Chapter 86: Manning Center

Driving forward in the Merlin Avenue district was quite difficult. The pickup truck could only move on the main road, and the target was large. As long as there were monsters blocking the road, a battle was inevitable.

The deeper they went into the Merlin Avenue district, the denser the monsters became, and the more dangerous it was to drive. If they were surrounded by a large group of semi-mechanical troops, it would be very deadly. Moreover, breaking through the obstacles all the way was physically and mentally exhausting. Li Wei and the others still had a commission to complete; they couldn't waste all their energy on the road.

So, they found a relatively safe place, parked Ban De Rui's pickup truck, and began to walk towards the Manning Business Center in the Merlin Avenue district.

Walking was much safer than driving. They didn't have to walk in a straight line on the main road; they could maneuver through alleys where cars couldn't go, or even between buildings. If they encountered monsters, as long as they detected them in advance, they could evade them or move into buildings to avoid them.

Different from regular hunting operations, this commission with a specific target required a more cautious approach. If it were a few days ago, they would have simply fought the monsters they encountered, slowly wearing them down until they were too exhausted to continue, and then retreated to submit the hunting permit. But today, if they exhausted themselves too much on the way, they would likely have to give up on the upcoming commission.

Under Li Wei's careful guidance, they encountered almost no difficult battles after abandoning the vehicle and choosing to walk.

Most of the encounters were easily avoided, and with Li Wei's Sharingan as a reconnaissance tool, it was very difficult for them to be caught off guard.

In the few places where avoiding them would waste too much time, they acted decisively. With Cai Yu Tong's silenced firearms, Ban De Rui's arrows, Qian Long's psychic protection, and Li Wei and Wells quickly taking action, they could quickly control the situation. These surprise attacks often ended with all targets eliminated in a matter of seconds.

Another hour passed, and Li Wei and the others finally arrived at the Manning Center.

The Manning Center was located in the central-southern part of Merlin Avenue, and before the disaster struck, it was one of the busiest places in the Merlin Avenue district. Six buildings of varying styles were built around the central square garden, connected by corridors suspended in mid-air. The entire central square was filled with various dining establishments, bars, entertainment venues, and all kinds of stores.

On a typical day, the daily foot traffic here could reach twenty to thirty thousand people. During peak times such as weekends and holidays, it was impossible to calculate.

After checking the map, Li Wei easily deduced why this square needed to be cleared. It was only two or three kilometers away from the Bio-Research Center of Blackbird Heavy Industries. If there were still monsters here, it would definitely affect the subsequent attack on the research institute. Clearing out and emptying the square was necessary.

The reason why the military wasn't used was that there weren't many monsters here, but there might be high-level monsters, which wouldn't be suitable for the military to handle. Moreover, the commercial center square was quite valuable, and the presence and noise of the military would have a great impact on the future development of Merlin Avenue if they bombed the area.

So, this task was left to the Hunter's Guild as a hunter commission.

Observing the terrain, it was risky to enter from the front. At the entrance of the Manning Center Square, although there seemed to be only three or five monsters, and the central square looked empty, there could be many monsters hidden in the six buildings nearby. A bold frontal assault would easily be discovered by monsters hiding in buildings. If a large number of enemies swarmed out, Li Wei and the others would have to retreat.

This commission clearly did not require them to pull out all the enemies and then eliminate them all—it was not something a small team could do. The reliable approach was to sneak in quietly, then slowly clear out all the enemies in a building one by one.

Originally, their commission was not to clear the entire Manning Center, but only to deal with the monsters in Building B.

Combined with the map and on-site reconnaissance, Li Wei and the others quickly finalized their action plan.

They first used abandoned and scrapped vehicles on the roadside as cover, entered the underground garage of the Manning Center, and quickly killed the six or seven semi-mechanical men in the underground garage.

This process was very secretive and basically did not make much noise.

In fact, as long as Li Wei didn't use techniques like Ghost Slash - Gale Slash, Cai Yu Tong didn't use grenades and hand cannons, and Ban De Rui didn't use his Crimson Lotus Arrows, there would be basically no loud noises.

After clearing the underground garage, they found the stairs leading to Building B.

Standing on the first floor of the underground garage, Li Wei suddenly had a strange feeling—was he going back to the lower district now? If looked at from below, this place looked like a square protrusion from the ceiling.

Shaking his head to dismiss this meaningless thought, Li Wei followed his teammates and walked up the stairs.

They were very cautious. On the first floor of Building B, there was a restaurant with about thirteen or fourteen semi-mechanical ape-like creatures gathered inside. Semi-mechanical apes were not very strong monsters, but they were at least at the limit level, slightly more difficult to deal with than semi-mechanical men. For Li Wei, it would take almost the use of Ghost Slash or combining Demon Claw with Ghost Hand to kill one instantly.

The key was that there were quite a few enemies, and it was very difficult to fight without making noise.

After some consideration, Li Wei and the others decided to leave the monsters on the first floor for now and discuss the situation on the second floor.

The combat environment on the second floor was much better than on the first floor.

It was divided into two parts: on the south side, there was a store selling children's products, and on the north side, there was a barbecue restaurant.

The barbecue restaurant had a difficult opponent—a semi-mechanical giant ape at the development level, which was a bit challenging to deal with. Most importantly, in the nearby children's product store, there were also five or six semi-mechanical men, which could easily attract them over.

So, they chose to enter the children's product store first and clear one side before moving on.