Before a Shotgun, All Men Are Equal

Rayne hid behind a thicket and observed the manor. He was too far away to hear anything inside, and after waiting a long time, no one came out.

He looked up at the sky. Thick clouds blocked the moonlight, leaving everything pitch-black.

Using the cover of night, he crept closer to the manor. It took him over half an hour to circle around to the woods beside it. He climbed a large tree, poked his head out from behind the trunk, and looked down into the manor.

He activated Soul Eye and turned up the brightness. The entire manor became clearly visible, as bright as day.

Rayne focused his eyes, magnifying the image before him until every detail was crystal clear.

The manor's layout was simple. A three-story house stood at its center, with a large lawn in front, stables beside it, and a small garden behind it. It was little different from an ordinary private estate.

Lights were on in the rooms on the second floor. The occasional shadow crossed the windows, but he could not hear anyone talking.

Rayne changed positions several times, inspecting the manor from different angles, but found nothing.

The only thing he could confirm was that there were not many people inside. Aside from Esberg and Ramsey, who had entered earlier, there were at most two or three servants. Otherwise, it would not be so quiet.

"Could it be that they didn't go out tonight to rob anyone? Or are they waiting until later before leaving?"

Rayne guessed inwardly.

"I can't wait any longer. Tonight is the best opportunity. Otherwise, who knows how long I'll have to wait until both of them come here again."

Rayne made his decision at once. He would act tonight.

He left the manor and spared no effort, rushing back into the city and returning to the inn as quickly as possible. Entering his room, he pulled out the bag beneath his bed and poured out the parts, swiftly assembling them into a shotgun.

He test-fired it several times while it was unloaded, confirming there were no problems. Then he filled the magazine, wrapped the gun in a black bag, and slung it over his back. He stuffed the remaining shells one by one into a leather ammunition belt around his waist, concealing it beneath his coat.

He also had a sheathed dagger. He had bought it from an inn guest for thirty Copper Liso a few days earlier. The man had lost at cards and exchanged the dagger for money.

Lastly, there was a black face covering, which he tucked into his pocket in case he needed it.

After checking again and again to make sure everything was ready and nothing had been overlooked, Rayne set off.

Downstairs, as he passed Zoltan and Roger, Rayne nodded to them as usual before leaving the inn.

Roger, who had been focused on his card game, turned to look at Rayne's retreating back. He stroked his chin but said nothing.

It was nighttime, and there were few people on the streets of Lien District. Patrol guards were almost nowhere to be seen. Rayne was familiar with the area now, so he avoided several dangerous neighborhoods where trouble often occurred, headed south, and left the city by a small road with no checkpoint guards.

In truth, even if he ran into guards, they would only question him a little. As long as Rayne showed his Supernatural Academy pass, they would let him through.

As for the shotgun on his back, it looked like a longsword in its wrapped form and would not attract much attention.

People in Longsand City carried weapons openly every day. Everyone was used to it. In a world where Transcendents ran rampant, it was impossible to ban weapons from the streets.

Before long, Rayne returned to the outside of the manor.

Only a little over an hour had passed since he left, and Esberg's group was still inside.

Rayne sat down and considered how to proceed.

First, he ruled out charging into the manor. That was far too dangerous—practically suicide. He knew nothing about the manor's interior, did not know which room Esberg was in, and the servants were also a major threat. If he fell into an encirclement, he would certainly die.

Second, he had to keep the initiative in his own hands, with Esberg as the first target. Ideally, the first shot would kill him.

As long as Esberg, the most dangerous one, was dead, Ramsey would be nothing to worry about.

"Then I can only wait for them to come out."

Rayne did not know when Esberg would leave, but that did not matter. There was only one road leading away from the manor, and he could choose an ambush point along it.

He followed the road back and quickly found the ideal location.

It was over four hundred meters from the manor. Vast stretches of grass grew on both sides of the road, the dense weeds reaching knee height. Someone crouching in the grass would be difficult to spot, but once they stood up, they would have an unobstructed view for two or three hundred meters in every direction.

Esberg was a Shadow Dancer. His strongest ability was Shadow Step, which required shadows and complex terrain to be used to its fullest.

But in this patch of grass, any movement would make a sound. Shadow Step was practically useless.

Esberg was extremely fast over short distances, which was what Rayne feared most. But once they were in open ground and the distance widened, he was not nearly as frightening.

"This is the place."

Rayne did not hesitate any longer. After choosing his position, he drew his dagger and began digging pits in the road.

The pits were not deep, only a dozen or so centimeters, and less than twenty centimeters across. After digging them, he laid sturdy grass stalks across the openings and covered them with a thin layer of soil, making them look just like the ordinary road surface. He dug seven or eight such shallow pits along a section of road. If a carriage stepped on one, it would sink through, startling the horse or even breaking its leg.

Once the trap was set, Rayne walked a few meters toward the manor and lay prone in the roadside grass, using a prepared bundle of weeds to conceal himself.

I hope it doesn't rain tonight. That would be miserable.

Rayne thought this to himself.

The night grew deeper, and time passed. In the blink of an eye, it was midnight. The manor lights had gone out an hour earlier. Just when Rayne thought Esberg would spend the night there and only leave tomorrow, movement suddenly began.

The manor gates opened, and a carriage slowly emerged.

"They're here!"

"I knew they wouldn't be able to resist."

Rayne's spirits surged. The drowsiness from lying there for hours vanished instantly. He took out the black face covering and masked his face, his gaze locking onto the carriage.

The carriage sped along the small road, though not very quickly due to the darkness. A windproof lamp hung from its roof, making it especially conspicuous against the night.

As the distance shrank, the lamp grew brighter in his eyes.

Rayne lay motionless in the grass. He had already turned the brightness of Soul Eye to maximum. His hand rested on the trigger as he slightly raised the muzzle and adjusted his aim.

The carriage drew close. Only one horse pulled it, its hoofbeats especially loud in the night.

Clip-clop, clip-clop...

The ground trembled faintly, and Rayne, lying prone, felt it clearly. At that moment, his mind was exceptionally calm. Holding his breath, his eyes saw only the approaching carriage. Not a ripple stirred in his heart. He gripped the gun with hands as steady as a surgeon performing an operation.

A few seconds later, the carriage was right in front of him. The driver sat up front, holding the reins and focusing on driving, completely unaware that someone was hiding by the road.

Bang!

A thunderous blast suddenly rang out, carrying far across the wilderness.

It was as though the driver had been struck by a heavy punch. His body flew backward, and he tumbled from the carriage. The horse pulling the carriage was startled, and with the reins happening to go slack, it immediately lost control and bolted down the road. But after only a few meters, one hoof suddenly stepped into empty space, and the entire horse crashed to the ground.

The carriage body behind it first slammed into the horse, then overturned from the momentum. With a boom, it smashed heavily into the ground and rolled another two or three times.

Rayne watched the scene but remained hidden in the grass.

While the carriage was overturning, he slid the fore-end to chamber another round, then took a shell from his belt and loaded it into the magazine.

The carriage overturned, and the windproof lamp mounted on top shattered and went out, plunging the surroundings into darkness. Only the severely injured horse with its broken leg whinnied in pain.

Suddenly, the carriage door was kicked off from inside, and a dark figure darted out.

"Esberg."

Rayne recognized the figure at a glance. It was Esberg.

As a Transcendent, Esberg had an incredibly sturdy body. The sudden overturning of the carriage had only left a minor scrape on his head, and he was still exceptionally fast.

He wore black leather armor, and his sword was already drawn. Keeping his body low like a sprinting leopard, he charged straight toward Rayne's hiding place.

"He found me that quickly?"

Rayne did not bother concealing himself further. He sprang up from the grass. When Esberg stepped into the grass and was only seven or eight meters away, Rayne did not take special aim and fired directly in his direction.

Bang!

White smoke billowed out as dozens of steel pellets screamed from the muzzle at a speed too fast for the eye to follow, blanketing the area before him.

Esberg's body abruptly stalled.

Before the gun went off, he had shifted half a step aside in advance, but he was still hit. A sharp pain came from his left arm. Looking down, he saw that the entire arm was mangled into a bloody mess and was nearly ruined.

"What kind of gun is that?" Esberg could not help shouting.

He had encountered Gunners before and had experience fighting them. He had even personally killed one. He knew the Gunner's fighting style and weaknesses well.

Gunners were poor in close combat, and ordinary Soul Guns could only attack a single point. As long as one judged the timing of the shot correctly, a Shadow Dancer's speed made it easy to dodge at close range.

He had clearly dodged the bullet's trajectory just now, yet he had still been hit!

The only explanation was the strange gun in his opponent's hands.

Of course, Rayne had no intention of kindly explaining. After firing once, he immediately pumped the fore-end to chamber another round and blasted out a second shot without hesitation.

Bang!

Esberg's figure suddenly vanished. This shot was half a beat too slow and struck empty space.

Rayne was not flustered. He had waited until Esberg entered the grass before firing precisely because he had been wary of Shadow Step.

In the grass, unless Esberg stood still, he could forget about getting close to him.

Sure enough, Esberg also realized this. After hiding with Shadow Step, he stood where he was without daring to move, enduring the injury to his arm and slowing his breathing to its faintest pace for fear of being discovered.

Rayne did not fire wildly.

Holding the shotgun, he retreated several steps to open up some distance, in case Esberg threw his longsword like a concealed weapon.

At that moment, sounds came from the carriage by the road. Another figure crawled out and, under the cover of darkness, desperately ran forward along the road.

"Ramsey. So he really was in the carriage too."

At the same time, the gunshots had been heard back at the manor. Two men carrying lanterns and weapons ran toward this direction.

Through Soul Eye, Rayne saw that one of the two was actually a Transcendent, likely an Iron Guard, though only at level one. The other was no weakling either, with soul strength significantly greater than that of an ordinary person.

"Another Transcendent. I can't drag this out any longer."

Rayne had no intention of letting Ramsey escape. He turned the muzzle, aimed at Ramsey, and fired.

Bang! The shot rang out. Ramsey cried out in pain but did not collapse. He staggered onward, continuing to flee, though his speed had slowed greatly.

Rayne did not go after Ramsey, because the nearby grass moved.

He had long anticipated that Esberg would use this chance to launch a surprise attack. Shooting Ramsey was deliberate—it was meant to lure Esberg into revealing his position.

In his soul vision, weeds ten meters to his left swayed, as though an invisible python was forcing its way through the grass and rapidly lunging toward him.

Rayne calmly pumped the fore-end to chamber another round. It took one second.

Esberg had already rushed before him. Shadow Step also failed while moving at high speed.

The outline of a figure emerged before Rayne's eyes. He could even see the cold-blooded killing intent in Esberg's eyes. The gleaming sword tip was only a fraction away from striking the barrel.

Bang!

White smoke erupted. At the critical moment, Rayne fired.

This shot was practically pressed against Esberg's chest. Esberg was blasted backward, landing in the grass but not dying immediately. He struggled in agony.

Rayne did not stop there. He aimed at Esberg on the ground and fired repeatedly until he emptied the gun.

After several gunshots, Esberg became a pile of mangled flesh and stopped struggling.

A soul rose from Esberg's corpse, then flew into Rayne's eyes like a moth into a flame and disappeared.

On the illusory interface, the phone battery level surged wildly. In only a few seconds, it exceeded 50%, and it was still rising. No one knew how high it would ultimately climb!

Rayne felt as though every cell in his body was cheering. His mind was incomparably energized, and an indescribable comfort filled him.

But it was not over yet.

Rayne swiftly took shells from his waist and loaded them one by one while moving to meet the enemies coming from the manor.

Because the night was so dark, the two men had rushed over after only hearing gunshots. They had no idea what had happened here and did not even know Rayne was present.

When they saw Rayne appear within the lantern's glow, they froze for a moment before charging at him.

Bang!

Rayne stopped, planted his feet, and blasted the Iron Guard charging in front to the ground with a single shot.

Before a shotgun, all men were equal.

Even though the Iron Guard's defense was formidable and his skin became as hard as rock after activating the Stone Skin element, it was not actual rock. He had rushed out too hastily to put on armor, and before the shotgun's muzzle, he still went down in one shot.

Bang! Bang! Bang! The first shot knocked down the Iron Guard. The second turned the man behind him into a sieve. The third blasted into the Iron Guard's head, blowing it apart.

Two souls flew out from the corpses, causing Rayne's battery level to continue rising.

Rayne turned and left, chasing after Ramsey in the direction he had fled.

Ramsey was injured and could not run far, so Rayne had left him for last. After absorbing three souls in succession, Rayne seemed to possess limitless stamina, and his running speed increased greatly as well.

A few minutes later, a staggering figure appeared on the road ahead. It was Ramsey.

Rayne accelerated in pursuit. When Ramsey looked back and saw him, he was scared out of his wits.

He had already reached the main road. Seeing his enemy coming after him, he fled south in a panic, then plunged into the woods by the roadside. After passing through them, he reached the edge of a shallow riverbank and found himself with nowhere left to go.

He was empty-handed, injured, and nearly out of strength.

Ramsey fell to his knees in despair, raised both hands, and shouted, "Don't kill me! I know many of Esberg's secrets!"