Chapter 812 - 812: Mouth Zipper
'Can I tell Xiao Yue about this?' Tang Ziyi asked but received no further response.
…
"Commander Tang? Tang Ziyi?"
Ahmin's voice pulled her back to reality.
Tang Ziyi blinked once and turned around.
Ahmin stood nearby, watching her cautiously.
"You've been staring at the corpse for a while."
Tang Ziyi casually closed her hand and hid the orb from sight, despite no one having the ability to see it.
"…Thinking."
"About?"
Tang Ziyi glanced once more toward the dead couple.
"…How troublesome this world is becoming."
Ahmin laughed tiredly.
"You realized that only now?"
Tang Ziyi smirked faintly. If only Ahmin knew. Without Spirit Fox intervention, Ahmin might not have had a good ending at all, even as a hero.
"…Instructor?"
One nearby Spirit Fox operator noticed her silence and tilted her head slightly.
Tang Ziyi immediately returned to normal.
"Nothing. Continue SSE."
"Yes."
The operator moved off immediately. Outwardly, nothing changed.
The ruined corridor remained the same devastated battlefield of blood, shattered furniture, and cratered concrete.
Inside Tang Ziyi's mind, however, the weight of tonight had become immeasurably heavier. But also exciting. The pursuit of strength was something not everyone could understand. The more complicated and difficult the challenge, the more it piqued her desire and interest.
Tang Ziyi straightened her posture and glanced toward Ahmin, who was now reorganizing her militia commandos. Several fighters still looked pale after the brutal hallway engagement. Others had regained their composure and were helping carry recovered intelligence materials toward designated collection points.
Despite the chaos, discipline had returned.
Good.
That meant the operation could still extract cleanly.
Tang Ziyi tapped her earpiece.
"Hotel One to all stations, report status."
One after another, voices answered.
"Hotel Rooftop secure."
"Hotel Backyard secure."
"Containment East green, minor contact only."
"Containment South, enemies pushing hard. Heavy enemy contact, leaving behind corpses. We can handle them with aerial support."
"Containment West observing enemy regrouping after a failed attempt, but no breakthrough."
Tang Ziyi listened carefully. The overall battlefield remained stable.
The enemy response had intensified after the death of the HVT, but the operation tempo remained under their mixed special forces' control. That was what mattered most.
Then Athena's calm voice entered the channel.
"Battlefield update."
A holographic overlay immediately spread across Tang Ziyi's vision.
Blue markers represented friendly positions.
Red markers flickered farther across the surrounding streets and structures.
"Enemy militant groups are attempting localized counterattacks, Aunt," Athena reported calmly. "However, their command structure is fragmented after the elimination of the HVT. Several units are engaging independently without coordination. I observe panicked reactions. It will take a while for them to register the need for an emergency reorganization. No immediate threats to our units."
Tang Ziyi wasn't surprised.
Loose tribal organizations always suffered catastrophic degradation once their central authority collapsed.
Especially terrorist structures built heavily around charisma and fear. Much less when so many high-ranking individuals had died under her group's muzzles without making the slightest impact.
The HVT had likely served as both the strategic brain and psychological anchor.
Now he too was dead. Of course, they didn't know it yet, but the fact that they could no longer hear his voice or see any sign of a coordinated response after witnessing the special forces raid was telling enough.
The remaining militants had lost operational cohesion.
Still dangerous.
But no longer truly threatening. For now. Since the only enemies before their eyes were the attackers, they seemed united. Once the stage was clear, they would begin infighting and wouldn't stop until enough blood had been shed.
Tang Ziyi's eyes moved across the map.
"And the three containment teams?" Though she had already gained battlefield awareness from the previous SITREPs, hearing Athena's conclusion brought crystal clarity.
"Minor ammunition expenditure," Athena answered immediately. "No casualties. They are preparing withdrawal according to Contingency Route Beta."
Good.
Everything remained within acceptable parameters.
Tang Ziyi finally nodded.
"All stations, prepare to conduct extraction. Five minutes. Hotel elements leave with priority. Containment teams, prepare for bounding movements."
Acknowledgements followed quickly.
Nearby, Ahmin finished reorganizing her girls and walked back over.
"We're moving?"
"Yes, we are. Once we finish this final step, the mission is a success."
Ahmin nodded and couldn't help but feel mesmerized by Tang Ziyi's eyes. The confidence and commanding presence carried by the latter stirred strange emotions within her. She shook her head and brushed away the thought. Her head might have been hit too hard.
Ling Qingyu would have complained about this lily magnet again if she noticed Ahmin's oddness. So many times, her opportunities seemed to be stolen away. If not for Miss System's existence, Ling Qingyu would have suspected someone was a protagonist she needed to watch out for.
Tang Ziyi glanced briefly toward the dead juggernaut one final time.
The massive armored corpse now looked strangely ordinary despite the destruction it had caused.
Just a dead man. Another corpse on another battlefield.
Only Tang Ziyi knew how abnormal tonight truly was, even among her girls. She was eager to share the news with Ling Qingyu and Xiao Yue.
The others were merely amazed by the outrageous resistance the juggernaut had displayed.
"Your people ready?" Tang Ziyi asked.
Ahmin nodded.
"As ready as exhausted women can be."
Tang Ziyi smirked faintly.
"Good enough."
Several Spirit Fox and militia operators finally emerged carrying the hooded government general between them.
The man remained restrained and disoriented from earlier flash exposure and rough handling.
Tang Ziyi looked toward him briefly. Hmm, not disoriented. He was totally unconscious.
Unconscious. Still alive.
Well, she wasn't surprised. With such extreme backwardness and mindset, the bastard would react strongly, especially when captured by the opposite gender he looked down upon.
He might have even cursed others' ancestry and lineage. It was natural that he received a mouth zipper.
Regardless, mission success.
Intelligence secured, at least.
One HVT eliminated.
No major casualties except a few wounded from the juggernaut clash.
Objectively speaking, tonight was a near-perfect operation if not for the existence of a system user and reincarnator hidden beneath the surface.
Tang Ziyi almost developed another headache thinking about it.
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A/N: Saw a few comments about my novel on other platforms, complaining about some words being cut out. Please read the genuine one on webnovel version so that you won't ruin your reading. Thank you.
I have headaches at the free spawning of endless chapters xD. Hopefully and fortunately, my fans are upright with high standards to continue supporting me. For that, I am deeply grateful. Please don't hesitate to comment your opinions so that I can also consider several factors that I might have missed. We are all writing this together.