Chapter 124: The Four-Armed Great Black Deity

The order on the communication channel was urgent, so Zhou Shu did not delay. Finding his heavy sniper rifle cumbersome, he immediately deactivated its materialization, converting it into energy and storing it in his auxiliary equipment slot.

As for what he would do if he needed the rifle later? He would simply materialize it again. The amount of source energy he currently possessed—just the rounding error—was enough to materialize a powered exoskeleton seven times over, let alone a single "part" of it.

With the weight of several dozen pounds gone, his movement speed increased—or rather, he descended the stairs far faster than any elevator. Upon reaching the tenth floor, he leaped directly out of the window. A drop of barely thirty meters was no longer a threat to him.

Yet, given the urgency of the command, could it be that Master Feng Hai was on the verge of defeat? He knew the leader of the Ascension Society was a Tier 4 ability user—that was why Feng Hai had been deployed—but he hadn't expected the master to show signs of defeat so quickly.

Because of the critical situation, he did not pause to harvest source energy from the corpses of the mutants he passed, sprinting past them instead. He already had over ten units of source energy, enough to last him for a while, so the combat plan took precedence. If things had reached this point and the leader of the Ascension Society were allowed to escape, the consequences would be unimaginable. Tier 2 and Tier 3 "monsters" were already a massive threat, let alone a Tier 4 entity.

As he neared the designated position, he materialized the "cannon-sniper" at a street corner and charged in, weapon in hand.

"How is it? Do I need to provide support... Holy crap, what is that?!"

As soon as Zhou Shu entered the support position and prepared to ask for his next orders, his attention was immediately drawn to the chaos on the distant battlefield. He focused his eyes and was stunned.

Is that the leader of the Ascension Society?

He knew that mutants could transform; he had already killed many of them. But those creatures merely turned into humanoid monsters—their skin turned gray, hands and feet became claws, and their teeth sharpened, yet they remained recognizably human. Even when they grew in size, they were rarely much larger than a soldier equipped with a powered exoskeleton.

But what was he looking at on the battlefield now?

A behemoth over four meters tall! Its skin was a dark, bruised blue, draped in tattered rags that were likely the remnants of its former clothing. The skin color and height were not even the most striking features—he had seen plenty of monsters in virtual simulations—but this humanoid creature actually possessed four thick, powerful arms!

The monsters in the virtual battlefield had been stranger, but those were designed by humans, intentionally crafted to be grotesque and then rendered by the system for Zhou Shu’s training. But this dark entity before him existed in the real world.

"That’s right, he is the leader of the Ascension Society, Tong Tianhua!" the Commander-in-Chief's voice echoed in Zhou Shu’s headset.

"The leader of the Ascension Society is this thing?!" Zhou Shu was even more shocked.

"This is his transformed state, his strongest form," the Commander-in-Chief said rapidly. "The situation is critical; we can discuss the details later. I need you to provide support for Master Feng. Can you hit Tong Tianhua without harming Master Feng?"

Hearing this, Zhou Shu had actually forgotten Master Feng was still on the scene; he had come specifically to support him. Looking closer, he spotted Master Feng. The master had also changed significantly, his height and frame expanding to what Zhou Shu estimated was over two and a half meters—perhaps two point seven or eight. But compared to the four-meter-tall Tong Tianhua, it was a vast difference. Not to mention the enemy's dark skin and four arms, which were impossible to ignore.

The two were locked in a stalemate, trading blows in a blur of motion. It was no wonder they had called for him. Watching closely, he could see that Master Feng Hai was indeed on the defensive, or rather, just barely holding on.

"I can do it immediately!" Zhou Shu replied.

"Good, it’s all up to you. You must kill him!"

"Understood!" Zhou Shu agreed, but immediately added, "But I need to get closer. This sniping position is too far."

In truth, his assigned position was only two hundred meters from the battlefield—a very close distance for a sniper, and even more so for a super-powered sniper like him. However, his target was not an ordinary person, but a Tier 4 ability user, the pinnacle of displayed power in this world.

To an average person, a sniper round at two hundred meters travels in an instant, but to such a powerhouse, that distance was an eternity. Even if he used "bullet time" to aim perfectly, the bullet still required travel time. A delay of even 0.1 seconds was enough for the target to dodge. He had to shorten the distance to minimize the bullet's flight time.

The Commander-in-Chief went silent. The entire command center fell quiet. It wasn't just him; many others were hesitating. Was Master Feng Hai important? He was. He was a peak combatant, a figurehead, essentially a nuclear deterrent. But was Zhou Shu not important?

He was currently a "Tier 1 rookie," but one could not forget his age: he was only eighteen. He had enough talent and time to likely become a "Master" in the future. Moreover, he was not just a powerful fighter; he was a renowned chief weapons designer known to the nation's top leadership. The "Super Vanguard" armor he led the team to design and manufacture allowed ordinary soldiers to rival demon-slayers! Even more impressive was that the "Super Vanguard" could be mass-produced!

Massive power + mass production + the Great Qin Empire = ?

Many people could calculate that equation. Zhou Shu’s importance was self-evident. Everyone knew the danger of approaching the central battlefield. If the shot succeeded, it would be a monumental achievement, but what if it failed? What if Zhou Shu were killed in retaliation? The loss of such a talent was a responsibility no one could bear, and the Great Qin Empire could not afford it.

But while they hesitated, Zhou Shu did not. On the big screen in the command center, they could see the live footage from both fixed cameras and mobile units carried by combat teams. Before even a second of silence had passed, an intelligence analyst said with cold sweat in the dead-silent room, "Zh-Zhou Shu, he’s already charging in!"

"What?!" The Commander-in-Chief, who had been silent, was shocked. He instinctively said, "Order him back!"

It seemed he had already made his choice.

On the other side, Zhou Shu did not wait for the command center's orders. He could see that Master Feng was barely hanging on; if he waited any longer, the Master would likely die there. Furthermore, he was intensely curious and wanted to see a battle of this caliber up close—preferably within 43 meters.

His data-probing range was 43 meters, and he desperately wanted to know the current status of the Ascension Society leader. Having spent a few days in the Kunlun Mountains, he had learned a bit about the local culture. He realized what this thing resembled: Mahakala, or the "Great Black God," a protector deity of Buddhism, often depicted with four arms.

Yet, the leader of the Ascension Society, who supposedly yearned for "immortality," had his strongest form manifest as a Buddhist protector deity. This was far too interesting—he had to take a good look.