As the rhythm of the battle changed, Tsukishiro Yanagi, as a former officer, was keenly able to perceive the shift in the enemy’s offensive intentions through Battlefield Situational Awareness.
Judging from the cards the ambushers had already revealed, they had not launched a full-scale assault.
As for the reason, she did not know.
They had already abandoned the convoy and retreated into a relatively intact old factory building.
Tsukishiro Yanagi stood by a broken windowsill on the second floor of the factory.
Her fingertips still rested on the hilt of her blade.
Her breathing remained steady, but the fine beads of sweat on the exposed section of her wrist beneath her uniform sleeve reflected the dim light of the Hollow.
“Vice Section Chief,” Asaba Harumasa dropped soundlessly from a structural beam on the third floor, “there’s an observation post on the rooftop at the three o’clock direction.
Our movement routes are completely locked down.”
“How many?”
“Three.
But they’re extremely well-equipped.
Military-grade signal amplifiers.
They’re providing real-time targeting calibration for all the ambush units.”
Tsukishiro Yanagi’s fingers tightened slightly.
The enemy’s individual combat ability was not particularly strong, but their precise artillery fire was forcing both her and Asaba Harumasa to take turns dealing with it.
And why was their fire suppression so accurate?
Because of that observation post.
Every time they attempted to relocate, bullets and energy beams would land precisely ahead of their intended route, as if the enemy already knew where they were going.
That observation post had to be eliminated.
But the problem was that she couldn’t leave right now.
Neither could Asaba Harumasa.
The non-combat personnel needed at least one person capable of withstanding enemy fire head-on.
Otherwise, the moment a gap appeared in the defensive line, the dozen or so Investigators and engineers behind them would be slaughtered within three minutes.
Meanwhile, someone also had to deal with the harassment from the enemy combatants.
The four ordinary guards assigned by the Hollow Investigative Association alone would never be enough.
Of course, she still had a trump card she hadn’t used.
Once released, that thing could indeed change the course of the battle in a very short time.
But the price of a temporary drop in combat strength was too great.
If she used it and still failed to crush the enemy in one decisive blow, she would completely lose the ability to protect anyone.
Just then—
A muffled explosion suddenly echoed from the top of a distant high-rise.
Tsukishiro Yanagi abruptly looked up.
It was a direction she had been watching closely—the location of the observation post Asaba Harumasa had pointed out earlier.
The flash of the explosion vanished in the Hollow’s dim sky almost instantly.
Immediately afterward, the fire suppression that had been as precise as a surgeon’s scalpel suddenly fell into obvious disorder.
The firing frequency from the west side dropped sharply, while several bursts from the east side seemed to lose their guidance entirely, striking ruins where no one was passing through. New chapters come out on novelping(.)com first.
“That observation post is gone.” There was a hint of surprise in Asaba Harumasa’s voice.
“Vice Section Chief, do we have a third party involved?”
Tsukishiro Yanagi did not answer.
She simply stared at the lingering flames on the rooftop, and a scene suddenly flashed through her mind—the moment that figure silently disappeared into the shadows at the Hollow entrance.
Was it him?
No.
This wasn’t the time to think about that.
“Everyone move east!” Tsukishiro Yanagi ordered decisively.
“Move now, before they restore their calibration!”
The Investigators stumbled out through the rear entrance of the factory building.
Covering the retreat, Asaba Harumasa forced back two masked men attempting to flank from the west with a single arrow.
The retreat route followed the material transport pipelines through the Old Factory Area toward the east.
Tsukishiro Yanagi’s judgment was clear: as long as they escaped the coverage area of that observation post, gaps would appear in the enemy’s encirclement.
The facts proved her correct.
Without the elevated calibration point, the ambushers’ fire blockade became noticeably cruder.
Dense bullets and energy beams still came from both sides, but their accuracy dropped dramatically.
The Investigators’ escort team seized the opportunity to counterattack, forcing the flanking enemies to seek cover.
But Tsukishiro Yanagi did not relax.
Because she had noticed something.
Although the enemy’s fire had become chaotic, it had not weakened.
On the contrary, the intensity of the ambush had increased sharply within a short period of time.
If before, the hunter had been patiently driving its prey forward, then now the hunter’s whip was already cracking through the air.
The destruction of that observation post had agitated them.
Which also meant the ambushers were anxious about something.
What were they in such a hurry for?
Tsukishiro Yanagi had no time to think further.
With a slash of her blade, she cut down a stray round that had grazed over an engineer’s head.
The crisp clash between steel and bullet rang sharply through the ruins.
“Vice Section Chief!
There’s a factory building ahead!”
Hearing the shout, Tsukishiro Yanagi looked up.
It was the most conspicuous building in the entire industrial complex.
A massive brick-red smokestack rose straight into the sky from the roof.
Black patterns left behind by Ether corrosion crawled across its surface, making it look from afar like countless petrified blood vessels.
Though the outer walls were weathered and mottled, there were no signs of collapse.
The entrance was an old sliding steel door, half consumed by rust, leaving a gap just wide enough for one person to squeeze through sideways.
“Inside!”
There was no time for further reconnaissance.
The pursuing firepower behind them was too intense.
Staying outside would make them living targets.
The Investigators filed inside one after another.
Asaba Harumasa provided cover at the entrance.
Tsukishiro Yanagi was the last to squeeze through the gap.
She pushed the steel door shut behind her and jammed the track with her scabbard.
The gunfire was temporarily blocked by the walls.
The interior of the factory was spacious, but the lighting was extremely dim.
Only a few broken skylights high above cast down pale gray columns of light.
The air carried the smell of old machine oil, mixed with that distinctive scorched bitterness left behind by long-term accumulation of Ether Energy.
The Investigators collapsed onto the ground, gasping for breath.
The captain of the escort team was stopping the bleeding of a wounded member.
The bandages looked especially pale in the dim light.
Tsukishiro Yanagi did not rest.
She had Asaba Harumasa confirm the location of the factory’s other exit while she walked deeper inside to evaluate the site’s defensive potential.
Then she stopped.
By the light streaming through a skylight, she saw a corner deep within the factory.
Using several broken steel plates and old conveyor belts, someone had crudely enclosed a small area.
Inside were two sleeping bags.
The sleeping bags had long since faded, and their surfaces were covered in a thick layer of dust.
Yet Tsukishiro Yanagi could still tell that they had been arranged neatly, every corner carefully tucked in, as though waiting for their owners to return.
Between the two sleeping bags sat a metal box.
Tsukishiro Yanagi approached.
Her footsteps stopped three paces away from the box because she noticed markings carved into the lid.
Not scratches.
Words painstakingly engraved one stroke at a time with the tip of a knife or a key.
“Lin Xue · Lin Yuan, HAND Investigation Specialists, Mission Number H-037-11.”
Her pupils contracted slightly.
The Lin siblings.
The two Investigators who had disappeared three years ago.
This factory was their final refuge.
Tsukishiro Yanagi crouched down and gently brushed away the dust on the surface of the box with her fingers.
Dust from three years ago settled upon her fingertips, as fine as the ashes of burned paper.