Dual wielding volcanoes, killing through the west

Ryan was pulled out of the doorway, and suddenly felt a void in his heart, as if he were naked.

Everything around him was swaying, and the firelight and heat made him feel as if he were in a dream.

Everything felt so unreal, like a nightmare.

He remembered the closing date of every deal. This oil refinery was built eight years ago when he decided to enter the oil business. The same work model, replicated by the same person for eight years, had never encountered such an unexpected situation before. How did he happen to be in this predicament?

How could that tiny spark have happened so coincidentally to ignite the distillation tower tonight?

……

“No…” Ryan’s expression changed, as if he realized something and was on high alert.

"No?" Tim said in a deep voice, "What are you saying? If we don't run now, it will be too late!"

"No, you idiots, haven't you realized it yet?!" Ryan shoved his hand away and ran towards the vault door, shouting angrily, "We've been tricked!"

----

"boom----!!"

Zhang Renfeng smashed through the wall with a shoulder thrust, sending splinters flying.

In the instant that everyone's attention was drawn away, he drew his two guns and, in a steady hip-fire posture, slightly raised the muzzles.

Gunfire erupted in the pitch-black tunnel!

The advantages of a repeating pistol were fully demonstrated in this close-quarters combat within a confined space. Even if your marksmanship wasn't great, the rate of fire was more than enough to overwhelm their revolvers. Most of the security personnel didn't even have time to draw their guns before they were riddled with bullets and fell to the ground.

From the moment he broke through the wall, drew his gun, and fired, to everyone being hit, it all happened in the blink of an eye. Zhang Renfeng was quite impressed; this thing was truly effective. He twirled his two pistols, lowered the muzzles, and put them back in their holsters.

Spin around.

Push off the ground.

Charge!

With a light touch of his toes, Zhang Renfeng moved like a swift cheetah through the darkness, quickly passing the corpses scattered on the ground and catching up with Ryan, who was just about to squeeze into the vault door.

"when---!!"

Just as the door was about to close, Zhang Renfeng gripped the edge of the iron gate with his five fingers, forcing it to a halt. Without much effort, Zhang Renfeng slammed the thick, heavy vault door open as if it were a wooden door. With a loud crash, the door was embedded in the wall with tremendous force, and several pieces of gravel fell to the ground.

Outside the gate, everything was dyed red by the firelight.

The space inside the gate remained pristine white, though the sweltering heat created wind pressure, causing some documents and papers that weren't suppressed to fly around. Combined with the faint gasps coming from outside, it resembled a scene from the apocalypse.

Ryan was so frightened that he fell to the ground and backed away. He saw a face reddened by the firelight—calm as if doing something that was only natural and should have been done long ago.

He walked in step by step, his footsteps not loud, but each time he landed, they were like thunder, exploding in Ryan's ears.

“Hello, Ryan Childer,” Zhang Renfeng turned his head slightly, each word striking his heart, “We’ve finally met.”

"……you……"

Ryan's expression changed several times, from fear to confusion to astonishment to anger.

He is a very intelligent person. Even in this situation, he did not stop thinking and immediately connected all of these things together.

Yellow skin.

Sharpshooter.

And this superhuman strength.

This phrase, "long time no see," is more like Death mocking its prey—no matter how much you hide and try every trick in the book, you still can't escape me in the end.

I've found you.

"..." He refused to accept death's mockery, so he leaned on the edge of the table and stood up with some difficulty but great determination. "You... are 'Red Center'?"

“Wrong answer.” Zhang Renfeng’s lips curled into a sharp smile. “Hongzhong is dead. Everyone knows that.”

"I am the blank board."

“You killed my son.” Ryan’s teeth clenched slightly. “Why?”

"Do you really care about him?" Zhang Renfeng asked.

"No. But he's not just my son, he's a symbol, a cornerstone of faith!" At this point, all the rhetoric, hypocrisy, and convoluted arguments were meaningless. Facing this man, Ryan began to speak from the bottom of his heart, "If I can't even do anything about my son's murder, how can I convince my men to continue following me?"

"You still haven't answered me. Why? What did he do to offend you? Was it because he called you a yellow-skinned barbarian?"

“Many people have said this,” Zhang Renfeng said with a smile. “Your son killed a little girl, an innocent little girl. Her brother hired me to kill him for $150, and that’s how it all started.”

Ryan's expression froze for a moment.

"Just a second ago, you were thinking 'which one,' right?" Zhang Renfeng's smile suddenly turned cold, and he said in a deep voice, "No need to think anymore, it's 'every one.' I believe this kind of thing has happened more than once, but you don't care, he doesn't care, no one cares. In your eyes, other people's lives are all like weeds."

"But that's just how the world is. His horse tramples others to death, and my horse tramples him to death. It's fair."

"I just want fucking fairness, that's all."

----

"you……"

Ryan picked up a bottle of wine, gulped it down, took a deep breath, pointed at Zhang Renfeng and said, "Red, or white, or some other color."

"You're a madman."

……

"Really?" Zhang Renfeng laughed. "People often describe me like that."

“You want to twist human nature, what are you if not a madman?” Ryan gritted his teeth. “But you’re no longer special, no longer!”

"We'll know soon enough."

……

Tim, who had been shot in the forehead, slowly stood up from the ground. He didn't use his hands to support himself on the ground, but instead straightened his back, his body cracking and popping.

"Clang!"

A bullet fell from his forehead, its tip deformed, and countless mycelia grew from his body.

"ah------!!!"

He let out a scream that sounded inhuman and echoed.

Chapter 677: Didn't you anticipate this in your grand plan?

"?!"

Zhang Renfeng was somewhat surprised, because he was certain that he had just delivered all the bullets to their intended destinations.

The explosions and shouts outside were too noisy. He took a deep breath and focused his attention on Tim. The information he received made him very uneasy.

Although I could feel his breathing and heartbeat, he possessed none of the qualities of a living being. It was as if a stone sculpture, covered with a layer of human skin, had come out to move.

Even more terrifying, his body was changing, as if a pair of hands were moving under his skin, rearranging and reassembling the positions of his bones and muscles. With popping sounds like popping beans, he grew taller, his limbs became stronger, and his body became slightly bent, making him look more like an ape with elongated limbs than a human.

The silvery-white mycelium emerging from his neck and shoulders made Zhang Renfeng immediately sense something was wrong.

"What did you do..."

"Boom————!!!"

Tim pounced on all fours in an almost beast-like manner, crashing into him. The two of them locked in a tangled mess, smashing through one of the walls.

Brick and gravel splattered on his face. Tim's eyes were sometimes vacant, sometimes filled with rage. Zhang Renfeng wasn't sure if he was still alive. Fungal hyphae emerged from under his skin, like lubricant, wrapping around his wrists, ankles, knees, and other joints, almost becoming his second skin.

At this point, there is only one possibility.

“Im…”

Zhang Renfeng said coldly, "After escaping from Dover Hill, he chose you to be his sugar daddy?"

“?!” Ryan’s expression changed abruptly.

He had always considered this matter top secret and had done his utmost to minimize the leakage of information. But nothing in this world is without a trace, and there will always be insiders who find out what he's doing through various channels. For example, the factory manager just now wanted a piece of the pie.

He could barely tolerate these things.

However, Red Center, or White Card, two people who should be irreconcilable enemies, actually uttered Imkolin's name precisely. Thinking back to the rumors about Red Center from Dover Valley, Ryan suddenly realized that the person before him possessed far more information than he had imagined.

There's no guarantee of victory anymore.

Faced with the enemy who killed his son, Ryan didn't hesitate for a second, nor did he utter any harsh words. He simply opened the bookcase, revealing a hidden door on the side of the vault.

"Wait a minute, where are you going?" Zhang Renfeng became alert, kicked off with both legs, and the impact force like a cannonball landed directly on Tim's chest.

"boom-----!"

Tim was completely unprepared for Zhang Renfeng's strength. The moment he was kicked, his eyes cleared instantly. He seemed somewhat confused, wondering who had been drugged.

He was kicked away, flying in a straight line through the air before embedding himself in the wall on the other side.

Zhang Renfeng, however, was thrown back several meters by the force of his foot. He sprang to his feet from the smooth marble floor and sprinted towards Ryan. The two were not evenly matched in terms of agility. In the few seconds it took Ryan to unlock the door, Zhang Renfeng had already strode forward, his right hand reaching out to grab the back of Ryan's neck.

The sound of wind whistling came from behind.

Turn around.

What comes into view is a long solid wood table made of red walnut wood!

"Thump—!!!"

Tim used it like a spear, charging forward and striking it in the waist, catching Zhang Renfeng completely off guard and pinning him to the wall of the vault.

Apart from the metal main gate, the rest of the vault's structure, including the walls, was a load-bearing building made of a mixture of wood and stone. This blow actually caused cracks to appear on its surface!

Looking closely, Tim's chest, where he had just been kicked, was still sunken in. An ordinary person would have been dead long ago after being kicked like that by Zhang Renfeng. But he was still able to move freely, and could even move a heavy solid wooden table and use it as a weapon.

Dover Doolin also had a strain of bacteria in his body, but it was much easier to deal with than him. Zhang Renfeng assessed the situation in his mind; with the same force, if he were to kick that "old vampire," he could break his body apart.

"Is it a type specifically designed for combat...?"

Thinking this, Zhang Renfeng grabbed the edge of the wooden table with both hands, his ten fingers gripping the broken wood, and with a burst of strength, he split it to the sides!

"laugh---!!"

The expensive solid wood table was torn in two by Zhang Renfeng, with paper, ink, and pens flying everywhere! But before his fist could hit the other man's jaw, Tim's right arm suddenly cracked with a snapping sound—his arm stretched out like dough, and his inhuman fingers snapped shut, grabbing Tim's throat.

"?!"

This was the first time Zhang Renfeng had ever seen such a method, and he was taken aback, not having time to react.

Tim swung him around in the air and slammed him hard to the ground!

"Boom!!!"

It landed solidly, on its back.

The marble tile floor was smashed and a dent was made.

……

“You… Hongzhong… I know you…”

At this point, Tim's physiological structure is no longer very similar to that of a human.

From his distorted vocal organs, he squeezed out intermittent, breathy sounds. At some point, his fingernails also changed; the old nails fell off, and the new ones grew thick and sharp, more like those of a wild beast.

Perhaps calling it "claw" would be more appropriate.

"You're a madman... The people you killed... were all rich and powerful. You want to replace civilization and order with barbarity and violence... You're destined to fail! That's how the world is. There will always be people standing on the top floor of skyscrapers, and there will always be people wandering and begging in alleys. You can't kill them all!"

Tim raised his claws high, and after losing his human form, a burning desire, belonging to humankind, finally ignited in his eyes.

That desire was as undisguised as the raging fire outside.

He wasn't truly loyal to the Cheddar family; rather, in the idiom "even the chickens and dogs rise to heaven," he was the most loyal dog. All his power, fame, respect, and wealth in society stemmed from his deep ties with the Cheddar family. Protecting them was protecting himself!

"You will die a terribly miserable death here, and I..."

"I will stand at the very top with Ryan!"

----

"when!"

The sharp claws pierced down, landing on Zhang Renfeng's heart, breaking all five claws at once.

"...???"