Chapter 49: Tanking Bullets

Chapter 49: Chapter 49: Tanking Bullets

The two walked into the rental apartment and placed their late-night snack on the table.

"I can’t. I really can’t take it anymore."

Zhou Yuan gulped and said, "This roast chicken smells incredible—better than the schoolgirls on campus in their stockings. Let’s eat a little to tide us over, crack open some beers, and we’ll get to the experiment later."

"If we eat now, aren’t you afraid you’ll just puke it all up during the experiment?"

Gu Qing reminded him.

The chemical reagents and biotoxins Zhou Yuan usually messed with tended to irritate the gastrointestinal tract, causing cramps, convulsions, and vomiting.

If they ate now, he’d one hundred percent puke it all up the moment he started experimenting on himself. It’d be a complete waste of food.

Zhou Yuan pushed up his glasses and chuckled.

"That’s where you’re wrong, my friend. This is exactly the effect I’m going for."

"Enjoy the taste now, puke it up later so I don’t get fat. It’s killing two birds with one stone, you know?"

"Sigh... can’t be helped. Once you hit thirty, it’s so easy to gain weight. You have to watch everything you eat and drink."

Zhou Yuan sighed, patting his paunch. His face was a mixture of resignation and nostalgia.

Once upon a time, he’d been a ripped guy with an eight-pack.

But as he got older, his metabolism slowed, he exercised less, and his body slowly grew paunchy.

Gu Qing nodded, deeply agreeing.

Once you get older, you really do have to watch your daily diet, eat less, and exercise more.

Losing your figure is the least of your worries; the real fear is your blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar all skyrocketing.

The result is, best-case scenario, a stroke and paralysis; worst-case, a fatal heart attack. Either way, the ending is pretty bleak.

"Come on, let’s have a toast!"

Zhou Yuan tore open the takeout container for the roast chicken, cracked open two cans of beer, and slid one over to Gu Qing.

Gu Qing picked up his beer and clinked cans with Zhou Yuan with a smile. "Cheers."

After that, the two ate and drank, making small talk.

Time ticked by.

In a flash,

nearly half an hour had passed.

After they had eaten and drunk their fill, they quickly cleared the table and prepared to begin the experiment.

Just then,

Gu Qing’s ears twitched. He’d picked up the distinct sound of what seemed to be a pistol being loaded downstairs.

He got up, walked to the window, and looked out in the direction of the sound.

Then,

he saw a small car parked downstairs.

Three well-built men stepped out one after another.

They headed straight for the residential building he was in.

One wore a tank top, one wore glasses, and one had white hair at his temples. The same tag floated above all three of their heads:

—[Assassin]

’All of them are Assassins?’

’Are they with that mysterious Assassin who was tailing Zhou Yuan last time?’

Gu Qing raised an eyebrow.

Then, he turned to Zhou Yuan and said:

"Brother Yuan, looks like more Assassins are here to kill you. You better hide."

"What?!"

Zhou Yuan was completely stunned.

Suppressing his panic, he looked at Gu Qing nervously and asked:

"How did you know?"

"Are you sure more Assassins are here?"

"Couldn’t you be mistaken?"

"..."

"I don’t think so."

Gu Qing was perfectly calm. "It’s not a big deal, though. Just find a place to hide. I’ll take care of the rest."

Zhou Yuan tried to persuade him. "Don’t be a hero. We’re not on a high floor. We can climb out the window and make a run for it."

Gu Qing quoted Gojo Satoru. "I’ll win."

Zhou Yuan: "..."

After a moment of silence,

Zhou Yuan chose to trust Gu Qing. He quickly ducked into the other room.

At the same time, he pulled out his phone, quickly dialed the police, and asked for help.

Seeing that Zhou Yuan was hidden,

Gu Qing went and opened the front door.

Then he returned to the table and sat down, facing the entrance.

He calmly waited for the three uninvited guests to arrive.

Before long,

the three Assassins appeared at the doorway of the apartment.

The three men were confused. They saw the apartment door wide open and Gu Qing sitting calmly at the table in the living room, watching them.

’What’s going on?’

’Why is the door open?’

’Did he spot us already?’

’And why isn’t he afraid of us?’

’Is it a trap?’

For a moment, none of them dared to make a move. They just crowded in the doorway, frozen.

Gu Qing saw their hesitation and stood up with a smile.

"Don’t worry, come on in. There are no traps."

"..."

The three of them exchanged glances.

Finally, the man in the tank top stepped inside first, walking straight toward Gu Qing.

Seeing that he was unharmed, the man with glasses and the middle-aged man followed him inside.

The three of them stopped in front of Gu Qing.

About three meters away.

"Kid, where’s the PhD student?"

The man in the tank top said, his tone icy as he sized up Gu Qing.

Gu Qing remained calm. "He climbed out the window and ran."

"Heh. You think I’d believe that?"

The man in the tank top sneered. "If he could escape through the window, why didn’t you go with him? Why stay here and wait for us?"

Gu Qing’s expression was placid. "Because you’re no threat to me."

"Alright, that’s some serious arrogance."

As he spoke, the tank-top-wearing man’s eyes narrowed. His muscles began to swell, and thick, gray-black fur sprouted from his skin. He instantly looked much more formidable.

He twisted his neck and cracked his knuckles with a sharp KAKA sound, then grinned at Gu Qing.

"Kid, I know you can fight. You took down one of our brothers last time."

"But..."

"I’m nothing like that last piece of trash!"

The moment he finished speaking, the man in the tank top lunged forward. In a flash, he was on Gu Qing, swinging a heavy fist at the handsome face that made other men burn with envy.

But he had barely thrown the punch when Gu Qing’s foot had already landed on his stomach.

"THUMP!"

A dull thud rang out.

One moment, the man in the tank top was throwing his punch; the next, he was sent flying backward, slamming hard against the wall behind him. A large, shocking spiderweb of cracks spread across the wall, and he went silent on the spot.

This sudden turn of events left the man with glasses and the middle-aged man stunned.

But it only lasted for a moment.

Their professional instincts as top-tier Assassins quickly kicked in, snapping them out of their stupor. They both drew their guns, aimed at Gu Qing’s head, and pulled their triggers.

"BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG..."

The two of them opened fire relentlessly, showing no intention of leaving him alive.

Thanks to Lightning Reflexes,

Gu Qing could clearly track the trajectory of every bullet.

He could have easily sidestepped them.

But... there was no need.

Gu Qing chose to stand perfectly still and take the dozen or so high-speed bullets head-on.

In just an instant,

over a dozen bullets, each carrying immense kinetic energy, rained down upon his handsome face.

However,

the bloody scene the man with glasses and the middle-aged man had expected never occurred.

Gu Qing’s head wasn’t turned into a bloody pulp.

The bullets struck his face as if hitting an indestructible steel wall and were all deflected.

"CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG..."

The piercing sound of metal on metal rang out again and again as the warheads ricocheted, scattering through the air before clattering crisply onto the floor.

The man with glasses and the middle-aged man were completely dumbfounded, their faces etched with disbelief. They stood frozen to the spot.

’Incredibly fast!’

’Superhumanly strong!’

’Tough enough to take handgun bullets head-on!’

The man with glasses realized something. His eyes filled with terror as he stammered:

"You... you’re an Awakened from the Night Court, sent to protect the PhD student?!"

...