Chapter 27: Mud Truck Iai

Two cars drove in the same direction, with the trailing car using a steel toothpick, thrown by hand, striking the throat of someone in the front car.

In most stories, this would at least be considered martial arts prowess.

But in the Marvel World, this is simply categorized as a normal person!

Glass rained down in the car like a shower, and normally Lille would suppress the power of Si Anweisitan, unable to react in time to what was happening!

He only heard Matt pounce toward him, then the steel toothpick pierced through the glass and into Matt's chest!

"Damn! We've got enemies! Keep moving, cover——"

But Lille knew the current adversary rendered cover virtually useless!

Bullseye!

Possessing abilities akin to superpowers, anything he threw would hit its target without fail!

Lille was in a panic—because Bullseye was a cold and ruthless assassin. If Lille didn't prove he was still alive, Bullseye would kill the rest without hesitation!

"Matt, hold on!" After speaking, Lille moved Matt to the side and then directly opened the sunroof.

"What are you doing? Get back——"

The steel toothpick had already lost most of its kinetic energy piercing through the glass, and though it had entered Matt's chest, it thankfully hadn't pierced any internal organs.

Seeing Lille's actions, he was shocked; going out there was akin to suicide!

But Lille silently removed the power restriction on Si Anweisitan—

Bullseye had an almost perfect throwing ability, but it was still just "almost perfect." As it turned out, Matt had the ability to make Bullseye miss—

And so did Lille!

But he was one step too late!

As he opened the sunroof, Lille saw the pursuer—another van with Bullseye sitting in the passenger seat, holding a toothpick, as casual as if he were on vacation!

He had just thrown another steel toothpick when John and Skye's car suddenly lost control, veering straight toward the sidewalk and crashing into a wall by the street!

Boom!

"Damn it—John, Skye? Respond if you hear me!"

Seeing Lille still alive, Bullseye was extremely surprised!

He missed? How could that be?

Bullseye changed his posture, abandoning the idea of killing the others—this guy was a lunatic; missing would upset him like an obsession!

He had to kill Lille!

"Uh—what's the situation."

Hidden in the cargo space, Skye avoided Bullseye's attack; her computer and goods pressed down on her, uncomfortable and possibly slightly injured, but not fatally so.

It seems the car had decelerated right before hitting the wall; otherwise, the outcome would have been much worse.

"I... I'm okay, what about John? John?"

Still positioned face down, Skye shouted forward.

But the only answer she got back was silence, only... a raspy sound?

The sound was like someone about to drown, constantly trying to breathe, air hustling through the thick liquid in their lungs, then attempting to inhale oxygen from the air...

Struggling, Skye moved the items off of her and crawled forward, touching John sitting in the front seat—

A sticky, slurping sound coated her hand!

It was blood!

With horror, Skye glanced in the rearview mirror, where she saw John clutching his neck, a steel toothpick embedded in his throat!

The drowning-like sound was that of the blood obstructing the airway!

The Toothpick Killer!

Fear flooded in like a tide, nearly paralyzing her, until Lille's voice rang out again:

"Damn it—Skye? Listen, I've contacted the ambulance and NYPD, stay put, you have to be calmer than John—

Listen, do you hear me? Do you hear me? Help John out, and then, tell him to stay calm. He won't die, but he needs to stay calm!

John's life is in your hands now, John's life is in your hands! Keep him alive—hiss—"

Lille's voice cut off abruptly, as if he'd encountered an assault.

John felt like he couldn't breathe; his chest was getting hotter and hotter, but he couldn't draw breath.

But...perhaps because he had previously been at gunpoint, he had experienced that near-death sensation.

He actually calmed down quickly.

With all his strength, he gave the panicking Skye a thumbs up—

Instantly, Skye snapped back to reality, almost instantly overcoming her fear—she didn't want John to just die like this!

"I'm here for you, John. Think of your son. When you get home this time, everyone will call you a hero. Stay alive, stay alive..."

But John was really tired, very sleepy, his body hot and cold.

But Skye was right; he needed to survive.

...

Two more steel needles flew by—Lille had increased Si Anweisitan's power to 50%, and everything around him became incredibly slow!

Both steel needles even accounted for his evasive actions.

But with Si Anweisitan activated, he could do more than just dodge!

Lille dodged one needle and deflected the other with his hand!

[The sense of strength from the Prosthetics is disrupting bodily judgment. Remove it?]

[Remove it.]

Lille felt as if every movement was burning like fire.

His heart pumped wildly, flooding his neurons with adrenaline and other hormones, while the ATP reserved for storing biological energy decomposed fully—his body ran in overdrive like an overclocked machine!

When Si Anweisitan operated at high speed, it activated all the body's systems designed to enhance physical abilities, ignoring those systems that would normally restrict movement to protect the body—

The user wouldn't even care about the abnormalities in the body! They wouldn't even realize there was an issue after deactivation!

But this sense of omnipotence from the technology didn't cause Lille to misjudge—

Moreover, Lille noticed the effects of Si Anweisitan on him couldn't reach the exaggerated levels of those cyborgs!

Instead, Lille felt the pain and stress caused by the system running in overdrive!

To Matt, it seemed as if Lille's body temperature rose in an instant!

The two steel needles missed the target, and Bullseye went mad—he couldn't understand, why had he missed?

Lille raised a finger at the crazed Bullseye, then shouted at Anthony, who was driving, "Damn it, hit him! Hit him! John is going to die! Hit him!"

Anthony's eyes turned bloodshot as he slammed the gas pedal to the floor!

It was 9 p.m., and although there were cars on the road, there weren't many. Drivers cursed as they saw the van racing past them.

But when Anthony collided with the car in front, they all silently chose to pull away!

The car was hit hard, nearly flipping over, but thankfully the driver managed to stabilize the vehicle!

The driver, panicked, exclaimed, "Damn it, aren't you supposed to never miss!"

"Shut up!" Bullseye pulled out five steel toothpicks from his pocket, "Let's see how you dodge this!"

By now, Lille had overtaken their car, but was only twenty or thirty meters ahead. He didn't believe he'd miss again!

As the five toothpicks flew toward him, Lille felt somewhat strained in handling them—

If it were V or Notte, the kind of prosthetics-enhanced superhumans using Si Anweisitan, they could probably take out Bullseye in an instant.

But Lille's body was too weak!

He managed to dodge four of the steel pins, but there was one toothpick he couldn't avoid!

Smack.

But the last toothpick was caught by Matt!

Without asking how Lille was, Matt just yelled, "We've got to shake that guy off!"

"No! We have to take him out!" One of Lille's eyes flashed with blue data light.

Matt could feel Lille heating up again, especially his brain, his spine—the temperature was climbing to 39 degrees Celsius and continuing to rise!

Bullseye grew even more frantic upon witnessing this and took out even more steel pins!

"Listen, Matt, hold him off for me. I'll figure something out!"

"I—I got it!" Matt seemed to want to say something else, but now was not the time to hold back!

The two vehicles tore down the street, Bullseye pulling out even more steel pins—ten, eleven, twelve—

But Matt always managed to dodge them, as if he could anticipate the enemy's moves!

Finally, when the thirteenth pin arrived, Matt couldn't dodge anymore!

Bullseye's bloodthirsty grin grew more frantic, but he failed to notice that the traffic had moved from a less congested area to a busier one—

And yet, they encountered no traffic jams!

In fact, the traffic seemed to be getting sparser. As they passed an intersection, people on both sides stared with wide eyes, but there were no cars conveniently blocking their route!

It was as if... the traffic was avoiding them!

"Aren't you ready yet! I can't take much more!" In just a short time, Matt had been hit several times and pain was assaulting his nerves!

At this point, he was nothing more than a greenhorn, a bumbling hero. If it came to hand-to-hand combat, he might have had a chance to take out Bullseye, but in a chase?

He could only take the hits passively!

"Almost—just a bit more!"

Lille's prosthetic eye was frantically flickering with data streams.

He was calculating.

Streets of Hell's Kitchen had already locked onto all the vehicles he needed as soon as the chase began.

They had to be big enough, heavy enough, and fast enough.

Fast enough that the vehicle couldn't stop when needed, heavy enough to effortlessly crush an old van!

Through the power grid, Lille manipulated the traffic lights, calculating the vehicles' speeds—waiting for an opportunity!

And that opportunity was coming soon!

"My turn!" Lille finished the final calculations and pulled Matt aside.

He popped his head out of the sunroof and locked eyes with Bullseye.

Lille placed his hand behind his back near his waist, as if he was about to draw something.

A gun?

Bullseye quickly understood what Lille was planning—they were heading for a classic American showdown, a Wild West-style duel!

Bullseye grinned savagely, snatching a handgun from the driver—perfect, he was out of toothpicks anyway.

He liked throwing things, but the deadliest thing he had on hand was, of course, a gun.

With this, he would not be able to complete Kingpin's task perfectly—

But what Kingpin wanted was an execution, killing someone on the street with a gun wasn't a bad choice—and more importantly, he felt like he would go insane if he didn't hit Lille at least once today.

He couldn't refuse such a challenge.

"Come on... see how fast you can be."

As Lille's van passed the intersection, he pointed to the green light overhead and said, "Red light."

——This meant to shoot when the light turned red.

Understanding the lip-reading, Bullseye let out a devilish smile—only a fool would duel with him!

He drew his gun instantly but saw Lille also reveal his hand—

That wasn't a gun—it was a middle finger?

Bang!

The sound of two guns wouldn't stand out much in such a bustling area.

But this loud noise could probably be heard a kilometer away.

Because a dump truck at high speed had run over Bullseye's small van, mercilessly dragging the crushed vehicle for over ten meters under its front.

The vehicle overturned, and the cargo bay, loaded with a large amount of sand and gravel, smashed down on Bullseye's van.

"Dump truck Iaijutsu, idiot."

Lille, holding up his middle finger, taunted from a distance.

[Unique Hacker Tool Developed: Dump Truck Iaijutsu]

[Description: Control traffic to create a fatal encounter with a dump truck at the right place and time]

[Reward Technology Points: 1000]

[Current Technology Points: 1535]