The hostage’s identity gave the Mute an inexplicable sense of closeness. The enemy—terrorists—fueled an overwhelming hatred within him. The sliver of rationality he had managed to preserve finally began to crumble.

Qin Fen took a deep breath, looking up at the slightly sloped tunnel ahead. A familiar throbbing headache returned.

Arc shooting. He had only mastered the parallel arc trajectory on flat ground. Fancy arc shooting, as his longtime rival, the “Perennial Second Place” Gun King instructor, called it, was a truly advanced, perfect art. Learning it was no simple feat. Even Qin Zhan, in his time, had never managed to employ fancy arc shooting during actual combat.

Without the fancy arc, hitting the enemy entrenched in the tunnel was impossible. Qin Fen drew another deep breath. He retrieved the Barrett rifle, slowly closing his eyes, striving to focus his mind completely.

Arc shooting with a handgun was already rare among modern operators. Arc trajectory with sniper equipment was even rarer. As for fancy arc shooting with fancy arc sniper equipment?

The Barrett roared. The bullet grazed the hard rock surface, gouging a two-finger-deep furrow in the stone. The projectile ultimately failed to reach the enemy's head.

Qin Fen opened his eyes and grinned wryly. It seemed even standard sniper arc trajectory was immensely difficult. Fancy arc shooting? That was likely not something achievable through a simple, spontaneous surge of inner power.

“I’ll charge again,” the Mute stared hard at Qin Fen. “This time, I won’t lose my head.” “I’ll charge again.”

“I’ll charge again…”

In the minutes following each charge, the Mute would invariably request to initiate another assault.

This relentless sequence of rushes had already resulted in several new recruits being wounded in the legs, and four others being killed instantly, struck squarely in the forehead.

The sky had shifted from initial dawn to bright daylight. Qin Fen watched the watch on his wrist silently. Unconsciously, time had crept up to around ten in the morning.

“I’ll charge again…”

“No,” Qin Fen shook his head repeatedly. “We cannot continue this tactic of throwing lives away like reinforcements.”

All the new recruits understood that under these circumstances, there was only one way to complete the mission: throwing grenades! If they could just lob grenades into the enemy tunnel, the blast radius of a single device would be sufficient to overwhelm the enemy’s intersecting fields of fire. Even protected by body armor, the chances of survival would be almost zero.

“I’ll charge one more time…”

“No,” Qin Fen pointed toward the four corpses lying on the ground and asked flatly, “Is that not enough? Four men. Still not enough death? At worst, the mission fails. The military will send bombing runs. But the terrorists still have over a hundred men!”

The Mute fell silent. He looked quietly at the four bodies laid out. Not long ago, these four comrades had been living men. They died because they trusted him and followed his charges…

The other new recruits also lapsed into silence. Everyone tacitly accepted Qin Fen’s command.

“Qin Fen, do you read me?” Du Zhanpeng finally couldn’t wait any longer. He activated the radio communications link for the first time. “Can you hear me?”

“I read you,” Qin Fen replied coolly. “Enemy frontal fire is too intense. Breakthrough is impossible. Mission failure.”

“The mission cannot fail!” Du Zhanpeng’s normally negotiating tone snapped into a high-pressure, commanding roar. “Do you know who the hostage inside is? The chief designer of the Federation’s Nano-Battle Suit…”

The Mute, who had been silent moments before, suddenly had his eyes blaze with light again.

The Nano-Battle Suit. A type of combat garment frequently fantasized about on military websites. Its capabilities were immense, only slightly inferior to the prohibitively expensive Bio-Beasts, but its cost was vastly lower.

If something like that fell into the hands of terrorists… The Mute subtly clenched his fist. How many more family tragedies like his own would plague the Federation?

If they could reclaim this expert? The Mute looked again at his comrades who had died charging alongside him. If these men had possessed Nano-Battle Suits, perhaps they wouldn’t have died. The Mute’s eyes instantly filled with bloodshot veins, making them glow with a terrifying crimson light.

The eyes of the other new recruits also twitched with the fear of increasingly fierce attacks. If the terrorists mastered the Nano-Battle Suit…

“I’ll go! The grenade! I’ll throw it!”

Da Shi Tou’s roar shattered the silence in the tunnel completely.

“What nonsense are you spouting?” She Tou instantly sprang up in agitation. He grabbed the front of Da Shi Tou’s uniform with both hands, forcing the much taller man back against the wall. “It’s not your turn to be a hero! Your parents are waiting for you; they rely on you for support! I’ll go…”

“She Tou,” a new recruit placed a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t you have two younger sisters that need supporting too? So, let me handle it.”

“Tiao Zao, don’t you have parents? I’ll go…”

“You don’t have parents, but you have a girlfriend…”

The Mute watched the arguing recruits quietly. He knew they were arguing to prevent him from going. A grenade was already secretly gripped in his hand. Even during the Piranha training, he had never unleashed his full power, but now, he poured all his Zhenqi (True Energy) into his legs.

“Brothers…” The Mute’s soft voice cut through the argument. A look of profound satisfaction spread across his face. “The ones across there are the terrorists who killed my entire family. Even if they didn't pull the trigger themselves, they are all terrorists. I don't know the power of the Nano-Battle Suit, but based on the habits of terrorists, when they acquire new weaponry, they always find a reason to scream until their vocal cords shred, a sound that echoes through the entire tunnel.” The hard rock beneath the Mute’s feet suddenly vibrated, the sound of cracking stone completely drowned out by his shout. He lunged toward the tunnel exit like a meteor.

The intersecting fields of fire roared. Bullets struck the Mute’s body armor like a rainstorm, determined to tear through that irritating barrier and halt his next mad action.

Crimson light—blood—splashed from beneath the body armor. The Mute leaped high into the air, his body fully extended. In that single jump, he cleared ten meters. The powerful infusion of Zhenqi caused his leg muscles to finally give way under the immense strain; gashes ripped open in the muscle tissue, blood spattering through even the combat uniform.

The grenade, like a falling satellite, was tossed into the tunnel mouth without giving the enemy any time to target it.

Chi Xie, standing on the rooftop, watched the frenzied Mute in the air, his entire being stunned. Had this man gone insane? Leaping out of a tunnel three stories high, facing the attack of multiple semi-automatic rifles, refusing to retreat? This was just a mission; they could have chosen to withdraw.

Boom-boom…

Flames erupted from the tunnel mouth like a tide. The Mute began to fall from the air. The shoulder, lower abdomen, thigh, and arm that had been pierced by bullets no longer registered any pain. As he plummeted, his spirit, in that moment, was finally released. Death might be the best form of liberation.

Da Shi Tou, She Tou, Qin Fen, and the others inside the tunnel watched the Mute rising high, witnessing the dazzling spray of blood erupting from his body.

No one uttered any grand pronouncements, no ear-splitting roars, and no slogans like "Charge!" or "Kill!"

The group collectively chose silence. In that shared silence, they activated their strongest speed, pouring out of the three-story-high tunnel entrance in a steady stream.

There were no roaring battle cries, no obsession with completing the mission. There was only contagion!

Gunfire! The moment the first new recruit jumped out of the tunnel, the reaping roar of his P30 began.

The terrorists positioned on the rooftop froze simultaneously. Nearly fifty new recruits leapt out of the tunnel without regard for their safety. The spectacle of nearly fifty P308s firing in mid-air was strangely magnificent!

Du Zhanpeng, hidden behind the rocks, heard the dialogue from the tunnel clearly through the receiver. All the other new recruits heard it just as clearly. The instant the grenade detonated—

Du Zhanpeng saw an unprecedented, resolute light shining in the eyes of every new recruit. They all nodded heavily at the same moment!

Du Zhanpeng, who had never experienced such a surging sense of fervor, finally understood why his father had said the military was the most moving profession. That synchronized nod represented a decision to surrender their very lives! Fifty new recruits flashed out from behind their rock cover simultaneously. All of them charged onto the relatively wide mountain path.

What if there was no cover? What did it matter that they faced a hundred thugs armed with AK47s? If the brothers they ate out of the same bowl were willing to risk their lives, what kind of man would he be if he hesitated?

Fighting desperately? Who couldn’t do that!

If the enemy dared to stand on the rooftop with their rifles, then he dared to advance on the open ground without any cover!

The terrorists were startled by the sudden emergence of these young soldiers from behind cover—some crouching, some squatting, some standing completely exposed on the open path and opening fire.

What… had these boy soldiers gone crazy? Did they know what they were doing? Jumping down from a height of three stories onto open ground with absolutely no cover? Flashing out from behind thick rocks? Abandoning cover that could stop bullets?

It was just a rescue mission. Was it worth this? Even if the mission failed, there would be no punishment upon return. Why risk their lives like this?

In that brief moment of stunned hesitation, the bullets fired from nearly a hundred guns whistled toward them, slamming into body armor, drilling directly into heads, or flying past them to embed in someone else’s vest.

The instant Qin Fen landed, he rolled and dragged the Mute, who had fallen beside him, closer. Whether alive or dead, this man could not be allowed to drift away from the unit again.