22: Chapter 22: Heavy Machine Gun Materials Gathered, Jiang Yanxue Rescued!

"Absolute Stealth, activate."

The last chance for today.

Six minutes, six attacks.

Chen Chen vaulted through a hole in the outer wall into the workshop.

Ripples spread across his skin, and his entire being was erased from the world's perception by the Power of Rules.

He didn't head for the stairs.

Beside the stairs was a half-open blast door, with a rusty iron plaque hanging above the frame— "No. 03 Military Supply Warehouse."

Chen Chen pushed the door open and entered.

The warehouse wasn't big, only about thirty or forty square meters.

But the things inside made his lips curl into a grin.

Standardized military-green metal lockers were lined up against the wall, half of their doors standing open.

Inside the lockers were neatly stacked various military-industrial semi-finished products—special steel billets for gun barrels, precision-machined gear sets, and sealed boxes of ammunition components.

This wasn't abandoned; these were strategic supplies that hadn't been moved before production ceased.

Chen Chen unslung his storage backpack and got to work with both hands.

The moment the Power of Rules made contact with the supplies, the system prompts formed a continuous stream in his mind.

[Obtained: High-Strength Barrel Steel × 50!]

[Obtained: Precision Mechanical Gear Set × 80!]

[Obtained: Ammunition Synthesis Module × 30!]

The backpack slots filled up at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the blue numbers jumped frantically.

Chen Chen's movements were fast and precise, with absolutely no wasted time—a glance to confirm it was the material he needed, hands on it, store in the pack, then on to the next locker.

The moment the sixth locker was cleared.

[Ding! All materials required for the C-Class Vehicle-Mounted Heavy Machine Gun have been collected!]

This prompt sounded better than any music.

Chen Chen's breathing hitched.

As long as he got back to the RV, those two weapon mount points would finally be put to use.

By then, let alone low-level Aberrants, even a fully organized corpse tide would be shredded into meat paste in front of the 12.7mm caliber barrage.

He closed the backpack buckle and glanced at the stealth countdown.

Three minutes and twenty seconds.

Enough.

Chen Chen exited the warehouse and stepped onto the metal stairs.

The sound of his Shadow Tactical Boots contacting the metal steps was masked by the Rules, and he bounded up two steps at a time.

The second-floor corridor.

Dim, damp, and permeated with a mixed scent of rust and blood.

A harsh, grating sound of metal being repeatedly struck came from behind a corner in the distance.

Chen Chen sped up, and the moment he turned the corner, the entire scene was laid bare.

The security iron door of the command room had been severely deformed by the impacts, with a large dent in the center of the door panel.

A mutant dog, half the size of a normal Aberrant but with absurdly high muscle density, was using its skull as a battering ram, repeatedly slamming into the nearly ruined iron door.

All the joints on its four legs were bent backward, and the ends of its claws grew hooked, horny spikes; the whining frequency from its mouth was extremely high—

Inside the iron door, the sound of metal table legs bracing against the door panel was growing weaker.

The door couldn't hold much longer.

Chen Chen holstered his pistol.

This thing wouldn't be needed.

He walked to a meter directly behind the mutant dog and extended his right hand.

Behind the door, Jiang Yanxue was pressing her entire body weight against the last iron table.

Her arms were cramping from the prolonged exertion, and sweat had plastered the stray hairs on her forehead to her face.

Her right hand gripped a military dagger, the blade pointed toward the door.

When the next impact came, this door would be completely finished.

She was prepared to go down with the beast.

Then—the impact stopped.

The forty-seventh impact, which should have broken through the door in three seconds, vanished into thin air.

A short, crisp sound came from the corridor.

It wasn't metal colliding, it wasn't bones breaking, it was more like...

Someone crushing a hard-textured sphere.

Jiang Yanxue looked out through the crack created by the deformation of the iron door.

She froze.

A man wearing a tactical vest appeared out of thin air in the corridor.

To be precise, he was "materializing"—some kind of water-like optical distortion effect faded from his body, as if he had walked out of the air itself.

The mutant dog's body was still holding the posture of a pounce.

But its head was gone.

It hadn't been chopped off, nor had it been shot through. It had been crushed.

The man's right hand opened, and grayish-black brains and bone fragments flowed down between his fingers, mixing with black mutant blood as they dripped onto the concrete floor.

The mutant dog's headless body twitched twice, its four bent legs kicked straight, and it collapsed at the doorway.

The man shook his hand.

The viscous filth was flung against the wall, leaving a shocking trail.

He curled his fingers and rapped three times on the deformed iron door.

"Open up. Delivery."

Jiang Yanxue stared at the right hand still dripping blood outside the door crack, and the bulging muscle definition on the arm.

She sheathed her dagger.

She moved the iron table blocking the door and pulled open the precarious security door.

The two of them stood face to face for the first time.

Jiang Yanxue's height reached Chen Chen's chin.

Her black tight-fitting combat suit was soaked with sweat, clinging to her body—her waist was extremely slender, her hips wide, and her long legs were strapped with two tactical bands, holding three knives of different models.

Her face was truly beautiful, not losing at all to Shen Wanxing, the national goddess.

Her features were extremely aggressive, with high, prominent brow bones and slightly upturned eyes.

This kind of look would be called a "high-class face" in the entertainment industry of peaceful times, but in the underground world of Jiangcheng, it was called a "deadly face."

But right now, this face was covered in blood, filth, and dust; her lips were chapped and peeling, and the bloodshot veins in her eyes were as dense as a net.

Their gazes collided.

Jiang Yanxue spoke, her voice dry and hoarse: "Are you the one driving the RV?"

"Yeah."

"What do you want?"

Chen Chen's gaze traveled down from her face for a moment, then pulled back.

"You."

The air froze for a beat.

Jiang Yanxue's hand gripping the knife tightened by half an inch.

Chen Chen finished the second half of the sentence: "The hidden things on you."

Jiang Yanxue furrowed her brows.

She wasn't sure what he was talking about, but that brief pause was clearly intentional.

"But there's no time to explain now."

Chen Chen tilted his head and glanced at the end of the corridor.

The commotion downstairs was getting closer, the noise from the north wall had stopped, and the corpse tide that had been lured away was flowing back.

"Can you walk?"

"Do I look like the type who needs to be carried out?"

"That's for the best." Chen Chen turned around and crouched down slightly, "Get on."

Jiang Yanxue didn't move.

"I can run on my own."

"Your stamina won't last until the perimeter of the factory area. Within two meters of me, monsters can't see us. If you leave this range, you're a living target."

Dense footsteps and roars came from the corner of the corridor.

Dark shadows swayed on the walls, more and more of them.

Jiang Yanxue didn't argue further.

She stepped forward, hooked her arms around Chen Chen's neck, and pressed her entire body against his back.

The zipper of her combat suit dug into Chen Chen's shoulder blades, and even through the tactical vest, he could feel her stunning body curves and scorching body temperature.

Chen Chen reached back with his left arm, securing her onto his back.

His right hand drew the tactical suppressed pistol from his waist.

"Hold on tight."

His movement as he stood up was extremely fast; the moment his knees straightened, he was like a machine with the throttle floored.

His Shadow Tactical Boots made no sound at all as they stepped on the metal stairs.

With the combined burst of 50 points in Constitution and 26 points in Agility, carrying an adult woman down the stairs was no different than running unencumbered.

At the corner of the stairs, three returning Aberrants blocked the path.

Chen Chen leveled his right arm.

"Pfft."

"Pfft."

"Pfft."

The three gunshots were compressed by the suppression module to less than twenty decibels.

Three 9mm bullets precisely pierced the center of the three monsters' brows, blooming three dark red blood flowers at the back of their heads.

Before the corpses hit the ground, Chen Chen had already used the shoulder of one as a stepping stone to leap over.

Jiang Yanxue's face was pressed right behind his ear.

The faint air pressure from the muzzle each time it fired brushed against her cheek, and the smell of gunpowder smoke drilled into her nasal cavity.

This man's shooting rhythm was impossibly steady.

The interval between every shot was almost perfectly consistent, as if timed by a metronome.

His identity before transmigrating... was definitely not ordinary!

The first-floor lobby.

The corpse tide had turned back from the north wall, and a grayish-purple tide was surging in from all directions.

Chen Chen didn't slow down.

He chose a gap with the lowest density of monsters and squeezed through sideways.

His left arm braced Jiang Yanxue on his back, and the pistol in his right hand fired every two seconds—only hitting those blocking the way, only hitting their heads.

"Pfft." The fourth shot.

"Pfft." The fifth shot.

Two Aberrants that lunged in front of him fell to the ground in response.

The workshop exit was just fifteen meters away.

An oversized Raging Aberrant leaped down from the top of the shelf on the right, its claws aiming straight for Chen Chen's face.

The sixth shot.

The muzzle tilted up twenty degrees.

The bullet entered from the monster's lower jaw, punched through the skull cap, and brought out a spray of bone fragments and brains.

The monster's corpse grazed Chen Chen's shoulder and slammed onto the ground, splashing black blood all over Jiang Yanxue's face.

Six consecutive shots fired.

The temperature of the gun barrel transferred through the grip into his palm; it was hot, but not yet at the limit.

Chen Chen charged out of the workshop gate.

The cold wind hit his face; most of the monsters in the outer area were still gathered in the direction of Workshop C, and the route to the factory iron fence gate was relatively empty.

His legs, driven by 50 points of Constitution, ran at a speed that didn't belong to a human on the gravel ground; the wind in Jiang Yanxue's ears was absurdly loud, and the abandoned buildings on both sides flew backward rapidly.

The iron fence gate.

The hole.

Passed through.

The wilderness.

The wind.

Behind the sand dunes in the distance, the silhouette of the armored RV was faintly visible under the moonlight.

Chen Chen slowed his pace until he stopped thirty meters away from the RV.

His breathing was steady, and his heart rate hadn't even passed 120.

Jiang Yanxue on his back let go of her hands hooked around his neck.

She slid to the ground, her boot soles crunching on the gravel.

The black blood splashed on her face was already semi-dry, mixing with sweat to draw several uneven streaks.

She stared at Chen Chen.

This man, in the span of a single night.

Dismantled a dozen-ton armored personnel carrier, instantly killed an elite-level monster, emptied an entire military supply warehouse, crushed the skull of a mutant dog with his bare hands...

And finally, carried her on his back to carve a bloody path through the cracks of over thirty Raging Aberrants.

From start to finish, his heartbeat never faltered.

Jiang Yanxue wiped the bloodstains off her face.

"You said earlier that you wanted me." Her voice had returned to its usual cold stiffness,

"Now, can you explain?"

Chen Chen turned and walked toward the RV.

"Get in the car first."

He raised his fist and knocked three times on the heavy armored vehicle door.

"Bang, bang, bang."