Assault in the Rain

Dropping a harsh remark, Angelina looked back and gave Xu Xiaoyou a warning glance. She walked a short distance away and, right before Xu Xiaoyou’s eyes, pulled back her black glove slightly. An indescribable eldritch aura erupted from her body, causing the surrounding rain to vibrate violently.

Disordered tentacles flickered into existence behind Angelina’s back, and blue veins crept from the girl's neck to the side of her face.

Angelina shook her head abruptly, as if enduring immense pain. She gripped her hand tight and finally pulled the black glove back down, suppressing that eldritch aura once more.

"I hope you can fulfill your promise this time."

With that, Angelina vanished from the spot in a single leap. Xu Xiaoyou tapped her finger against her shoulder, waiting for the right moment to arrive.

Inside the Withered Flower family’s resort manor, numerous surviving family members had gathered. Waiters pushed out dessert carts laden with exquisite and tempting macarons, tiramisu dusted with coffee powder, and Black Forest cakes exuding the mellow aroma of cherry brandy. Obviously, no one had the appetite for afternoon tea right now; they huddled together, indignantly denouncing the lunatics and the mastermind behind the incident.

"Those lunatics... once the family finds out what happened on the island, they'll never let them get away with this!"

"Bastards! I always said the orphanage system was indispensable for managing these dregs. Look! Just look at what these island residents have turned into!"

"They scratched my face!"

The chaotic scene in the ballroom left the members of Section 6 feeling helpless. The Withered Flower family had built this resort manor on the island, covering three hundred acres with two gardens and three mansions. Normally, it was used to host prestigious families from all over the world. When an emergency struck, this manor became a perfect fortification; its composite steel plates, dozens of centimeters thick, were enough to withstand tank shells.

These young family members were gathered on the second floor. Below, a massive crowd of red-eyed fish-men had gathered, hacking at the concrete walls with axes and other metal weapons, leaving deep gashes. Someone held up a glass of dandelion wine and said with a chuckle:

"These idiots. I really want to see the looks on their faces when they finally hack through the concrete only to find impenetrable rebar and composite steel plates inside."

"The Withered Flower family really was thoughtful. They planned for a day like this long ago, building such a steel fortress on the island."

An Ayin Winter youth raised his glass, speaking with a smile.

Not long after, they heard someone crying for help. On the other side of the main building, across a green lawn vast enough to host a car race, an inconspicuous black figure was sprinting toward the building. Behind him were fish-men wielding sharp weapons in hot pursuit, with a few scattered cocoon monsters visible among them.

"Hey, run faster, Newt! They're about to catch you!" someone mocked.

"They're about to reach your butt, run a little faster!" Many others joined in the jeering.

"Remember that girl you liked in the kitchen? The one who was always covered in dirt? We all called her Cinderella. Run faster, Prince Newt!"

These nobles mocked the low-level family servant as they usually did, until the boy reached the base of the building, crying and pounding on the doors with all his might:

"Please, I beg you, open the door! Let me in!"

"Newt, climb up! Climb up quickly!" someone cheered.

"They're going to catch me, please, I beg you, please...: .." The boy's face was ashen. The fish-men behind him had already caught up, their sharp claws digging into his shoulders as they yanked his collar backward.

Of course, no one intended to heed his cries for help. These high-and-mighty people were simply using him for entertainment, enjoying the sight of his desperate struggle. He was merely a bottom-tier servant in the family, someone who worked like a beast for these nobles and let the young masters ride on his back for fun.

He began cursing the bastards above with the most vicious language possible. His body was torn into countless pieces by the fish-men, and he let out a miserable wail. His only response was a shower of dark red wine poured over him. The youths upturned their glasses, their eyes reflecting his fragmented body.

"Look at how stupid he looks."

"Just like that Cinderella, haha."

The group clinked glasses and drained the remaining wine.

After a while, the young nobles were dead drunk. Under the double numbing effect of alcohol and drugs, they threw the chaos of the island and the crisis they faced to the back of their minds, taking each other's hands to dance to the melodious sound of a piano.

After seeing how beyond saving these family members were, Yun Yao returned from her patrol with a furrowed brow. "Why are we staying here to protect people like this?"

"Is everyone in these families like this?"

Bai Zhou, standing nearby, said in a heavy voice, "People like this are still a minority in the family. Don't forget, only these hedonistic types would participate in a winter hunt and then gather here afterward to brag about their so-called trophies."

In his memory, most family scions appeared humble and polite on the surface, speaking with grace and elegance in daily life.

They were all quite calculating, though they weren't any less of bastards.

Bai Zhou shrugged. "Besides, it's not entirely like this. There are still normal people."

He tilted his chin, and the two looked toward a gray-haired girl in a corner. She wore a dark red noble vest over a silver-white dress and a black-patterned hairpiece. She was calmly loading a bolt into her composite crossbow, remaining ready for battle at all times.

"I'll kill every single one of you," the girl grinned. "Kill them all, kill them all, kill them all."

Bai Zhou: "..."

Yun Yao sneered. "And this is what you call a normal person?"

"Alright, I overestimated the people from the families on this island," Bai Zhou admitted, throwing up his hands.

"I heard your conversation," the gray-haired girl in the corner said with a cold face.

The two raised their eyebrows. At that moment, Bai Zhou noticed a sharp, cold glint. A strangely familiar sense of crisis welled up in his heart, and he abruptly summoned his 【Blood Monarch】, stepping in front of Yun Yao.

A white arc of light struck the weapon in his hand, ricocheting around the room before embedding itself in the neck of a dancing noble. The spray of crimson blood stunned everyone present.

A red-hot bullet casing bounced on the floor, like the God of Death plucking a piano key to play the first crisp note of a funeral march. The youth collapsed, a large pool of blood spreading beneath him as screams erupted.

"Someone is attacking us!"

Bai Zhou made a grim assessment. Following the bullet hole in the wall, he looked toward the second guest wing in the distance. His vision pierced through the gray curtain of rain, rapidly crossing the vast green lawn to peer at a certain window.

A girl was lying on the floor in a firing position, a few strands of golden hair scattered over the rifle stock. She pulled the bolt, and a metal shell casing ejected onto the floor.

Xu Xiaoyou finely adjusted her scope, slightly shifting the angle of the muzzle. Through her recent observations, she had mapped out the positions of every member of the Section 6 squad; a cross-section of the battlefield unfolded in her mind.

Section 6 and the family members were in the central main building, while she was in the guest wing to the southwest. The straight-line distance exceeded two hundred meters. From the moment the two opposite her reacted to locking onto her position and reaching her floor, it would take at least three minutes.

Chihong was in the library near the window on the northeast side of the main building. She seemed to have sensed the aura Anya released earlier and was in a state of alert, not yet noticing the commotion here. As for the final member of the squad, Heifeng, he was in the first-floor lobby, guarding against the fish-men who could storm the manor at any moment.

Interestingly, the final guest she had invited was currently rushing toward the resort manor, bringing a rainstorm and the tide. The Siren King was using his song to summon all the fish-men on the island, advancing toward this place in a grand procession. No doubt, a storm would soon sweep through this area.

Anya was waiting in the shadows for her chance, ready at a moment's notice. Xu Xiaoyou had pushed all her chips onto the table. This game against Section 6 was not about personal grudges; it was about different positions. Only by going all out could she show these opponents the greatest respect.

At this point, there was no such thing as a draw. All she wanted was to win.

"Sorry."

Xu Xiaoyou pulled the trigger. In the distance, the communication curtain near Bai Zhou's ear was shot through and fell to the ground. He hadn't even had the chance to report the situation to his other two companions.

"Get out of the way, let me!"

Yun Yao shoved Bai Zhou aside. A mimicry heavy cannon materialized in her hands, and she fired a shot directly toward the distant guest wing.

A brilliant burst of fire erupted in the rain. Xu Xiaoyou rolled away and wasn't caught in the blast, though her clothes were dusted with debris. The entire wall where she had been standing collapsed, exposing her figure to the two people in the distance.

After seeing the figure in the gray robe, wielding a heavy sniper rifle and wearing a white laughing mask, Bai Zhou's pupils constricted violently. A powerful sense of familiarity made him blurt out:

"Dark Gold Rose!"

Yun Yao was also stunned upon hearing that name. She reacted quickly—was that the luminous prism grade fixer who had attacked Bai Zhou on the cruise ship?

Rainwater trickled down the white mask. After a brief gaze across the hundreds of meters, they almost seemed to hear a laugh coming from beneath that mask, like a top-tier hunter toying with her prey. White smoke leaked from the metal case at Dark Gold Rose's feet, and she vanished into the rising mist like a malevolent spirit.

Xu Xiaoyou unhurriedly changed positions, pulling out the magazine and taking a new one from beneath her windbreaker to slot it in. The magazine for this anti-materiel heavy sniper rifle was as thick as her wrist; compared to the metal beast in her arms, the girl's hands looked dainty, her fingers incredibly slender.

Having been seen by two members of Section 6 simultaneously, erasing their memories would be difficult. She had to maintain an air of effortless control from beginning to end, at least to preserve the mysterious image of "Dark Gold Rose."

In a heat of passion, Yun Yao couldn't care less. Standing by the wall, she propped up her heavy cannon and began a wild bombardment of the distant guest wing.

Energy shells containing immense power streaked out, causing the walls that were supposed to withstand tank fire to collapse one after another. In the blink of an eye, the entire guest wing was riddled with holes, looking like a giant whale pierced by countless harpoons.

"Yun Yao, calm down!" Bai Zhou barked. The terrified screams of the nobles nearby made it impossible for Yun Yao to settle. The excitement of facing a powerful enemy caused various hormones to secrete uncontrollably throughout her body. She just wanted to blast that mysterious individual into dust and bring the remains to their section chief; Chihong would surely look at her with new respect.

Bai Zhou knew he couldn't stop Yun Yao in this state. This was an inherent character flaw they were born with; no one except the section chief could hold them back at a time like this.

Bai Zhou could only silently pray that no family members were hiding inside the guest wing where Dark Gold Rose was, and that the building wouldn't collapse entirely.

The bombardment continued for nearly a minute until the cannon's bore overheated. The distant guest wing let out a groan of structural failure. As the dust settled, Dark Gold Rose stopped. She hadn't suffered any injuries; even her clothes were perfectly intact.

She gave a thumbs-up to the two over here, then slowly turned it downward under Yun Yao's twitching eyelids.

Yun Yao set up the heavy cannon again, her face slightly distorted as she fired toward Dark Gold Rose once more. To their utter disbelief, the energy shells deliberately avoided Dark Gold Rose, as if an invisible pair of hands were pushing them off their original trajectory. They grazed the gray robe and exploded behind her.

The resulting heatwave caused Dark Gold Rose's gray robe to flutter, but she remained motionless, like a cedar tree rooted in place.

"How is this possible!" Yun Yao didn't believe it and fired repeatedly. Without exception, the shells avoided the girl's location until the entire load-bearing wall of the floor behind her was on the verge of collapsing from the saturated bombardment. Dark Gold Rose still hadn't budged.

"This... this is impossible!"

Under Yun Yao's nearly frantic gaze, Dark Gold Rose raised her sniper rifle.

"Yun Yao!"

Bai Zhou roared and tackled Yun Yao. A bullet whistled over their heads—it was clearly a deliberate taunt, or perhaps a warning. The opponent had predicted their movements; the bullet's path corresponded exactly to where they were after diving.

Xu Xiaoyou, in the distance, was also breaking a sweat. She had just used five 【Attack Deflection】 cards in a row, using each one only when the energy shells were infinitely close to her to create that visual effect. The feeling of impending crisis was not pleasant.

Next, it was her turn to strike back.

Previously on the cruise ship, she had been hindered by the cramped environment. Now, it was different; the battlefield was wide open, and her long-range deck could be utilized to its full potential.

Ten copies each of 【Headshot】, 【Dense Fire Net】, and 【Suppressive Fire】 turned into light and merged into the heavy sniper rifle in Xu Xiaoyou's hands. The crow-blue metal barrel immediately glowed with an overloaded, burning red light. The heavy muzzle sank deep into the ground, and muzzle flashes spat out, yearning for release.

Bai Zhou pulled Yun Yao behind a wall. The dense sniper rounds formed a metal storm, shattering and collapsing all the walls near them. God only knew how that lunatic managed to fire a sniper rifle at the speed of a machine gun. The power of each shot was no less than a direct bomb blast, suppressing them so effectively they didn't dare peek out. The two huddled helplessly behind a small corner of a wall.

"Damn it...: .. Bai Zhou, I admit I misunderstood you before." Tears pricked the corners of Yun Yao's eyes. Before today, she had never felt that she would be weaker than any fixer in the association when it came to long-range fire coverage.

That person named Dark Gold Rose was a monster!

As the suppressive fire continued here, on the other side, the sharp-sensing Chihong noticed the commotion upstairs. She closed the book in her hand and was about to move when she glimpsed a silver-haired figure standing outside the window. The fanatical, suppressed red pupils were strikingly visible.

Chihong hesitated for a moment. A silver-white spear tip then broke through the wall, stopping right before her eyes!