The agents acted with extreme caution and discretion, avoiding most pedestrians and disguising themselves well.
Even if the players anticipated someone coming to launch a surprise attack, they couldn’t check every corner, and the agents always found opportunities to eliminate the prisoners.
Because they were already aware that there might be a powerful hacker among the players, the counterintelligence department didn’t leave any trace of their operation on the network this time.
But Huang Ban still knew far too little about the players.
In the smoke they couldn’t see in the fiery night sky, a drone hovered quietly, overlooking the earth below. Googlᴇ search novelꞁire.net
In the corners of streets and alleys, small cube-like robots were bustling about, simultaneously performing surveillance tasks.
Even though Huang Ban’s hacker squad had preemptively invaded the city network, shielding street surveillance didn’t prevent them from leaving traces.
Combined with the intelligence leaked by internal military technology, finding the hidden agents wasn’t that difficult for the players.
And the most important point is
The players grew up under the tutelage of Huang Ban’s agents.
Everyone’s taught by the same master, how could you not expect what someone might be thinking?
Not to mention Brother Ni’s stealth skills have reached Mastery Level 3, probably even higher than these Huang Ban agents.
Yet Valerie in the counterintelligence department calmly issued orders
"Cloud Squad has been exposed; abandon the mission immediately, prepare for retreat operations, cover Cloud Squad in continuing the task."
On the rooftop, the agent who had been lying on the shooting platform immediately turned the muzzle, aimed the rocket launcher at Wildman, and pulled the trigger.
The fist-sized rocket flew with a fiery tail, but such means were barely enough for large targets, ultimately not sufficient against a group of cyborgs.
In the blink of an eye, Sianweistan’s Wildman slightly lifted a fist, gorilla arm hammering the side of the rocket, altering its flight path and causing it to explode in mid-air.
Though not as effortlessly graceful as a power-armored warrior, who could absorb hits without injury, evading subsonic weapons posed little problem.
The agents didn’t expect this to achieve anything; it was merely to buy time.
Within the second gained, they pulled out submachine guns and opened fire on the players, bullets like a torrent, but they vanished instantly, the wall behind them turned into honeycomb coal.
Sianweistan was really useful, but not everyone could afford it; this thing and Krenchikov demands and pressure towards nerve compatibility were overwhelmingly high, ordinary people couldn’t install it, let alone use it frequently, risking turning into a cyber-maniac, with users often appearing only among dozens.
But players didn’t care where it came from; good equipment had to be stuffed into their heads, and if they died, they’d replace it with new bodies, hence significantly advancing towards the realm of Cybertron mass.
Combat abilities soared accordingly with increased transformation and level, no worse than these agents trained for years, even a dozen years.
Cloud Squad’s captain Uesugi Ryoji used his modified arms to block Natural Curl’s fierce chop.
Natural Curl saw the opponent’s right arm only had its sleeve and synthetic skin cut open, with thickened arm bone barely scratched, somewhat surprised, yet angered.
"So tough, are you a turtle?"
With leg power coordinating the blade’s pressure forward, he shouted, swinging the Yanling Blade with shadows of seven or eight consecutive strikes, blocked by the opponent’s right arm from all directions.
Clang clang clang clang!!!
Amidst sounds like forging iron, both felt intense vibrations in their hands, one side’s tiger’s mouth numb, barely holding the knife handle, the other side’s arm’s shock absorbers near popping.
Whether the blade might break, Natural Curl didn’t care; he carried four or five blades, solely as consumables.
But players’ current cybernetic level still couldn’t match Huang Ban agents, continuous counter-shocks slowed his blade strokes, appearing gasping, Uesugi Ryoji’s eyes lit up, ready to seize fleeting opportunity to retaliate.
Once more deflecting a slash, he released both arms, fingers spread open, from his palm sprang a sharp straight knife, intending to stab the sword-raised Natural Curl.
However, he hadn’t expected that knocked-away Natural Curl spun using blade momentum, changing a downward slash to an upward swipe, not only dodging the stab but the chipped blade aimed straight at his face.
The jagged edge frightened Ryoji, his hair stood on end, immediately activating Sianweistan attempting to retreat, unexpectedly the opponent also activated simultaneously, no matter how he backed away, the blade endlessly approached like a specter, evading impossible, escaping unreachable, blocking untenable.
Where the blade passed, skin tore, large facial mechanical components ripped off with flesh clinging as strips, metal dentures visible, terribly frightful.
Having landed a blow, Natural Curl smugly discarded the broken long knife, drawing another from his back.
"Oh, elite enemy, that all?"
Ryoji, his face injured, ignored the taunts, observing the scene’s situation, the rooftop had descended into chaotic fighting, flames constantly igniting, like a demolition squad battling in disarray.
"I’m tied up by a little hacker..."