Apocalypse King: Recruiting S-Tier Beauties With My Ruler System
Chapter 183: Let Them Be Free

Chapter 183: Let Them Be Free

March 23rd, 7:27 PM

Mansion Basement, Gu Tianhao’s Compound

John Wang POV

——

The world smelled like rust and sweat.

My fists still throbbed from the last blow, but it wasn’t painful, just a pulse, echoing through the new body the system gifted me. Hair clung to my jaw, damp with blood that wasn’t all mine. My eyes adjusted fast, neon blue cutting through the gloom.

The door burst open behind me. I spun, teeth bared.

I expected another wave of Tianhao’s dogs. Instead, I saw Tang Wei leading a battered, beautiful mob: Roulan, Zhou Xue, Liang Mei, and then—Mu Qinglan, sword gripped, blood dripping from her shirt, grinning at me like the world was ending and she wanted to be the one who ended it.

I almost laughed.

She looked feral, hair wild, eyes burning. Roulan stood beside her, one arm streaked red, but her face sharp and proud.

Tang Wei said nothing—her eyes swept over me, checked for wounds, checked for weakness. Then she nodded once. "You look like shit, John."

I grinned. "You should see the other guys."

Behind me, Deng Hua and Chen Xun staggered out, battered but alive. For the first time since I woke up in this hellhole, I felt a sense of a group, not just strays clinging to life.

"We’re breaking out," Tang Wei said, voice like stone. "You in?"

I wiped blood from my lip, flexed my fingers, and nodded. "Always."

Qinglan stepped closer, swinging her sword with a loose, hungry confidence. "Let’s make it a real party."

Roulan just smirked. "Move your ass, hero. We’ve got people to free."

I couldn’t help but look at her and think—damn, maybe I was the lucky one.

The alarm still howled upstairs. Distant voices shouted, doors slammed. It was now or never.

***

We burst out of the basement area, boots pounding tile, blood spattered on our clothes. The first guards didn’t know what hit them.

I raised my fists and let my system flare.

[Summon: Twin Gauntlets — Crushing Moon]

The weight slammed down on my arms, metal plates wrapping tight. My hands disappeared into bone and steel, blades catching the courtyard’s lantern glow. I flexed, feeling the Qi gather at my knuckles, ready to tear the world open.

Shots rang out. Bullets whined off the stone and metal. Zhou Xue and Liang Qiu ducked behind a broken column, bows snapping up.

Liang Mei bared her teeth, loosed three arrows in quick succession—one caught a guard in the throat, another in the gut, the third in the thigh. The man toppled with a wheeze, rifle clattering from limp hands.

Tang Wei and Roulan rushed forward, moving as a pair. Her blade shone in the dark before cutting down a man before he could aim his pistol.

Roulan swung both tonfa, smashing kneecaps and ribs. She looked almost elegant, but her eyes were cold, every movement measured.

Mu Qinglan was somewhere ahead, a streak of blood and laughter, The Endless Night painting the dirt red. She didn’t hesitate, didn’t slow, didn’t spare a single bastard who tried to grab her. Her shirt stuck to her, tits bouncing with every swing and honestly, I nearly tripped watching her.

Chen Xun and Deng Hua, half-dead but stubborn, snatched up fallen rifles and sprayed the guard posts. I didn’t need to give orders. They all moved on instinct. Survival, rage, and maybe the hope of something better.

I felt it, too.

My blood burned.

The gauntlets tightened as I slammed into a man with a submachine gun, my fist crunching through his guard and breaking his jaw.

The [Shotgun Core] primed, and I squeezed the trigger.

A burst of raw force exploded from my wrist.

The blast caught two men in the chest, sending them spinning like dolls. The air was filled with screams and the smell of gunpowder.

Liang Mei froze for a second as she saw the far field, human shapes chained to posts, people huddled in rags, faces thin and desperate.

"They locked them up...!" she gasped.

I growled, swinging at another thug and sending him sprawling. "We’re getting them out. Zhou Xue! Liang Qiu! Cover us!"

Tang Wei and Roulan cut a path to the cages, smashing any fool who tried to block them.

I moved for the chains. My gauntlets sparked, the metal hungry for Qi and violence.

Time to show these bastards what real power looks like.

The compound was in chaos.

Bullets cut the air, snapping past my ears, sending pebbles dancing across the stone. The field was a patchwork of shadows and broken lights. Guards screamed and scattered as we tore through the open, moving like a single wild pack.

Tang Wei and Roulan crashed into the first wave.

Tang Wei’s blade sliced a rifle barrel in half. She jammed the pommel into a man’s solar plexus, and when he bent over gasping, Roulan swung both tonfa into his skull.

His body hit the ground, limp, blood pooling under his cheek. Neither of them slowed. They became a storm, and looked like they’d been doing this forever.

A spray of buckshot peppered the wall behind me, dust stinging my eyes. Zhou Xue didn’t even flinch. She was already moving, loosing arrow after arrow. Her hands blurred. Liang Qiu covered her from the side, picking off any bastard who tried to flank us.

Mu Qinglan was a vision out of a nightmare—barefoot, shirt clinging to her, sword carving lines through the chaos.

She laughed, blood splattered across her jaw, ice Qi misting off the blade.

Every time she swung, her tits bounced, her hair whipped, and a man went down clutching something broken.

She was beautiful and terrifying. I caught myself staring a little too long, got a rifle butt to the ribs for it, then grinned as I hammered the guy’s face in with my gauntlet.

Liang Mei and Deng Hua moved together, bows up.

’He’s already used all the ammo from the gun...’

They fired two guards trying to get to the chained prisoners. One went down clutching his thigh, the other spun, dropping his gun. Liang Mei hesitated, just for a second, eyes wide as she took in the cages.

It was worse up close.

People chained to metal posts. Old men, battered women, kids with haunted eyes. Some stared, hollow and unmoving. Others whimpered, shielding their faces. A few just watched us, hope flickering for the first time in ages.

"They’re just... left out here," Liang Mei whispered, trembling. "Like animals."

Not tonight.

"HELP!"

"Please..."

"I can’t take it anymore..."

Their cries continued almost making me want to turn back.

I slammed my fist against the nearest lock. My gauntlets hummed, Earth Qi pooling at my knuckles. The metal shattered, snapping into splinters. The prisoners recoiled, afraid, until they realised I wasn’t there to hurt them.

"It’s alright!" I barked, pulling at the next lock. "Move! Head for the gate when we clear a path."

A woman’s arm shot through the bars.

"Thank you... thank you....thank you..."

I grabbed it, hauled her to her feet. She stumbled, eyes darting to the blood soaking my shirt, then nodded and ran for the nearest cover.

The others started to move, some crawling, some limping. A boy tripped on his chains. Roulan rushed over, broke the link with her tonfa, and pulled him up.

More guards came running. Chen Xun and Deng Hua gunned them down before they could reach us, but bullets still whined past, thumping into the dirt. Liang Qiu was breathing hard, hands shaking as she dropped another arrow into a guard’s throat.

"Faster!" I shouted.

Mu Qinglan whirled, sword catching a rifle shot, the blade ringing. She closed with the shooter, kicked him in the gut, then caved his chest in with the flat of her blade. Her eyes caught mine. She grinned, wild, tongue flicking blood from her lip.

’Even though she’s crazy.... damn is my girlfriend hot.’

I made my way to the biggest lock—a heavy iron bar that kept the last pen closed. My gauntlets surged, the [Shotgun Core] ready. I fired point-blank. The lock burst apart, metal shrieking, and a dozen people poured out, blinking and stunned.

All around us, my women fought like hell. Tang Wei grabbed a guard by the wrist, snapped it, then kneed him between the legs so hard he dropped screaming. Roulan cracked a skull, then caught a stray hand trying to grab her and bent the fingers backwards until the bone popped.

The ground became a mess of running feet and trampled bodies.

Prisoners fled for the open gate, faces lit with terror and relief.

Me? I let my eyes drift for a second, just to admire the way Mu Qinglan’s shirt stuck to her tits and the way Roulan’s hips bounced as she spun to face another threat. Maybe it was the adrenaline.

Maybe I was just a bastard.

Didn’t matter.

Not tonight.

Tonight, we were breaking out.

And I was going to blow the gate wide open.