Dual wielding volcanoes, killing through the west

"A temporary operational zone will be established within a hundred meters of the Pearl Shell Restaurant. All operations within this zone, including the capture of the assassins other than the two snipers and two observers, will be conducted within this zone..."

"Midday student."

"You're responsible."

……

"..."

Zhang Wusheng's expression shifted from surprise and astonishment to disbelief.

"Father..." he pointed to himself, "Should I do it?"

“Igor is your teacher. You’ve studied under him for so long and have seen a lot of things. Now it’s time for you to step up your game.”

Zhang Renfeng patted him on the shoulder and encouraged him, "You'll be fine."

"Ren, his men, and your two younger brothers are all under your command. Remember that..."

"If anything goes wrong, we can act first and report later, doing whatever we can!"

Chapter 950: Born in Response to Your Wish

"The back alley of the Pearl Shell Restaurant, the alley next to the Emerald Theater, and..."

Zhang Wusheng spread out the map and drew three circles on it, muttering to himself, "Also, at the side entrance of the Krashir Shopping Street, there's a huge pile of unloaded wooden crates that haven't been dealt with yet."

The map in front of him was a city map of White Torch City. The area near the Pearl Shell Restaurant had been covered with various markings and arrows drawn on it with a pencil. It looked like a mischievous child scribbling a war game in his notebook while not paying attention in class.

However, every time Zhang Wusheng put pen to paper, it represented a real offensive and defensive battle, or a clash of fire, so it's hard to say that his mind wasn't heavy.

The three locations he circled earlier represent the assassins' entire reserve force. They will infiltrate the city on the night of the banquet and await orders at these three locations. There are six of them at each location, making a total of eighteen—a force to be reckoned with.

The plan didn't specify their origins, only stating that they were all equipped with fully ammunition Kragg-Jørgensen rifles, Colt single-action revolvers, and explosives such as grenades. As a backup plan, if the sniper operation failed, they would assassinate Ego on the way back from the dinner.

Zhang Wusheng bit his pen, staring intently at every detail on the map, as if he had drifted off into another world, completely merging with the map he had altered beyond recognition.

……

"Isn't it a bit unnecessary to take this so seriously?" Zhang Wusheng, with his vertical pupils, slowly walked out from behind him, glanced at the densely packed map, and sneered, "If this continues, before anything even happens, you'll be the one who dies from excessive pressure."

These words weren't entirely sarcastic. Zhang Wusheng clutched his chest; he did feel a dull, sharp pain. Of course, it wasn't to the point of triggering asthma, and his vision hadn't gone black.

However, this level of detail is enough to make "him" visible.

"Look at you now, you're like a goldfish in a tank. Someone throws a little food down, and you wag your tail and float to the surface to eat it."

"Get lost." Zhang Wusheng gritted his teeth, raised his hand to wipe the sweat from his forehead, "I have important business to attend to now, I don't have time to waste with your nonsense!"

"Ha...haha...yes, you have your 'big business' to do." Zhang Wusheng with vertical pupils jumped up and lay back on the table.

For some reason, even though he should have just been a phantom, the map and pencil on the table were shaken and jumped.

"It's all your fault for bothering me, now I have to start all over again... Ugh..."

Zhang Wusheng took a deep breath and then exhaled, as if trying to expel all the stale air from his lungs. His eyes closed slightly, and darkness spread before him like a tide.

Immediately afterwards, the 2D map transformed into a 3D scene, with assassins, police, and innocent civilians who might be caught up in it... all the variables that could be considered were represented in his mind in the form of arrows.

They were intricately intertwined.

Arrows collide and exchange fire with each other, and with each collision, new arrows emerge, and so on... In the blink of an eye, ordinary points transform into a grid-like network of towering trees. Zhang Wusheng's eyes darted around rapidly, and in a single breath, he glimpsed hundreds of different possibilities, with more wins than losses.

"Woo..."

An indescribable burning pain came from inside my eyelids.

"Let's have some bar food."

Zhang Wusheng, with his vertical pupils, remained lying on the table, smiling at him. It was clearly his own face, but for some reason, when Zhang Wusheng narrowed his eyes, it resembled a venomous snake flicking its tongue. This reminded Zhang Wusheng of the serpent in biblical mythology that tempted Eve to eat the fruit of knowledge.

"Alcohol...makes my heart beat faster..." Zhang Wusheng rubbed his eyes, squeezing out a few tears to moisten his eyeballs. "Do you want me to lose consciousness so you can take over this body?"

"Heh, don't think so badly of me. Besides... I'm not cut out for your asthma and limp." He blinked, a cunning yet eerie light flashing in his bright amber pupils. "What I mean is, your head, like your lower head, needs a little lubrication from time to time."

"After all, forcing it is just too unromantic. With lubricant, you can 'get' something useful, right?"

"Leaving aside how vulgar your analogy is..." Zhang Wusheng said in a deep voice, "If I want to stay awake, why don't I drink coffee?"

“You hate coffee,” another version of him said calmly.

"why?"

“You hate it, your teacher, using it to mask the smell of death.” Zhang Wusheng, with his vertical pupils, grinned, revealing a ferocious and terrifying smile. “You can smell it, can’t you?”

"..."

Zhang Wusheng frowned, said nothing more, slowly got up, poured himself a glass of brandy, and drank it all in one gulp.

Sure enough, after drinking it, his sensitive body immediately reacted. He could even feel his heartbeat starting to quicken.

"...Why are you still here?"

Where should I go?

He easily jumped off the table, then suddenly squatted down, his amber-like vertical pupils almost touching Zhang Wusheng's face. His smile became dashing... yet tinged with emptiness. "Have you forgotten? Why did I appear in front of you?"

"Who knows?" Zhang Wusheng said impatiently. "If I could, I would also like to kick you out, but you're like a persistent fly that I can't get rid of no matter what I do."

“Of course.” He smiled inexplicably. “I was born in response to your ‘wish,’ and I will have to bother you for a while before your wish is fulfilled.”

"desire?"

“Yes, a wish. That afternoon, you made a wish… and I was born from the black mud…”

Zhang Wusheng, with his vertical pupils, spoke slowly and deliberately, his expression wistful, as if he had truly seen such a world.

"No one will dare to look down on you, pity you, or despise you anymore. You will become a truly great man, just like your father. Wherever you go, you will command respect and influence, and everyone will be moved. Children will admire you, young people will worship you, middle-aged people will respect you, and the elderly will revere you."

"but……"

"If you stay here, in this city made of crayons and butter, you'll be nothing more than a goldfish in a bowl for the rest of your life."

----

……

"goldfish?"

Zhang Wusheng wasn't sure how long he had remained in this dazed state until a familiar voice suddenly came from behind him.

"father?"

He shuddered and instinctively tried to stand up, but forgot that his right leg was not very convenient. He tripped over the chair leg and sat back down.

"It's alright, please sit down."

Zhang Renfeng noticed the empty wine glass on the table and the bottle of tequila with its cap already opened beside it. He frowned slightly. "Wu Sheng, have you been drinking?"

“I…” Zhang Wusheng lowered his head subconsciously.

"It's alright, just drink it. You're not a child anymore." Zhang Renfeng waved his hand, indicating that he didn't need to be nervous, and said softly with a smile, "It's just that your constitution is not the same as others. You are prone to asthma if you drink too much. Just control the amount yourself."

……

"Tsk."

Zhang Wusheng, with his vertical pupils, showed a look of disgust towards Zhang Renfeng for a moment, which then vanished.

Chapter 951: Just You and Me

Zhang Renfeng looked around. This was clearly Zhang Wusheng's own room, but it was so simple that it had almost no special features.

Apart from the most basic furniture and a few books scattered in the corner of the desk, the room was almost exactly the same as when it was first renovated.

"Are you alright?" Zhang Renfeng sat down next to him, glanced at the map he had drawn densely with arrows, his eyebrows twitched first, then he frowned slightly and sighed, "Wusheng, is the task I gave you... putting too much pressure on you?"

"If that's the case, tell me now while there's still time. Then you can leave, and I can have someone else organize the operation."

"..."

Zhang Wusheng shuddered and quickly shook his head, his tone filled with fear, afraid that at this critical juncture, Zhang Renfeng might have other ideas and replace him.

Unlike Zhang Lvjiu and Zhang Honglu, he doesn't possess formidable martial prowess. In the future, whenever there is a conflict, these two can easily win over a large number of people's hearts by holding off the enemy.

As for him, it was only because the situation was special this time, and Zhang Renfeng and Yige were both unable to act due to the circumstances, that he was chosen to step in. If he chickened out at this crucial moment and missed this opportunity, he didn't know when he would have another chance to prove himself.

Are you willing to spend your whole life being seen by your parents and all outsiders as a useless person who walks on crutches and gets out of breath after running a few steps?

"No, Dad, I'm not under any pressure." Zhang Wusheng lowered his voice as much as possible, as if that would make him sound more reliable. "I'm just thinking... about what methods we can use to capture more prisoners while minimizing casualties."

"Alive?" Zhang Renfeng looked at him with some surprise.

"Yes, Father, didn't you say before that there must be an organization behind these assassins? Such a meticulous plan would be difficult for an individual to come up with. If we only kill the assassins but fail to follow the clues and eliminate the lurking organization, wouldn't it be a waste of time?"

"But I'm wondering if this kind of thinking is a bit too sentimental?"

"That's a battlefield, after all. The enemy infiltrated this town with the intention of killing us. Yet I demand that my men not participate in the battle with the same mindset of killing the enemy... What if this order causes our men to be hesitant and timid during the battle, resulting in a surge in casualties? Wouldn't that be...?"

……

"father?"

Zhang Renfeng patted his head, catching Zhang Wusheng off guard and causing him to pause in surprise.

In his memory, his father, Zhang Renfeng, was a towering, omnipotent superhero.

He was born and raised in Baiju City, and had hardly ever been anywhere else. Given the city's level of "faith" in Zhang Renfeng, it's not surprising that he reached this conclusion.

Perhaps for this reason, he rarely felt Zhang Renfeng's "father" side.

“Wusheng…Wusheng…” Zhang Renfeng sighed, looked at his son carefully, and smiled with relief and deep emotion. “You have really grown up. Compared to you, your two younger brothers are still like children.”

Zhang Wusheng's lips twitched twice. He wasn't sure if he was laughing; his laughter might have looked even worse than crying.

Such praise was no different from simply calling him "sensible." He'd been used to this kind of pointless praise since childhood; people couldn't find any other words to compliment him, so they'd just say he was "sensible." Even though his two younger brothers, at the same age, had already honed their martial arts and marksmanship to an extraordinary level, earning praise far exceeding their peers, the only compliment he, the toddler, received was simply "sensible."

Being sensible is another name for being "useless," at least that's what he thinks.

It's really annoying that mediocre children who can't do anything receive a consolation prize from their parents for being sensible.

He blinked, quickly concealing the fleeting disgust in his eyes, and maintained his calm tone, nodding and smiling as he said, "Speaking of elder brothers, I'm actually only a few months older than Green Wine and Red Furnace."

"With their father teaching them martial arts and the guidance of many teachers, they will surely become pillars of society in the future. Right now, they just still have some childish habits that haven't faded yet. Boys mature a little later, that's normal. They'll naturally get better in a couple of years, so Father doesn't need to worry."

----

……

Zhang Renfeng narrowed his eyes slightly.

I originally intended to comfort him, but inexplicably, I ended up being comforted by him instead.

really.

The wolf was right; the child had become somewhat strange.

Although he seemed perfectly normal, much like always, always polite and courteous, there was a subtle sense of detachment permeating his words that could only be detected after a few face-to-face conversations.

He spoke to himself very politely and respectfully, as if he were chatting with a guest. Every word he uttered followed the guest's lead, without expressing any of Zhang Wusheng's own will.

……

Humans live in clusters of thousands of similar people, and experiencing the "atmosphere" is an innate instinct.

Human thoughts and emotions are not transparent, but a single word, a micro-expression, or even the smallest gesture can reveal a person's true emotions.

As the saying goes, "Look at the sky before you go out, and look at people's expressions when you come home," which is roughly true.

For a normal person to survive in a society of tens or hundreds of thousands of people, the ability to read between the lines is an essential basic skill. Those who cannot read between the lines, no matter how capable, often make the wrong choices at the wrong time because they fail to perceive the emotions of others, ultimately leading to their exclusion by the group.

Unfortunately, Zhang Renfeng and Lang, this foolish couple, both scored zeros in this essential social skill.

Zhang Renfeng's career can be described as a nightmare.

Wolf was even less of a character; she was a complete savage. Aside from working as a bodyguard for Tao for a while, she had no other professional experience. It was only after becoming a mother that, out of love for her child, she began to notice something was off about Wu Sheng.

But when asked to pinpoint exactly what was wrong, she couldn't give a clear answer.

……

"Wu Sheng, tell me the truth."

Do you particularly dislike your two younger brothers?