Chapter 4 I Killed Someone

  Some scientist once said: Nerves always react faster than thoughts.

  My brain hadn't even reacted yet, but my instincts had already commanded my fingers to act first. The crossbow bolt flew out and hit the long-faced bandit right in his left eye, with more than half of it still sticking out of his head. Because I fired at close range, the force of the bolt slammed his head into the wall, and the muzzle of the AK in his hand also spat out a tongue of flame. The bullet whizzed past my side, probably because he was holding the gun with one hand, and the AK is a high-recoil weapon, plus I had hit him in the head first, so he didn't manage to hit me.

  As I saw the long-faced bandit's eyes, I threw away my crossbow and rushed towards his big nose. The cavalry knife in my hand stabbed him from below to above, directly into his back. I remembered that when my brother taught me this skill, he said that stabbing from below to above can avoid the ribs and directly enter the lungs, making it a fatal blow and also preventing the victim from making any noise. This is the special forces' method for taking out sentries.

  But the knife did not pierce into the back of Big Nose, perhaps because I was farther away when I shot and killed Long Face, and there was no physical contact, so I didn't have that killing feeling. However, as I got close to Big Nose, the smell of smoke on his body, his body temperature, even the nauseating fox-like odor, all revealed to me that this was a living person. My hand slowed down unconsciously, with Big Nose's back facing me, and Long Face falling down, he hadn't turned around yet, but in my moment of hesitation, he had already turned sideways towards me. Feeling someone attacking him from behind, he swept his right hand holding the gun backwards. My knife did not pierce into his back, instead it pierced through his forearm, and the force of the two bodies colliding together drove the blade tip into his shoulder.

  I saw that he wasn't dead, so I panicked and pinned him against the wall, stabbing my knife into his body with all my might. Blood splattered onto my face, and the gun fell to the ground. Everything went black as Big Nose punched me in the face with his left hand, sending me flying backward into the counter, crushing it. Big Nose tried to pull out the cavalry sword stuck in his hand, but the serrations on the back of the blade were caught in the bone, and he couldn't pull it out. With his left hand, he drew a Jungle King from behind his waist and charged towards me. I also pulled out the three-edged military dagger from my waist, and with my left hand, I drew a Strider-MT Tiger Tooth.

  I'm very familiar with the triangular bayonet, because my uncle is a soldier and we have two 56-style bayonets at home. I've been playing with them since I was young, and my brother also taught me how to use the triangular bayonet for close combat. However, I've never actually fought anyone before. When I fought with Big Nose, it was clear that he had a lot of experience in close combat. Within two or three moves, he had already cut four or five gashes on my body. Fortunately, I dodged quickly and his left-handed knife skills weren't too severe, so the wounds weren't deep. But as we continued to fight, I couldn't find an opportunity to strike back and was getting more and more disheartened.

  However, I found that his right hand was already unable to attack, so I dodged back and forth beside his right hand, thinking that if his right hand's blood flowed out, I could win without a fight. Big Nose seemed to have also figured out my plan, suddenly intensifying the attack, one knife faster than the other, one knife tighter than the other, forcing me to retreat step by step. It wasn't until my back touched something hard that I realized he had forced me into a corner, and I had no way to retreat.

  The big-nosed man sneered: "You little brat, come over here quietly and let me blindfold you."

  There's no way out, I gritted my teeth and charged into his arms. The big nose saw me coming and smiled, but that smile looked so ferocious. His left hand, with the knife flashing like lightning, stabbed towards my heart. Earlier, I had noticed that his left hand was very agile with the knife, but he always aimed for the heart and neck. I was prepared, and as the knife came at me, I used my right hand to block it with a military dagger, while my left hand thrust a sturdy tiger-toothed short knife into his right chest. The tiger-toothed military knife was a vicious weapon that could easily slash open even a helicopter's outer shell. All I heard was a "whoosh" sound as the 16-centimeter blade sank completely into his chest, and blood sprayed out like an exploding water valve, covering my face with hot, sticky liquid that blinded me. Everything before my eyes turned red, and I felt a warmth on my shoulder - I knew he was still alive. By instinct, I stabbed the military dagger into the left side of his heart with my right hand. The heavy resistance in my hand told me that the knife had pierced through, until the pressure eased and the blade quickly passed through. I knew that the 32-centimeter military dagger had directly pierced through his chest, creating a through-and-through wound. His left hand grasped my neck as we both fell to the ground together.

  How is he still so strong, pinching me to the point where I can't breathe, my vision blurring, I pull out the knife in my left hand and stab him again and again, pulling it out and stabbing again, I don't know how many times until the blood on my hands has cooled down, only then do I stop when the feeling of suffocation on my neck is gone. I wipe my eyes, and what enters my line of sight is his chest, which has been stabbed to a pulp, with white ribs exposed, his right chest caved in from being stabbed, all his ribs broken, and his green and red internal organs fully exposed.

  I cracked open the clamped hands and stood up, wiping my face with one hand. A strong salty smell rushed into my nostrils, causing my stomach to contract, and I involuntarily opened my mouth, almost vomiting out everything I had eaten that morning.

  Looking at the corpse in front of me, I had a feeling of killing someone for the first time. It turns out that killing is not difficult, just like piercing a water bag wrapped in cowhide. The fear and cold limbs mentioned in the book were all absent, except for the pungent smell of blood making my stomach uncomfortable, it was just exhaustion from using too much force. Pulling out the knife stuck in my shoulder, it was as if I had pressed the pain switch, and the pain that I didn't feel at all during the fight suddenly rushed to my head. I gritted my teeth and squirmed for half a day.

  "Park Soon, Heo Deok, that guy hasn't come down yet, he's still upstairs. You guys search again, he heard our plan, can't leave any living witnesses."

  "Park Soon, Heo Deok, did you hear? He didn't come down."

  "Park Soon, Heo Deok, did you guys hear that?"

  The voice from the intercom suddenly cured my headache and reminded me that I was still in danger.

  I pulled the knife out of Big Nose's corpse, picked up their guns and backpacks, searched through their stuff, and was just about to grab two sets of clothes from the edge of the bed when the elevator suddenly sprang to life. I grabbed my things and ran, and by the time the elevator door opened with a ding, I had already dashed out into the emergency corridor and was running towards the sixth floor.

  Sitting in a secluded corner on the sixth floor, I took out the fake Jungle King, opened the back cover, and hoped that the counterfeit Jungle King also had medicine. Good luck, it really did, fishing rod, compass and other things I don't need, threw them away. I found band-aids and cleaning solution, cleaned and bandaged the wound, the largest wound was on my shoulder, fortunately, it didn't affect the function of my arm. I took two antibiotic tablets. A fight and blood loss made me feel tired and hungry, luckily I had foreseen this, so I took out food from the supermarket and ate it from my pocket. Just as I was eating, my phone vibrated again, I picked up the phone to answer the call.

  "Hey, you idiot, why didn't you pick up the phone? Where did you and Lao Ding go to die? I heard there was a robbery in the city center, I was just thinking of going to check it out. Don't come back, just go directly!"

  ……

  "Xiao Bai, listen to me. There's been a robbery in the city center, I'm not going there, I'm just staying in this building, Old Ding is probably here too. I just killed two bandits. Now I'm all injured, and you still want to come join the fun? Was it you who called me earlier? That damn phone call almost got me caught! Don't mess with me!"

  "No way, boss! What kind of joke is this!" Xiaobai still thought I was joking.

  "Who's joking with you? There are over a dozen corpses outside the door! I'm covered in knife wounds, am I joking with him?"

  "Why didn't you call the police?!" Xiaobai knew I wasn't joking and realized the severity of the situation, starting to panic. "Call the police? The police are outside surrounding us! The police cars have been bombed! Can't get through! Wait a minute, forget it, I won't tell you! Hang up first! Don't call Old Ding, or he'll be in danger." I suddenly remembered that Old Ding also had a cell phone and could be called. But the ringing was too long, so I tried sending a text message, hoping he had put his phone on vibrate mode.

  I sent a text message to Lao Ding in my girlfriend's tone, asking him where he was and if everything was okay. I didn't dare ask anything else, fearing that someone would discover our connection and bring harm to him again.

  After a while, a call came in. I saw it was Old Ding. When I answered, no one spoke. All I could hear from the earpiece were the cries of the people on the side, the shouts of the thugs and the sound of police sirens. Old Ding is quite clever, he didn't make a sound but still told me about his situation. It seems he's on the first floor.