The First Order

This time, it was the shadow clone that became the main fighting force of the battle. A dozen Experimentals had surrounded the shadow clone, but they were not in a hurry to attack.Among the Experimentals, one of its leaders let out a hoarse roar. It was apparently communicating with its companions on how to deal with the “human” in front of them.

These creatures had departed from the normal speech of humans. They were communicating more like beasts with one another.

But while the Experimentals did not make a move, the shadow clone did.

Seeing that more and more Experimentals were emerging from the underground tunnel, if they weren’t immediately taken care of, their numbers aboveground would only start increasing.

These dozen or so Experimentals were clearly just stalling for time so their companions at the back could join them on the surface.

The shadow clone leaped up and flew straight over the head of an Experimental and towards the exit of the underground tunnel.

When that Experimental saw they could not stall the shadow clone, it tried to tangle up the shadow clone in midair with tooth and claw. But to its surprise, the shadow clone seemed to have expected it to make a move and slashed back at it.

The black saber sliced through the howling wind with a buzzing sound. Before the Experimental could even make contact with the shadow clone’s body, it was severed in half!

The shadow clone did not stop moving. The moment it landed on the ground, it rushed straight for the underground tunnel. The Experimentals that were charging towards the center of the stronghold behind the shadow clone immediately went after it. They wanted to guard the underground tunnel’s exit for the other Experimentals so they could come aboveground safely!

This seemed to be an irrevocable order given by that intelligent being among them.

Six Experimentals went to higher ground and pounced at the shadow clone from behind. Although their appearances were like humans, their crawling motions and gray skin made them look like huge spiders. They were extremely weird-looking.

Just as the Experimentals behind were about to lunge at the shadow clone from above, the shadow clone suddenly bent over and avoided their pursuit by sliding away.

One of the Experimentals was just about to exit from the underground tunnel when it saw a figure sliding on the ground. With a slice, its head was cut off.

The Experimental’s body fell limply back into the tunnel and onto its companions that were preparing to emerge from the ground.

The Experimental below let out an angry roar as it pushed its companion’s corpse aside. Just as it tried to exit the tunnel, its head was pierced by a black saber that suddenly appeared above it.

In just a short moment, four Experimentals had died to that black saber. That black saber was so sharp it could even penetrate the bodies of the Experimentals when bullets could not.

The bodies of these four Experimentals were blocking the tunnel exit while the shadow clone stood on top of their corpses. Listening to the indignant roars of the Experimentals that were stuck in the tunnel, the shadow clone turned its “gaze” to the Experimentals aboveground.

The Experimentals on the street that had surrounded the shadow clone looked at the unfeeling white mask and black saber dripping with a murky liquid. All of a sudden, they felt a little scared.

The human before them was capable of killing them like he was cutting grass. If he were outside the stronghold, they could easily kill him by outnumbering him. However, there were only eight or nine Experimentals inside the stronghold right now. As such, they actually felt they were the weaker side.

In the blink of an eye, this human had single-handedly stopped the final trump card in their wave of attacks on the stronghold.

Old Li and the others saw this scene from the edge of the stronghold walls. In a brief glimpse, they saw the shadow clone facing all the Experimentals alone and even managing to seal off the tunnel.

Qin Sheng looked at the back of the “human” and suddenly felt the other party emanated an aura of invincibility.

Killing the Experimentals was nothing surprising, but scaring them to the point of not daring to make a move was not something that just anyone could achieve.

From the beginning to the end, Ren Xiaosu did not participate in the battle personally. That was because it was enough for him to have the shadow clone fight on his behalf. Meanwhile, he was lying on the roof of a tall building in the distance where he could fire his sniper rifle at any moment.

However, Ren Xiaosu did not act rashly. His shadow clone was enough to deal with these Experimentals. If he were to casually fire a shot and reveal the presence of a sniper here, it would be very easy for the Anjing House or the Pyro Company to associate it with Zhou Yingxue.

But that would still be very unlikely.

If it really became necessary for him to take a shot, Ren Xiaosu would no longer care whether his actions would reveal anything.

Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu saw a young man rush against the flow of the crowd and towards the battlefield.

That person’s stride was delicate, and it did not look like he was a supernatural being. In fact, he might not have even gone through any physical training before, so after running for a while, he started panting heavily. Breathing in such a way could easily hurt the lungs.

There was a camera hanging from the young man’s neck as well as a dark blue badge. Ren Xiaosu could not see what was written on it, but he could guess the young man was probably a reporter.

The stronghold residents now understood the kinds of monsters they were facing. They had been complaining about how the Zhou Consortium had mobilized a large number of forces to tear down many of the residences in the city and built defensive fortifications in their place. They had even conscripted all of the adult men into the army, with only a small number of them escaping the call-ups. This made the residents of the stronghold very unhappy at that time.

But when they personally saw how easily the Experimentals could tear apart humans, they finally recognized what the Zhou Consortium troops did from the bottom of their hearts. Only when their own interests and lives were threatened did they understand the significance of the Zhou Consortium troops.

But while the residents were fleeing in a panic, a reporter was actually rushing towards the scene of the battle just so he could gather firsthand news to report about. Ren Xiaosu did not quite understand what went through the minds of these reporters.

A moment later, the Experimentals in the underground tunnel seemingly retreated. Meanwhile, the Experimentals facing the shadow clone suddenly tried to escape. They turned around and got far away from the shadow clone, the Experimentals running to a manhole cover. One of them stretched out its gray hands and tried to pull open the manhole cover to get into the sewers.

However, the manhole cover did not budge!

If not for the fact that the Zhou Consortium troops had already welded the manhole covers shut in advance and stopped these Experimentals from escaping into the sewers, their presence in the stronghold would probably contribute to extreme instability later on. Who knew what they would do after they got back out?

If the Experimentals hid in the sewers and escaped separately, not even the shadow clone could catch up to all of them.

The direction where the Experimentals were escaping towards was where that young reporter was standing. There were not many residents around that reporter anymore as everyone had already fled.

He stood in a daze on the street and stopped in his tracks. When the young reporter saw the Experimentals surrounding the manhole cover, he was astonished. But his reporter’s instinct kicked in, and he kept pressing the shutter button of the camera he was holding.

Behind those Experimentals, the shadow clone had come chasing after them. The white mask the shadow clone was wearing looked extremely out of place in the camera’s viewfinder. The calm expression on the mask seemed to form a stark contrast with the fleeing Experimentals.

Of course, the welded manhole covers could not stop the Experimentals. They used their arms to break the manhole cover apart. But just after they escaped inside, an explosion came from the sewers. Ren Xiaosu had used Shadow Door to cast ten grenades beneath the manhole and forcefully blow them back up to the surface.

But they were still intact Experimentals when they went in. By the time they were blown back out, they had turned into fragmented pieces of Experimentals.

Only at this moment did the Zhou Consortium’s emergency response force in the stronghold arrive.