On the iron blade, the copper bullet shot from the slingshot was still embedded in the blade. Copper cannot penetrate iron, and the shot from Number 0 missed its mark, still a good inch away from the little henchman’s throat. Her aim still needed more practice; had it been him, he could have inflicted heavy damage on the bandits. Yijie stood beside, his eyebrows like sharp blades, dangerously perched and ready to strike at any moment.
The dagger clattered to the ground. With a swoosh, a flush of blood rose in Number 0’s face after the rush, her middle and index fingers formed like reversed hooks, stopping right at the slick thyroid cartilage of the little henchman.
The fiercely shouting little henchman still tried to make a sound, emitting a strange gurgling noise. It was a familiar sound, like thick phlegm stuck in the throat, unable to move up or down.
It was blood! Blood was clogged in his throat. Below the little henchman’s thyroid cartilage, a finger’s length away, there was a black puncture hole. The seemingly unremarkable little henchman, his throat had been pierced.
It was the black needle shot from the gun, a needle that could dominate within the human body.
But Number 0 hadn’t used a gun; she only used a slingshot. Yijie had a reason for letting Number 0 use the slingshot—it wasn’t really about sparing lives, but to improve her hit rate.
The simpler the weapon, especially something like the slingshot in Number 0’s hand which barely counted as a weapon, the more it actually honed one’s aiming skills.
In the melee that had just occurred, she had already prepared a backup plan. The slingshot in her hands was merely a decoy. Taken out by Number 0, hidden between the index and middle finger, the Leech Needle was the real lethal weapon.
Yijie still remembered the feeling when that needle pierced his arm. Even on a non-vital spot like the arm, it could still cause significant damage, let alone at such a vulnerable spot as the throat.
The bandit little henchman only noticed to dodge the slingshot and completely unguarded against Number 0’s close-range attack, allowing her to strike successfully.
Almost every step was calculated, including observing his combat to distract little henchman’s attention, the bullet used to divert attention, and the feigned Choking.
"For someone facing the enemy for the first time, you performed quite well," although Yijie felt her method was somewhat too sinister, considering that Number 0 was also a beginner, being able to retreat unharmed was more a virtue than a fault.
"Just like you, killing without bloodshed," she replied with irony, as Yijie paid attention to Number 0’s actions at the moment. She took out the Ghost Gun, using the magnetic stone attached to the gunstock to extract the Leech Needle, its black tip stained red with blood.
While removing the needle, the female soldier was facing away from Yijie, her shoulders uneven, leaning to one side, trembling slightly.
A sense of suffocation surged to his throat; the Leech Needle seemed to have entered Yijie’s own throat. He suddenly realized that this soldier dressed in Private Uniform was a woman. The "Military Road" rules made Yijie overlook the differences between men and women.
Unlike other departments in Rand Military District, the Armed Department headed by Lu Xun (Yijie) was the only one without female staff. From logistics to various offices, it was all male soldiers. Externally, it was always referred to by other departments as "Monk’s Abbey".
Lu Xun, for personal reasons, had interactions with women only limited between a foster sister and foster mother, which led to his previous ungentlemanly behaviors.
"Sorry, I forgot that you are..." Yijie thought something was off; Number 0’s recent actions were clearly forced.
"Start the interrogation," Number 0 said after wiping the blood from the tip of the Leech Needle with the little henchman’s clothes, and when she stood up, the previous trembling was gone. That string of actions had flashed through her mind in a spark.
It seemed so natural, as if she had practiced it thousands and tens of thousands of times.
After witnessing Yijie’s interrogation methods, Number 0 had to admit, compared to his interrogation methods, his killing techniques were already quite implicit.
The portable Hand Cannon got another chance to make an appearance, pressed against a little henchman’s head. Before Yijie could pull the trigger, the henchman, terrified, wet himself and spilled everything.
After extracting the information, Number 0 walked forward, facing a pool of stagnant water formed by rainwater, it’s just early autumn, and the leaves on the mountain slope had already taken on an autumn hue, a low boom of the cannon followed by silence.