Chapter 44: Autobot, Transform!
In the office, Jiang Jin, unable to sit still, turned around sharply. “They actually caught him? For real?”
“I saw him with my own eyes in the video call. It really was that brat. I’d recognize him even if he were reduced to ashes!” Qi Qin assured him. “He said that while they were in the middle of snatching that little girl, that kid just walked straight up to them... Damn it, I thought something went wrong after all the delay.”
Jiang Jin stood up and paced around the office, thinking hard. He nodded firmly. “Good. Mingzi did well on this.”
He pointed to the burly man by the door. The man chuckled but said nothing. Jiang Jin continued, “Prepare yourselves. I’ll contact them. Once they arrive, get them straight to us without any detours or mistakes. When this is over, I’ll give you the money and goods. So do your best. Bai Yi, you get yourself ready too, don’t let that bastard cook up any dirty tricks.”
From a dark corner, a slightly thin man nodded. “Understood, boss.”
After finishing the call, Jiang Jin sat back in his chair and glanced out at the city traffic, a smile creeping across his face. If that kid really was a Chosen One, the payoff would be huge. He found a comfortable position, enjoying the view from the bridge. At times like this, it felt as if all of Cliff City were right at his fingertips, and it was an intoxicating feeling.
Even though there was an elevated highway right beside the building, with cars constantly rushing past and the noise never really letting up, the place made up for it with how convenient the transportation was. Roads branched out in every direction. If anything went wrong, making a quick getaway would be easy enough.
After today, maybe he could consider a better place. If he successfully laundered the business and secured the Security Bureau contract, he could climb even higher...
A faint red light appeared among the neon outside, drifting almost like a bird. Flying through the night sky, it drew closer and looked in through the window.
It was a...
“Drone?”
Jiang Jin froze, sensing something was off. But the camera drone Ji Jue had taken from Layla quickly shot upward, leaving the area.
Then, a horn blared, going from faint to deafening in a heartbeat, right along with those two blinding headlights.
Outside, on the elevated bridge, the battered van suddenly accelerated. As all four tires spun like mad, they screeched against the asphalt, almost causing sparks to fly.
In the blink of an eye, it swerved, surged forward, and smashed straight through the guardrail. It tore across the oncoming lanes with its momentum completely unchecked, grinding over the shattered barrier. The front end lifted and cleared the edge of the overpass, and then the van was airborne.
Like a hurdler, it was impossibly agile. It tore through the air with a rumble and closed the distance in an instant, lunging toward the building looming in the night just over ten meters away. The headlights blazed like a monster’s eyes, growing bigger and bigger outside the window as it hurtled closer...
“Run!”
Jiang Jin didn’t even have time to tell if that vehicle looked familiar. Instinctively, he bolted. At the critical moment, the bodyguard, Bai Yi, reached out and grabbed him with an almost unbelievable speed, pulling him out of the office in an instant.
Only Qi Qin froze in place, staring dumbly at the rapidly approaching headlights. Instinctively, he reached out, desperately shouting, “Help!”
Boom!
The floor-to-ceiling glass shattered into fragments, raining down in all directions under the impact of the van. The unexpected intruder, descending from above, had crashed straight into the office from the front.
Like a battering ram, it crushed the expensive rosewood conference table and seemed to roll over someone in its path. The tires came off, but its momentum didn’t stop, sliding all the way until it smashed through half a wall, where it finally came to a halt.
Dust and thick smoke swirled through the air. After the deafening crash, all that remained was a song echoing in the deathly silence. From the car radio came a cheerful, jubilant tune, singing of a beautiful life, of a bright future.
Outside the door, Jiang Jin’s face twitched, still trying to process what had just happened. His eyes were drawn to the face drenched in blood from beneath the van.
Qi Qin coughed up a mouthful of blood and struggled to extend a hand, his lips moving as if begging for something.
Then a boot came down, pressing onto his face before crushing him into the ground.
Crack.
Just like that, he was gone.
Through the spreading smoke, a young face appeared, warmly introducing itself. “Everyone, don’t be afraid. We are peace-loving Autobots! I am Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots. Today, I’ve come to take you to Cybertron for the New Year and watch the Spring Festival Gala together. Let’s wrap dumplings together[1]!”
Bang!
Before they could react, a deadly blaze of fire shot from the dissipating smoke. It was as if dozens of fiery streaks had erupted out of nowhere in an instant, piercing through the mist and dust with a deafening blast.
Lu Feng held a Defender Type-9 submachine gun, a highly regarded weapon for urban combat favored by the Federation, the Empire, as terrorists alike. It was a durable, reliable, and stable gun chambered for nine-millimeter rounds, with a modified forty-five-round magazine.
With the trigger pressed, the magazine emptied in less than three seconds in this close-range battlefield. Amid the short, relentless gunfire, Lu Feng’s muzzle swept across the area, locking tightly onto the figure scrambling and cowering behind cover. Screams and wails echoed in the sudden chaos.
Outside the door, those lackeys who hadn’t even realized what was happening didn’t even get a chance to peek out before they dropped flat, like stalks of wheat toppled by the wind. Lu Feng tossed aside the emptied submachine gun before he reached behind his back to draw another weapon and pulled the trigger!
With his left hand, he fished a flashbang from his pocket, expertly tore off the pin, and hurled it along the ground. It bounced off the corner of the wall outside the door and rolled into a shadowed nook, then detonated with a thunderous boom, delivering a brand-new jolt of shock and terror to those unlucky scum who had somehow survived.
“Kill him! Kill him!!!” Jiang Jin roared, his eyes blazing with rage as his subordinates protected him.
Right in front of him, a burly man spread his arms. He shielded Jiang Jin by standing directly in front of Lu Feng’s muzzle, absorbing more than sixty percent of the bullets.
His skin had turned metallic silver, like steel, with sharp metallic spikes and crystal ridges growing from his body to form a thick suit of armor. On the most vulnerable part, his face, a terrifying metallic demon mask had formed.
He was a Chosen One of the Ruins Path. Though it wasn’t clear what kind of matrix he used, he was definitely stronger than Ji Jue. Ordinary bullets hitting him couldn’t even pierce that layer of protection, which was stronger than a bulletproof vest!
Of course, he wasn’t comparable to Ms. Wen. Ji Jue wanted to say that, but after they teamed up and tore through everything in their path, he understood all too well the terrifying gap between himself and Ms. Wen. Someone who was practically nothing for her as an opponent could still slaughter him hundreds of times over!
“Feng, don’t stop with the flashbangs!” Ji Jue shouted.
The flash and concussive blast had clearly left the other temporarily stunned and disoriented, but since they already had him under control, why should they stop before it was over?
Lu Feng understood that logic even better than Ji Jue. Striding forward over the blood and spent casings, he emptied the submachine gun and then drew the Exterminator shotgun from his back. From it came rounds specifically designed for heavily armored targets.
The roar of gunfire was unceasing. With each shell that flew out, you could see chunks of the burly man’s armor dent inward. The deformed fragments either flew off or lodged in place, and the sheer impact force pushed him back slowly, sliding him across the ground.
“Bai Yi!”
Beneath the demon mask, the Chosen One let out a hoarse, ragged scream.
Outside the office, in the wreckage-strewn area, the other Chosen One finally let out a sigh of relief as he dragged Jiang Jin into a corner. He turned back, raised a hand to his lips, and blew a silent whistle.
Under the flickering lights, the shadows churned. They writhed, gathered, and condensed, gaining the physical shape of a writhing grotesque creature with six legs and eight arms. The creature was agile as if it had no weight, and it hurtled straight at Lu Feng.
Bullets tore a massive hole in it, but the shadow beast’s wounds closed instantly. Apart from consuming a bit of spirit matter, it was virtually unscathed. One strike proved useless, and Lu Feng had already reorganised his priorities, focusing entirely on suppressing the demon-masked Chosen One before him. He didn’t even spare it a glance.
Inside the office behind him, there was no need for Ji Jue to even wave his hand in command. The steel construct, impatient as ever, leapt forward on its own.
The seemingly meek little scooter jumped into the air, its shell splitting mid-flight. Countless mechanical modules rubbed and shifted, spinning chaotically before they transformed into a mutilated, roaring dragon-blooded monster. Its cry wasn’t much different from the horn’s blare, but it carried undeniable power.
And so, it collided head-on with the shadow beast before crashing down from midair, fearless of piercing attacks. The shadow beast convulsed violently, emitting silent, agonized cries. Its limbs whipped out, twisting and transforming into blades, as if trying to shred it to pieces in an instant, but then came the grating screech of metal against metal and sparks flying in every direction!
Perhaps Lawrence wasn’t wrong: the Ruins Path, at its core, was matter itself. It was the trace left behind by dragons.
The dragonblood-infused Horsey looked like a plastic toy scooter, but its actual sturdiness surpassed most special alloys in existence. Even if it collided head-on with a fully loaded Nanfeng truck, it could smash a perfectly scooter-shaped hole straight through! Whether Ji Jue, who was riding it, would live or die... that was another story.
Horsey was in its ultimate unmanned form, utterly going mad for the unlimited chicken-leg feast Ji Jue promised.
Chicken legs, heck yeah! Having unlimited chicken legs is awesome!
Amid the shrill, echoing blare of horns, its five razor-sharp claws tore, scratched, and raked the shadow beast. Horsey dragged the shadow beast into a tumble and smashed into it, biting and shredding its flesh in a frenzy.
The spirit-matter shadow beast, normally impervious to ordinary matter, now panicked and trembled under the monstrous jaws. Why couldn’t its destroyed limbs and body regenerate!?
“Fuck you!!!”
Under the relentless barrage of the shotgun, the armored Chosen One, Ming Yan, screamed. Amid the dizzying shockwaves from the repeated flashbangs, the steel crystals covering his body surged once more, forming a massive shield on his bent arms that continually cracked and repaired itself.
He held the shield forward and advanced toward Lu Feng one step at a time, resisting the onslaught of the specialized rounds. The smile below[2] the demon mask grew ever more uncanny.
Lu Feng lowered the muzzle. Without hesitation, he tossed the nearly red-hot shotgun aside and raised both hands.
Ji Jue’s voice came through the earpiece. “Feng, everything’s been taken care of.”
Moving smoothly, Lu Feng dropped to his knees while clutching his head before letting his elbows hit the ground, as if he were bowing to some unseen god. It was a textbook-perfect, almost infuriatingly precise, anti-barrage prone position.
1. Wrapping dumplings (jiaozi) is a major Lunar New Year tradition, particularly in Northern China, symbolizing family reunion, wealth, and bidding farewell to the old year. Families gather on New Year's Eve to fold them, often shaping them like ancient gold ingots to bring prosperity. ☜
2. T/N: RAW writes “above” here but I think it’s a typo. ☜
