This Spiritual Energy is Lethal!

Chapter 35: Chapter 035 Now, We Run @@novelbin@@

The sunglass-clad hunks raised their guns and fired at the fleeing blue van, completely indifferent to whether their bullets would hit pedestrians on the sidewalk. The private cars and buses on the streets were stuck in a jam; many drivers had abandoned their cars to run for their lives, while some bystanders hid on the buses, taking out their phones to record videos.

At this moment, a red sedan was trapped in the flow of traffic, unable to move. Inside were four white men with nondescript looks, watching everything indifferently.

They were, of course, aware of the street gunfight happening two or three hundred meters ahead, but the contents in the car’s trunk meant they couldn’t just abandon their vehicle.

“Are they robbing a cash transport?” asked the crew-cut man in the driver’s seat, wearing a brown jacket, impassively.

“Keep a low profile, the County Police will handle these matters,” the woman in the passenger seat chimed in. She was wearing a cap, her hair pulled back into a ponytail, and donned a set of blue tracksuits—very inconspicuous.

The two men in the back seat, both dressed in sweatshirts and dress shirts, remained silent. Their faces were expressionless, not concerned about stray bullets hitting them.

...

“What if the County Police search the car? The bodies of the guardians for C095 and B124 are still in the trunk,” the jacketed man asked.

“If they come to search now, we’ll take advantage of the chaos to kill them,” the woman said.

“Here’s what we’ll do: C134 and I will drive the car to Holy Angel Park to dispose of it. You two get out and go to the backup safe house to see if there’s any trace of B124,” the jacketed man instructed the two in the back seat.

“No, Mr. Lan Mei wants no mistakes. It’s safer to move together,” the woman countered.

“Are you looking down on us?” one of the men in the back laughed.

The woman turned her head and glanced at the man who had spoken; a faint red halo flickered in her eyes. The smiling man’s expression instantly froze.

Chen Ke swapped out his 20-round rifle magazine and stuffed it into his pocket, pulling out a new one to insert. The shell casings at his feet had piled up like a mountain, and one could slip if they tread carelessly.

Hall and Chen Ke continued to shoot at the sunglass-clad hunks while waiting for Priskin to fiddle with his drill. Finally, he changed to a new drill bit and went back to drilling the hole.

“It’s almost through! I can hear it; we must have broken through!” Priskin yelled.

This time, he operated the drill by hand. A few seconds later, a small round hole was drilled where the van’s lock was, and the door started rattling as if freed from some constraint.

Priskin yanked the door open, his voice changing mid-sentence.

“Hainerd, you son of a… damn…”

“What’s wrong?”

Chen Ke and Hall were puzzled. They fought while retreating, moving to the side of the rear door.

Chen Ke expected to see a few big men battered and awkwardly lying inside the van, but that was not the case.

The van was empty.

A clamshell phone sat in the center of the van, firmly taped down with yellow tape as if specifically left for the person who would open the door. Hall yanked the phone off, and on its screen, written with the notepad, was a single word:

“BOOM!”

A dreadful thought suddenly struck all three of them.

“We’ve been set up! Run!”

Almost simultaneously, Chen Ke, Priskin, and Hall, disregarding the gunfire and bullets, ran for their lives with all their might. They had only gotten a few dozen meters out when the black van behind them exploded.

The scorching heatwave and shock wave blew the three men onto the main road. Chen Ke was the first to recover, grabbing Hall and Priskin by the arms and dashing behind a nearby bus for cover.

“Damn it, if they wanted to blow it up, why wait until we opened the door!” Chen Ke cursed bitterly.

“They were mocking us! Those bastards!” Hall scrambled up, grabbing Chen Ke’s shoulder to stand.

“Who?” Chen Ke asked.

“I don’t know! But I’d bet it’s related to the job Hainerd pulled last night!” Hall fumed.

“We should get going, listen!” Priskin pulled out a handheld radio.

“…all units be advised…S.W.A.T is en route to support…” The police radio frequency had been intercepted, and choppy voices played through, indicating that the cops were about to step up their game.

“Our car, where is it!?” Chen Ke asked.

“Forget about the getaway car, we have to run for it now!” Priskin roared.

“Over there! To the supermarket!” Hall grabbed his phone that had just been shaken loose and pointed to a small supermarket by the road.

Without another word, the three of them vaulted over the hood of a private car and sprinted towards the small supermarket. Behind them, the sound of sirens blared; the County Police reinforcements had arrived.

Several transport vehicles that Chen Ke couldn’t identify, mixed with a formation of police cruisers, surged into the district. They were the special vehicles of Opportunity City’s S.W.A.T., bulletproofed and bearing the police crest on their sides.

Among them was also a Ford F550—four doors, six seats—likely the command vehicle. That car was impressive and authoritative, with a spacious interior and powerful engine. Chen Ke mused about getting one for himself after making some money.

But now was not the time for such thoughts; those SWAT officers weren’t here to spectate. They were fully armed and immediately split into two groups to encircle upon disembarking.

Chen Ke had originally assumed the S.W.A.T. would be equipped with MP5 submachine guns firing 9mm pistol rounds, but discovered they were all holding compact automatic rifles, either the HK416 or the M4A1.

While he didn’t want to make enemies with the cops—after all, assaulting an officer was a very serious offense—if they really posed a threat to him, Chen Ke would still fight back.

With his life measured in hours, he wouldn’t sit idle waiting to be shot on the spot by the police, nor would he allow himself to be imprisoned, because for Chen Ke, imprisonment equates to a death sentence.

Chen Ke joined the courier group with very utilitarian intentions. At first, he just wanted a stable guide for monster-killing, so he wouldn’t have to chance it blindly like a headless fly. The opportunity to snatch Holy Relics and indirectly investigate Si’s consortium was pure serendipity; otherwise, he would not have joined an organization on a whim.

Once the organization failed to serve his purpose, or if the group’s modus operandi hindered his actions, Chen Ke would break those rules on the spot and act on his own.

And now, Chen Ke was facing such a situation.

“Get down, everyone f*cking get down!” Priskin kicked open the glass door of the small supermarket, only to find it had already been deserted.

Chen Ke and Hall leaped over the cashier’s counter and found the supermarket’s back door.

“Let’s go out the back and circle through the alley to evade them.”

Hall reached for the door, but a gunshot suddenly rang out from the other side. It sounded like a shotgun.

“Police! Put down your weapon!”

Four S.W.A.T. officers burst in instantly, pinning Hall to the ground. Priskin, almost on instinct, pointed his gun at the S.W.A.T. officers, but before he could pull the trigger, he was pinned down by the firepower of two MP5s, forcing him to scurry for cover behind the shelves.

“Murderous aura: -40”

“Murderous aura: 10/50”

“on the ground now!”

Chen Ke pulled out his PPQ.45 and shouted at the four S.W.A.T. officers. Behind him, a faint red murderous aura invisible to the average person began to rise.

Murderous aura trigger!

That faint red murderous aura surged towards the S.W.A.T., like a mist that could kill. Once it enveloped them, they inexplicably stopped shooting and slowly placed their guns on the ground, hands on their heads and kneeling.

“What the hell is this…” Hall who was pinned to the ground watched the scene before him in astonishment, not understanding why the four officers were intimidated by Chen Ke.

But now he had no interest in understanding why—he was free and needed to keep running!

Priskin peeked out and was also stunned by the sight before him. He couldn’t quite believe it, hesitating to crawl out from behind the freezer.

“What are you waiting for! Let’s go!” Chen Ke urged, knowing full well that the S.W.A.T. being fooled was only temporary—who knows when they would come to their senses?

After battling the toad god and absorbing its mutated soul, not only had Chen Ke’s lifespan limit increased, but the effectiveness of his murderous aura had also been enhanced. Previously, even for the Black People bodyguard at the gun shop, Chen Ke had to spend 40 points of murderous aura to intimidate him, but now, facing the fully-armed S.W.A.T., it only took 10 points of murderous aura per person.

The murderous aura trigger would be Chen Ke’s most powerful control Skill—if only he could find a way to strengthen this ability alone!

The three of them escaped through the back door of the small supermarket into the back alley, when suddenly Priskin’s handheld radio started beeping. He pressed the talk button.

“Hey guys, I shook off those cops, I’m in the alley across from Andrew House Jewelry Store. Can you make it?” It was the voice of the getaway vehicle’s driver.

Hearing this message, all three were elated and immediately made their way towards the destination.