Chapter Thirty-One: A Ruthless Slaughter

The middle-aged, balding man standing before him nodded obsequiously, stammering, "Major General Ji, regarding my service fee..."

"You lost a Strangler drone for me, you bastard, and you still have the nerve to ask for a fee?" Ji Yun, overcome with rage, stepped forward and seized the man by the collar, slamming him against the wall. "The death-ray weapon on that Strangler drone is worth more than the lives of your entire pathetic family!"

The man’s face turned a deep, congested red as Ji Yun tightened his grip, clearly pushing him to the brink of asphyxiation.

"Ma... Major General Ji..."

"I... I was wrong..."

Seeing the man concede, Ji Yun’s near-pathological need for dominance seemed satisfied. He loosened his grip slightly, and the man collapsed to the floor, gasping for air as his face slowly faded from a deep, bruised purple back to its normal color.

With a look of utter disgust, Ji Yun kicked him and said coldly, "Don't be an eyesore. Get out."

The man didn't dare hesitate, scrambling out of the villa as fast as he could. Once he reached the roadside, he frantically hailed a taxi.

A moment later, a cab with an empty sign slowed to a halt before him. The window rolled down to reveal a middle-aged driver with a thick beard, who scrutinized the man before asking, "Where to?"

"I... I need to go to Golden Valley Street, number... seventy-seven." The man, still trembling from the terror Ji Yun had instilled in him, quickly corrected himself, "No, wait! Number ninety-seven, ninety-seven."

He climbed into the backseat and slammed the door. The driver glanced at him through the rearview mirror, frowned slightly, but remained silent as he pulled away.

Once the car had left the villa district, the driver spoke abruptly. "Xie Baorong, male, born January 25, 1982. Year of the Dog. Forty-three this year, aren't you?"

The man’s eyes widened, and his entire body shuddered.

"Who... who are you!" he asked, his voice trembling as he swallowed hard.

"What did Ji Yun want with you?" the driver asked in a low voice.

Xie swallowed again, preparing to explain, but was cut off.

"A scion of the prestigious Ji family, a Major General of the Dragon Kingdom—a golden child of destiny—comes to see a middle-aged programmer in his forties who has achieved nothing and was just laid off for being 'too old'..."

"What could it be about? The only thing a Major General like Ji would want from you is... your coding skills, right?"

"So tell me, what did he actually have you do?"

With that, the driver slammed on the brakes, bringing the car to a sudden halt. The man instinctively reached for the door handle to flee, but the driver had already locked the doors from the front; no matter how hard he pulled, they wouldn't budge.

"Don't bother," the driver said, his face as cold as ice, as if emotions were a burden he had never carried.

Having just been terrified by Ji Yun and now being "threatened" by this stranger, the man reached a breaking point. He began to scream and thrash, pulling frantically at the locked door.

"Sir! Please, I beg you! My life is a wreck! I’m a total failure! I don't know anything! I just wanted to earn some money for my medical bills! I don't know anything! I really don't know anything!"

The man’s emotional collapse was total, his face streaked with tears and snot, his eyes filled with despair. The intensity of his reaction clearly caught the driver off guard, and for the first time, a flicker of panic appeared in the driver's eyes. "Calm down! Just calm down!"

But the driver could not grasp the depth of the man's breakdown. The man was beyond controlling his own body or emotions; he couldn't stop. The entire car shook violently from his struggle.

Not daring to take chances, the driver started the car again and sped toward the nearest hospital.

...

Eastern Theater of Operations.

With the deployment of the Strangler drones, the unit's combat effectiveness had increased dramatically. By the end of the afternoon, they had already eliminated hundreds of anomalous creatures.

The Eastern Theater was now littered with the charred corpses of these creatures, scorched by the death rays. This weapon was highly effective against them, possessing a destructive power comparable to a combatant with a high-ranking god-pact.

However, it was not perfect; its flaws were obvious. The most significant was that mass production was incredibly difficult and slow. The second was its lack of tactical efficiency.

While the death rays were lethal—if held on a creature's vital point for ten seconds, they could burn right through and destroy it—the startup and buffer times were painfully slow.

There was a nearly fifteen-second "vacuum period" between pressing the fire command and the beam actually discharging. During this time, soldiers had to provide cover for the Strangler. Fortunately, as high-altitude units, the drones were rarely threatened by anything other than a few airborne anomalies, so the need for cover didn't distract the troops too much.

By the end of the afternoon, the results achieved by the thirty Stranglers were impressive. The safe zone within the Eastern Theater had expanded significantly.

Furthermore, the drones' patrol capabilities greatly reduced the burden on the soldiers. The safe zone no longer required such heavy patrols; the thirty drones could handle perimeter security, with each unit assigned only two soldiers for operation and emergency maintenance. The rest of the troops could finally get a good night's sleep.

Night fell.

Ji Ling returned to his quarters, and Nangong Lingyue, clearly familiar with the routine, followed him inside without hesitation.

"Did you discover anything new today?" she asked the moment they entered.