N-A-A Chapter 86 Ambush
Chapter 86 Ambush
Chapter 86 Ambush (Seeking first subscription)
The roar of the diesel engine lasted for nearly ten hours, until finally a sliver of dawn appeared on the eastern horizon. The sunlight dispelled the darkness, but instead of bright morning light, it was replaced by low-hanging clouds.
Raindrops began to patter against the windshield and roof of the SUV, making a fine, continuous sound, and soon formed winding streaks of water on the glass.
Xu Mo gripped the steering wheel with both hands, his eyes slightly tired from a sleepless night, but more than that, they held a deep-seated vigilance. He glanced at the gloomy sky that seemed about to collapse, a strange sense of unease settling over him. He felt as if the weather was brewing something, something more than just a light drizzle.
After driving for a while, Xu Mo parked the car on the side of the road in a relatively open spot with an unobstructed view, pulled the handbrake, and turned off the engine.
After the car came to a stop, Xu Mo took out compressed biscuits and a bottle of water from the storage compartment and slowly chewed on this simple breakfast with the water. The taste was only so-so, but it provided the necessary energy.
After finishing his meal, Xu Mo started the car again and turned on the car radio.
As the knob turned, the familiar static faded, and the broadcast signal from the Jiangcheng Shelter was finally picked up. Although the signal was still somewhat unstable, occasionally interspersed with crackling interference, the main content was still audible.
"————Repeated broadcast: The following is the list of affordable vegetables available at the Jiangcheng Shelter Supply Center today: Potatoes, 2 jin per contribution point; Cold-resistant ferns, 1 jin per contribution point; Artificially cultivated mushrooms, half a jin per contribution point... Quantities are limited, and you need to redeem them with your resident ID card and contribution points————"
The female voice on the radio was clear and steady, broadcasting information that sounded almost like a fantasy in the post-apocalyptic world: the supply of vegetables. Even though it only included varieties like potatoes and hardy ferns, which didn't taste very good, the significance behind it was extraordinary.
This indicates that the Jiangcheng shelter not only exists stably, but its internal agricultural production or external collection system is gradually recovering and operating, and is able to provide residents with basic living supplies.
This is a sign of the reconstruction of order, a spark of civilization being painstakingly ignited on the ruins of the end times.
Listening to the radio, Xu Mo's tense nerves relaxed slightly. At least, his destination wasn't a fantasy; there were indeed efforts to restore the rudiments of human society.
Unfolding the crumpled map, Xu Mo, using the makeshift compass in the car and the blurry landmarks outside the window, roughly estimated his location and itinerary. A day and a night had passed since leaving Qingsongling Town. Although the road conditions were extremely poor and detours were frequent, thanks to the performance of his off-road vehicle and his relentless driving day and night, he had already covered approximately 120-130 kilometers.
At this rate, if the road conditions don't worsen and I'm lucky enough not to encounter any major obstacles or troubles, I estimate I'll reach the outer area of Jiangcheng Shelter by tomorrow morning, or at the latest by noon tomorrow.
Thinking of this, even Xu Mo, with his composure, couldn't help but feel a slight ripple in his heart.
Driving at a high level of concentration for a whole day and night is a considerable burden on both the body and mind. Although with the physique of the Thirteen Taibao (a legendary martial arts master), driving for two days and two nights is not a big deal, the mental fatigue is very real.
Xu Mo was already imagining that the first thing he would do after arriving in Jiangcheng was to find a safe place, take a hot shower, and then sleep all day to completely release the fatigue and tension that had accumulated during this period.
Just as Xu Mo's thoughts drifted slightly towards a brief glimpse of the future, a sudden change occurred.
An extremely strong, chilling sense of crisis surged through his entire body like a high-voltage current.
Xu Mo felt his hair stand on end and his heart clench. This feeling far surpassed the alertness he felt when encountering the mutated fish and bats. It was a real, omens of impending doom, as if death had already raised its scythe and was about to strike.
There was no time to think; it was purely an instinctive reaction. Xu Mo's body acted before his brain—he suddenly ducked, his entire upper body sliding downwards as if it had lost its bones, hiding as much as possible in the narrow space formed by the driver's seat and the center console below the steering wheel!
Almost at the same millisecond that his body completed its curl-up!
"Bang—crash!!!"
A loud bang erupted at extremely close range, shattering the SUV's windshield into countless tiny fragments that rained down into the vehicle's interior.
A scorching bullet carrying immense kinetic energy tore through the air, piercing the upper part of the driver's seat back where Xu Mo's head had been, making a dull thud and leaving a shocking bullet hole before disappearing into some unknown corner of the car's trunk.
Glass shards splashed all over Xu Mo, some even hitting his face and neck. Fortunately, the defensive power of his Bullhide Mirror prevented the shards from cutting his skin, but the impact and the burning sensation were still clearly audible.
"Someone attacked me, and it was a sniper!" Xu Mo's heart sank to the bottom, but his mind became unusually cold and clear at this moment.
This was not an attack by mutated creatures, but an ambush by other survivors, armed and meticulously planned.
"Bang! Bang!"
Almost immediately after the first shot, two more shots rang out in quick succession, seemingly from the same direction but slightly angled. Bullets pierced the vehicle again, one of them grazing the tip of Xu Mo's hair as he lay prone, the scalding air sending a chill down his spine. The other bullet struck the passenger seat, causing the padding to burst open.
"The attackers on the other side are very cautious, their marksmanship is excellent, and they're constantly firing follow-up shots. We can't stay in the car anymore; this iron coffin is a sitting duck!" Xu Mo made the judgment instantly.
If you stay inside the car, the other party can obviously observe the situation inside through the broken windows, or use their experience to fire cover fire, and you will be hit by bullets sooner or later.
Thinking of this, Xu Mo no longer hesitated but took a deep breath, his muscles tensed instantly, and the power of the Bullhide Realm burst forth. He kicked the driver's side door hard!
With a loud "bang!", Xu Mo kicked the car door open with a powerful kick. At the same time, his body leaped out from under the steering wheel like a cheetah, performing an extremely swift and agile roll, and pounced out of the car.
The ground outside the car was muddy and slippery, mixed with gravel. Xu Mo didn't care about that. After rolling to dissipate the force, he used the momentum to tumble and crawl towards a shallow depression on the other side of the road. The terrain here was slightly lower, which allowed him to use the roadbed and the vehicles behind him to create a blind spot for shooting.
However, just as Xu Mo's body landed in the depression and before he could fully regain his balance,
"kill!"
Two low growls filled with murderous intent rang out almost simultaneously from the left and right sides. A male and a female figure, like venomous snakes that had been lurking for a long time, suddenly sprang up from less than three meters away from the edge of the depression.
They had clearly calculated Xu Mo's most likely escape route after the attack and were lying in wait there.
Both women wielded gleaming blades; the man held a thick-backed cleaver, while the woman carried a pair of slightly thinner, paired short swords. Their movements were swift and perfectly coordinated, one on each side, their blades aimed directly at Xu Mo's neck and abdomen. It was clear they intended to kill him instantly, giving him no chance to react.
"It seems like this was premeditated. The gunman forced me out of the car, and the melee fighters are lying in ambush here." Xu Mo's mind raced, and he instantly understood the other party's entire scheme.
From sniping to stop the enemy, to follow-up shots to suppress them, and then to close-quarters ambush, each step was meticulously planned and executed with ruthless precision. Any ordinary survivor, even one with some combat experience, would have had no chance of survival under such a barrage of attacks.
However, they underestimated Xu Mo's strength.
Faced with this sudden attack from both sides, with the sharp blades already upon him, Xu Mo's eyes remained icy cold, showing no sign of panic.
In Xu Mo's perception, although the two people's movements were fierce and their speed was considered fast and accurate by ordinary people, they appeared to have many flaws in front of his dynamic vision and reaction speed, which had reached the level of his "Superb Realm".
Their strength and speed are completely at the level of ordinary humans with some training. They may be much stronger than ordinary people before the apocalypse, but there is a qualitative difference compared to someone like him who has stepped into the threshold of true cultivation.
Xu Mo moved his feet slightly, his body sliding to the left with a very small side step, as if he were a ghost, while his upper body leaned back slightly.
"Swish! Swish!"
The man's thick-backed cleaver, whistling through the air, grazed Xu Mo's chest; the woman's pair of short swords barely sliced through the air on the outside of his arm. Their seemingly inevitable combined attack was easily dodged by Xu Mo with the slightest margin.
Both men wore expressions of disbelief and astonishment, clearly not expecting their target to be able to make such a precise and unpredictable dodge after just being sniped and landing hastily.
But Xu Mo would not give them any more chances. In the instant he dodged the attack, his right hand, as if by magic, gripped the hilt of the machete that was always hanging behind his waist, and the blade flashed.
"brush!"
A cold arc flashed by, so fast that it was almost beyond the limits of what the naked eye could perceive.
The man wielding the thick-backed machete felt a chill on his neck, and his vision suddenly began to spin. The last thing he saw was his own headless body, still in a forward-charging, slashing posture, blood gushing from the severed neck like a fountain, while the man he considered his prey had eyes as cold as ice.
Almost in no particular order.
"brush!"
Another slash. The woman wielding the mandarin duck daggers didn't even see how her companion was killed. She only felt a flash of light before her eyes, and her perspective instantly became bizarre. She saw a hazy sky, a swirling muddy ground, and finally her own headless body slowly falling down.
Two heads, frozen in shock and confusion, rolled into the mud. The headless bodies twitched, and blood quickly stained the ground beneath them, the thick stench of blood spreading through the rain.
After taking care of the two melee "easy targets," Xu Mo didn't even glance at the corpses on the ground. He nimbly rolled over again, quickly changing his position, and then lay prone in the muddy water of the depression, lowering his height as much as possible. At the same time, he replaced his machete with the AK rifle he had taken off his back, and warily pointed the muzzle in the direction from which the bullets had come, as well as in the surrounding areas where enemies might be hiding.
Xu Mo's judgment was correct. Almost exactly a few seconds after he completed his concealment, a figure cautiously peeked out from behind a small mound about 150 to 200 meters away. Then, seemingly unable to hear any close-quarters combat or see the situation in the depression, the figure began to crouch and quickly run towards them. Judging from the posture, it was clearly the sniper responsible for long-range sniping, coming to check if his two teammates' attack had succeeded or to provide follow-up shots.
"An opportunity!" Xu Mo's eyes narrowed. Fortune's wheel turns, and this year it's my turn. He steadily set up the AK. Although the AK's accuracy at medium to long range is not as good as a professional sniper rifle, it's more than enough for Xu Mo, who has mastered the "Bullish Realm" of control, within two hundred meters.
Holding his breath, Xu Mo slightly adjusted his aim, predicting the opponent's running trajectory.
"Bang!"
The distinctive, loud, and aggressive gunshots of the AK echoed through the rain.
The running figure suddenly stopped, then as if struck by an invisible giant hammer, he fell backward and crashed heavily into the mud, whereupon the bullet had struck him precisely in the head.
The gunshots echoed, then were quickly absorbed by the sound of rain.
Xu Mo remained prone, motionless, even his breathing was extremely low. His self-beams, like radar, carefully scanned every corner around him, every possible hiding place behind bushes, mounds of earth, or rubble where enemies might be concealed.
This group is cunning and meticulous in their planning. From sniping to force them to stop, to follow-up fire and suppression, to close-quarters ambush, their combined attack is ruthless. Who can guarantee that there isn't a fourth, or even a fifth, lurking further away or in more unexpected places, waiting to ambush them?
Rain soaked Xu Mo's clothes and hair, and the icy mud soaked through his chest, but he didn't care. At a time like this, any impatience or carelessness could lead to utter ruin.
Time passed slowly in the suffocating silence and oppressive atmosphere: one minute, five minutes, ten minutes—twenty minutes—
Apart from the sound of rain and the occasional gust of wind, there was no other unusual activity. There were no new gunshots, no prying eyes, and no other subtle sounds of human activity.
Only then did Xu Mo cautiously observe his surroundings several times again, making sure there were no hidden threats before he carefully stood up.
At this moment, Xu Mo's muscles were still in a semi-tense state, and the muzzle of the AK rifle adjusted slightly as his gaze moved.
He glanced at the two headless corpses not far away and the sniper with a headshot in the distance, his eyes cold. In the apocalypse, the wickedness of the human heart sometimes far surpasses that of mutated monsters.
Xu Mo didn't immediately check the bodies or the vehicle. Instead, he quickly moved to a more advantageous position for observation and defense, maintaining the highest level of vigilance. This sudden ambush served as a wake-up call—the final stretch of road to Jiangcheng was likely more treacherous than he had imagined.
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