Chapter 1354. Escaping (4)

“Where is he?! Have you located him yet?!”

The commander in charge of this field operation,

da xiao

(Senior Colonel) of the People’s Liberation Army, Shu Xi, angrily yelled at his subordinates.

Usually, locating the enemy positions required stealth and meticulousness, but now was not the right time to care about those things.

“Sir! W-we are getting reports from R4! N-no? Sir, it’s R2 now!”

Shu Xi shouted even louder. “You useless mongrels! Can’t you do your job properly?!”

“M-my apologies, sir! But...”

“Sons of b*tches...!” Shu Xi angrily spat out, then gritted his teeth.

Just what on earth was going on here?

The army’s encirclement was

perfect

. With how watertight it was, Shu Xi firmly believed that no one under the heavens would be able to break through.

Ten layers of encirclements had been deployed, with the safe house in the center. No matter how strong the target was, a moment’s delay should ensnare him in an inescapable trap before the army closed in on him to finish the job.

But the battle situation was flowing in the completely unexpected direction right now!

“Sir! Report from C7! The target is moving from C7 to D2!”

“Son of a b*tch!”

Shu Xi gritted his teeth even more while glaring at the map of the operation area.

The distance between the sectors R4 and C7 was over two kilometers. Ordinary soldiers in full combat gear would need at least half an hour to cover that distance. Even highly trained special forces members would still need over five minutes.

But the target covered that distance in a few dozen seconds? How did that make any sense?

Shu Xi barked out another order to his subordinates. “Focus our troops at B1! Now!”

“Sir! The target has changed course again! He’s en route to F2!”

“What?! That son of a b*tch!”

Shu Xi angrily kicked the table.

There was no rhyme or reason to the target’s movements. Connecting the sectors mentioned in the incoming reports on the map painted bizarre trajectories and unpredictable movement patterns. But it all seemed to say that the target wasn’t interested in escaping from here.

“How can anybody be this insane?!”

“Escape” meant one was trying to leave an area. Common sense dictated that one should find the weakest point in the encirclement and go there in a straight line if they wanted to escape quickly. And Shu Xi’s encirclement plan preyed on this common sense.

Once the operations command confirmed the target’s escape route, the troops located in the front of the route would reinforce their defenses, while the surrounding troops would converge toward the target to create double, nay, triple layers of encirclement. The target would get locked into a kill zone and turn into a corpse that weighed much heavier with all the lead pumped into it.

But this Korean bastard named Kang Jin-Ho or whatever didn’t seem all that interested in escaping! He simply wandered from place to place.

...Which forced Shu Xi’s side to run around in confusion like a bunch of headless chickens.

While the troops headed toward the anticipated escape route, Kang Jin-Ho would abruptly change his direction again and again!

The current situation was that the troops had been changing their directions repeatedly for some time now.

Shu Xi shouted at his subordinates. “Move the men from C5 to C2!”

“But, sir! We don’t have anyone in C5!”

“What the f*ck are you talking about?!”

“The men stationed at C7 were moved to B6 not too long ago, sir! N-no, they are still en route. By now... Let me check the GPS!”

The soldier searched for the troops on the GPS monitor, then scowled deeply.

“...They are too far away, sir.”

Shu Xi rushed to the monitor before gritting his teeth. He could see that the troop placements were all over the place.

They were supposed to be maintaining some distance from each other to create the perfect encirclement, but their locations had become so chaotic that it became hard to figure anything out at first glance.

Shu Xi yelled at the top of his lungs. “Dammit! Deploy the reserve forces, too!”

“B-but, sir? The losses to our troops are...”

“Shut the f*ck up! Can’t you see all the wide-open areas?! Don’t you get that it’s not just my head, but all of yours will roll too, if the target escapes tonight?!”

“We’ll deploy the reserves right away!”

Shu Xi angrily threw the commander’s baton to the tent’s floor.

“That... That damn slippery bastard!”

Now there was an insult that didn’t quite fit Kang Jin-Ho.

***

What the hell. They never stood a chance, did they?

Lee Hyeon-Su didn’t need long to realize what his mistake was in his calculations. He had incorrectly analyzed the combat strength of his boss!

Up until now, Kang Jin-Ho faced all the enemies coming for him head-on. Almost all of his fights up to now had been battles to protect something.

For example, he was fighting against the Crimson King’s faction to ensure the safe escape of the demon cult. And then, there was that battle to slaughter the invading Japanese in the middle of an open sea. That story also remained the same while fighting against the Japanese forces in Korea.

All those things acted like incredible handicaps, didn’t they?

Standing one’s ground and facing off against a massive army all by oneself was no different from a suicide. But Kang Jin-Ho always survived those suicidal battles. Not only that, but he even slaughtered the enemies instead.

Did that mean Kang Jin-Ho’s combat strength was barely enough to defeat those enemies? Of course not.

Kang Jin-Ho was starkly demonstrating that to Lee Hyeon-Su right now!

With no one to protect and no homes to guard, Kang Jin-Ho could finally run wild on this battlefield like a freed beast.

That was where Lee Hyeon-Su’s miscalculation had come from.

Imagine a rifle-wielding soldier fighting off a thousand enemies. Him trying to stop that many enemies charging forward on an open terrain would obviously be so much harder than him trying to escape after pandemonium had descended onto the battlefield.

Not to forget, Kang Jin-Ho was overwhelmingly faster than his enemies, too. By relying on his speed, Kang Jin-Ho had turned a one-versus-a-thousand into a continuous battle of one-versus-a-few.

Even an idiot should be able to tell which of the two was more manageable.

I mean, just look! Look!

Kang Jin-Ho leaped up and dashed forward while stepping on tree branches. Not even apes could do this. Heck, any apes nearby witnessing this scene would gawk in amazement, their eyes nearly popping out of their sockets!

Kang Jin-Ho could dash fifty meters or more with one leap, so forget monkeys, he was firmly in the realm of Sun Wukong at this point!

That wasn’t all, however. As the enemies below panicked at the sudden disappearance of their target, Kang Jin-Ho descended on them like an eagle swooping in for a deadly strike!

KA-BOOOOOM!

Lee Hyeon-Su squeezed his eyes shut.

The trio on the ground didn’t even have time to raise their guns or whatever. The explosion of that ear-ripping noise signaled their fate had already been sealed, as in turning into unrecognizable meat paste. Since they wouldn’t even have known how they died, maybe it was a blessing in a disguise?

Was this what a wolf running amok within a flock of sheep looked like?

Nope, it’s more like an eagle among earthworms!

The eagle pecking away and devouring the worms didn’t even matter right now, since the worms couldn’t even do anything to the eagle to defend themselves!

Blamblamblamblamblamblam!

Soldiers immediately opened fire as soon as they spotted Kang Jin-Ho. But he simply swung his Crimson Destiny in front of him.

WHOOSH!

The air resonated noisily as hundreds of sword-like images suddenly materialized before Kang Jin-Ho to create an impregnable wall. Now safely cocooned within this wall, Lee Hyeon-Su’s hearing was bombarded by the sharp noises of metal hitting something equally hard. That could only mean the “sword” wall was deflecting away the hail of bullets.

Lee Hyeon-Su screamed in his head.

Bloody hell?! I prefer stealth action games, you know?!

I hate survival games! And I hate war games even more! Because I can’t even stealthily sneak away in war games!

Of course, he couldn’t verbalize his thoughts. Because, rather than words, his esophagus was being clogged up by the contents of his stomach!

Lee Hyeon-Su hurriedly turned his head and released all the

things

welling up in his throat.

His stomach had raised a white flag of surrender after being shaken around relentlessly. It must’ve completely given up on maintaining its intended functions, judging from the sensation of things still trying to climb out of his throat.

Unfortunately, Kang Jin-Ho still held the back of Lee Hyeon-Su’s neck. Which meant the latter could only barely turn his head before throwing up.

Lee Hyeon-Su squeezed his eyes shut again after noticing all the vomit staining his chest.

KA-BOOOOOM!

Kang Jin-Ho blew away the soldiers blocking his path as if they were bowling pins and resumed his lightning-fast sprint. His eyes, now dyed pure crimson, flickered coldly in bloodlust.

Lee Hyeon-Su shuddered in dread at that sight.

Yeah, the Assembly Master feels different from his usual self during battles.

Kang Jin-Ho in battle mode was basically the devil in human disguise. But today, he seemed even more excited than usual.

That was when Lee Hyeon-Su had an epiphany. And that was how the leash called the Martial Assembly had been holding Kang Jin-Ho back until now. Leashes called protecting someone, never backing down for pride, and needing to inflict as much damage to the enemies...

Kang Jin-Ho had been fighting while such leashes were tightly wrapped around his body. But tonight, he only had to protect himself and Lee Hyeon-Su. That was it. No wonder his movements were light. Unconcerned.

“Fire! Fiiiiire, you bastards!”

One of the soldiers screamed after spotting Kang Jin-Ho. The soldiers hurriedly squeezed the triggers of their guns in Kang Jin-Ho’s direction. Of course, squeezing harder didn’t make the bullets fly faster or increase the rate of fire. But their composure had already broken down by now. The soldiers could only madly squeeze the triggers with enough force to almost snap their fingers.

Unfortunately, such things were all useless.

Kang Jin-Ho leaped up into the air to evade the incoming hail of bullets before gliding lower.

Paaaaaahng!

His sword scythed through the air. And no, the air wasn’t the only thing the weapon had sliced through.

Plop, tumble!

Heads, now separated from their necks, tumbled to the ground. Headless corpses continued firing their guns even as they crumbled on their backs.

“A-Assembly Master!” Lee Hyeon-Su urgently cried out when Kang Jin-Ho had stopped moving. “W-we need to escape from here first, sir!”

They could have left this area a long time ago, so why was Kang Jin-Ho still roaming inside this forest? Considering his speed, they should have arrived in Beijing by now!

They weren’t stuck in the Amazon rainforest or something, so how could Lee Hyeon-Su only see trees even now?

“Well, it wasn’t here.”

“Assembly Master? Excuse me?”

Kang Jin-Ho glanced at Lee Hyeon-Su.

“S-sir, I think my neck’s gonna snap at this rate.”

“Really?”

Only then did Kang Jin-Ho release Lee Hyeon-Su’s neck.

If Lee Hyeon-Su were an ordinary man, he’d have died a long time ago! Wasn’t it morally wrong to expect the passenger’s neck bones to remain intact when abruptly changing directions at right angles? While moving incredibly fast, no less?!

At least Lee Hyeon-Su was a martial artist who had trained a bit in the past, which prevented the catastrophe of his neck snapping in half by Kang Jin-Ho’s actions!

Unfortunately for Lee Hyeon-Su, however...

The catastrophe hadn’t ended yet.

Grab.

Instead of the back of the neck, Kang Jin-Ho grabbed Lee Hyeon-Su’s shoulder this time.

“S-sir, wait a mi...”

“Let’s go.”

Kang Jin-Ho didn’t bother to wait for Lee Hyeon-Su’s reply and broke into a full-blooded sprint once more. The intense pain akin to his shoulder bones breaking instantly overwhelmed Lee Hyeon-Su’s senses.

Dammit! I should’ve just told him to grab my neck like before!

No matter how fast regret was, it’d always arrive too late to be useful.

Kang Jin-Ho continued to dash forward, but then, he suddenly leaped up high into the air.

“

U-uwaaaaahk

?!”

Lee Hyeon-Su reflexively screamed. His view, once dominated by thick vines and tree branches, instantly changed to the tree canopies, only for the sight of the wide-open night sky and the wide expanse of the forest below to slam into his eyeballs.

“What the...?

Ah

...!”

Under the inky-black sky with nary a star in it, the forest that resembled undulating black waves finally registered in his brain. Maybe Lee Hyeon-Su shouldn’t be impressed by this sight, considering the situation he was in. But how could he not be moved when he might never see this spectacle again in his life?

Kang Jin-Ho whispered, “Found it.”

He kicked the empty air to descend even faster than before. His speed pretty much rivaled a missile launched by a fighter jet!

Tears of blood leaked out of Lee Hyeon-Su’s eyes as he was subjected to the sensation of his stomach invading his throat before sinking all the way down to his pelvis.

I should’ve asked the Assembly Master to carry me on his back!

Who cared about dignity and whatever when he was this close to dying?

But, uh, why did he jump so high?

Lee Hyeon-Su desperately fought against the rushing winds and turned his head to look at where they were going. And that was when he spotted a subtle flicker of light on the ground.

The flicker was so subtle that it was barely visible. But it was undoubtedly coming from a... camouflaged military tent used for field operations.

Hang on a minute... A military tent?

Kang Jin-Ho ripped through the tent’s roof and landed inside.

Shu Xi cried out, “W-what the hell?!”

Soldiers urgently shouted, “I-it’s Kang Jin-Ho! T-the target...!”

Kang Jin-Ho glanced at the stupefied-looking Shu Xi and smirked deeply. “Am I supposed to say hello first?”

“Y-you?!”

Before Shu Xi could say something, Kang Jin-Ho’s Crimson Destiny tore through space once more. As Shu Xi’s severed head flew up in the air before falling back down, a look of sheer astonishment was etched clearly on his face.

Tumble!

Kang Jin-Ho casually glanced at the severed head rolling on the floor before swiping the Crimson Destiny in the air to scatter the blood dirtying the blade. Without saying another word, he rushed outside the tent.

“...?!”

The remaining soldiers could only stare at the tent’s exit in pure stupefaction, as if a terrifying specter had completely entranced them.