Guan Tong did exactly as he said, he didn't spare a single member of the base's management.
After leaving Liu Yuqiang's room, he went into several different department offices in sequence and eliminated everyone inside.
Now he had come to the squad dormitory area.
Before Liu Yuqiang committed suicide, he had said that these former business tycoons, once the country entered a wartime state, had lost their value.
Because the factories and other assets they once owned were all taken over by the authorities to guarantee the highest-priority production for the people's survival.
Losing factories, losing connections and resources, how could these people, most of them in their fifties or sixties moving into old age, compare in value under the Doomsday Rules to the young and able-bodied?
So Liu Yuqiang said that the elders of the Qingmei Society were no longer valued by Big Sister. What Big Sister was now focusing on cultivating were Ascendant squads selected through recruitment.
Chen Na was one of them.
Guan Tong stood at the entrance to the squad dormitory area, thinking about Chen Na and the teammates she had mentioned.
The one he cared about most was that youth named Jiang Ming.
Chen Na had said Jiang Ming could absorb other people's Mind Power and physical strength, which meant the Shadow's attacks might not be effective. And from what happened against Han Ling, it was further confirmed that his Shadow was not omnipotent.
If someone possessed a defensive item that could resist Mind Power attacks, then the Shadow's infiltration and strikes would be nullified. After all, whether physicalized or not, the Shadow was fundamentally a product of Mind Power.
So dealing with people like that, relying on Mind Power might not be the best approach. Better to use a man-made cleaver, or…
Guan Tong looked at the handgun in his right hand.
It was the gun Liu Yuqiang had used to commit suicide; there were still several bullets left, enough.
He walked into the squad dormitory area and first went to the room where Chen Na was, the outermost one in the corridor, and gently knocked.
Chen Na opened the door. Seeing the unfamiliar woman standing there, she froze for a moment, then realization hit and surprise showed on her face.
"Could you be… that Administrator sister?"
"It's me."
"Ah…"
Chen Na could hardly believe it. After talking with Guan Tong she had known he might come to help, but she hadn't expected him to arrive so quickly.
And she couldn't figure out how Guan Tong had entered this heavily guarded base and found her.
"Chen Na, stay in your room and don't come out. I'll clear the base threats and then come get you."
"But—"
Suddenly a sharp voice rang out: "The base has actually been invaded, it seems it's not as safe as I thought."
Guan Tong turned toward the source of the voice. Standing deeper in the corridor, wearing headphones, was the youth with a cold expression.
"Jiang Ming!" Chen Na cried, "How did you—"
Guan Tong was also curious how Jiang Ming had detected him as an intruder; he probably had some sensing device.
Jiang Ming said indifferently, "Chen Na, you betrayed the organization, you should know the consequences, right?"
"I…"
"You go inside first."
Guan Tong pushed Chen Na back into her room and shut the door.
Then he took Silver Hunt from the Storage Ring on his left hand, pulled the trigger, and fired several shots.
Ssssss—
Thick smoke quickly spread and filled the entire corridor, leaving everything shrouded and unclear.
It was the Type 4 smoke grenade effect of Silver Hunt.
"It seems Chen Na already leaked my intel to you, the intruder," Jiang Ming said, looking at the smoke ahead, "so you made smoke to avoid eye contact and stop me from absorbing your Mind Power and physical strength."
Guan Tong was inside the fog; he could see through the Shadow's vision.
He ignored Jiang Ming's words and first maneuvered a shadow line to quickly approach Jiang Ming to attempt an attack.
However, once the shadow line touched Jiang Ming's body, it immediately lost its offensive nature, as if absorbed and detached from Guan Tong's control.
This confirmed Guan Tong's suspicion: this Jiang Ming not only actively absorbed via eye contact, he could also passively absorb Mind Power attacks… a truly formidable ability.
Jiang Ming didn't waste words; he activated his ability and his pupils instantly shifted from black to white.
A large amount of Mind Power condensed into white radiance shot out from his pupils, spreading forward and covering the whole corridor in an area attack.
Guan Tong channeled Mind Power and formed a thick physical shadow wall in front of him.
The white radiance hitting the front of that wall was blocked, but the rays behind showed signs of breaking through.
Guan Tong was somewhat surprised. The physicalization of that shadow wall had consumed a full 100 points of Mind Power, already tapping into his reserve Mind Power.
If Jiang Ming's Mind Power attack could perate this wall, either his attack had extremely high destructive force, like Lucifer's Fallen Angel Wings, or he was using far more Mind Power.
Guan Tong thought for a moment, then fired an EMP round from Silver Hunt to cut communications in the area. He then took out the Corpse Whistle and summoned several living dead, who squeezed together as meat shields behind the shadow wall to intercept the perating white radiance.
Jiang Ming's attack lasted about ten seconds. After his pupils shifted back to black, although the smoke still made it hard to see the enemy, he felt in his heart that the fight was over.
His Mind Power Inch Rays were powerful and wide-ranging; no enemy had ever held out more than five seconds. He had just released them for ten seconds against this intruder, which should have been enough to finish them.
As Jiang Ming thought this, he suddenly received a notification from a sensing device and turned his head.
Bang bang bang bang!
Four bullets whizzed past his face. Three missed cleanly, but the fourth cracked and shattered the headphones he had been wearing.
He stared at the broken headphones on the floor in slight astonishment; his formerly indifferent expression warped into rage.
"Die!"
He lunged forward in a single step and kept drawing defensive-type items to avoid further non-Mind Power damage.
Guan Tong watched Jiang Ming suddenly go berserk and wondered what had triggered him—were those headphones that important?
The few shots just now had proved Jiang Ming had some early-warning countermeasure; otherwise he would have been shot in the head.
Seeing Jiang Ming charge toward him, Guan Tong knew this guy intended to use his ability traits to force a close-quarters fight.
He first ordered the remaining living dead to engage.
Halfway through his charge, Jiang Ming saw several living dead crawl out of the smoke and claw at him. His pupils narrowed.
"Smoke creation, summoning living dead, and that black stealth attack I absorbed earlier… are you the Shadow?"
After the battle on Holy Grail Island, Guan Tong's Shadow ability, smoke and explosion capabilities, and the ability to summon living dead had all been exposed.
Anyone paying attention to him would know these things. So seeing such a full set of "Shadow elements," Jiang Ming immediately made his identity judgment.
The living dead pounced on Jiang Ming, and to Guan Tong's surprise, those creatures' bodies rapidly shriveled as if drained dry.
Jiang Ming, briefly impeded, sneered, "Shadow, useless. I can infinitely absorb all types of Mind Power attacks, your attacks are useless to me."
Guan Tong frowned slightly at that.
He didn't believe Jiang Ming's claim. If an Ascendant could truly absorb Mind Power attacks infinitely, that person would be nearly invincible among Ascendants.
If such an existence existed, why hadn't he taken part in seizing the Holy Grail? With that invincibility, he could just absorb indefinitely in battle and win; even Guan Tong's infinite Mind Power buff would be meaningless.
Half-truths are the most effective lies.
Jiang Ming could absorb Mind Power attacks, that was true, but "infinite absorption" was something only he claimed.
Having realized this, Guan Tong stopped holding back his Mind Power.
He instantly drew as many as 500 points from his reserve Mind Power and used his Greataxe Warrior Hoodie item to summon a Greataxe Warrior.
Unlike the fixed-cost living dead, the more Mind Power invested when summoning this Greataxe Warrior, the stronger it would be in battle.
The armored warrior wielding a massive axe appeared and immediately advanced on Guan Tong's command.
It met Jiang Ming quickly in the fog and swung its axe!
Jiang Ming, seeing the Greataxe Warrior, snorted coldly, "Not bad, you have summoned quite a few things. But as I said, as long as it's Mind Power—"
His face abruptly changed as the axe landed on him!
Crack!
A defensive item on him shattered, and Jiang Ming retreated immediately, astonished.
Guan Tong's Shadow vision also confirmed this time Jiang Ming had not absorbed the Greataxe Warrior's attack!
"How is this possible?" Jiang Ming muttered incredulously, "I should be able to absorb anything that does not exceed twice my Mind Power upper limit… could this summoned creature—"
His voice dropped low, but Guan Tong, using a Shadow lurking near his feet, eavesdropped and caught the crucial detail.
So that's it…
Jiang Ming could only absorb attacks not exceeding twice his own Mind Power upper limit; that was the limitation of his absorption ability.
Guan Tong thought that if this guy's Mind Power upper limit was 100 points, then any attack containing more than 200 points of Mind Power could not be absorbed.
Earlier shadow lines and the summoned living dead had consumed very little Mind Power, which is why they couldn't harm Jiang Ming.
But the Greataxe Warrior was different: Guan Tong had invested a full 500 points of reserve Mind Power to summon it—no matter how high Jiang Ming's upper limit was, he could not possibly have 250 points at this stage, so he could not absorb the Greataxe Warrior's attacks.
Once Guan Tong understood Jiang Ming's absorption mechanism, he relaxed. He commanded the Greataxe Warrior to slash at Jiang Ming relentlessly!
A 500-point Greataxe Warrior moved faster than ordinary humans, and its huge swinging range meant Jiang Ming had nowhere to dodge in the narrow corridor.
Forced to retreat again and again, Jiang Ming had his defensive items used and destroyed one after another; if not for those items, he would have long since been cut down by the greataxe.
"Damn it…"
After consuming his last defensive item and seeing the Greataxe Warrior still active, Jiang Ming resolved to destroy it.
His pupils flashed from black to white, intending to release Mind Power Inch Rays.
But the Shadow that had been trailing at his feet had already discovered the secret of "black pupils absorb, white pupils release." At the instant his pupils turned white, Guan Tong's mind flicked.
The Shadow at Jiang Ming's feet immediately crawled up his legs.
Crap!
Jiang Ming detected it through his sensing device and, on the brink between life and death, was forced to use his final trump card.
A mirror suddenly appeared in his right hand, and a burst of blue light blossomed from it, enveloping and drawing his body inside.
Pfft—!
At the last moment, Guan Tong turned the Shadow that had climbed Jiang Ming's legs into a sharp Shadow Blade to slice.
After the mirror's light flashed, Jiang Ming was gone, leaving only his severed legs and the shattered mirror on the floor…
"There's even a teleportation-type item, huh, tsk."
Only leaving two legs behind and failing to kill Jiang Ming left Guan Tong a little regretful. This guy's ability was indeed troublesome; there would likely be another fight in the future.
But there was no time to worry about that now. The skirmish between him and Jiang Ming, though not extremely fierce, had been enough to draw attention in the squad dormitory area.
Besides Chen Na, the squad's other two members, Gu Fei and Chu Xiaoyuan, came out of their rooms.
Seeing the corridor filled with dense fog and the smell of blood, they immediately knew something was wrong.
At that moment, a shrill alarm sounded throughout the Qingmei Base.
"Warning! The base has been invaded!"
Guan Tong was slightly surprised—what had triggered the alarm?
Could it be because Jiang Ming teleported away?
He thought it very likely that Jiang Ming, after teleporting, had immediately contacted relevant base personnel and set off the alarm.
"If that's the case, then let's finish this quickly," he said.
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