Esoteric Buddhism: To live as king in America

Sniping? On the street?

Finally realizing what was happening, Mian immediately grabbed Ain and rolled over to move behind the hot dog cart. Looking at the bullet craters left on the ground, she felt an overwhelming sense of fear.

Mian was not unaware of the possibility of attacks from the Celestial Church and gangs, but those were all in sparsely populated alleys, and at most, he was wary of suspicious vehicles approaching him and Ain.

Right now, Mian was on Fifth Avenue, the busiest street in the Dukes District, at dusk, when people were out looking for food. He really couldn't believe that in the Free City, the economic center of the Ocean Federation, someone could be so lawless.

The sound of the gunshot caused an uproar among pedestrians on Fifth Avenue. Police officers on the sidewalk began calling for help and tried to move towards the source of the gunfire. However, a bullet fired from another direction knocked one of the officers to the ground.

There are two enemies!

Mian carefully adjusted Ain's position.

He wasn't sure if his still-incompletely restored armor could withstand sniper fire, nor did he understand the defensive strength of Ain now that she had been officially recognized. Everything should be done with utmost care, but…

A bullet struck a lamppost next to the hot dog cart, ricocheted, and, carrying a scorching heat and sparks, narrowly missed Mian's ear, leaving a thin bloodstain and a burning pain.

This is outrageous!

You and your followers have been attacked by gnolls, cunning and treacherous, lurking in the shadows and attempting to strike with their inferior shortbows. However, you remain calm, confident in your ability to easily defeat them. Remember, it takes them at least five seconds to fire an arrow.

Aren't you flustered at all?

Looking at the words on the shards of mirror, Mian grinned. He wasn't a wolf in sheep's clothing; he wasn't that calm. But since the other party had bullied him to this extent, he wasn't good-natured enough to tolerate it.

"My lord, I'll go and take care of them."

Ain clutched her precious "Silver Knight" card tightly, her deep red eyes burning with hostile rage.

Mian looked into her eyes, a flood of worry flashing across his mind—letting a sixteen-year-old girl, just escaped from a mental hospital, deal with an armed sniper? That was insane! But right now, she was the only one with unconventional powers, the only hope for breaking the deadlock. He took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down, and quickly analyzed the situation:

"There are two of them, taking turns firing to suppress the enemy. One is on the top floor of the second row of buildings facing the street, and the other is on the rooftop of an office building at the corner intersection. Reloading a sniper rifle takes about ten seconds. I'll draw the first round of fire for you, and you can use that to get close to one of them. And remember, be extremely careful, don't try to take the bullets head-on."

"Um!"

Ayn nodded vigorously, her eyes resolute. She seemed to fully understand Mian's plan, her face showing no hesitation whatsoever.

"Get ready, they should be reloading soon..."

Mian held his breath, savoring the brief, suffocating silence. The next second, he abruptly ripped off his shirt and threw it into the open space in front of the hot dog truck.

"Bang!"

Almost the instant the clothes flew off, a gunshot rang out as expected. The bullet precisely tore the jacket through the air, scattering pieces of fabric everywhere.

Mian successfully fooled one of the snipers.

Even before the echoes of the gunshot had faded, Mian, his lean upper body bare, suddenly burst out from behind the hot dog cart. He didn't run in a straight line, but instead crouched low and charged in an extremely irregular zigzag pattern toward a thick concrete flowerbed bunker a few meters away.

"Bang!"

A second shot followed immediately. The bullet whizzed past his back as he fell, embedding itself heavily in the ground where he had just collapsed, sending up pebbles and dust.

Mian rolled behind the flower bed in a terrifying moment, his skin covered in cold sweat and dust, his heart pounding wildly as if it would burst out of his chest.

"Ain, it's right now, the one on the left!"

Mian shouted at the girl, but the silver knight's figure shot out like an arrow in an instant.

After being named a "Silver Knight", Ain felt that her physical condition had reached an unprecedented level.

Power surged through his limbs and bones, so strong it seemed capable of killing a patrolling hound, yet so light it seemed capable of outrunning a pursuing motorcycle.

Ain's figure left a blurry afterimage in the twilight light. Her target was crystal clear: the very first one who dared to fire a fatal bullet at the lord.

With Mian's instructions and her seemingly innate sense of hostility, she clearly pinpointed the other person's location. She could see the man lying on the edge of the second-row rooftop across the street, his face half-covered by a hood. At that moment, he was pulling back the bolt, attempting to reload the next bullet.

As the one who fired last in the previous round, the concealed, homemade sniper rifle he was using had a five-second reload time, which was his fatal weakness.

In the blink of an eye, Ai Yin had already rushed downstairs. Facing the towering building with its dozen or so floors, Ai Yin didn't pause at all, nor did she even choose to take the stairs.

Suddenly, her slender legs unleashed astonishing power. Her body leaped incredibly upwards, clearing three or four stories, then her toes precisely touched the protruding sill of a central window, using the momentum to launch her again. With a fluid flip, she landed steadily on the rooftop.

The sniper on the rooftop had just ejected a new spent cartridge and was about to load the next bullet when a ghostly silver figure appeared in front of him.

This is the tenth floor!

He stared in horror, his eyes wide, almost unable to believe what he was seeing.

However, being a skilled assassin, he instinctively drew his pistol and fired several bullets at Ain. Then he saw the eerie girl vanish before his eyes.

Then he felt something falling from above his head, and looked up in disbelief to see Ayn descending from the sky.

Ayn wasn't very good at fighting; during her more than ten years in the mental hospital, she was usually the one getting beaten up. The only move she knew was a pounce she mimicked, which she did when she was starving after escaping the hospital and trying to catch a bird, mimicking a cat's leap.

It was simply a lunge in knight form, with the speed of a car crashing into it.

"ah--!"

The sniper let out a piercing scream. Not everyone can withstand the impact of the car; he was knocked to the ground. The intimate contact between the back of his head and the concrete ceiling instantly drained all his strength, and he collapsed unconscious.

Then there was one left. Ain abandoned her captured prey, stood up, and glanced at another tall building in the distance. The knight's battle was not over yet.