NOVEL NEXT Chapter 196 - 193: A Person Died
Chapter 196: Chapter 193: A Person Died
“`
Legoff pulled the trigger, and the bullet whistled out of the chamber, hitting the drone midair with precision. The setting sun sank below the horizon, and a splendid shower of sparks scattered like a fountain.
The drone was instantly knocked out of the sky and then plummeted to the ground.
The sound of the gunshot erupted like thunder, causing Étienne’s heart to almost stop, leaving him dazed and frightened to his very bones.
“Étienne! Get down!”
Bi Fang’s roar mixed with the sound of gunfire, thick with murderous intent. He instantly tackled Étienne to the ground and then crawled to pull him behind a mound of earth, his eyes fixed on the direction from which the gunshots had come.
Dozens of meters away, Legoff raised the barrel of his gun and blew away the gunpowder smoke: “Done?”
Johnny watched the new cellphone anxiously, and upon seeing the livestream black out, he rejoiced, “Done, he stopped the livestream. Move in now, bring all the Geese back!”
“Next time you deliver the Goods, you know what to do, right? Firing at a drone in front of a live broadcast is too dangerous,” a companion joked on the side.
“Yeah, if we get filmed, we’re finished.”
“The risk is too great.”
The other two chimed in agreement.
Johnny nodded, “Of course, we’ll do everything as we’ve negotiated.”
Legoff spoke lightly, “Add ten percent.”
Johnny was stunned, then furious, “You can’t do this. Without my supply, where would you get a stable source of Goods over these years? Don’t you know how severe the crackdown on poaching in Europe is now? Ten percent is impossible! Not even one percent!”
“Then catch them yourself,” Reilof suggested nonchalantly as he wiped the gun barrel. “I’ve seen his livestream; he’s not bad in a fight. You can try to handle him on your own.”
Veins popped on Johnny’s forehead, and he shot up, suddenly grabbing Legoff’s collar, but with just a look, Legoff made Johnny feel like he had fallen into an ice cave, with goosebumps rising instinctively all over his body. He abruptly realized the gap between their statuses.
The other man was a poacher who licked blood off the blade, whereas he was just an ordinary park director.
Legoff brushed off Johnny’s hand and patted his collar lightly, “If blood tests find a problem, you’re the one who will lose the job. If that happens, forget about the cut; you might even end up in big jail. Even without a park director, we can collaborate with someone else. There will always be a continuous stream of ‘unqualified’ animals supplied to us. This is your only chance, so think it over.”
Johnny’s eyes were bloodshot as he contemplated for a long while, “Add five percent more. Any more is no good for anyone. Do you think there’s no risk in finding new contacts?”
“Deal!”
Legoff stopped wiping and smiled slightly.
Suppressing his fury, Johnny crouched back into the bushes, watching as Legoff’s companions emerged from the undergrowth, unaware that Bi Fang was watching everything unfold before him.
In the first-person night vision mode, Bi Fang saw Johnny’s figure, a face he would never forget in his lifetime.
“Johnny!”
Bi Fang lowered his voice, coming across like a tiger grinding its teeth for blood.
Étienne remained silent as a cicada in winter, his half month of wilderness survival making him extremely sensitive to the changes in the environment. He acutely sensed a special aura rising off Bi Fang.
This indescribable terrifying demeanor was somewhat similar to his mother’s after a failed test, but it wasn’t comparable to her level at all. If he had to make a comparison, it was like the lynx he had encountered.
No! Even more terrifying!
It wasn’t like a human at all but some… monster that devoured humans.
The muscles on the side of Bi Fang’s face tensed involuntarily, revealing a sharpness akin to a blade.
He wasn’t afraid… he was enraged!
“`
These days, he’d had the same dream several times, dreaming of a world ablaze, an airplane under a cliff exploding in the raging flames, Étienne burning fiercely. He reached out to touch him, but Étienne turned into red gravel falling away, his fingertips grasping nothing but air.
When he woke, his head was drenched in sweat while his heart was ice-cold, and he even felt regret for having given in to Étienne’s request.
The weak Bi Fang from his past life had come back to haunt him, as he recalled the real sensation of death from his previous life, sealing that memory deep within his mind after awakening. Bi Fang was not unafraid, he had simply never revisited those memories.
Now, he recalled again that sense of utter powerlessness when everything turned to nothing, and the cold, disappointed, and even mocking look in the poacher’s eyes just before his own death…
“Thought we’d hit the jackpot today, but it turns out it’s a human who’s died.”
Damn it!
Bi Fang wrapped himself up as solid as iron, yet his heart was as fragile as shattered pottery.
He must resolve this issue to stop having that nightmare, to keep his thoughts from lingering on the moment of his death!
If he didn’t restrain himself, he would immediately throw himself at Johnny, choke the annoying Norwegian against the wall and demand to know his true intentions! Why had he fired the gun?
If Johnny couldn’t give a reason, Bi Fang would crush his throat!
Legoff’s associate coughed softly, striding boldly out of the bushes, aware that the other man had no gun, nor any means of long-range attack.
“Don’t be nervous, I’m not a bad guy…”
The shadowy figure shouted as he approached, his words muffled, intelligible yet with an unidentifiable accent.
It was a middle-aged man.
In the light of the fire, the viewers could see the man was clad in a dark green windbreaker over dark jeans, around five feet seven in height, with rough, yellowish skin and hair cut so short that only stubble showed, appearing to be in his thirties or forties.
That’s right!
Just when Johnny and the others thought the live stream had ended, the drone rose again, its pitch-black shell blending perfectly into the night, silent and ghost-like, perching on a tree, like an observer coldly capturing everything.
The bulletproof drone supplied by the System was by no means damaged by a single gunshot; the screen going black was entirely within Bi Fang’s control, who resumed the broadcast only after seeing Johnny put away his phone.
All the viewers were startled by the gunshot, and the short period of a black screen had them on edge, as for many, it was the first time they encountered a real gunshot in real life!
“Huaxia people, don’t be nervous, I came out here hunting, just thought it was some bird, turned out I was wrong. I recognize you, you’re the guy from the news about migrating geese, right? I’m so sorry, did I damage your live stream equipment? If I did, just name the price, I’ll compensate!”
The man came over with a smile, making clear his intentions.
Upon hearing this, the viewers breathed a sigh of relief; they knew that in many parts of the world, it was legal to hunt with guns, and mistaking a drone for a bird at dusk wasn’t impossible, though it spoke volumes about his poor shooting skills since the drone was unharmed.
Bi Fang pressed Étienne’s head down forcefully, making him crouch low behind the mound of earth, and whispered urgently not to come out, then casually asked.
“Where did you come from?”
“Just outside the woods.”
As the man got closer, just when he was about to see Étienne and Bi Fang behind the mound, Bi Fang suddenly asked.
“Why isn’t Johnny coming out?”
“What?”
The man was taken aback, but in that moment of distraction, a gust of wind rushed at him, and his face turned pale instantly, his right hand quickly moving toward his waist.
But Bi Fang was faster; as he pounced, his figure blurred, the result of an unbelievably rapid burst of speed. Though he had been at the bottom of the slope, he dove like an eagle swooping from the sky!