Chen Hao activated Invisibility and sprinted toward the main gate. Yang Bin circled around to the rear.
They'd agreed: two each.
Yang Bin reached the back gate in moments. Before the guards registered his presence, he teleported next to the Heavy Machine Gun, bent the barrel like a pipe cleaner, and tossed the whole thing off the wall.
"Who's there!?"
The guards spotted him instantly. Seeing their Heavy Machine Gun wrecked, one grabbed his rifle and opened fire.
The Tang Saber in Yang Bin's hand shot forward, punching clean through the man's throat.
But the gunfire shattered the base's silence.
People came running from every direction.
Yang Bin ignored them. He teleported away, found the second Heavy Machine Gun within seconds.
Another teleport. Another ruined barrel. Then he turned on the crowd rushing toward him.
On the other side...
Chen Hao materialized beside a Heavy Machine Gun and wrenched the barrel sideways.
A guard nearby stared, eyes bulging.
"What the- does this thing bend on its own?"
Chen Hao didn't spare him a glance. He shoved the gun off the wall and strolled toward the next one.
"What the fuck!"
The guard rubbed his eyes, face slack with disbelief.
Minutes later, the second Heavy Machine Gun was scrap.
With the guns dealt with, Chen Hao headed to the rooftop of a seven-story building - the tallest in the base - and settled in to wait.
Simple logic. If they deployed snipers, snipers needed high ground. All he had to do was sit here like a spider in its web.
Meanwhile, Yang Bin was already tearing through the base's defenders.
Credit where it was due - the Wang family had developed fast. Nearly every Evolver in the base had hit Tier 4, with a solid number of Tier-5 Evolvers mixed in.
Too bad none of that mattered against Yang Bin.
The Barbell Rod whipped through the air in wide arcs, dropping anyone who got close. Overhead, the Tang Saber danced on its own, carving through necks in rapid succession. Between the two, nothing touched him.
On the other side, Zhao Kun and the rest saw the chaos erupt inside and charged the base.
They hit the battlefield like a wrecking ball.
Zhao Kun's Metal Arms were pure slaughter incarnate, plowing a path through the defenders.
Zhong Yuansen buried people alive and kept reshaping the terrain - walls of earth erupting from nowhere, cutting off flanking routes, preventing any encirclement from forming.
Hu Wenliang's hands blazed with Dark Bolts, each one punching through anyone stupid enough to close the distance.
Using abilities without holding back felt incredible.
Sure, burning crystals for recovery was extravagant. But when you had crystals to spare, who gave a shit?
In a lavish room at the center of the base, Wang Zhenhu - the Wang family's third son and current base commander - was wondering why Wang Hui still hadn't returned.
Then came the frantic pounding at his door.
"What is it?"
"Third Master, we're under attack! Someone's broken into the base!"
Wang Zhenhu's stomach dropped. He yanked the door open.
"What happened!?"
"Third Master, they ambushed us - destroyed all our Heavy Machine Guns. They're inside the base right now, killing everyone in sight!"
"Where?"
"By the perimeter wall!"
"Move!"
The two rushed toward the wall.
Wang Zhenhu arrived at the scene and saw a young man surrounded by over a thousand fighters.
No. Correction. A young man was butchering over a thousand fighters.
"It's him!"
The moment he recognized the face, Wang Zhenhu's expression twisted. This was their assassination target.
If he was here, then Wang Hui's team had failed.
Wang Zhenhu's jaw clenched. All that preparation. All those resources. For nothing?
"Third Master, there are several more besides this one. We've got them surrounded too, but - they're too strong. They're all... Tier 6! Every single one of them is an ability user! Our people can't even get close!"
"What!? All Tier 6!?" Wang Zhenhu's eyes went wide.
He'd known this one was Tier 6 - that was old intel. But the rest of them too? That was a different equation entirely.
"It's true. All Tier 6. All ability users. Our Tier-5 Evolvers can't touch them!"
"......"
"Wang Hui and his men are dead." Wang Zhenhu exhaled slowly.
"Regular Evolvers can't handle this. Deploy the snipers. Heavy sniper rifles, Armor-Piercing Rounds. I refuse to believe they're unkillable." His voice hardened. "They dared attack our base? I'll make sure none of them leave alive."
"Yes, sir."
Within minutes, over a dozen men carrying sniper rifles scrambled up staircases across the base, spreading to various rooftops.
Two of them headed straight for the tallest building.
On the rooftop, Chen Hao had been watching the fight below with growing boredom. Then he heard footsteps on the stairs.
The corner of his mouth curled upward.
"Finally. Something to do."
The two snipers emerged onto the roof and immediately began assembling their rifles. Their hands moved with practiced efficiency - clearly professionals.
Seconds later, both rifles were assembled. They settled into position and started scanning for targets.
"Nice hands, you two. Real smooth."
The voice came from nowhere.
Both men flinched so hard their hands spasmed on their rifles.
Before they could turn to look, pain flared at their throats. Then nothing.
Chen Hao finished them off and picked up one of the sniper rifles, curiosity getting the better of him. He shouldered it, peered through the scope, and lined up a shot.
"Bang..."
His finger squeezed the trigger. The recoil nearly planted him on his ass - he hadn't braced for it at all.
Good thing he was strong enough to catch himself. Dignity preserved.
He'd fired partly out of curiosity. But the real reason was to signal Yang Bin and the others: enemy snipers were now in play.
Down below, an Evolver trying to slip away from the fight caught the round square in the ass. The Armor-Piercing Round blew through him like paper.
"AHHH-"
The man screamed, then howled in outrage: "Are you fucking kidding me!? I just wanted to back off a little! You need a sniper rifle for that!?"
Hearing the distinctive crack of a heavy rifle, Yang Bin, Zhao Kun, and the others immediately sharpened their awareness.
Across the base, the other snipers frowned at the premature shot.
"The hell was that? Way to tip them off."
Snipers lived by one-shot-one-kill. You didn't pull the trigger without certainty.
But complaining could wait.
They re-acquired their targets.
"Bang..."
One fired.
Zhao Kun had been tracking his surroundings mid-fight. A muzzle flash sparked in a distant window - his instincts screamed. He threw his arm up in front of his head.
"Ding..."
Metal shrieked against metal. The bullet slammed into his arm, throwing sparks.
Zhao Kun rocked back a step. His entire arm buzzed numb. But the skin held. No wound.
"Watch yourselves - these rounds hit hard!" Zhao Kun called out, voice tight.
"Got it."