Chapter 88: The Most Disgusting Incident in History (Second Update, Please Vote for Recommendations)

The weapons arsenal’s combat assistance mode could do more than let Xing Xiaolong aim at a target without the usual steadying stance. Its most formidable feature was the mini-map, which could display creatures within a thirty-meter radius.

To trigger the mini-map’s locking function, so that a target would appear as a red dot, Xing Xiaolong either had to see it with his own eyes or hear some sound slightly louder than a whisper.

The drug trafficker hiding in the last house had probably been picked up by the mini-map because he knew Xing Xiaolong and Black Fox were already outside. In his panic, he had made a noise too faint for Xing Xiaolong to hear, yet enough for the combat assistance mode to detect.

In the end, the fellow who had cowered in fear for half the day never got his kill. Instead, Xing Xiaolong, who had gained the initiative, put a round through the door and blew his face apart.

That was a truly unjust way to die.

Black Fox’s lingering fear lasted only an instant. Then he set aside the sniper rifle and approached cautiously, checking the trafficker’s pulse and then his pupils.

Only after confirming that the man had lost all ability to move did he turn back with a smile. “Dragon King, thank you for saving me. Otherwise, I might have died at that bastard’s muzzle.

“I didn’t choose the wrong man after all. You really are a miraculous boy favored by Lady Luck, impossible to read. I’m liking you more and more.”

“Mm-hmm. Of course!”

Xing Xiaolong pursed his lips, lifted his brows, and accepted the praise without the slightest hesitation.

Black Fox had long since learned how shameless Xing Xiaolong could be. He merely smiled and made no comment, then reopened his earpiece and asked, “This is Black Fox. All teams, report your status immediately.”

“This is Assault Team One. First floor secure. All targets eliminated. No hostages found. Over.”

“This is Assault Team Two. Second floor secure. No hostages found. Three suspects detained. Over.”

“This is the Stop Team. All normal. Over.”

“This is Cover Team One. Left side normal. No suspicious targets fleeing. Over.”

“This is Cover Team Two. Right side normal. Over.”

After hearing the reports from every team, Black Fox still frowned despite the fact that none of them reported any casualties. There was no trace of satisfaction at having completed the assault mission successfully.

“Assault teams, search the building again. You must find the hostages.”

Black Fox’s face hardened as he gave the order, then muttered in frustration, “The intelligence can’t be wrong. Once the hostages were brought here, they never left. Where the hell did those bastards hide them?”

They had poured in so much manpower and resources, driven hundreds of kilometers for this raid, and the main purpose of striking this traffickers’ den was not to kill drug dealers.

If the hostages were not found, the trail would go cold, and the mission would become devilishly difficult.

How could Black Fox not be enraged?

Then Xing Xiaolong suddenly wrinkled his nose. “Huh? Why does it smell so rotten?”

Something in the air was wrong. Instinct warned him there was a problem, and he began sniffing for the source of the stench.

“That’s the smell of decaying flesh. This room is so dry, how could it possibly smell like this?” Black Fox realized something was wrong as well.

This little house was less than ten square meters. One glance was enough to take in the entire interior. The only large item was a broken bed; the smaller things were just clothes and miscellaneous junk. Nothing else was there, and nothing seemed capable of giving off such a putrid odor.

Xing Xiaolong had been famous since childhood for having an uncanny nose and an especially sensitive sense of smell. While Black Fox was still puzzled, Xing Xiaolong had already located the precise source.

“There. The stench is coming from there.”

He pointed ahead, toward the wall above where the trafficker had fallen.

Xing Xiaolong held a Remington 870P shotgun loaded with police No. 4 buckshot. One blast could send out twelve copper-plated lead pellets, each 8.12 millimeters in diameter. Fewer than half of them had struck the trafficker in the head, neck, and chest.

The rest, carrying blood and scraps of flesh torn from the man’s body, had punched several holes in the wall.

One chunk of plaster had also been blasted away, leaving a small opening as wide as a baby’s fist. Because the room was too dim, it was impossible to see what lay inside.

Even so, the hole revealed that the wall was made of wooden boards coated with a layer of lime plaster.

It was not the usual brick-and-cement structure.

Black Fox walked over with a grim expression, having also sensed that something was terribly wrong. Fixing his eyes on the hole in the wall, he said, “Break it open and take a look.”

Knock, knock, knock...

Xing Xiaolong nodded, raised the stock of his gun, and jabbed the broken wall a few times. The fist-sized hole widened until it was about half the size of a basketball.

At once, a nauseating stench of rot, sharp enough to make the stomach turn, rushed out.

Black Fox, already feeling violently ill, slung the MP7 submachine gun across his chest, took a powerful flashlight from his belt, and shone it through the newly opened hole.

And then—

Just that single glance...

“Ugh—”

Even Black Fox, whose nerves were steady enough to kill without batting an eye, and Xing Xiaolong, who could have a head blown apart at close range without much reaction, could not withstand what that light revealed.

They both clapped a hand over their mouths and rushed out of the room.

Their stomachs churning like storm-tossed seas, they bent over the wall together and retched violently.

Their guts were being twisted into knots.

Two minutes later, the two assault squads of tactical police who rushed over reacted just as Xing Xiaolong and Black Fox had, all of them sprinting out in immediate disgust and nausea.

Some braced themselves against the wall; others crouched on the ground and vomited as though trying to kill themselves. A few even brought up stomach acid.

Everyone present was a highly trained professional. Why, then, did they react so strongly after entering the room and seeing what was inside?

The reason was that the thing hidden within the wall utterly overturned everyone’s sense of reality.

You could never imagine it...

Inside the cavity between the wooden boards and the lime plaster was not ordinary concrete or bricks, but corpses bound up with ropes.

And not just any corpses, but bodies already rotten beyond recognition, covered head to toe in maggots, mingled with sticky fluids, writhing continuously and dripping down in thick drops.

When your eyes take in such a scene, and your nose catches that foul, pungent stench, the resulting urge to vomit becomes merciless.

Xing Xiaolong had no idea how badly the other tactical officers and Black Fox were throwing up.

He only knew one thing.

He absolutely would not be able to eat for three days.

It was not that Xing Xiaolong had a weak stomach. If the thing rotting there had been a pig or a dog or some such animal, he would at worst have felt ill, nothing more.

But what was rotting before his eyes were people.

And not just one corpse. The entire wall had been filled. At a glance, every direction—front and back, left and right, above and below—was packed with human bodies already so rotten they had deformed, each one crawling with maggots.

They were all people.

How could anyone possibly stand that?

Even if you told yourself to hold on, the reaction coming from your brain, the relentless spasms of your stomach, would not obey your orders.

It was precisely because of this horrific sight that Xing Xiaolong finally understood why the trafficker hiding there, knowing full well he was the last one left, had not surrendered and instead had chosen to trade his life for another.

Because for the crimes they had committed, the only end awaiting them could be a death sentence by firing squad.