"Boss, do you think they'll come through here?" The burly man with a steel stud set into his nasal bone spoke excitedly as his index finger repeatedly rubbed the tape-wrapped rifle.
"They definitely will..."
Amid an abandoned building overgrown with moss and vines, a man in a leather jacket gripped a pair of binoculars and stared fixedly at the street ahead.
His name was Blake. He lived in the slums beyond the giant wall and worked as a bounty hunter who fought for employers.
He was also an Awakener.
Though he lived in the slums, it wasn't because he was poor.
For an Awakener, moving into the outer city wasn't difficult. No mercenary group would refuse to take in an Awakener, provided their ability wasn't utterly useless.
But Blake had no interest in living a life controlled by others. To most people, that giant wall marked the boundary between savagery and civilization. To him, it was just a useless concrete cage. Only cowards needed others to protect them.
True strength came from one's own fists.
Last night, he had accepted a job from a client at the Pirate Bay Tavern.
The employer had refused to reveal their name, but they paid generously. The deposit alone was a 1,000-denomination chip, and they had promised him another two once the job was done.
Such high-value chips rarely circulated on the market. Normally, only nobles from the inner city used them. Ordinary shops couldn't make change for them, so they had to be exchanged at a bank.
The moment Blake saw the deposit, his eyes practically turned into colorful chips. Without another word, he accepted the job.
Generally speaking, the greater the reward, the greater the danger. But he wasn't too worried.
First, he had absolute confidence in his own strength. Second, the