The sound, akin to a coin scraping an aluminum alloy bowl, kept echoing by Zhou Zhengde's ear.
He could hear his own rapid heartbeat.
Everything before his eyes was a blur, a sharp pain accompanied by a tearing sensation came from his abdomen, and Zhou Zhengde knew he had been hit by shrapnel. Although the anti-armor rocket had struck the vehicle in front of him, he was still injured.
Am I, am I going to die?
Zhou Zhengde's throat tried to make a sound, but his body was utterly devoid of strength, and his mouth was full of the taste of rust—that was the blood welling up.
With the sharp pain of a needle piercing into his skin, a cool liquid was injected into his vein.
Gunfire erupted around him.
In Zhou Zhengde's blurred vision, several nearby figures kept falling.
'Is the Black Fire Gang going to finish me off?'
Zhou Zhengde's vision flashed with the scene from just moments ago.
A truck that had suddenly emerged from a dark alleyway blocked the route of his convoy, and a rocket was fired directly at them, followed by a burst of intense gunfire from a three-story building next door.
Here he was, on Silver Party and Joyful City's turf, having hired elite enforcers from Silver Party and Joyful City to negotiate with the Black Fire Gang's boss, only to be ambushed by the Black Fire Gang?
Didn't the Black Fire Gang know who his backer was?
Zhou Zhengde suddenly froze.
Perhaps it was precisely because they knew, that the Black Fire Gang took this opportunity to kill him...
'Ah, the Thirteenth Institute.'
The Black Fire Gang was originally a subordinate of the Thirteenth Institute in No. 76 Fortress, providing them with test subjects... and he had overlooked this fact...
The injection quickly took effect.
Zhou Zhengde violently shook his head, his spirits lifted, the buzzing in his ears ceased, his blurred vision once again became clear, and even the pain coming from his abdomen subsided a great deal.
The young man in the light blue security uniform next to him, his assistant Lin Tao, was rapidly treating Zhou Zhengde's wound.
Several vehicles wrapped in thick steel plates formed a triangle to temporarily shield them.
Just a moment ago, there were over a dozen Silver Party Gang enforcers who had survived the initial rocket strike, but now only six remained;
They were fully suppressed by the intensive gunfire of a dozen Black Fire Gang enforcers holed up in the building next to the road, unable to raise their heads from behind the vehicles.
Assistant Lin Tao's lips were tightly pursed, his young face stern, as he used a disposable forceps to grip the shrapnel in Zhou Zhengde's abdominal wound and pulled it out with force.
Zhou Zhengde grunted in pain, biting down hard to avoid crying out.
Lin Tao immediately took out a thumb-sized spray from the medical kit and sprayed a thick mist on the wound, temporarily stopping the bleeding.
"Lin Tao, call for support..."
"The signal is jammed, captain!"
Lin Tao's voice betrayed his fear.
The sound of bullets hitting the vehicle's roof resonated, and the young man instinctively covered his head.
Zhou Zhengde drew his pistol from his waistband, gasping for breath with great effort.
The few Silver Party Gang brutes nearby continuously called for backup on their radios, to no avail, receiving no reply and left to wait for the Silver Party Gang to come on their own.
They tried to return fire, but, having not undergone professional military training, were almost instantly hit by the barrage of bullets as soon as they showed their heads.
The last six Silver Party members quickly dwindled down to four.
Zhou Zhengde looked around.
This was the main thoroughfare connecting the Entertainment District and the Casino District, and thanks to the previous explosion, which had affected Lower City's fragile and chaotic circuitry, the area was now in a blackout.
The three-story building to the north had lost power, looking like a motel, with its sign flickering on and off.
The three-story concrete building to the south appeared to be a fortress, with more than a dozen people occupying seven windows up and down, shining three high-powered searchlights in the middle of the road.
To the east, the extension of the main thoroughfare, a truck blocked the way ahead, with five or six Black Fire Gang gunmen behind the truck.
They were now fully suppressed by the enemy's 'L'-shaped field of fire.
Fighting back was simply not an option!
Zhou Zhengde, who had several years of military service and had experienced the frontlines beyond the basin, quickly made a somewhat desperate assessment.
It seemed like he was doomed.
Zhou Zhengde then calmed down, indifferent to the gunfire and bullets around him, and even managed a smile as he looked up and asked:
"Are you afraid of death, Lin Tao?"
"Afraid... not afraid!"
Lin Tao leaned against the door as hard as he could. Although he wanted to force a smile, it looked more like a painful grimace:
"Hanging around with the captain for two years, it was worth it."
"What's so worthwhile about it? Not dying before you're 60—that's not worth it."
Zhou Zhengde said with a bitter smile:
"It's just that I didn't think I wouldn't take you to die on the frontline, but instead would die in the darkest corner of this Fortress."
"Hold your gun tight, don't be afraid, chamber a round."
Lin Tao nodded vigorously, took a few deep breaths, pulled out his handgun, his fingers tensed around the trigger guard, and swiftly pulled back.
"They should only have one rocket, such a thing shouldn't be in Lower City."
Zhou Zhengde whispered:
"Haven't heard any sniper rifle shots, Black Fire's snipers must not be here, or haven't reached position yet... See that small building to the north?"
Lin Tao turned to look, what he saw at that moment was the motel building across a sewage ditch from the main road.
"Our only escape route is there."
Zhou Zhengde said in a low voice:
"I'm injured and can't run, I'll cover you later... Take the shortest path out of the range of their searchlights, then, don't look back, don't think about zigzagging, try to bend down and run forward, using the building for cover..."
"Captain!" Lin Tao called out tremblingly, "I'll carry you!"
"What's the point if both of us die here?"