Chapter 54 Dying Struggle!

Just as the bearded man rushed toward the ruins, a sudden sense of fatal danger washed over him. Startled, he instinctively lunged to the side.

"Whoosh!"

A bullet ripped through the air, heading straight for him.

"Thud."

The bearded man felt as though something had slammed into his ribs. Lowering his gaze, he was shocked to find a bloody hole torn into his waist, the seeping blood already soaking through his clothes and chainmail.

Seeing their leader injured, the remaining vagrants let out a joint battle cry and charged forward without hesitation.

However, right as these vagrants were closing the distance, the crisp crack of gunfire rang out once more. The head of the vagrant running in the lead burst open like a rotten watermelon struck by a club. The headless corpse sprinted forward for a few more paces before collapsing face-first into the dust.

The gruesome fate of their companion brought the charging vagrants to a sudden halt. They stood there in a daze, staring blankly at the fallen man.

This intermittent sound of death chilled the vagrants to their very core. They were not completely ignorant; they knew all too well that this noise was produced by a firearm.

This meant they had been targeted by a master marksman, and the Grimress could descend upon them at any moment.

Some of the vagrants also used firearms as weapons, but unfortunately, their guns were mostly crude and primitive, with short ranges and poor accuracy—often proving less effective than a simple bow and arrow.

Over time, vagrants using firearms in the wasteland had become increasingly rare.

Yet the accuracy of this particular shooter was terrifying. No such firearms expert had ever been heard of near Black Rock City. Could it be an outsider vagrant looking to pull off a black-market double-cross?

Normally, they were the ones pulling off such stunts. They never expected to be ambushed themselves today!

The vagrants felt a surge of secret frustration, eager to turn the tables, but the moment they recalled the gunman's horrifying prowess, a retreat instinct began to sprout in their minds.

The bearded man was remarkably tough. Despite taking a bullet to the ribs, his movements were not severely hindered. He quickly scrambled to find a cover and hid behind it.

Seeing this, the other vagrants followed suit, scrambling desperately for any available cover.

Sadly, in their haste, there was no ideal cover to be found. After another crisp gunshot, a vagrant hiding in a shallow depression took a bullet straight to the heart. He struggled for a few moments before going completely limp.

Several more gunshots followed in rapid succession. Accompanied by agonized screams, targets were picked off with deadly precision.

By this time, aside from the bearded man himself, only a single vagrant remained alive from their entire group. The rest had either perished in the jaws of monsters or fallen beneath Tang Zhen's bullets.

Crouching low behind his cover, one hand clutching his wound, the bearded man roared in rage and anguish, "Who the hell are you?! If you've got any guts, step out and face me man-to-man! What kind of hero hides in the shadows pot-shotting people like a coward? You spineless bastard!"

"Heh, feeling aggrieved now, are you? Where was all that arrogant bluster when you motherfuckers robbed my brain-pearls back then?"

Tang Zhen cursed inwardly, shifting the barrel toward the vagrant crouching not far from the bearded man. Within his field of vision, a green crosshair was gradually turning red.

The instant the crosshair shifted to crimson, Tang Zhen decisively pulled the trigger.

With a sharp crack, the bullet struck the vagrant's leg. The man let out a miserable shriek, but dared not expose any other part of his body from behind the cover, clearly terrified of taking another round.

Tang Zhen ignored the wounded vagrant. Although that shot hadn't killed him outright, it had shattered his leg. Without prompt medical attention, survival was doubtful.

In this brief span of time, Tang Zhen had eliminated several enemies, yet his emotions remained largely unperturbed. After all, this was not his first time taking lives.

He felt no pangs of guilt for executing these vagrants. What he had witnessed and experienced in this world had long since taught him that it was a realm governed by the law of the jungle. Mercy and hesitation would only hasten one's own demise.

If this rifle had been in the hands of the bearded man during the previous loot-grabbing incident, he was certain the brute would have butchered them without a second thought.

Seeing that his last remaining subordinate was also incapacitated, the terror and grief gripping the bearded man's heart were beyond description. Though he had countless kills under his belt over the years and had often been hunted himself, this sense of utter powerlessness was a first.

He had no idea who was ambushing him. After all, he had made countless enemies over the years, and waylaying vagrants was second nature to him. An incident like robbing Tang Zhen and his companions of their brain-pearls was entirely forgettable to him.

If the bearded man had known that a casual robbery of brain-pearls would cost his men and himself their lives, he would have gladly skipped the robbery and simply murdered them on the spot!

If he managed to escape this alive, given his ruthless nature, he would have searched to the ends of the earth to find his assailant, dragged him out into the wasteland, and tortured him for three days and nights before finally putting him to end.

Unfortunately, this world operated without such ifs, and Tang Zhen had no interest in psychoanalyzing the bearded man's internal monologue.

Regardless of anything else, the bearded man could not be allowed to leave this place alive!

Tang Zhen checked the time, estimating the rate of blood loss from the bearded man's wound. A few minutes later, he stepped leisurely out from the ruins.

The moment he stood up, the bearded man peeked out, just in time to see Tang Zhen deactivating his quantum stealth cloak.

When the bearded man caught sight of Tang Zhen's face, a flicker of confusion crossed his features, instantly replaced by sudden realization. He gritted his teeth and roared with vicious malice, "Damn it, it was you! I should've just killed you back then!"

Tang Zhen chuckled with utter disdain. Raising his rifle to aim at the bearded man, he retorted, "What's the use of saying that now? Today, you are a dead man!"

Knowing his injuries were severe and that lingering in a stalemate would mean death from blood loss, the bearded man stood up abruptly. Pointing a trembling finger at Tang Zhen, he cursed, "Do you even know who I am? How dare you slaughter our men—are you not afraid of being hunted to the ends of the earth by our organization?

"If you let me go, I swear this matter will be written off. From now on, we stay out of each other's way. What do you say?"

The bearded man kept his expression entirely neutral while lying through his teeth, though in his heart, he longed to hack Tang Zhen into a million pieces.

Tang Zhen watched him with the cold amusement one might reserve for a clown, treating the proposal with absolute contempt. He swiftly raised his rifle, sighting in on the bearded man's chest as the green crosshair in his vision steadily turned red.

At that exact moment, the hand the bearded man had been pressing against his wound suddenly jerked upward, violently hurling an object straight at Tang Zhen.

Startled, Tang Zhen jumped aside without a moment's hesitation to evade the projectile.

Taking advantage of the distraction, the bearded man exploded with astonishing speed, bolting like lightning toward the giant vine forest behind him.

"Boom!"

A deafening roar erupted as gravel and shredded grass flew through the air. The object the bearded man had thrown was actually a bomb!

The blast left Tang Zhen temporarily stunned. He genuinely had not anticipated that the bearded man would be carrying explosives.

In that brief moment of disorientation, the bearded man had already nearly reached the safety of the giant vine forest.

Tang Zhen's heart tightened. He could not allow the bearded man to escape under any circumstances; otherwise, he and Qian Long's group would face relentless retaliation from the faction backing the bearded man, hunted down without rest until death.

Swiftly raising his rifle, he aimed for the middle of the bearded man's back. Before the green crosshair could turn completely red, the fleeing man's leading leg crossed the threshold of the giant vine forest.

Not daring to hesitate further, Tang Zhen pulled the trigger.

With a sharp gunshot, the bearded man's body jerked, his stride turning staggeringly unsteady. Yet he did not stop, plunging deeper into the dense thicket of giant vines and vanishing from sight in the blink of an eye.

Tang Zhen cursed his bad luck. Without a second thought, he swung his barrel toward the leg-wounded vagrant and fired, dropping him permanently to the ground.

With the last vagrant dealt with, Tang Zhen cast a cold, sharp glance toward the dark and gloomy giant vine forest, gritted his teeth, and plunged in pursuit.