Volume 7: Abandoned Sandstone City Chapter 345 Mann
Valentina was fighting and had no time to help Ke Lan get rid of the guy who was "locking up the man" behind her.
Ke Lan had no choice but to turn his gaze to another place - however, the situation on Asano Akira's side was even worse: he had already jumped out of the cockpit of the mecha, but the remaining mecha of the Crow Club was still chasing him, swinging its sharp and heavy combat dagger forward continuously... If Asano Akira's movements were just a little slower, he would be cut in half by the sharp blade behind him!
"What's going on?" Not to mention the stunned hosts and commentators, even Ke Lan was puzzled by this scene. "Could it be that the Dark Crow Club's target is not just Valentina? Otherwise, why would they keep chasing after Asano Akira even though he had already given up his armor?"
The attacking movements of that mecha were clearly aimed at killing people. Fortunately, its target was Asano Akira. If it were anyone else, they would have been either chopped to death by the combat dagger or crushed to death by the mecha weighing several tons.
There was already an uproar in the live broadcast room of the game, with tens of thousands of barrages rolling madly - at this time, even the audience who didn't understand could sense something unusual: the three machines of the Dark Crow Club were not here to participate in the competition at all... This was clearly a murder!
"Are they planning to kill Asano Akira?" Ye Yan turned his head in astonishment and looked at Hound and Chi Hanfeng who were standing aside with extremely serious expressions.
"It's not just Asano Akira." Layton said, "Didn't you notice the sword that guy stabbed at Ke Lan at the beginning? It was clearly aimed at the center of the cockpit..."
"Why are they doing this?! If there is a mistaken killing during the competition, the person will be disqualified!" Ye Yan said in shock.
"Manslaughter by mistake? Master Ye, do you still think this is manslaughter by mistake? They clearly planned to kill me!" The Hound said, "Why don't you call your uncles and ask them to stop the game immediately?"
"Oh! Yes! I almost forgot about this!" Ye Yan hurriedly took out his mobile phone from his pocket and started searching in the address book.
At the same time, inside the stadium.
Valentina was still fighting her opponent in close combat. Both machines were covered in wounds, as if they would fall apart at any moment. Asano Akira was constantly circling with the mecha… Although he could still perfectly dodge the opponent’s attacks, no one knew how much time his remaining strength would last. As for Ke Lan, he tightly grasped the joystick and stepped on the output valve with both feet. He was just wrestling with his opponent, without any skills or operations. He was fighting with the output of the power reactor and the rapidly consumed energy crystals…
Although the situation was not optimistic, it was much better than expected. According to the original plan of the three members of the Raven Club, the two planes would cooperate after landing to quickly eliminate one of them and then use the advantage of numbers to kill the remaining two. However, Valentina resolved this wave of attacks with her super high reaction speed and turned the situation into a one-on-one battle.
"These people... they want to kill us, right?" Valentina asked in the team channel. She could of course see the situation on Asano Akira's side, but at this time she couldn't spare the time to rescue her teammates.
"Yes... they want to kill us..." Ke Lan replied.
"Why?"
"We'll talk about this later... For now, let's try to hold the enemy back as long as possible. As long as we can hold out until the tournament organizers intervene, we'll win."
"Win? What do you know? Tell me!" Valentina noticed something wrong from Ke Lan's tone and asked.
"I'll tell you, but we have to survive first!" Ke Lan said through gritted teeth. He had heard a teeth-grinding "crunch" from the joints of his shoulder blades. The metal parts at the stress-bearing parts had begun to fatigue. It might not be long before his two arms would be torn off by his opponent...
At this moment, a crisp cannon sound suddenly came from the side. Ke Lan felt that the power behind him suddenly disappeared. Turning around, he saw that one of the arms of the mecha behind him was shot off , and the whole body fell to one side under the huge impact - and dozens of meters away, a mecha painted ochre red made a "retreat" gesture to Ke Lan.
This machine was carrying a sniper cannon with a barrel more than eight meters long, and a faint white smoke was still floating from the muzzle - the shot that helped Ke Lan escape from trouble just now was obviously fired by this machine.
"Is this... the team from the Mitsui Group?" Ke Lan quickly glanced at the identification badge on the other party's shoulder. "Are they planning to help? Is it because of Sakurai Na... or is it simply out of sportsmanship?"
However, no matter what the reason was, this was good news for Ke Lan. He immediately activated the thrusters to create some distance between himself and the Dark Crow's mecha, and then took advantage of this gap to load the ammunition he had picked up into the barrel of the shotgun.
In less than two seconds, the ace pilot of the Dark Crow Club regained his balance and pounced on Ke Lan again!
However, what greeted him were two black holes in the muzzles of shotguns...
Ke Lan directly pointed the shotgun at the opponent's mecha and pulled the trigger repeatedly - but unlike the opponent, he did not aim at the cockpit... These pilots of the Dark Crow Club were just commissioned killers. Killing them would not only be meaningless, but would also help the black hand hiding behind the scenes to destroy the evidence.
The Dark Crow Club's mecha collapsed with a loud bang, and Ke Lan controlled his own body to stomp hard on the edge of the cockpit a few times - this was done to severely deform the metal frame around the cockpit. In this way, even if the opponent wanted to abandon the armor and escape, they would not be able to open the cockpit door that was stuck tightly.
The three contestants from the Mitsui Group subdued the machine that was chasing Asano Akira, while on Valentina's side, the melee between the two machines had already determined the outcome.
Just like the police in movies and TV shows who always arrive late after things are over, it was not until this moment that the Ye Group’s warships responsible for maintaining order appeared above the pyramid.
Mandatory suspension.
The development of the plot was quite different from what Ke Lan had expected, but thanks to the help of the Mitsui Group, the difficulty of the most dangerous part of the original plan was greatly reduced... It seems that after things are over, I will have to treat Sakurai Nana to a big meal to thank her.
The three pilots from the Dark Crow Club were taken away by the security agents who arrived, while Ke Lan and his team walked directly out of the stadium - as soon as they left the signal isolation zone, the phone in his pocket vibrated.
It was the information dealer who called. The guy's voice had been specially processed and sounded like an artificially synthesized electronic voice. Even his real gender was difficult to distinguish.
"Have you found out?" Ke Lan asked directly without any further ado.
"Well, Mann's full name is Mann Adams. He is backed by the Adams family, which is very powerful in the military. He is also the only son of old Adams, so he was able to avoid the military court when he committed the crime."
The information dealer continued, "Mann is the boss of Dark Raven. Ten years ago, the Adams family sent him to a military base in the wilderness to hide. The base was full of Adams family members, so the military couldn't find his whereabouts... Two years later, Mann returned to the Ark under the alias of Marshall.
After that, he participated in an experimental project codenamed 'NDL0011' and served as the deputy director of Laboratory No. 1. He was also responsible for managing the experimental subjects in the project... Yes, you guessed it right, this is a human experiment."
NDL? Ke Lan was stunned. Isn't this the pinyin abbreviation of the three words "telekinesis"? No wonder this Mann didn't let Asano Akira go. It turned out that he was not only the culprit of the destruction of the Strangler Squadron, but also the manager of that secret experimental unit...
Valentina and Asano Akira were both his targets, and he was the unlucky guy who got caught in the act...and, if I was not mistaken, Major Chi Hanfeng should also be on this guy's assassination list.
"Oh, by the way, there is one more thing I want to tell you." said the intelligence dealer.
"What?"
"Marshall... that is, Mann Adams, is now on the Zulong."
"Okay, I got it. Thank you... I will transfer the intelligence fee to you immediately." After Ke Lan finished speaking, he made another call and asked Hound to gather the previously prepared personnel and the agents of the Security Bureau to rush to the box of the Crow Club immediately, seal off the scene, and intercept Mann!
As soon as he hung up the phone, Ke Lan saw Valentina standing beside him, staring at him intently.
"You just mentioned the name Mann..." She gritted her teeth and spoke word by word, "The man who wanted to kill us just now is related to him, right?"
"Yes." At this point, Ke Lan no longer needed to hide the truth. "Let's go to the Zulong and arrest him now."
"Is he on that boat?" Valentina asked again, her whole body beginning to tremble slightly... Ke Lan could even sense that a "murderous aura" so strong that it was almost materialized had solidified around her. Although Ke Lan was four or five meters away from her, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up involuntarily - this was thanks to the fact that the target of this murderous aura was not him, otherwise, he would probably subconsciously adopt a defensive posture.
The boat used to pick up the contestants landed, but what surprised Ke Lan was that Valentina did not rush to the boat. Instead, she walked to Ke Lan and asked, "Do you have a cigarette? Give me one."
"No... I don't smoke, and neither does Asano Akira."
"That gun, do you have it?"
Ke Lan shook her head.
Soon, the boat carried the three people back to the Zulong. At this time, the soldiers and agents had surrounded the private room of the Dark Crow Club. A middle-aged man wearing a black windbreaker and a black top hat was sitting on the sofa, looking at everyone coldly.
Seeing Valentina come in, Chi Hanfeng immediately took a step back and pressed her shoulder.
"It was a very exciting game." Mann, who was sitting on the sofa, broke the silence. His eyes swept over Valentina, Chi Hanfeng and Asano Akira one by one, "I admit that you won this time."
Hearing this voice, Asano Akira's calm expression changed significantly. He moved closer to Ke Lan and whispered, "I know this person."
"I know." Ke Lan nodded.
Mann stood up from the sofa, dusted off the hem of his windbreaker, and said, "But I won't be sentenced to death... They won't kill me. What you did is just in vain."
"Bullshit! Just the things you've done are enough to shoot you ten times!" The grumpy hound couldn't help but curse.
“No, no, no…” Mann shook his head calmly. “If you think so, you are totally wrong.”
He pointed a finger at his head and continued, "I still have valuable information in my head. The people above need me, and they also need the information in my head... So, they can't execute me, and they are even reluctant to let me spend the rest of my life in prison... Don't you agree, Asano Akira?"
"What do you mean?" The Hound frowned.
"Do you remember Marshall? He is the original owner of my current name, and he is actually still alive." Mann ignored the hound and continued to speak to Asano Akira. Ke Lan noticed that Asano Akira's body stiffened for a moment, which had never happened before.
"Compared to a defective product like you, he is actually very close to perfection. It's a pity that the experiment is just one step away from success... It's a pity that you, the experimental subjects, are too useless. Even if I grant you powerful power, you can't bear it at all."
"Marshall...where is he now?" Asano Akira asked, his thumb pressed tightly on the scabbard, as he took a step forward.
Mann did not answer Asano Akira's question, and continued to talk to himself: "Do you think the experiment has really been stopped? No, it hasn't. The people above have never given up... You can't do anything to me. After all, they can't give up on me unless they give up on the experiment. The lives of scientific researchers are much more valuable than those of you who know nothing and can only fight."
As soon as Mann finished speaking, Valentina rushed out, pulled out the pistol from the waist of a soldier next to her, aimed at Mann's head, and pulled the trigger without hesitation!
"Bang!"
The bullet was fired, but hit the sofa - at this critical moment, Chi Hanfeng jumped up, threw Valentina to the ground, and took the gun back from her.
"Kill him! Let me kill him! I...I want to kill him!" Valentina, who was pressed to the ground by Chi Hanfeng's knees, cried out frantically.
"You can't kill him. If you kill him, your life will be over." Chi Hanfeng pulled the slide with his hand and checked the bullet in the chamber.
"I don't care! I don't care!" Valentina continued to cry.
"But I care. Why do you think those brats risked their lives to save you? To avenge them? They just wanted you to be alive... Mann deserves to die, but he should be tried by a military court, not you." Chi Hanfeng shouted harshly.
