SCOM - Chapter 115
Chapter 115
On the way to the Military Committee, Zuo Luohuan sat alone on the roof of the vehicle, something only she would dare to do. No one knew where the enemy might emerge from, and sitting on the roof was like actively drawing their attention.
But sitting on the roof had its advantages, allowing for a quicker and clearer view of any surrounding movements.
Zuo Luohuan observed their surroundings the entire way but spotted no enemies. Halfway through the journey, as they passed a shopping mall, she looked up at the massive, rotating advertising halo on top of the building. Something flashed in her mind.
As the vehicle drove on, Zuo Luohuan frowned, trying to grasp that fleeting sixth sense.
Advertising light… light…
Zuo Luohuan suddenly remembered something. In Ren Pingbo's video today, his window curtain must not have been fully drawn. There was a light on the floor of the room, and it had flickered at one point.
Zuo Luohuan had an apartment in Central City that she occasionally stayed in. The rotating advertising light on that building was often on during the day. Sometimes, when the light was good, it traveled far, and the window of her room facing that direction would catch the flashing light.
Zuo Luohuan looked up at the sky. Just like the weather today, the sky was clear and the light was bright.
Ji Yuezhi was in the vehicle behind Zuo Luohuan. When he saw her jump down from the roof, he thought there was an enemy attack and immediately ordered his team to stop and be on alert.
Zuo Luohuan walked to the window of the vehicle behind hers, reached out, and knocked. After Ji Yuezhi lowered the window, she said, "There's something I need to confirm."
Ji Yuezhi was taken aback. She was leaving at a time like this?
Zuo Luohuan raised her hand and touched Ji Yuezhi's cheek, her fingers sliding down to lift his chin. She leaned in and placed a kiss on his lips but quickly pulled back, saying calmly, "If there's time, I'll come find you."
She gave him almost no time to react before turning and walking away.
Ji Yuezhi's fingertips touched his own lips. He could clearly feel that it was a kiss with a sense of farewell. She would never do such things to him in front of others, especially not when the situation was so urgent.
She was going to find Ren Pingbo.
The thought surfaced in Ji Yuezhi's mind almost instantly. He turned his head to watch Zuo Luohuan's departing figure, his fine, slender knuckles gripping the edge of the car window so tightly they turned white.
"Keep moving," Ji Yuezhi said in a low voice to the person in front.
The entire capital had been brought under control overnight, and now all the streets were at a standstill. Zuo Luohuan didn't drive or use a flyer. She ran all the way to Central City. The weights on her hands and feet had long been removed, and there was nothing left to restrain her strength.
The original guards at Central City were gone. Zuo Luohuan looked up at the surveillance cameras above. Without wearing a skeletal mech, she walked straight in, completely unconcerned about what might be inside.
Just like every other time she had come to stay, Zuo Luohuan entered the elevator, pressed the button to go up, and watched the numbers climb until they stopped. The elevator doors opened.
She had pressed the button for the floor above her own.
Central City had only one residence per floor. The range from which that distant light could shine in started from her floor and went all the way to the top.
When Zuo Luohuan stepped out of the elevator, she saw that the door to this floor was open, as if inviting her in.
"..."
She still remembered the man who had walked down from upstairs and offered her a cigarette.
At the time, Zuo Luohuan hadn't thought of him as an ordinary person. Anyone who could live in Central City, no matter what they did, would be a leader in their field. But she had never connected him to Ren Pingbo.
After all, Ren Pingbo was too distant from her, not even from the same generation.
Zuo Luohuan pushed the door fully open and walked in. The layout was no different from her own floor; this place even had more of a lived-in feel than hers. She walked straight to the study, and as soon as she pushed the door open, her suspicions were confirmed.
Ren Pingbo had indeed recorded the video here.
The room's decor was identical to the one in the video. The curtains were drawn open, but there was no one inside.
Zuo Luohuan's gaze swept across the desk, but she didn't find her belongings. She stood at the study door for a moment, then suddenly turned and left, quickly descending the stairwell to her own floor.
The door to her apartment was open.
In the past, this wouldn't have mattered, but now that Ji Yuezhi had stayed in this apartment, it was like an Alpha's private territory had been invaded. Zuo Luohuan's face instantly darkened.
She strode into her apartment, walked to the entryway, and turned the corner to see a person sitting on the living room sofa.
"How did you know I was here?" The man on the sofa turned his head, revealing a mature, handsome face. He added with a hint of nonchalance, "Your sofa is softer than the one I bought."
Zuo Luohuan stared at the man on the sofa, who was both a stranger and familiar. She walked over. "You have some psychological problems. I suggest you see a doctor."
Ren Pingbo turned his head back, his hands clasped under his chin. "Your ring is still with me."
He spoke with the familiarity of a friend.
Zuo Luohuan had been controlling her emotions. Looking at Ren Pingbo, she ignored his words and asked instead, "How much time until the bombs explode?"
"Kiddo, you don't answer my question, yet you want an answer from me?" Ren Pingbo's face was unaltered, and today he was even wearing a high-end, tailored suit. He leaned back against the sofa, one leg crossed over the other, and asked curiously, "If you die, will your little boyfriend be sad? Does he know you had a ring custom-made?"
Zuo Luohuan watched as Ren Pingbo took out the ring box and was about to open it. Her expression turned cold. "Senior, you're quite pitiful, not even having someone to give a ring to."
Ren Pingbo snapped the slightly opened ring box shut with a soft, dull sound. He looked at the change in Zuo Luohuan's expression with satisfaction and poured himself a glass of water. "Tell me, how did you find me? Explain, and I might return the ring to you."
"It seems Senior doesn't go out much, and your curtains are always closed." Zuo Luohuan also sat down, though she was thinking that she would have to replace the sofa Ren Pingbo was sitting on. But she didn't know what else he had touched, so she might as well replace everything in the apartment. "The rotating advertising light from a large shopping mall in the distance shines on the study window when the weather is good."
Ren Pingbo narrowed his eyes. It was true that he kept the study curtains closed year-round. Today was the first time he had opened them, because everything was about to end.
"The ring is yours." Ren Pingbo tossed the ring box in his hand to Zuo Luohuan opposite him, his other hand resting on the ring on his own thumb. "You people are really strange."
He seemed genuinely puzzled. "One moment you despise each other, and the next you can fall in love."
Zuo Luohuan opened the ring box. Seeing the ring was still there, she breathed a small sigh of relief and put it in her pocket.
Hearing his words, her gaze fell on the strange thumb ring on Ren Pingbo's hand, and she scoffed. "It's probably because you've never liked anyone, so you can't understand it."
A flicker of realization crossed Ren Pingbo's eyes, but he quickly stood up. "Since you've found me, and I hear you're the highest-level Alpha in the Federation, let's have a fight. If you win, I'll take the Gashiro people and withdraw, never to set foot in the Federation again. If I win... all of you will have to die."
A one-on-one duel. This didn't surprise Zuo Luohuan. From Ren Pingbo's last video, the intention he had revealed was to face her in combat.
The two went to the rooftop. Ren Pingbo looked at Zuo Luohuan and said, "I'll allow you to use a weapon, or even put on your so-called skeletal mech."
Zuo Luohuan looked up at him. "Since I'm the highest-level Alpha in the Federation, to use a weapon against a middle-aged man like you, Senior, would be an unfair victory."
Ren Pingbo looked as if he had heard something hilarious and couldn't help but laugh. "I've lived a long time, and you're the first person to ever say that to me."
In the next moment, Zuo Luohuan felt as if the very air around them had solidified. An intense, suffocating scent of gunpowder permeated the entirety of Central City. It was the pheromone of a mature, terrifying Alpha; anyone else would not have been able to withstand it for long.
Zuo Luohuan simultaneously released her own pheromones to counter it. She was known as the Federation's highest-level Alpha, but she usually kept her pheromones somewhat restrained. Never before had she released them as wildly as she was now.
Ren Pingbo's speed was almost invisible. Zuo Luohuan relied on instinct, tilting her head and shifting her feet slightly to dodge his attack. However, Ren Pingbo had already moved to her new position and landed a punch squarely in her abdomen.
Taking a punch of that force at close range would severely injure anyone; whether they could even stand up again was another matter. Yet Zuo Luohuan endured it, seizing the opportunity to grab Ren Pingbo's hand and twist it outward with all her might.
Ren Pingbo bent his knee and raised it, nearly striking Zuo Luohuan's chin. She turned her head away, grabbed him with both hands, and tried to throw him to the ground.
Such a move was useless against Ren Pingbo. He was, after all, a full generation older than Zuo Luohuan, and he countered every move she had ever learned.
"In all these years, you're the only one who has lasted so many rounds against me," Ren Pingbo said, wiping a smear of blood from the corner of his lips with his thumb as he looked down at Zuo Luohuan on the ground.
"Is that so?" Zuo Luohuan flipped herself up, expressionlessly snapping her own finger back into place. "In all my life, I've never truly lost either."
Ren Pingbo blocked the leg she swept at him and chuckled. "You asked about the explosion earlier. By my calculations, it should be soon."
Zuo Luohuan's concentration wavered, and in the next second, Ren Pingbo punched her in the face.
She quickly put distance between them, remaining on high alert. "Then that means the Twenty-sixth Army's time is almost up too."
"You certainly trust your little boyfriend. A pity..." Ren Pingbo attacked again as he spoke. "You're all going to die."
Even as he said such words, the casualness in Ren Pingbo's tone was startling.
"With me here, Senior's delusions are destined to fail." The ferocity in Zuo Luohuan's eyes grew heavier, and the excitement in their depths only increased. Her young face showed nothing but conviction.
She was completely unaffected by her various injuries.
Neither of them held back; every move was lethal. In the end, Zuo Luohuan could barely stand, kneeling on one knee on the rooftop.
Ren Pingbo, opposite her, was not much better off. He was older, after all, like a lion entering its twilight years. Though still majestic and powerful, he was ultimately aging.
"You are very strong," Ren Pingbo said, staggering to his feet and panting with effort. "At least stronger than I was at your age. A pity..."
He suddenly produced a light gun from somewhere and aimed it at Zuo Luohuan's forehead.
In that instant, time seemed to freeze. Zuo Luohuan's eyes watched as Ren Pingbo pulled the trigger of the light gun. At the same time, she donned her skeletal mech, but only had time to turn her head. She raised the light gun in her hand and fired without expression.
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