37: Chapter 37 If you're going to hit someone, you have to hit them in the face!

Shipping containers were scattered randomly across the open ground of the factory.

Hu Gualing felt trepidation as he passed by, terrified that a Black-Clad Man might suddenly spring out from inside.

Once he left the brightly lit area near the factory entrance, he calmed down significantly.

If it came to a direct confrontation, he definitely wouldn't be a match for that group.

Moreover, they were armed with lethal weapons.

If he got stabbed even once, his roughly one-hundred-pound frame would likely be done for right here.

Therefore, he decided to proceed with caution.

He crouched low and crept along until he was within twenty or thirty meters of the Office Building.

He immediately knelt down.

Holding his breath, he peeked his head out from behind a flower bed.

That group was indeed right in front!

It looked like they hadn't gone to the warehouse at all, nor had they scavenged for valuables in the factory; they had headed straight for the Office Building.

The lights in the Office Building were still on, just as they had been when he was patrolling there earlier, which meant Wu Yingying was likely still inside and unaware of what was happening outside.

At that moment, the five men were studying the access control System.

"It says something about facial verification; does it mean we have to take off our masks?"

"Taking them off doesn't work either. I even pressed my face right up against it, and it still says it doesn't recognize me."

"The way technology is developing these days is a real pain. My expert lock-picking skills are effectively useless."

"..."

Hu Gualing pricked up his ears and listened for a while, discovering that the five men seemed to be blocked by the access control.

Could this access control System really be as effective as Captain Tiao Zi had said?

Just as he was thinking this, he saw one of the Black-Clad Men pull a small knife that looked like a pencil sharpener from his jacket and slowly drag it across the glass door.

The harsh, screeching sound reached the flower bed, giving Hu Gualing goosebumps.

He watched as the man finished a circle, gave it a light push with his hand, and the entire automatic door fell backward, shattering into pieces on the ground.

At the same time, the alarm on the side flashed red and emitted a long, warning siren.

Hu Gualing's sharp eyes caught a glimpse of a woman's figure reflected in a floor-to-ceiling window upstairs; the woman glanced downstairs and then hid, looking slightly panicked.

It was Wu Yingying!

Hu Gualing felt anxious and turned his head to look, hoping the alarm would summon passing civilians.

However, it was already two or three in the morning, and people were fast asleep; not a single light was on in the surrounding residential buildings.

As for those heartless guys in the security room, Hu Gualing had already given up all hope on them.

If they heard the alarm, they'd be lucky if they didn't run away out of pure terror!

At this moment, one of the Black-Clad Men pulled out a short baton, held it vertically in his hand, and struck the alarm twice, silencing it instantly.

"She's probably already been alerted, so we must act without delay!"

"Fine, you stay behind." The shortest Black-Clad Man pointed at the man with the baton and took the other three into the Office Building.

Seeing this, Hu Gualing knew he couldn't delay any longer.

Besides, the fact that they left this man with the baton behind alone gave him the perfect opportunity.

He hunched his body and crept along the flower bed.

When he was only three or four meters away from the man with the baton, he suddenly sprang out from behind the flower bed and lunged at the man's back.

With his height of one meter eighty and weight of about eighty kilograms, combined with the momentum of the mid-air lunge, the man with the baton was instantly pinned to the ground and unable to move.

Hu Gualing's tense nerves relaxed a little.

It seemed these professional robbers weren't all that special; they were no match for Gualing.

He didn't know how close the relationship was between these robbers, but if he held this one hostage, could he threaten the others to stop?

Just as Hu Gualing was thinking this, he didn't notice the man's actions.

The man with the baton had his face pressed against the ground and found it very difficult to move, but he still managed to laboriously shift his arm, twisted his wrist, and held his thick, black short baton vertically, stabbing it toward Hu Gualing's spine. The other end of the baton instantly extended.

Hu Gualing suddenly felt his stomach get stabbed hard by a hard object. The hair on his back stood on end, and he sprang up, hunched over like a shrimp, staring vigilantly at the baton in the man's hand that had suddenly extended by three sections.

A tactical baton!

He had encountered this item during his time as a conscript; its full name was a tactical telescopic baton.

When not in use, the entire body of the baton could be retracted into the handle, making it very convenient to carry.

Once it needed to be used, one only had to swing the handle forcefully, and the baton body hidden inside would pop out.

The baton body was made of steel, thin at the front and thick at the back, possessing great lethality whether used for striking or stabbing.

When Hu Gualing was observing from behind the flower bed, he had kept an eye on this black short baton, but most batons were deployed by swinging or striking forcefully, so when he saw the Black-Clad Man strike the alarm twice without the baton changing at all, he had lowered his guard.

He hadn't expected the man to have an insidious self-deploying model!

Hu Gualing rubbed his stomach; because he had dodged in time, it hurt a little, but it hadn't affected his ability to act.

However, what gave him lingering fear was that fortunately, this was just a telescopic baton; if it had been a telescopic dagger, he would have been at the mercy of others by now...

It seemed he couldn't afford to be careless for even a second!

Hu Gualing stretched his arms, staring with slightly constricted pupils at the man with the baton, who had already climbed up from the ground.

The telescopic baton in the man's hand glinted coldly under the lights.

"So it was you, you silly kid." The man said, swinging the baton through the air twice as a show of force.

Listening to the *swish-swish* sound of the air being cut, Hu Gualing's heart pounded.

There was a reason this thing was known as the ultimate personal defense weapon.

Not only was it made entirely of steel, but the very tip was also fitted with a high-density solid steel ring.

The tip of the baton looked to be only as thick as a finger, but when used in a real fight, a brush against the skin would cause bruising, and a strike to the bone would cause a fracture.

And he, an intern security guard, wasn't even equipped with a rubber baton for show. Being empty-handed, it was truly hard to have a chance of winning.

But 'hard to have' didn't mean 'no chance'.

"I recognize you," Hu Gualing said, speaking only those three words.

Before the words had even faded, he had already charged forward with both hands protecting his chest and waist.

This was a little trick he had learned back when he used to get into fights.

Pretend to have something to say to distract the opponent, then strike rapidly.

Although it could only delay the opponent for a very short time, often it was within these split seconds that one could seize the initiative and decide the outcome.

The man with the baton was still wondering what Hu Gualing recognized, and in the blink of an eye, the guy was right in front of him. He'd fallen for it! This damn guy!

The man with the baton was both panicked and furious; he twisted his wrist, and the baton swung toward Hu Gualing's head.

Although he didn't have time to build up force in his haste, it was still a baton made of pure steel; one hit would result in a bloody head.

As for the possibility of killing someone? He couldn't be bothered to worry about that now.

Seeing the baton swing toward him, Hu Gualing gritted his teeth and shielded his head with his left arm, not dodging or retreating.

He swung his right fist with full force, smashing it toward the man's face.

In the blink of an eye.

Two dull thuds rang out in succession.

Hu Gualing had used his arm to block the baton, and with a muffled grunt, he slammed his fist solidly into the man's nose bridge.

If you're going to hit someone, don't hit them in the face?

Wrong!

The face has the most pain receptors; if you're going to hit, hit them in the face!

The man clutched his face and screamed, blood seeping out from between his fingers.

Taking this opportunity, Hu Gualing snatched the baton away and used the stick-fighting techniques he had learned during his service to strike the man's wrist, thigh, and the back of his knee in quick succession.

After this sequence of moves, the man temporarily lost the ability to resist.

Only then did Hu Gualing begin to check his own injuries.