No. 47 subway station.
The spacious corridor was empty. Under the bright lights, colorful packaging bags were everywhere. An opened bottle of mineral water lay at the foot of the wall, and the splashed water had soaked a patch of the ground.
Three people entered the subway station in a standard combat formation, all armed with assault shotguns slung across their backs.
The police officers at the entrance saluted and watched them disappear into the passage.
Huang He, holding his rifle, took the lead, his sharp gaze fixed ahead. "Advance!"
Ou Zhanpeng immediately moved past Huang He and quickly hid behind a piece of cover. "Clear!"
Ling Xiao followed closely, hiding behind a corner of the wall. "Clear!"
Huang He ran a few steps quickly and found a suitable position to hide. "Clear!"
The three men in three different directions, leaving no blind spots.
Although it was their first time coordinating, they had received the same training under the same system. Within moments, they had developed the most basic tacit understanding—the process of advancing was also a process of getting to know each other!
After turning a corner, the automatic escalator leading to the platform was ahead.
The unused escalator was moving slowly. Below the escalator, two police officers lay in pools of blood, their condition unknown. The small patch of ground visible was covered in bloodstains from dragging.
Huang He stared at the bodies and quietly swallowed.
His movement was subtle, but it didn't escape Ling Xiao's eyes. "What, never been in a real combat situation?"
Huang He suddenly felt looked down upon by this kid. "So what if I haven't, have you?"
Ling Xiao smiled but did not answer, appearing quite reserved.
How could such secrets be casually revealed?
"Target acquired?" he asked.
Ou Zhanpeng waved his hand, indicating he had not, but he was thinking how good it would be to have a drone at this moment, which would immediately provide an overview of the platform.
He suddenly stood up and shed his exoskeleton in a few quick movements.
Ling Xiao was stunned. "What are you doing?"
"This thing is too cumbersome." Ou Zhanpeng picked up his assault rifle. "I'll go down first. Wait for my signal!"
Just waiting was not an option. Perhaps at this very moment, surviving civilians were being attacked by a giant squid!
Holding his rifle, he sat on the escalator, and the escalator's speed immediately returned to normal.
As the escalator descended, Ou Zhanpeng's field of vision gradually widened. More bodies and bloodstains came into view, including both police officers and civilians.
Bloodstains were everywhere on the ground, and scattered shell casings lay submerged in the semi-congealed blood, causing his pupils to contract slightly.
Halfway down the escalator, half of the platform came into view. Ou Zhanpeng suddenly heard a strange scraping sound, like someone scratching a wall with their fingernails.
He gripped his gun alertly.
The next second, a giant squid came into view. It was clinging to the track at the end of the platform, its thick, long tentacles wrapped tightly around a tilted train car. The tentacles writhed and twisted, constantly making scraping sounds.
Ou Zhanpeng's heart tightened—the surviving civilians were hidden in those train cars!
The situation was urgent, and he didn't have time to call others. He raised his rifle and fired a short burst.
The gunshots erupted, and the bullets hit their mark. The giant squid let out a furious roar but refused to release the train car, instead tightening its grip.
With a crunch, the giant squid crushed the car window, and a tentacle reached into the car. A scream of terror immediately echoed.
A tentacle coiled around a person from inside the car. The person was covered in blood and struggled with all their might, their screams filling the platform.
The giant squid bit the person in half and swallowed the upper body into its writhing maw, leaving only the bloody lower half coiled around the tentacle.
Even though Ou Zhanpeng considered himself to have excellent psychological fortitude, witnessing this scene still stirred his emotions. He aimed his assault rifle at the giant squid and emptied half a magazine.
Ling Xiao and Huang He heard the screams and gunshots and rushed down like lightning. Upon seeing the scene on the platform, they immediately understood what had happened and joined the shooting.
"Cover me!" Ou Zhanpeng shouted, charging forward without hesitation.
Ling Xiao had no time to stop him. He emptied his magazine, reloaded, and emptied it again in quick succession.
Assault rifles had a high rate of fire but lacked power. The bullets penetrated the squid's outer skin and got stuck in the flesh, failing to inflict any significant damage.
Ou Zhanpeng charged to the front of the giant squid, grabbed his shotgun, and blasted it at the squid's massive eye, which exploded on the spot.
The giant squid let out a sharp roar, and its tentacles flailed wildly.
Ou Zhanpeng retreated several steps, his shotgun continuously firing, breaking three tentacles in rapid succession.
Ling and Huang kept showering the giant squid with bullets, doing their best to alleviate the pressure.
Ou Zhanpeng retreated to a safe position, immediately detached a flashbang from his waist, aimed it at the squid's roaring mouth, and threw it with all his might like a baseball.
The flashbang landed accurately in the wide-open mouth and exploded with a boom. The giant squid instantly fell silent, but the frequency of its tentacle swings increased, forcing Ou Zhanpeng to retreat further.
Although the weapons in their hands were not powerful enough to deal with the giant squid immediately, the initiative had been seized by the trio. Killing the squid was only a matter of time.
But at this moment, the previously sealed car door suddenly opened, and a young girl rushed out crying, "Help, help—"
Not only that, but several other people followed behind her.
Ou Zhanpeng's head began to ache. "Go back, go back—"
But those people were in danger, their rationality had long since collapsed, and at this moment, all they wanted was to rush out. How could they listen to Ou Zhanpeng's commands?
The intense gunfire immediately stopped, leaving only the weak, muffled thuds of the shotgun.
The entrance and the train cars were at opposite ends of the platform. With them emerging like this, Ling Xiao and Huang He were worried about friendly fire and dared not continue shooting. Only Ou Zhanpeng was left to hold the line.
What was initially a sure rescue had suddenly taken a sharp turn for the worse.
Ling and Huang immediately rushed over, closing the distance to get a better shooting angle, but they were too far away to help in time. This sudden gap in firepower had to be covered by Ou Zhanpeng alone!
The gunfire intensified. Ou Zhanpeng quickly emptied his magazine and replaced it with a new one, continuing to fire.
A young man ran too quickly, stepped on a patch of still-wet blood, slipped, and fell to the ground.
Before he could get up, a tentacle whipped down from above, coiled around him at the waist.
The man let out a sharp scream, and the other civilians, eager to escape, also erupted in panicked shouts.
They had become like startled birds, falling into unrecoverable fear at the slightest disturbance.
Ou Zhanpeng fired several shots, battering the tentacle with bullets until it was shredded and could no longer hold the young man, finally saving him from the brink of death.
However, several barbs had deeply pierced his body, and blood stained his clothes.
Ling and Huang finally arrived. The three of them opened fire together, breaking the tentacles one by one. A few brave civilians suddenly rushed forward, dragging the severely injured young man away.
The man was in too much pain to even cry out. His young face was filled with suffering and despair.