Chapter 411: Black Epaulets
Tearing off his disguise, Ran Ying leaped onto the flag of the cruise ship in one bound, pulled out a loudspeaker, and shouted at the transport plane: "You're surrounded! Either abandon the plane and flee, or surrender now. I'll give you five seconds to think! Five!"
"Black Epaulets!" The scarred player standing in the sea dodged the explosive foam flying from the cruise ship, flipped onto the transport plane, and said to his companion ahead, "Let's go!"
"But the cargo containers aren't all in yet... what are you doing!" His companion's words took a sharp turn, and he stopped him in shock.
"We've been set up!" The scarred player kicked a cargo container down. The originally heavy box actually floated directly on the sea surface.
"Go, go, go!" The companion shouted.
"One!" Ran Ying finished counting. The player who had been controlling the wind earlier whipped up waves to strike the transport plane. The white-haired player who came out later flashed behind the wind and waves. With a single touch, the seawater that had surged up froze the entire transport plane together!
"Boom! Boom! Boom!" Several explosions occurred outside the transport plane, shattering the ice pillars as it tried to break free and escape.
But at that moment, a pair of identical twin robots appeared in front of the transport plane. Their hands spat out firearms and opened fire wildly on the plane!
"It's that cripple Cheng Bing from Black Epaulets and his robot walkers!" Two players jumped out of the transport plane's cockpit. One fell into the sea, while the other, still in midair, suddenly became blurry—but the next second, he became clear again. He said to the scarred player who had also jumped down, "Space items can't be used!"
Space items couldn't be used, which meant that besides the balancer on the cruise ship, Black Epaulets had also set up a time-space item limiter in the sea.
"Boom!!!" The transport plane completely exploded under the continuous barrage from the robots. The resulting wind and waves pushed the cruise ship backward. The scarred player took the opportunity to use the seawater to send the cruise ship farther away. But just as he started moving, a buzz-cut man suddenly smashed onto the rear deck, sinking the entire cruise ship's tail. He grabbed two crew members in the chaos and threw them at the scarred player in the sea!
"Chef's Knife Work!" The scarred player raised his hand, and two kitchen knives appeared out of thin air ten meters away, piercing through the chests of the two players disguised as crew members before flying back into his hands.
One of the players was unlucky—his heart was pierced, and he rolled into the sea. The other was only injured and, sensing the danger, fled.
"Murder Chef Shen Liang." The buzz-cut man stood on the deck railing. "You're wading into muddy waters too. Looks like last time's lesson wasn't enough for you!"
The scarred player, Shen Liang, gestured to his companions to escape into the game while saying, "Black Epaulets is really sneaky. Zhao He colluded with players from the lower city to rob Rongxin Group's weapons. I thought I could pick up an easy bargain, but I didn't expect you to be waiting right here."
Ran Ying appeared beside the buzz-cut man. She glanced at the captain, who had already been imprisoned by her companions in an interrogation cage, then turned to Shen Liang. "Rongxin Group has made indelible contributions to the economy of District 011. They are also law-abiding good citizens. The Enforcement Department has the duty and responsibility to protect their lives and property from infringement... Today, I only wanted to deal with Zhao He, that nail in the City Hall, and then curb the arrogance of those lawless players from the lower city. I didn't expect a big fish like you to barge in yourself."
She bit into a cut cigar, and the buzz-cut man, Guo Yingguang, held out a lighter for her.
Ran Ying took a deep drag and said, "To be honest, I don't really like this kind of fight. Any player who dares to come is definitely carrying some cheating artifact. The smart ones run as soon as they see things going wrong. Killing a few small fry yields no gains and is just boring. Mobilizing so many people only ends with a commendation—no real benefits."
Shen Liang frowned, and then he heard her laugh. "Now this is great. Are you leaving the other two transport planes behind and going yourself, or should I make a move?"
Shen Liang didn't speak. Ran Ying raised her hand, and a circular red light arc swept across the sea from several kilometers away. In this sea area, all people and things that had been hiding their traces using items or instruments were revealed. Just a few hundred meters away, two transport planes hovered silently at high altitude, their gun barrels aimed at Ran Ying and the others on the ship.
"You can go, but you won't be taking the transport planes with you." Ran Ying said, "Leave the goods behind, and I won't cause you trouble afterward."
By now, Black Epaulets had taken control of the situation. Zhao He, the City Hall leaker, had been killed. Half of the players gathered from the lower city were dead, and the other half had fled. Only two or three players remained on the ship, their expressions dazed, trapped in item cages.
As for Shen Liang's side, although his people were only lightly injured, going head-to-head with a prepared Black Epaulets would likely end badly. But letting go of two expensive transport planes like this was also hard for him to swallow.
"One. Give you one, and we'll go." Shen Liang gritted his teeth.
"Shen Liang!" The companion behind him voiced disapproval.
Ran Ying blew out a puff of smoke. "Two. Otherwise, you're not leaving."
"A speedboat fleet is coming from the sea!" A player on the transport plane observed the distance.
"Damn it! I don't believe that bitch can kill all of us!" A player in the transport plane, furious, opened fire on Ran Ying!
Special bullets hit special metal, and neither side's strength was fully displayed. But this was undoubtedly a declaration of war against Black Epaulets. Before the round of shooting was even over, Ran Ying flashed from the cruise ship to the transport plane. She drove her hand through the plane's roof, her entire arm reaching into the cockpit. Her five fingers deeply pierced the skull of the shooting player. With a crisp "crack," his cranium, along with his scalp, was torn off and slapped onto another player's face!
Her speed was so fast that by the time the other players reacted, their companion was already dead.
"You bitch!" The player with the cranium on his face threw out a diamond-shaped crystal shard. Once it flew out, it immediately formed a large area of diamond-shaped crystals, sealing the companion's corpse and half of Ran Ying's body inside.
"Break!" He tapped the crystal shard again. The crystals shattered with a crash, first breaking the corpse into a pile of diamond-shaped pieces, then shattering upward along Ran Ying's arm.
However, she didn't disintegrate like the corpse. The veins on her arm bulged, and the crystals wrapped around it all burst apart. A layer of transparent gel-like substance attached to her arm flew out, covering the attacking player's face and pulling him toward the hole in the roof.
"Bang!" The man's body got stuck in the hole. Ran Ying added a kick, directly breaking his neck.
The transport plane let out a faint hum. The next second, several players appeared in an encirclement around Ran Ying...
"Nothing much to see anymore." On a flying car not far away, Butterfly Lady looked away from the projection and signaled Xu Huo to drive off.