So that was it. Kelte hadn't chosen to wait—he'd moved out early.
Zhang Wei slammed the table. "Damn it! Xiao Han helps them get classified intel, and those Hai Xia bastards just throw us to the wolves?"
But Xiao Han had seen it coming. His calm demeanour caught the others off guard. He spoke into the earpiece to Lin Yao and Lambet. "Stay undercover. Remember the mission, but keep yourselves safe. We're pulling out."
"Copy that."
Zhang Wei and Li Yalin wore grim expressions. The heavy truck was too close to the Raven Valley base. Now that the base was on high alert, throwing everything into defence, it wouldn't take long for someone to spot their tyre tracks.
No time to waste.
"Li Yalin—you're driving."
As a martial artist, she'd be useless firing from a moving vehicle. She didn't argue.
Xiao Han and Zhang Wei stayed in the cargo hold, ready to fight back.
Li Yalin accelerates the truck without hiding. The truck's engine roared, tyres kicking up dirt as it rumbled forward.
Then came the sound—a distant drone of engines that made everyone's gut clench. Xiao Han looked out the window. A swarm of Sprout armoured off-road vehicles was closing in, headlights cutting through the dusk. Dozens of them, each mounted with a machine gun on top.
"We are exposed." Zhang Wei's heart sank.
Xiao Han ignored the truck's violent swaying, yanking open the weapon crate. A chase was coming—no way around it.
"Yalin—faster!" Zhang Wei barked.
"I know!" Li Yalin gritted her teeth, shifting gears, pushing the engine to its limit. The heavy truck howled like a beast, massive tyres gouging deep tracks into the forest floor. The terrain was rough—hills, dirt paths, the whole works. The chassis's air suspension absorbed some of the impact, but the cargo hold still rattled like crazy.
Xiao Han peered through the rear window. The armoured vehicles were gaining.
"Can't you go any faster?!" Zhang Wei urged.
"It's a truck, not a bloody sports car!" Li Yalin snapped.
Xiao Han cut in. "There are four buttons next to the gearshift. Nitrous boost."
"You installed nitrous on a truck?!" Li Yalin's jaw dropped—then her eyes lit up. She reached for the button. Xiao Han stopped her just in time.
"We're still in the forest. You want to kill us? Wait until we hit the plains!"
*Rat-a-tat-tat-tat—*
The machine guns opened up. Muzzles flared. Rounds raked the treeline behind them. At this range, accuracy was shit, but sheer volume meant everything. Trees splintered. Stray bullets pinged off the truck's outer armour, sparking in the twilight.
Li Yalin glanced at her side mirror. The next second, it was gone—shattered by a stray round. She swore under her breath, wrestling the lumbering truck between trees, trying to dodge. The ride got even rougher. Her arse hurt just from the driver's seat. In the cargo hold, it was chaos—loose parts flying everywhere. Xiao Han scrambled to secure the equipment and weapon crates with locking straps.
In the corner, the two bound prisoners huddled together, trembling.
Dusk. Blood-red sun.
Dozens of armoured vehicles tore after a single black heavy truck. The chase raged on. The truck fled for its life. The pursuers closed in. Bullets shredded leaves, echoes ripping through the forest. The combined roar of so many engines sounded like a dragon on the hunt, weaving through the trees. Even the drifters in Raven's Wood Village, miles away, could hear the distant thunder. They stared toward the sound, bewildered.
Closer... closer!
Suddenly, the heavy truck burst from the treeline, crashing into Raven's Wood Village like a runaway rhino. It ploughed straight through a small building, reducing it to rubble in an instant. The reinforced front bumper was visibly bent.
The truck roared down the main street. Drifters scrambled, screaming, diving out of the way. Only after it passed did they dare lift their heads, staring after it in terror. Before they could even process what they'd seen, more armoured vehicles flooded into the village, pursuing without mercy. Buildings collapsed one after another. Debris everywhere.
Bullets flew. Drifters caught in the crossfire dropped, screaming. Blood painted the streets.
The last light of dusk faded. Night fell. The heavy truck finally broke free of the forest's edge, hitting open plains. The pursuing vehicles' headlights formed a river of light snaking across the vast landscape. Muzzle flashes became beacons in the dark.
Flat terrain. The armoured vehicles could close the gap faster now.
The distance shrank. Six hundred metres. Five hundred. Four hundred!
"Zhang Wei—suit up!"
Zhang Wei snapped to attention. He'd already geared up. The moment he activated the armour, he felt the difference. The exoskeleton powered his movements—no more strain. His HUD flickered to life, feeding him combat data, highlighting targets, and assisting aim.
His eyes went wide.
"This is insane!"
Xiao Han was slotting a high-explosive incendiary magazine into his sniper rifle. "Just the basic package," he said, unfazed.
Zhang Wei had only one thought: *That 360K was worth every penny.*
*Ping-ping-ping-pang—* The rattle of rounds against the truck's armour grew louder.
"Return fire!"
Xiao Han bellowed the order. Zhang Wei kicked open the cargo hold door without hesitation. The world opened up before him. His faceplate hid his snarling expression as he raised his twin triple-barrelled heavy machine guns—and opened fire with a roar.
"RRRRAT-TAT-TAT—!"
The ear-splitting chatter of sustained fire tore through the night. Muzzle flash lit up the hold. Spent casings were ejected, clinking and clattering to the floor. Heavy-calibre rounds streaked across the darkness like burning comets, slamming into the armoured convoy.
*Boom!* Two off-road vehicles lost their bulletproof windows. The men inside were shredded.
Flanking Zhang Wei's thighs, two long ammo belts snaked back to a full crate behind him. Xiao Han had prepped all of it—enough ammunition for the prototype Warrior Armour to let loose without restraint.
Dozens of armoured vehicles scattered, trying to evade Zhang Wei's barrage while returning fire with their roof-mounted machine guns.
But Zhang Wei stood firm in the cargo doorway, armour reinforced with Titanium-Platinum alloy by Xiao Han's hand. Rounds pinged off him; durability dropped, but slowly. He hoisted the hexagonal tower shield from his back, bracing it forward. Most of the incoming fire met that immovable slab.
Xiao Han shouldered his sniper rifle, picking targets. High-explosive incendiary rounds found their marks. Vehicles caught fire. Drivers panicked as fire gutted their engines. One by one, they stalled.
But more kept coming. The truck's outer armour was now a pincushion of bullet holes.
*Close enough.*
Xiao Han's eyes flickered. He dropped the sniper rifle and grabbed the crate holding his bamboo-copter delayed high-explosive mines. He hurled them out like they cost nothing. The delayed explosives skimmed the ground, sliding right under the pursuing vehicles before detonating.
*BOOM—!*
Armoured off-roaders were lifted from below. Momentum carried them forward, flipping a full one-eighty before landing roof-first, engulfed in flame. Fuel tanks ignited. Secondary explosions tore through what was left. Anyone inside was already dead.
His interface is flooded with kill notifications.
Every time he flipped a vehicle with a delayed mine, he bagged at least four to eight enemies. Add vehicle destruction XP, and each wreck was worth 5,000 to 7,000 points. He threw himself into it with gusto.
*Finally—those explosives come in handy!*
Xiao Han lost count of the bodies. After flipping another car, a new prompt appeared.
[[Direct Confrontation]Completed. You have earned 35,000 XP!]
"Agh!"
The scream jolted him back. He spun—the two prisoners had caught stray rounds. Dead.
*Shit. The prisoners are gone.*
The pursuing convoy's fire was thinning. What was left of them stared at the black truck in sheer terror.
*One truck. Just one—and it's taken out over twenty of our armoured vehicles.* It was insane.
Li Yalin's voice crackled through, sharp with excitement. "I see the Hai Xia army! They're ahead!"
Xiao Han looked out. In the darkness ahead, rows of Hai Xia military vehicles rolled toward them, lights blazing.
---
"Commander! Small-unit engagement ahead—friendly forces under pursuit!"
Kelte leaned into the feed from the command vehicle's cameras. His eyes widened.
A battered, bullet-ridden heavy truck was tearing across the plain, pursued by over twenty armoured off-roaders. But the trail behind it told the real story. Flipped vehicles lined their path, blazing like signal fires, one after another.
Kelte's mind raced.
*This Bureau 13 team's firepower is insane.*
A specialist team with heavy combat capability was rare. Small unit, high mobility, firepower rivalling a modern military company—that was ace unit territory. He suppressed his surprise, eyes narrowing as he watched.
Ye Fan, Wen Na—all of them stared, stunned.
*One truck holding off an entire convoy? Taking out half of them? What kind of firepower is that?!*
"That truck's taken at least a thousand rounds—and it's still moving!"
Punched full of holes, yet running like a dog let off the leash. It had to be heavily modified. They'd witnessed a grenade hit its armour. The plating was barely dented. Any normal vehicle would've been scrapped.
*What metal is that?!*
*It's rock solid!*
Even the Bureau 13 operatives were slack-jawed.
*When did Zhang Wei's team get this fierce?*
*Can one mechanic really boost a whole unit this much?!*