Hunter of Mysterious Creature-Chapter 555 - 126: Sniper_2

"At that time, nearly half of the Hezhong States’ territory had fallen, and the military had lost over sixty percent of its forces. If it weren’t for these autonomous combat drones constantly rolling off the assembly line to hold the line, the collapse of the Hezhong States would have happened at least a month earlier."

"If nothing unexpected happens, something’s bound to happen now, right?" Sun Hang asked.

"Yes, on the sixteenth day of the Hezhong States’ countdown to extinction, at exactly nine o’clock that evening, the executives of Tristan Electric Industry received an urgent notice that the source code of their company’s operating system had been forcibly altered by an unknown force. All technical personnel and frontline operators were stripped of their work permissions. In the next three hours, the autonomous combat drones produced by Tristan Electronics turned their guns on the human soldiers they had just been fighting alongside, and not only that, but the virus quickly spread to drones produced by other companies — even though they didn’t even use the same operating system as Tristan Electric."

"Oh wow, now this is going to be fun." Sun Hang suddenly thought that it would be nice to have a bucket of popcorn at this moment.

Oh, and besides popcorn, it would be best to have a wooden fish, so you can knock on it a couple of times if you accidentally laugh out loud, trying your best to maintain a balance of good deeds.

"The chaos wasn’t limited to the frontline; the autonomous combat drones in the factories also went out of control. They killed the workers, technicians, and guards in the factories, opened the armories, and took the weapons that were originally prepared for them... They then left the factories and walked the streets of Texas."

"Kill on sight?"

"That’s right... According to the post-event decryption of the drone wreckage, their core command had been changed to ’eliminate all carbon-based life forms within their visual range,’" the team leader said, "doesn’t it sound just like a synthetic intelligence crisis."

"It’s a shame it hasn’t been made into a movie." Sun Hang nodded, "Hollywood likes to make movies with this kind of theme, don’t they?"

"Los Angeles, where Hollywood is located, was one of the first areas of the Hezhong States to fall. The enigmatic army that landed on the West Coast swept through the entire California, and less than one in ten survivors managed to escape." The team leader said, "You could say the Texas rebellion virus incident directly led to the fall of the Hezhong States... From that day, the Hezhong States’ defense lines began to collapse, and they never managed to mount any effective resistance afterwards."

"Tsk..."

"And that’s why, even during the toughest moments of the war, we in the Xiazhou Federation never loosened our stance on researching autonomous combat drones," the team leader said, "what happened across the ocean serves as a lesson for us."

"There was actually... huh?" Sun Hang wanted to continue speaking, but his eyes narrowed as he looked towards the mountainside.

He noticed that the originally orderly search formation became seriously chaotic when it passed through a residential area.

Several field operatives fell headlong to the ground as soon as they walked into the blind spots of others’ vision.

"What’s going on?" The team leader also noticed Sun Hang’s unusual expression and looked towards the mountainside following his gaze.

"Something’s wrong, several of your people are dead." Sun Hang’s tone became somewhat serious.

"What?!" The team leader immediately grabbed his binoculars and pressed the communication button on his earpiece, "Group B, Group C, report your status immediately! Repeat! Group B, Group C report your status immediately! I see someone has been attacked!"

"B1 reporting, everything is normal, target not found!"

"B2 reporting, everything is normal."

"B3 reporting..."

"B6 reporting..."

...

"B4, B5, and C2, C3? Do you read? Hello? B4? B5? C2, C3?" The group leader’s tone suddenly became anxious.

Soon, voices from other operatives came through the communication channel: "Reporting to the leader, this is B3! I found B4 at the west entrance of the plantation. He’s already dead! Judging by the wounds on the body, the cause of death was gunfire, a 7.62mm full-power round, it pierced through his throat, breaking his entire neck!"

"Gunfire?" The group leader’s eyes widened, "A 7.62mm full-power round? That’s impossible! According to our intel, Yao Yu only has a 9mm handgun!"

"It’s not Yao Yu." Sun Hang said quietly from the side, "Even if Yao Yu had a 7.62mm weapon, he couldn’t have hit four people at the same time... Plus, we didn’t hear any gunshots."

"But B3 told me his cause of death was gunfire, and I trust my team members’ judgment, with their experience, they wouldn’t..."

The group leader hadn’t finished speaking when the communication channel lit up again.

"This is C1, I’ve found C2, he’s... he’s dead, the cause of death is—"

C1’s communication was abruptly cut off.

Sun Hang clearly saw a field operative freeze mid-sprint towards one of the bodies, and then collapsed to the ground, motionless.

In that instant, Sun Hang also caught sight of the near-invisible bullet trajectory.

"C1?! C1?!"

"Stop yelling, he’s also been sniped." Sun Hang patted the group leader’s shoulder, "But I’ve already spotted the direction the bullet came from."

"Where is it?" The group leader immediately asked.

"On the other mountain, about four kilometers away, ultra-long-range sniping." Sun Hang pointed to another peak east of Pear Blossom Mountain, most of which was shrouded in fog, and without drone illumination above, from their perspective, it was just a huge shadow lurking under the night sky.

"That mountain... is Zhang Family Mountain!" The group leader quickly realized, "The distance from Pear Blossom Mountain is roughly four thousand three hundred meters, at this distance, with this visibility, sniping... how is that possible?!"

"Nothing is impossible." Sun Hang remained very calm, "Your team has already lost five people, you need to learn to accept reality."

"Everyone!" The group leader paused for a moment and then shouted in the communication channel, "The sniper is located on Zhang Family Mountain to the east! Four kilometers away, everyone, immediately seek cover—"

The group leader had just started to say "cover" when Sun Hang cut off his communication, "Wait a moment." 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

"Wait for what?!"

"Wait for that sniper to fire another shot." I just saw the bullet trajectory but haven’t had time to lock onto the sniper’s exact position yet.

"You’re suggesting using my men as bait?"

In that instant, a tiny spark, almost invisible to the naked eye, blossomed at the top of Zhang Family Mountain, and the leader felt a gust of powerful air rush by, knocking him to the ground. A deafening explosion followed!

Sun Hang had already vanished from his original spot!

The sniper’s shooting distance exceeded four thousand three hundred meters, as the opponent was shooting from the mountaintop to the mountainside, the actual distance was at least over four thousand five hundred meters.

This sniper was either an adept or wielded an artifact of some kind.

With this thought, Sun Hang charged headlong into the rock face of Zhang Family Mountain, forcefully "chiseling" out a human-shaped hole.

"Damn it... I need to practice emergency braking more often..."

Sun Hang cursed as he crawled out of the hole, but by the time he reached the sniping position, the opponent was already gone, leaving only miscellaneous items not taken in time and a flattened grass mat.