Eh? You want to try the humanoid girl's iron fist too?

Apart from these naked corpses, no one else was seen. Of course, this does not necessarily mean that there were no other people around.

The Rangers' reconnaissance platoon was operating on this floor, and a fierce gunfight was still going on there.

However, we cannot rule out the possibility that all the rioters on this side rushed over to provide support because of the gunfight, or that the desperate rioters might sneak away.

They've already lost everything, and in that case they at least still have a chance.

Yes, there is a chance, but they need to defeat the communications team that has circled around to the west side of the emergency evacuation stairwell. This means they'll be facing the only operational armed humanoid girl in the world right now, the kind specializing in combat…

But when Raphael came up, he only encountered one person.

She gripped her XM5, ready to fire at any moment, and carefully stepped over the corpses on the ground until she reached a corner in the office building's common corridor...

The man in the suit, who had been standing quietly behind the corner, suddenly turned around and pounced on her.

Raphael only saw a guy in a tattered suit suddenly appear in front of him, then turn around with astonishing speed, so agile that he didn't seem like a dead person, no, he didn't seem like a severely infected ELID.

A dark, gleaming arm came into view, and the sudden turn of events forced her to stumble backward. Her feet collided in the chaos, causing her to fall backward.

The infected, clearly excited, pounced forward like starving ghosts who hadn't eaten for centuries.

Raphael pushed it up expressionlessly, its cold, hard shoulders reminding her that this was a non-human monster that was rapidly advancing towards silicon metal.

Mr. Metal opened his mouth wide and swung his neck vigorously up and down as if she were a delicious and tempting delicacy. His stiff arms and hands also kept trying to pry open the hands supporting his body.

"Ugh—"

"

It just started to increase dramatically out of nowhere.

When conventional high-energy rays—such as gamma rays and beta rays—pass through the body of an organism, they cause ionization and excitation of biological macromolecules, damaging the organism's nucleic acids, proteins, enzymes, and other substances with vital functions. This damage can result in conditions such as base loss, base destruction, pyrimidine dimer formation, single-strand and double-strand breaks, intra- and inter-strand crosslinking of DNA, and crosslinking of DNA and proteins.

While causing various types of DNA damage, it also activates the cell's repair system: if the DNA damage caused by radiation is properly repaired, cell function returns to normal.

If the repair is unsuccessful, incomplete, or inaccurate, the cell may die, or although it may survive, the altered genetic information may cause mutations, chromosomal aberrations, or even cancer.

The paradox of ELID wide-area collapse radiation infection lies in the fact that it alters the human body in ways that are incomprehensible to humans.

Since the discovery of the ruins at the beginning of the last century, humanity has still been unable to fully explain the collapse radiation with a complete theory.

Our understanding of this thing is still in a very rudimentary stage, and its only use is as a crude substitute for explosives.

Raphael flicked the gun with his toe, grabbed it with his hand, lowered the muzzle, aimed at the metallic face, and fired three bullets in quick succession, ensuring that it could never get up from the ground again.

Book 1: The World Before the Great War: Chapter 83 Security

Raphael immediately lowered his center of gravity, raised his weapon, and moved down the corridor. Anyone or any ELID infected who appeared would be torn apart by scorching metal bullets, ultimately eliciting a deafening scream of agony.

The fall and hissing wouldn't stop the shooter; Raphael would only continue to let the scorching metal burrow into the hard skull.

Even when her target was lying on the ground, only twitching a few times as the bullets hit the mangled body, Raphael still wouldn't stop firing.

Determining a death, especially for ELID-infected individuals, is often difficult. Taking it lightly can lead to the same fate as the robbers and thugs who were forced to launch a two-pronged attack.

They not only had to endure the gradual encroachment of the regular army, but also had to find a way to eliminate the metal men who sneaked in from behind.

Raphael lifted her toes and pressed her foot forward. As she approached the last corner, she slowly shifted her body to the side, gradually widening her field of vision and firing arc while keeping the muzzle of her gun within the normal line extending from the corner's intersection.

The safest approach was unnecessary at this point. The Ranger squad, engaged in direct combat with the enemy, had already drawn the enemy's main attention, and most of the personnel left to guard the rear were also focused on the battle in the direction of the emergency stairwell on the east side.

After all, ELID infected individuals move slowly, and as long as you don't get into a struggle with them, there's not much danger.

Besides, those infected are not much different from the slow-moving zombies in the movies, except that one body looks relatively well-preserved while the other body is severely rotting and emitting a foul odor.

Based on these assessments, Raphael opted for a more decisive and efficient approach, quickly cutting off the corners and clearing away the threats in front of and to the sides of the office area.

"Hey, who are you?!"

When Raphael looked in the direction of the sound, the gun was already pointed. Two shots rang out, and the filthy young man, wearing a hood and holding an AK, threw his head back and fell directly onto the carpeted floor.

Entering from the floor entrance, turn left into a long corridor, then turn right into another long corridor, and there's a corner ahead. However, there's an opening in the middle of the corridor that separates the two office areas on either side.

It seems the gunfight is mainly concentrated in that area; the sounds are coming from very close to the stairwell on the east side.

If the office area is symmetrically divided, Raphael can be fairly certain that the Rangers' reconnaissance platoon's poor performance in their attack was largely due to terrain factors.

As she passed the body, she took a responsible approach and, after confirming that the surrounding area was temporarily safe, fired another shot into the forehead of the corpse on the ground.

She fired a shot at every body she saw along the way to ensure she was absolutely safe behind her. After all, the story of Navy SEAL Mike Day in 07 was a stark reminder of what had happened. He had been shot 16 times in the arm, leg, and abdomen, with the remaining 11 bullets hitting his body armor, and the shockwave from a grenade knocking him unconscious.

Although the terrorists fired two more shots into his collarbone with a pistol, it was not fatal.

After he regained consciousness, he used his P226 to take out the remaining three terrorists from behind.

Therefore, the importance of headshots is evident.

The commotion of the follow-up shot was probably heard by the people inside, and a submachine gun emerged from the gap in the middle corridor, firing a burst of bullets behind them.

Raphael fired two shots in the direction of the sound and then promptly threw a grenade.

The moment the grenade exploded, she fired as she advanced. By the time she reached the gap in the corridor that opened to the east, she had already drawn her pistol with her left hand.

The window of opportunity had opened for both sides. Her assault rifle had already emptied 20 rounds, while the person hiding around the corner with a submachine gun chose to seize this hard-won chance.

Clearly, the opponent had just recovered from the shock of the explosion and, sensing that the enemy was close at hand, decided to take the initiative and fight for his life.

As soon as the submachine gun emerged from the corner, Raphael reached out and grabbed it, raising the gun high as she stood in front of the thug, her pistol already pointed at his chest.

Bang, bang, bang...

The magazine was emptied in one go, his chest was almost riddled with bullets, and his lungs, trachea and heart, which were protected by his sternum, were turned into a pot of mangled flesh by the rolling bullets.

Bright red blood gushed from his mouth. He slowly sat down against the wall, his hands and feet twitching slightly from time to time, but soon he stopped responding.

He changed the pistol magazine, then the assault rifle magazine, and tossed both empty magazines into the recycling bag hanging on his tactical vest. Once he was sure he was back in action, Raphael stood there listening to the gunfire around him.

She crouched down at the intersection and listened for a few minutes, carefully watching for those chillingly subtle sounds, before finally taking a step forward.

What will happen next?

Raphael felt a renewed sense of anticipation and renewed energy. She then turned on her radio and said to the two guards stationed in the stairwell, "This is Raphael, you can come over now."

"Received, in progress."

Sean Clemons released the PTT button and said to his good friend, "She let us through."

"Walk."

David Bruce was a man of few words; as he walked from the stairwell to the floor, he closed the fire doors of the emergency evacuation route to prevent anything from chasing after him.

As Sean walked, he suddenly asked, "What do you think of the lieutenant?"

"Safety."

"What safety? It's dangerous here."

“I mean, this area should be safe.” David stepped over the body on the ground, steadied his gun, and said, “She disposed of every body she saw on the road, being cautious.”

Sean rolled his eyes. "Why not just waste bullets?"

“ELID-infected individuals don’t necessarily die. The rioters might pass out after being shot, and they all have fresh bullet holes in their heads, so they’re quite safe,” David replied matter-of-factly.

He said only that one sentence, and then fell silent again.

"Do you think an ordinary naval officer could have this ability? Especially a woman, who doesn't look that old."

"Big," Sean said, seemingly doubting Raphael's performance.

The Annapolis Naval Academy teaches some basic combat knowledge, but most of its graduates are destined for service at sea or at a naval base. Ground combat training requires applying to join special forces.

It's not like the Marine Corps Academy, where the curriculum focuses on ground combat.

“I don’t know. Special operations forces hardly recruit female trainees, and the ban on female trainees in the field of ground special operations has not been lifted so far,” David replied calmly.

"That's truly a miracle."

"No, in 18, two female officers completed their training at the Rangers' school and graduated. The Army also has a cultural support group responsible for infiltrating and engaging with the local population. They also undergo advanced combat training and should be considered special forces as well?"

"Ah, that doesn't count. Graduating from Ranger School doesn't mean you can join the Rangers!"

Sean countered, "Besides, cultural support teams basically don't participate in combat. Just like joining Delta Force as an EOD explosives specialist, they're only considered mission specialists, not members of a fixed squad."

"Okay, then that's all."

Book 1: The World Before the Great War: Chapter 84 Stabbing in the Back

In the tactical communications system, Neri Water received a message from Lieutenant Raphael of the communications team, asking if the reconnaissance platoon was engaged in "effective firing," meaning whether there was any threat to life.

“No,” Neri replied, because the enemy’s bullets had not hit their positions.

However, his men were getting agitated by their predicament of being stuck in the middle of the stairwell, and the ricocheting bullets were making them quite panicked. In particular, a sergeant who was forced to stand in the middle of the stairwell immediately retorted to his superior's opinion: "The shot was effective, Lieutenant!" he said.

They've been stuck here for over ten minutes, and can only manage to get three men out to fire at most. This kind of attack is too weak; it's more like harassment than an attack.

To launch an attack from behind the enemy, someone had to go back downstairs and come up the stairwell on the other side.

However, judging from the current situation, the communications team has broken away from their escort and come up from the west side on their own initiative, even saying something about not firing into the west corridor...

They simply don't have that capability right now.

"Grenade." The soldier by the door took an M67 grenade, and while his teammates were suppressing the fire with full-automatic fire, he forcefully pulled the pin and threw it inside as the covering fire subsided.

Boom!

The explosion was not very effective; the intermittent gunfire continued, with bullets either hitting the door frame or flying out and into the walls of the stairwell.

Damn it, this is so annoying.

"This is Raphael, scout. We're about to begin," the communications lieutenant said over the radio.

"Start what?"

Neri seemed somewhat puzzled; he couldn't imagine what two guards plus a communications officer who appeared to be from the naval fleet could possibly do.

He exhaled a puff of white breath, and in order not to reveal his thoughts, he quietly observed his surroundings.

The two captains looked confused, but the captain at the bottom, who was in charge of guard duty, looked confident and gave a creepy smile.

“Nairy, have them keep throwing grenades and keep the people inside focused on us,” Vic John said, standing up.

"Truly worthy of being called a bullfighter!" came the praise from below.

"Squad C will take over the frontal combat mission. Squad B will withdraw."

"but……"

“No buts,” he said to Sergeant Schmidt. “Second brother, how many magazines are still in good condition?”