Sure, it's a Hunter's style

"Bang, bang, bang"!

Gelman raised his head to look at the other half of the hallway bathed in light.

The Third Assassin once again fired five "Nen Balls" from his chest, which ricocheted back and forth between the narrow walls, gradually hurtling toward Gelman's side.

It seemed he could only fire five "Nen Balls" at a time, with a "reloading" vacuum in between.

That made things easier.

Gelman let the Blunderbuss in his left hand vanish, grabbed the slit-throated assassin by the scruff of his neck, and hoisted him up as a shield in front of himself.

Two "Nen Balls" sailed past Gelman, while the remaining three struck the Second Assassin's corpse with a series of dull thuds, caving in his head, chest, and left leg.

Now!

Gelman shoved the corpse in front of him to the ground, ducked low, and charged at the Third Assassin in quick strides.

The Third Assassin indeed couldn't fire "Nen Balls" at Gelman consecutively.

He wrapped his black robe tightly around himself like a vampire, and when he saw Gelman charging at him, he looked as if he'd seen sunlight, his face twisting with terror.

Trembling, the assassin pulled a pistol from his pocket and was about to aim and fire when he heard a strange "click"—the Meat Saw in Gelman's hand instantly transformed, its length doubling in a flash!

In an instant, only a few steps separated them!

"Bang!" The assassin fired in panic!

Gelman crouched low to the lower right, dodging the bullet, and swung the Meat Saw diagonally upward. With a wet "thwack," the assassin's hands holding the pistol were neatly severed!

"Ah... aaaaaah—"

The pistol and severed hands hit the floor, and the assassin screamed in terror, raising his spurting stumps.

The Blunderbuss muzzle pressed against the assassin's abdomen, and Gelman mercilessly pulled the trigger.

"Bang!"

The assassin's screams and wails abruptly ceased.

Gelman glanced over. The Third Assassin drifted to the floor like a sheet of paper, his waist held together by only a sliver of flesh, nearly snapped in two. There was no way he'd survive.

One left.

"Thud, thud, thud..."

Gelman heard a dense patter of footsteps.

By now, he was standing on the bright side of the hallway. He turned to look back at the dark side and saw several figures stirring in the shadows.

A quick count—eight people. Among them were the Innkeeper, two assassins who should have been dead, and the Five Guests.

They dragged their legs like zombies, but upon spotting Gelman, they suddenly gained life, quickening their pace into a jog as they lunged toward him.

"So it's the Manipulation System in the end? Is that guy hiding among these eight?"

Gelman held the Blunderbuss in his left hand and the Meat Saw in his right. He didn't charge in—without finding the real body, tangling with puppets would only leave him open.

Suddenly, he sensed something and turned his head again, warily eyeing the second-floor stairwell.

A small head with blonde twin tails peeked out from the stairs. Seeing she'd been spotted, she stepped out with a feigned look of embarrassment, hands on her hips, a smile on her face.

It was Biscuit.

Gelman lowered the Meat Saw and Blunderbuss.

Biscuit waved her hand, looking helpless, and walked over quickly.

"Still haven't taken down the enemy? Need me to give you a hint..."

"Bang!"

Gelman raised the Blunderbuss and fired without hesitation.

The petite Biscuit wore an expression of disbelief, then toppled crookedly to the floor like a ragdoll, blood staining the boards.

"Thump, thump, thump..."

The eight controlled bodies collapsed one after another, their corpses still. The living ones blinked, dazed, and scrambled to their feet.

Gelman didn't spare them a glance. Instead, he stared fixedly at the bloody mess that was Biscuit, watching as her skeleton gradually swelled and contorted into the body of a short man.

The short man clutched his shattered jaw, blown apart by the Blunderbuss, unable to form complete words. He could only convey his inner terror and shock through desperate eyes and garbled whimpers.

Gelman stared at that face for a moment, then remembered.

When he'd come out of the bank, among the crowd watching Biscuit put on her act, this short man had been there.

Too unremarkable—no one would have guessed this guy 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 fairly well-known Hunter in the Hunter Association.

The Assassin Leader had recognized her after a few glances, and worried he might be wrong, confirmed her identity on the Dark Web.

While tailing Gelman and Biscuit, he hadn't been able to get close enough to eavesdrop on their conversation, but he could tell their relationship seemed decent, so he'd made a reasonable deduction.

The two had formed an alliance for some reason.

It wasn't uncommon for a Hunter to cooperate with someone from the Dark World for a certain purpose.

On top of that, since the Assassin Leader's build was similar to Biscuit's, he had just appeared in her guise, trying to catch Gelman off guard by approaching unexpectedly before striking.

Unexpectedly, Gelman acted faster than he did.

Still, the Assassin Leader couldn't figure out where he had slipped up.

Gelman had no obligation to explain himself to him. He raised his blunderbuss, aimed at his head, and with a "bang," shot through the hands that tried to block the scattered pellets, blowing his skull apart.

"Pfft." The assassin, his head like a cracked egg, fell flat on his back, silent.

This hunt ended with Gelman's victory.

"Clap, clap, clap..."

At that moment, rhythmic applause came from Gelman's room.

Then Biscuit, who had been maintaining "Zetsu," stepped out from the dark shadows.

She smiled with pursed lips, her lace-gloved hands lightly patting together, as if genuinely happy for Gelman.

After laughing for a while, she asked with some curiosity, "How did you know he was a fake? I almost thought he was about to succeed."

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

"At that point, I'd already decided that no matter who approached me, I'd shoot them. It just happened to be you."

Biscuit nodded in understanding, then raised a finger to her lips and asked, "Then... what if the one who came was really me?"

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

Gelman was well aware of the current gap in strength between him and Biscuit. She was in her fifties now, probably just past her peak, but she wouldn't have weakened much.

"I see..." Biscuit nodded again. "Patience, calmness, decisiveness—completely not lost in the thrill of killing. You really are a 'Hunter.'"

She glanced back at the other living people still peeking out from the hallway, thought for a moment, and smiled. "Looks like we can't stay here. Let's find another place to rest."

"Give me a moment."

Gelman finally put away the Meat Saw and blunderbuss. He didn't mind going with Biscuit—there might be unexpected gains—but there was something more important at hand.

Under Biscuit's puzzled gaze, Gelman crouched down, rummaged through the Assassin Leader's body, and pulled out several thousand Jenny.

Biscuit raised an eyebrow in surprise and asked, "You... strapped for cash?"

"Not really." Gelman repeated the process, searching the other three assassins' corpses. "Future expenses should go up a lot. Better safe than sorry."

He gathered all the Jenny together, counted them—over twenty thousand—and couldn't help whistling at the windfall before stuffing them into his wallet.