So This Was the Hunter's Style After All

"Bang, bang, bang"!

Germann looked up toward the bright end of the corridor.

The Third Assassin fired five Nen Balls from his arms again. They bounced back and forth between the narrow walls, gradually closing in on Germann's side.

It seemed he could fire only five Nen Balls at a time, and there was a brief window in between while he "reloaded."

That made things easier.

Germann made the Blunderbuss in his left hand disappear, grabbed the dead assassin by the collar, and lifted him up as a shield.

Two Nen Balls sailed past Germann. The remaining three struck the Second Assassin's corpse with three dull thuds, caving in his head, chest, and left leg.

Now!

Germann shoved the corpse aside, crouched low, and charged toward the Third Assassin.

As expected, the Third Assassin couldn't fire Nen Balls at Germann continuously.

He huddled inside his black cloak like a vampire. When Germann charged at him, he looked as though he'd seen sunlight, his face contorting with terror.

The assassin shakily pulled a pistol from his pocket and was about to aim when a sharp clack rang out. The Meat Saw in Germann's hand transformed in an instant, doubling in length!

In the blink of an eye, only a few steps separated them!

"Bang!" The assassin fired in a panic!

Germann ducked down and to the right, dodging the bullet, then swung the Meat Saw diagonally upward. With a wet chop, it severed both hands holding the pistol cleanly at the wrists!

"Ah... Aaaaaaaah—"

The pistol and severed hands hit the floor. The assassin raised his spurting stumps and screamed.

Germann pressed the Blunderbuss to the assassin's stomach and pulled the trigger without mercy.

"Bang!"

The assassin's screams abruptly stopped.

Germann looked over. The third assassin drifted to the ground like a scrap of paper, his body joined at the waist by only a thin strip of flesh. He'd nearly been cut in half; there was no way he'd survive.

One left.

"Thud, thud, thud..."

Germann heard a dense rush of footsteps.

He was now standing at the bright end of the corridor. Looking back toward the darkness, he saw several figures moving in the shadows.

A quick count gave him eight people: the Innkeeper, the two assassins who should have been dead, and the Five Guests.

They dragged their feet like zombies, but the moment they saw Germann, they seemed to come alive. They broke into a quick trot, closing in to pounce on him.

"So the last one is a Manipulation System user? Could that guy be hiding among these eight?"

With the Blunderbuss in his left hand and the Meat Saw in his right, Germann didn't charge at them. Without finding the real one, he risked leaving himself open by fighting the puppets.

Suddenly, he sensed something and turned again, warily looking toward the second-floor stairwell.

A small blond head with twin tails poked out from the stairwell. After realizing she'd been spotted, she stepped out with an embarrassed air, hands on her hips and a smile on her face.

It was Biscuit.

Germann lowered the Meat Saw and Blunderbuss.

Biscuit waved her hands with an exasperated look and hurried over.

"Have you still not dealt with the enemy? Do you need a hint—"

"Bang!"

Germann raised the Blunderbuss and fired without hesitation.

The petite Biscuit looked disbelieving as she staggered and fell to the floor like a rag doll, blood staining the boards.

"Thump, thump, thump..."

The eight controlled bodies collapsed one after another. The corpses lay still, while the living people blinked in confusion and slowly got back to their feet.

Germann didn't spare them a glance. He stared at Biscuit's bloodied body, watching as her skeleton gradually grew larger and twisted until it had become the body of a short man.

The short man clutched his Blunderbuss-ravaged jaw with both hands. Unable to form a complete sentence, he could only express his fear and shock through despairing eyes and muffled whimpers.

Germann studied the man's face for a while, then remembered him.

The short man had been among the crowd watching Biscuit put on an act when Germann left the bank.

He was so unremarkable that no one would have guessed he was the leader of the Four Assassin Gang.

Disguise was this assassin's specialty.

As for why he'd disguised himself as Biscuit, it was because Biscuit was a well-known Hunter Association Hunter.

The Assassin Leader had recognized her after watching for a while, then checked the Dark Web to confirm her identity in case he was mistaken.

While following Germann and Biscuit, he hadn't been able to get close enough to overhear their conversation. But he could tell they seemed to get along, so he'd drawn a reasonable conclusion.

The two had formed an alliance for some reason.

It wasn't unusual for Hunters to work with people from the Dark World to achieve their goals.

On top of that, the Assassin Leader was about the same build as Biscuit. That was why he'd just appeared in her guise, trying to approach Germann unexpectedly and launch a surprise attack.

He hadn't expected Germann to move faster than he did.

Still, the Assassin Leader couldn't understand where he'd slipped up.

Germann had no obligation to explain. He raised the Blunderbuss, aimed at the man's head, and fired. The blast tore through the hands the man had raised to shield himself from the shot and shattered his skull.

With a splat, the assassin's head, smashed like a cracked egg, hit the floor. He lay on his back, silent.

The hunt ended with Germann victorious.

"Clap, clap, clap..."

Rhythmic applause came from Germann's room.

Then Biscuit, who had remained in Zetsu, stepped out of the dark shadows.

She smiled with pursed lips, gently clapping her lace-gloved hands together. She seemed genuinely happy for Germann.

After applauding for a while, Biscuit asked curiously, "How did you know he was an impostor? For a moment, I thought he was going to pull it off."

"I didn't," Germann replied, giving an unexpected answer. "I just knew there was a fourth person, that he was a Manipulation System user, and that he was nearby."

"By then, I'd already decided I'd shoot anyone who came near me. It just happened to be you."

Biscuit nodded in understanding, then raised a finger and touched it to her lips. "But... what if the person who came really had been me?"

"If it really had been you, I wouldn't have hit you with that shot."

Germann knew exactly how their strength compared. Biscuit was in her fifties and had probably only just started to decline from her peak, but she wouldn't have weakened much.

"I see..." Biscuit nodded again. "Patient, calm, decisive, and not at all lost in the thrill of killing. You really are a Hunter."

She looked back at the other living people peeking curiously into the corridor, then considered it for a moment and smiled. "Looks like we can't stay here. Let's find somewhere else to rest."

"Give me a moment."

Only then did Germann put away the Meat Saw and Blunderbuss. He had no objection to going with Biscuit; perhaps something unexpected would come of it. But there was something more important to take care of first.

As Biscuit watched in confusion, Germann crouched down and searched the Assassin Leader's body, finding several thousand Jenny.

Biscuit raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Are you... short on money?"

"I'm doing all right." Germann searched the other three assassins' corpses in the same way. "My expenses will probably go up a lot in the future. Better to be prepared."

After gathering all the Jenny together, he counted more than twenty thousand. Unable to resist whistling at his windfall, he stuffed the money into his wallet.