Ren Yao (Transvestite) was the first to recover from the astonishment, exchanging a glance with Guang Tou (Baldy), before charging towards 13 at his maximum velocity. The crimson luminescence witnessed during his bout with 1 reappeared, yet before the emotion-activated 13, all resistance seemed superfluous.
Almost instantaneously, Ren Yao closed the distance to 13. 13 merely met him with a straightforward left fist; Ren Yao, moving at high speed, appeared to collide with it deliberately, perfectly aligned. Before further thought could crystallize, Guang Tou had already raised his right arm, armor fully deployed, the heavy machine cannon firing a 55-millimeter projectile.
Following the trajectory of his punch, 13 executed a fluid left spinning sweep kick, precisely striking the projectile's side, forcefully altering its path. As 13 retracted his leg and stood firm, the prevailing sentiment among the onlookers shifted from mere shock to encompass a burgeoning terror.
"Are you even human, damn you?" Lao Da (Boss) attempted to quell his internal turmoil through vehement curses.
"Strictly speaking, I am not," 13 responded with a gentle smile. "I am merely an 'emotion'."
"Regardless of your nature! Today, your demise is inevitable!" Nue Dai Kuang (Sadist) raised the G1 Kai slung on his back, maintaining suppressive fire while strafing laterally.
13 mirrored his movement direction synchronously.
"Guang Tou! Commence firing!" Lao Da yelled, sprinting towards the location where the COOL-FIRE had fallen.
A dense barrage of ordnance momentarily restricted 13's alternative avenues of movement.
"Exercise caution!" warned Ren Yao, having just regained his footing.
Nue Dai Kuang, initially running parallel to 13, abruptly lost sight of his target upon passing a large tree. "Grave danger!" Alarm bells resonated within him.
13 executed an abrupt halt, revealing his AWP from the tree's opposite side.
Nue Dai Kuang performed a swift backward somersault; the sniper round grazed his scalp as it passed.
Guang Tou, still in pursuit, lacked time to react before 13 reoriented his weapon.
"Disperse!" Ren Yao drew the pair of specialized silver handguns from his back, firing without precise aim, solely for suppressive effect. The frenzied spray of bullets kicked up soil, tracing a line rapidly extending towards 13.
13 swiftly fired two shots while simultaneously leaping backward to evade.
To Guang Tou, 13's seemingly casual shots were both lethal headshots. He tilted his head slightly; the bullets grazed his perspiration-slicked cheek, leaving two shallow crimson trails.
"Cease all hostilities!" Lao Da aimed his weapon at 13, bellowing the command.
In an instant, everyone froze, including 13.
*Thwip*... The high-velocity armor-piercing round sliced through the air towards its target.
Everyone anticipated the conclusion, everyone except 13.
"Vanished!" Lao Da incredulously scrutinized the holographic display.
"There..." Nue Dai Kuang, having just evaded the bullet, pointed absently behind him.
"Now you comprehend how I materialized behind you, correct?" 13 whispered softly, close to Lao Da's ear.
"Perish!" Lao Da executed a sudden backward elbow strike, yet 13 firmly grasped his elbow.
"Lao Da, remain immobile!" Ren Yao fired a shot aimed at 13. The bullet flew past the still-astonished Lao Da's face, heading towards the perpetually smiling 13.
The bullet penetrated his cranium – yet this brought no elation to anyone present.
They muttered blankly, "Visual afterimage!"
The genuine 13 was now crouched, delivering a forceful elbow strike to Lao Da's lumbar region. The power contained within this blow was incomparable to Lao Da's previous attack.
Lao Da felt as though his waist had been struck head-on by a speeding truck; his body involuntarily flew sideways due to inertia.
Guang Tou reacted fastest. Upon realizing the bullet had pierced an afterimage, he immediately activated and charged towards Lao Da. He caught Lao Da securely mid-run, then spun, flinging him towards Ren Yao. Leveraging the rotational momentum, he followed immediately with a potent right straight punch, aimed with overwhelming force at 13's head.
All movements were executed flawlessly; the impact force of this punch could penetrate the armor of an M1 Abrams tank.
13 did not evade. Rising from the ground, he merely closed his eyes and slowly extended his left hand. Guang Tou's seemingly certain-hit punch halted abruptly. Guang Tou felt his strike dissipate as if into an ocean, utterly devoid of power. Only when the fierce fist wind ruffled the black hair on 13's forehead did everyone finally grasp the terrifying magnitude of the force 13 had just nonchalantly absorbed...
"Im... Impossible!" Guang Tou verged on frenzy.
"Apologies," 13 offered an apologetic smile. "Beyond velocity, strength is also my forte." As he spoke, he increased the pressure in his left hand. The over-two-meter-tall behemoth was forced to his knees by this overwhelming power.
"Ah!" Everyone was driven nearly mad, or more accurately, utterly stupefied by the individual before them.
Fear, a term long forgotten by Special Operations Team Six, once again saturated every heart. Precisely because of fear, resistance must be amplified!
Lao Da, Ren Yao, and Nue Dai Kuang simultaneously reversed their grip on their combat knives, charging from different directions towards 13, who stood before Guang Tou like a descended demon king.
"Permit me to borrow your implement," 13 smiled, removing Guang Tou's right arm guard, attempting to don it himself. Regrettably, the size disparity was too great for a secure fit, yet it sufficed.
Mimicking Guang Tou's earlier posture, 13 spun violently, unleashing a punch with maximum force. The target was not an adversary, but the ground directly before him.
*Boom!* A tremendous roar, akin to heavy artillery fire, erupted as the ground instantly detonated, throwing up an earthen wall over a meter high, completely obscuring everyone's vision. The three charging figures, unable to evade in time, crashed directly into it. The flying soil and rock fragments now acted like shrapnel, violently repelling the trio.
When tranquility returned, 13 remained standing in the same spot. The recently borrowed right arm guard had now slipped into the meter-deep crater before him.
Lao Da struggled to rise, yet could not suppress a spurt of blood.
"Ah!" He unleashed a long, unwilling roar towards the heavens.
"It concludes..." 13 exhaled softly, raised his AWP, fired a single shot towards each of the four downed figures, then turned and walked towards 1's location.
Lao Da, eyes closed awaiting death, suddenly realized he was still alive.
"You refrain from killing us?" Ren Yao inquired effortfully from the ground.
"Examination protocols dictate that upon cessation of your signal reception, personnel will be dispatched for retrieval. I have just disabled your signal transmitters; therefore, this suffices..."
13 pondered, then swung his knife, felling a nearby, moderately sized tree. He placed the three unconscious individuals (1, 36, 24) onto the smoothed trunk, then, dragging the treetop, slowly walked towards the sunrise.
"Are you pitying us?" Lao Da asked self-deprecatingly.
"Negative," 13 turned back, smiling. "Because the directive I received was merely to depart from this location..."
Sunlight finally pierced the morning mist, illuminating every corner of the forest; the dense fog gradually dissipated in its wake.
Long after 13's silhouette vanished, Lao Da finally spoke, "Were we... dreaming just now?"
Nue Dai Kuang coughed up bloodied phlegm, stating, "Likely not a dream; my back feels fractured."
"I... harbor no further resentment," Guang Tou struggled to his feet. "His prowess transcends the scope of challenges we can undertake."
"Though somewhat reluctant to concede, with his presence in the new special operations team, China's future... is truly unimaginable," Lao Da gazed towards 13's departure direction, sighing profoundly.
"What course of action do we pursue now?" Ren Yao surveyed his disheveled companions.
"Uncertain... I propose we prioritize finding a means of egress from this location first..." Nue Dai Kuang also struggled to rise.
"Gentlemen, it is not my intention to dampen spirits..." Just then, from the apex of a nearby shrub, a voice suddenly emerged, instantly capturing everyone's attention.
Compared to the formidable power 13 had just displayed, the four were now even more astounded by the prowess of this voice's owner – capable of evading all their senses undetected was one matter, but seemingly, even the monstrous 13 had remained oblivious to his presence earlier! Who exactly was this individual?
The speaker was a young man, approximately twenty years old, clad in seemingly ordinary casual sportswear.
"Who are you?" Lao Da immediately raised his COOL-FIRE, muzzle aimed at the youth, inquiring coldly.
"Me?" The youth leaped effortlessly from the shrub top to the ground. "Merely a 'sanitation engineer'. Hmm... These items of equipment upon your persons, I suppose they qualify as recyclable refuse..."
As he spoke, the smile vanished from his face, replaced by glacial coldness. "As for yourselves... you constitute non-recyclable refuse requiring immediate disposal!"
Simultaneously, 13, dragging the large tree, arrived at a relatively open clearing, apparently awaiting something. After setting down the trunk, he walked to a nearby tree and began excavating with his bare hands.
Perhaps roused by the glaring sunlight, or perhaps by the soreness in her neck, 24 gradually regained consciousness. She rubbed her still-aching neck, gazing around blankly, suddenly realizing she was still alive. Looking further, 1 and 36 were also alive, merely still unconscious. Nearby, 13 continued digging beneath the tree.
She rose swiftly, ran to 13's side, and asked with a trace of disbelief, "Am I still alive?"
13, amused by her manner of questioning, paused his actions and looked up. "Given that you can converse with me, I believe... you are likely still alive."
24 lightly tapped 13's head in mild exasperation, saying, "That is not my intended meaning! I wish to inquire why we remain alive? Where are those monstrosities? Whither have they gone?"
13 lowered his head, resuming his excavation, casually replying, "Oh, them... Likely neutralized by a subsequent trap I deployed. Hence, our survival."
Disbelief was evident on 24's face.
13 glanced at her, waved his hand dismissively, and said, "Alright, that is all in the past. The crucial point is our current survival; is that not cause for elation?"
24, exceptionally perceptive, immediately understood that 13 was unwilling to elaborate on the preceding events. Perhaps out of gratitude for saving her life, she tactfully refrained from further inquiry.
She simply stood aside, silently observing 13 continuously excavate earth with his hands.
Before long, the roar of helicopter rotors echoed from the distant sky. A helicopter slowly approached, hovering above the clearing.
13 finally unearthed what he sought – a crude yet relatively intact wooden coffin. Resting peacefully within was his former first teammate, the female soldier designated 109.
He gazed at the coffin for a moment, then, as if expending his final reserves of strength, whispered softly to 24 beside him, "You may... depart... Remember... your promise to me... Tell no one... of my existence... Inform 1 and 36... as well..."
As his words concluded, 24 intended to offer thanks, but witnessed 13's body go limp; he had silently collapsed beside the freshly unearthed coffin.
School Graduation Examination – Concluded!