Chapter 270: Initiative
Su Hao was suddenly attacked, thrown backward, and fell to the ground.
Bystanders were puzzled, unaware of what had happened.
Some sensed trouble and quietly left.
A sniper in the distance, confirming the hit through the scope, smirked, “Nice!”
The observer beside him casually smiled, then spoke into his earpiece, “Team Zhiniao, mission accomplished!”
He put away the binoculars, patted his companion, and said, “Let’s go, job done!”
The sniper proudly stated, “Hey! These summoners might be powerful, but a gentle squeeze of the trigger, snap, and they’re gone.”
The observer teased, “If a summoner tried to assassinate you, you wouldn’t escape.”
The sniper dismissively replied, “‘Cut’ – they’re no match.
At the Summoner Sanctuary, at the office door, a man in a suit with thick eyebrows approached Pan Fengxuan, saying, “Boss, the assigned task is completed!”
Pan Fengxuan nodded, waved his hand without speaking.
The man in the suit quietly withdrew and left the office.
…
A sniper shot Su Hao in the forehead; the skin peeled back, revealing a gleaming protective layer.
Su Hao’s brain protection was constant, maintaining a ‘Steel Armor’ state and ‘Level 2-Hardening’ and ‘Level 2-Deflection’ effects.
Ordinary weapons couldn’t inflict fatal wounds on him.
Upon confirming the sniper’s actions in the distance, the skin on Su Hao’s forehead rapidly regenerated. With a casual wipe, he removed the blood, leaving it as good as new.
Su Hao quickly got up, moved to a blind spot in the camera, transformed the ground beneath his feet into steel, and slowly sank underground, disappearing.
As Su Hao traversed underground, he approached the two target snipers swiftly, a fiery determination emanating from within.
To his surprise, Pan Fengxuan had already taken action!
Su Hao had been preemptively attacked! A first since obtaining the ‘Perception’ rune.
Reflecting on it, every previous encounter had been initiated by him.
However, this time, he lost the initiative.
Su Hao summarized the reasons:
1. Information asymmetry:
In this world, Su Hao possessed immense power to eliminate any enemy. Simultaneously, the world had highly advanced weapons capable of taking him down. Whoever had the information advantage held the initiative and would be the ultimate victor.
2. Due to Morning Sun Courtyard’s connection, Su Hao was cautious:
Considering himself a free-spirited individual, Su Hao did what he pleased as long as he could bear the consequences. However, Morning Sun Courtyard provided him with a period of smooth transition. Out of gratitude, he had kept a low profile all these years, fearing to bring disastrous consequences to Morning Sun Courtyard and, as a result, slightly slowed down his learning pace.
After involuntarily focusing on the Summon Beast Management Bureau, problems arose as soon as he began to act!
Su Hao reviewed his plan and found no issues, except for one contradiction: no matter what Su Hao did, as long as he demonstrated his value, he would inevitably become a target for various factions, ultimately involving Morning Sun Courtyard.
Of course, perhaps Su Hao could use a pseudonym, join the management bureau as a genius researcher, and incidentally include the entire Morning Sun Courtyard under the bureau’s protection. This would be very safe and reliable.
However, there were many problems with this approach:
For example, the core personnel of the management bureau are all from the top ten families. Su Hao, an outsider, would end up being exploited by others.
For example, as a genius, if he showcased himself at the bureau and requested to join, why should the bureau trust him?
The key point is that Su Hao prefers unrestrained learning and research.
In other words, Su Hao also wants to be ‘unbridled.’
“I can’t wait. After this competition, I’ll leave Morning Sun Courtyard!”
For his convenience and considering Morning Sun Courtyard, Su Hao and Yashan aren’t originally part of Morning Sun Courtyard.
Bai Jingzhong and Bai Jingyi were supposed to be taken away by traffickers at the age of five.
With that in mind, Su Hao sped up.
Soon, Su Hao arrived underground where the two snipers were. As the snipers walked on the surface and turned into an alley, the ground rippled like water.
“What’s this?” The two snipers were shocked. Before they could think too much, a strong armor suddenly rose around them like a giant wave, tightly enclosing them, then pulling them underground. In a moment, the area returned to normal, the alley silent as if the two had vanished into thin air.
After a moment, Su Hao slowly rose from a corner. As for the two snipers, Su Hao had already forgotten where he buried them.
“Next is Pan Fengxuan!” Su Hao walked to the street, blending into the gradually departing crowd.
Soon, Su Hao looked up at the towering skyscraper in front, and the person he was looking for, Pan Fengxuan, was on the 103rd floor of this building.
Although this building seemed no different from others, it was not. The defense here was extremely tight, with various summoned beasts patrolling and defending all day, high-tech devices monitoring any anomalies in real-time.
Moreover, regular elevators could only go up to the 80th floor; going higher required a special elevator, subject to multiple layers of monitoring.
Summoned beasts were deployed to defend against various strange abilities, executing assassination missions.
Since the construction of the Summoner Sanctuary Tower for many years, there had been no accidents, earning it the title of the “world’s safest place.”
However, this couldn’t stump Su Hao.
Su Hao transformed the ground into surging steel and infiltrated underground, moving beneath the skyscraper.
Soon, Su Hao encountered obstacles; moving forward, thick steel plates blocked his way in various positions.
“The underground of this building is absurdly covered with thick steel plates from all directions!”
The ‘Blood-Flesh Assimilation’ ability had a terrifyingly low conversion efficiency when encountering high-density materials. But for Su Hao, it was no problem; after all, he was never short of vitality!
With great force, as long as there was enough vitality, no matter how thick the steel plate, he could convert it.
Su Hao placed his hand on the steel plate, and vitality cells surged.
Two minutes later, a circular hole opened before him, allowing him to pass through. Su Hao successfully entered the interior of the building.
“Next, find load-bearing columns and ascend along the columns…”
The load-bearing columns were thick, so Su Hao merely temporarily carved a groove inside—no significant problem.
So, the so-called ‘safe haven’ of this building was because it hadn’t encountered Su Hao!
…
“Beep beep beep!”
The man in the thick-browed suit’s earpiece lightly sounded, and he pressed the answer key, “Tianfeng.”
A voice came through the earphones, “Dilong, we’ve lost contact with Team Zhiniao. The last contact was half an hour ago! Surveillance shows that after entering an alley, they haven’t come out. We investigated but found nothing.”
The man in the thick-browed suit immediately said, “Initiate a search, Level: 2.”
“Roger!”
After hanging up the phone, just as he was about to knock on the office door, a pillar on his side suddenly deformed. A sharp steel spike thrust out, instantly piercing through his head, emerging from the other end with a hint of blood.
The steel spike transformed, wrapping around the man in the suit and slowly pulling him back.
Even in death, the man’s eyes remained wide open, his body limp as the steel armor pulled him into the pillar, disappearing.
Everything returned to calm.
Just a moment ago, a living person mysteriously vanished.
This scene was reminiscent of a ghost story!
Immediately after, Su Hao walked out from the pillar, holding a handgun taken from the man in the suit. He checked it, released the safety, and then pushed the door open.
Pan Fengxuan exhaled a cloud of smoke, casually saying, “Why didn’t you knock?”
Then a gun was pressed against his head.
Pan Fengxuan froze.
“Bang!”
(End of this chapter)
