139: Chapter 139 The Last Guardian

That wasn't a warning shot.

It was aimed straight for his life.

A lethal rain of bullets turned the river surface around Chen Xi into a churning boil.

The icy river water, mixed with the scent of gunpowder, drenched him from head to toe.

Yet, he didn't even blink.

He only slowly raised the [slingshot] in his hand.

To the group of Japanese Soldiers on the gunboat, this scene was filled with an absurd, farcical, and comedic tone.

A Longguo man, trembling under the artillery fire, held up a ridiculous child's toy, attempting to challenge a war machine forged of steel.

They burst into even more arrogant laughter.

The leading Sergeant even curled his lip in disdain and waved his hand at the machine gunner, signaling him not to waste any more bullets.

Crushing this ant was like crushing a bedbug on the side of the road; there was no rush.

What he enjoyed more was the other party's ugly display of despair and helplessness in the face of death.

At this moment, the bullet chat in the Livestream room also fell into an eerie silence, mixed with despair and a trace of absurd expectation.

[It's over... has Master Xi completely given up on treatment?]

[A slingshot against a gunboat? I admit you're brave, Master Xi, but can you please respect physics?]

[Why am I... why do I still have a little bit of expectation? Have I gone crazy?]

[Stop arguing! Everyone, watch closely! Every time Master Xi takes out an inconceivable prop, it's when a miracle happens!]

The sampan rocked violently in the waves created by the gunboat.

Chen Xi's feet, however, were as if rooted to the deck, steady as a rock.

His gaze was calm, without a single ripple.

On his retina, a stream of light blue data flashed by rapidly.

Wind speed, 3.2, Northwesterly.

Humidity, 85 percent.

Hull rocking frequency, 0.5 Hertz.

Target, distance 120 meters.

Movement speed, 15 knots.

He locked onto the first target.

The heavy machine gunner on the gunboat who was currently grinning malevolently.

His finger lightly pulled the [slingshot].

There was no sound.

There was no fire.

There wasn't even a trace of detectable energy fluctuation.

In the eyes of everyone, including the audience in the Livestream room, Chen Xi merely performed the action of drawing the slingshot and then letting go.

However, atop the gunboat.

The machine gunner's malevolent grin froze on his face, along with the smooth bloody hole that suddenly appeared in the center of his forehead.

The light in his eyes quickly dimmed, and his body went limp, slumping forward onto the scorching machine gun.

*Thud.*

A dull sound.

The laughter on the gunboat came to an abrupt halt.

All the Japanese Soldiers looked at their fallen comrade with expressions as if they had seen a ghost.

"What happened?"

"What's wrong with Sato-kun?"

"Did he get heatstroke?"

The leading Sergeant frowned and strode forward, pushing the dead machine gunner aside.

When he saw the clean, sharp bloody hole in the other's forehead, a chill instantly shot from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.

(Under attack?)

(From where? When?)

He jerked his head up and looked towards those dozens of small sampans on the distant river surface.

On a sampan, that Longguo man was still standing quietly.

The slingshot in his hand seemed not to have moved at all.

Impossible!

Absolutely impossible!

In the Sergeant's mind, he frantically denied this absurd thought.

In the instant he was dazed, Chen Xi fired the second shot.

This time, the target was the cockpit.

Another silent launch.

A tiny metal pellet, invisible to the naked eye, tore through the air at a speed several times faster than the speed of sound.

*Crack!*

The thickened glass of the cockpit, which was claimed to be able to withstand rifle fire, was instantly covered in spiderweb-like cracks, like an eggshell hit by a hammer.

In the center of the cracks was a smooth little hole.

Inside the cockpit, the helmsman's head was like a smashed watermelon, with red and white matter splattering all over the dashboard.

The gunboat, having lost control, began to draw eerie, out-of-control arcs on the river surface.

This time, everyone understood what was happening.

Fear, like a plague, instantly spread across the gunboat.

"Enemy attack!"

"There's a Sniper! On the opposite shore!"

"Take cover! Quickly, take cover!"

They scrambled in panic to find cover, no longer daring to expose their bodies.

They would rather believe that a super Sniper using an unheard-of weapon was hidden in the reed marshes on the opposite bank than believe that all of this was done by the man holding a slingshot.

Because that had already exceeded their cognitive range and entered the realm of gods and demons.

[Holy crap...]

[Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap! Silent sniping! This is a damn railgun, isn't it!]

[This is what you call a dimensional strike! (Tactical lean back)]

[Little Japs: Baka! This isn't scientific! You Longguo people don't follow the rules of martial arts, you're using magic!]

Chen Xi ignored the carnival in the bullet chat.

His gaze remained icy.

He knew that although the gunboat had lost its mobility, as long as the weapons on it remained, the threat was not eliminated.

He raised the [slingshot] and fired the final shot.

Target: the engine exhaust port at the stern.

High-explosive pellet.

The pellet accurately entered that dark, hollow exhaust port.

A second of dead silence.

Followed by.

*Boom—!*

A dull explosion sounded from within the gunboat.

A thick plume of black smoke mixed with fire shot up from the stern.

The entire gunboat shook violently once, then completely stalled, turning into a steel coffin floating on the river.

A paralyzed iron beast.

The survivors on the boat, seeing this miraculous scene, were already completely stunned.

Their mouths were wide open, yet they couldn't make a sound, only looking at the thin figure standing at the bow with the kind of gaze one would use for a deity.

However.

The crisis was not yet over.

On the gunboat, the surviving Japanese Soldiers, after a brief panic, erupted into a final madness.

They roared and rushed towards the spare small-caliber cannon on the deck.

Even if the engine was gone, as long as they could fire one shell, they could send those small sampans, along with the people on them, to the bottom of the river.

[Watch out! They're going to fire!]

[Master Xi! Quickly stop them!]

[There are no more pellets in the slingshot, right? What do we do now?]

The audience in the Livestream room once again had their hearts in their throats.

Chen Xi looked at those Japanese Soldiers who were frantically loading the shells and slowly lowered the [slingshot] in his hand.

He knew that the mission of the slingshot had ended.

He took out the last "toy" from the system space.

It was a prop disguised as an [Insect Specimen Box].

He opened the box.

Under everyone's confused gaze, an [Armed Swarm] disguised as a white river gull took flight from the box.

It looked no different from those river gulls seen everywhere on the river surface.

It gracefully circled once in the air.

Then, it flew unhurriedly towards the gunboat, which had already become a fixed target.

The Japanese on the gunboat were busy adjusting the cannon's muzzle, and no one noticed this ordinary little bird at all.

"Gull—"

The "river gull" let out a crisp cry.

It didn't attack anyone.

Instead, like a traveler who had found their home, it lightly landed on the edge of the open ammunition box filled with shells on the gunboat deck.

It tilted its head, curiously observing everything around it with its glass-bead-like eyes.

It was like a still, peaceful painting.

The next second.

The painting was torn to shreds.

*BOOM—!!!!!!!!!!!*

An earth-shattering roar, loud enough to tear eardrums, exploded on the river surface.

The "river gull," along with the entire ammunition box, was instantly swallowed by a dazzling, expanding fireball.

A chain reaction was ignited.

The terrifying explosion tore the entire gunboat apart from the middle, and countless pieces of burning steel were thrown hundreds of meters into the sky like scattered flowers.

The massive shockwave pressed a visible depression into the river surface.

Enormous waves spread frantically in all directions.

The sampan Chen Xi was on was thrown high by this wave and then fell heavily, nearly capsizing.

When everything settled.

Where was there any gunboat on the river?

Only some scattered, burning wreckage and circles of black ripples that lingered for a long time remained.

The final fireworks.

The final guardian.

On the boat, there was silence.

On the river, there was silence.

In the Livestream room, there was also a deathly silence.

After an unknown amount of time, a suppressed sob broke this dead silence.

Then, like a flash flood, came the cheers and cries of surviving the disaster.

[...]

[I declare, I give this firework a perfect score.]

[Art is an explosion.]

[Master Xi... the eternal God!]

Chen Xi didn't look back.

He just stood quietly at the bow, looking at those slowly sinking embers of judgment on the distant river surface.

A gust of river wind blew, carrying a bone-chilling cold.

Only then did he feel that his entire body had long been soaked by the icy river water and cold sweat.