Bursting Tomato 13

Atmore: "That's for horses."

Yan Xianchuan: "I know."

Atmore: "Then why are you eating it?"

Yan Xianchuan glanced at the bottle in her hand again. "But it doesn't say humans can't eat it. I feel like my hair's been a bit dry lately."

Atmore: "..."

Speechless and exasperated, he snatched the bottle away and said in a low voice, "I have hair vitamins for humans. I'll give you some later. Leave this for the horses." He quickly screwed the cap back on and put it away.

Yan Xianchuan stared at it reluctantly for a while before finally looking away, sighing as if she'd suffered a great loss.

Hei Ge sent messages to the other employees, pretending to be the stable manager, telling them to return to their dormitories and not come out. Everyone put down their work and headed to the dormitory building.

The dormitory was behind the small front building, and people filed in one by one. But a few people were heading toward the front hall, walking faster and faster.

"Something's wrong!" Hei Ge warned loudly through the earpiece.

A sharp, grating noise, like fingernails scraping a blackboard, flew in from afar. It smashed through the window and fell to the floor with the shattered glass, and choking smoke poured out of an apple-sized canister like a floodgate had been opened.

Everyone in the storage room rushed out in a burst, and Lu Mingqiu was forced to stop. Dongye He's head lolled as he passed out. Seeing this, Yan Xianchuan hurried forward, took him from Lu's arms, and supported him as she followed behind her.

"It's an enemy attack. They disguised themselves as the staff here. They arrived even earlier than us," Hei Ge said.

"How many in total?" Lu Mingqiu asked in a low voice.

"Eight, and they're surrounding us outside," Hei Ge said, then added after a moment, "They've all undergone cybernetic modifications using nanotechnology. Heavy firepower. I suspect they're from the Mechanical Pure Land."

The lunatics of the Mechanical Pure Land never left any leeway and never considered the consequences. They'd wanted the Consciousness-Separation Serum for too long. With Dongye Zhengqi dead, they'd turned their attention to Dongye He.

Both sides had been watching him, and both thought this was a good opportunity to strike. But even though they'd come later, they'd made the first move. The Mechanical Pure Land people probably just realized something was off.

What to do? Lu Mingqiu's mind raced.

"Give me their distribution," she said.

A second later, Hei Ge sent several images—a floor plan of the building with red dots marked on it.

Lu Mingqiu glanced at it and spoke rapidly. "Go to 107. Jump out the window."

The terrain inside was too cramped for combat. They'd held back from throwing bombs directly into the room out of concern for Dongye He's life, but if they stayed holed up in the building, the Resistance couldn't fight back—they'd just be sitting ducks.

Yan Xianchuan tucked Dongye He under her arm like a sack of rice, or a handbag with legs. As they ran, he woke up, groggily lifting his head and letting out a syllable before she chopped him on the back of the neck with her hand, knocking him out again.

Esper powers were useful, but definitely not omnipotent. Lu Mingqiu could detonate someone's mind with a glance, but the enemy could just as easily pull the trigger, and if she couldn't dodge, it would be mutual destruction. So she always kept herself in blind spots or made enemies focus elsewhere so they couldn't spot her first.

Hei Ge could manipulate metal, but there were limits to weight and time—too small or too light wouldn't work, too big or too heavy wouldn't work either. The lightest was 250 grams, so the blades he carried were specially made. But carrying too much affected his movement; twenty was his limit.

Silver Ring's body could stretch freely—he could squeeze into drainpipes like noodles and slip through narrow gaps under doors like a piece of paper, but he wasn't bulletproof.

They were up against a squad of fully armed, cybernetically enhanced humans with firearms, while their own weapons consisted of two guns per person, body armor, two spare magazines, and some cold steel like daggers. That was it.

Retreat was the top priority.

Even Orielle had equipped thermal imaging sensors, so the Mechanical Pure Land naturally had them too.

No sooner had they started heading toward 107 than their pursuers caught up, a red line streaking across the map.

"Gold Ring, cover us," Lu Mingqiu said as she smashed through the glass and leaped out the window, heading straight for a water tower ahead.

The next moment, the metal window frame was ripped from the wall by Gold Ring's power, and the iron door flew out through the wide-open window, shielding them from behind as they kept running after her figure.

They hadn't gone far when the Mechanical Pure Land caught up. The sound of gunfire merged into an indistinguishable roar, like thunder, pounding a series of dents into the iron door. At this rate, the door would be shredded in no time.

Luckily, Gold Ring thought on his feet—he made the bullets that hit the door stick to it directly, forming a protective shell. But that also made the door heavier and heavier, draining his energy progressively.

Then a bullet with a tricky trajectory skimmed past the edge of the iron door. Atmore caught sight of the enemy's dark muzzle and yanked Silver Ring aside, but the bullet grazed his upper arm, bursting into a spray of blood.

Atmore gritted his teeth and cursed. "I'm fine, just a scratch. Move!"

The main gate was just ahead. Lu Mingqiu judged the route, weaving behind any building that could serve as cover. As she passed the guard booth, she turned and fired several shots behind her, her accuracy matching the pursuing enemies' assisted aiming.

But those shots only slightly slowed the enemy's rate of fire, forcing one of them to stop shooting and take cover.

Besides gunfire, they threw flashbangs and stink bombs. Yan Xianchuan had the best vision, so she was hit the hardest. Even with her eyes shut, tears streamed from under her eyelids, soaking her face.

When she opened her eyes, her vision was a blank white, and her ears rang so loudly she couldn't hear a thing. But she'd memorized the terrain ahead and Lu Mingqiu's running route, so even with temporary deafness and blindness, she didn't stumble.

The one who'd taken the worst injury also recovered the fastest. In the blink of an eye, her vision returned.

Yan Xianchuan wasn't one to take a loss lying down. She wiped her face, shoved Dongye He into the bewildered Silver Ring's arms, broke away from the group's pace, and sprinted toward a horse-shaped stone statue ahead. She grabbed its hind leg, swung it around, and hurled it at the gunmen behind.

A gray-white blur whooshed over everyone's heads, then a dull thud, followed by a scream—the ground seemed to shake, and the gunfire weakened by a notch.

Still not satisfied, Yan Xianchuan grabbed a round stone pillar and threw it like a soda bottle. This time, the Mechanical Pure Land members caught on. The targeted one dodged hastily, but still got clipped. Half his body shattered like a block of tofu, and he screamed as he was knocked flying. The stone pillar carried on for a distance before smashing into a building behind, punching a huge hole in the wall.

Everyone except Lu Mingqiu widened their eyes in unison at the sight.

Then she threw a third, followed by a fourth. The two pillars were slightly off—the first was dodged, but the other predicted the enemy's movement and sent him crashing into a building along with it, followed by a loud crash.

Gunfire immediately weakened. Lu Mingqiu wasn't just going to stand there—her power had range limits, but the bullets in her gun didn't.

She raised her gun, aimed, and pulled the trigger in one fluid motion. The gunshot blended in so seamlessly that no one had any warning, and only in the instant of the headshot did the enemy realize they'd been hit.

They didn't dare use large-scale explosives for fear of hurting Dongye He, but Lu Mingqiu's group had no such qualms.

Yan Xianchuan, having cooled off, ran back and took Dongye He from the others' complicated gazes, tucking him under her arm again.

"Hurry up," she said calmly and somewhat puzzled. "Why are you all staring at me?"

Atmore said through the pain, "You said you didn't have esper powers."

Yan Xianchuan replied nonchalantly, "Right, I don't. No wait—I do."

She suddenly recalled that test the other day when Lu Mingqiu said she was an esper. "I do have powers. Earlier I said I didn't because I forgot."

Every word she said was true, but to the others' ears, it sounded strange—how could you forget whether you had powers?

Still, they were in a hurry to retreat, so this wasn't the time for chit-chat. Of the eight enemies, four were down, leaving four. Lu Mingqiu kept firing behind her, disrupting their attack rhythm.

Silver Ring seized the opportunity too, running backward and stretching his arms so the gun muzzle poked out from behind the nearly ruined iron door, spraying shots wildly behind them.

The gate was getting closer, the exit right in sight—then suddenly, things took a turn. Of the remaining four Mechanical Pure Land members, one suddenly started screaming and yelling. He clutched his head, howling like a madman, as if possessed.

His companions immediately stopped shooting and shouted his name, asking what was wrong.

But he didn't answer. Breathing heavily, he raised his arm and pointed his gun at his own comrades, shouting, "Die! You bastards, you lackeys!"

Flames spat from the muzzle like thunder.

The bulletproof mechanical bodies blocked the attack. The three shielded their heads and scrambled to dodge. "Damn it, does anyone have the meds? Who brought meds!"

"Shit, we came here to get the meds, didn't we!"

"I brought one!"

The three surrounded him from different directions, but he went berserk, roaring, "Get lost! All of you die!"

New weapons kept sprouting from his arms that had once held two gun barrels, like a bunch of grapes covered in tumors, dangling below his shoulders.

Countless muzzles unloaded together, launching indiscriminate attacks at everyone present. A small missile spiraled toward Yan Xianchuan and the others.

Panic flashed across Lu Mingqiu's face. "Dodge!"

The last word hadn't even reached Yan Xianchuan's ears before a tremendous impact slammed into her back, sending her flying backward.