31: Chapter 31 Night Raid on the Widow's Village? No, it's to Deliver Warmth

The sunset sank completely below the horizon; the night in San Verde always carried an unsettling restlessness.

The black Lincoln motorcade did not head directly toward the so-called "Widows Village," but stopped first at an open space on the outskirts of the city.

There, fifty members of the newly equipped "Umbrella Guard" had already lined up.

They wore uniform black tactical vests, with crude yet industrially violent-looking hydraulic exoskeletons attached. Everyone wore a mask printed with a white skull pattern and held brand-new assault rifles, looking like evil spirits that had just crawled out of hell.

Victor trotted over, gave an awkward military salute, the fat on his face trembling with excitement: "Boss, is this our 'charity' squad? Isn't this a bit too... hardcore?"

"Well, doing charity, it naturally has to be a bit hardcore."

Chen Yuan rolled down the car window and pointed to the dimly lit slum in the distance, which looked like a garbage dump. "That place is not only dirty but also chaotic. To ensure the 'warmth' we deliver is accurately distributed to everyone, it's quite reasonable to bring some heavy equipment for self-defense, right?"

"Reasonable, absolutely reasonable!"

Victor chuckled, turned around, and roared at the group of desperate thugs: "Did you all hear that? The Boss said we're going to deliver warmth tonight! Whoever dares to hoard the 'warmth' instead of distributing it, I'll stuff him into a mortar tube and launch him out!"

"Roar—!"

A group of thugs let out a beastly roar; it was a craving for slaughter and money.

Widows Village.

The name sounded miserable, but in reality, it was one of the biggest dens of iniquity in San Verde. The "Bloody Hand Gang" that kidnapped Annie had turned this place into their base of operations.

Countless homeless women were locked in low shacks, forced to engage in the filthiest trades. And those gang members, like parasites, sucked their flesh and blood in exchange for alcohol and drugs.

"Bang!" A loud noise broke the deathly silence of the slum.

There was no tactical infiltration, nor was there any stealth.

A modified heavy bulldozer smashed directly through the gate of the Widows Village, which was patched together from scrap metal. Immediately after, blinding searchlight beams pierced the darkness like sharp swords, leaving those gang members, still lost in their drunken stupor, with nowhere to hide.

"Who is it?!"

"Cops? No, it's the military!"

"Grab your guns! Someone's crashing the place!"

Chaos erupted instantly.

The thugs of the Bloody Hand Gang scrambled out from the pile of women, pulling up their pants to find their guns. But before they could even touch those few rusty AK47s, despair had already descended.

"Da-da-da-da!"

Dense gunfire rang out like popping beans. That wasn't a normal firefight; it was a one-sided slaughter.

The guards wearing exoskeletons were simply a group of tireless killing machines. The hydraulic assistance allowed them to easily vault over two-meter-high obstacles, and the heavy bulletproof steel plates caused bullets from those homemade shotguns to bounce off as if they were just tickling them.

"Don't kill me! I surrender!"

A small leader hiding behind cover had just raised his hands when he was punched through the cover by the burly man known as "Iron Head."

Amidst flying bricks and stones, Iron Head grinned and shoved the gun barrel into the guy's mouth: "Surrender? The Boss said, tonight we only deliver warmth, we don't take prisoners!"

"Bang!" Brain matter splattered everywhere.

Annie leaned against the car window, staring fixedly at the battlefield filled with flames. Her small body was trembling, but in those eyes burned a pleasure called revenge.

"Don't watch for too long, or you'll have nightmares." Chen Yuan reached out and covered her eyes, his tone uncharacteristically gentle. "Tell me your mother's name and features."

"Helena... She has blonde hair, and there's a burn scar on the ring finger of her left hand." Annie's voice was choked with tears.

"Alice, go." Chen Yuan calmly ordered into the walkie-talkie, "Ten minutes, I want to see her."

"Understood."

In the darkness, a golden figure flashed by like a ghost.

Alice did not wear an exoskeleton; she didn't need that kind of burden. In the complex terrain of the slum, she was like a deadly wind; wherever she passed, she left only corpses with shattered throats.

Eight minutes later.

The gunfire gradually thinned out.

The once noisy Widows Village quieted down again, leaving only the wails of the wounded and the crackling of burning flames.

The door to a basement that reeked of mold and blood was kicked open.

Alice walked out carrying a blonde woman covered in wounds and dressed in rags. The woman was unconscious but was still tightly clutching a photo to her chest.

"Mom!" Annie screamed, rushing out of the car regardless of everything.

The scene of a mother and daughter reuniting was always touching; even a ruthless intelligence dealer like Victor couldn't help but wipe the corner of his eye.

But Chen Yuan didn't have time for sentimentality.

He stepped out of the car, treading on the shell casings and blood covering the ground, and walked into the Bloody Hand Gang's meeting hall like a king inspecting his territory.

This place was originally the gang leader's den of pleasure, but now it was a ruin. The brother of the scar-faced man who had been shouting in the street earlier was now kneeling on the ground like a dead dog, his crotch soaked in a large patch.

"Master... Master Chen..." He kowtowed like a pestle hitting a mortar, "I was blind and didn't recognize your greatness, please spare me! I don't want this territory anymore, it's all yours!"

"Territory?"

Chen Yuan looked around the foul-smelling slum, frowning in disgust. "What would I want with this garbage dump?"

"However..."

His gaze fell on the large crates in the corner that hadn't been moved away yet. They weren't ordinary wooden crates, but military supply boxes stamped with Russian text.

"Who gave those to you?" Chen Yuan pointed at the crates, his voice turning cold.

"It... it was a group of Russians!" The leader, desperate to survive, spilled everything. "They arrived a few days ago, gave me a large sum of money, and asked me to help kidnap that mother and daughter, and also to hide this shipment here. They said... they said they were waiting for some big operation."

"Russians?" Chen Yuan walked over and signaled for Iron Head to pry open the crate.

"Click." The lid flipped open.

Inside, there were no gold bars, nor were there any drugs.

Neatly stacked inside were rows of RPG-7 rocket launchers and several sets of what looked like very advanced individual communication equipment.

At the very bottom, there were even a few syringes stamped with a special mark.

That shade of blue was familiar to Chen Yuan.

It was... an unfinished genetic enhancement serum? Although it couldn't compare to the system's "Strength," it was definitely not something an ordinary gang could obtain.

"Interesting." Chen Yuan picked up a syringe and shook it under the light.

Equipment of this level, along with things clearly aimed at biochemical technology, could definitely not be produced by ordinary smugglers.

Behind this, there was the shadow of state power.

Or perhaps... some even larger capital behemoth.

"Boss, found it." Victor ran in, panting, holding the leader's mobile phone. "Call logs show the last contact was half an hour ago. The other party asked if the hostages were safe, and... the signal source is located in the industrial zone to the north."

"That area was recently bought by a newly registered 'Siberian Trading Company'."

Siberian Trading Company?

Chen Yuan sneered.

This name was so perfunctory; were they afraid people wouldn't know they were Russian bears?

"It seems the waters of San Verde are even murkier than I imagined." Chen Yuan tossed the syringe back into the crate and dusted off his hands.

"Clean this place up." He turned and walked out, his voice filled with an unquestionable dominance. "From today on, Widows Village is renamed. This is the second branch of the Umbrella Corporation."

"Since someone wants to play big, then we'll play along with them properly."

"Victor, notify Dr. Zola." Chen Yuan stopped, looked back at the Russian-made rocket launchers, and a cruel arc hooked at the corner of his mouth:

"Tell him to get those 'big guys' that just hatched in the lab ready."

"Our security team only has five hundred people, which is indeed a bit small."

"But if they aren't human..."

"Then it will be interesting."