The gunfire just now had exposed Jason’s position.
The remaining gunmen immediately began rushing toward the second floor.
Jason wolfed down the rest of the pasta in a few bites, grabbed his M4A1, and hurried toward his second ambush point.
He pushed open the mall’s emergency-exit door.
The stairwell beyond was pitch black, illuminated only by the faint glow of the exit sign.
Jason silently climbed to the third floor, pressed his back against the wall beside the stairs, and waited patiently for his prey to come to him.
Half a minute later, footsteps echoed through the empty, silent stairwell.
Judging by the sound…
Four people.
Looks like those idiots finally realized moving around in pairs is just feeding me free kills.
Their only chance is sticking together.
The four men reached the second floor emergency exit.
One of them cautiously raised a flashlight and swept its beam across the stairs leading up to the third floor.
Only after convincing themselves that everything was clear did they turn around and prepare to open the second floor door.
Jason descended on tiptoe.
All four idiots had their backs to him, quietly discussing how they should breach the door.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Muzzle flashes suddenly lit up the dark stairwell.
Within seconds, Jason’s M4A1 emptied its magazine into them.
The four mobsters didn’t even have time to react before their bodies were riddled with bullets.
Blood and chunks of flesh splattered across the cramped stairwell.
A nauseating metallic stench quickly filled the air.
[Ding! Four mobsters killed. You have earned 400 Villain Points. Current progress: 750/2,000.]
For a gangster like Jason, who saw blood practically every day, this level of carnage barely qualified as an appetizer.
He swapped in a fresh magazine, walked over, and searched the dead men for anything useful.
Ten seconds later, Jason reached the third floor with two fragmentation grenades in his hands.
Hummm…
Jason froze.
That’s…
an elevator.
He followed the sound.
The floor indicator showed the elevator descending from the fifth floor to the first.
A moment later, it began climbing again.
Jason sneered.
He took out the two grenades he’d only just acquired and pulled the pins.
The instant the elevator doors opened a crack, Jason tossed both grenades inside.
The men within hadn’t even realized what was happening when two explosions thundered in rapid succession.
BOOM!
BOOM!
[Ding! Two mobsters killed. You have earned 200 Villain Points. Current progress: 950/2,000.]
Jason was just about to enter the elevator and loot their equipment when two figures emerged from the emergency exit.
“Jason’s over there! Shoot him! Kill him!” Anatoly roared.
The mobster beside him immediately raised his automatic rifle and opened fire.
He dropped low, rolled away, and scrambled for cover.
A split second later, more than a dozen bullets tore through the spot where he’d just been standing.
“Jason! You’re fucking dead!”
After losing so many of his men, Anatoly was practically ecstatic to finally have Jason in sight.
He hefted a six-barrel Gatling gun and unleashed hell toward Jason’s position.
The Gatling gun roared.
A dense storm of bullets tore across the mall.
Against firepower like that, every piece of cover in the building might as well have been made of cardboard.
Jason abandoned his position and fled in a decidedly undignified scramble.
The Gatling gun’s suppressive fire was so overwhelming that he couldn’t even raise his head, much less bring his weapon up to shoot back.
Meanwhile, the second Russian switched on his laser sight and began taking carefully aimed shots at the fleeing Jason.
One suppressed.
The other went for the kill.
Their coordination was nearly flawless.
Jason weaved and dodged through the mall, cleverly putting obstacles between himself and the incoming fire until he finally managed to duck behind a massive concrete pillar.
But the Gatling gun didn’t stop.
BRRRRRRRRT!
The concrete column was so thick it would have taken five men holding hands to encircle it, yet the 7.62mm armor-piercing rounds were blasting enormous craters out of its surface.
At this rate, it would be chewed apart within a few dozen seconds.
With death only moments away, Jason forced himself to calm down and think.
Then an iconic scene from countless movies suddenly came to mind.
The diving shot.
Almost every Hollywood action movie had one, a hero launching himself sideways through the air while firing his gun.
Of course, movies were fiction.
Whether that ridiculous stunt actually worked in real life…
Jason had no idea.
“Fuck it.” He gritted his teeth and tightened his grip on the rifle.
Jason crouched low and gathered strength in his legs.
Then he kicked off the ground.
Like a competitive swimmer diving into a pool, he launched himself out from behind the concrete pillar.
While his body was still airborne, Jason snapped the rifle up, acquired his target in the shortest possible time—
And pulled the trigger.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
A stream of bullets poured from the muzzle.
The distant figure seemed to go down.
Jason hit the floor hard but kept firing, emptying the entire magazine.
Click…
click…
The instant the rifle ran dry, he scrambled upright, dove back behind cover, and swapped magazines.
[Ding! One mobster killed. You have earned 100 Villain Points. Current progress: 1,050/2,000.]
[Ding! Anatoly (Story Character) wounded. You have earned 100 Villain Points. Current progress: 1,150/2,000.]
Jason pumped a fist, cheering inwardly.
That completely ridiculous shooting stunt actually hit targets dozens of meters away.
Looks like God really is on my side.
The Gatling gun had fallen silent.
In its place came Anatoly’s screams of agony.
Jason hesitated for a moment before deciding not to kill him just yet.
Keeping low, he quickly made his way up to the fourth floor and chose a concealed firing position with a clear view of Anatoly.
That’s right.
Jason intended to use Anatoly’s screams as bait.
He was going to fish out every last survivor.
Sure enough, the remaining mobsters arrived in a hurry.
They formed a protective circle around Vladimir and began moving toward Anatoly.
“Brother! Are you all right?”
“My legs!” Anatoly shouted.
“The bullets went straight through both my legs!”
“Shit! What about Jason? Did you kill him?”
Kill me?
Keep dreaming.
Jason settled his sights on a target.
Held his breath.
And squeezed the trigger.
Bang!
Another man dropped.
[Ding! One mobster killed. You have earned 100 Villain Points. Current progress: 1,250/2,000.]
The remaining Russians went pale with shock and immediately shielded Vladimir as they retreated toward the emergency exit.
“FUCK YOU, JASON! FUCK YOU!”
Anatoly screamed at the top of his lungs, his curses echoing desperately through the mall.
Even an idiot like him had figured out what Jason was doing.
“Brother! Don’t come over here! Just get out!”
“No!” Vladimir shouted from inside the emergency stairwell.
“I’m not abandoning you!”
He raised his voice.
“Jason! Let’s make peace! Let me take Anatoly and leave!”
Jason remained prone at his firing position.
“Make peace? You brought men to blow up my home, your brother nearly killed me twice, and now you’ve got the balls to ask for peace?”
“All right! This is my fault!”
Vladimir hurriedly corrected himself.
“No, this is all Kingpin’s fault! We’re both just pieces on his chessboard. We should join forces and kill Kingpin instead of slaughtering each other!”
Jason sneered.
“Don’t worry. After I’m done with you, I’ll go pay him a visit.”
Vladimir refused to give up.
“Please, Jason! Anatoly is the only family I have. I can’t lose him!”
“Then come save him, coward!” Jason shifted his sights onto Anatoly’s crotch.
And fired.
Bang!
“AAAAAAAGH!”
Anatoly’s bloodcurdling scream echoed throughout the entire mall.