As Fang Li directly fired his gun to intimidate the crowd, not only the people involved but even the warriors of the Yotsuyu Clan were startled.
"Mr. Fang Li...?" Yomogawa Ayame seemed somewhat at a loss.
In Yomogawa Ayame's impression, Fang Li should have been a peer who felt approachable, easy to talk to, and easy to get along with.
Therefore, Yomogawa Ayame had never imagined that Fang Li would raise a gun at a group of helpless civilians.
However, before Yomogawa Ayame could react, a middle-aged man dressed in rather luxurious clothing shouted from within the crowd.
"Y-You... who are you? What right do you have to block our way?"
"Oh?" Fang Li immediately turned his gaze toward him. After sizing up the middle-aged man, he said, "Then who are you?"
"I am a trusted subordinate of the Yotsuyu Clan head and a governing official of Aragane Station!" The middle-aged man raised his voice. "Even the warriors have to treat me with respect. You..."
Before he could finish, the governing official shut his mouth.
Because Fang Li had raised the gun in his hand and pointed it at the official's head.
"I see. One of Aragane Station's higher-ups?" As though nothing had happened, Fang Li maintained his smile and said to the governing official, "But what does that have to do with me?"
"You...?!" The governing official's face filled with shock.
Clearly, he had not expected that after hearing his identity, this man, who was not even a warrior, would still dare point a gun at him.
Ignoring the official's shock, Fang Li stared straight at him and said, "I don't care what noble or high-ranking official you are. This is a matter of life and death. Here, there are only living human lives, with no distinction between high and low, noble and base. If you still want to rely on your status and enjoy special privileges at a time like this, then I can let you enjoy them a little earlier."
As he spoke, Fang Li pressed the gun in his hand directly against the official's forehead.
"A free trip to death."
Hearing this, the governing official looked at Fang Li's harmless smile and felt the barrel against his forehead. Cold sweat trickled down his brow.
Honestly, making Fang Li do something like this was somewhat difficult for him as well.
Threatening people with a gun—let alone an ordinary student, even most people had never experienced something like that.
But Fang Li still had to do it.
After all, every person here was equivalent to an extra reward for Fang Li, while the Kabane horde could come rushing over at any moment to begin slaughtering them.
To prevent these people from wasting time on pointless matters and ultimately becoming a burden, Fang Li had to play the villain for once.
The gunshot had struck the bird that stuck its head out. Surely, these people would behave themselves a little better afterward.
But in the next second, something happened that even Fang Li had not expected.
"Enough!"
With that shout, someone pushed through the crowd and stepped forward, glaring intently at Fang Li.
"He already knows what to do. Put down your gun now—your gun is pointed at the wrong person!"
The one who said this was a young man.
A very strange young man.
Why was this young man so strange?
There were two reasons.
First: he wore a red cape, while his skin had a somewhat unsettling hue. He seemed to be wearing no other clothes beneath the cape, yet bits of metal could vaguely be seen. His bizarre appearance drew everyone's attention.
Second: he held a strange weapon in his hand.
It was some kind of launcher that seemed to have been modified from either a riveting machine or a pile driver, shaped somewhat like a submachine gun.
A strange young man holding a strange weapon had stepped forward at a time like this. Naturally, everyone present exchanged bewildered looks.
However, upon seeing the young man, some people cried out in shock.
"Ikoma?!"
Those who called the young man Ikoma appeared to be workers from an ironworks, dressed in work uniforms.
Clearly, they all knew him.
Besides them, Yomogawa Ayame, Kurusu Kunoichi, Kibito Aragane, and the others also reacted to the appearance of the young man named Ikoma.
"It's you?" Yomogawa Ayame exclaimed in surprise.
"Aren't you the blacksmith from the ironworks who helped Lady Ayame repair her short barrel this morning?" Kibito Aragane's expression was equally full of astonishment.
Kurusu Kunoichi simply raised the Steam Gun in his hand, aimed it at the young man named Ikoma, and spoke coldly.
"You. Why are you here?"
The atmosphere in the area instantly became tense.
Facing Kurusu Kunoichi, who had a gun pointed at him, Ikoma gritted his teeth and said, "Didn't I tell you? Your guns are pointed at the wrong people!"
Kurusu Kunoichi said nothing. He merely placed his finger on the trigger, his eyes filled with coldness.
This sudden turn of events left all the onlooking civilians, who had no idea what was happening, completely stunned.
Only Fang Li had not taken his eyes off Ikoma since the moment he appeared.
Looking at the young man with the strange skin tone and a face full of stubbornness, Fang Li silently said to himself.
He's appeared? The original protagonist...
The young man named Ikoma was precisely the protagonist of the original story.
An ordinary steam blacksmith living in Aragane Station, a place whose industry revolved around ironworking and steam engine production.
At the same time, he was a hot-blooded youth filled with a sense of justice, always hoping to defeat every Kabane and longing for the day when people would finally see him in a new light.
From that description, the young man sounded like nothing more than an ordinary laborer who liked to dream, with nothing particularly special about him.
However, Fang Li knew that Ikoma had two special traits.
The first was the bizarre weapon currently in Ikoma's hands.
It was a weapon Ikoma had developed with his friend in order to defeat the Kabane—the Tsuranuki-zutsu.
It was a weapon capable of firing special projectiles known as Hayagumo Rounds.
Using the principle that the shockwave created by exploding gunpowder produces a metal jet when it strikes metal, giving it enough power to penetrate a Kabane's heart, it was a special weapon developed to defeat Kabane.
The weapon in Ikoma's hands was exactly that.
The second special trait was Ikoma's current body.
A body like that of the girl in Fang Li's arms, who treated Kabane as nothing and could effortlessly kill those undead monsters.
Then, in Fang Li's arms, the girl named Mumei slowly opened her sleepy eyes and looked toward Ikoma.
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