From Abyssal Invasion to Bursting Stars with a Single Sword-Chapter 276 - 225: Emergency Response Team

Over the following days, Lu Heng spent most of his time training in swordsmanship on the training grounds.

During this period, he received a mission from the Southern War Zone to clear a mist, leading his team to participate and resolve the crisis.

Another medal was added to their collection.

Su Muyu and Lin Zeyu also received first-class group medals and second-class individual medals.

After reaching Level 29 in Source Energy, Lu Heng's Agility Attribute reached 85.9. Following the mist operation and days of training, all his attributes saw a slight increase.

After executing Thrust with the Sound Explosion Sword, he received a notification of increased attributes.

The Agility Attribute increased by 0.1, breaking through to an even 86 points.

With his Agility reaching 86, under the Windwalker Skill's charged thrust, Lu Heng's speed could break through to 276 meters per second.

This speed still wasn't supersonic.

However, adding the speed of swinging his sword was enough.

Now, during the Windwalker's charged thrust phase, when Lu Heng chopped with his sword, the blade would instantly break the sound barrier, forming a Sonic Boom Cloud at the tip of the sword.

Every time he broke the sound barrier, the blade would vibrate intensely due to the sonic boom.

If his Strength attribute hadn't been sufficient, the vibration from the sonic boom could have even flung the sword out of his hand.

While training in swordsmanship, Lu Heng was also practicing how to control the recoil of the Sound Explosion Sword to prevent the blade's vibrations from affecting the precision of his strikes.

As his speed approached the speed of sound, the rate at which his shoes wore out was also astonishing.

In fact.

When training, Lu Heng would release Source Energy to coat his soles and the bottom of his shoes, specifically to prevent them from instantly wearing out during supersonic runs.

This was basic practice for a Power User; otherwise, with Blue Star's current commercial products, no footwear could withstand the intense training and combat of Power Users.

Even with the Source Energy offsetting the reactive forces while running, the shoes still wore out quickly.

Seeing his new shoes split open after just two days, Lu Heng began considering acquiring shin guards for his next venture into the Abyss Battlefield.

...

As the eleventh month of the Abyss Descent commenced.

With the mist continuously expanding on Blue Star, human living space was increasingly constricted.

Some smaller countries were already unable to stop the encroachment of the mist, lacking sufficient strength to disperse it, and had to seek help from international mercenary organizations.

It was also in recent months that the development of international mercenary organizations accelerated significantly.

In peacetime, many countries would not need mercenary organizations to enter their territories.

After all, these were armed forces with heavy firepower and no country wanted to allow such groups in when there was no need to hire mercenaries to defend against Demons.

As the invasion from the Abyss intensified, with many countries under threat from all sides, they had no choice but to hire mercenaries to handle the mist crisis.

Thus, the top ten mercenary organizations in the world had already obtained armed transit rights from many countries.

Only Da Xia, the White Eagle Federation, and the Lion Heart Empire, strong military nations, still prohibited armed mercenaries from entering their territories.

Of course, these countries had their own mercenary organizations, hence only foreign mercenaries were barred from entry.

The domestic mercenaries in Da Xia had to undergo rigorous scrutiny to ensure they did not pose a threat to the nation or its people before being granted a mercenary license.

Licensed mercenary organizations could legally employ highly powerful firearms.

Of course, there were strict regulations concerning the circumstances in which these were used.

This was also part of the rules associated with issuing mercenary licenses; domestic mercenary organizations must abide by them, and any violations could lead to revocation of their licenses.

International mercenary organizations were different.

Particularly when some smaller countries hired international mercenaries to handle the mist crisis, those mercenaries, once inside the country, were beyond anyone's control.

Occurrences of arson, murder, and looting could even happen.

Such news was frequently reported, but nobody could manage it.

The cruelty of this era was vividly demonstrated in regions incapable of self-defense.

Only nations with complete sovereignty and self-defense capabilities were still able to maintain relatively intact social orders.

In this era, Da Xia's order was among the best in the world, but even so, some strange species still wanted to escape to their imagined beacons of hope.

Although Da Xia's order had not collapsed, in this era, severe crimes still occurred frequently.

Robberies, theft, and clashes between Power Users.

Especially after the influx of Superpower Potions into the market, the occurrences of these crimes escalated.

Even though Da Xia's government had banned the trade and concealment of Superpower Potions, with offenders facing long prison sentences, completely preventing drug abuse was impossible even in peaceful times, let alone in the Abyss Era.

Thus, many Power Users still gained temporary surges in combat power after injecting Superpower Potions, then as their Source Energy levels plummeted, they began desperate robberies to fund their next potion purchase.

Even some underground organizations gathered these Superpower Potion-controlled Power Users to perform large-scale criminal activities.

Even several severe bank robberies occurred.

For this reason, Iron Blood had been busy handling these cases.

Chen Linian had been so occupied that he could only sleep for three to four hours a day.

Iron Blood really couldn't handle it anymore, so they set up an emergency response team and sought the help of Superpower Users.

...

That evening,

Lu Heng had just finished training and was about to head home when his phone suddenly rang.

He picked it up and saw that the Iron Blood emergency response team had posted an urgent rescue mission.

A large-scale robbery had broken out on Coastal Zhongzheng Street, where a group of masked Superpower Users stormed the street, robbing shops along the way.

All high-value stores were attacked — Crystal Cores, auction houses, jewelry, mobile phones, etc., none were spared.

Moreover, the robbery was still ongoing.

The emergency response team also sent out a video in the group chat. Upon opening it, a mob of masked robbers could be seen rampaging down the street, using weapons to smash store windows and making off with all valuables.

Lu Heng opened up a digital map and checked the location of the incident, which was not far from him — less than five kilometers away.

It would take only about a minute to get there.

However, as his gaze swept across the map, Lu Heng noticed that next to the street where the robbery took place was another street with a bank symbol. Zooming in, he saw it was indeed the Coastal branch of the Commercial Bank.

With a large-scale robbery occurring in the neighboring block, why was the street with the bank so quiet?

Lu Heng activated his Windwalker Skill and ran towards Zhongzheng Street, while dialing Chen Linian's number, but switched to sending a voice message upon realizing the call was ongoing.

Due to the high speed of his sprint, the voice message contained a whooshing sound: "Inspector Chen, just a heads-up, the Commercial Bank's Coastal branch is right next to Zhongzheng Street."

After sending the message, Lu Heng put on his headset communicator and asked in the team channel, "Zhongzheng Street, is anyone heading there?"

Lin Zeyu was the first to reply, "I'm over at Flame Emblem; it's a bit far. Should I head over?"

"It's just a robbery; by the time you get here, it will all be over," Lu Heng did not ask him to come.

Such emergencies, especially robberies, happen quickly, but with high combat power Superpower Users from the emergency response team arriving quickly, it can usually be resolved in a few minutes at most.

Then, Su Muyu's voice came through, "I'll go. The Chongming Bird is almost here; I can provide aerial support."

Chongming Bird has a skill called "Flowing Light Shuttle."

This skill allows the Chongming Bird, when unburdened, to transform into a beam of light and fly at speeds of 10× spiritual power (meters/second).

Having reached level 28 during the Abyss Battlefield mission with the Bansel Clan in Fusang, Su Muyu's spiritual attribute was at 69 points.

Meaning, the Chongming Bird, in Flowing Light Shuttle mode, could reach speeds of 690 meters per second.

A 10-kilometer distance could be covered in just 14 seconds.

Shortly after Su Muyu finished speaking, she began providing aerial reconnaissance: "In the middle section of Zhongzheng Street, some robbers are using firearms to drive away civilians; I'll deal with a few first."

She had the Chongming Bird dive down and shred a few robbers but refrained from using the Solar Wind skill.

The range of Solar Wind was too vast.

Unleashing that skill would turn half of Zhongzheng Street into ashes.

By then, who knows how many innocents would perish.

Thus, Su Muyu could only have the Chongming Bird rake with its claws, scratching one after another, making the attack somewhat slow.

At this moment.

Lu Heng timely arrived to join the battle.

A group of crazed Superpower Users, seeing a master on scene, immediately opened fire indiscriminately, not caring whether they'd hit civilians or not.

As Lu Heng charged forward and saw bullets firing towards him, he glanced back and noticed a large crowd of civilians screaming in terror and running for their lives.

This spray of bullets could kill who knows how many people.

Lu Heng's expression darkened, and he immediately activated his Bullet Time ability, causing everything around him, including the bullets, to slow down.

Lu Heng drew out his Aurora Blade and started parrying bullets, knocking all of them off course as he charged towards the shooter, cutting him in half with a single sword strike.

"Prism Force Field!"

Seeing other crazed Superpower Users still firing at civilians, Lu Heng quickly commanded.

"Okay."

The Chongming Bird swooped down, setting up a Prism Force Field right in the middle of the street, blocking all the gunfire.

Lu Heng unleashed his upgraded "Divine Embodiment" Skill, splitting his form in two, and dashed into the alleys on both sides to stop the rampant robbers.

In one alley, after slicing down one robber, the leading masked robber turned around, saw Lu Heng, and cried out in sheer terror, but it was in bird language.

Lu Heng frowned and used his sword to remove the mask from his face, revealing a black man whose skin was as dark as the bottom of a pot.

Indeed, there were some black people in Coastal, even some who had entered the country illegally.

This also made some areas with concentrations of black people particularly poor in security.

It was like this before the Abyss Descent and became even worse after.

Seeing he was black, Lu Heng's anger flared even more; with one swift stroke, he chopped off his head, turned, and continued to pursue the other robbers to quickly end the chaos.

...