258: Chapter 258 One missile, ending the suspense

The villa had been forcibly broken into.

First came the sound of brief gunfire from the perimeter.

Then, the sounds of explosions and smoke grenades detonating echoed from the direction of the living room.

She immediately activated the bedroom's defense protocols while putting on the Battle Armor Lu Li had left for her.

However, the surveillance system was quickly destroyed.

The key feeds for the villa's perimeter, hallways, and stairwells all turned to static.

On her phone screen, only flashing warning prompts remained.

Su Qingxue forced herself to stay calm.

She had seen big situations before.

Press conferences, hostile commercial takeovers, overseas technology blockades—any one of these would have been enough to crush an ordinary person.

But gunfire this close was the first time it had truly reached her side.

Especially when she thought about Lu Li still being on his way back, her heart couldn't help but tighten.

Bang!

A gunshot suddenly rang out from outside the door.

Immediately after, several more shots followed in quick succession.

The bedroom lock rapidly deformed under the power of the rifles, and the reinforced alloy structure emitted a piercing screech of metal twisting.

Su Qingxue raised her right arm.

The energy-gathering module in her palm glowed faintly.

She had only practiced with it a few times under Lu Li's guidance before.

Back then, Lu Li had lazily said that this thing wouldn't be needed under normal circumstances, and wearing it was mainly to prevent "some blind thing from disturbing the stable environment of my wife living off her husband."

At the time, she thought the remark was unserious.

Thinking about it now, that guy had probably calculated all the possibilities long ago.

Bang!

The lock finally shattered.

The bedroom door was kicked open.

Three men wearing black tactical gear rushed in, their movements clean and efficient, their gun barrels immediately locking onto the room.

But the next second, all three of them visibly froze.

They saw Su Qingxue standing in the bedroom.

They also saw the pink Battle Armor she was wearing.

One of them had his pupils shrink sharply, almost blurting out, "Nani?"

Another person also cursed lowly in Japanese, his voice filled with undisguised shock. "Bakana... konna mono ga..."

Su Qingxue's eyes turned cold.

Japanese.

These people were definitely not ordinary kidnappers.

The three men's shock lasted only for a moment.

The leader quickly calmed down and said in Chinese with an odd accent: "Miss Su, do not resist."

"The armor on you is meaningless."

"We will not kill you, as long as you cooperate."

Another man also lowered his muzzle, as if trying to persuade her to surrender.

"Lu Li is not here."

"Dragging out the time is useless."

Su Qingxue did not answer.

She was just silently recalling the operating methods Lu Li had taught her.

Lock on.

Charge.

Fire.

The next second, the palm of the pink Battle Armor flashed brightly.

A concentrated energy bolt shot out instantly.

The lead operative reacted extremely quickly, diving to the side the moment the light appeared.

But he was still half a beat too slow.

The energy bolt grazed his wrist and blasted past, knocking the gun out of his hand.

The man groaned, smoke rising from his scorched wrist, and he rolled on the ground once before steadying himself.

The expressions of the other two changed instantly.

They had originally thought the Battle Armor on Su Qingxue was just some kind of protective gear.

Bulletproof at best.

Shock-resistant at most.

No one expected that this thing actually possessed offensive capabilities.

This woman was not a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.

"Don't rely on guns."

The leader gritted his teeth as he got up, barking in Japanese.

"Get close, restrict her joints."

The other two understood immediately.

The three quickly spread out, closing in on Su Qingxue from three directions.

Su Qingxue's heart tightened, and she immediately retreated toward the window.

She wanted to rush out the window.

As long as she left the bedroom, she would have more room to maneuver.

But these people had clearly undergone extremely high-intensity training.

One of them suddenly crouched and rushed forward, narrowly avoiding Su Qingxue's second energy bolt, sliding along the ground to her side and rear, and suddenly reached out to grab her lower leg covered by the pink Battle Armor.

Su Qingxue's movement stalled.

Another person had already pounced, hacking a short blade viciously onto her shoulder pauldron.

Clang!

A piercing sound of metal clashing exploded.

The Battle Armor remained unscathed.

However, the immense impact force still caused Su Qingxue's body to tilt slightly.

The third person seized the opportunity to raise his gun, firing continuously at her waist and legs.

The bullets struck the surface of the pink Battle Armor, sparking a series of flashes.

They couldn't penetrate.

They couldn't penetrate at all.

But their goal wasn't to penetrate, but to restrict her movements.

The three of them coordinated like wolves, entangling her tightly and not giving her a chance to increase the distance again.

Su Qingxue gritted her teeth, and her palm lit up once more.

But one of them had already anticipated this and kicked at her wrist, forcing the energy beam to deviate and blast into the wall, shattering a large amount of debris.

The bedroom was in chaos.

The nightstand was overturned.

The curtains were torn by bullets.

The walls were covered in bullet holes and scorched marks.

For the first time, Su Qingxue realized clearly that while the Battle Armor could protect her, it didn't mean she actually knew how to fight.

Meanwhile, in the first-floor lobby.

Number 18, the android with golden short hair and a stunning appearance, was locked in combat with two operatives.

Her black jacket had already been slashed open in several places.

On her waist, shoulder, outer thigh, and arm, there was a gunshot wound in each.

Her bionic skin had been torn open by bullets, revealing the cold alloy skeleton inside.

If it were an ordinary person, such injuries would have long since rendered them incapacitated.

But for Number 18, these things only made her more annoyed.

She raised her hand to block a short blade and threw a backhand punch.

The operative retreated half a step by the skin of his teeth, dodging the fist.

The fist slammed into the wall, directly cracking it with spiderweb-like fissures.

The other operative seized the chance to fire from the flank.

Bang! Bang!

The bullets hit Number 18's shoulder, but the alloy skeleton forced the bullets to stop.

Number 18's eyes were cold; she stomped her foot and shot out like a golden afterimage.

But the opponent's skills were also outrageously strong.

They didn't look like ordinary mercenaries; they looked more like elite agents who had undergone special training.

Their combat movements were extremely concise.

Their dodging angles were precise to the point of being instinctive.

Every time they fired, they timed it perfectly in the gaps of Number 18's movement transitions.

This caused Number 18 to be held back for the moment.

She looked up toward the floor above.

Another explosion sounded from there.

The Mistress was up there.

And three people had gone up.

A trace of annoyance rose in the depths of Number 18's eyes.

"In the way."

Her voice was very cold.

The next second, she crushed the floor tiles with her left foot and forcibly surged forward.

But the two operatives seemed to have long ago judged that she would be anxious to break through, and they simultaneously blocked her path from the left and right.

One engaged her in close-quarters combat, and the other fired from a distance.

They couldn't truly penetrate Number 18's core structure, but they could constantly drag her down.

Number 18's eyes grew colder.

Just as she was preparing to ignore the damage and forcibly rush past, a low sound of something cutting through the air suddenly came from outside the villa.

The two operatives looked up almost simultaneously.

But it was already too late.

Boom!

A small missile precisely passed through the shattered floor-to-ceiling window and exploded directly at their feet.

The shockwave sent the two operatives flying violently, slamming them into the wall, and they were incapacitated on the spot.

Dust and smoke billowed.

By the shattered window of the first-floor lobby, a silver-red Battle Armor slowly landed.

The Arc Reactor on its chest emitted a blinding, cold light.

Lu Li stood there, his faceplate slowly opening.