[The host has eliminated 17 enemy targets, including nine High-Threat Targets, earning 2,343 Resource Points. The Resource Point Cap has been reached. Spend 200 Resource Points to unlock the Resource Point Cap?]
“Yes,” Nate answered silently.
[Resource Point Cap unlocked. New Trait slot obtained. Available Trait slots: 2]
[Current Resource Points: 2,183/4,000]
[Traits Acquired:]
[Iron Severing (Lv. 4): Blade damage increased by 200%. Damage against metal objects doubled. (13/15 blade kills)]
[Flying Star (Lv. 3): Projectile speed increased by 90%; accuracy correction within 20 meters. (10/10 kills with thrown objects) Upgradable. Cost: 500 Resource Points]
[Eagle Eye (Lv. 1): Vision increased by 30%. (10/5 kills with firearms) Upgradable. Cost: 100 Resource Points]
“Dump points into them!”
[Traits upgraded. Current Resource Points: 1,583/4,000]
[Flying Star (Lv. 4): Projectile speed increased by 120%; accuracy correction within 25 meters. (0/15)]
[Eagle Eye (Lv. 2): Vision increased by 50%; firearm proficiency increased by 20%. (5/7)]
A warm sensation surged through Nate’s eyes, and his vision became noticeably sharper.
Scattered bits of firearms knowledge also surfaced in his mind, and the rifle in his hands suddenly felt more natural and familiar.
Nate slung the assault rifle over his shoulder and walked toward the body on the third floor.
Lily was fiddling with the Glock, while Henry followed a couple of steps behind, still hunched over and moving slowly as though he hadn’t fully recovered yet.
“Lily, give me a hand.”
“Okay.”
Lily handed the Glock to Henry and dusted off her hands.
Nate looked at her in surprise.
“By the way, Lily, aren’t you scared?”
“Uh… I’m not afraid of blood. I’m afraid of dying, okay?” Lily knew exactly what he meant and answered somewhat dismissively.
“Fair enough. Help me gather their equipment.”
Nate didn’t dwell on it.
He had already started searching the bodies.
There had only been one enemy on the third floor.
Counting those killed on the second and first floors, there were seventeen bodies scattered throughout the warehouse’s three levels.
It took Nate nearly half an hour to search them one by one.
Henry kept watch on the first floor while Lily followed Nate around, occasionally handing him a flashlight or holding back part of a corpse’s clothing while he searched it.
The haul was better than expected.
First was the cash.
Altogether, they had been carrying a little over forty thousand dollars.
Then came the long guns.
One submachine gun, one shotgun, and fourteen rifles.
Most of the men had been carrying AR-series rifles, along with several HK416s.
They were fully kitted out with holographic sights, tactical lights, and foregrips, and a few even had suppressors.
One rifle had been damaged by a bullet, but the rest were in fairly good condition.
Nate picked out one of the HK416s.
It was a damn good rifle, fitted with an EOTech holographic sight, a tactical light, and a laser pointer mounted on the handguard.
Nate set it aside, planning to keep it for himself.
They also recovered fifteen pistols.
Ridiculously enough, twelve of them were Glocks.
Of the other three, Nate recognized one as a 1911.
He couldn’t identify the remaining two.
His firearms knowledge still wasn’t good enough.
He’d have to study up once he got back.
The fifteen pistols came with more than thirty magazines altogether.
Between those and the various loose rounds, there were roughly two thousand rounds of ammunition.
Nate sorted the ammunition by caliber and packed it into two of the dead men’s backpacks.
Both bags were heavy when he lifted them.
With Lily and Henry around, it wasn’t convenient to put everything into his system Backpack.
He’d deal with that once they got back to the hotel.
The last thing he found was gold coins.
Those came from the body on the third floor.
The man was a burly white guy who looked like some kind of minor leader.
After all, he was the only one in the entire group wearing a suit.
Nate found a heavy velvet pouch in the inside pocket of the man’s jacket.
He emptied it out and counted twenty-five gold coins.
Huh?
Wait.
A suit?
Nate pulled out a pistol and fired directly into the suited corpse.
“Bang!”
The shot sounded painfully loud on the empty floor.
The corpse jerked from the impact.
“Nate, what are you doing?” Lily was still searching through things on the second floor, and her slightly shaky voice carried up from below.
Nate pulled back the collar and examined the suit closely.
The bullet hadn’t penetrated.
“A bulletproof suit! Lily, get up here and help me strip this guy. This thing’s valuable!”
It took both of them quite a bit of effort to get the suit off the corpse.
Stripping clothes off a dead body turned out to be surprisingly hard work.
“Lily, put it on. It’s bulletproof!” Nate said.
Lily was just as sweaty and exhausted as he was.
She frowned.
“No thanks. There’s blood all over the collar. That’s disgusting.”
Nate looked down.
She had a point.
The collar was almost completely soaked through with blood.
“Fine. Wear this instead.”
Nate took off his Body Armor and helped Lily put it on, then changed into the bulletproof suit himself.
It was a little too big and didn’t fit him particularly well, but it would do.
At some point, Henry had come up behind them.
He looked at all the equipment scattered across the floor.
“These people came because of your dad?”
“Yeah…” Nate nodded, slipped the pouch of gold coins into his pants pocket, zipped it shut, then looked back at Henry.
“Do you have any idea what’s going on?”
“No. We were eating when these people came in without making a sound and tied us both up.”
“Sorry, Henry. You two got dragged into this because of me.”
Nate lowered his head, looking somewhat embarrassed.
“You brat. What are you apologizing for?”
Henry gave him an irritated look but didn’t ask any more questions.
Instead, he bent over and helped Nate hoist the bundle of guns onto his shoulder.
By the time they carried everything outside, Lily had already opened the back of the pickup truck.
The three of them loaded all the equipment into the vehicle.
The warehouse district was unnaturally quiet at night.
Streetlights cast a pale, ghostly glow across the concrete parking lot, while a salty breeze carrying the smell of the sea blew in from the coast.
The warehouse stood in an isolated area surrounded by abandoned factory buildings and empty lots stacked with shipping containers.
The concrete road in front of it was the only route leading out to the highway.
Nate stood beside the pickup and scanned the surrounding area.
Nothing looked unusual.
Still, he couldn’t shake the chill crawling across the back of his neck.
Lily was already in the driver’s seat with the engine running.
The vibration of the idling diesel engine traveled up through the chassis.
Henry slowly opened the rear door and put one foot on the step.
He was getting on in years, and his movements were slow.
Climbing into the truck seemed to take some effort.
Nate was about to open the passenger door when he suddenly stopped.
The light.
The pickup’s headlights illuminated roughly fifty meters ahead.
Nate’s enhanced vision locked onto a spot behind a shipping container at the very edge of the beam.
He had just seen a shadow move.
“Something’s wrong!”
He opened the passenger door, deliberately keeping his movements slow while using his body to block the view as he gestured to Lily.
“Lily, get down. Come over this way.”
Nate picked up the HK416 and spoke quietly, signaling for her to crawl across the cab and get out through the passenger side.
He crouched beside the front tire, using the truck as cover while aiming toward the hidden attackers.
He didn’t fire yet.
He still didn’t know how many of them were out there.
Wind swept through the open parking lot, kicking up fine sand that rattled softly against the metal sides of the shipping containers.
With his enhanced [Eagle Eye] vision, Nate could make out at least two shadows near the containers.
They were about fifty meters away.
Too far for a throwing knife.
Nate lowered his body and raised the HK416, preparing to strike first.
Just as he was about to fire, a gunshot exploded less than a meter behind him.
The bullet cut through the cold air over the empty parking lot, crossed the shadows cast by the stacked containers, and struck the right shoulder of the hitman creeping in from the left with pinpoint accuracy.
A 9mm round wasn’t especially powerful, but it was enough to render the man’s right arm useless.
The suppressed submachine gun slipped from his hand and struck the ground with a sharp metallic clang.
A second shot followed immediately.
This one hit the same man’s right knee.
He screamed and dropped onto one knee.
Nate spun around.
Henry stood beside the rear wheel.
At some point, his hunched back had straightened.
He held the Glock 17 in both hands, a faint wisp of white smoke still curling from the muzzle.
His stance was rock steady.
Feet shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent, center of gravity lowered.
His arms were extended with both hands gripping the pistol in a textbook Weaver shooting stance.
Moonlight filtered through a break in the clouds and fell across Henry’s face.
He still wore the same kindly expression as always.
There was even the faintest trace of a gentle smile at the corner of his mouth.
But his eyes had changed.
They were completely focused.
Henry didn’t look at Nate.
His gaze remained fixed on the attackers ahead as he spoke in an unhurried voice.
“Nate, if you keep doing things like this, you’re going to get yourself killed when you run into someone who actually knows what they’re doing.”