Chapter 57: The End of the Carnival

The sound of gunfire from the middle of the pursuing convoy immediately caught everyone's attention.

However, under such circumstances, the already disordered convoy—which had barely maintained its formation solely due to traveling in the same direction—instantly plunged into complete chaos.

Moreover, as the number of friendly-fire casualties gradually increased, the scale of the firefight expanded rapidly.

In truth, despite appearances, these vehicles were not a tightly-knit coalition of cooperative partners with a singular focus on hunting down Luca and his companions.

The complexity of the factions involved far exceeded imagination.

In reality, only a very small fraction of the pursuers were direct subordinates completely loyal to Kingpin.

Furthermore, most of these direct subordinates had been mobilized immediately upon receiving Kingpin's alert when the stronghold was first breached.

Many of them had already been wiped out or disabled during the preceding chain of vehicle collisions and Dun Shan's relentless counterattacks.

Among those remaining were various gangs controlled by Kingpin who, upon learning of his death, sought revenge—or perhaps, unaware of his demise, hoped to win favor in the eyes of the Emperor of Hell's Kitchen.

There were also smaller gangs previously suppressed by Kingpin who intended to seize this opportunity to make a name for themselves throughout Hell's Kitchen and the broader New York underworld, or simply to fish in troubled waters.

Still others had no idea what was happening at all; they had merely noticed the movements of allies or rival gangs and had come along out of curiosity or to stir up trouble.

Consequently, the chaotic firefight began to spread uncontrollably the moment it broke out.

Even gangs arriving from a few blocks away just to investigate the situation found themselves inexplicably sucked into the melee.

Meanwhile, Luca and his group were still speeding ahead, desperately carving out a path.

Suddenly realizing that the enemies tailing their news van had dwindled to just a few, while the rest were fiercely and indiscriminately slaughtering one another, they exchanged bewildered and blank stares inside the cabin.

"That's... it? We're done?"

"So, do we still need to head for the Hudson River?"

Inside the vehicle, Green Bull held a bomb, scratching his green hair in confusion as he turned to look at Dun Shan and Luca.

At that moment, Luca, who had kept the thermal-imaging mode of his [Tracking Glasses] active, noticed something.

The police attack helicopter that had been faithfully hovering right behind their "lead vehicle" seemed to be hesitating as well.

It gradually slowed down from its slanted tracking trajectory, appearing to weigh whether it should continue tailing the primary culprits or head toward the densest zone of gang warfare to broadcast real-time updates to police headquarters.

Seeing this, Luca immediately relayed what he saw to Dun Shan.

The two exchanged a glance, and Dun Shan gave a slight nod.

"If that's the case, then..."

Before Dun Shan could finish his sentence, a massive wave of roars from behind cut him off.

The group turned to look far down the road.

Beyond the fiery backdrop of the ongoing gang melee, an entire convoy came charging forward amidst the deafening explosion of engines.

Ignoring the armed gang thugs still exchanging gunfire and blocking their path, these vehicles simply plowed ahead.

Any cars standing in their way were ruthlessly rammed aside.

More importantly, every single one of these charging vehicles was a punk-modified pickup truck, resembling the muscular brute that had sparked the melee in the first place.

Heavily armored, these pickups were not only extremely sturdy and impervious to collisions, but their charging speed was also remarkably fast.

Blazing blue afterburners jetted from the rear of every modified pickup, endowing these violent mechanical beasts with formidable defense, heavy weight, and impressive velocity.

Yet, judging by the unnatural shaking of the vehicles and the way parts continually shed off them upon impact, anyone with a sound mind would surely hesitate to drive such an unstable, rolling bomb.

Nevertheless, it was precisely this unhinged madness, combined with the howling, wildly shooting thugs aboard, that carved a bloody path through the chaotic battlefield, bearing down straight on Luca and his group.

"Hahaha~ Catch up to them!!!"

"Big Brother Vladimir is going to be the Emperor of New York!!"

"Long live the Emperor!!!"

Watching the frantic gang members close the distance, Dun Shan stopped what he was saying.

Ignoring the bullets occasionally striking the outer hull of the news van, he turned to Green Bull and asked calmly,

"Is the bomb ready?"

Green Bull broke into an excited grin, the corners of his mouth stretching nearly to his ears.

"Captain! It's been ready as hell! I've just been waiting for your word!"

"Then present it to these idiots," Dun Shan said.

"You got it!"

With a vision of glorious destruction dancing in his head, Green Bull bared his teeth and tapped rapidly on the custom bomb he had built.

The tiny screen on the device immediately began flashing with a red, rhythmic beep.

He resolutely raised the bomb, tightening every muscle in his body to strike a textbook baseball pitcher's pose.

At the same time, Samira and Thresh instinctively pushed open a small shooting hatch in their protective shields.

The next instant,

Green Bull's arm whipped forward with explosive force.

The head-sized bomb launched from his hand like a high-velocity artillery shell.

With a sharp whistle, it flew straight through the small opening, which was barely larger than the explosive itself.

To everyone's eyes,

the irregularly shaped, crudely assembled bomb struck its target with pinpoint precision under Green Bull's expert throw, hitting the lead vehicle right at the front of the enemy convoy.

With a sharp *clang*, it dented the plating before dropping to the ground and rolling a couple of times.

Some of the thugs inside the modified pickup curiously peered out, trying to figure out what kind of object had just struck them.

Before they could find out,

the series of warning beeps merged into a continuous, high-pitched scream.

An instant later,

"BOOM——————!"

A terrifying pillar of fire erupted into the sky.

A violent shockwave swept across everything in its path.

The deafening roar temporarily silenced the chaotic night.

For a split second, everyone nearby was left with nothing but blinding white light and a persistent ringing in their ears.

The pickup trucks traveling side-by-side at the epicenter of the blast were instantly shredded.

The vehicles that had just surged past the detonation point, along with the very lead truck that had been struck, were hurled into the air by the raging shockwave.

As for the thugs inside those vehicles—needless to say, their fates were sealed.

The luckiest among them was probably the fellow blasted a dozen meters into the air, who landed squarely on the roof of a nearby building.

At that landing altitude, compared to the others, he probably wouldn't feel much pain... presumably...

At least that guy didn't scream in agony after hitting the roof, right~

In truth, the devastation extended far beyond the vehicles at the center of the blast; the exterior glass of all surrounding buildings shattered completely.

The few remaining pickups trailing behind, which had not taken the brunt of the explosion directly, were blinded by the terrifying wave of heat.

Countless shards of shattered wreckage, carried by the shockwave like a dense barrage of shrapnel, pierced straight through their bodies.

The modified parts these men had once taken such pride in had now transformed into deadly blades.

When the fiery glow of the explosion finally dissipated, and the very last surviving tail-vehicle crashed heavily into a deep crater on the street,

there was no longer any trace of Luca's news van left on the road ahead.