As a night raven flew by, Chloe nonchalantly lowered her hand to the weapon at her waist.
It was the standard-issue ion gun distributed in the military camp - small in size but with formidable destructive power.
Chloe kept her hand on the gun, gradually extending her perception outward until it settled on a patch of grass not far away.
She clearly sensed a person there.
The sensory connection to Chloe's brain allowed her to see the figure hidden in the grass in complete detail.
It was a man with a shifty, rat-like face, scrawny and bony as if he hadn't eaten properly in years.
Chloe unconsciously furrowed her brow, an expression of disgust crossing her face.
Taking advantage of the lack of movement from that direction, Chloe decided to strike first. She slowly raised her head while keeping her hand on the ion gun at her waist, aiming at the patch of grass in the distance.
She had the skill to accurately target an enemy's position using her perception alone, without even looking through the gun's sights, ensuring a direct hit.
Like now.
The ion gun's discharge wasn't loud, but if you were close enough, you could still detect something.
The man in the grass would probably never understand how a bullet fired from a gun at waist level could hit his shoulder so precisely.
The bullet whistled through the air, its soft sound startling the birds roosting in the forest, before piercing through the man's body, passing clean through his shoulder.
The scrawny man let out an agonized howl.
The sound made Chloe furrow her brow involuntarily.
Why did everyone make the same pig-like squealing when they got hurt? It wasn't pleasant at all.
Yes, our rebellious young lady wished that people could make elegant, sensual sounds when shot or injured in various unusual ways.
Preferably something that would please and excite the perfectionist young miss.
Of course, this was nearly impossible, but it didn't stop Chloe from feeling disdain for the skinny man nearby.
When the gunshot rang out, the relief team from Tagar had just arrived in the vicinity.
Hearing the sound, they instinctively heightened their alertness and quickly approached: "What happened? Is someone here?"
Chloe glanced at them, noticing it wasn't Qu Yan or any of the familiar Tagar people she knew. She removed the gun from her waist and walked towards the grass where the scrawny man was hiding:
"There was someone, but I think they've been dealt with now."
As she finished speaking, she strode up to the edge of the grass.
The two remaining Tagar students exchanged bewildered looks, both thinking of the same question—
Chloe had only just removed the ion gun from her waist, so where had the earlier gunshot come from?
Or rather, how had she fired?
Meanwhile, after pushing aside the grass, Chloe indeed found the small-framed man inside.
He seemed to still be conscious, shaking all over and clutching his shoulder, muttering something incomprehensible.
Chloe hadn't aimed to kill him with that shot; otherwise, she would have targeted his forehead rather than his shoulder.
Since there was strong evidence suggesting the Viper Group was lying in ambush here, they needed to make the most of this witness who had willingly stumbled into their sights.
Regardless of whether he was actually part of the Viper Group or not.
Chloe's discerning gaze fell on the scrawny man's hands. She stood up and, with a tilt of her chin, ordered:
"Pick him up and bring him back."
As soon as the words left her mouth, the two Tagar Military Academy students instinctively complied.
It wasn't until they had brought the scrawny man back to the camp that they suddenly realized—wait a minute, they were all just students on guard duty rotation, so why were they following Chloe's orders so readily?
Before they could figure it out, Chloe's voice sounded from behind them again:
"What are you standing around for? Take him to Colonel Bai!"
The Tagar students didn't dare disobey and hurriedly escorted the man into the camp.
Chloe fell in behind them, appearing to walk leisurely but in reality, listening intently and observing everything around her.
On an ancient tree beside the military camp, a raven with blood-red eyes stared unblinkingly in the direction of the military students.
It used its beak to preen its feathers, then flapped its wings and took off from the branch.
Just as it had flown about a meter away, an invisible arrow suddenly shot up from beneath the tree, piercing straight through the raven's chest!
The blood-red eyes gradually lost their life, and the raven fell stiffly to the ground.
Next to the raven's corpse was a muddy swamp overgrown with weeds. As the body slowly sank, just as only its head remained above the surface, the weeds beside the swamp were suddenly flattened by a high-top military boot. A slender, pale hand grasped the head and pulled it straight out of the mire.
...
"So this is the person you found outside, suspected to be a Viper Group spy?"
The Tagar Military Academy students nodded, then shook their heads.
One of them honestly confessed:
"We didn't find him. Chloe did."
"When we arrived at the entrance, Chloe had already shot and wounded him."
Hearing this, Bai Zuo was momentarily taken aback.
He crouched down and reached out to touch the scrawny man's neck.
The pulse was slow but steady and strong. He was still alive.
But just looking at the festering gunshot wound on his shoulder, it was clear that Chloe's marksmanship was no empty boast.
The scrawny man's eyes were filled with terror, his hand tightly clutching something.
Bai Zuo forcefully pried open his hand to look, finding a badge inside.
The pattern on the badge was very familiar—it was the symbol of the Viper Group.
Bai Zuo's eyes darkened as he turned to the Tagar students: "Where is Chloe now?"
"She should still be on guard duty outside. After all, the camp can't be left unattended."
Bai Zuo waved for someone to drag the scrawny man away, then stood up and walked towards the camp entrance.
The Colonel's tent was the largest and directly faced the main gate of the camp.
As soon as he emerged, Bai Zuo saw Chloe standing ramrod straight at the camp entrance.
...Had she taken over the shift as soon as she woke up and stayed there until now?
Suppressing his thoughts, Bai Zuo strode quickly towards her.
"Chloe."
Hearing the voice, Chloe paused for a moment, then responded flippantly: "When you hear someone call your name in the middle of the night, you should never turn around."
"Because you don't know if it's a person or a ghost."
Bai Zuo: "..."
Left with no choice, he walked around to face Chloe directly: "Chloe."
Seeing him, Chloe's eyes brightened slightly, and she said casually, "Oh, isn't this our dear Colonel Bai?"
Bai Zuo: "...Cut the chatter. Did you catch that spy?"
"I did," Chloe said, while handing something she was clutching to Bai Zuo. "Here, I caught this too."
It was a crow, jet-black all over, with its eyes tightly closed.
Chloe continued slowly:
"Although I don't know what this crow is for yet, my intuition has always been quite accurate."
"I just feel that this crow is far too suspicious to be anything good."
