Chapter 112
Chapter 112
“Give me your hand.”
Zhou Ming still wanted to avoid being overheard.
Ye Zhibei immediately understood and held out his palm.
His expression grave, Zhou Ming wrote four words across it.
“Hiss!!”
Ye Zhibei sucked in a sharp breath. He could hardly believe Zhou Ming’s plan was this simple and brutal. “Are you serious?”
“Qianying, Renee, Yun Wuyou, and you, Ye Zhibei. That’s four god-tier experts, plus the SSS-Rank skill I just learned and the Heavenly Secrets Compass to locate what we need!” Zhou Ming said solemnly. “You don’t think it’ll work?”
“I can’t say it’s completely impossible, but… it will be incredibly difficult. No one in history has ever attempted anything like it.” Ye Zhibei stared at the young man before him in astonishment.
He finally understood why Zhou Ming had insisted on placing a unique sealing mechanism on Dawnbringer.
It had all been part of his plan from the very beginning!
“Then let’s take the gamble!” Zhou Ming said cheerfully once he had his answer. “I’m an adventurer. What do I have to fear? Life and death mean nothing. If they don’t like it, they can fight me!”
“All right!”
Ye Zhibei nodded. “I’ll help you search as well. I promise they won’t notice anything along the way!”
“Much appreciated, Brother Ye!” Zhou Ming thanked him, then turned serious. “Remember, whether we succeed or fail, you must keep your family hidden. Don’t let them fall into the enemy’s hands!”
“Don’t worry. One bloody lesson was enough. I will never repeat that mistake!”
…
Once the two finished discussing their plan, Zhou Ming opened the game interface.
Log out!
He removed his gaming helmet, washed up, then lay down and prepared to get an early night’s sleep.
He needed to be in peak condition for tomorrow’s Pinnacle Showdown.
The champion’s rewards were bound to be generous and would very likely improve his odds of victory in the battles to come. He could not afford to hand them to someone else.
Bang!
However, Zhou Ming had not been lying down for long when he suddenly sensed something. He sprang to his feet and rushed out the door.
…
In the real world, in one brightly lit corner of Su City.
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
The deafening gunfire shattered the stillness of the night and did not let up.
“Damn it! Why are they being so blatant tonight?” Xu Yingying, who was responsible for protecting Zhou Ming’s parents, crouched behind cover. Every so often, she raised her gun and traded bursts of fire with the enemy. Her face had gone slightly pale.
The Eastern Region had been at peace for a long time, and it had been years since a battle of this scale had broken out.
Even with all her training, she had never experienced anything so extreme.
“These people are insane!”
Wang Zhenfei watched dozens of highly trained mercenaries charge fearlessly into Zhou Ming’s parents’ home, his heart burning with anxiety. “Where are the reinforcements?”
Crash!
At that moment, the front door of Zhou Ming’s childhood home was smashed open.
“We finally got them!”
The mercenary leader spotted Zhou Ming’s parents hiding in a corner and immediately gave the order. “Don’t hesitate. Kill them where they stand!”
His men obeyed without question, firing dozens of rounds at Zhou Ming’s father, who stood in front of his mother.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
At the critical moment, a fiery red barrier appeared and effortlessly stopped every bullet. They hung suspended in midair, unable to advance another inch.
“What the fuck?!”
The mercenaries went pale with shock.
They had only ever seen such an impossible sight in science fiction movies!
What was this?
Some mysterious power from the East?
But it was not over yet. After blocking the bullets, the barrier suddenly erupted with an even fiercer red light and hurled every round back at its attackers with greater force than before.
Whizz! Whizz! Whizz!
A storm of bullets tore through the room. Every attacker was caught in it and riddled with holes.
“What the hell is that thing?!”
“Open fire! Open fire!”
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
The instant the barrier created by Bedrock Shield disappeared, the mercenaries unleashed an even more ferocious barrage. Yet when the bullets struck Zhou Ming’s parents, none could penetrate their bodies. Every one of them fell to the floor.
The flattened rounds seemed to prove that all their force had already been expended.
“What’s going on?” Zhou Ming’s parents asked in utter confusion.
The bullets had hit them without leaving a scratch. Even the impacts were completely bearable, as if they had suddenly gained invulnerable bodies of steel.
“I can’t wait any longer!”
After a brief hesitation, Xu Yingying charged forward with her gun, heedless of the danger.
The mercenaries noticed an enemy approaching from behind and swung their guns toward her. Xu Yingying immediately dove for cover.
“Stop right there!”
Seeing them about to harm an innocent woman, Zhou Ming’s father, who had adapted remarkably quickly to the situation, was the first to step forward and defend her. “You foreign bastards have committed every evil imaginable! You deserve to die! Take this… Greatsword Descent!”
Greatsword Descent!
It was the astonishing move he had witnessed beneath the abandoned building. Nearly a month had passed, yet the sight remained fresh in his mind.
“Get out of the way!!”
The mercenaries panicked. Believing the man possessed supernatural powers, they hurriedly scattered.
Five seconds… Ten seconds…
Time ticked by, but nothing happened.
“Damn it!”
The mercenary leader sneered. “You almost had me fooled. What Greatsword Descent? What a load of bullshit!”
“Boss, look up!” one of his subordinates screamed from nearby.
“…”
As if sensing something, the leader’s smile froze. His facial muscles twitched, and cold sweat poured down his forehead. He raised his head in a panic and saw a flaming greatsword dozens of meters long hanging overhead.
Clang!
The greatsword crashed down with unstoppable force, and the leader vanished from the face of the earth.
“Holy shit!”
Zhou Ming’s father yelped without a shred of dignity. Although the sight had scared him witless, he was also beside himself with excitement. “My son awakened, and now I have too?”
“Ahem!”
Zhou Ming cleared his throat and walked up from behind his father. “Probably not.”
His father instantly understood. Returning to his usual solemn demeanor, he led Zhou Ming’s mother toward another room to hide. “Your father has already fired off one Greatsword Descent. I’ll leave the rest to you.”
“All right!”
Zhou Ming nodded.
There was a reason people said every man remained a boy until the day he died. Even a middle-aged man in his fifties would slip into his grandiose fantasies the moment he thought he possessed a “superpower.”
Once he confirmed his parents could not see what came next, Zhou Ming turned back, his face cold.
Killing intent surged from him like a tidal wave.
The mercenaries: “…”
…
After a rapid burst of gunfire, the world fell silent.
Zhou Ming ended the battle in just two minutes. After healing the innocent people who had been injured, he looked toward one of the barricades. “Comrade over there, thank you for putting yourself in harm’s way. It’s safe now!”
“Are… are you human?” Xu Yingying emerged from cover. The bodies strewn across the ground left her utterly dumbfounded.
“Of course!”
Zhou Ming nodded, then spoke with terse precision. “Tell your superiors to find whoever is behind them!”
The endless stream of assassins and mercenaries had worn his patience thin.
He wanted to eliminate the problem at its source.
“I’ll report your request to my superiors in full!” Xu Yingying nodded. She regarded the man before her with a trace of fear, then awkwardly pulled a pair of silver handcuffs from inside her clothes. “Now, could you come with me? Don’t worry. I know you were acting… in self-defense!”
As she spoke, her gaze involuntarily swept across the bodies covering the ground, and she fell silent.
“I have something to do tomorrow!” Zhou Ming laughed helplessly. He went inside and reapplied Bedrock Shield to his parents. “Don’t worry. Your superiors know my situation. They won’t make things difficult for you!”
…
Once everything had been dealt with and his parents had calmed down, Zhou Ming returned to his new home, which was not far from his childhood house. His eyes were filled with icy killing intent.
He knew the enemy had chosen this moment to strike because they wanted to disturb his state of mind and prevent him from winning the Eastern Region championship in Pinnacle Showdown.
Zhou Ming logged onto the forums and posted a message under his game ID:
“No secret stays buried forever!”
Those who needed to understand would know exactly what he meant.
As long as he found the mastermind behind all of this, Zhou Ming would send them to hell, no matter how many reasons there might be to spare their life.
Afterward, he ignored the uproar his post caused and slept soundly.
The next day, at ten o’clock.
Ding!
[System Notification: Attention! The fifth round of [Pinnacle Showdown] has begun. Would you like to enter the preparation area early?]
“Yes!”
When Zhou Ming returned to the contestants’ area, he found the atmosphere thick with tension. Everyone sat in silence. No one whispered to their neighbors. They were all using these final moments to adjust themselves to peak condition.
First place was now within reach. Who would want to lose?
No one!
Every contestant would give everything they had to fight for a higher ranking!
Several of them, including Rule by Inaction and Submit and Perish, had bulldozed through every opponent without a single loss, making them the center of attention.
Zhou Ming’s gaze crossed theirs as he walked to his seat. His breathing remained steady, and his fighting spirit burned bright.
After today, he wanted to see how many people under heaven would still dare question him!
…