Chapter 1 The Beginning

Bang bang bang—

The high-caliber Mad Hawk spat out scorching flames, shattering the cameras along the way. Han Xiao silently calculated. Thirty-eight seconds had passed since the alarm sounded. They were moving extremely fast, already deviating from their original route. The enemies should be appearing soon.

The current team consisted of two burdens and two fighters. Rushing out recklessly was too difficult. Han Xiao himself was fine, but protecting people was a pain in the ass. In his past life, Han Xiao disliked escort missions. There was little room to maneuver, and charging ahead would guarantee a game over.

Suddenly, Han Xiao's eyes lit up, and he looked at Cerberus with ill intentions.

With Hela around, what was the point of keeping this old man? He was just a dispensable extra. Now that they weren't going through the underground tunnels, Cerberus was useless anyway.

Cerberus trembled. "D-don't mess around. You need my authorization…"

"He's been compromised. His authorization has been frozen. He's useless now." Hela's expression was icy. Cerberus was a high-level executive responsible for her sister's experiments. Her hatred was deeply ingrained. With a wave of her hand, she was about to eliminate him.

Just then, a large hand grabbed her wrist. Han Xiao shook his head at her.

"Don't kill him. He's more useful alive." After saying that, he knocked Cerberus unconscious with a backhand slap. Han Xiao had given him so much misleading information. He might as well let him mislead the Leader as well.

Hela shook off Han Xiao's hand and glared at him resentfully but didn't insist on killing Cerberus.

Han Xiao didn't mind and asked, "What's your plan?"

Hela hadn't adapted to Zero being a teammate yet. She paused for a moment before answering, "I know a hidden passage that can lead us out of headquarters, but it's far away, four floors below us. We'll have to break through the defenses of the main force to get there."

"Four floors below…" Han Xiao recalled the map. To go down four floors from here, even if they had a clear path, it would take at least five minutes, not to mention that the enemies wouldn't let them run amok.

"Is your secret passage reliable?"

"It was originally an abandoned passage that I discovered by chance. It's very well hidden."

Hela was concise but didn't reveal the exact location.

In reality, she was concealing the truth. This passage was a backup plan she had secretly prepared. Although she was under the control of Germinal, she had never given up hope of rescuing Aurora one day. However, she was always hindered by her inability to get Aurora out of her cage, so she had never taken action. She hadn't expected that the most difficult step had already been completed by Han Xiao. This passage could immediately be put to use. Hela couldn't help but feel secretly fortunate.

This sudden turn of events was unexpected. She hadn't thought that anyone would rescue her sister.

Hela glanced at Han Xiao obscurely, hesitant to speak.

In fact, there was a more secure method that had an eighty percent chance of succeeding in taking her sister away, but it would put Han Xiao in danger. She felt that Han Xiao probably wouldn't agree, so she didn't mention it, but secretly pondered it in her heart.

Just then, footsteps sounded from the corner ahead. A team of Germinal soldiers appeared to intercept them.

Hela was about to attack with a wave of her hand, but Han Xiao took the lead. He fired his dual guns, and high-caliber bullets blasted open the chests of the soldiers. Blood and shattered bones flew everywhere. An ordinary soldier who took a shot from him was like being hit by a grenade.

Killing a group of soldiers didn't increase the trial points for the advancement mission. Only strong enough enemies would give trial points. However, since the small fries had arrived, the strong ones wouldn't be far behind.

As expected, powerful auras quickly entered his sensory range and rapidly approached.

"Don't attack. Protect your sister. I'll take care of the enemies," Han Xiao said.

Hela frowned and asked worriedly, "Can you do it? Some of the executives are people I'm not even confident I can beat…"

"Shut up and watch. If you hadn't taken action, I would have run away already." Han Xiao wasn't in the mood to explain to her.

Hela's expression stiffened. Feeling that she was in the wrong, she silently led the way.

The Leader was on his way. The cameras had been destroyed, and the monitoring screens were going black one by one. He could only understand the situation through the reports in his earpiece.

"Executives, super soldiers, and alien squads are encircling him. Plus, Hela is holding down Zero. There's no way he can escape," the Leader thought.

At that moment, an executive's voice came through the earpiece, filled with killing intent, "I've encountered the target. I'm going in!"

The Leader perked up and shouted, "No need to capture him alive. Kill him directly!"

However, the next moment, high-frequency static erupted in the earpiece, causing a sharp pain in the Leader's eardrums.

A scream rang out in the earpiece. It was the executive who had just reported the situation.

The Leader was shocked. It had only been ten seconds, and that executive's strength was no weaker than Pan Kuang. What had happened?!

A bad feeling rose in his heart.

…

Time rewinded eight seconds.

The burly male executive ran out from the corner, charging toward Han Xiao with a ferocious expression, his footsteps thudding on the ground. His combat uniform was almost bursting from his bulging muscles.

"Be careful. He's an executive, a strength-enhanced esper. You…" Hela hurriedly reminded him, a ball of dark red energy condensing in her hand. If Han Xiao was at a disadvantage, she would immediately provide support.

Before she could finish speaking, Han Xiao acted. He threw out two stun grenades, and the high-frequency static stunned the male executive, causing his movements to falter. All Han Xiao needed was this moment. The small maneuvering device on his waist spurted out power, and the electromagnetic skates on his feet flashed with blue light. He closed in on the enemy like a ghost.

[Overload]! [Machinery Force Surge]! [Lethal Strike]! Various active skills that increased his power were activated. Even without [Willpower Combustion], his power reached a terrifying level.

With a twist of his palms, the electrothermal cutting gloves glowed with blinding blue light. He pressed them against the male executive's chest, and the magnetic chain split blades were like a lotus flower blooming behind him. Guided by his gestures and strength, they pierced into the enemy's vitals.

Combination skill, Scorching Lotus Slash!

This was the combat style of a Mechanic Martial Artist, combining different melee machinery to form his own skills. The name was, of course, randomly chosen, but having a name made it feel different. According to unofficial theories, named moves were more likely to produce critical hits. Shouting out the name would increase the chances of a critical hit even more. If he added lines like "My fist is too heavy for this universe to bear" or "Awaken, the power sealed within my body," then it would definitely, absolutely, positively be a critical hit!

Eye-catching damage numbers popped up one after another. The male executive screamed miserably, desperately resisting, and landed a few punches on Han Xiao's magnetic-controlled armor.

Han Xiao exerted force with both arms, his palms burning through the enemy's chest. The suspended blades flashed coldly, cutting open the other party's throat in a continuous series of slashes. The burly executive's health bar rapidly emptied, and he collapsed like a toppling mountain of gold and jade.

"Level 44 esper, Strength reaches 120 points, huh, not bad, but his health is only average."

Han Xiao glanced at the panel. Even without the Viper-Modified, he could quickly deal with this kind of technological enemy.

Although he was a Mechanic who wasn't very strong in the early stages, he had many specialties, a high level, good equipment, and maxed-out skills. The same level was also divided into different combat power standards, such as the simple division of ordinary monsters and elite monsters. Han Xiao's strength was at the Boss level among level 60 characters. The difference between him and low-level characters was naturally even greater.

[You have gained 1 Trial Point]

[[Limit Trial]: Current progress 1/2000]

"Only 1 point for a level 40-plus character?!" Han Xiao's mouth twitched. He didn't even know if Germinal had two thousand executives of this level. It would be embarrassing if there weren't enough to kill…

On the other side, Hela stiffly lowered her hand. Before she could even finish speaking, the executive had been killed in seconds. There was no need for her to go out of her way to help.

Hela's heart was churning with shock. She wasn't even confident that she could defeat the enemy so quickly.

How could Zero be so strong? Was this a fake?!

…

At the same time, the Leader was also shocked by this question. He realized that he had underestimated Han Xiao's strength.

A small mistake would affect the overall plan. Fortunately, after many past failures, the Leader knew that Zero couldn't be judged by common sense. He tried to overestimate Zero's abilities and ambushed a lot of manpower. Now it seemed that it wasn't a waste but might not be enough!

Since his subordinates couldn't beat him, then he would wait for him to personally eliminate Zero.

"Stop him. Wait for me!"

The Leader's tone was cold.

In just one year, Zero's strength couldn't possibly be compared to his.

He was a figure standing at the peak level of Aquamarine Star!

If Han Xiao knew what the Leader was thinking, he would definitely chuckle.

—What a coincidence, so am I.