Chapter 169: Rainy Night

Dark clouds obscured the moonlight; the early spring rain still carried a faint chill, yet it could not stop the neon glow of He Zujie.

The clock on the entertainment district's billboard had just struck midnight, when the looping advertisement screen suddenly went black, followed immediately by a flickering, dangerous crimson glow.

Amid the shrill alarm, a large animated screen above a pachinko parlor exploded violently, and a masked woman in a black bodysuit burst forth from the sparks—looking like a ninja straight out of a screen.

"Full lockdown initiated. Lisu District under martial law. All citizens must immediately cease all movement and undergo identity verification. Repeat: full lockdown initiated…"

The mechanical synthesized voice repeated the announcement in Giant He Xing, English, and Chinese; the pedestrians on the street erupted into chaos. Whether drunken men in izakayas, tea masters conversing with customers at their workstations, or even oddly shaped Giant He Xing beings, all froze in place at once.

Lasers emerged from every corner of the street, weaving into crimson light nets that swept over passersby—yet the ninja-clad girl continued desperately fleeing.

Her mechanically textured tactical boots splashed through puddles; the refractive layer of her combat suit rippled in the rain, dissolving her silhouette into a phantom of neon.

The lasers that had nearly locked onto her instantly lost their target—but before the shrill alarm could subside, three mechs smashed through the wooden curtain of an izakaya and burst onto the main thoroughfare from nowhere.

The previously calm pedestrians scattered in panic; only a few drunkards remained frozen in place. But the mechs clearly had no regard for human lives—their scanners' crosshairs danced wildly along alley walls as they charged forward, crushing the street and firing capture rounds toward suspected target zones.

The girl, now invisible, cursed these aliens under her breath but never paused her movements; the bandage-like structure on her body trembled slightly, and her muscles, stimulated by the device, erupted with astonishing power.

She kicked off a vending machine, leapt onto the fire escape, and with one swift hook, flipped onto the rooftop.

The capture round landed almost instantly where she had been, spraying thick gel that sealed everything around it in sticky clumps.

Her visor displayed the approaching mechs; she bit her lip, drew a vial from her waist, and jabbed it into her thigh. She knew the enemy used non-lethal weapons only to avoid collateral damage to Giant He Xing residents and tourists—once they left the bustling district, the rounds fired at her would no longer be gel projectiles under three hundred meters per second.

But she had to press forward!

The drug surged into her artery; her mind surged with excitement, her gear reactivated, and performance exceeding her body's limits exploded once more—her heartbeat, previously slowed, pounded again like a drum.

She didn't care about burning her life away; all she thought of now was carrying forward the hope won by the lives of her seventeen companions, and breaking free from this cage!

"Military-grade microwave detection detected." As the synthesized voice sounded in her ear, her combat suit tightened sharply; the enhanced units triggered muscle feedback, and the running girl shot forward like a flea.

The leap left no flaw—but laser weapons were still faster.

An orange beam swept past; her body, already twenty meters away, only then spurted blood.

A massive gash on her left abdomen nearly severed her spine; the combat suit's built-in medical gel immediately gushed out, sealing her shattered organs and vessels.

The recently injected drug allowed her to endure the excruciating pain that would have knocked anyone else unconscious; under firm neural commands, her gear drove her limbs to keep running.

Groans of bodies being crushed echoed intermittently along the street—even the brawling thugs wisely chose to avoid the area.

The girl, fallen from the rooftop, pushed herself up and immediately resumed running without pause.

Her vision had grown dim; medical gel mixed with blood dripped from the suit's tears. Multiple fractures from her overtaxed burst of speed had numbed her lower limbs—yet the red dots on her tactical visor kept increasing, and even the street's advertising screens now displayed crimson text—

"Surrender immediately. Euthanasia authorized."

"Hah!" With a soft laugh, the girl ignored the declaration that might as well have locked her fate, pulled out her last vial, and pressed it against her neck, injecting it into her body.

The stimulant flooding her brain revived her spirits; her battered combat suit seemed to draw fresh resources. Seeing the red dots closing in on her visor, she constructed a new route.

She, at this moment—or rather, since the moment she became the last one left—knew survival was impossible. But at least, she would pass on this hope!

Calculating the surrounding streets, the shops along the way, the pursuing forces behind her, and the known positions of surveillance, the girl activated her suit's overload module. New energy erupted once more—yet…

"How is this possible?" The girl, sprinting toward her chosen place of death, suddenly felt the surroundings were unfamiliar. She checked her tactical visor—it had begun displaying errors. The route she had traversed countless times now looked utterly alien.

"Where am I?" The girl stared at the familiar yet strange street. The map of Yuta City, once etched into her mind, showed no district matching this place.

Though her instincts screamed caution, she knew she could not stop now. She had reached here only by sheer willpower; all her sacrifices would be in vain if she faltered.

Then, a warm light appeared in this cold rainy night—a plump, adorable Bai Tu glowed in the darkness, without crimson warnings or shrill sirens. Everything felt unreal, making the girl wonder if she had already died.

"'Yutu Pharmacy'… I recall it appearing in intel. Something like an urban legend—a 'clandestine clinic' that only opens at night…"

The girl frowned but had no intention of entering the suspicious-looking pharmacy. She gritted her teeth and walked toward the end of the street…

"Bang!"

"Ugh, why so stubborn!" The pharmacy door suddenly swung open; a weary voice came from within. Feng Xue looked down at the girl who had completely lost consciousness and retracted Mo Ying.

"Yunxi, help carry her inside! Be gentle!"

(Something like this, but the gear is black.)

(Probably looks like this without gear.)

(End of chapter.)