Xie Litang closed the bank vault.
She walked all the way toward the old district.
Chen Linling's voice came through her earpiece, transmitted via the signal base stations deployed throughout the city.
In the courtyard of a residential house, Xie Litang cut some wild grass that was still somewhat damp.
"Sis, will this really work?"
Chen Linling's suspicious voice came through the earpiece.
"Little Sister, you have to trust me. Forget modern satellites—even with Old Era satellites, if you burned a bit of straw, they'd still capture a picture of it."
Xie Litang's train of thought was not complex.
Since the people from the Department of Military Affairs were coming for her.
At a minimum, they would be able to deduce her general direction. Given the authority of general-rank officers in the Department of Military Affairs, requisitioning the computing power of a satellite was perfectly reasonable, right?
So she would give them a precise, specific location—the exact location she wanted them to know.
"Sis, are you eating heated canned food again?"
"I have no choice. I'd love to eat burgers, fried chicken, and bottomless refills of Coke too."
The two of them sensibly knew when to stop.
Neither brought up the topic again.
Munching on the heated canned food and compressed biscuits, Xie Litang looked entirely soulless.
Far away in low Earth orbit, a satellite precisely captured that curl of smoke rising from the old city.
Hundreds of kilometers away.
Inside the command tent of the joint military exercise.
"We finally found her."
A Major-rank officer picked up the dossiers, handed them out, and said, "This is our target this time, Xie Litang. An S-Grade wanted criminal who committed crimes against humanity, the perpetrator of the Jianghai College Entrance Examination Tragedy, and a terrorist."
"She's an E-Grade ability user, though her ability may have mutated, so her precise rank is unknown."
"Upon discovery, ask no questions and execute her on the spot."
"The code name for this operation:"
"'Funerary Sacrifice.'"
This time, to surround and suppress Xie Litang.
They had dispatched two special forces squads, commanded by Major Jiang Youde with Ten-Star strength, led by two Eight-Star Lieutenants, plus twenty elite special forces operatives.
A total of twenty-three people.
Especially those special forces operatives.
Supposedly, they were all geniuses recruited from top universities, or prodigies from the Department of Military Affairs' own academy—in short, not a single mediocrity among those who made it into the special forces.
Yet precisely because of this, the two teams did not seem particularly cohesive.
Ordinary soldiers were defined by seriousness and discipline above all else.
However, the individuals in these two squads possessed exceptionally strong personalities.
They were geniuses, after all.
Having a bit of personality was only natural.
Pop~
A pink-haired girl popped the bubble she was chewing.
Don't ask why she could dye her hair and chew gum in a place like this—if you asked, it was the privilege of being a genius.
The pink-haired girl glanced at the dossier and sneered, "That's it? Deploying this many of us just to deal with a piece of trash like her?"
Jiang Youde's brows furrowed as he spoke with slight displeasure, "Xu Ling, mind your tone."
The pink-haired girl, Xu Ling, snorted coldly and curled her lip. "Did I say anything wrong? So what if her E-Grade ability mutated? It's only been a few months total. Can she ascend to the heavens or something? Trash is trash in the end."
Jiang Youde frowned deeply and said, "I recall that I had all of you watch her combat videos?"
Xu Ling spat out her gum and said carelessly, "Of course we watched them. Her strength only looks to be around Seven-Star or Eight-Star. When any three of us team up, it's not like we haven't hunted Seven-Star or even higher-level demon beasts before."
"Xu Ling, remember never to underestimate the enemy."
"Relax, Major. You're just overestimating her. I'm taking this operation as a vacation."
Xu Ling shrugged, popped in another piece of gum, and continued, "Besides her good looks, what else does that Xie Litang have?"
"She doesn't even have a high school diploma, whereas among us, even the worst is a genius selected from a top-ten university."
"If higher-ups hadn't named me personally, I wouldn't have even come."
"In short, an all-elite university roster against a high school dropout girl—the advantage is entirely ours."
Jiang Youde remained deeply frowning, but the others clearly agreed with Xu Ling's words.
After all, with one Ten-Star, two Eight-Stars, plus twenty elite special forces members above Five-Star, their average awakened ability grade was above B-Grade.
Whereas Xie Litang had only awakened a few months ago, and her initial start was a trash E-Grade.
This was practically a guaranteed crushing victory. They couldn't imagine how they could possibly lose.
Several vehicles soon left the joint military exercise site, speeding toward Luoyang City.
The vehicles did not travel particularly fast.
They didn't seem afraid that Xie Litang would run away either.
It was not until around two in the afternoon that the vehicles drove into Luoyang City.
The spot where Xie Litang had made the fire was already deserted.
Looking at the half-eaten heated can left on the ground, Xu Ling kicked it over with a face full of disgust. "Pfft, not only is she trash, she's a broke pauper too."
Perhaps out of overconfidence, or perhaps because they needed to split up to search for tracks.
The two squads quickly split up into three-person groups and began tracking through the old district.
Inside a dilapidated residential house.
Xie Litang touched her earpiece, through which Chen Linling's laugh came. "Sis, I heard them calling you a broke pauper through the listening device."
Xie Litang grit her teeth and said, "What's wrong with being poor? Did a broke pauper eat their rice?"
Chen Linling giggled softly behind her hand for a moment before continuing, "Alright, alright, let me share some good news with you."
"Tell me."
"Judging from the feed of the various cameras, they didn't bring any heavy weaponry. So the heaviest weapons you'll have to deal with, Sis, might just be tactical grenades."
"Then what weapons are they using?"
"Machine guns, pistols—they have all of those. However, factoring their facial expression data into psychological data models, it calculates that they don't seem to care much about those firearms."
"Linling, just give me a summary."
"The summary is that they're more confident in their own abilities."
"Got it."
"Sis, a three-person group is heading your way. The closest team to them is over two hundred meters away and will enter the intersection in twenty seconds. I'll turn on the mini signal jammer, giving you a five-minute window to act, provided you don't make too much noise."
Xie Litang thought for a moment and asked, "What kind of noise counts as 'too much'?"
Chen Linling replied directly, "Gunshots, screams, cries for help. The urban district is too empty right now, and the alleys create a corridor-like echo effect."
Xie Litang set up her sniper rifle in front of the window.
With a suppressor attached to the muzzle, firing it was equivalent to letting out a loud fart indoors.
Xie Litang pinched her earpiece and teased, "Linling, guess how long it'll take me to take them out?"
Chen Linling quickly responded, "I believe in your strength, Sis. There are three of them, so let's bet on three minutes."
What, three minutes?
Xie Litang expressed her dissatisfaction.
She was really being underestimated by her younger sister.
Rate on N.U.
