Night was the gentlest camouflage the silicon desert had to offer.
The howling wind and sand replaced the daytime heat, emitting a wailing shriek that blurred every contour.
Inside a hidden outpost five kilometers from the abandoned military base, Harvey, a Kunlun Corp soldier, yawned. He tossed a cigarette butt to the ground and crushed it with the tip of his boot.
"Damn it, the Boss is being too careful, making us eat sand in this hellhole," he grumbled to the companion beside him.
Suddenly, an extreme chill erupted from his neck without warning.
It wasn't the cold of the wind.
It was a primitive shudder—the instinctual realization of a life being instantly locked on by a natural predator.
He didn't even have time to turn his head. He couldn't make a sound.
His neck went cold.
Warm liquid sprayed out. A gurgling "ge-ge" sound came from his throat. His vision spun violently in an instant, finally fixing on the bewildered face of his companion.
His companion looked at him with confusion, not understanding why he had suddenly clutched his throat.
"Harvey, you—"
Before the words could leave his mouth, he saw Harvey’s body slump down. In the spot where Harvey had just been standing, the shadow cast by the rocks seemed to... twitch unnaturally.
It was as if something had flashed through the darkness.
A surge of cold air shot from his tailbone straight to his skull!
He lunged for the rifle beside him, frantically spraying bullets at the empty shadow!
"Enemy attack! En—"
His scream cut off abruptly.
The tip of a dagger, shimmering with a cold light, silently pierced through his back and out his chest.
He looked down, staring in disbelief at the icy point of death protruding from his heart. Life drained away rapidly with the gushing blood.
In the shadows, Kane’s figure slowly emerged.
He didn't even look at the two corpses on the ground. He picked up one of their communicators.
Pressing the transmit button, he didn't speak. He simply held the device up to the wind, letting it broadcast a few blurry, static "sha-sha" sounds before decisively cutting the connection.
With that finished, his figure merged back into the shadows and vanished.
Inside the Kunlun Corp temporary command channel:
"Calling Outpost C3, come in."
"...Static... Buzz..."
"C3, is the signal bad? Repeat, come in!"
In the channel, there was only the sound of the wind.
The communications officer frowned. "Might be sandstorm interference. Signal attenuation. Notify the tech team to check the lines."
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He didn't think much of it.
However, five minutes later.
"Report! Vital signs monitor for Outpost E2 has disconnected!"
"What?"
"Cause unknown. It looks like a sudden equipment short circuit."
Another ten minutes passed.
"Damn it! Lost contact with Outpost N5! The last transmitted frame looked like... like an attack by a mutant Sand-Scorpion!"
The atmosphere inside the command channel began to turn eerie.
A commander finally realized something was wrong. He stood up abruptly and roared into the communicator.
"All units! All units report status immediately! Starting from A1!"
"A1, status normal."
"A2, status normal."
"B1, status normal."
...
The reports continued in sequence through the channel.
However, when it came time for Outposts C3, E2, and N5, the only response was a heavy, dead silence.
That silence felt like three massive tombstones weighing down on everyone’s hearts.
Panic, like a virus, began to spread wordlessly through the communication channel.
"It’s... it’s him. He’s here..."
"The 'Ghost'... he’s already inside!"
That name was like a curse from the abyss, haunting the ears of every soldier.
Panic was more effective at shattering a unit's will than the most violent sandstorm.
"Everyone shut the hell up!"
The commander's roar exploded in the channel, but it couldn't suppress the chill growing in everyone's souls.
"All units, stay on high alert! Sniper teams, activate thermal imaging. Watch every inch of sand in your sectors! If even a rat crawls past, I want it blown to pieces!"
The order was given.
A sniper stationed at the base's highest point, codenamed "Hawkeye," immediately pressed his eye to the scope.
He was a professional sniper trained by Kunlun Corp; his hands were as steady as bedrock.
Through the thermal vision, the entire world turned into a map of color blocks defined by different heat signatures.
Suddenly.
Hawkeye’s pupils constricted slightly.
At the edge of his field of vision, a blurry humanoid silhouette emitting faint heat flashed behind a rock!
The speed was staggering.
"Target spotted! Coordinates 7 o’clock, distance 1200 meters! Moving toward Sector D4!"
He reported calmly, his finger already resting on the trigger.
However, when he moved the crosshairs back to that position, the figure had vanished without a trace.
It was as if everything just now had been an illusion.
But Hawkeye trusted his judgment.
He stared fixedly at that area, slowing his breathing.
He knew the "Ghost" had to be nearby.
Kane was indeed nearby.
His exposure just now had been intentional.
He needed a coordinate—an absolutely precise coordinate.
And the best coordinate was a bullet fired by the enemy!
In the night sky, a streak of fire suddenly tore through the darkness!
The roar of the sniper rifle followed a split second later.
A specialized armor-piercing round, carrying the shriek of shredded air, slammed accurately into the sand dune where Kane had been hiding!
However, the bullet hit nothing but a dissipating afterimage.
At 0.1 seconds before the shot—the very instant the sniper locked onto him and his killing intent flared.
Kane activated [ Earth Flash ]!
Voom!
His figure vanished from the spot, instantly appearing ten meters away.
In the sniper's scope, the target had evaporated into thin air.
"Missed! Target has vanished!"
"Hawkeye" cursed under his breath, immediately shifting his muzzle and frantically searching the surrounding area.
He didn't notice.
A shadow, almost perfectly fused with the darkness, was using the thunderous roar of his own gunfire as cover. At an incredible speed, it was closing in silently from his defensive blind spot.
Hawkeye remained fully concentrated on his search.
He even dialed his scope to maximum magnification, trying to pick out even the slightest trace from the sand.
Suddenly, he felt an extreme chill coming from behind him.
That chill made every hair on his body stand on end!
He whipped around.
In the expensive, polished-clean surface of his lens, a face was clearly reflected.
A face shrouded in the shadow of a hood, its features indistinct, save for a pair of eyes—cold, indifferent, and devoid of any emotion.
Those eyes were quietly staring back at him through the glass.
Hawkeye's brain completely stalled at that moment.
His final thought was: When... when did he...
Puchi.
The sound of the dagger entering flesh was so faint it was almost negligible.
Kane finished off the sniper but didn't leave immediately.
He glanced at the finely crafted heavy sniper rifle on the ground, his expression remaining flat.
He leaned down. He didn't destroy the expensive killing machine.
Instead, he gripped the chassis and slowly swiveled the muzzle in a new direction.
He aimed it at another sniper nest on a different ridge.
Then, using the sniper's still-warm finger, he pulled the trigger.
Bang!
The gunshot tore through the dead silence of the night once more.
Inside the command channel, chaos erupted instantly.
"Sniper Point F2 is under attack! It’s Hawkeye! Hawkeye fired the shot!"
"Hawkeye defected?!"
"No! Hawkeye’s vitals have flatlined!"
Suspicion, confusion, and terror fully detonated.
This inevitable dragnet, so meticulously woven by Kunlun Corp, had begun to collapse from within before the prey had even officially stepped inside.
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