MDR and Sten, who had emptied their magazines, returned inside the van and quickly swapped them out.
"Commander, should we find a place to wipe out the ambushers, or just escape their fire range? Judging from the lack of gunfire, they're probably only equipped with crossbows."
Easily pushing the van's speed up to one hundred kilometers per hour while weaving past abandoned vehicles, UMP45 asked calmly.
"Drive four hundred meters, then stop. M99, kill them all."
Four hundred meters was well beyond the effective range of crossbows and most firearms. For people who had taken the initiative to attack him, Lux had no intention of letting them go.
"How could there be such despicable people, attacking the Commander when we didn't do anything at all!"
Sten said angrily after reloading.
"They probably got greedy when they saw Brother Lux's blade and our vehicle. There should only be two of them. After seeing that we have guns, they probably won't dare provoke us again."
"And one of them is already injured. If they abandon him, they'll lose at least one set of equipment. If they don't, they might be dragged down together. There's no need for us to waste bullets clearing out a sniper position. They'll die sooner or later anyway."
Lianne analyzed calmly.
"I said, they die."
Lux said flatly.
"Why? There's almost no reward, and it wastes ammunition that's hard to replenish."
Lianne asked in confusion. She didn't know that Lux, with the system, had no real shortage of ammunition. From her perspective, there was no reason to pursue two people who were already as good as dead.
"This is an exit route out of the city. We'll need to come back along this road later. If they're vengeful, all it takes is some tire spikes or steel nails to cause us serious trouble. Depending on the situation, we could even flip or crash."
"We also can't confirm whether they're part of some settlement or a special faction that's taken notice of us. That would be troublesome for me. Only dead people don't leak information, so they must die."
Lux's tone remained calm. The enemy had seen him casually touch a sedan and make it disappear, and they had seen the speed at which he rushed to HK416. If they were military, that would be a serious problem.
Letting them go might mean that next time he'd be captured by the military and dissected for experiments. And HK416 and the others beside him would face the danger of being dismantled and studied.
He couldn't afford that risk.
Lianne was smart, but she clearly hadn't faced truly serious danger before. Lux didn't believe she could be useful yet.
What he wanted was one hundred percent certainty of the attackers' deaths, not leaving any possibility.
This was already the seventh day after the apocalypse began. For them to obtain more than two silent weapons like crossbows meant that, as long as they were cautious, survival wouldn't have been difficult.
Since he had decided to live in this ruined world alongside the tactical dolls, he had to ensure absolute safety and eliminate every potential threat. That was the approach he had chosen.
"Miss 45, please stop here. This building will do."
M99 ignored Lainne's doubts and immediately selected a sniping position.
"MDR, stay in the van and protect Candice and Lianne. I'll take people down. UMP45, Sten, and AA-12, you three are free to fire. HK, focus on protecting M99."
Lux pulled open the door and jumped out first. Drawing his katana, he instantly severed the head of the zombie closest to the van.
Submachine-gun fire erupted. Lux charged ahead with the katana, clearing the way, while M99 hugged her sniper rifle tightly and followed close behind. HK416 kept a vigilant watch on their surroundings.
In less than three minutes, the three of them reached the rooftop of the Water Resources Bureau building.
M99 quickly set up the sniper rifle. Lux spent two hundred resource points from system storage to exchange for two military binoculars, then immediately scanned the area where he and HK416 had been ambushed, searching for their attackers.
---
"Damn it… where did that bastard get so many guns…"
A man's voice, strained with pain, spoke. His name was Ralph.
If Lux and HK416 had been there, they would have immediately recognized his voice as that of the man who had ambushed Lux.
"He probably got lucky and hit up a police station. Looks like a coward though, scared off by my attack. Hurry up and deal with your wound. We need to leave now. You know how sensitive zombies are to fresh blood."
The other man urged him seriously. His name was Gabe.
"Damn it, damn it! If we could get that vehicle and haul away the supplies from that small supermarket we found earlier, we wouldn't need to take risks for the next month. In times like this, why is it so hard to find a clean car?"
Ralph said through clenched teeth as he wrapped bandages around his gunshot wound. He knew he couldn't remove the bullet here.
"There aren't many people left. Most vehicles were destroyed on the first day."
Gabe replied calmly.
Ralph and Gabe were the very people who had ambushed Lux.
They were both hunting enthusiasts and close friends of many years. Since civilians weren't allowed to own firearms in the country, they had always hunted with bows and crossbows.
As a result, both of their crossbows were fitted with carefully calibrated scopes, and fortunately, both men had excellent talent.
Starting the apocalypse with such equipment, the two adapted quickly and soon descended into madness.
If they wanted something, they could just kill someone and take it. If they wanted women, death and hunger were enough to make them obediently offer their bodies.
For a time, they felt like winners in life. No more sucking up to superiors. After personally raping and killing the usually upright, iron-faced boss, they only grew more rampant.