Sparks flew from the streetlights by the road, the screens on the outside of buildings lost power, and the lights went out, plunging everything into darkness; a chorus of screams emanated from within.
Several gang members at the entrance suddenly convulsed.
Their firearms crackled and sputtered, electricity spreading over the weapons and shocking their hands, causing them to cry out in pain.
"What’s happening..."
A gang member shouted in alarm, unaware that the catalyst for all of this was the stranger before them.
Then, everything before them blurred.
Ji Xinghuo appeared before them with a Flash Step, Thunderbolt Hand drawn.
Realization dawned on their faces, marked with horror, but the mechanical prosthetics implanted in their bodies were disrupted by the electromagnetic pulse, surges of electricity coursing through them, paralyzing and painful, leaving them incapable of any reaction.
The gleam of the blade flashed by like lightning.
In a single breath, the gang members guarding the entrance of the building lay on the ground.
As Ji Xinghuo walked past their bodies, he casually snatched an electromagnetic rifle, the classic Avenger-17 model.
This modified electromagnetic rifle had been fitted with an EMP protection kit, including a shielding grid, filter, and Zener diode, formulating a complete defense system that made the weapon heavy but unharmed under his own electromagnetic pulse.
Ji Xinghuo nodded to himself, holding the electromagnetic rifle in his left hand as he entered the interior of the building.
No sooner had he stepped in than a few people rushed toward him.
Ji Xinghuo opened fire before they could react, the rails of the electromagnetic rifle howling with electricity, firing off metal darts.
The group didn’t even see their assailant before their heads burst open.
Ji Xinghuo turned the barrel towards a side wall of the lobby, the bullets penetrating the walls and killing several enemies hiding behind it.
In his hands, the electromagnetic rifle became like the scythe of the Grim Reaper, wantonly reaping lives.
As he walked and fired, the first floor of the building was quickly emptied.
The members of Immortal City’s gang factions, each with their hands steeped in blood. Dark Tide Gang, notorious in Immortal City for its terrible reputation, was deeply indebted in blood; perhaps a few had some conscience, but not many. Ji Xinghuo had no qualms about killing them.
He arrived at the elevator doors, the entire building’s electrical system destroyed by the electromagnetic pulse, the elevators unusable.
The Thunderbolt Battle Blade slashed twice in a cross pattern.
An "X" shaped cut appeared on the elevator doors, and with a kick they were open, revealing the pitch-black elevator shaft plunging down more than a dozen floors.
Without hesitation, Ji Xinghuo jumped in.
In the dark, as Ji Xinghuo neared the bottom, he plunged the Thunderbolt Battle Blade into the wall of the shaft, slowing his descent.
He landed heavily on top of the elevator car, then exerted force under his feet and crashed through the metal ceiling into the car.
Electromagnetic induction didn’t allow for teleportation, but in Ji Xinghuo’s perception, he "saw" the elevator outside packed with people – dozens of mechanically-augmented gang members, armed with various weapons, sealing off the exit passage, ready to breach it.
He became aware of all this while in the process of jumping down.
The electric light at his fingertips had been gathering for several seconds.
A long-charged Thunderbolt Hand burst forth, and with a thunderous roar, lightning thicker than his arm pierced through the elevator doors and into the passage outside.
The blast of lightning deafened as it shot down the hallway.
In an instant, more than a dozen gang members were connected by the lightning, turned into charred corpses, with the parts hit by the lightning reduced to ashes.
The shockwaves of the lightning floored the remaining enemies, causing them to bleed from every orifice.
Ji Xinghuo fired through the elevator door.
Boom boom boom boom...
He emptied the electromagnetic rifle’s magazine in one breath, the elevator doors became scrap metal and fell, revealing a blood-drenched passage.
The heavily fortified fire defenses on this passage and the upper levels had all been destroyed by the electromagnetic pulse.
Ji Xinghuo walked out boldly, unimpeded.
In the darkness, he trod through fresh blood, picked up a new magazine, loaded it, and continued to fire.
Bullets pierced through walls, killing enemies hiding behind them or in rooms; each shot was a headshot without exception. No matter where they hid, no matter whether they had intentions to attack, if they were within the electromagnetic rifle’s lethal range, death was certain.
Mutants below the advanced level, even with mechanical enhancements, could not withstand a headshot from an electromagnetic rifle.
This was a unilateral massacre.
As Ji Xinghuo shot his enemies, he moved through the passage and the corridor, reaching a pitch-black hall, just as he ran out of bullets.
This hall was extremely luxuriously decorated, once filled with brilliant lights, the air still heavy with the scent of hallucinogens, alcohol, and hormones. Merely minutes ago, many of the gang’s upper echelons were indulging in pleasure, men and women lost in a world of ecstasy.
But now, only a group of women were hiding behind sofas and in the dark corners, trembling.
Ji Xinghuo reloaded with the freshly picked magazine.
"Gonsaz, will you come out on your own, or shall I invite you out?" Ji Xinghuo said directedly towards a wall of the hall.
He spoke in Common, his voice also modified, different from his original tone.
In Immortal City, many people had smart chips implanted in their brains, coming with built-in translation functions, so he believed that the General could understand.
However, only gunshot responses echoed to Ji Xinghuo.
He disappeared in an instant.
Almost at the same moment he vanished, the spot where he stood was riddled with bullets from all directions, and a plasma round fell, creating a massive explosion as countless plasma burst out, shooting high-temperature flames like a tornado sweeping through, turning the entire hall into ruins.