Chapter 1041 - Breaking Down the Defense

BANG!

She pressed the trigger and the bullet pierced through the thick smoke.

The sniper one kilometer away used the radio life detection device on its scope to harvest the life of the mercenaries attempting to retreat. But when Arrow mercenaries realized this, five people had already fallen under her sniper.

“Sh*t! He can see us!”

The cement slag splashed against his face, and a frightened mercenary fell behind cover while yelling into the intercom on his shoulder. The bullets of the automatic rifle scratched over his helmet, but he didn’t dare to fire back at the “rioters”. He saw with his own eyes that a comrade five meters away died under the muzzle of the sniper rifle.

He couldn’t understand how the sniper locked onto them through the thick smoke.

Their smoke bombs had a pseudo-infrared function. Even with thermal imaging, it was only possible to see bright white or bright red.

Just as he was still shocked about what happened, a white pickup truck slammed through the entrance of the institute and rushed toward his rear. He saw from the corners of his eyes that there was no one in the driver seat, and two burning oil drums were tied behind the carriage.

He had no time to react, and the deafening explosion pierced his eardrums.

The scorching air swept through the open space in front of the institute, and the burning fire swallowed all the smoke.

“Perfect.”

The militant leader peeked out from cover and looked at the defense engulfed in flames. A merciless smile formed on his already cold face.

He raised his hand and waved his fist forward. A dozen armed soldiers left cover and fired in the direction of the institute. Under the cover of heavy machine guns and a sniper rifle, they pushed forward.

The protesting crowd had disappeared, and bullets flew freely between the two sides. Arrow’s mercenaries placed two heavy machine guns on the roof and hid behind the steel reinforcements to fire at the militant soldiers.

The sudden, unexpected firepower caught the militants off-guard as five soldiers were torn into pieces by heavy machine guns.

“Fu*k, they hid two heavy machine guns in the institute.”

Behind the armored police car, the militant leader cursed and gestured to the soldiers behind him.

Soon, four RPGs were aimed at the two machine guns. Followed by four whistling noises, the explosive warhead burst in the building, and the walls with reinforced concrete collapsed.

With the loss of the two heavy machine guns, Arrow’s firepower decreased substantially and was suppressed by the militant soldiers. The sniper in the distance forced them to stay undercover. Seeing that the situation was turning south, the head of the mercenaries had to order a retreat.

Soon, the militant soldiers with automatic rifles rushed downstairs in the main building. They fired at the lock of the iron gate then knocked open the door with the stock. A grenade was thrown inside, and as the dust of the explosion oozed out from the room, four soldiers against the wall rushed in.

They had already practiced this drill countless times while training abroad with expertise no inferior to anti-terrorist forces. The militant soldiers inside divided into two. One team immediately rushed to the second floor to clean up the rest of the mercenaries while the other team headed to the basement entrance to suppress the mercenaries who didn’t have time to evacuate into the underground passage.

Based on the information provided by Celestial Trade and the structural map of the institute, the 7th Institute was only an affiliated research institution of a pharmaceutical company. However, behind the scenes, it was conducting a special project called the Golden Apple Project, and all the sensitive experiments were conducted underground. The entrance to the underground was an alloy door that was comparable in thickness to any bank’s vault. It was basically impossible to open from the outside.

After being attacked by the militants, the director Carol, under the cover of mercenaries, brought all the researchers involved in the Golden Apple Project into the basement. As long as the door was closed, there was no chance for the militants outside to enter.

In half an hour at most, reinforcements would arrive. Even if these “rioters” had three heads and six arms, they wouldn’t be able to escape the cleansing power of Arrow mercenaries.

However, things didn’t develop in the direction they expected.

The leader of the militants entered the guard room and pushed away the corpse of the security guard in front of the computer. He took out a USB drive from his pocket inserted it into the computer then he executed the program inside.

Almost in an instant, a large number of black boxes and progress bars covered the screen. According to the agreement, Celestial Trade could hack the system through the institute’s internal network.

The mercenaries who fled into the basement didn’t have time to catch their breaths, and the indestructible alloy door slowly opened under their terrified gazes.

“Turn off the power! Quick!”

However, it was too late. When the door opened, a tear gas grenade was tossed in. The tear gas exploded inside, and the militant soldiers wearing gas masks rushed through the narrow entrance. After a lot of casualties, they ripped apart the defense formed by Arrow.

Intensive gunshots came from afar, and there were occasional blasts of grenades. Carol, who was previously relieved, once again entered a state of fear. Right now, he could only vent his anger at the head of mercenaries.

“Damn, aren’t you elites?! It’s just a group of rioters. You can’t even win against them?”

“They aren’t ordinary rioters. They received military training, are well equipped… and most importantly, they have the numerical advantage.” While responding to the director’s complaints, Jeff was locked onto the door.

The exoskeleton that covered his body didn’t bring him too much security. The approaching gunshots were enough to tell him about the tragedy outside.

The gunshots that were gradually becoming clear confused him. If his soldiers on the ground were caught unprepared, losing to the well-trained “rioters” would be excusable, but the mercenaries stationed underground were all wearing “lightning” exoskeletons. Although it wasn’t comparable to the K1 of Celestial Trade, they shouldn’t lose against a group of nobodies.

The combination of bulletproof steel plates and weight-bearing exoskeletons should be invincible in a battle between rifles.

However, the doubts in his mind were quickly answered.

The gunshots stopped and the door was slammed open, but no one came in.

Jeff pushed Carol to the back of the desk. With the other three mercenaries, they scattered to the four corners of the room. Jeff held his breath and his crosshairs locked on the door while his left hand touched the grenade launcher hanging under the barrel. However, a tubular grenade rolled in front of him at this very moment.

“Grenade!”

With a roar, he instinctively bunkered down, but the expected explosion didn’t arrive. He only heard static noise passing through his ears before his limbs seemed to be filled with lead.

A drop of cold sweat rolled down his forehead, and he seemed to understand what happened…