Chapter 96: The Scrapyard
“Tell me more about that Bagu you mentioned.”
Su Xiao held his pistol in one hand, wisps of blue smoke curling from the barrel. He had long noticed these people tailing him—ever since he entered the city, in fact. He hadn’t bothered with them before, but after sleeping for a few hours at the inn, finding them still lying in wait was unacceptable.
There were only two possibilities: revenge or robbery. Su Xiao leaned toward the latter.
He thrust the gun forward, pressing the hot suppressor against the man’s forehead.
Sizzle~
Blue smoke rose, and a burnt smell wafted through the air. The man on the ground, both arms shot through, twitched in pain.
“Bagu is… a drug lord. I’ve heard of him for a long time. He suddenly appeared in the town a while back and swept away all the other factions. His… men are strong, killers without blinking. So he took over the small city quickly. That’s all I know. Just give me a quick death.”
The man knew he wouldn’t survive, so he simply begged for a clean end.
“Where’s his headquarters or hideout? The scrapyard on the edge of town?”
“Yeah. Make it clean. You broke my spine. I hope you die a miserable death.”
No wonder the man was begging for death—a stray bullet had hit his spine earlier. Su Xiao pulled the trigger, and the man on the ground was shot in the head.
After searching the bodies, Su Xiao found a few pistols and three grenades. The pistols were mediocre, heavily used and poorly maintained, their performance inferior to the one in his hand.
He kept the 9mm rounds from the guns and two of the grenades. The remaining one had clearly been damaged by impact—carrying something like that around meant these guys were true desperados.
This city was different from what Su Xiao had seen two years ago. Back then, though it was a lawless place, there weren’t desperados lying in ambush for anyone with valuables inside the small town.
Now, such people were not uncommon here. This showed that Bagu hadn’t been ruling for long—he hadn’t even had time to maintain order.
Under the cover of night, Su Xiao drove toward the scrapyard on the city’s edge. The town was small, and he arrived quickly.
As he neared the scrapyard, Su Xiao caught a faint acidic smell. A chimney rose within the yard, emitting pale yellow smoke.
Several guards stood at the entrance, all wearing gas masks. Some held cigarettes, occasionally pulling off their masks for a few puffs.
Seeing these guards, Su Xiao immediately sensed something off. On the backs of their hands and necks, noticeable muscle bulges were visible—some even deformed. This was definitely not the result of training; it looked more like the effect of some drug with severe side effects, artificially stimulating muscle growth.
Su Xiao’s goal was to enter the scrapyard. That was the location he needed to reach. After scouting the perimeter, he found at least dozens of guards surrounding the place.
Not only that, but a tall watchtower stood inside the scrapyard, emitting dozens of red laser beams. Su Xiao recognized this—it was a thermal detection alarm system.
Given his current physical condition, sneaking in unnoticed was unlikely. The guards and security were too tight.
Su Xiao crept closer to the scrapyard. When he was near enough, he pulled out a grenade, removed the safety pin, and gripped the striker lever tightly.
“1… 2… 3…”
He counted three seconds in his mind, then threw the grenade. He had set it to detonate in five seconds.
The dark grenade arced through the air, finally landing at the feet of five guards. The guards froze for a moment, then reacted, but it was too late.
Boom!
Shrapnel flew everywhere. Three guards were riddled with holes on the spot, while the remaining two were blasted away by the shockwave.
Dirt and debris scattered. Compared to the flash, the smoke was thicker.
A few seconds after the explosion, an alarm blared from inside the scrapyard. A flood of guards rushed out, wearing black combat suits and gas masks. At first glance, they looked like a counter-terrorism unit, but their chaotic formation showed they had no systematic training.
Near the explosion’s epicenter, three guards stood up. Two shook their heads, dazed by the blast, while the third was covered in wounds, blood gushing from his chest.
Even more astonishing, the two guards at the very center of the explosion tried to get up, but after a few seconds, they collapsed.
Seeing this, Su Xiao narrowed his eyes. There was no doubt—with an ordinary person’s physique, their vitality wouldn’t be this tenacious.
He estimated that these guards’ stamina attribute was definitely over 5 points. In the past, these would have been fodder he could kill with a single slash. Now, they were troublesome opponents.
“Contractors?”
With stamina exceeding normal human limits, Su Xiao immediately thought of contractors. But he quickly dismissed the idea—contractors wouldn’t willingly serve as grunts for some faction, especially when there were dozens of guards in the scrapyard.
The guards quickly converged on the explosion site, and soon, over twenty had gathered.
Seeing this, Su Xiao vanished into the night. This was a good opportunity to sneak in. He needed to reach the designated spot quickly and stay there for half an hour. That spot was inside the scrapyard.
The alarm inside the scrapyard blared continuously. Taking advantage of the chaos, Su Xiao successfully infiltrated the yard.
Toward the middle and rear of the scrapyard stood a large, dilapidated workshop. Dim yellow light seeped out from inside.
Su Xiao crouched beneath a window, peering through the grimy glass into the workshop.
Inside were several rows of large machinery, thick with dust and clearly unused for a long time. At the far end, several guards with rifles stood before a staircase leading underground. How did Su Xiao know? This shabby workshop only had one floor—he didn’t believe the stairs went to the roof.
Su Xiao leveled his pistol, aiming at one guard’s head.
Pfft.
A gunshot rang out. A guard’s head burst into a spray of blood, and he toppled straight down.
“Enemy attack!”
One guard roared, diving for cover while scanning the area with sharp, hawk-like eyes. He immediately noticed the broken hole in the window—a bullet hole.
He raised his rifle and fired a burst at the low wall beneath the window.
Crack, crack…
Cement and brick fragments flew. After a full magazine, the low wall was riddled with jagged holes.
Rat-tat-tat-tat…
The other guards also opened fire on the low wall, unleashing a torrent of bullets. In moments, the wall and window were blown to pieces, cement chunks and glass scattered everywhere.
“Cease fire!”
This guard, who had been speaking English, was clearly different from the others. He was either a former soldier or had been a mercenary.
With a crash, glass shattered on the other side of the workshop. A round, dark object was tossed inside.
“Grenade!”
The mercenary guard threw himself to the side, squeezing into the gap between two abandoned machines.
Boom!
A loud explosion echoed. Several guards were pierced by shrapnel, while others were stunned by the blast.