Dear Heroes, I really am a Villain-Chapter 78: Open the path of blood

The moment the device activated, it emitted a wave that caused intense nausea and weakness in everyone present. Many were severely affected, including Gu Yichen and even Gu Tian, who suddenly felt drained of strength.

However, the soldiers in full armored suits seemed immune to the device’s effects, except for those whose armor had already been cracked by Maximilian. They now had to endure not only the pain from their injuries but also the debilitating impact of the inhibitor wave.

But despite all this, Maximilian remained unaffected. He continued neutralizing the soldiers, who were now completely disoriented. He moved so fast that he often vanished from their sight, making it nearly impossible for them to aim at him.

What made things worse was that Maximilian constantly maneuvered in ways that, if the soldiers tried to shoot, they risked hitting one another. He exploited angles so that whenever he stopped, their line of fire would intersect with a comrade’s position, forcing them to hesitate.

But then—

"Ignore the friendly fire! You’re now exempt from Operation Rule Section 3!" came a command from a man wearing the heaviest armor.

With that order, the soldiers opened fire on Maximilian without concern for their allies.

Seeing this, Maximilian immediately stopped his assault and ducked low to avoid the bullets. Several rounds tore through the unlucky soldiers, and though their armor absorbed some of the damage, a few weren’t so lucky. One soldier had his visor penetrated, the bullet passing straight into his skull, his most vulnerable point.

Maximilian retreated behind the body of one of the unlucky soldiers who had been blasted by a shotgun. Although he was armored, it remained uncertain whether it was enough to keep him alive.

Maximilian then grabbed a nearby soldier and shoved him toward the one wielding the shotgun, causing the blast to hit the unfortunate man point-blank. Without delay, Maximilian followed up with a strike, sending the shotgun wielder crashing into the wall.

With dozens more soldiers still fighting, Maximilian was beginning to get annoyed.

Bang!

Another gunshot rang out, this time aimed at his head. Maximilian ducked just in time. He had tried his best to hold back, but clearly, these people believed he wouldn’t or couldn’t kill them.

[Hey, big softie, you don’t need to hold back. If these insects die, it’s because they’re asking for it. Don’t worry, I won’t stop liking you.] Atherna’s voice echoed in his mind.

Hearing that, Maximilian let out a sigh. Atherna was right, it was too difficult to hold back without accidentally killing some of these idiots, especially while avoiding using his Umbra Sovereign abilities.

{I see... I’ll start making an example out of a few of them, then. Maybe they’ll get the message.} Maximilian responded, his eyes suddenly sharpening with cold, killing intent.

The squad leader, seeing Maximilian remain still, mistook it for exhaustion.

"He’s out of breath! Kill him!" he shouted.

The soldiers surged forward for another assault.

Maximilian’s eyes went ice-cold, and then he vanished.

No more holding back.

Boom!

A devastating strike landed squarely on the squad leader the moment Maximilian reappeared. The blow crushed his ribs, punctured his lungs and heart, and killed him instantly. The remaining qi from the strike obliterated his internal organs. Maximilian hadn’t even used as much qi as he had during his fight with the Behemoth. Still, this amount was more than enough to reduce the man’s insides to pulp.

The sight was horrific. Blood poured from every orifice of the leader’s body, shocking the other soldiers. They had never imagined that even their most advanced armor, outfitted with kinetic absorption technology, could fail so utterly.

Terror spread among the remaining troops. If the best armor available couldn’t save their commander, what chance did they have? Worse still, it was now clear that their opponent had been holding back all along.

"Listen carefully," Daniel said, stepping forward. Seeing their hesitation and morale plummeting, he spoke clearly and confidently. "If you lay down your weapons now and tell me where your boss is, this ends here for you. But if you still want to continue, I’ll ensure your families get rich..."

He paused.

"From your hazard pay," Daniel finished, his tone deadly serious... even though his words carried a hint of dark humor. novelbuddy.cσ๓

[If that was a joke, I’d say your sense of humor is deteriorating. (눈_눈)]

Maximilian: ...

The soldiers hesitated. Naturally, they didn’t want to die, so laying down their arms wasn’t the issue, but betraying their boss was. Doing so might cost them their jobs, or worse.

At that moment, one of the soldiers took a chance and fired a shot at Maximilian. He quickly deflected the bullet and rushed toward the shooter.

Boom!

Another powerful strike landed. This time, the soldier exploded into a mist of blood. Maximilian, now growing increasingly irritated, had used more power than he intended.

Seeing their comrade reduced to nothing but a helmet, armor, and scattered equipment, the remaining soldiers immediately dropped their weapons.

"Er... sir, the board director is on the top floor," one of them said nervously.

Maximilian gave a nod and walked toward the stairs. He wasn’t foolish enough to take the elevator. The thing could be easily locked down or turned into a trap.

Switch and Gu Yichen watched as Maximilian remained completely unaffected by the EF inhibition wave. Gritting their teeth, they walked over to the device and switched it off.

"Damn it... now that he’s pissed, what are you going to do?" Switch asked, knowing this place was under Gu Yichen’s company.

"How the hell would I know? I don’t have the authority to stop this, remember!?" Gu Yichen snapped back.

"I heard that the more polite and quiet a guy is, the more violent he gets when he’s pissed off! And Max is exactly that kind of guy! Quick, let’s go to the top floor! You don’t want to watch him liquidate the entire board of directors, do you!?" Switch said in trepidation.

"Follow me! I’ll take you to the private elevator," Gu Yichen replied and quickly led Switch to the family’s private lift.

With that, both Switch and Gu Yichen rushed toward the private elevator, leaving Gu Tian behind.

Gu Tian slowly regained his composure. He looked at the corridor, now filled with groaning soldiers, two of them reduced to corpses, one of which had been liquefied. The sight horrified the surviving troops.

The remaining soldiers, unsure of what to do, looked to Gu Tian for guidance, but he ignored them and rushed toward the elevator. This chaos had to be stopped. He didn’t yet know the full extent of the power wielded by the man his brother had invited, but he wasn’t willing to find out the hard way.

He had to stop this!

Meanwhile, on the stairwell, Maximilian bulldozed his way upward. Soldiers descending from the higher floors tried their best to stop him, but this time, Maximilian showed no mercy. If they came at him with lethal force wither it’s guns or explosives, he responded with even deadlier, more devastating power.

The higher-ups were dead set on eliminating the problem, especially Gu Weizhong, who felt his authority was being challenged by a man he perceived as insignificant, an ant he believed he could crush at will. As a result, he doubled down, sending more and more soldiers to intercept Maximilian.

In the board directors’ meeting room, before things had gone completely off the rails, Gu Weizhong had initially intended to pressure Gu Yichen into selling his shares, redistributing them to other, more "capable" members of the family.

He had arranged for Gu Yichen to bring Maximilian and Switch here as part of a plan to ridicule them, using the moment to reinforce his argument that Gu Yichen wasted his time on unworthy people and poor investments.

But now... it was he who appeared short-sighted and clouded in judgment in the eyes of the board of directors, a dangerous look for someone who had not yet claimed the top seat.

"What the hell are you all doing!? Why can’t you kill a single man using only his bare hands!? Haven’t we already activated the EF inhibitors installed on the top ten floors!?" Gu Weizhong roared at the speaker.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Ratatatata!

"Sir! We’ve already cranked the inhibitor up to 120%! It’s affecting us too, even through our armor! Normal employees on the floor can’t even move!! We can’t increase the intensity any further, if we do, it’ll trigger an alert from the IHB!" the head of security shouted over the comms, his voice barely cutting through the backdrop of gunfire and agonized screams coming from the battlefield.

"What!? Kill him! Stop him! Arrrghh!" With that final scream, the voice of the security head vanished from the speaker.

"Useless! Useless! All of them!" Gu Weizhong shouted as he smashed the speaker on his desk.

"Weizhong, I hope you can give us a good explanation for why this is happening, especially since you were the one who called us here," one of the board directors said, narrowing his eyes sharply.