Forty-Nine Doomsday Chapter 255: The Unexpected Responder

The location is right around here... Xun'an Town.

Standing on a low hill, Guan Tong gazed into the distance at the small town that had been destroyed in the earthquake.

Based on the login location of the "Dead End" account, he had pinpointed that the device was somewhere within this town.

This town, named "Xun'an," was located on the northern border. Guan Tong had traveled a considerable distance to get here from Pinglu, the western mountain city.

What he could confirm now was that the "Dead End" who had sent him a private message on the website was inside this town. As for whether "Big Sister" Jiang Lanying was there or not, he couldn't be sure yet.

Furthermore, from the previous tracking, he noticed that the work device used by "Dead End" was offline most of the time, only connecting to the inter when sending messages.

This suggested there might be electronic jamming equipment within the town, which was only temporarily deactivated when external communication was needed.

Whether this town was a trap, Guan Tong didn't know.

But now that he had come all this way, he definitely wouldn't leave without figuring things out.

"I'll just send Shadow in to scout first."

Just as Guan Tong was thinking this, his ears twitched, and he turned to look into the distance.

Squinting into the distance, he saw large helicopters flying towards this area from the horizon.

This put him on high alert, and he retreated to a hidden spot further away.

Then, under his watchful gaze, the helicopter landed a distance away from the town, and over a dozen personnel in full tactical gear emerged.

Could they be the contact people mentioned by "Dead End"?

Guan Tong felt something was off again.

That guy had said the contact people were from outside the country. If they were from abroad, why would they come from the south? They should be approaching from the north.

The dozen or so people disembarked from the aircraft and quickly advanced at a jogging pace. Judging by their speed, they were undoubtedly Ascendants.

Could they be an official pursuit team sent by the authorities?

Guan Tong speculated. For a figure of Jiang Lanying's level, having committed so many heinous crimes, the higher-ups would certainly not allow her to defect and continue harming the nation.

The squad rapidly closed in on the town, and Guan Tong also manipulated Shadow to follow them.

He planned to first understand the situation inside the town before taking personal action.

"Dragon Team, all communication devices have failed."

As soon as the squad led by Dragon Soul entered the town's vicinity, one member discovered this issue.

It wasn't just long-range communications; even medium and short-range radios and the like were all jammed.

"This isn't ordinary jamming equipment; it's likely the effect of some special Mind Power item," Dragon Soul judged.

"Everyone, spread out according to formation. Watch my hand signals for action."

Dragon Soul used hand signals to direct the action team. After advancing a distance into the town, he signaled to Chen Na.

Chen Na understood immediately, closed her eyes, and activated her ability.

Whoosh—

A special domain, invisible to the naked eye, unfolded.

The Perception Domain formed with Chen Na at its center rapidly expanded. Any living creature moving within the domain's range would absolutely not escape her perception.

Before long, she had a result.

Because the squad members were in a Team Formation state, she directly shared the information she perceived with her teammates.

In the next moment, everyone received a location marker.

At the two o'clock direction, over seven hundred meters away near a building, over a dozen people were active.

The number matched. It was confirmed to be the target and her subordinates.

Dragon Soul made hand signals for advance and flank. The squad immediately began moving towards the target's direction.

Meanwhile, after opening her eyes, Chen Na turned somewhat uncertainly to glance at a ruined wall corner not far behind her.

"What's wrong?" Silver Fox, who was always attentive to her condition, asked in a low voice as she followed beside her.

Chen Na shook her head uncertainly. "It's nothing. I think I might have been mistaken."

"Then let's go."

After the two left, from the corner Chen Na had glanced at, a mass of shadows slowly emerged.

Guan Tong, remotely controlling it, muttered to himself, "Did that person just sense Shadow's presence? So sharp... I need to keep Shadow further away."

Since Chen Na and the others were all wearing fully enclosed combat suits and helmets, Guan Tong didn't know that person was Chen Na.

He continued to manipulate Shadow to follow from a distance. Before long, he discovered the destination of this squad.

It was a bank in the northern part of the town.

This town had been destroyed by the earthquake months ago. Ruined walls and debris were everywhere, with only a few buildings still standing.

This bank was one of them. To be precise, it was the bank's vault that was still intact; the front hall and courtyard had collapsed.

At this moment, in the vault area, those short-haired women were gathered together, waiting.

Today was the day to meet the contact people and cross the border. Whenever the Commander gave the order, they would all leave this country together, not knowing if they would ever have a chance to return.

Among them was a woman who appeared calm on the surface but was inwardly anxious and irritable.

She was "Dead End."

She had secretly kept a miniature work device.

She knew that every time the Commander made phone contact with the contact people, she would temporarily stop using the signal jamming item. At those times, she would secretly use her hidden device to connect to the inter and contact Shadow on Ascendant Home.

Originally, she thought Shadow would agree to her proposal. But unexpectedly, ever since the last contact where she asked for a guarantee, Shadow had not replied to her.

She sent several more messages afterward but received no response.

This made her understand that Shadow would not provide her with a guarantee.

In that case, she certainly wouldn't reveal her location either.

However, this meant she knew she would have to defect and cross the border with the Commander, and this was not the outcome she desired.

The reason she chose to betray the Commander was because she wanted to survive. The deaths of Han Ling and others made her realize that for the Commander, they could become disposable pawns at any time if necessary.

Furthermore, the safest place in the world right now was Beixing. Leaving here to go abroad would mean facing the danger of global pursuit by Beixing's official forces on one hand, and the dangers of rules and the environment on the other.

This wasn't what she wanted, which was why she secretly contacted Shadow and the Administrator, hoping to gain bargaining chips for exoneration and survival by selling out the Commander.

But now it seemed this attempt had ended in failure.

Once they got outside, she could only...

"BZZZZZZ!!!"

"Pfft pfft pfft pfft pfft!"

Suddenly, a piercing buzzing sound accompanied by low yet dense gunfire erupted.

Stun grenades and suppressed rifles!

"Enemy attack!"

"Find cover, quick!"

"Protect the Commander!"

Several women on the periphery were shot down. The rest who reacted quickly immediately took cover inside the vault door.

Commander Jiang Lanying had been resting with her eyes closed. Hearing the commotion outside, her eyes snapped open.

Why today, of all days?

She glanced at the mechanical watch on her wrist. In ten more minutes, it would be the time for the contact people to arrive. She hadn't expected a disturbance to occur at this moment.

Then, a voice shouting through a megaphone came from outside.

"People inside the vault, listen up! We are a special pursuit team dispatched by the authorities. You are surrounded. Surrendering is your only option. If you resist, you will only be eliminated!"

It's Dragon Soul...

Hearing this voice, Jiang Lanying immediately recognized the speaker's identity. When she was still in her former position, she naturally had the authority to access information on several official Ascendant teams and was very familiar with Squad Dragon Soul.

"Commander, what should we do?"

Including Jiang Lanying, there were only nine people in the vault. Another five had already been taken down outside.

If the enemy was truly coming in force, holding this position wouldn't be easy.

"How did the enemy find this place?"

"We must protect the Commander and retreat!"

"What's all this panic?" Jiang Lanying said with a calm expression as she took out an item from her Storage Box. It looked like a bell.

"Stay within eight meters of me."

As soon as Jiang Lanying finished speaking, her subordinates immediately moved within her eight-meter radius. Then, she consumed Mind Power to activate it. The bell in her hand rapidly expanded, transforming into a semi-transparent, gigantic bell-shaped entity that enveloped everything within an eight-meter radius.

"With this bell, the outside cannot harm us for eight minutes."

After saying this, Jiang Lanying looked at her trusted subordinates and slowly spoke.

"Among you, someone has betrayed me."

Outside the vault.

The moment that semi-transparent bell shadow appeared, Dragon Soul immediately ordered an assault.

For a moment, all sorts of individual heavy firepower and powerful items were thrown in a covering attack, yet they were all blocked by that layer of bell shadow.

"Dragon Team, it looks like a barrier-type defensive item."

"Correct." Dragon Soul stared at the bell shadow. "Judging by its defensive strength, it should be a top-tier barrier tool."

Barrier-type items were rare to begin with, and top-tier ones were astonishingly expensive and seldom seen.

But before Jiang Lanying was exposed, she had used her identity and authority to obtain Ascension Coins through various channels. Coupled with the Qingmei Society's covert illegal accumulation, she had amassed a vast fortune in Ascension Coins.

Items that were astronomically expensive in the market for ordinary people were acceptable expenses for her.

Therefore, the number of top-tier items in her possession was certainly not just one, but many.

However, many top-tier items required high Mind Power consumption to use, so Dragon Soul and the others weren't overly intimidated.

"Barrier-type items generally have short durations and long cooldown times. We'll just wait for it to end," Dragon Soul said while asking, "Is the teleportation lockdown complete?"

"Complete." A young-sounding voice replied. He was holding a compass in his hand, its needle constantly spinning.

"As long as my compass needle keeps spinning, no teleportation-type items can be used within this area."

Enemies holing up and not coming out wasn't scary. What was troublesome was if they holed up while also using teleportation-type items to escape.

Considering this, this Action Team had specifically included this young man who possessed the "Lockdown Compass" item.

The ability of his compass item was to lock down teleportation. Once the compass needle started spinning, as long as his Mind Power wasn't depleted, no teleportation could occur within the area.

"Dragon Team, can we only wait until the barrier's time runs out?"

"That's right."

Dragon Soul ordered people to stay alert to the surroundings. He hadn't forgotten that the enemy might have reinforcements arriving.

Time passed second by second. The giant bell's phantom gradually weakened.

After about ten minutes, the phantom completely vanished.

At that moment, both groups inside and outside sprang into action simultaneously.

The team led by Dragon Soul charged the vault, while Jiang Lanying's subordinates actively fought their way out. The two sides immediately engaged in combat, with items and abilities flying amidst spilled blood.

The advantage of Dragon Soul's team lay in their professional Ascendant combat training and stronger individual capabilities.

The advantage of Jiang Lanying's subordinates was that each of them possessed a large number of high-lethality items and fought fearlessly, unafraid of death.

One short-haired woman, after being knocked down by a member of Dragon Soul's team, didn't beg for mercy in pain. Instead, she directly used a bomb item hidden in her clothes, instantly blowing both herself and her opponent to pieces!

Witnessing this from the sidelines, Chen Na was greatly shocked, finally understanding the meaning of the term "death warrior" that someone had mentioned on the plane.

Silver Fox, who was responsible for protecting her and also not participating in the combat, now wore an extremely serious expression, her eyes full of concern.

"Pfft!"

Dragon Soul used his exclusive Mind Power item, a triangular bayo, to kill the enemy before him.

He looked up. The few women who had charged out of the vault had all fallen. On his side, three had been killed and two were injured.

Now, Jiang Lanying walked out.

Only two girls remained by her side for close protection. On Dragon Soul's side, at least eight were still combat-capable. The difference in strength between the two sides was clear.

"Jiang Lanying, don't persist in futile resistance. It's meaningless," Dragon Soul said.

Jiang Lanying looked at Dragon Soul and the others with an expressionless face and spoke. "The signal jamming has been lifted. I want to contact your superiors."

Dragon Soul's heart stirred. He glanced at his wristwatch; there was indeed a signal notification.

"Captain, she's stalling for time. Don't pay attention. Take action directly."

Silver Fox's voice came through Dragon Soul's earpiece. He gave a slight nod and ordered, "Apprehend the target immediately."

Several people, including himself, charged forward together. Jiang Lanying glanced at the two subordinates beside her. One stepped forward to block, while the other suddenly turned and fled in the opposite direction!

This situation was unexpected even for Dragon Soul and the others. After the bloody battle earlier, they hadn't anticipated someone would choose to betray Jiang Lanying.

A flicker of surprise also passed through Jiang Lanying's own eyes as she looked at the woman's retreating back. "So you were the one who betrayed me..."

"Dead End" fled at full speed. Even before entering the vault, she had secretly placed her miniature work device on another person.

Therefore, inside the vault, when Jiang Lanying was searching for the betrayer, she escaped scrutiny, while another, completely unaware person was executed in her place.

Now, with no way out, that look from the Commander meant she wanted the last two to buy time.

But she didn't want to die at the hands of Dragon Soul's team!

Before fleeing, she used a speed-boosting item. In just a few breaths, she had already run over a hundred meters, her speed astonishing.

Dragon Soul's team, caught off guard, were momentarily stunned, allowing her to break out of the encirclement. However, they knew she couldn't escape, so they didn't give chase, prioritizing the mission to capture Jiang Lanying.

Jiang Lanying now had only one subordinate left to buy time for her, greatly reducing the effect. That woman held out for only about ten seconds before dying under the siege of Dragon Soul's squad.

With only Jiang Lanying left, it seemed she had no choice but to surrender. Even if she still had many items on hand, with insufficient Mind Power, she couldn't effectively use them no matter how many she had.

"Silver Fox sister, is the mission about to end?" Chen Na asked.

"Yes... Watch out!"

Silver Fox's expression suddenly changed drastically. She shoved Chen Na aside.

In the next instant, a black shadow flashed by. Her right arm instantly separated from her body and fell to the ground. After a brief pause, blood gushed forth!

"Silver Fox sister!" Chen Na screamed.

Dragon Soul, who was about to apprehend Jiang Lanying, was shocked upon hearing the scream in his earpiece. "What's going on?! Chen Na! Silver Fox!"

"Ah!!!"

"Enemy!"

"It's—"

Several screams rang out in succession. For a moment, Dragon Soul's mind went blank. When he regained his senses, he saw five team members had already fallen, turned into five corpses.

The perpetrator had now gracefully landed beside Jiang Lanying. A deathly pale face wore a cold, bloody smile. "Ms. Jiang, you didn't tell me that picking you up also meant fighting for you."

Jiang Lanying smiled. "I'll just pay you extra."

Dragon Soul looked at the tall man, at the pair of black wings on his back. A notorious name struck his mind like lightning, forced out from between his clenched teeth. "Lucifer... So the contact person is actually you..."