Otherworld Advance Team
Chapter 105 - 101: Gunman

Chapter 105: Chapter 101: Gunman

The following day, Luo’er rose early to work as usual. Calculation suggests that they’ve been hiding in the academy for almost half a month, and Luo’er had suffered greatly during this time. However, they hadn’t received any valuable information thus far.

When he woke up in the morning, the sky was covered with dark clouds; the presence of clouds made the early morning temperature warmer, but the air felt heavy. As Luo’er looked at the dense layer of clouds in the sky, a sense of unease brewed in his heart, as if something was going to happen that day.

"Good morning!" Arriving in the kitchen and seeing Daier’s smiling face, Luo’er instantly felt his worries lighten a bit.

"Good morning!" Luo’er nodded and joined Daier in preparing for the day.

"You weren’t punished by your master, were you?" Daier asked with concern.

"Punished? Why would I be?" Luo’er asked, puzzled.

"Because you..." Daier hesitated for a moment before slowly saying, "Because you’re getting too close to Miss Feliz. I worry Miss Audrey might punish you because of this."

"Not at all, Miss Audrey is a good person. She won’t punish me for something like this." Luo’er scratched his head and said with a wry smile.

"Anyway, it would be better to keep your distance from Miss Feliz." Daier advised with concern.

"You..." Luo’er bit his lip and stopped talking. He clearly understood the implications in Daier’s words, but chose not to voice them.

As they went about their tasks in silence, Daier asked again, "Luo’er, do you feel there’s something strange about today?"

"Strange?" After pondering for a moment, Luo’er mentioned the heavy atmosphere, "Perhaps it’s going to rain, that’s why it feels so stifling."

"No, not that!" But Daier shook her head, saying with a furrowed brow, "I don’t know why, but I feel a sense of detachment. I can’t pinpoint the reason."

"Detachment?" Luo’er looked at her, baffled, and then said, "Daier, if you’re not feeling well, you should rest. I can handle things here."

"I’m not unwell; quite a few people are experiencing this feeling." Daier shook her head and said somberly.

"Several people?" For some reason, Luo’er sensed a stir of unease from her words that felt like a premonition of bad luck.

"You..." Just as Luo’er was about to reassure her, he suddenly heard a loud explosion in the distance. While others might have accounted it to something bursting, Luo’er knew better- it was the sound of gunfire!

"What happened?" Daier also seemed to have heard the noise and was darting her gaze everywhere, prepared to go out and take a look.

"Daier!" Luo’er quickly held her back and, facing her confused expression, shook his head earnestly, "Hold back, don’t go!"

"Okay!" Although she didn’t understand what was going on in Luo’er’s mind, Daier obediently nodded.

As his unease grew, Luo’er opportunistically pulled out a cleaver from the kitchen counter unnoticed, and held it in a backward grip. It was a chef’s knife, slim and pointy. Not only was it good for cutting vegetables, but it was a sharp weapon, too.

Just then, there was a commotion at the kitchen entrance. The door was kicked open, and two shadows rushed in and began to fire upon all those present in the kitchen.

"Ta-ta-ta-ta-ta..." A hail of bullets swept across the crowd, and people hit by the bullets fell like grass under a scythe. Fortunately, Luo’er was quick on his feet, and he pulled Daier to the ground before they started shooting.

"Everyone down on your knees, don’t move!" The man with the gun shouted.

The people in the kitchen were terrified and lay on the ground, trembling. Those injured by bullets screamed in pain, and were silenced with a gunshot by the intruders.

Luo’er glanced at Daier beside him; she was white-faced, her expression one of terror. Her mouth was open, but she was too scared to speak. She was trembling all over, and Luo’er smelled the odor of urine in the air, realizing she had been frightened to the point of wetting herself.

He sighed, without any disdain for Daier. Anyone in this situation wouldn’t have a good look on their face, especially when she was just a girl.

Ignoring Daier for the time being, Luo’er tilted his head up to sneak a look at the armed mobsters. To his shock, he found that they weren’t dressed in Otherworld attire but instead in black military uniforms; complete with helmets and tactical vests native to Earth.

The mobsters were decked out in full gear, from facemasks to tactical gloves and even boots, presumably every piece of equipment they could carry. Each had an AR series rifle with a Picatinny Rail slung over their shoulders, indicating these illegal weapons were being used commonly among them.

Upon seeing them, Luo’er instantly remembered the group in the underground arms storage. If his guess was correct, these people and the ones in the underground storage room were together. The scent of gun oil that lingered in the storage room was from the weapons now in their hands.

Three men invaded the kitchen, one of which seemed to be their leader. He stood at the doorway, every servant under his watchful eyes. One armed mobster noticed Luo’er’s gaze and approached him, weapon in hand.

Fear gripped Luo’er, scared that a single wrong word would trigger a hail of bullets, despite which he remained calm, calculating his next moves.

The gunman stopped right in front of him, looking down at Luo’er with apparent disgust. Faced with the intimidating stare, Luo’er had a reckless idea.

"Pl..please, spare me..." Luo’er suddenly fell to his knees, kowtowing heavily until he was dizzy. He pleaded pitifully between fearful sobs, tears, and snot, streaming down his face.

The sight of Luo’er’s desperate pleas led to a derisive chuckle from the gunman. His heart filled with satisfaction upon seeing his pathetic elf-half breed servant. His belief was reinforced; creatures like Luo’er were merely meant to bow down to him.

Tears glimmered in Luo’er’s anxious eyes as he gulped nervously. Seeing the gunman frown, he rapidly shoved Daier in front of him, then stammered nervously, "She... she’s yours now, please let me go."

"You..." Daier watched him in shock and disbelief. She would have never imagined Luo’er would hand her over to the mobster in a bid to save his own life.

The sight of Luo’er pleading intrigued the gunman more, and he began to check out Daier all the while unaware of the sharp kitchen knife that Luo’er had snuck from the table.

The moment the gunman leaned in to get a closer look, Luo’er was ready. Within a blink, he whirled the knife in his hand and plunged it into the gunman’s lower jaw before he could react.

The knife slipped in effortlessly, his eyes bulged out, bloodshot, unable to let out a single word before collapsing.

Luo’er quickly scrambled up, grabbed the rifle resting on the gunman’s shoulder, and swiftly pointed it towards the farthest gunman. A hand circled the trigger in a brief, rapid-fire motion.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Sniping the distant gunman down, Luo’er tossed away the rifle and extracted a handgun from the unconscious gunman’s holster. The old, sturdy M1911 was already cocked and ready to fire even as he pulled it out. Without another thought, he directed three quick shots at the remaining gunman at the doorway.

The urgent firing pierced the gunman’s tactical vest. Even before he could take aim at Luo’er, he was hit and fell down, howling in agony.

With that, Luo’er executed a lightning swap from defense to attack, eliminating three gunmen, making the most of their negligence and underestimation of his abilities.

Sweating and trembling, Luo’er rose to his feet, his gun still pointed at the direction of the gunfire. He had struggled with the .45 caliber handgun’s substantial recoil, and given the size of his hands, the M1911 was indeed difficult to handle, almost slipping from his grasp after the rapid firing.

Not bothering to check the bullets left in the chamber, Luo’er grabbed a different magazine from one of the dead gunman’s holster. He then put a bullet in each of their heads to ensure they were indeed dead.

Having disposed of the gunmen, Luo’er moved towards the kitchen entrance and promptly shut the door. Luo’er was now fully exposed, and this seemed the right opportunity to sneak Tangmo out of the academy.

He bent down to collect the AR series rifle left behind by the gunman. These rifles manufactured with the common engineering plastic from Earth were telling enough. Specifically, using this material implies that the weapon’s make and model certainly violated the guidelines set in the 80s, undoubtedly falling under illegal arms.

As to who had smuggled these weapons into the Otherworld, he had his doubts, but Luo’er had his suspicions. Examining the rifle, the symbol on the cartridge was still visible. The inscriptions implied it held the 5.56X45 NATO bullet; the rifle was a small caliber one.

Generally, people of Otherworld would not prefer such a weapon, given its ineffectiveness against Defense Runes on their armors. So why would anyone choose to use this particular weapon?

His mind was teeming with questions. But his immediate objective was to rescue Tangmo from the academy. He turned off the safety on the pistol and grabbed a couple of spare magazines from the gunman’s holster.

Luo’er chose not to use the rifle, despite it being far more powerful than his pistol, intending to evade the others while rescuing Tangmo. The bulky rifle would only serve as an unnecessary obstruction.