122: Chapter 122 Jiang Jiuyou is shocked by the S-rank weapon!

On the first floor, the gazes of the four women shifted simultaneously.

Qin Hongye gripped the stair railing, inching her way down step by step.

A few strands of her ear-length short hair were stuck to her cheeks. Her tight combat suit was unzipped below her chest, and the skin above her collarbone was flushed a light red.

Those impossibly long legs—with every step down the stairs, her knees trembled slightly.

A woman standing 1.8 meters tall, and her legs were shaking like this.

Jiang Yanxue narrowed her eyes, scanning her from head to toe.

"Your legs can still walk?"

Qin Hongye gritted her teeth and ignored her, bracing herself against the wall as she walked to the sofa and plopped down.

The moment she sat, she let out a sharp hiss of pain, stood back up, and adjusted to sit sideways.

Blood Rose leaned over, looking her up and down for two seconds before lowering her voice: "How long?"

"Shut up."

"I'm guessing an hour and a half."

Qin Hongye picked up a glass from the coffee table and gulped down half of it, ignoring her.

Blood Rose leaned in even closer: "If it was the first time, an hour and a half is considered light. Jiang Yanxue wasn't exactly walking on her own the first time she came down either, right, Sister Jiang?"

Jiang Yanxue's Shadow Instant-Kill Blade swept across, blocking Blood Rose's face.

"Say one more word, and I'll cut out your tongue."

Blood Rose tactfully backed away.

Having finished her water, Qin Hongye leaned back on the sofa and stared at the ceiling.

Her head was still buzzing—Talent Resonance.

Just now, in the final stages, her A-rank Hawkeye Sniping talent had produced some kind of resonance feedback with Chen Chen's Fatal Lock affix.

The specific manifestation was that her visual precision had soared to an unprecedented height in that instant, allowing her to see even the microscopic air bubbles on the inner wall of the water glass on the coffee table three meters away.

This resonance state lasted for less than ten seconds before fading.

But the feeling of those ten seconds made her professional instincts tingle with excitement.

If this resonance could be triggered reliably—

She could hit a single peanut from two thousand five hundred meters away.

Qin Hongye took a deep breath and set the glass down.

"It was worth it."

She muttered to herself; her voice was very low, but in the silence of the first-floor carriage, everyone heard her.

Jiang Yanxue's dark red pupils shifted slightly.

Shen Wanbing's fingers, which were pressing on her necklace, relaxed.

The corner of Blood Rose's mouth, which was biting an energy bar, twitched.

Worth it.

Two words.

A sniper's evaluation system was just that direct.

Chen Chen stood up from beside the command console.

"Everyone get some sleep. Meeting in three hours."

He walked to the first-floor kitchen module, took a piece of mammoth tenderloin and a box of nutrition bars from the refrigerator, and placed them next to Qin Hongye.

"Eat before you sleep. You've exerted a lot of energy."

Qin Hongye reached for the meat, but the movement pulled at her waist, causing her to hiss in pain again.

Chen Chen went up to the fourth-floor pilot tower.

Shen Wanxing was still curled up in the co-pilot seat, his coat draped over her as she breathed evenly.

Chen Chen sat in the pilot's seat and closed his eyes against the backrest.

His mind automatically began to simulate the meeting three hours from now.

Iron Wall would come.

He had fifty armored vehicles and over a hundred soldiers under his command, making him the largest armed force in District 069.

His bid for Joint Commander relied on military structure and discipline.

Jiang Jiuyou would come.

Her Hidden Department had forty talent holders and nineteen vehicles, with the fastest expansion rate in the district.

She wanted to be the top player of the second map, relying on talent density and an intelligence network.

Both had the qualifications to sit at the table and talk.

But at the negotiation table, there has only ever been one iron rule—

Whoever has the hardest fist gets the final say.

S-Rank Void Annihilation Matrix.

Four thousand meters range, infinite ammunition, penetrates all defenses below S-rank.

This was his fist.

The corner of Chen Chen's mouth twitched, and he rolled over with his eyes closed.

Three hours later.

The sky outside the panoramic window turned from black to grayish-white.

Shen Wanbing's voice came through the communicator right on time.

"Iron Wall's convoy has appeared on Radar, forty-two kilometers to the southeast and approaching. Vehicle count—twenty-seven. He didn't bring his entire arsenal."

Chen Chen opened his eyes.

"What about Jiang Jiuyou?"

"Thirty degrees north-east, eighteen kilometers, three vehicles, traveling light."

Closer than Iron Wall, with fewer people.

This meant she had arrived earlier but intentionally controlled the distance, waiting for Iron Wall to arrive first.

Old fox.

Chen Chen stood up.

Shen Wanxing was woken by his movement. She rubbed her eyes and sat up, her silver evening gown a crumpled mess.

"Are we there?"

"Almost. Go downstairs and change your clothes."

Shen Wanxing gave an 'oh,' clutched his coat, and inched downstairs in her high heels.

Chen Chen walked to the panoramic window.

In the 360-degree view, the grayish-white Gobi Desert stretched endlessly.

The Ghost Fortress hovered in mid-air, its twin heavy machine guns on the roof and the dark-gold Void Annihilation Matrix glinting coldly in the morning light.

A thirty-one-ton, four-story mobile war fortress.

There wasn't a second vehicle in the entire District 069 that could compare to it.

The communicator rang again.

A new message.

Sender—Qin Hongye.

"Second-floor sniper position ready. gauss rifle backup acceleration rails replaced, ammunition fully loaded. Ready to fire at any time."

Chen Chen replied with a single word.

"Good."

Then he opened the panel to look at Qin Hongye's affix data.

Fatal Lock and Weakness Break, Lv.3.

Weakness Mark generation probability—45% (including long-range bonus).

He closed the panel and walked toward the stairs.

From below came the sound of Jiang Yanxue kicking her scabbard, Blood Rose grumbling as she looked for her boots, Su Xiaoqi shouting that she was hungry, and Shen Wanbing tapping on her panel.

They were all awake.

Chen Chen walked down step by step.

When he reached the first floor, the six women were already in their positions.

Shen Wanbing was at the command console, Jiang Yanxue was in the driver's seat warming up the engine, Su Xiaoqi was munching on breakfast, Blood Rose was touching up her lipstick, and Shen Wanxing was in the corner changing her clothes—into the light-colored hoodie she had bought from the tavern.

Qin Hongye wasn't on the first floor.

She was on the second floor.

At the sniper position, the barrel of the gauss rifle protruded two inches from the firing window, its dark silver body almost invisible in the morning light.

Chen Chen walked to the center of the first floor and scanned everyone.

"Today's meeting has only one goal—"

"From today onwards, there will only be one voice in District 069, and that is mine!"

Jiang Yanxue grinned.

Shen Wanbing pushed up her glasses.

Su Xiaoqi held up a meat steak and let out a howl.

Through the communicator, Qin Hongye's voice followed coldly: "Whoever disagrees, I'll help them think it through from two thousand meters away."

Chen Chen patted the back of the pilot's seat.

"Drive."

The Ghost Fortress's A-rank maglev engine erupted with blue electrical arcs, and the thirty-one-ton steel beast pulled a dark afterimage across the Gobi.

On the roof, the diamond-shaped focusing prism of the Void Annihilation Matrix slowly rotated, aiming toward the southeast.

The direction of Iron Wall's convoy.

...

Twenty minutes later.

Shen Wanbing's voice cut into the communicator: "Iron Wall's convoy has stopped three kilometers southeast of the designated coordinates and is not approaching further."

"Did he see the Matrix?"

"Most likely. With that thing mounted on the roof, anyone within a five-kilometer radius can see it."

Chen Chen's finger tapped on the control lever.

"What about Jiang Jiuyou?"

Shen Wanbing paused for a beat.

"She's already at the coordinates. She got out of the car and is standing on the Gobi alone, waiting for you."

Chen Chen reduced the engine power to thirty percent.

The Ghost Fortress slowly descended over the coordinates.

The thirty-one-ton body pressed down onto the gravel ground, the chassis's electrical arcs retracting.

The armored doors opened hydraulically, and warm air surged out.

Chen Chen stepped out of the vehicle.

The void-rending ship-slaying blade hung at his waist, its purple patterns inactive.

Fifty meters away, Jiang Jiuyou stood with her arms crossed, her silver-white short hair fluttering in the wind.

Her ice-blue vertical pupils met Chen Chen's gaze.

Her mouth moved slightly.

"That new toy on your roof—"

She raised a finger to point at the dark-gold main body of the Void Annihilation Matrix.

"When did you build it?"

"Last night."

Jiang Jiuyou's pupils constricted.

In the distance, Iron Wall's armored convoy finally began to move slowly toward the coordinates.

The sound of engines approached from the southeast.

Chen Chen stood in front of the thirty-one-ton Ghost Fortress with his hands in his pockets, waiting for everyone to arrive.

The faint sound of a bolt being pulled back came through the communicator.

Qin Hongye.

Second-floor sniper position.

The gauss rifle's crosshairs were steady through the firing window, locked onto the cockpit of the lead armored vehicle in Iron Wall's convoy.