First Operation (Part 2)

"That apartment building ahead is Black Spider's hiding spot. He should be on the third floor. We need to approach silently," said Li Yalin to Lambert and Li Yan.

"There's no point in acting stealthy," interrupted Han Xiao through the intercom. "Black Spider has already discovered you all."

"How do you know?" Li Yalin frowned.

Suddenly, gunfire pierced the silence of the night as a storm of bullets rained upon the trio. They immediately jumped into the nearest alley to seek cover.

The trio exchanged serious looks as they leaned against the wall.

Since when did he notice us‽

While a simple ambush like that would never have been enough to do them in, they would not have been able to react so fast without Han Xiao's warning. Li Yalin put her game face on and clamped her earpiece tighter.

There was a man standing on top of the tall building from where the shots had come from smiling frenziedly upon the trio's location with an assault rifle in his hands. On the left side of his face was a tattoo of a black spider. With a wave of his hand, ten masked men armed with guns suddenly jumped out of their hiding spots in the nearby streets and alleys to converge on the alley that the trio was in.

"Our intel was wrong! Wasn't he alone‽" Lin Yao's eyes were wide with disbelief.

Li Yalin's heart sunk.

Black Spider began to laugh coldly.

"Did you think that I would continue staying here if I was not prepared? You guys got me good the other time, but now that you have all kindly offered yourselves up, I shall have my revenge!"

Black Spider was widely known to be an independent bounty hunter, and his modus operandi was to set up traps before the battle even broke out. The trio were akin to prey stepping into a spider's web.

Li Yalin suddenly turned to face the wall and, as her leg began to glow yellow, smashed it down with a powerful kick to obstruct the enemy's vision.

Low level pugilists relied mainly on their abnormally huge power. Li Yalin was a Lv. 25 E-class superhuman with over 300 ona.

Black Spider and his agents suppressed the trio with overwhelming gunfire as they converged onto the alleyway.

Li Yalin and Lambert dragged Lin Yao with them as they made use of their surroundings to evade the gunfire. While they were able to dodge all the bullets, they soon found themselves cornered in a dead end; Black Spider and his men had sealed off the alley.

Black Spider closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"My insects, you must be trembling with fear now," he said frenziedly.

"Do you think you've won?" replied Li Yalin tauntingly as she shot a glance at Lambert.

Black Spider turned around to face his men as he opened up his arms.

"I just need to say give the order and you will become minced meat in an instant. I do think I've won, don't you?"

"Then what are you waiting for?" glowered Li Yalin.

Black Spider waved a finger.

"Killing you all will do me no good. I'll ransom you for a tidy sum!" he proudly declared, knowing full well that Division 13 could hear him through the trio's intercom.

"But only one of you is enough!" he suddenly broke out in maniacal laughter.

Just as he was about to give the order to fire, Li Yalin jumped onto the wall, and, as her legs began to glow yellow, she sprung forward, soaring in the air like a graceful swallow to close in on Black Spider and his men.

"Kill her!" Black Spider frantically ordered. His men began to fire at Li Yalin, and while a few bullets managed to find their mark despite her being fast to the point of becoming a blur, they simply flattened into metal pancakes upon hitting her clothes.

Not only was the fabric of Li Yalin's bodysuit weaved with bulletproof ceramic fiber, her own body itself was tough enough to deflect bullets. From the start, the trio had only been fleeing to bait in Black Spider and all of his men.

As Li Yalin distracted them, Lambert whipped out two knives with each hand and threw them out, killing four men instantly.

Li Yalin drew the sheathed retractable knife from her waist and slashed at the nearest agent. The agent threw his head back slightly, thinking that it would be enough to dodge, but, suddenly, a 10 cm blade extended out to rip his throat open.

"Excellent weapon!" remarked Li Yalin with shining eyes.

What happens when a gunman comes into the range of a pugilist goes without saying. Thirty seconds later, there was blood splattered everywhere, and only Black Spider, with both hands chopped off, remained.

Li Yalin exhaled as she sheathed the retractable knife. She clearly looked pleased with it.

"Well done," praised Han Xiao. He had chosen to remain silent during the fight so as not to bother them.

"Thank— thank you," Li Yao stammered.

"Not you."

Li Yao lowered his head in depression. He had truly not contributed anything at all during the fight.

The heavily wounded Black Spider began to laugh hoarsely as he glared at Li Yalin without a single trace of fear in his eyes.

"Little brat, you guys can't kill me," he taunted.

Suddenly, Lambert whipped out his gun to shoot Black Spider in the head. Blood splattered across the floor as Black Spider's body collapsed to the ground.

Li Yalin and Li Yao turned to look at him speechlessly.

"Can't know until you try," he stated plainly.

"Ay… whatever. They didn't tell us to take him in alive anyway," said Li Yalin as she lazily stretched her back. "Ah! I want to go back to take a shower! All of this blood is so smelly."

Suddenly, however, Han Xiao spoke.

"Don't let your guard down. He's not dead yet."

Li Yalin almost stumbled backwards in her stretch.

"How can he be alive?" she fumed as she pointed at what remained of Black Spider's head.

"He is a superhuman with some tricky abilities. Unmask the corpse next to him. You will understand," replied Han Xiao calmly.

"But there isn't any piece of news on the dark web that says Black Spider is a superhuman," hesitated Li Yao. "You might be mistaken."

"Not might, he is definitely mistaken," added a disgruntled Li Yalin. "Hey, newbie, I know you want to earn some credit, but don't make these kind of things up!"

Han Xiao was speechless.