Naturally, it was Russell who took out the observation post.
Those three people probably never dreamed that someone could climb vertically onto the rooftop by building a ladder from a platform more than ten meters above the ground.
Of course, this was very simple for Russell.
It would have been even simpler in the game.
He could have just pillared up with blocks.
Unfortunately, Russell’s own physical abilities were nowhere near enough to let him jump a meter straight up from a standstill.
So he could only place blocks first, attach ladders, and climb upward layer by layer.
It was a little slower and a little more troublesome, but it was reliable.
After silently climbing onto the rooftop, Russell took full advantage of his elevated position and launched an unceremonious sneak attack on the three masked soldiers.
The first one was sent flying before he even realized he’d been hit by an arrow.
By the time the second person was struck, they finally realized an enemy had appeared above them.
As for the third, seeing his companion get hit, he instinctively tried to return fire.
As a result, an arrow that had fallen from the first man’s body spun once in the air before dropping onto the top of his foot.
The next second, he felt as if his entire body had burst into flames, while something slammed violently into his chest.
Screaming, he too was launched off the rooftop.
Three men taken out with two arrows.
A 150% hit rate.
Russell froze there with his third arrow only halfway drawn.
“Huff…
this bow is still way too hard to pull.”
He hadn’t thought much about it when enchanting it.
He had simply stacked Power V, Punch II, Flame, Infinity, and Unbreaking III onto it.
What he hadn’t expected was that the price of Power V was making the bow five times harder to draw than a normal one.
Originally, Russell could fire more than twenty arrows in a row.
Now, after drawing the bow at most five times, he’d be completely exhausted.
By comparison, Punch, an enchantment that wasn’t especially useful in the game, turned out to be unexpectedly powerful under real-world physics.
After all, zombies in the game were “solid.” At most, an arrow would knock them back a few steps.
But in reality, severe shockwaves could kill people through blast injuries.
After dealing with the three men, Russell casually confiscated their military-grade signal amplifiers.
When he stuffed them into the System Inventory, he deliberately checked them.
Sure enough, they were black-market goods with their serial numbers erased.
Russell’s work at the secondhand shop involved buying and reselling items.
He could estimate the value of something like this at a glance.
…Heh heh, these would be much easier to sell than official versions.
Russell didn’t pick up the guns lying on the ground.
There was no special reason.
He simply didn’t want to touch them.
The residents on the fringes of New Eridu had their own rules for survival.
Secondhand goods that could be sold were fair game.
Special equipment that could be resold was worth stockpiling.
But weapons meant for killing people were a red line.
Easy to step over.
Hard to step back from.
After cleaning up and collecting his spoils, Russell glanced at the minimap.
As expected, a squad was already heading toward the rooftop.
Unfortunately for them, climbing stairs was far too slow. This story is hosted at g.com.
…Why take the stairs down when jumping was faster?
Russell leaped straight off the factory roof more than ten meters high.
Then came a Water Bucket Drop.
That’s right.
Water in the MC System didn’t possess the same physical properties as real water.
Normally, jumping from a height of forty meters into water wasn’t much different from landing on concrete.
Even a platform just over ten meters high required a professional diver using a specific posture to enter the water safely.
An ordinary person hitting the water from that height would suffer serious injuries nine times out of ten.
But under MC’s rules, as long as even the tip of a toe touched a single drop of MC water, all fall damage disappeared.
After landing, Russell didn’t forget to dismantle the “sky ladder” he had built.
In this situation, there was no need to take it apart from the top like in the game.
He simply broke the bottom block.
The blocks above immediately came crashing down.
After absorbing the tremendous impact of the fall, the wooden blocks that landed with a series of clatters instantly transformed into scattered item drops, which Russell quickly collected.
When he first discovered this characteristic, Russell had been a little disappointed.
After all, it meant he couldn’t build a floating city.
But being able to recover blocks quickly wasn’t exactly a bad thing.
After picking up the wooden blocks and ladders from the ground, Russell immediately slipped into an alley and made his escape.
Not wanting Section 6 to be defeated by these rebels was one thing.
But Russell had never intended to draw enemy fire for the people of Section 6.
Yet after only a few steps, he realized something was wrong.
Aside from the three fools still climbing toward the rooftop, the other rebels weren’t chasing him.
Instead, they seemed to have linked up with another group and were advancing directly toward the position where Tsukishiro Yanagi and the others were defending…
·
Tsukishiro Yanagi did not open the box immediately.
Instead, she raised her head and surveyed the surroundings.
There were measurement markings drawn on the factory walls with chalk.
The faded numerical labels and coordinates were still barely legible.
Although the handwriting had blurred, the formatting of the annotations was highly professional.
Several pieces of portable equipment lay scattered in the corners.
They had rusted beyond recognition, but the HAND insignias on their casings could still be identified.
It was clear that the two had worked here for a period of time.
They might even have left these records while waiting for rescue.
But even with Ether Aptitude and protective equipment, surviving for long under the conditions of the massive Ether Turbulence outbreak within the Hollow back then should have been impossible.
At the thought, a trace of gloom flashed across Yanagi’s face.
“Vice Section Chief.”
Asaba Harumasa’s voice came from the other end of the factory.
His tone sounded off.
Tsukishiro Yanagi quickly composed herself and stood up.
“What is it?”
Harumasa didn’t answer.
He merely stood before a door at the rear of the factory that led deeper into the workshop area.
The door had already been pushed halfway open.
Within the flashlight’s beam, Tsukishiro Yanagi saw a row of footprints.
Not old ones.
Fresh ones.
They had been stamped into the dust and had not yet been covered again by airborne particles.
“They’ve already arrived,” Asaba Harumasa said in a lowered voice.
“While we were wasting time here, someone entered from the other side of the factory.”
The moment he finished speaking—
Orderly footsteps sounded simultaneously from all around the factory.
Not running.
Advancing in formation.
The footsteps converged from every direction.
There were more than a hundred people, closing in on the factory like a tightening net.
Then the sporadic, half-hearted gunfire outside stopped.
“HAND.
Hollow Special Operations Section.
Section 6.”
The speaker’s voice came through the factory’s iron doors.
Unhurried.
Even restrained in a way.
“Vice Section Chief Tsukishiro, I presume?
A pleasure.
Truth be told, I have no desire to make enemies of you.
Unfortunately, you’ve appeared where you shouldn’t have.”
Yanagi and Harumasa exchanged a glance.
The latter froze slightly before his expression darkened.
Nevertheless, he lowered his head and stepped aside.
Tsukishiro Yanagi tightened her grip on her Naginata and demanded through the door,
“Who exactly are you people?
Belobog Industries shouldn’t have resources like this.”
“Who are we?
Heh.
How would the elites of civilized society ever know what insects like us are?” The speaker’s tone carried a hint of mockery.
“Besides, I have no interest in ending up on that Void Hunter’s kill list.
Of course, all of that assumes you’re able to escape.”
“You think you can keep me here?” Tsukishiro Yanagi snorted coldly.
“Hahahaha!”
The other side laughed.
Wildly.
“I can’t keep you here.
But the people behind you can.
Someone like you wouldn’t even let go of the case involving those two external HAND Investigators from three years ago, so how could you possibly abandon more than a dozen innocent lives?”
“I know you’re stalling for time with whatever little tricks you’re preparing behind that door.”
“But unfortunately, so am I.”
“And now…
time’s up.”
“Today, even HAND’s Section 6 is staying right here!”