details unless someone uses a high-definition camera to film the scene and then plays it back in slow motion.
The advantages of this butterfly dart are indeed far superior to the new cross dart... After all, the new cross dart is only powered by electricity, and the one that powers the electricity is an independent soul hidden within the new cross dart.
Because the soul power consumed by independent souls created from non-living entities is very limited and there is no possibility of growth, their intelligence is quite low. Therefore, their reaction speed is naturally much slower than that of the human brain.
Therefore, the new type of cross dart could never produce such a high-speed spinning motion, let alone achieve the astonishing linear speed of a butterfly dart in the air.
The sharpness of the butterfly dart once again amazed Zhou Ziwei. If the butterfly dart hadn't been sharp enough to penetrate the shell without any hesitation, it wouldn't have been able to spin around the shell so many times in just a moment.
When Zhou Ziwei saw his alloy suit crumble under the attack of the butterfly dart, he already knew that the butterfly dart was extraordinary. But now it seems that Ono Yuko clearly didn't unleash much of the butterfly dart's power.
From Ono Yuko's soul memories, Zhou Ziwei learned that in order for the butterfly dart to unleash its full power, it needed to be supported by sufficiently strong spiritual energy.
However, it is clear that Ono Yuko's spiritual power is insignificant compared to Zhou Ziwei's.
Another factor that determines the power of a magical artifact is the density of its spiritual energy. Yuko Ono was able to condense her spiritual energy into a semi-mist, semi-liquid state after more than ten years of hard work day and night.
Zhou Ziwei had not yet practiced Ono Yuko's method of condensing spiritual power, so he directly separated a wisp of liquid soul power to control the butterfly dart.
As expected, the spiritual energy threads drawn from the liquid soul power possessed a level of resilience and flexibility that the mist-like soul power could not match. Moreover, after being incorporated into the butterfly dart, the power it displayed was at least five times that of Ono Yuko.
The butterfly dart almost instantly destroyed the three shells that were still nearly a hundred meters away. The three shells didn't even have time to explode before they split in the middle, and the pale yellow explosive powder inside immediately scattered from the air. The remaining two halves of the shells still flew forward for dozens of meters due to inertia before crashing in different directions.
The three butterfly darts that had completed their mission suddenly turned in mid-air and swept towards the three cannonballs on the other side. As a result, before the fuses in the three cannonballs could even be activated, the danger was nipped in the bud.
"Boom, boom, boom..." Just as Zhou Ziwei had dealt with the only six shells that could endanger him, the remaining nearly one hundred shells finally reached their designated positions and began to explode in the air, scattering the shrapnel inside the shells in all directions.
Zhou Ziwei was located directly below the blast zone. Although he wasn't directly hit by the shells, the shrapnel flying around him and Kyzylem still managed to hit them.
Zhou Ziwei was protected by an alloy suit, so he was not afraid of the aftershocks of the explosion. He let the scattered shrapnel hit his body one by one, making a series of pleasant "clanging" sounds. Then the shrapnel was deflected one by one. From beginning to end, not a single shrapnel could cut a corner of his clothes.
As for Kyzylem... she certainly had no ability to withstand these shrapnels, and Zhou Ziwei didn't want her to die now, so he reluctantly used that wisp of wind energy to form a huge wind shield, enveloping her inside.
If this wind shield were in the epicenter of the explosion, it probably wouldn't be able to withstand the power of the explosives. But now that we're out of the most dangerous area, this wind shield should be enough to save Kyzylmier's life.
Sure enough, countless shrapnel bullets entered the wind shield. Some were flung out by the rotating shield, while most were shredded into even smaller fragments by the high-speed airflow, which then fell to the ground with a clatter.
Without the airflow pushing them from behind, their descent slowed slightly, but because they had fallen so far, their current speed was still much faster than normal free fall.
Just as the two were about to kiss the earth, Zhou Ziwei suddenly unleashed a powerful burst of air from his palm, which slammed into the ground below.
After practicing for a while, Zhou Ziwei can now release more attribute-less energy at once. However, the attribute-less energy stored in his body is not very sufficient. So, he usually only releases a small amount of wind energy. When flying in the air, he only needs the tornado to be enough to support the two of them. Releasing too much wind energy would be a waste.
And now... Zhou Ziwei converted all the remaining attribute-less energy he could release into wind energy, which he then suddenly unleashed just before hitting the ground.
The newly formed wind energy, like the powerful airflow from the tail of a jet aircraft, struck the ground and cracked several thick stone slabs. The reaction force generated by this airflow was transmitted through Zhou Ziwei's palm to his entire body and to Kyzylmer, whom he was holding in his arms.
So the two of them, who had just been falling like meteors, suddenly stopped abruptly in mid-air, then bounced up about two meters into the air before landing safely on the shattered stone slabs.
"Thank God... I... I'm still alive!"
When hundreds of shells came flying from all directions at once, Kyzylmier's mind went almost blank until her feet touched the ground again, at which point she suddenly came to her senses.
Then, like an idiot, he touched her sexy and alluring body all over, finally confirming that she hadn't turned into some kind of non-human ghost.
Zhou Ziwei released the hand that had been wrapped around her waist in the air, and snorted with a hint of dissatisfaction, saying, "I was the one who saved you just now, but you insist on thanking God... You foreign devils are really heartless... You actually put all the credit on God, it's just ridiculous."
Kyzylmer was slightly stunned upon hearing this, and then awkwardly opened his mouth, about to say something, when suddenly he heard a sinister voice coming from the villa in front of him.
"You're quite the powerful one... But... since you dared to come here, I can guarantee that even if you were a demon incarnate, I'll make sure you stay here forever!"
After saying this, the bearded man in black snorted coldly, then his figure flickered and disappeared from the rooftop, taking the lead in leaving that dangerous place.
Zhou Ziwei ignored the bearded man and turned to Kyzylem beside him, asking, "Is he the bearded man you're talking about? Black God's younger brother?"
Upon hearing this, Kyzylmer nodded hurriedly and said, "That's right, it's the bearded man who kidnapped Anirias. I can already sense it, Anirias... she should be hiding in that small building ahead. Mr. Zhou, please, please help me save Anirias!"
Zhou Ziwei gave a soft "hmm," then pulled Kyzylmer along and began walking step by step toward the luxurious building in the center of the small island.
"Bang bang bang..."
Three bullets flew out of the three windows of the small building in quick succession, shooting towards Zhou Ziwei in a triangular formation.
These three bullets were extremely fast and powerful, and they appeared to have been fired from a sniper rifle.
At this distance, the power of a sniper rifle can be unleashed to its fullest extent. Even if there are only two or three rifles, their effect will be far more terrifying than that of twenty or thirty people wielding ordinary pistols.
Unfortunately, when faced with Zhou Ziwei, whose reaction speed is abnormally fast, three sniper rifles are no more powerful than three ordinary Type 54 pistols.
After Zhou Ziwei increased the speed of his visual reaction nerves to more than ten times, the speed of both pistol bullets and sniper rifle bullets became almost indistinguishable. Zhou Ziwei could easily pull Kyzylmer past him between the three shots.
Since bullets cannot be fitted with fuses, as long as Zhou Ziwei prevents the bullets from directly hitting the two of them, he will not suffer any injury.
If someone were observing from the sidelines, they would have noticed that Zhou Ziwei didn't seem to have made any dodging movements at all. He appeared to have only slightly tilted his head and wiggled his hips as he took a step forward, and he also slightly dragged Kyzylmer beside him, causing him to sway his body as well... The two of them actually escaped danger and dodged an attack in this way.
The bullets from this type of sniper rifle travel at speeds far exceeding the speed of sound. As a result, Kyzylem was completely unaware when Zhou Ziwei dragged her through the gaps between the three bullets until the three muffled gunshots reached her ears, which startled her.
Belatedly realizing what was happening, Kyzylmer let out a cry of surprise and instinctively tried to lie down to avoid it. Zhou Ziwei couldn't help but smile wryly, yanked Kyzylmer's arm hard, and instead charged towards the small building at an even faster speed.
At this moment, the enemy launched a new round of sniping, and this time the number of snipers involved had increased from three to seven. Under unified command, the seven snipers pulled their triggers almost simultaneously, firing at the two of them from seven directions on the small building.
Just then, the booming sound of cannons rang out again from all directions of the island.
Gunfire erupted, all just to deal with the two of them. Zhou Ziwei's eyes narrowed slightly, and he thought coldly: A killer organization would actually use weapons of mass destruction for him. Does this mean that the Black Network has no more capable experts left? Could it be... that the person ranked among the top three of the world's top ten assassins doesn't belong to the Black Network at all?
Volume 2: The Assassin's Nightmare, Chapter 459: The Scent of Conspiracy
The booming sound of artillery fire grew louder as it approached, while seven sniper rifles nearby unleashed a barrage of sharp bullets at Zhou Ziwei and Kyzylem. Zhou Ziwei frowned slightly, but his feet didn't falter. He firmly held Kyzylem's small hand, advancing step by step at a steady pace. His body swayed only slightly as he dodged the seven deadly bullets, each one narrowly missing him. If someone could watch the slow-motion replay on a videotape, they would be utterly astonished.
Because seven bullets were fired at them simultaneously, the gaps between them were so small that it was almost impossible for a human body to pass through. However, Zhou Ziwei seemed to have meticulously measured the distance between the bullets. When his body couldn't pass through from the front, he turned to the side, sucking in his stomach and tucking in his buttocks. Kyzylmer's body was extremely flexible, but Kyzylmer obviously didn't have Zhou Ziwei's sharp eyes to detect the traces of the bullets. So Zhou Ziwei had to use his hands to guide Kyzylmer to make various dodging movements. Controlling someone else's body to dodge was definitely more difficult than performing any high-difficulty movement himself.
Fortunately, Zhou Ziwei made no mistakes, and every time the bullets whizzed past their bodies, his accuracy was astonishing.
After Zhou Ziwei and Kyzilemier dodged another sniper attack and rushed forward another ten meters, the dense barrage of shells in the sky was about to reach their designated explosion points. At this time, Zhou Ziwei and Kyzilemier were still almost in the center of the shell attack.
It's safe to say that even if Zhou Ziwei could run as fast as he could, he wouldn't be able to escape this area of explosions. And even if the hidden weapons controlled by Zhou Ziwei were incredibly powerful, there wouldn't be enough time to deal with all those shells one by one.
Kyzylem looked up at the countless whistling shells in the sky, his eyes filled with despair.
This time, I'm afraid I'm really going to die! In this situation, even if God came, I probably couldn't save me! I really don't want to die... I don't want to die...
As Kyzylmer watched the dense barrage of shells approaching, a look of sorrow filled his eyes, before everything went black.
Huh... Am I already dead? This must be hell! But... why is hell like this? It's pitch black everywhere, I can't see anything else... What's going on? I feel like I'm still being held by someone. Could it be... he... did he come to hell with me too? He didn't abandon me even after we entered hell together, he's still holding me tightly.
Kyzylem felt the warmth of being embraced and cared for, and a sudden wave of gratitude and peace washed over her. She had been terrified by the darkness of this hellish world and saddened by the thought of her own death, but this person's embrace made her forget all of that. What she truly feared was not death or the horrors of hell, but rather the despairing loneliness. As long as someone remained steadfastly by her side, clinging to her in the face of adversity, then... even death, even the boundless hell, seemed less frightening.
However, just as Kyzylmier was about to quietly enjoy the tranquility of this "hellish world," she suddenly heard the booming of cannons again. The cannons seemed to be exploding right above her head, and the booming sound seemed to be blocked by something. Although it was so close, it sounded somewhat muffled.
But the hellish world around him began to shake violently amidst the booming cannon fire, making Kyzylmier feel as if he were on a roller coaster, his internal organs being tossed around several times.
Wait...wasn't I dead? Why am I still experiencing physical pain? What...what's going on? And this cannon fire...isn't this hell? Why are there cannons firing in hell?
Kyzylmer looked around in bewilderment, only to find that all around him was still pitch black, with not a single ray of light in any direction.
Just as Kyzylmer was puzzled, the rumbling explosions above finally stopped, but the world around him seemed to still be experiencing the aftershocks of the explosions, still vibrating slightly.
Then Kyzylem felt the person holding her tightly, and then she began to rise rapidly upwards.
The feeling was like swimming in a pitch-black lake. After his body swayed in the darkness for a moment, with a "pop," he suddenly broke through the thin layer of restraints above his head. Then, Kyzylmier was horrified to see a scene of utter devastation filled with countless wisps of smoke.
This is the very center of a small island, near the front of that exquisite villa, where there is a beautifully maintained little garden. The garden was originally lush and verdant, planted with countless kinds of exquisite plants, as well as some finely sculpted statues, potted plants, and so on, making the garden look like a paradise on earth.
But at this moment, this paradise on earth was subjected to a carpet bombing by the weapons of the human world, destroying everything. The flowers and plants on the ground were all plowed up, and the artificial mountains and trees collapsed with a crash.
The thick bluestone floor turned into a ground covered with tiny pebbles, and the golden chrysanthemums turned into a ground of sorrow. In the blink of an eye, the beautiful paradise turned into a hell on earth.
However, after staring blankly at this scene that seemed both strange and familiar for two seconds, Kyzylmer exclaimed in horror.
"Thank God I... I'm still alive! Did I... I just go to hell?"
Zhou Ziwei glared at Kyzylmer again with dissatisfaction and said, "I hate your God. Why do you thank that old guy every time I save you?"
After making a joke to Kyzylmer, Zhou Ziwei sped up again, closing the distance to nearly 100 meters in an instant, and finally approached the three-story villa in front of him.
Zhou Ziwei believed that at such close range, the gunboats surrounding the island should be quiet for a while, unless they were determined to bury all their own people on the island as well. Otherwise, if they continued to bombard the island, they would only be able to raze it to the ground as well.
If the people inside this villa were just ordinary nobodys, Zhou Ziwei really couldn't guarantee that the ruthless black market assassin network's boss, Black God, wouldn't actually order them all to be blown up as well.