Behind the third-floor balcony, Russell slowly backed up until his back was pressed against the wall.
He began seriously considering whether he should retreat now.
Following HAND was one thing.
Getting caught up in a premeditated armed attack was another.
The fact that the attackers had been able to set up in advance deep within the Hollow meant they possessed an extremely accurate Carrot and had conducted extensive reconnaissance, selecting the ideal location for an ambush.
With that level of technical support, they still proceeded with the ambush after identifying the target as HAND.
This was definitely not the work of thugs preying on lone Hollow Raiders or small-time mercenaries.
And just as Tsukishiro Yanagi had said, if even one member of HAND made it back alive today, everyone involved in the ambush would become targets for the Defense Force’s purge.
Although Russell had never come into contact with rebels before, putting himself in their shoes for a moment made him immediately reject the idea.
If he had to spend the rest of his life hiding from the Public Security Bureau and being hunted by the Defense Force, he’d rather not.
He might be a fringe dweller living in the Outer Ring, but he wasn’t interested in being completely cast out by society.
After all, he still liked going to Lumina Square for hotpot, grabbing milk tea, and checking out newly released games…
Oh right, in New Eridu they called it Tea-Milk.
Thinking of that, Russell glanced at his mini-map.
Before the attack on the convoy had begun, the mini-map had already displayed the positions of the attackers.
There were fifteen dots in total.
Seven were positioned at the convoy’s seven o’clock direction, while eight were at the four o’clock direction.
After Tsukishiro Yanagi displayed the convoy’s combat capability and issued her warning, the fifteen gray dots fell silent for a brief moment.
Just when Russell thought they might retreat—
The gray icons on the map suddenly started moving.
They split into three groups.
One moved east.
One moved west.
And a three-person team headed directly toward the building where Russell was hiding.
Russell: “…”
…Damn it.
Knew this position would get noticed.
He immediately rose from the windowsill and headed for the stairwell, intending to leave before they arrived.
Unfortunately, they moved much faster than he had expected.
By the time he reached the second floor, muffled gunfire sounded from outside.
It didn’t sound like conventional ammunition.
It seemed to be some kind of energy weapon, accompanied by the characteristic high-frequency whine of Ether Energy.
At that moment, however, Russell had no time to observe the battlefield.
He continued downward. Find the original chapter at novelping.com.
When he reached the first-floor stairwell, the front door of the building was smashed open.
Without a word, the intruders immediately opened fire toward the area where Russell was descending.
“Shit.
Looks like I’m not the only one using wallhacks.”
Russell decisively dove through the rear stairwell window, shattering the glass and dropping into a narrow alley only one meter wide behind the building.
“He got away!
After him!
Leave no survivors!”
Three heavily armed masked men stormed into the cramped stairwell.
Then they froze in confusion.
The window had somehow been blocked.
Assuming it was some kind of trick, the leader drew his gun and fired into the darkened opening.
Bang!
“Ow!”
One of the other masked men cried out while clutching his ear.
The leader naturally knew that his bullet had ricocheted and struck his teammate.
But he simply couldn’t believe that in the blink of an eye, the escape route the target had just used could already have been sealed by something so solid.
“What the hell is this?”
Partly to change the subject and partly to avoid the embarrassment of friendly fire, he asked the question.
Only three people occupied the narrow stairwell.
One was asking the question.
One was clutching his ear and groaning.
The last remained silent, merely pulling out a tactical flashlight and shining it at the pitch-black obstruction in the window.
“Stone?”
The leader reached out in disbelief and touched the object blocking the opening.
The hardness he felt was real.
Even when he shoved against it with force, the stone remained completely unmoved.
“Damn it!
After him!
Find another route!”
Naturally, the object blocking the window was the Cobblestone Russell had placed.
Once manifested in the physical world, it couldn’t be broken apart without heavy firepower.
While the furious leader was still cursing, Russell had already crossed the alley and slipped into an abandoned electrical distribution station.
The walls were thick, and there was only a narrow window.
Leaning behind an equipment cabinet, Russell first confirmed that his immediate surroundings were safe.
The three pursuers had been blocked from the only direct route.
Reaching this location wouldn’t be easy.
The other two paths were occupied by Ethereals, something the mini-map displayed very clearly.
Although gunfire had erupted around the armored vehicles, the sporadic suppressive fire carried an obvious probing intent.
The fact that the three-man team had come after him first was enough to prove that the commander of the ambush force was a cautious individual.
He wanted to eliminate unstable factors before deciding whether to commit all of his cards.
Russell marked the originally neutral gray icons on the mini-map as hostile.
The ambush force’s formation immediately became apparent.
Aside from the three men pursuing him, the eastern group was responsible for long-range support, while the western group was responsible for cutting off retreat.
It was a textbook pincer maneuver.
For HAND’s convoy, however, the most troublesome enemies were still those positioned on the rooftop.
As long as that observation post remained active, a convoy burdened with so many noncombatants couldn’t even retreat successfully.
This was a planned and deliberate military operation.
One that possessed an intimate understanding of HAND’s route and movements.
The enemy clearly didn’t care about being labeled rebels.
In fact, they were very likely rebels already.
Realizing this, Russell’s expression darkened slightly.
Sitting in the shadows beside the electrical cabinet, he closed his eyes and began sorting through his current situation.
If he continued following the mission, the risks were impossible to predict.
It was questionable whether HAND could even complete the operation.
But if he fled now, the old man’s commission would almost certainly fall through.
More importantly, given Tsukishiro Yanagi’s status, if her investigation in H-037 ended in failure, then regardless of whether these attackers managed to kill her, the next person sent here would undoubtedly be that Level-170 Void Hunter.
Even with a mini-map, Russell wasn’t confident he could track someone like that.
And there was a good chance that because of such a severe attack on HAND personnel, the H-037 Hollow would once again be sealed off by the Defense Force.
If that happened, sneaking back in would become several times more difficult.
Most importantly of all, considering how cautious the ambush commander was, there was no guarantee he’d simply let Russell leave.
After all, if the enemy possessed even a little influence, it wouldn’t be difficult to determine who had entered and exited H-037 that morning.
“Sigh.
Why do so many idiots insist on making trouble for themselves?”
Russell opened his eyes and let out a long breath.
“And they even want to kill me on sight.”
He reached into the System Inventory and pulled out a wooden bow glowing with a purple aura.
His gaze locked onto the observation post atop the old rooftop shown on the mini-map.