MMB Chapter 1464 The Ghost Returns
Chapter 1464 The Ghost Returns
Hidden among the trees, two snipers, peering through high-powered scopes, kept their eyes fixed on the abandoned wooden house.
Their fingers were still on the cold trigger guards, their breathing slightly rapid from disbelief and shock. The crosshairs of their scopes had tried countless times to lock onto that ghostly figure moving between the beach and the woods, but each time they had missed.
At that moment, the figure had disappeared behind the dilapidated wooden door.
"Damn it... what kind of hellish mission is this?" The sniper on the left, a mercenary codenamed "Grey Falcon" with his face heavily painted with jungle camouflage, couldn't help but mutter a curse through gritted teeth. His voice, transmitted through his headset to his comrade, carried barely suppressed frustration and a hint of barely perceptible fear. "Is the one they sent us to deal with... a devil? He's a monster!"
His partner, codenamed "Echidna," bobbed his Adam's apple, said nothing, but looked away from the scope and briefly closed his eyes, as if trying to dispel the intense discomfort he had just witnessed.
Yes, monster. That word is absolutely fitting.
From the scorching beach to this shady coconut grove, a mere few dozen meters, the target's movements defied all logic.
It wasn't a tactical evasive maneuver; there was no zigzagging, no use of cover, not even a noticeable ducking or crouching. He just walked, not particularly fast, but each time, just before the bullet left the barrel and was about to tear through the air and hit him, his body would make a tiny, almost premonitional adjustment—a sideways shoulder movement, a tilt of the head, or a seemingly casual step that was larger or smaller. The bullets would graze his clothes, his temples, even his feet, and then embed themselves in the sand or tree trunks, kicking up puffs of debris, but they wouldn't even scratch his oily skin.
This composure, or rather, the terror, of "walking towards bullets" completely shattered the perceptions of "Grey Falcon" and "Echidna" as seasoned snipers. They had worked together for years, eliminating armed leaders, government officials, and elite bodyguards without ever missing a shot, nor had they ever encountered such a bizarre target. It wasn't luck, absolutely not. Every precise "miss" was like an invisible hammer blow to the professional confidence they relied on for survival. The air was no longer filled with the atmosphere of a simple hunt, but with a chilling, unsettling sense of being stared back at.
“Keep monitoring all exits,” Echidna finally spoke hoarsely, pressing his eye back to the scope and trying to steady himself. “He went in, but he’ll always come out. Next time, we’ll cross-block, covering all his possible paths. I don’t believe he can…”
He didn't finish his sentence because even he himself felt that the order sounded somewhat weak and powerless.
The wooden cabin stood there silently, its dilapidated wooden walls revealing cracks, the interior dark and deathly silent, as if it had swallowed the chilling figure from just moments before.
Inside the wooden cabin, the light was dim, and the air was thick with the smell of decaying, dusty wood. Chen Jun leaned against a relatively intact interior wall, slowly adjusting his breathing. The rise and fall of his chest gradually became long and slight, almost imperceptible.
The seemingly leisurely yet extremely dangerous "stroll" he had just experienced had minimal physical exertion, but demanded an extremely high level of mental focus. He could feel that, having not faced such a direct and frequent sniper threat for a long time, certain instinctive reactions in his body and nerves seemed to have become slightly sluggish. It wasn't rustiness, but rather that he needed a little time for the dormant killing machine to regain its most precise lubrication and synchronization.
"Looks like I've been living in comfort for too long; the parts need a break-in." A faint thought crossed his mind, not one of regret, but more of a calm self-assessment. He wasn't in a hurry to rush out and deal with the external threat. Impatience was an emotion only predators possessed.
He closed his eyes, not to rest, but to spread his perception outwards like invisible ripples. Deep within his consciousness, forged through countless life-and-death trials and strengthened by a mysterious "system," a "hacker space" beyond the realm of the ordinary silently unfolded.
This is not a true electronic intrusion, but a near-real-time holographic dynamic model formed by superhuman perception, empirical calculation, and integration of environmental information. Centered on the wooden house where he was, countless fragments of information within a radius of 100 meters, such as heat source signals, subtle sounds, abnormal airflow, and subtle changes in light and shadow, were captured, filtered, and recombined.
Two relatively strong, persistent heat sources, differing in temperature from the ambient background, were clearly marked in specific locations within the coconut grove, one to the left and one to the right, forming a crossfire angle—precisely the sniper's position. Further away, chaotic and dense heat signatures and vibrations emanated from the beach, suggesting multiple people were moving rapidly and exchanging fire. The terrain details around the cabin—fallen coconut trunks, mounds of sand, half-buried rocks, even the slight undulations of the ground—were all meticulously revealed by this invisible "scanner," sketching out a three-dimensional battlefield map for him.
Just then, a new and more intense disturbance shattered the tranquility of "hacker space." From the direction of the beach, came a series of crisp and rapid gunshots, unlike the deep, muffled thuds of sniper rifles—"Bang! Bang! Bang!" It was the sound of automatic rifles and pistols exchanging fire at close range, dense and chaotic, interspersed with muffled shouts and screams.
Chen Jun suddenly opened his eyes, his sharp gaze fixed on the cracks in the wooden cabin wall. Through his narrow field of vision, he saw a fierce battle raging on the once deserted beach. A group of people, dressed in various styles but moving swiftly and coordinating seamlessly, were storming in from several directions, engaging in a fierce firefight with the thugs in black suits who had been scattered across the beach (clearly another group that had intercepted him). Bullets flew, and people fell to the ground, shot repeatedly. The sea breeze instantly filled with the thick smell of gunpowder and blood.
Chen Jun's lips curled up almost imperceptibly.
"Old Wen's 'sinkhole' nature hasn't changed at all. I told him not to come, but he insisted on coming..." He immediately understood where this sudden reinforcement came from.
The situation shifted instantly. The thugs in black suits were thrown into disarray by this sudden flanking attack, finding themselves caught in a pincer movement. With the pressure reduced, Chen Jun's combat options became more diverse. He no longer needed to face all the open and covert attacks alone.
"Since someone's clearing the perimeter, I should change my tactics and stretch my muscles a bit." He thought to himself, and his usually restrained aura suddenly became sharp.
Without the slightest hesitation, Chen Jun flung open the rickety wooden door and darted out like a cheetah! This time, his movement lacked the previous eerie "stroll," instead brimming with explosive power and aggression. His pistol spat fire repeatedly, "Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Amidst the precise bursts of gunfire, two thugs in black suits who were attempting to approach the cabin from the side fell to the ground, blood blooming between their eyebrows.
However, just as he pulled the trigger and shot down the third enemy, his body slightly tilting from the recoil, a familiar, chilling premonition of death pierced the back of his head like a steel needle! It was a sniper! He was distracted by the sudden outbreak of the battle and momentarily overlooked the two venomous snakes in the forest that had been staring intently at him!
"Whoosh—!" The whistling sound of the bullet tearing through the air arrived almost simultaneously with his premonition of danger! In the nick of time, Chen Jun relied on the almost instinctive muscle memory honed from countless brushes with death to forcefully twist his waist and sway his shoulders, making an extremely awkward but effective dodge move.
"Swoosh!" The bullet missed a vital spot, but grazed his combat uniform on his side. The scorching air stung his skin, and the fabric was torn open.
Chen Jun's eyes turned cold. He lunged forward, performing several swift tactical rolls to hide behind a thick coconut tree. The near-death experience reminded him that he had to remove the two most dangerous obstacles first. He glanced at his pistol, which was already clicking shut—it was out of bullets.
His gaze swept quickly across the ground; apart from spent bullet casings and fallen leaves, there were no readily available weapons. However, right beside his rolling path, a coconut that had fallen from a tree, its shell already somewhat dried out, came into view.
Without hesitation, the instant the tumbling stopped, Chen Jun's arm lashed out like a whip, his fingers like hooks, precisely scooping up the heavy coconut. The rough shell felt solid in his hand. Taking down a sniper doesn't necessarily require a gun.
His figure moved again. This time, it wasn't a straight-line attack, but rather he completely blended into his surroundings.
Using the shadows of the trees, the undulating terrain, and even the brief visual obstructions caused by stray bullets from both sides of the firefight, he moved silently and swiftly through the coconut grove like a true ghost. His "hacker space" continued to operate, constantly correcting the exact positions of the two snipers and their possible blind spots.
His movements were light and coordinated, sometimes crawling close to the ground, sometimes leaping with the help of momentum. Every movement was timed to coincide with the gaps in the enemy's scope scan, and every pause was perfectly concealed behind natural cover.
In the woods, "Grey Falcon" slammed his fist hard against the butt of his rifle beside him, producing a dull thud. His face was ashen. He was eighty percent certain of success with that shot, but the target seemed to have eyes in the back of his head, dodging the bullet the instant it left the barrel. "Damn it! How is this possible?! This distance, this lead... is it just a coincidence? How could he know I'd fire at that moment?!" Frustration and a deeper fear began to gnaw at his nerves. The target not only dodged the bullet, but even seemed to... anticipate his anticipation?
Just as he was feeling agitated, forcing himself to calm down, he pressed his eye against the scope again, trying to recapture that ghostly target—
call!
A heavy, dark shadow, moving with astonishing speed, shot out of the bushes below him without warning! It wasn't a bullet, but it was even more unexpected! It was that coconut!
"boom!!"
A dull, teeth-grinding thud rang out. The sturdy coconut shell slammed into Gray Falcon's unprotected temple. The immense impact caused his vision to black out, his ears to ring, and excruciating pain to instantly overwhelm his consciousness.
He felt dizzy, his strong body swayed, and the sniper rifle slipped from his hand. He instinctively tried to reach for the handlebars of the off-road motorcycle that he had hidden nearby for emergency evacuation, but his limbs wouldn't obey him.
Through his blurred vision, a figure appeared silently before him, like a shadow rising from hell. He didn't even see how the other person approached.
Chen Jun's face was cold, his eyes devoid of any emotion, as he looked at the sniper who had just tried to take his life. Without any further movement, he simply raised his foot, clad in a heavy combat boot, and precisely and forcefully stomped down on "Grey Falcon's" already dizzy and drooping head.
"puff!"
The boot sole made a thud against the skull, sending chills down the spine. Gray Falcon's body convulsed violently before going limp and remaining motionless.
Without even glancing at the corpse at his feet, Chen Jun bent down and picked up the sniper rifle that had fallen to the ground.
Finger on the trigger.
"puff!"
The muzzle, equipped with a high-efficiency silencer, only trembled slightly, emitting a soft exhaust sound.
The sniper from the other direction had just turned around when he lowered his head.
There was a bullet hole between his eyebrows.
The coconut grove returned to silence, with only the faint sounds of gunfire coming from the distant beach and the rustling of leaves in the sea breeze.
Chen Jun slowly stood up, casually slinging his sniper rifle over his shoulder. He brushed the dust and grass off his hands, his gaze fixed on the beach, where the battle seemed to be nearing its end.
"This is the true power of a ghost, finally back in its place." He muttered to himself, taking a step towards the beach where the smoke of battle had not yet dissipated.