Zhong Yuansen, his entire body clad in Earth Armor, stepped in front of the other two.
"I'll tank. You kill."
"Got it!"
The three threw themselves back into the fight.
Only now did they understand why the boss told them not to split up.
In a situation like this, separating would've been a death sentence.
On the rooftop, Chen Hao quickly locked onto the sniper who'd fired. The guy was posted up in a window across the way - a stationary target. Chen Hao propped up the second sniper rifle and lined up his shot.
Moving targets were a bitch to hit. But a guy sitting still in a window? That, he could work with.
The distance wasn't far either. Through the scope, the man's head was crystal clear.
Aim. Fire.
"Bang..."
The sniper - still scoped in on Zhao Kun's group below - caught a round through the skull.
A Barrett loaded with Armor-Piercing Rounds didn't leave much to the imagination. His head came apart like a smashed watermelon.
"Yes! Headshot!"
Chen Hao grinned. "Looks like I've got sniper potential after all."
But his excitement died fast.
He... didn't actually know how to chamber the next round.
Luckily, he'd never fired a sniper rifle, but he'd watched enough TV. After fumbling with the bolt for a moment, he figured it out.
The gunshot drew fury from the other snipers scattered across the base.
"Who the fuck is shooting randomly!?"
They were spread across different buildings with no line of sight on each other. None of them realized three of their own were already dead.
The dispersed positioning was meant for better coverage on the enemy.
Ironically, it also saved them - if they'd been grouped up, Chen Hao would've wiped them all in one sweep.
But scattered as they were, Chen Hao couldn't pinpoint their locations until they fired. He had to wait for muzzle flashes.
Which meant the danger below wasn't over yet.
Yang Bin and the others fought with one eye on the enemy and one eye on the surrounding high-rises.
At least they had the perimeter wall at their backs - no need to watch the rear. Only the front mattered.
Heavy sniper shots were loud as hell, but hearing the sound meant nothing. The bullet arrived before the noise did.
All they could do was watch. The instant a muzzle flash appeared, they had to move.
Yang Bin was carving through defenders at speed when a glint sparked in his peripheral vision. He activated True Vision Eye instantly - and saw a fat round screaming toward his skull at lightning speed.
Yang Bin snatched up the Barbell Rod and swung.
"Ding..."
A crisp metallic ring. The bullet deflected into the dirt.
"......"
In a fifth-floor window, a man stared at the scene below, his entire body going numb.
"What the fuck - he knocked away a sniper round!?"
Before the thought finished forming, a gunshot cracked from above.
He was dead before he hit the ground.
In Chen Hao's words: whoever fires, dies.
The remaining snipers were starting to sense something was very wrong.
One stray shot, fine. Two, maybe. But three "random" shots? That was a pattern.
"Is there a fucking spy among us?"
Unease crept in, but orders were orders. They still had a job to do.
"Bang..."
Another heavy round cracked out. This one found Zhong Yuansen's head.
Credit where it was due - the Wang family's snipers had skill. Nearly every shot targeted the head.
Zhong Yuansen had been moving the entire time, yet the shooter threaded the needle on a headshot. That took real ability.
The Earth Armor on his skull shattered on impact, but it bled off enough force that the bullet only carved a shallow gash across his scalp.
Hu Wenliang's hand was already moving, healing light washing over the wound.
"These rounds hit like a goddamn truck!" Zhong Yuansen said, lingering fear in his voice.
"Yeah. The real problem is we can't tell which direction they're shooting from. If we could, we'd dodge them easy with our reflexes."
"Just wait for Haozi to clean them up. Stay behind me - I can take it."
Zhong Yuansen's head re-coated itself in Earth Armor.
The sniper who'd landed that shot didn't even get time to marvel at his target's iron skull. Another crack echoed across the base.
His head exploded.
Chen Hao held the highest position in the entire compound. His field of view was unmatched. The moment anyone fired, their muzzle flash gave them away.
"Another one down," Chen Hao muttered. "Wonder how many are left."
He worked the bolt smoothly. "Getting the hang of this thing."
The surviving snipers felt their scalps prickle with dread.
They'd all seen it - the sniper who just fired, headshot a second later. When they looked toward the source of the kill shot, all they found were two sniper rifles propped on the rooftop.
No shooter. No one visible at all.
Fear sank its teeth in. None of them dared pull their triggers.
The gunfire went silent.
Below, Wang Zhenhu's face twisted with rage.
"What the hell are those snipers doing!? All those shots fired and not a single kill!?"
"Uh... hard to say. Probably missed. Tier-6 Evolvers aren't exactly easy targets."
"Tell them to pick up the pace! At this rate, we'll run out of men before they run out of stamina!"
"Third Master, should we send A Wang in?" The steward beside him spoke up.
Wang Zhenhu's brow furrowed.
"A Wang's ability is strong, but he's only peak Tier 5. These people are all Tier 6. Sending him up there is sending him to die."
"The Tier-6 zombie we cultivated last night - its crystal hasn't been used yet. What if we-"
Wang Zhenhu's gaze turned cold. "That crystal is reserved for Big Brother. I haven't even dared touch it, and you want to use it!?"
"I wouldn't presume. It's just... this seems like the only option. Otherwise, they're going to tear this base apart."
"Hmph. They'd need the ability first. We've got over ten thousand Evolvers in this base. We'll grind them down through sheer numbers!"
"...Alright." The steward shook his head but said nothing more.
"Send someone to check on those snipers. Tell them to get back to work. Now."
"Yes, sir."
Moments later, gunfire resumed.
Orders from above. They had no choice but to shoot.
But Zhao Kun's group and Yang Bin alike stayed razor-alert, eyes scanning every window and rooftop.
The instant a muzzle flashed, they reacted.
Zhao Kun took one round in the thigh. Every other bullet slammed into Zhong Yuansen's Earth Armor and stopped dead.
Yang Bin's side was even less of a contest. His eyes were radar. As long as the shot didn't come from directly behind him, he caught the flash, tracked the round, and swatted it out of the air with the Barbell Rod.
But every shot the snipers fired gave away their position.
Chen Hao picked them off one after another. The survivors made the smart call - they stowed their rifles and ran.
Too late.
Chen Hao had already locked onto their silhouettes. He activated Invisibility and gave chase.
Minutes later, nearly every remaining sniper lay dead with a dagger wound they never saw coming.
Chen Hao collected their rifles, hauled the whole arsenal up to the rooftop, and arranged them in a neat row.
Then he went prone, scope to his eye, and started picking off targets below.
He'd discovered something about himself.
He really liked sniping people.