Luoshu survived—but the middle-aged Black man he'd teleported behind wasn't so lucky. The homing bullet curved midair and struck its unintended target.
To this outcome, Luoshu could only mutter, "My bad."
He hadn't meant for it to happen.
Who could've guessed the Delta-5 "Front Runners" sniper rifle was an anomalous artifact? Its bullets tracked targets, bending trajectories like vengeful spirits.
As the man collapsed, skull shattered, chaos erupted inside the estate. A woman rushed out, cradling his body and wailing:
"Jovenel! Jovenel! Wake up!"
Burly Black bodyguards swarmed the scene, their faces pale beneath the dim light.
"President Moïse... he's dead!"
"Call the police—no, alert the military! Parliament must be informed! Find the killer!"
Luoshu ignored the pandemonium. His Malice Perception screamed: Danger still loomed.
The Sniper's Gambit
A kilometer away, on a rooftop, a white sniper spat out his gum and addressed the figure behind him:
"Missed. First shot was intercepted."
"God" replied coldly: "Try again."
The sniper nodded. "Reloading tracking round. One minute."
A minute was nothing. "God" waited.
Meanwhile, the rest of Delta-5 closed in. The estate was now surrounded—not just by humans, but by shapeshifters. Some had morphed into dogs, cats, even trees and boulders. Their mission: Flush Luoshu out and erase him.
Luoshu didn't know the details, but he recognized the Foundation's handiwork.
"First shot was luck. What about the second?"
He could repeat the trick—find another meatshield. But that wasn't a solution.
Problems:
Morality: Innocents would die.
Timing: A 0.1-second mistimed teleport = death.
Adaptation: If everyone ducked, his decoy tactic would fail.
The bigger question: How was the sniper locking onto him while he was Unobservable?
Only one answer: That rifle ignored memetics.
He was right.
The anomalous sniper rifle didn't rely on conventional targeting. Its mechanics:
Range: 1 km.
Lock-on: 60 seconds (via visual or DNA sample).
Weakness: Last-second obstructions could spoof the homing.
But its ability to bypass Unobservable made it lethal.
Luoshu had one minute to act.
The Nuclear Option
Trapped and outgunned, Luoshu flipped open his Anomaly Index to Page 132:
Anomalous Item-3125: "The Defender."
"Activate: Purge by Name. "
Effect: Within 10 km, every living being who knows "Luoshu" dies.
This was his most ruthless move yet.
He wasn't just killing the sniper. He was erasing every Foundation operative in Port-au-Prince—ensuring no one left to hinder his escape.
In an instant:
Delta-5 operatives vanished mid-transformation.
Foundation agents across the city disintegrated into memetic static.
Their fate: Isolated in unreality, left to rot in existential voids.
Were some innocent? Probably.
But this was war—a war of memetics vs. anti-memetics. The Foundation chose their side.
"You joined the fight. Don't cry 'innocent' now."
The true casualties were the civilians caught in the crossfire.
Luoshu's eyes hardened. He strode to the F-150, ignition roaring as he sped toward the beach.
God's Dilemma
Not everyone died.
"God" survived.
When The Defender's power surged, a radiant barrier flared around him—nullifying the memetic kill-switch.
"Strong enough cognition resists even anti-memetics," Luoshu realized. "I can't kill him yet."
But "God" wasn't celebrating.
The assassination had failed.
Luoshu—this generation's "Revealer of Truths"—had thwarted him again.
Now, only strategic nukes could stop Luoshu from fleeing Haiti.
But even "God" couldn't deploy those lightly.
The Nuclear Dilemma:
Global powers monitored each other's arsenals.
Unauthorized launches = mutually assured destruction.
Anomalous Item-2000 (World Reset) couldn't undo radioactive wastelands.
The "My Cultist World" Luoshu controlled was proof—a planet scorched by nuclear fire, unrecoverable for centuries.
To authorize a strike, "God" needed unanimous approval from all nuclear states.
Time he didn't have.
By the time diplomats finished arguing, Luoshu would be gone.
"Damn it!"