Book 3, Chapter 15: Defense Agreement

Jing Li was able to survive in Central City and develop his team because he had connections and brains. Right now, every shred of his intelligence was telling him no normal martial arts school student could possibly wear that sort of protective gear.

Only people who were at least company senior executives and government department directors could have that sort of protective gear.

There had to be some sort of error in the information.

He was sure of it. The intruder had an excellent resonator supporting him.

This made the problem much more complicated. Cold sweat broke out on his back as he racked his brains, wondering who was targeting him, and was it because of the goods, or was it because he didn’t do a good job wrapping up the mess of some powerful person?

He did not consider the possibility of reconciliation. Since the person had attacked the headquarters, how would he even think about sparing Jing Li? The notion itself was laughable. He had already killed so many of Jing Li’s members. Even if Jing Li was willing to make a concession, this person wasn’t going to believe that Jing Li would just let it slide. That was why he had no choice but to fight to the bitter end.

This was a kill-or-be-killed situation.

These thoughts flickered rapidly through his head, and his expression turned fierce as he ordered, “Kill him, no matter what it takes!”

The elites split into squads. The squad in front immediately lifted their shields and drew steel hammers and bats from their waists. The two squads behind them drew extendable tridents. Then, they slowly closed in on Chen Chuan from three directions.

Meanwhile, Jing Li ordered the resonator beside him, “Figure out who he really is!”

The resonator already knew that he had made a mistake and started searching without a word of complaint, but whenever he got an answer, he found that the information didn’t match.

This meant that the intruder’s resonator was interfering with him. This wasn’t actually something that required a lot of skill. All the resonator had to do was replace the intruder’s details with an ocean’s worth of similar data he had prepared beforehand. Yet this was a really useful tactic. Unless he had a passive biosentient entity helping him analyze the data, he wouldn’t be able to figure out what was real in a short amount of time. The resonator cursed and continued searching.

Jing Li waited for a moment before losing patience. He used his Realm Pass to contact the resonator he often collaborated with.

Once the connection went through, his eyes flashed with a red light. “See the guy in front? Destroy his Realm Pass and implants!”

When the people closed in on Chen Chuan, he brought the Frost King Saber up and walked toward them. As he did so, he overlapped with his second self. In an instant, everything around him slowed down.

Even though he had the upperhand, his instincts as a martial artist stopped him from charging forward. Instead, he bypassed the shields and chose to attack from the side.

With the huge boost of speed, he swung his saber twice, and two of the elites were cleaved. But before he could deliver his third slash, one of the elites wielding a shield shifted over and blocked his attack.

Clang!

He wasn’t the only one who caught up. In just an instant, the other members no longer moved slowly. They were all able to match Chen Chuan’s speed.

The huge shock from seeing Chen Chuan vanish from their sight had caused their implants to inject a special medicine into their veins, allowing them to gain a boost in their physical abilities for a short period of time.

The military-grade medicine and implants were part-and-parcel for all elite teams of every company or government department. Otherwise, it would be a huge joke if a heavily invested upon elite team was to be wiped out in an instant by a Third Limit martial artist.

The world before Jing Li blurred, signalling that everyone before him was moving at speeds his eyes could not catch.

His heart trembled in fear.

The intruder was a Third Limit martial artist?

All Third Limit martial artists had to register at Central City’s Security Department and report their whereabouts whenever they left their houses. This was the norm everywhere in the world, because once such people armed themselves with a weapon and put on protective gear, they became walking weapons of mass destruction. They could threaten all people in power.

“You still haven’t figured out who he is?” Jing Li snapped at the resonator beside him.

“One moment...”

The resonator felt resigned. His opponent was really cunning and was making full use of his preparations. He refused to engage in a battle of skill with him and only sought to drag the fight out. Even though he was getting closer to the truth, it would take some time before he actually got there.

The other resonator’s voice sounded in Jing Li’s ears. “He doesn’t have any implants. I can’t intercept his movements.”

“What about his Realm Pass?”

“He’s only connected to one channel and turned off all other functions.”

Jing Li cursed under his breath. After some thinking, he decided that it was dangerous outside and called for the resonator to return to the car with him.

Despite seeing the enemies catch up to his speed in an instant, Chen Chuan wasn’t surprised. He had seen things like this before back in Yangzhi City. If people back there could get this sort of medicine, it would be even easier for the people in Central City.

But there was a difference. Compared to those people back then, these people’s movements were coordinated. Their teamwork was also astounding.

When one person blocked his attack with a shield, another’s trident would stab toward him. A third would then put away his steel bat to aim a gun at Chen Chuan’s head. None of them showed any hesitation even after Chen Chuan had cut a few of their team members in two.

Chen Chuan even saw the other two squads making swift adjustments while surrounding him.

This team put a lot of emphasis on working as a single unit while not being weak individually. Even so, Chen Chuan had ways to get rid of them. After all, their guns weren’t a threat to him. With no long-distance threats, he didn’t need to charge at them. All he needed to do was to keep disrupting their formation or wait for the effects of their medicine to run out.

But he didn’t intend to waste time. He stepped back. Without moving his body, he turned his wrists and used his saber to block a trident. Then, he yanked it to the side.

While the person managed to stop the trident from getting yanked out of his hands and even tried to steal Chen Chuan’s saber, Chen Chuan flung his arm outward, and a few stones shot out, hitting a few people’s heads. Even if they wore helmets, the force behind the throws was akin to someone hitting their heads with a hammer.

Before they could recover from the blows, a saber flash came charging at them. As Chen Chuan shot past those people, they were reduced to severed limbs and torsos.

To the resonator watching from the distance, the elite team had been able to put up a fight against Chen Chuan, then the next instant, they were cut to shreds. They were killed so swiftly that it went against everything he knew, so much so that he was left in shock. After seeing that, he didn’t care about doing what Jing Li had asked of him and just left without another word.

Chen Chuan didn’t stop moving after killing the first squad. He turned around and went up against the other two. Now that he had found a way to take them down, all he needed to do was repeat the same actions.

Jing Li sat in the car watching Chen Chuan demolish the elite team he had spent tons of money and effort on building. He trembled from rage, but his heart pounded in fear.

He could no longer wait for the results and just urged his driver to start the car. “We have to get out of here!”

At this point, Chen Chuan had gotten rid of all the surrounding threats. He looked over and saw a car leaving. Immediately, he ran after it. In an instant, he caught up and kicked the car’s bumper, causing it to skitter away while spinning.

He followed after it and kicked the middle of the car, sending it flying. When it landed, it tumbled sideways twice before stopping on its roof on the road.

When Jing Li’s world stopped spinning, he felt pain all over. Blood flowed down his forehead. Sensing the external stimulation, his implants released stimulants so that he could remain alert and ready to flee.

From his inverted view, he saw a pair of legs headed his way. Jing Li fumbled around to unfasten his seatbelt. His body fell down, and he moved to the side to open the door. He crawled from the other side of the car. At this point, he no longer had the energy to care about saving the resonator in the back.

Once he was outside, he didn’t wait for Chen Chuan to come over and crawled away while crying out in a panic, “Don’t come any closer! I’ve signed a Class C Defense Agreement with City Defense. They’re on their way already! If you kill me, they’ll arrest you!”

“He’s right, Chen Chuan. I tracked down the signal he sent out just now. He had signed the Class C Defense Agreement with City Defense. The moment he applies for security, a security team will be mobilized to protect him. They’re already on their way and will arrive within ten minutes,” Wu Bei said. He then gulped. “City Defense specializes in dealing with violent crime in Central City. They’re really strong...”

Chen Chuan remained unperturbed and walked to the car. When he saw Jing Li getting to his feet to run away, he drew the Halberd Pistol and fired a few times at his spine and head. Jing Li was wearing protective gear, so the bullets didn’t sink into his flesh. The bullets that hit his head were also blocked by a hardened skull, so he was completely fine.

Chen Chuan didn’t bat an eye at that. He threw a stone out. With a loud crack, Jing Li fell forward, as if someone had struck him on the back of his head. When he crashed on the road, he started twitching.

Chen Chuan went over and grabbed one of Jing Li’s legs. He dragged him back a few steps, then lifted him up and slammed him against the car.

Bam!

The car instantly caved. Jing Li was embedded into it. His crushed organs and the tissue from his implants spilled out of his mouth, along with his blood. The flashing red light in his eyes also faded away.

***

A few kilometers away, black armored vehicles were charging down the road. Just then, they received an audio message from a passive biosentient entity.

“Class C security subject detected deceased. You are authorized to determine subsequent action.”

The captain of the security team scanned Chen Chuan’s identity through a Realm Node nearby. This time, Wu Bei didn’t switch his identity, so Chen Chuan’s updated information was immediately sent to the captain’s Realm Pass.

He first saw Chen Chuan’s status as a Martial Valor University student, then the permits he held: weapons permit, armor permit, and unrestricted defense permit.

𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

After that came his achievements.

Near the end, a red light shone on his screen, indicating that the section was related to the country’s secrets, and he didn’t have authorization to read it.

The moment the captain saw this, he deleted the message with familiar movements, blocked all communication channels associated with Jing Li and his group, and sent the order to retreat.

In less than half a minute after Jing Li died, the security team turned around and left without hesitation.

After all, in a Class C Defense Agreement, all they needed to do was to protect their target’s life. Since he was already dead, their duties were finished.

The task was “completed”, so the company sent Jing Li an audio message.

“If you have any dissatisfaction with your current service, we suggest that you upgrade your defense agreement or purchase one of the other packages. City Defense will provide the best protection for you.”