In the brightly lit corridor, Luo Zheng calmly looked around, pricking up his ears. All was quiet; not a soul was in sight, nor any sound to be heard. About ten ters ahead was the fire escape, and so twenty ters behind him was the elevator, which led underground. The elevator entrance connected to the office lobby and led outside. Where could the intruder be hiding?
Remaining on alert, Luo Zheng approached the door to the fire escape. He pressed his back against the wall and listened for a while with pricked ears. There was no sound coming from the stairwell. Cautiously, he cracked open the fire door to peer inside, but saw nothing. A sense of bewildered suspicion grew within him. Where could the intruder have gone?
"Did you find anything?" Luo Zheng closed the fire door and quietly asked through his earpiece.
"Strange, no sign of anything. We've notified your guys," Zheng Duo replied in a hushed and startled voice.
After a mont of contemplation, Luo Zheng gripped his gun tighter, darted into the fire escape, and started running upstairs swiftly. He encountered no attacks on the way up; all was eerily silent, as if nothing had happened. Reaching the third floor, Luo Zheng glanced at the scraps of paper on the stairs—the paper was still there. Annoyed, he stepped on it and continued upwards.
He rushed up to the sixth floor, yet found nothing unusual. With growing astonishnt, he considered the situation from the intruder's perspective. If it had been him, he surely would have headed downward—no need to hide upstairs. Thinking it over, he decided not to climb any further and dashed back downstairs. When he reached the third floor, he noticed that the scraps of paper had shifted slightly, but he didn't pay it much mind and continued to the lobby. At the elevator entrance, he saw nothing out of the ordinary, and the sa went for the outside area.
"Weird? Could I have rembered incorrectly?" Luo Zheng began to ponder in confusion, all while keeping a wary eye on his surroundings. Other than the corridor and the fire escape, the only other places to hide were the ventilation ducts and the rooms upstairs. Checking each room wasn't feasible; with so many ventilation ducts, it would be difficult to search if soone was really hiding there.
After so thought, Luo Zheng couldn't shake the feeling that sothing was off, yet he couldn't pinpoint what it was. Cautiously, he returned to the monitoring room. Once Zheng Duo had opened the door, he sat down and began scrutinizing the monitor screens intently. All the screens appeared normal. As he furrowed his brows with a serious expression, he suddenly noticed that piece of paper again and was montarily taken aback.
When he had checked the stairs earlier, he had paid special attention to it; the paper had certainly been moved. Why was it still in the sa place? Upon realizing this, Luo Zheng was startled and asked cautiously, "Captain Zheng, did you see go up the fire escape just now?"
"You went up the fire escape?" Zheng Duo asked back in surprise.
Luo Zheng was taken aback, then quickly understood. The system had been breached; soone controlled the surveillance backend, and the images he was seeing were an illusion, not live footage. His face turned cold as he looked at Zheng Duo, who had also beco alert, and spoke earnestly, "The opposition has a computer expert controlling our surveillance system. Notify your n to switch on all the lights imdiately, and conduct a thorough search." With that, he hurried out toward the office building's lobby.
The lobby was empty. Luo Zheng quickly pressed the elevator button, only to find that the elevator didn't respond at all. Startled, he shouted through his earpiece, "Captain Zheng, the elevator is malfunctioning. I suspect soone has infiltrated the basent, alert my people down there imdiately."
"Understood," Zheng Duo responded quickly as he dialed the internal line.
The only entry to the basent was the elevator. If the adversary had gone below, even if they had taken control of the security system and could pass through the security gates and the laser channels smoothly, as long as Ghost Hand and the others were inford, Luo Zheng believed the intruder would gain no advantage. He stood guard at the elevator entrance and shouted through his earpiece, "Captain Zheng, the enemy has control of the surveillance. They may be listening to our conversation but regardless, shut down all surveillance power manually right away. We can't afford to give the enemy any advantages."
"Understood." Zheng Duo rushed to the control area and quickly turned off the surveillance equipnt.
"Didn't expect you to react so fast, but it's too late." A sudden voice rang out in the earpiece, "I'm curious, how did you detect the anomaly?"
"Bastard, if you're brave enough, co and fight one-on-one," Zheng Duo swore angrily.
"Keep cool," Luo Zheng commanded coldly. "Captain Zheng, don't charge in. Imdiately notify your n, if anyone tries to rush out of the office building, shoot to kill, no exceptions. Rember, don't approach the office building either, otherwise, I will shoot to kill. Be cautious, the killer is not simple."
"Understood." Zheng Duo imdiately agreed and relayed the ssage.
"Co on, I want to see just how capable you really are," Luo Zheng watched the elevator door with a cold gaze, suddenly noticing the elevator light coming on, indicating soone was coming out. He quickly stepped back a few paces, his gun aid at the elevator door, ready for whatever may co. He saw the elevator door open but did not shoot inside.
A few seconds passed, and then a Black Shadow suddenly rolled out from the elevator, moving swiftly across the ground. Luo Zheng quickly aid but realized the opponent had already sprung up, their entire body enveloped in a black tight-fitting suit, revealing only a pair of eyes, with a long sword strapped to their back—a standard Ninja outfit.
"Bang, bang, bang!" Without hesitation, Luo Zheng aid and fired at the Ninja, but as he pulled the trigger, the scene before him blurred, and he guessed the three shots missed. He shouldn't have been careless and began searching the area, noticing the target had quickly rolled away several ters, hiding around a corner.
"Die." Luo Zheng charged forward, anger fueling his movent, his gun continuing to fire in bursts. Shockingly, he saw the Ninja draw their sword like lightning, a flash of black light twinkled as the blade was held in front of them, a crisp sound echoing as the sword surprisingly blocked the bullets, astounding accuracy and terrifying anticipatory skills on display.
Luo Zheng knew he was facing a true master. He slid to a stop at a safe distance from the Ninja, but he kept his gun firing in bursts, aiming all the shots toward the Ninja's lower body. Suddenly, he saw the Ninja's body flip backward rapidly, once again evading his burst fire.
"Damn it." Luo Zheng's face turned an icy blue, his eyes coldly fixed on the opponent, seeing them suspended in the Void, unable to leverage off anything. He took a deep breath, his eyes slightly closed, and aid his gun, quickly squeezing the trigger. With the roar of the shot, the bullet burst forth, carrying Luo Zheng's rage.
"Ding!" Sparks flew as the bullet was yet again blocked by the Ninja's dark long sword. Taking advantage of the mont, the Ninja landed, clapped their hands on the ground, and like a swallow skimming over water, dashed forward swiftly.
"Die!" Luo Zheng hadn't expected his deadly shot to be blocked, and his fighting spirit blazed even more fiercely, a sign of his strong character. His gun rang out once more, yet he found the Ninja's body twisting bizarrely mid-air, narrowly evading the lethal shot, touching down on one foot, the body spinning 360 degrees in the air before delivering a fierce kick.
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