The Ambush Begins

Observation Point No. 1, inside the secret monitoring room.

Guang Hongfang, the military training instructors, and the leading teachers from various institutions sat before a massive screen.

This screen was assembled from dozens of smaller panels, displaying footage from every corner of Observation Point No. 1.

The surveillance footage came from hidden cameras and the observation devices carried by the guards.

Bei Hao, the lone wolf, ran with all his might. The Tiantu University special ability holder, carrying his roommate, glided into the distance. Jing Shuai, using his Fire Body, charged through with his friends.

These individuals appeared on the screen, magnified in the center as key observation targets.

Guang Hongfang wore headphones, crossed his legs, and watched the surveillance footage with a slight smirk.

“Let’s begin!” He raised his hand. “Let these kids who don’t understand what war means get a taste of real severity.”

“Understood.” “Understood.”

Dozens of replies, devoid of any emotion, came through the earpiece. They were so perfectly synchronized that they produced a distorted effect.

****

Inside a tall building next to the male dormitory.

A guard lay on the ground, in front of him a sniper rifle so long it was absurd, topped with a massive flash suppressor.

The muzzle, along with the suppressor, protruded from the window, radiating a chilling cold in the moonlight.

He removed his left hand from the earpiece, held his breath, and adjusted the muzzle by a minuscule amount.

The crosshairs in the 1-8x scope, having calculated the lead, locked onto the figure of the special ability holder with the gliding dual wings.

His eyes were utterly devoid of emotion. He pulled the trigger sharply.

A faint white smoke emerged from the muzzle. The entire gun recoiled violently backward, the bipod kicking up a cloud of dust.

He himself slid back a little.

Bang!

A thunderclap tore across the sky.

The Tiantu University special ability holder, who had been flapping his wings triumphantly, suddenly erupted in visible blood blossoms.

Scalding blood stained his pure white wings, turning the feathers red and heavy.

He felt no pain at all.

He only felt his right side go numb, his wings becoming heavy and difficult to flap.

Flickering white dots appeared before his eyes, like a television with no signal.

Everything became blurry amid the flickering dots. The shouts of his companions in his ears quickly faded.

“Ren Tiangan, what’s wrong?”

“Ren Jian, hold on!”

“Bro, bro, hurry…”

Everything came to an abrupt halt. He lost consciousness, his right hand letting go.

The roommate he was carrying fell like dumplings into a pot.

He himself, like a kite with a broken string, spiraled downward toward the ground.

Seeing this, the guard moved his finger from the trigger, pressed his left hand to the earpiece, and reported with no emotional inflection: “Tiantu University’s Ren Tiangan, B-level special ability holder, shot down.”

****

He removed his left hand from the earpiece and pressed a button.

All the streetlights and building lights went out simultaneously.

Darkness surged like a tide, sweeping through the entire base.

Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh…

Along with the sound of winches working, black thick ropes, like tripwires, were pulled taut, rising from the ground of various streets.

In the darkness, black was the perfect camouflage for the thick ropes.

Bei Hao, who had been running so fast he left afterimages, immersed in the exhilaration of the roaring wind, noticed the lights go out but didn’t spot the rope in front of him.

His raised right foot snagged on the thick rope.

He instantly lost balance, fell to the ground, and rolled forward like a barrel.

The rope, hooked by his foot, was stretched and coiled around his body.

Even the winches at both ends of the street were pulled out.

Pain, pain, pain…

By the time he realized what had happened, he had multiple fractures and was in agony.

He looked up, wailing.

The next second, he saw a guard emerge from the darkness, coldly aiming a gun at him.

Before he could even utter the words to surrender.

Bang!

A flash of blood on his chest, and he lost consciousness.

****

The thunderclap from Ren Tiangan and his roommate falling from the sky had seized everyone’s attention.

Everyone immediately understood: the guards had made their move!

Jing Shuai located the sniper by sound and then, with his excellent eyesight, found the position through the gun barrel extending from the window.

He licked his lips, a flicker of excitement crossing his face. “I found the sniper. Follow me and take him out!”

“Alright!” His friends, already on the same boat, naturally followed his lead.

Jing Shuai turned, left the alley, and ran toward the three-story building where the sniper was hiding.

But just as he ran out of the alley, his pupils suddenly dilated. He quickly turned and shouted, “Don’t come out!”

But it was too late.

The moment the “action” command was issued, dozens of pitch-black figures emerged from every corner.

They carried uniquely large-caliber firearms.

The muzzles aimed at all the special ability holders on the streets, in the alleys, and even on the dormitory balconies.

Jing Shuai even saw someone in a building directly in front of the dormitory holding a gatling gun!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The sound of gunfire, unsuppressed, filled the sky.

Metal bullet chains tore through the night, precisely hitting every special ability holder in the guards’ field of vision.

Including Jing Shuai and his friends beside him.

In that single volley, nearly seventy percent of the hundreds of special ability holders who had just rushed out less than half a minute ago fell.

Pfft!

A sound like liquid splattering.

At the critical moment, Jing Shuai spread his arms and stood before his friends.

The bullets pierced his standard-issue uniform and struck his flesh.

His continuously activated [Fire Body] instantly turned the hit areas into blazing flames on contact.

The bullet heads passed through the flames.

The high heat triggered the liquid agents inside the bullets.

By the time the bullets hit Jing Shuai’s friends behind him, they had lost most of their kinetic energy.

And their tranquilizing effect was gone.

“Go! Too many!”

Jing Shuai shouted, turning around. His uniform was tattered, full of bullet holes and burn marks.

There were too many guards stationed outside, with too much firepower—completely different from what he had imagined.

If he charged directly, with his [Fire Body], he could certainly break through and even defeat a few guards.

But his friends would surely fall.

So he chose to avoid the sharp edge for now, intending to find the right moment to strike again.

‘It’s not that I’m afraid of you… it’s just strategy!’

Jing Shuai blustered in his heart, covering the rear alone, using [Fire Body] to continuously block incoming bullets.

The alley wasn’t long—just a gap between two buildings.

In seconds, he burst out of the alley.

And then saw five guards carrying white metal canisters on their backs, forming a loose semicircular encirclement centered on the alley exit.

His four friends stood stiffly at the exit, clearly terrified by the sudden appearance of the guards.

Jing Shuai instantly realized they had been caught dead. The tough words he was about to shout—”You’re too slow!”—were swallowed back.

“What are you doing? Use your abilities!”

The four snapped out of it in an instant—they had only been stunned for less than half a second—and immediately activated their abilities.

But within ten meters, abilities were fast, but guns were faster.

Deafening gunfire came from all directions. Four beautiful blood blossoms bloomed, carved into the darkness.

Thud!

The four collapsed to the ground without a word.

Some of them were body-reinforcement type special ability holders, but just as their abilities were activated, they were hit by ten bullets.

In an instant, their vision went black, and they fainted.

Seeing this, Jing Shuai’s eyes turned red.

His plan had not even begun. He hadn’t even had a chance to lead his friends to hunt the guards.

And it was all over!

“You’ve pissed off the wrong person!”

Jing Shuai sneered, his right hand tugging at his collar.

Under the high heat, his black uniform began to turn to ash inch by inch, starting from the collar.

Bare-chested, showing his strong upper body, he charged at the guards.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Bullets rained down, but he didn’t dodge. He let the bullets hit him, passing through his fire-incarnated body.

Grenades were thrown, but they had no effect either.

Turning his body into a blazing form, his waves brought high heat.

Apart from attacks imbued with void energy, any other attack was useless.

This was an extremely unreasonable ability, and it was why he had claimed the No. 1 spot in Sichuan Province, where experts were as numerous as trees.

“I’m going to knock every single one of you down!” Jing Shuai grinned fiercely, his face contorted.

He had already closed to within three meters of the guards.

At this moment, his eyes couldn’t even contain their reflections!

He clenched his right fist, ready to swing—considering inertia, he hadn’t brought a weapon.

Whoosh!

The five guards simultaneously pulled out a white grenade, pulled the pin, and tossed it.

“You’re so rigid, don’t you learn?”

Jing Shuai sneered coldly.

They had just tried grenades a moment ago, yet now, in desperation, they still used them!

He didn’t dodge, continuing forward.

He let the grenades land at his feet, let them explode and release white fog everywhere…

Wait!

This wasn’t a grenade!

Jing Shuai was suddenly startled. His brain, overheated with bloodlust and fury, regained a bit of reason.

But it was too late.

The white fog from the exploding grenades carried a terrifying chill. Upon contact with his body, it made a sizzling sound.

That was [Fire Blaze] being triggered by the low temperature, initiating a counteraction.

His void energy instantly drained like flowing water. Fortunately, he was still at the A-level innate void energy concentration.

This consumption was still bearable for now!

Realizing this, Jing Shuai’s heart relaxed slightly. He looked up, about to boast again.

But then he saw the five men simultaneously pull out spray guns coated in black paint.

The spray guns had tubes connecting to the iron canisters on the guards’ backs.

At that moment, Jing Shuai realized what was about to happen.

He gritted his teeth and continued charging. Retreating now meant only defeat, but charging still offered a glimmer of hope.

Pfft!

Five streams of white cold air sprayed out from the guns, turning into five white lines that landed on Jing Shuai.

Sizzle… A sound like hot oil sizzling rang out incessantly.

The vast void energy inside Jing Shuai instantly drained at a terrifying rate, like a broken dam.

In the blink of an eye, half was gone.

His charging pace slowed, his body grew weaker, until it was completely depleted.

Jing Shuai’s knees gave way, and he knelt to the ground. His ability [Fire Body] had already been deactivated.

He looked up, smiling bitterly.

His lips were blue, his teeth chattering from the cold, and two streams of snot hung from his nose.

“I got caught this time. There won’t be a next time.”

Bang!

After his final tough words, Jing Shuai collapsed to the ground, his bare chest covered with dirt.

“Report: Tiantu University’s Jing Shuai, A-level, apprehended.” The leader among the five pressed his earpiece.

“Good!”

In the monitoring room, Guang Hongfang laughed heartily.

Then he turned to look at the leading teacher from Tiantu University, Jing Shuai’s class advisor, and mocked, “Your Tiantu University’s A-level isn’t so impressive either.”

“Jing Shuai is impulsive and arrogant. Falling into the hands of a cunning old fox like you is inevitable.” Qiao Yan’s face turned ugly.

But Qiao Yan wasn’t the only one with an ugly expression. Several of the leading teachers from the institutions had sour faces.

From Jing Shuai’s defeat, it was clear that Guang Hongfang had thoroughly researched the abilities of the top students from each institution and had prepared countermeasures long in advance.

Otherwise, these rarely used cooling devices couldn’t have been prepared within two hours.

“When did you…” Qiao Yan couldn’t help asking.

“Ha, guess?”

Guang Hongfang didn’t answer. Instead, he turned to look at Yuan Fei, who sat in the corner in silence, and asked with a smile, “Professor Yuan, now let’s see if your dear S-level student can escape with their life.”

00:00:30, only half a minute past midnight.

On the rooftop of the female dormitory.

Two guards, already prepared for rappelling, held the rope with their left hands and guns in their right. Together, they leaped backward off the building, facing the ground.

From the rooftop to the sixth-floor window, it was only two meters.

The two professionally trained guards descended quickly.

One jump and one release, and they covered a meter.

In the blink of an eye, the large window of the 606 dormitory’s washroom area came into their view.

They pushed off the outer wall with their legs, released the descender with their right hands, and let the rope slide with a clatter.

Swinging sideways with the rope, they crashed into the glass window like a pendulum.

Then they curled up in midair, feet facing the window.

Their movements were identical, almost simultaneous, achieving a 99% synchronization rate.

The hard soles, with the momentum of the swing, smashed through the glass window.

At that instant,

They had already seen, through their helmet-mounted night vision, six figures in standard uniforms lying by the window near the corridor, apparently spying on the outside situation.

“Confirm Huang Shuo’s position!” Both thought simultaneously.

Crash!

The frosted glass shattered into pieces, scattering all over the floor.

The two guards rolled to the ground, absorbing the impact, while pulling flashbangs from their belts and throwing them outside.

They stood up, using the wall as cover. Their boots crunched on the glass.

Clatter…

The flashbangs bounced twice on the floor and then exploded violently.

Blinding white light, accompanied by a sharp noise loud enough to cause temporary deafness, erupted in the dormitory.

At the same time, the two guards leaned out and fired at the six graceful figures crouching with their heads covered.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

A storm of bullets rained down on the six.