At that moment, the ambushed mercenary lay face down in the dirt, completely oblivious to being kicked twice by Li Po. Seeing no reaction from the man on the ground, Li Po calmly retracted his foot and crouched down to flip him over.

The mercenary’s face was mostly hidden by a black mask, with only his eyes exposed. Without much hesitation, Li Po yanked the mask off, revealing the man’s full face.

Oh, a scarred face.

“If you want to kill him, you do it,” Li Po said expressionlessly, withdrawing his gaze and standing up with one hand on his knee.

It took several seconds for Kuang Feng to realize that Li Po was speaking to him. Then, a sudden realization hit him, sending a shock through his heart.

Wait, was this omega serious? How could he be so unafraid?

Kuang Feng vividly remembered how terrified he was the first time he saw his teammates kill someone. If it hadn’t been for the loose combat suit, his trembling legs would have exposed his fear. But this omega remained so calm and composed, Kuang Feng began to wonder whether he was truly fearless or just pretending.

If he was pretending, then he was doing an amazing job…

“You… aren’t afraid?” Kuang Feng blurted out after holding back a torrent of thoughts, his words compressed into a single question.

Li Po glanced at him with an inexplicable look, as if Kuang Feng was a fool.

Afraid? Afraid of the mercenary? Or afraid of Kuang Feng killing someone?

If it were fear of the mercenary, he’d already be dead by now.

And if it was fear of killing… Li Po found that idea even more absurd.

He wasn’t some reincarnated saint. Not shooting the mercenary dead on the spot was already the greatest mercy he could offer. If it weren’t for the lingering moral code from the old world, there would already be a cold corpse at his feet.

Someone tried to kill him—how could he possibly let that slide?

No, he couldn’t.

Li Po was petty and vengeful, not the type to be easily scared.

…

The look Li Po gave sent a shiver down Kuang Feng’s spine, raising goosebumps all over him. He quickly looked away and checked behind the mercenary’s ear.

No sign of anything.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Kuang Feng said, “Let’s keep him alive for now. This might have been just an accident; they probably didn’t mean it.”

They had encountered unlucky people who stumbled into danger during past missions, but the S District had strict regulations against killing innocent people. As long as it didn’t interfere with the mission, they could let them go, and this was no different.

Li Po had no objection to this. He calmly scanned the surroundings, but then his gaze froze on something in the distance.

His hiding spot was in a remote corner, and most of the surrounding areas were overlooked. In one inconspicuous corner, several wooden crates of varying sizes were stacked.

These crates resembled the ones Li Po had seen earlier in the center of the factory, but the material here seemed newer, and the wood looked sturdier.

As Li Po hesitated, considering whether to check them out, his pupils suddenly contracted.

From one of the crates, the lid slowly lifted, and a swarm of black, wriggling, multi-legged creatures began crawling out, all surging in his direction like…

“Run!”

Kuang Feng was startled by Li Po’s sudden shout. Without thinking, he instinctively followed the command and bolted outside, running without even pausing to catch his breath, all the way to the outside of the factory.

As an alpha, his physique was excellent, and the high-intensity exercise had no effect on him. Only after reaching safety did he turn to look at Li Po, whose breathing was slightly labored. “Uh… why did we run?”

Li Po, still working to regulate his breathing, cast a sidelong glance at Kuang Feng, who wasn’t even out of breath. He suddenly felt a pang of envy—envy for the alphas’ innate physical superiority.

“No reason,” Li Po replied coldly.

“?”

Kuang Feng had a feeling he’d been played, but remembering how the omega had saved him earlier, he couldn’t get angry. Scratching his head awkwardly, he cautiously asked, “So, what’s our next step?”

Li Po lowered his gaze in thought for a moment. “Summon the starship, head back to S District.”

Kuang Feng blinked in surprise. “What about Hou Ming and Kingsley? Aren’t we going to wait for them?”

The next moment, he saw the omega’s lips curve into a faint, meaningful smile.

“Do you really think they’ll make it?”

—

Three kilometers from the factory, at the two o’clock position.

Hou Ming’s arm had been shot, and a metallic taste surged up his throat with each frantic step. Gritting his teeth, he clutched the wound and shouted to Kingsley, “Contact the starship! We still have a chance!”

Kingsley’s face turned livid at Hou Ming’s words. The calm and gentle expression in his eyes was completely gone, replaced by a chilling, terrifying gloom. “Are you trying to get me killed?”

The mercenaries were hot on their heels. If he slowed down to pull out the communicator and contact the starship, Hou Ming would easily fall behind. Kingsley knew exactly what Hou Ming was plotting: he was injured and couldn’t run fast, so he wanted to slow Kingsley down too, using him as a shield!

Hou Ming’s heart skipped a beat at the misunderstanding. Although he disliked Kingsley, this was a life-or-death situation, and Kingsley was his only ally. How could he possibly backstab him now?

But there was no time to explain. Dust from the ground flew into Hou Ming’s mouth as they ran, filling his mouth with the gritty taste of earth mixed with blood, making him nearly gag.

They had already used up their grenades during the escape, and Hou Ming’s handgun only had a few bullets left. Despair crept in.

He was an idiot, truly. He had thought escaping the factory would give him a chance at survival, but in the heat of the moment, he had forgotten the most crucial thing—the factory’s location.

The factory stood alone in the suburbs, with no other buildings or vegetation nearby for cover. Summoning the starship would take at least three minutes, and in those three minutes, he and Kingsley would be like rats caught in the open, with no other option but to flee helplessly.

Hou Ming had realized this the moment he left the factory gates, but he had clung to a sliver of hope—what if Li Po and Kuang Feng were also reckless and ran out? The mercenaries would focus their fire on them, giving him and Kingsley the chance to board the starship and return safely to S District.

But things didn’t go as planned. They hadn’t run far when the mercenaries caught up, two of them closing in fast.

Hou Ming clenched his teeth in frustration. Facing contaminated creatures, his B-level mental strength could suppress them easily, but humans were different. Combat between people relied heavily on pheromones, and mental power only affected the concentration of pheromones, not physical damage.

Damn it! Hou Ming cursed inwardly. The open air and good ventilation meant his pheromones dissipated the moment they were released—useless!

As he ran, glancing over his shoulder, a sudden “thud” from ahead caught his attention.

Hou Ming’s heart sank as he looked toward Kingsley.

One glance was all it took for his heart to race—Kingsley’s left leg had been shot!

Instantly, a wave of elation surged through Hou Ming. If Kingsley couldn’t run, this was his chance! But just as he was about to sprint ahead, his right leg went numb, followed by a sharp pain shooting up from his leg. Hou Ming’s face turned pale.

—It’s over.

That was his only thought.

The two mercenaries grinned wickedly as they holstered their rifles and leisurely caught up, surrounding the two of them like spectators at a sideshow.

Hou Ming’s forehead bulged with veins. He had never been so humiliated. As he discreetly lifted his wrist to aim a gun at the mercenaries, one of them reacted quickly and shot him in the wrist.

“Bang!”

Blood splattered as the bullet embedded deep into his flesh, wedged between the bones. Hou Ming’s whole body trembled, and he collapsed to the ground, letting out a helpless, agonized wail.

“Ha, what an idiot…”

Meanwhile, Kingsley’s face had gone ashen. He gritted his teeth, a vicious glint flashing in his eyes.

Suddenly, a powerful surge of aggressive pheromones burst from Kingsley, charging straight toward the mercenaries!

But in the next second, Kingsley was stunned. The mercenaries stood there unfazed, without a scratch or even a hint of discomfort on their faces.

What was going on?!

“You really think being an alpha makes you superior to us?” one of the mercenaries sneered.

“Mental strength? One day, that’ll be the death of you.”

A strange, fanatical gleam flickered in the mercenaries’ eyes as they laughed mockingly at the injured alphas.

—What were they talking about?

Before Kingsley could make sense of it, one of the mercenaries pulled out a syringe filled with pale blue liquid.

“What are you doing?!” Kingsley’s eyes widened as soon as he saw the syringe. He began to struggle violently, blood pouring from his leg wound, but he couldn’t care less. He scrambled to retreat, trying desperately to avoid the needle aimed at him.

The mercenary smirked. “It’s just a sedative, and you’re this scared? Or is this all a big-shot S District operative can handle?”

Before Kingsley could understand how they recognized him as an S District operative, a familiar roar came from the distance.

The sound was so familiar that Kingsley and Hou Ming stopped all resistance at the same moment, looking up in excitement and trembling anticipation—it was really the S District starship!

But the sight that followed made their eyes nearly pop out in rage.

They watched as two figures swiftly boarded the starship, closing the hatch without any hesitation.

—The four of them stared in disbelief as the starship took off again.

At that moment, despair and terror engulfed Kingsley and Hou Ming. Their eyes widened as their hearts filled with a mix of anger and helplessness—

Why? Why were they the ones abandoned, while the others escaped?!

Why did those pathetic alphas and useless omegas get to flee?!

It wasn’t fair!!!

On the other side, the two mercenaries’ expressions also changed.

Without wasting another word, they injected the blue liquid into Hou Ming and Kingsley’s bodies, then sprinted back toward the factory.

—Had they been discovered?!