Fifty feet wide and painfully bright, the display cast a crystal-clear projection directly down onto the scrambling strike team.
Jax looked up, expecting to see a blaring corporate alarm or a localized defense system.
It wasn't a corporate ad.
It was broadcasting Kaelen Cross's live cosmic stream chat in real-time.
A cascading wall of text was flying across the giant screen at breakneck speeds.
It was written in strange alien letters and high-dimensional symbols completely impossible for human eyes to read.
But the giant, mocking emojis were universal.
[User 'Zark': 😂😂😂 BRO TURNED ON THE LIGHTS AND THEY FROZE LIKE DEER IN HEADLIGHTS!]
[User 'Star_Dust_69': LMAOOOO LOOK AT THE RATS! THEY LOOK SO CONFUSED 💀💀💀]
[User 'BloodGod': WIPE THEM OUT! PAINT THE STREETS! 🩸🩸🩸]
[User 'Weapons_Nut_44': THE TRAP IS SPRUNG! EMP to strip stealth, then a power surge! HE BAITED THEM INTO AN OPEN BOWL! 🍿🔥]
[User 'Succubus_Envy_99': Wait, Vespera gets to hug him while he sets up a mass execution?! IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ME! 😩🔥]
[User 'DragonBoredom': Look at the commander's little mechanical jaw drop. Pathetic ants. Clear the field, Kaelen. Do not bore me.]
[Constellation 'Mecha-King': Fifty heavily armored targets standing completely exposed... This execution is going to be a masterpiece.]
[User 'Void_Seeker_00': THEY DEADASS THOUGHT THEY WERE THE HUNTERS! SURPRISE MOTHERFUCKERS! 🎉💥]
[User 'Gore_Whore_9': Crimson mist incoming! Aim for the big one with the shiny metal chin, Kael! Make him pop like a balloon! 🎯🩸🥵]
[User 'Zark': BRO HACKED A DEAD BILLBOARD JUST TO TROLL THEM BEFORE HE SHOOTS! THIS IS PEAK CONTENT! 😭]
[User 'Point_Gamble_God': 100,000 CREDITS SAYS HE TAKES OFF THE COMMANDER'S LEGS FIRST! PUT YOUR MONEY DOWN BOYS! 🎲📉]
[User 'S-Rank_Hater': Vanguard's corporate stock just dropped another 10% in real-time! I AM FEASTING TODAY! YOU LOVE TO SEE IT!]
[User 'Feral_For_Cross': HE HAS THEM ON THE BIG SCREEN! BARK FOR HIM, VANGUARD DOGS! BARK! 🐕🔥]
[User 'Error_404_Alive': The sheer disrespect of making them read their own obituary in the stream chat... Kael is an absolute menace.]
[User 'Galactic_Simp_42': KAEL IS SO COLD FOR THIS! PUBLIC SHAMING BEFORE THE ONE-TAP! 🥶👑]
Thousands of massive, glowing skull and laughing emojis scrolled across the fifty-foot display.
They mocked the elite Vanguard squad in high-definition real-time.
Jax stared up at the towering screen.
His cybernetic jaw literally dropped.
He was a veteran of a hundred black-ops wars. He had slaughtered entire rebel factions in the dark.
And right now, he was being publicly laughed at.
By what? By who?!
"Commander!" the lead scout yelled.
The man was standing right in the dead center of the illuminated street, his active camouflage completely shattered.
"What the hell is that screen?!"
Three miles away, Kaelen Cross slowly exhaled.
He pulled the trigger.
SHHHH-THOOOM!
The Panopticon didn't kick.
The dark-matter cell instantly swallowed all the heavy recoil.
It dumped that violent energy directly into a tiny spatial tear floating just inches behind Kael's right shoulder.
A heavy slug of depleted star-metal shot off the magnetic rails.
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Mach 5.
It moved with such terrifying speed that it instantly set the toxic green smog on fire.
A perfectly straight, blinding line of blue flame drew itself across the dead night sky.
In the bullet's direct path stood three massive, abandoned concrete skyscrapers.
The slug didn't stop.
It didn't even slow down.
Powered by the raw, reality-bending hype of seven hundred thousand cosmic spectators, the shot simply ignored the laws of physics.
It punched clean through the reinforced frame of the first skyscraper.
It punched through the second.
It punched through the third.
Glowing, molten tunnels were melted straight through thirty feet of solid concrete and steel beams.
Down in the brightly lit plaza, the lead scout was still staring up at the giant laughing emojis.
He never saw the flash from three miles out.
He never heard the rifle fire.
Traveling at Mach 5, the bullet outpaced its own sound barrier.
SPLAT.
The star-metal slug struck the scout dead center in his enchanted breastplate.
The heavy, ten-million-dollar armor didn't even shatter.
The man simply ceased to exist from the waist up.
The raw force of the impact was so catastrophic that his torso, arms, and head were instantly vaporized.
An expanding, fine cloud of hot crimson mist hung in the air.
His severed, armored legs stood perfectly still on the asphalt for a fraction of a second.
Then, they collapsed sideways like empty hollow pipes.
The surrounding Bloodhounds froze.
They stared blankly as the red mist rained down onto their visors.
One second passed.
Two seconds.
Three seconds.
CRRRR-ACK BOOOOOOOM!
The thunderous sonic boom of the shot finally arrived.
It crashed into the intersection like a localized earthquake, shattering every remaining glass window across the plaza.
Absolute, unfiltered panic erupted.
"SNIPER!" Jax roared.
His mechanical voice cracked in raw, unadulterated terror.
"TAKE COVER! GET OUT OF THE OPEN!"
The absolute discipline of the elite Vanguard unit shattered like cheap glass.
Forty-nine heavily armored, veteran assassins scrambled frantically across the illuminated street like roaches fleeing the light.
They dove headfirst behind rusted cars, concrete barriers, and into the dark mouths of narrow alleyways.
High above their panicking heads, the fifty-foot holographic billboard continued to glow with blinding intensity.
Its chat feed was scrolling so ridiculously fast it became a dizzying blur of pure cosmic dopamine.
[User 'Weapons_Nut_44': DID YOU SEE THAT?! THREE MILES! THROUGH THREE SOLID SKYSCRAPERS! THE ENERGY RETENTION IS PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE!]
[User 'DragonBoredom': AHAHAHAHA! Projecting the live stream right onto their heads before vaporizing them?! Kaelen, you magnificent, sadistic bastard!]
[User 'Gore_Whore_9': FUCK YESSSS! HIS ENTIRE TORSO TURNED TO SOUP! I'M LITERALLY SHAKING RIGHT NOW 💦🩸🔫]
[User 'Cocky_Constellation': Bro wiped out an elite scout like he was squishing a bug on stream. Hardest hype I've seen in 300 years.]
[User 'I_AM_X': Look at those Vanguard dogs scrambling on all fours! MAKE THEM BEG, KAEL!]
[User 'Succubus_Envy_99': Is no one gonna talk about Vespera rubbing up against his neck while he pulls off a 3-mile snipe?! I WOULDN'T LAST TWO SECONDS 😩🔥]
[User 'Zark' has donated 5,000 Cosmic Credits! — "CHAT I AM LOSING MY MIND! HE ACTUALLY DID IT!"]
[Constellation 'Mecha-King' has donated 15,000 Cosmic Credits!]
[User 'BloodGod' has donated 10,000 Cosmic Credits!]
[User 'Lust_God_Eros' has donated 10,000 Cosmic Credits! — "Buy your demon girl something nice after you finish skinning these pigs."]
[Total Cosmic Credits: 81,500]
Three miles away, Kael casually racked the railgun's heavy bolt back.
CLACK.
The sharp mechanical sound cut right through the howling rooftop wind.
"One down," Kael whispered.
Vespera pressed her body tighter against his back, her breathing shallow and ragged.
"More," the Void Succubus begged softly, her sharp nails digging into his tactical vest.
"Don't let the little rats hide, Master."
Down in the illuminated intersection, Commander Jax was fighting to breathe.
He pressed his back hard against a narrow alley wall, completely shielded by an overturned, rusted military truck.
His mechanical heart hammered wildly against his ribcage.
He stared at his visor's tactical readouts in absolute, mind-numbing disbelief.
The shot's origin was confirmed.
It had come from three miles away. It had punched straight through three reinforced skyscrapers.
How was that physically possible?!
"Commander," a sniper named Vance whispered through the encrypted squad line.
Vance's voice was trembling violently.
He was crouched inside an abandoned storefront across the plaza, tucked perfectly behind a thick brick wall and a heavy steel support beam.
He was safe. He had to be safe.
"I... I locked onto his heat signature," Vance stammered, cold sweat pooling inside his helmet.
"The shooter is perched in the Zenith Tower. But I can't counter-snipe!"
"He's shooting straight through solid buildings! We're sitting ducks in an open bowl!"
"Shut the hell up and hold your position!" Jax snarled, his grip tightening on his plasma knife.
"He can't see through concrete without line-of-sight! If we stay behind hard cover, he can't hit us!"
"We hold until the gunships arrive! Do not peek!"
Jax was a seasoned veteran. He lived and died by the standard rules of war.
And Rule One of sniping was universal: a shooter needed line of sight.
What Jax didn't realize was that Kael wasn't playing by mortal rules.
He had the entire universe acting as his personal spotter.
Up on the wind-swept floor of the Zenith Tower, Kael pulled his eye back from the scope.
"System," Kael commanded softly. "Activate Spatial Trajectory."
The world instantly shifted into high-contrast geometry.
A glowing, three-dimensional web of calculated angles and bounce paths overlaid the ruined district.
He couldn't see Vance crouching behind that thick brick wall.
He didn't need to.
His glowing vision highlighted the crumpled, rusted hood of a civilian car resting in the middle of the street.
It highlighted the precise angle of the exposed steel beam inside the storefront.
The math flooded his mind in a split second.
[Target Distance: 3.1 miles]
[Obstructions: Reinforced brick wall, structural steel]
[Ricochet Point 1: Car hood (Deflection Angle: 42°)]
[Ricochet Point 2: Steel support beam (Deflection Angle: 12°)]
Kael adjusted the heavy frame of The Panopticon a fraction of an inch to the left.
He aligned the magnetic rails perfectly with the center of that rusted car hood.
"Watch this, chat," Kael smirked, his silver eyes flashing with dark amusement.
He squeezed the trigger.
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