Chapter 124: Charging In

Bang!

After leaping onto the rooftop of the building to the left of the police station, Li Wensheng raised his pistol and fired a single shot at the large hole in the fourth-floor wall of the station.

A man who had just reached the opening was struck in the center of his forehead; his body pitched forward and he plummeted to the ground.

Bang! Bang!

The man had fallen, but more figures appeared at the opening. Li Wensheng continued to sprint while firing rapidly. Within a few breaths, he had emptied his magazine. Over a dozen men had tumbled from the hole, yet they continued to emerge in an endless stream.

By now, Li Wensheng was nearing the edge of the rooftop. Facing a barrage of bullets, he did not even flinch. He tossed his pistol aside, braced a bamboo pole against the low wall at the edge of the roof, and vaulted forward with all his might.

Clang! Clang!

Two bullets struck Li Wensheng, but they produced the sound of metal hitting metal.

"A bulletproof vest?"

On the street in front of the police station, the onlookers were stunned for a moment before someone voiced the question.

"No, a bulletproof vest wouldn't absorb the kinetic energy like that. He didn't even sway. It must be a steel plate, and a thick one at that. Only a thick steel plate at such close range could stop the bullets and disperse the impact across the surface."

"Impossible, impossible! If it were a thick steel plate, it would weigh at least several pounds. Carrying ten or more pounds of iron, he couldn't possibly be this agile."

"No, it has to be a steel plate, otherwise he wouldn't be completely fine."

While they argued, Li Wensheng, aided by the bamboo pole, had already vaulted through the large hole and into the police station.

The area blasted open was an office. Inside the chaotic room stood over twenty men, led by Hasegawa of the Iwai Mansion. As Li Wensheng flew in, Hasegawa fired at him and shouted, "Aim for the head!"

Having leaned against the wall near the opening, he had seen the two bullets strike Li Wensheng to no effect and realized he was wearing steel plating.

Bang, bang, bang! Countless bullets pursued Li Wensheng.

But it was useless. Li Wensheng had vaulted quite far, almost reaching the opposite wall. Upon landing, he immediately rolled forward to shed the momentum. He was now against the wall, with the office door to his left.

With a powerful kick of his legs, he slammed into the door before the bullets could catch him. The office door was closed, but in this era, internal doors were made of thin wood. With a forceful impact, Li Wensheng shattered the door and disappeared from the room.

"After him!" Hasegawa bellowed. The men rushed toward the door.

But they had only taken two steps when a grenade was tossed inside. Under their terrified gazes, a thunderous explosion rocked the room, killing or wounding half of them.

As the survivors stood dazed and dizzy from the blast, Li Wensheng strode through the doorway, holding a pistol in each hand.

Bang, bang, bang!

The sound of gunfire drowned out the agonizing wails of the wounded. In the blink of an eye, two magazines were empty. Just as Li Wensheng prepared to swap his weapons via his system space, a sharp whistling sound cut through the air.

Li Wensheng instantly released his hold on the pistols and turned to meet the high whip-kick with a punch.

Bang!

Fist collided with leg, and with a sickening crack, Hasegawa, who had delivered the kick, collapsed instantly.

"Ah!"

With a scream of agony, Hasegawa writhed on the floor. Then, a single gunshot rang out, and a bullet pierced Hasegawa’s forehead. As he died, his eyes were filled with pure terror.

The terror in his eyes came from seeing Li Wensheng, who appeared like a god, conjuring two new pistols out of thin air.

After finishing off Hasegawa, Li Wensheng dove behind a desk. Bang, bang! Two bullets whizzed past the spot he had just vacated. Before he could rise, a steady stream of gunfire hammered the wall behind the desk.

Lying on the floor for a few seconds, he realized the firing was relentless; two men were suppressing him in turns, reloading as soon as one emptied their clip.

Li Wensheng thought for a moment, then rolled onto his back, his head toward the wall and his feet against the wooden panel of the desk. Raising his upper body slightly, he fired rapidly, tracing a large circle on the wooden board.

Bang! He kicked the circular piece of wood, sending it flying.

The bullets passing through the hole in the board alerted the two men to the fact that they could shoot through the lower section. Just as the wood flew out, the two men had crouched on either side of the board to fire, but Li Wensheng was faster. Before the wooden piece even hit the ground, he saw them and, acting on pure instinct, fired instantly.

Bang, bang!

Having dispatched the pair, Li Wensheng stood up.

Bang, bang, bang!

He finished off the three men who were still struggling to survive the grenade blast. Scanning the room and seeing no one left alive, he pulled two magazines from his pockets.

He reloaded and adjusted his slightly crooked raincoat hood. To prevent it from falling off again, he untied the strings under his chin, retied them tightly, and then walked out of the office.

The entire fourth floor—indeed, the entire police station—was now deathly silent, as if it were completely deserted. However, Li Wensheng was certain that Malone was still in the building.

After the young beggar delivered the message yesterday, he had staked out Malone's home. Shortly after eight this morning, Malone had rushed out of his house in a panic. He knew the "Lone Ranger" was coming to kidnap him and had tried to hide. But as soon as he stepped out, a group of men had seized him.

Li Wensheng tracked them and saw them drag Malone into the police station, forcing everyone else to leave.

At that moment, Li Wensheng knew the Japanese had made a deal with the Municipal Council. The terms were obvious: the Japanese would not deploy troops, and the Council would abandon Malone, lending them the police station as bait.

To fish, one must put the bait on the hook. Malone was surely inside, surrounded by a large number of Japanese soldiers.

Li Wensheng stepped out of the office, his footsteps light, and pressed his ear against the door of the room across the hall. After listening for a few seconds and hearing nothing, he moved to the left.

With his heightened hearing, he could detect even the faintest breath inside a room. If there was no sound, there was no one there.

He checked the next room, then the next. Soon, he had cleared the entire fourth floor. Finding no one, he headed for the fifth floor.

Less than ten minutes later, he came back down from the fifth floor and headed toward the third.

Just as he reached the third-floor corridor, Li Wensheng immediately spun around and dove behind the wall near the staircase.

Bang, bang, bang!

Countless bullets raked the corner, sending debris flying in all directions.

"They really think highly of me. That sounds like a whole platoon," Li Wensheng muttered to himself. The moment he had stepped out, his intuition had screamed danger, and his peripheral vision had caught the corridor to the right swarming with men.

Listening to the unrelenting gunfire, Li Wensheng looked toward the left corridor and offered a disdainful smile. "Heh, I guess they aren't ruthless enough. If they had stationed men on the left as well, they would have killed plenty of their own, but I certainly wouldn't have had it easy either."

With that, he stowed his pistols in the system space and pulled out two American-style grenades.

He gripped both grenades in one hand, pulled the pins, and tossed them to the right. This time, his luck held; no bullets struck his arm as he threw.

After the thunderous explosion, Li Wensheng pulled out his "Chicago Typewriter" (Thompson submachine gun) and strode out.

With over fifty men bunched together, the two grenades had killed or wounded half of them. The others, dazed by the shockwave, had no capacity to retaliate.

Da-da-da-da...

The sound of the submachine gun rang out for over ten seconds before stopping.

Li Wensheng scanned the sea of corpses, stepped over them, and walked toward the first room on the right. He pressed his ear to the door, heard nothing, and moved on to the next.

Soon, having found nothing, Li Wensheng headed down toward the second floor.