Chapter 81: Black Hawk Down
Standing in the plane as it braved the biting winds, a sense of dread welled up in Zhang San’s heart as he looked down upon the city below.
It was the fear of the unknown. No one knew what would happen after they jumped.
After all, he had only learned how to parachute by cramming videos over the past few days. It was all theory with no practical experience; whether he would actually succeed was anyone’s guess.
Beside him, dozens of tall, burly, and menacing-looking men stood inside the cabin.
They were leaning near the open door, surveying the landscape below and trying to pick a good landing zone.
"Hahaha, I’ve found my spot! I’m jumping first, you guys take your time picking."
One of the big, bald men laughed heartily, took a few steps forward, and then leaped straight out, spreading his arms as he went into a freefall.
As the first jumper glided through the air, one successor after another followed him, leaping down.
Seeing the cabin emptying out and the plane about to fly past the city center, an anxious Zhang San fearfully followed the previous person and jumped.
Gripped by the intense sensation of weightlessness, he panicked. To be on the safe side, he pulled his parachute cord when he estimated he was at an altitude of around three thousand meters.
His body lurched violently, and with an immense jerk, his rapid descent immediately slowed.
But before he could even steady himself, a deafening roar came from behind him.
"BOOM!!!"
Startled by the earth-shattering bang, his heart nearly stopping, Zhang San hurriedly looked back.
He turned his head just in time to see the plane he had just been on erupt in a blinding flash of fire.
Amidst the billowing smoke, the plane’s right wing was spewing thick, black fumes. Its flight path began to deviate, and it started an unavoidable spiral toward the ground.
The teammates who hadn’t jumped yet plummeted with the plane, their screams swallowed by the wind.
In an instant, a cold sweat drenched Zhang San’s back. If he had jumped just a moment later, he would have shared Lao Da’s fate.
’But how could the plane just suddenly explo—’
Zhang San’s thought was cut short, his eyes flying wide. He saw a black line streaking through the sky from below, rapidly heading in this direction.
Before he could react, the black line zipped past his ear, followed by another explosive roar from behind him.
’What was... what was that just now! An anti-aircraft gun?’
Immense fear surged in Zhang San’s heart as he saw more projectiles shooting up from below, one after another, like scythes from the Grim Reaper himself.
In Z City, Fang Can stood inside a villa, the hard tiles at his feet shattered all around him.
Watching the planes parading across the sky, Fang Can ripped off a piece of the steel railing.
As he kneaded it between his palms, the steel became like modeling clay in his hands, and he quickly formed it into a flat, round disc.
After molding the steel into his desired shape, Fang Can’s eyes locked onto the sky several kilometers high
Before the Great Cataclysm, the maximum height for a human discus throw was 15 meters, and the maximum distance was 74 meters!
But for the current Fang Can, whose normal strength was 40 tons and whose maximum speed was 50 meters per second, the noisy planes passing through the sky were practically within arm’s reach.
"You like being loud, don’t you..."
Fang Can held his breath and focused. Gripping the iron disc tightly in his right hand, he began to spin his body with abandon.
As he spun with immense centrifugal force, his feet stamped deep cracks into the tiles, which shattered with a continuous CRUNCH CRUNCH sound.
"WHOOSH!" With a tremendous roar, the iron disc in his hand shot toward the sky, approaching the speed of sound.
After he threw it, the sky remained quiet. The iron disc grew smaller and smaller until it vanished from sight.
Without rushing, Fang Can bent down, picked up another piece of the steel railing, and started kneading it. Time to let the bullet fly.
Sure enough, a dozen or so seconds later, a massive explosion echoed out as the first iron disc struck a modified passenger jet soaring through the sky.
The sound of the explosion itself would take another ten-odd seconds to reach his ears.
One by one, the planes in the sky turned into fireworks under Fang Can’s precision strikes—arguably the most expensive fireworks show in history.
Up in the sky, planes were turning into fireworks all around them.
Gripped by terror, the thugs who had been so frenzied before were now scrambling over each other to leap from the planes, pulling their parachutes at the proper altitude.
Soon, a massive formation of parachutists filled the sky.
The huge parachutes blotted out the sun. Some jumpers even got tangled together, plummeting from the sky in terror.
"Gahaha, let’s make the explosions even more glorious!"
At that moment, in a renovated base outside Z City, the Troll King laughed and slammed both hands forward onto a red lever in front of him.
As the red lever was pushed, a powerful, rhythmic drumbeat echoed throughout all of Z City.
Amidst the intensely melodic rhythm, the Troll King’s body transformed, taking on the appearance of a heavy metal rock star.
He then borrowed the superpower of the person he had shape-shifted into: a flawless singing voice.
A moment later, the pre-Great Cataclysm heavy metal anthem "We’re Not Gonna Take It" blasted from his lips.
We’re not gonna take it
No, we ain’t gonna take it
We’re not gonna take it anymore
We’ve got the right to choose
...
Countless drones began to flash with multicolored lights, pulsing in time with the Troll King’s singing.
Under the influence of his "Absolute Melody" superpower, the minds of most humans were affected, causing them to become far more emotional.
The group of people in the sky, who had just been terrified, were no longer afraid. On the contrary, their blood was pumping. They felt like berserkers, itching to hit the ground and immediately charge into battle.
High in the sky, Zhang San was no longer afraid. All his negative emotions were suppressed by the rousing drumbeat, replaced by the courage to fight tooth and nail for survival.
But in the next moment, his eyes widened again when he saw dozens of tanks advancing on Z City below.
"What the— How is that fair?! Why do those guys get vehicles!"
Zhang San was in disbelief, but the official website for the live stream listed the reason in detail.
While ordinary criminals could at most get their hands on firearms, those "VIP criminals" with higher crime ratings could naturally obtain higher-tier weapons.
Of course, in return, the kill quotas for these "elite mobs" were also much higher, starting at an average of 100 kills each.
"RAAAGH! All of you, charge!"
The next moment, a shell flew from a tank’s cannon, blasting a huge hole in a distant building.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, a gaunt man in a prison uniform, with shackles on his hands and feet, was strolling calmly along the outskirts of Z City.
Suddenly, he stopped. Four figures were now blocking his path.