Chapter 44: Leaving Tianshan City

Lin Xinghai was currently showing everyone with hard facts that, as long as they were used properly, even incendiary bullets could inflict sufficient damage upon a Blood Fiend.

Bang! Bang!

The gunfire continued unabated, as steady and efficient as ever.

The Blood Fiend had long since harbored a deep, bone-deep hatred for this tiny ant named Lin Xinghai, but blocking its path were two meches.

Moreover, these were two meches operating at full firepower, subjecting it to a relentless barrage of punches and kicks.

That was right—punches and kicks. Under the circumstances, Fang Tianhe did not dare to use the oscillating great blade in his hands, fearing that he might accidentally slice open the Blood Fiend's body and squeeze out the incendiary bullets embedded inside prematurely, which would outweigh the gains.

After firing a full thirty rounds in one breath, Lin Xinghai activated his Speed Ability to leave the area, returning to the side of Roger and the others.

"Why are you back? You should have taken the opportunity to finish that thing off!" Xu Haishui, who had been watching with rapt excitement, couldn't help asking when he saw Lin Xinghai return.

"Out of incendiary bullets." Lin Xinghai's reply was concise and to the point.

"Uh..." Everyone fell momentarily speechless.

Incendiary bullets were specialized munitions with a low usage frequency; when heading out on missions, their consumption was minimal, and typically ten rounds at most would suffice.

This had resulted in a rather meager inventory during peacetime.

In the end, all the mercenaries frantically rummaged through their combat backpacks and the two multi-purpose off-road vehicles, barely managing to scrape together ten more incendiary bullets.

Upon receiving the incendiary bullets, Lin Xinghai did not hesitate for a second. He activated his Speed Ability once more and charged back into the fray.

By this time, the Blood Fiend had already squeezed out the vast majority of the incendiary bullets from inside its body, leaving only five or six behind.

It was in a state of absolute frenzy, having long forgotten the last time it had suffered such severe injuries.

However, when that puny little figure returned unexpectedly, and with two consecutive bangs, another ball of fire blossomed within its body, the raging fury in its heart instantly cooled down.

As the number of fiery clusters inside its body began to multiply once more, that cooling rage transformed into sheer terror.

The Blood Fiend was a living creature, and it too feared death—especially now that roughly ten percent of its body had already been charred. That made it even more terrified of dying.

"Fall back!" Fang Tianhe had already learned from Roger that only ten incendiary bullets remained. Therefore, the moment Lin Xinghai expended the very last round, Fang Tianhe immediately issued the order to retreat.

Controlling his mech, he rushed to Lin Xinghai's side and pointed toward the mech's shoulder.

Lin Xinghai leaped up without hesitation, retreating alongside the two meches.

As for Roger and the others, they had already fallen back a step ahead.

The Blood Fiend stood in place, watching the fleeing figures with lingering anger, but far more of it was fear.

It was terrified that the puny human would make its insides catch fire again.

Thus, after merely a moment of hesitation, the two meches vanished from its field of vision.

Ultimately, after letting out an indignant roar, it departed.

Meanwhile, the members of the Rending Sky Mercenary Corps, having successfully escaped to a safe distance, let out long sighs of relief.

This time, even with Lin Xinghai's intervention, their successful escape had still involved a heavy dose of luck.

If that Blood Fiend had ignored its injuries and continued to pursue them relentlessly, they would have been in serious trouble.

Fortunately, after being wounded, it seemed to have grown afraid.

"You take the MVP credit for this mission," Fang Tianhe's voice echoed from within the mech.

Lin Xinghai merely smiled and offered no reply.

On the contrary, Xu Haishui exclaimed with excitement, "It's a real shame, though. If we had brought enough incendiary bullets, we might have actually killed that Blood Fiend."

"You're overthinking it," Wuyan immediately countered. Before Xu Haishui could retort, Wuyan analyzed, "A-Xing used forty incendiary bullets just to destroy ten percent of the Blood Fiend's body. Even factoring in the subsequent burning, the total damage to its body wouldn't exceed fifteen percent."

"In other words, to completely burn it to death would require at least 266 incendiary bullets. Do you really think a Blood Fiend, upon facing a fatal threat, would foolishly stay put? Don't forget, this thing can tunnel through the ground; there's simply no way to stop it from escaping."

Xu Haishui was left speechless by the rebuttal.

"Alright, regardless of anything else, with A-Xing around from now on, our Rending Sky Mercenary Corps won't have to worry about Blood Fiends anymore. That's something many Tier 3 mercenary corps can't even boast of," Fang Tianhe intervened to cut the bickering short.

He still couldn't understand why Wuyan and Xu Haishui seemed like natural-born enemies, bickering almost every few days as if their horoscopes conflicted.

...

For the remainder of the journey, Lin Xinghai was practically treated like a VIP, sitting comfortably in an off-road vehicle without needing to lift a finger.

Yet Lin Xinghai wasn't happy at all; instead, he felt quite melancholic. He couldn't harvest any Blood Qi Energy anymore! But there was truly no way to voice such a grievance.

The entire convoy moved at high speed, pausing only briefly when they reached the warehouse where the Armored Corpse was hidden.

Within a mere twenty minutes, they had cleared the city center.

By then, the armored vehicle reinforcement squad left behind outside had also arrived just in time.

The two meches were finally able to enter the armored transport vehicles for maintenance and energy replenishment.

The rest of the journey proceeded smoothly, and the convoy quickly cleared the borders of Tianshan City.

Looking at the rapidly thinning numbers of zombies, Lin Xinghai felt as though a massive wave of Blood Qi Energy had slipped right through his fingers.

Fortunately, along the way back, whenever they encountered packs of zombies, the convoy would still halt after eliminating them to allow him to harvest the Blood Qi Energy.

This improved Lin Xinghai's mood slightly, but even so, before returning to the sanctuary, they had only encountered three waves of zombies in total.

From those, Lin Xinghai had managed to gather a mere 16 points of Blood Qi Energy.

"Sigh, this won't do! I need to find a way to venture out on my own. Otherwise, it'll take at least a month to push my genetic optimization level to one hundred percent," Lin Xinghai muttered melancholically to himself.

Of course, he only dared to entertain such thoughts inwardly; if he were to voice them aloud, he would likely be beaten to death by a group of envious mercenaries.

Gazing at the 16 points of Blood Qi Energy displayed on his system interface, though sparse, every little bit counted. It was still enough to raise his genetic optimization level by another five percent, so he tapped the plus sign.

"Ding! Since the host has not yet fully adapted to the current stage, would you like to expend double the Blood Qi Energy to break through?"

"Note: Forcing a breakthrough will cause sensory perception growth to temporarily halt."

Reading the pop-up system prompt, Lin Xinghai was somewhat baffled. What on earth did "not yet fully adapted to the current stage" mean?

Naturally, Lin Xinghai possessed a great virtue: when in doubt, he asked.

He immediately turned to Roger beside him and asked, "Generally speaking, after breaking through to become a Genetic Optimizer, do you need time to adapt?"

"Of course you do! After breaking the genetic lock, your sensory perception will continue to strengthen over the next two or three days. Once it stabilizes, you can learn how to properly utilize your sensory perception," Roger explained patiently.

"Sensory perception can continue to strengthen?" A trace of shock rippled through Lin Xinghai's heart. He felt increasingly convinced that his own sensory perception was different from everyone else's.