Chapter Fifty-Four: Fierce Battle, A Cold Shot from Behind

“How can he possibly be this strong?”
“Is the potential of extraordinary warriors really this great?”
For a moment, everyone was inwardly astounded.

Even Han Ze was deeply shocked. As a peak fourth-tier warrior, he considered himself well-acquainted with the power of the extraordinary. He had deliberately overestimated Gu Sha’s combat prowess in his mind, yet only now did he realize that he had still underestimated him.

“How many genetic locks has he unlocked?” Han Ze wondered in disbelief.

But at this moment, Gu Sha had no interest in guessing what others were thinking. He had only one aim—to swiftly kill the mutated beasts and seize their anomalous bones and corpse cores.

Without hesitation, Gu Sha brandished his blade and strode into the passageway, heading downstairs.

Han Ze waved his broadsword and shouted, “All extraordinary warriors, follow me!”

At once, dozens of people charged into the passage behind Han Ze.

The base’s architecture was meticulously designed; the passage resembled a spiral staircase, but without steps—more like a winding, deep tunnel coiling downward.

Right now, chaos reigned in the corridor. The steel passage was riddled with holes and battered nearly beyond recognition. Mutilated bodies of soldiers lay scattered, blood gushed everywhere, streaming along the floor. The air was thick with gunfire and the roars of mutated beasts.

Gu Sha led the way, swiftly dispatching several beasts and bursting out of the passage.

On emerging, he finally took in the full expanse of the sixth floor—a vast space filled with high-tech equipment, built to simulate an ecological zoo. One side was suffused with technological brilliance, while the other mimicked a primeval forest. Now, though, it lay in ruins: severed limbs, stagnant pools of water, and the sizzle of loose electrical currents filled the air.

The most overwhelming sight was the horde of frenzied mutated beasts. Over a thousand heavily armed soldiers were engaged in battle—or, rather, being massacred.

Before the apocalypse, these soldiers were elite, each worth ten in combat, and with their equipment, their fighting power was formidable. Yet now, confronted by these beasts, they were utterly outmatched.

Han Ze, hot on Gu Sha’s heels, involuntarily drew a sharp breath.

He and Gu Sha were not the same. Gu Sha, in his previous life, had seen countless mutated beasts—far more terrifying and grand than these. Thus, he was not surprised. But Han Ze, who had seen only a few such creatures and never the evolved beast kings and emperors of later times, was thunderstruck by the sight of these wildly mutated monsters.

If Han Ze was so shaken, there was little need to mention the extraordinary warriors he led. Most of them were first-tier extraordinary, far stronger than ordinary people, but faced with the beasts’ innate advantages, fear crept into their hearts.

This was only natural.

Gu Sha had always understood that humanity’s greatest threat was never the zombies, but the mutated beasts. Zombies’ basic talents were akin to humans’, but beasts were different. Many were already formidable before mutation—tigers, elephants, and the like already physically outclassed humans, never mind after mutation.

“Retreat! Covering fire! Everyone fall back! Snipers, coordinate!”

Han Ze roared.

The soldiers locked in battle with the beasts heard and swiftly withdrew toward the passageways.

Seeing this, Han Ze issued a new order to the extraordinary behind him: “The fate of the base is in our hands. Let this battle show the world the might of the extraordinary. Attack!”

With his command, despite their fear, the extraordinary gritted their teeth and charged into the fray.

Yet—

Gu Sha did not rush forward at once. Instead, he leapt onto a high platform, overlooking the scene below.

The great battle was about to erupt. Yet the humans were at a clear disadvantage—not only were the beasts superior physically, but several among them had awakened extraordinary abilities and were sowing havoc from the shadows. Fortunately, the beasts lacked intelligence, and with the aid of snipers, the extraordinary barely held the line.

At last, Gu Sha spotted a hippo spraying water in a pool.

He fixed his gaze, darted toward it, and brought his blade down in a mighty strike.

With a thunderous roar, the hippo unleashed a torrent of water, surging like a river, imposing and violent.

Impressive as it looked, such a display could threaten an ordinary third- or fourth-tier extraordinary warrior. But against Gu Sha, it amounted to nothing.

With a single stroke, he split the onrushing wave, then cleaved the hippo’s skull in two. Black-red blood mixed with water sprayed everywhere.

Just then, Han Ze’s shout reached him: “Gu Sha, get out of there!”

Gu Sha turned to look. From a stand of artificial trees, a Siberian tiger—four or five meters tall and over a dozen meters long—emerged. It opened its maw, unleashing a bolt of lightning as thick as a water bucket. The roar was deafening, shaking the entire base, the shockwave sending leaves flying.

Gu Sha did not dodge. He swung his Tang blade, his entire body erupting with blood energy, a glowing aura enveloping him and his sword alike.

In the next instant, he charged straight into the lightning.

With a sizzle, his blade cleaved through the electric current. Blood force surging, he closed in on the massive tiger.

A look of almost human astonishment flashed in the tiger’s eyes. It raised a forepaw—larger than Gu Sha himself—and swiped at him.

With a bang, Gu Sha’s fist slammed into the tiger’s paw, bone meeting bone.

A crisp crack rang out. The tiger’s foreleg shattered, and it flew backward.

Gu Sha hurled his Tang blade, sending it piercing through the tiger’s eye.

The tiger, still airborne, let out a heart-rending shriek.

But before it even hit the ground, Gu Sha had already leapt after it, delivering a punch to its head midair. With a resounding explosion, the tiger’s skull burst apart.

A gleaming, crystalline bone flew free.

“Saves me the trouble of dissecting it,” Gu Sha remarked with a light laugh, pocketing the anomalous bone and landing steadily.

All the extraordinary warriors fighting nearby, noticing this scene, could not help but stare in awe and admiration.

Yet the battle raged on.

Han Ze, beaming with delight, shouted, “No need to fear the electricity—kill them!”

With Gu Sha’s swift elimination of the two ability-wielding mutated beasts, the extraordinary had overcome their greatest threat. The omnipresent lightning had been their most dangerous foe, capable of paralyzing them with a single misstep.

On the other side, as Gu Sha landed, a flash of joy crossed his face. In that instant, he sensed a powerful psychic attack, allowing him to pinpoint the location of the beast with awakened psychic abilities—a red fox hiding behind a tree.

Gu Sha immediately charged at the red fox. Sensing danger, it let out a shrill cry, summoning several beasts to block his path, but Gu Sha dispatched them with a single blow each.

He moved so swiftly that the fox had not managed to escape far before he closed in. As he was about to catch up, a voice sounded from a small loudspeaker above: “Gu Sha, that fox is of great research value—don’t kill it!”

“Idiot,” Gu Sha muttered, pretending not to hear.

He swung his blade at the red fox.

But in that instant, a bullet whistled toward him.

Gu Sha reversed his grip and slashed, knocking the bullet to the ground.

The red fox seized the chance to flee.

Staring at the spent bullet, Gu Sha’s face darkened. He snapped his gaze toward the direction from which it had been fired—a sniper atop a platform.

His expression grew grim.

This shot was no accident—it was deliberate.

Five chapters delivered. That’s all for today; I need to prepare for tomorrow’s work!