Chapter Seventy-Eight: A World-Shaking Gift

“What a pity.”

Seeing that the second shot had missed its target, Zhou Shu sighed inwardly. However, he immediately pressed the button on his earpiece, ordering several drones to be redirected, and summoned two squads of soldiers who had just finished their sweep and were preparing to return to base to go directly to the building and block the exits.

After saying a word to Zhuang Yong'an, who was in charge of coordination, he set down the heavy sniper rifle, picked up a precision rifle, and ran toward the building as well.

This was the advantage of being part of the national team. He was now an Exorcist in the Demon Suppression Division, equivalent to a squad leader, but even a step above the usual squad leaders—one word from him could mobilize people at will.

Just moments before, he had been closely watching the entrance when a sudden chill ran down his spine—his “Vigilance” ability activated.

And the sense of danger did not come from the biopharmaceutical company in front of him, but from above at an angle.

This was the same feeling as being watched back in the apartment complex, except this time, the malice was palpable.

He turned his head, and with vision far sharper than ordinary people, he immediately spotted two figures on the rooftop of a building diagonally across from him. Raising his sniper rifle and peering through the scope, their faces became clear.

One was a woman as thin as a bamboo pole, the other a burly foreign man.

It was obvious at a glance that these two were not of good character—evil practically radiated from their faces.

Moreover, the public had already been evacuated from this area. Standing at the edge of a rooftop at this time—no one would be up there, not even to jump.

Most telling of all was the malice they directed at him, which immediately triggered a warning from his “Vigilance” ability.

Not just bad people—not even fully human.

And knowing that monsters could shapeshift, he trusted his “Vigilance” more than what his eyes told him.

He fired without hesitation, the shot exploding the man’s head in a spray of black blood.

There was no mistake.

But when he fired the second shot, the woman proved herself alert; though hit in the head, it seemed the kill was incomplete.

He quickly rushed toward the building, leaving one squad to continue blocking the exit while he led another squad, equipped with life-detection gear, to sweep the building floor by floor.

The drones outside found no sign of the target escaping, so she must still be inside. Just as they were about to reach the top floor, Zhou Shu received word from the team blocking the exit—a report that the woman had jumped out of a window on the sixteenth floor.

She had leapt an astonishing distance through the air, smashed through the window of the building across the street, and disappeared inside.

The soldiers at the exit hurriedly directed the drones over and immediately saw her leap again from another window, crossing yet another incredible gap into a third building.

Inside the first building, Zhou Shu’s squad listened in stunned silence to the report coming through their earpieces. Zhou Shu rushed to the window and roughly estimated the distance between the two buildings.

Approximately twenty-two meters!

The world record for the long jump with a running start was not even nine meters, and she had cleared over twenty!

Damn!

The strongest member of the Dongyuan Demon Suppression Division, Zhang Fei’ang, had a power radiance rating above 210—translating to at least a 2.1 in attributes—and his best running long jump was twenty-five meters.

Granted, his massive weight factored in—he stood like a human tower.

This woman was willowy, probably lightweight, yet she could leap twenty-two meters. Her power attribute must be at least 1.7, and to land so precisely through one window and into another, her agility must also be high.

As for Zhou Shu, there was no way he could make that jump—his own power was 1.1, and with a running start, he’d be lucky to clear fourteen meters.

This woman truly was on another level.

She must have realized that with this super sniper leading a squad of fully armed soldiers meticulously sweeping the building, her chances of escape were slim—so she’d chosen to jump out the window. Otherwise, she might have tried to charge down through the entrance.

The soldiers at the exit ultimately lost track of her, and Zhou Shu’s team reached the rooftop to check for any remaining traces.

While the soldiers scoured the rooftop for unusual clues, Zhou Shu went straight to the spot where the man had been killed.

Running his hand over the corpse, he found 1.4 units of primal energy.

That meant the man’s average attribute was at least 2.3, with his highest attribute possibly exceeding 2.5.

Damn, good thing he’d been killed with a 12.7mm tungsten-core armor-piercing round to the head.

Otherwise, he would have been a real problem.

And since the woman had been standing with the man and her strength was no less than 1.7, with other attributes likely above 2 as well, it was just as well that she’d chosen not to fight—Zhou Shu’s team could avoid casualties.

This battle, in a word, was a stroke of luck.

After collecting a bloodstained lock of long hair, he led his team away.

He reported the incident over the comm channel to Zhuang Yong’an, who pondered for a moment. Seeing that the area at the entrance had been cleared, Zhuang decisively ordered Sun Congliang to lead the assault on Alpha Company.

Sun Congliang, clad in a powered exoskeleton and wielding a heavy riot shield, was flanked by two others with wheeled riot shields, and more followed behind, armed with a variety of light and heavy weapons.

They swept in with unstoppable force.

By the time Zhou Shu and his team returned to the company entrance, the assault squad had effectively completed their mission. More teams poured in to clean up and rescue any survivors.

When the technicians in white overalls got out of the equipment vehicles, the operation was, for all intents and purposes, complete.

But before anyone had time to analyze the details, news from around the world left them all stunned.

The Eagle Federation, the Lone Star Republic, Maya, District 11, the Iron Alliance, the Peacock Dynasty, Babylon, Menes, Bourbon, Weimar, Albion...

Every major power and region across the globe was reporting “monster” incidents. It wasn’t that other countries or regions were unaffected—their influence was simply too small, their news drowned out by bigger stories.

In a single day, everyone on Earth knew that monsters existed. Attacks were breaking out everywhere.

Some monsters charged into crowds to devour people; armies rolled into cities, gunfire erupted, buildings were blown up.

“They’re aliens, definitely aliens—alien monsters! My brother Tom was killed by them—I knew it, I knew it!” Jerry, who’d been interviewed a month ago, appeared on the news again.

“I don’t know what happened. Suddenly, a monster rushed out and ate my husband, then my neighbor killed it with a single punch. Thank God, thank you for giving me a neighbor who’s a boxer—I’ll never complain about his noisy training again,” sobbed an elderly woman.

“Oh my God, it was insane! Look at those soldiers—a monster ran into a building and they didn’t want to go in after it, so they blew up the whole place. Sure, it was abandoned, but I know there were homeless people living there. Oh God! Motherf—!” exclaimed a thick-lipped man with a musician’s flair.

Beyond the news, social media was flooded with shock and fear, calls for someone to take charge.

No major governments had yet issued statements—it was unclear if they were focusing on quelling the chaos or if there were other concerns.

Not to mention other countries—even within the Great Qin, unrest was widespread.

In some places, the response was too slow, allowing monsters to slip into cities.

In others, the response was timely, but due to insufficient manpower, only some monsters were eliminated at the outbreak site, and the rest still managed to infiltrate urban areas.

Most of the monsters that made it into the cities were mutated beasts.

Their movements were swift—while no match for fully armed soldiers one-on-one, they were more than enough to threaten ordinary people.

After all, even a normal animal can be dangerous to a person.

Among all the reports, Dongyuan City’s results shone brightly.

Not a single monster made it into the city, and none of the soldiers were killed—only a few sustained injuries.

Anyone with eyes could see the key: the “super soldiers” in powered exoskeletons and the superhuman sniper.

Or perhaps the true linchpin was a man named Zhou Shu.