“Shit. What is going on? Why did they close the railway? The trains have lined up miles behind us.”
Sitting in the traffic that was barely moving, some passengers complained.
All trains coming from the west had to pass through the train station just outside of the city. Infantry Division 116 had closed the train station and stopped the traffic from moving. Already, a few passenger trains were forced to stop and formed a long line outside of the city.
Seeing the traffic was not going to move any time soon, many passengers got off the crammed train cart to stretch their legs while complaining about the military operation.
“I heard that they are looking for two suspects. One Asian male and the other is a hot Russian blonde. They come from the City of Yakutsk and harmed many officers. I have heard about them when I passed another city on my way here.”
One person put in.
Suddenly, a young woman nudged her husband who was snapping a selfie in front of the soldiers and asked: “Hey love, is that dude in the leather jacket an Asian? He is much better looking than most Asian men I know. Oh.. wait a second… he walked across the cordon.”
The Infantry Division 116 had thrown a cordon around the train station to restrict the movement of passengers.
Chen Fan quickly caught everyone’s attention when he crossed the barrier and sauntered toward the soldiers. The soldiers thought he was an officer of the military at first, but soon Chen Fan’s Asian features aroused their suspension.
“Halt! This area is off-limits. I will shoot if you come any closer.”
A soldier trained his gun at Chen Fan and shouted at him from a distance.
Chen Fan didn’t heed the warning and continued forward with his hands linked behind his back. His upright body silhouetted against the white snow on the ground. Right in front of him was tens of thousands of fully armed soldiers.
“Bang!”
Seeing Chen Fan didn’t heed the warning, a soldier fired at him.
He didn’t mean to kill Chen Fan, so he aimed at Chen Fan’s feet. However, to everyone’s surprise, the bullet hit an azure energy shield and bounced off without even touching Chen Fan.
“Holy moi boch!”
The soldier dropped his gun and gaped at Chen Fan in disbelief.
The other passengers were also shocked by the development. The young woman who spotted Chen Fan covered her mouth to stifle a gasp. Her husband worked at a Russian branch office of Global Mail, so snapping photos was right up his alley. He turned around and pointed his camera at Chen Fan.
Chen Fan didn’t much mind the passenger’s attention as he pressed onward.
“Sssth-Wack!”
A golden fire burst out from Chen Fan’s body and burnt away the leather jacket, revealing a black flowy outfit. The hat on his head was also reduced to ashes, unleashing a cascade of dark silky hair that tumbled down to Chen Fan’s shoulder.
Surrounded by a ball of golden flame, Chen Fan looked like the Greek God of the Sun, Apollo.
His foot left a golden mark on the ground with each step he took, making a burning trail of footprints behind him as he made his way toward the Infantry Division 116.
“Bang”
The gunshot wrenched the other soldiers’ minds from their stupor. They looked around and asked each other: “What happened? Why was there a gunshot?”
“Did they find the suspect? Let’s go get him!”
“Humph! Are you sure it’s necessary to mobilize an entire infantry division for two criminals? Don’t you think the police force would be enough? Hold on… what the hell is that?”
A veteran soldier was suddenly lost for words as he locked his eyes on Chen Fan in the distance.
Under tens of thousands of pairs of eyes, Chen Fan walked toward the Infantry Division 116 while surrounded by golden flames. The scene looked like a painting of the arrival of the Messiah.
“Holy shit! Is that an angel? But… but why is he Asian?”
Even as the soldiers were stunned by Chen Fan’s dramatic entrance, they heard their officer’s angry voice shouting at them through the intercom. “You Idiots! That’s the guy were are looking for. Kill him before he gets close.”
The officer’s orders jerked the soldier’s minds from their admiration.
The entire Infantry Division 116 was on the move all of a sudden. Soldiers trained their guns at Chen Fan as gunners and missile units primed their deadly weapons. A few dozen armored vehicles parked inside the city also revved up their engines and marched onward.
“Should we open fire? We might be offending a messenger of God.”
Some religious soldiers hesitated.
“Messenger my ass! He is a murder, a suspect, kill him. NOW!”
After the officers showered the soldiers with firm commands mixed with curses, the Infantry Division 116 finally opened fire.
“Bang, bang, bang!”
The group of soldiers that stood closest to Chen Fan fired their machine guns. Chen Fan was still three kilometers away from the center of the army formation, therefore most people were shooting without aiming. However, the sheer amount of bullets turned the attack into a heavy downpour of steel that could kill any living being within its range.
However, to everyone’s surprise, the bullets evaporated into thin air a few meters before they even reached Chen Fan. Worse, the attack didn’t even slow Chen Fan down.
“This is… Impossible!”
The soldiers and many passengers gaped at the development in shock. The journalist from the Global Mail held back his surprise and snapped as many photos as he could industriously.
He murmured to himself as he did so: “This is going to be breaking news! This is Pulitzer material!”
Natasha clenched her fist nervously as she fixed her gaze on Chen Fan.
Three kilometers.
2.9 kilometers
2.8 kilometers…
Chen Fan was getting closer to the soldiers by the second.
“Where is our field cannon? Fire the cannon I said! He is moving so slowly. Are you all stupid? Where are my armored tanks and rocket launchers? Where are the snipers?”
General Major Gromov, leader of the Infantry Division 116 berated the soldiers through the intercom.
He watched as Chen Fan inched closer to his division despite the dark shower of bullets. His heart skipped a beat when he recognized the man’s face. It was the same face that had tormented the minds of the leaders of the North Division for three months.
“But, didn’t he die after we used the Father of All Bombs on him?”
Gromov exclaimed in his mind.
Meanwhile, the Russian soldiers finally started to use heavy weaponry on Chen Fan. A few hundred armored vehicles had formed a moving circle around Chen Fan and trained their artillery cannons on the young man. Behind the rank of soldiers, a few rocket launchers had fired.
“Shu! Shu! Shu!”
A dozen or so Katyusha rockets rained onto an area of a few hundred-meter radius, causing countless explosions and filled the air with smoke, dust, and fire. Such a dense firing of Katyusha would kill an entire Battalion of soldiers.
Before the Russians could cheer for their victory, they saw a wash of golden light penetrate the dense black smoke.
Chen Fan was still surrounded by a golden glow that protected him from the deadly explosion.
“Not even Katyusha can harm him.”
Seeing the terrifying development, the Russian soldiers could only gape.
Meanwhile, the armored vehicles fired at him.
“Bang”
The sound of firing cannons sounded like countless hammers striking an anvil. The shells traced a deadly arc in the air that looked like the curve of the sickle of the Grim Reaper. Countless field artillery and armored vehicles fired at once, pouring deadly steel onto Chen Fan.
“Vroom! Vroom!”
The blaring explosion made the earth trembled and sounded like the sky was falling around everyone’s ears.
The Russians referred to field artillery as the God of War ever since the cold war era. Even when new missiles and rockets dominated and became the focal point of the modern arms race, field artillery were still revered for their deadliness. As one of the most well equipped motorized divisions in Russia, Infantry Division 116 had hundreds of armored vehicles and self-propelled artillery. Although the confined space near the city meant that they could only deploy half of their firepower, when they fired at once, they could deliver a devastating blow to any enemy.
If the Fourteenth Brigade of the Japan Self-Defense Forces were caught in such a deadly bombardment, they would have been already routed.
“Bang! Bang! Bang!”
After firing once, the soldiers quickly loaded the cannon and fired again. They concentrated their firepower along a line located two and a half kilometers away from their front line.
The dead zone was over a few hundred meters long and the ground was already covered by holes and craters.
The first round.
The second.
The third.
In less than a minute, the Russians had unloaded three rounds of concentrated firepower onto Chen Fan. Each shell weighed a few tons and its impact was able to remove a small hill. The barrels of the cannons were red hot after continuous use.
“He must be dead now.”
An old soldier on the ground, hands covering his ears murmured to himself.
The other soldiers fixed their gaze on to the dead zone. They wagered that even the most advanced tanks would have been reduced to a pile of junk if they were caught in the deadly shelling.
Natasha closed her eyes and scarcely dared to look at what had become of Chen Fan.
The rest of the passengers also shook their heads and felt sorry for Chen Fan’s death.
“Sigh… why would he be so stupid as to butt heads against Infantry Division 116? They were well known for their deadly firepower and were called the Iron Wall.”
An old man lamented.
The journalist from the Global Mail finally lowered his camera.
However, what they saw next pulled the rug from under them. They watched in utter disbelief as a man surrounded with golden flames walked out of the billowing smoke. Although he was struck directly by half a dozen artillery shells, he was unharmed.
Chen Fan walked out of the dead zone alive and well!
He had sustained the bombardment of over a hundred field artillery with his body.
“Oh my god!”
People who saw this incredible development were rendered speechless as if they had witnessed a miracle.
