While the front line raged, Xiao Han watched the distant battle from the logistics zone.
He had seen planetary annihilation. But this low-tech ground warfare? It had a certain charm. The gunpowder, the smoke, pure battlefield atmosphere. Made the silent, surgical high condensation energy cannons and ion cannons look almost civilised by comparison.
He sat in the black truck's cargo hold. His two minders stood guard outside, glued to the vehicle like he might bolt any second.
Lin Yao's voice crackled through the earpiece.
"Bro Xiao. We're with the core team, pulling out now. I've planted the virus. Can cut their comms anytime."
"Nice work."
"Oh, and Lambet found something. The inner base's structure is reinforced. Blast proofing, looks like."
Xiao Han's brow furrowed. The pieces clicked.
The outer base wasn't just bait. It was a grave. Packed with explosives, probably. The moment any attacker stepped inside, boom. Everyone rides the shockwave to heaven. And the collapse would bury everything, making the inner base even harder to find.
"One trap layered on another." Xiao Han shook his head. Even if he warned them now, too late. Not that he was inclined to try.
His own plan? Finally at the finish line.
He stood, gathering his gear. Everything, weapons, the truck's valuable components, stuffed into a bulging pack. He called to the guards outside. "Oi. Give me a hand with this. It's heavy."
The two soldiers hopped into the cargo hold without a second thought, bending to lift the pack.
The instant they leaned in, Xiao Han moved. Two crisp, good old-fashioned friendship sneak attacks, right to the backs of their necks. The soldiers crumpled, unconscious before they hit the floor.
Xiao Han eased the cargo door shut. Quickly change into one soldier's uniform. The mask, the one he had worn constantly, came off. He activated the mimic mask, face shifting to something new. Pack slung over his shoulder, he strolled out, melted into the logistics unit as if he had always been there.
---
Three minutes earlier.
The adjutant rushed back. "Sir. The Bureau 13 team's here. But Xiao Han's gone."
Kelte's head snapped around. "Gone?!"
"The guards watching him, both knocked out. The logistics unit's been questioned. No one saw him leave."
Kelte opened his mouth to respond. Then
*BOOM.*
A cataclysmic roar swallowed everything. He flinched, spinning toward the sound.
The mountain shook. The ground trembled under their feet. Every soldier's face went white.
Raven Valley base had just self-destructed.
The whole structure collapsed. The entrance was buried under tonnes of rubble. Hundreds of elite soldiers inside, trapped. Dead.
Kelte's face went through shock, rage, and horror.
Walked right into it. The enemy's trap, at the last moment. Pointless losses. And the base itself? Gone. The "victory" meant nothing now.
This falls on me. The commander.
Kelte's jaw tightened. Xiao Han's suggestion echoed in his mind. If he had listened... maybe... But with his temperament, in that moment, he knew he would make the same call again. The thought only fuelled his frustration. He slammed a fist into the command vehicle's wall.
Losses were brutal. Kelte bled inside. He rattled off orders, trying to steady the troops.
When the Bureau 13 operatives arrived, his voice was ice. "Your teammate's missing. Explain."
"Xiao Han's missing again?!" The Bureau 13 team exchanged bewildered looks.
Wait. Why "again"?
Qi Baijia's vision darkened.
Not this shit again!
Zhang Wei and Li Yalin? They took it in stride. A knowing look passed between them, veterans now. Almost a hint of superiority.
Rogue ops? That was just Xiao Han being Xiao Han. Get used to it. He is definitely off causing chaos somewhere.
Li Yalin sniffed, turning to Kelte. "If he hadn't dug up that intel, you would have blown up the outer base and thought the job was done. You would not even know the enemy got away."
Kelte's mind worked. She was right. If Raven Valley were rebuilt in secret later, he would be the one they came for.
"You have more intel?" The question slipped out before he could stop it.
Zhang Wei swallowed his disgust. "Two of our people are embedded in the evacuation convoy. Once we have confirmed their route, they will feed us the coordinates."
Kelte's eyes lit up. "Tell me the moment you hear."
He had not expected Xiao Han to be this thorough. Perfect. Losses were steep, but this was his chance to claw back something, intercept the core enemy unit. Maybe mitigate his own screw-up.
Ten kilometres from Raven Valley base, in an unremarkable patch of wilderness, Pan Kuang, Ji Jie, and over two hundred core members drove out of a hidden tunnel. Their vehicles were loaded with supplies, all of it valuable data from Raven Valley.
"Reckon the Hai Xia lot think they've won by now?" Ji Jie couldn't help a mocking smile.
Pan Kuang glanced at him. "Don't let your guard down."
Ji Jie nodded and signalled the convoy to pick up the pace.
Another two hours, and they would reach a hidden airfield. Several Black Harrier helicopters and a small transport plane waited there.
In the convoy, Lin Yao and Lambet both received Zhang Wei's order through their earpieces. They exchanged a look. Time was up.
Lin Yao pulled out a tablet and quietly activated the virus he had planted in the enemy's comms network.
"Kssshhh--"
Every earpiece in the convoy screeched with static. The passengers flinched, tearing the devices off.
Ji Jie frowned, about to order the lead vehicle to stop for a comms check, when the sound hit them. Engines. Distant at first, then closing in from all directions.
"Get down!" Pan Kuang's face went rigid. He grabbed Ji Jie and yanked him to the ground just as the first shots rang out.
A storm of bullets raked the convoy from every angle. Grenades lobbed into the vehicles, flipping them, fire blooming.
Lambet grabbed Lin Yao and flung them both clear, rolling into the treeline, out of the kill zone.
Ji Jie's face went white. His trap, turned against him. Who had leaked?
"Run!"
Before he could process the shock, Pan Kuang was dragging him into the forest.
---
Through the trees, Kelte's face burned with excitement. His troops had the core enemy unit surrounded. This was it. His last chance to salvage something.
Some distance away, Xiao Han, face altered by the mimic mask, drove a stolen jeep. Thermal imager in hand, he scanned the battlefield's edges. There. His target. Pan Kuang, dragging Ji Jie, breaking through the cordon. Soldiers and jeeps that gave chase were carved apart by Pan Kuang's blade. The pair vanished into the treeline.
Xiao Han tracked them through the thermal scope. Then he swung wide, circling around to fall in behind them, hundreds of metres back.
"Vehicle. Following." Pan Kuang glanced over his shoulder. Through the gaps in the trees, he caught a glimpse of the jeep. The engine note carried.
He wanted to double back, kill the tail. But every time he turned, the jeep reversed course, keeping its distance. A leech. Pan Kuang figured it was a spotter, radioing their position back to the main force. More troops would be coming. He couldn't stop. He dragged Ji Jie on, burning through his stamina.
"If we can just reach the hidden hangar." That was the play. The helicopters. Pan Kuang was strong, but even he would bleed out eventually against an entire battalion. The pressure kept him moving, ignoring Ji Jie, who was starting to foam at the mouth.
Twenty minutes of pursuit. The sounds of battle faded behind them.
"Close enough." Xiao Han checked the military map he had liberated from the logistics unit. He plotted their likely route, then gunned it. The jeep was faster. He looped around, getting ahead, and stopped at a low cliff, maybe fifteen metres high, that their path would force them to pass.
He killed the engine. Gear on. All of it.
Lightweight power arm, vibarating modified version, slid onto his left forearm. The magnetic extension armour case clipped to his belt. Twin Eagles holstered on his hips. His last ten delayed explosives he buried in a circle around his position, five metres out. Tripwire linked all the pins. One yank, and they all go.
He scavenged a sniper rifle from the logistics supplies. He lay prone on the cliff edge, scope trained on the treeline where they would emerge. Still. Waiting.
---
Ji Jie was wrecked. Face the colour of old cabbage, lungs burning. He wasn't an superpower. Stamina shot. If Pan Kuang weren't dragging him, he would have collapsed miles ago.
Pan Kuang's voice was ice. "Move. They could be right behind us. We need to reach the hangar."
They burst from the trees. Open ground ahead. A low cliff.
Ji Jie's legs gave out. He crumpled, gasping. "I... I can't."
Pan Kuang's jaw tightened. He wanted to leave the dead weight. But he couldn't. Ji Jie's sister ran one of the organisation's intelligence networks. Too well connected.
"Maybe you could carry me, that way..."
Ji Jie started to speak. He got half a sentence out.
*CRACK.*
Sniper fire.
Pan Kuang reacted, throwing himself back.
The shot wasn't for him.
Ji Jie's head snapped sideways, like a punch. A hole punched through his left cheek. The round tumbled through his skull, blowing the right side of his face apart. Blood and flesh sprayed. His expression froze. He crumpled. Dead before he hit the ground.
[[Decapitation 2]Completed. Contribution 100%. You have earned 40,000 XP!]
Pan Kuang's pupils contracted to pinpricks. Blade free, he sprinted toward the shot.