**Chapter 12: I Am a Chef**
Zhou Ming charged into the factory building. His body was still in mid-air when the guns in his hands fired continuously, accurately hitting three assassins.
He himself was hit by two shots, both blocked by the Water Armor Gu. He rolled upon landing, hid behind a pillar, and let out a deep breath.
Unable to use the Adrenaline Burst technique, Zhou Ming was at a disadvantage against Cronus's top assassins.
Fortunately, not every Cronus assassin possessed the ability of Adrenaline Burst. Most assassins, while excellent, didn't pose too much of a threat to Zhou Ming.
"My true qi is almost exhausted, and the Water Armor Gu can no longer be activated. I need to be even more careful now."
After continuous battles, his true qi had no chance to fully recover and was now on the verge of depletion. He couldn't use his remaining Gu, so he could only rely on the guns in his hands to carve a bloody path.
Zhou Ming took another deep breath, then suddenly rushed out from behind the pillar.
During the brief rest, more assassins had converged on their location.
As soon as they saw Zhou Ming appear, they all raised their guns, aimed, and fired at him.
But Zhou Ming was a step faster than them. As he ran quickly, he continuously pulled the triggers of both guns, as if using an auto-aim hack—every bullet accurately struck flesh.
Without the Straw Sandal Gu, Zhou Ming couldn't reach his previous extreme speed, nor could he charge forward while taking bullets.
He merely flashed out, fired several shots, and then flashed back to hide behind another pillar.
An endless stream of combat experience poured into his mind. At the same time, the Grass Root Gu under his feet burrowed into the ground, absorbing the qi of the earth to restore his stamina and heal his injuries.
A bullet struck the side of his abdomen, taking away a portion of flesh and grazing his ribs as it flew out, not lodging in his body.
Even though his speed was already fast enough, he still couldn't dodge all the bullets.
"There are three more people. Troublesome."
"If the previous plan had succeeded, after a rat bomb explosion, at least eighty percent of these cannon fodder would be gone."
Under the healing of the Grass Root Gu, the bleeding from the bullet wound in his abdomen quickly stopped. Although the wound couldn't heal so quickly, at least it prevented the injury from worsening.
By this time, several assassins were already trying to encircle him from different angles, aiming to kill Zhou Ming in one fell swoop.
Zhou Ming took a flashbang from his body, pulled the pin, and threw it violently in a certain direction.
"Please enjoy some fireworks."
The flashbang suddenly exploded, and the dim factory building lit up like a sun. Even though Zhou Ming had closed his eyes in advance, the dazzling light still made him feel a slight dizziness.
*Bang bang bang bang!*
Zhou Ming, with his eyes closed, fired four shots in four directions, then without any hesitation, flashed to the side and ran to his next hiding place.
*Bang bang bang!*
He had just left when several bullets struck the spot where he had been standing. Immediately, Zhou Ming fired in the direction of the shots. After a few more gunshots, the entire factory building fell silent.
"As expected, Cronus's assassins are not simple. Even when caught off guard and temporarily blinded, they can immediately determine my position by the sound of gunfire."
"Fortunately, I anticipated that."
Zhou Ming suddenly fired three shots at an assassin's corpse on the ground. The corpse twitched, then raised its head in disbelief, staring intently at Zhou Ming, but its eyes quickly lost their luster.
"Still trying to play dead and ambush me? Too bad you can't control your killing intent toward me."
Zhou Ming thought coldly.
In a state of combat, Zhou Ming's danger sense was even more extraordinary, allowing him to vaguely pinpoint the enemy's location. Coupled with his Lv3 marksmanship, virtually no one could escape his bullets.
"This factory building has been cleared. Let's hurry to the next battlefield."
Zhou Ming had just made a move to leave when he suddenly twisted his waist and turned around, firing several bullets into the darkness behind him.
In the shadows, only a few fleeting sparks of fire and several almost simultaneous metallic clangs could be seen.
Using the sparks from the bullets hitting an unknown metallic object, Zhou Ming saw a blurry, bulky human figure.
"Finally, a master has arrived." Zhou Ming licked his lips, an excited smile once again appearing on his face.
The reason Zhou Ming had chosen to act separately from Yang Zhisheng was to kill more assassins and gain as much combat experience as possible.
Although he had killed seven or eight assassins in one go, Zhou Ming felt that the improvement in his marksmanship was minimal.
He hadn't found it difficult to level up to the first three levels—just a few assassins' lives had allowed him to reach his current level. Now, however, he couldn't even see a hint of reaching Lv4.
Firearms Lv4 was Master level, the Main God's assessment standard, and it certainly wasn't that easy to achieve.
Therefore, he longed to fight masters. If he couldn't find masters, he could only kill more ordinary assassins to achieve qualitative change through quantitative accumulation.
Fortunately, a master had now come looking for him.
A bulky fat man, over 1.8 meters tall and weighing at least 250 pounds, emerged from the darkness.
In his hand, he held a wide cleaver several times larger than an ordinary kitchen knife, carrying it as if he were holding half a pig.
"I am the Chef." The bulky man's voice was low. "No matter who you are, if you can't kill me, you'll be made into a dish by me."
"Chef?" Zhou Ming sneered and decisively fired.
*Clang!*
In a flash of lightning, the Chef swung his knife diagonally, deflecting the bullet.
"That fast?" Zhou Ming, refusing to believe it, fired continuously.
The Chef wielded his large cleaver with formidable force, deflecting everything. Sparks flew, bullets scattered, and he managed to block every single shot.
Moreover, the Chef steadily advanced with each swing of his knife, constantly closing the distance with Zhou Ming.
"Amazing." Zhou Ming genuinely praised him, feeling inferior, and then took a grenade from his body, pulled the pin, and threw it at the Chef's feet.
In an instant, the Chef displayed an agility that belied his size, leaping backward three times in quick succession, managing to create distance at the very last moment and attempting to hide behind cover.
However, at that moment, he noticed another grenade arcing through the air, passing directly over his head.
*When did...*
Only this thought flashed through the Chef's mind. The next instant, he directly raised his cleaver above his head.
Even in such a desperate moment, he did not give up on saving himself, hoping to use the broad blade to block some of the grenade shrapnel and protect his vital head.
*Boom! Boom!*
Two explosions occurred almost simultaneously. The Chef's massive body rolled away. His fingers on the hand holding the knife were blown off, and his body was marked with deep gashes from shrapnel, looking utterly miserable.
"I'm going to kill you. Arrrgh!"
A roar of extreme rage erupted from his pain. The Chef gripped his knife with his other, uninjured hand, flipped up, and was about to hack Zhou Ming to death.
However, he looked around—but where was Zhou Ming's shadow?
*Bang!*
After only a moment of hesitation, a bullet from behind pierced the back of his head and entered his brain.
Blood mixed with brain matter flowed from the small hole in the back of his head, and his massive, bulky body crashed to the ground.
"Continue." In the darkness, Zhou Ming moved toward the next factory building.
Every battle with an assassin brought rewards. Each assassin he killed boosted his strength. This wonderful feeling captivated Zhou Ming. Although he also encountered Glomo police officers who had rushed in to exchange fire with assassins, he only needed to carefully avoid them.
With Zhou Ming's current skills, coupled with his increasingly sensitive and powerful danger perception, avoiding Glomo police—whose individual combat power was inferior to Cronus assassins—was more than enough.
Time passed, the battle continued, and gunshots were constant. Zhou Ming gradually became immersed in it, as if only slaughter remained in his heart and nothing else.
Suddenly, a dark figure appeared behind him. A tall shadow engulfed his entire being.
*How could...* A momentary astonishment flashed through Zhou Ming's mind. Before he could think, he twisted his waist and turned to counterattack, but was stopped by a single sentence from the other party.
"It's me." It was Yang Zhisheng's voice. At the same time, Zhou Ming also clearly saw the other person's face—it was indeed Yang Zhisheng.
Zhou Ming breathed a sigh of relief. No wonder he hadn't detected any danger—Yang Zhisheng had no killing intent toward him, so it naturally wouldn't trigger his sense of crisis.
At the same time, he also realized that his previous state had been somewhat off. Yang Zhisheng's arrival had just helped him escape that bloodthirsty, indifferent, and eerie state.