Incompatible Contradictions

As Feng Xue listened to the noisy sounds from not far away, he knew it was probably the gang members arriving. He immediately pulled down the hood of his hat, confirmed he had entered Stealth, and then quickly left the crime scene down a narrow alley.

After disengaging from combat, the movement speed boost from the Boots of Silence was quite significant. Coupled with the Assassin Set that reduced his presence, even though the clothes on his left rib and right arm were already stained red with blood, he successfully evaded the gang members, who might or might not have been trying to track him, and returned to his home.

As the Boots of Silence healed him, his wounds began to scab over, and the white robe soaked in blood gradually returned to its clean state. This was also a notable characteristic of Phantoms: as long as they weren't directly destroyed, any dirt or damage would slowly recover over time. However, if the damage was too severe, the self-healing time could be very long. At such times, inputting some [Knowledge] could speed up the repair process.

At this moment, Feng Xue was actually quite fortunate. The climate in the Infinite City was like that of a central air conditioning system; it never fogged up. Although the Decaying Madonna could unleash its maximum destructive power in the dark, during foggy weather, and against a female opponent, its damage against an Omen transformed from a corpse might not be as great as that of a simple sharp weapon.

However, today's incident finally made Feng Xue realize that the birth of Omens was truly not an extremely low-probability event. After a moment of thought, he made a decision—

From now on, unless he obtained a stronger weapon, he would only work at night and would only accept female corpses.

On the other side, the Manager, the leader of the gang, stood with a subtle expression at the spot where Feng Xue had just fought the Omen. Beside him, two middle-aged men were looking around, and both of them had [Appraiser] tags on them.

A moment later, one of them seemed to have discovered something and suddenly looked up, saying with certainty:

"That's right, the Omen that appeared here should be a 'Bone Woman'."

"Bone Woman? That's already a very high-level species. Even if it just appeared, it has Anomaly Level combat power, and its appearance is close to that of a normal person. It's too dangerous if it blends into the Landfill Area. Can you tell which way it ran?" another Appraiser frowned and walked over. The Appraiser who found the clue said with a strange expression:

"No, there's no need to chase it anymore. It was killed right here. Look at the marks on this stone. This is the phenomenon of mark spreading that only appears after an Omen is killed. Otherwise, that stone wouldn't have been contaminated with the [Female] Element."

The Appraiser who caught up heard this and followed his companion's gaze. He indeed found a stone with the [Female] Element. Based on past experience, he even outlined the approximate location where the Bone Woman had died.

Within this circle, the two Appraisers also found some things affected by the mark's radiation. However, these Elements, which did not match the items themselves, would not solidify but would gradually fade and disappear over time. This was also why this phenomenon was called mark spreading rather than Element spreading.

Listening to the two Appraisers' exchange, the Manager finally couldn't stand it and spoke:

"You mean to say that in the less than ten minutes it took me to receive the notification of the Omen's appearance and rush here, someone has already killed an Anomaly Level Omen like the Bone Woman, which is already approaching a true Supernatural Tale?"

"Although it's incredible, judging by the traces at the scene, that is indeed the case," the Appraiser, who also moonlighted as a detective, replied. He pointed to the ground, which had almost no footprints, only a few inconspicuous drag marks and a small amount of scratches. "The other party should have clashed with the Omen in that house and immediately chosen to flee, but was caught up by the Bone Woman, and the battle finally took place here. The entire process was probably within three minutes."

"That's impossible! Although the Bone Woman looks like a person, it's still a corpse-type Omen. It's impossible for it to be killed so easily!"

The Manager's face was filled with disbelief. As the person who had faced Omens the most in the entire Landfill Area, he was very aware of how troublesome corpse-type Omens were. If they had obvious weaknesses, it would be fine, but for species like the Bone Woman, Stitched Monster, and Frankenstein's Monster, which could almost be considered mindless Supernatural Tales, even he could only fight them by sacrificing his health. Unless...

"The other party very likely possesses a Phantom that counters the Bone Woman!"

That's right, it must be a Phantom. Although False Things with counter-Elements could also deal effective damage, they could never allow the holder to catch up to the Bone Woman's physical fitness.

As for having the strength to confront or even crush the Bone Woman himself, the Manager had not considered that possibility at all, because he couldn't.

This wasn't arrogance of "I can't do it, so others definitely can't." It was because the [Manager] profession only granted it to the strongest person within that area (excluding equipment). If there were someone stronger than him, the Manager profession would be directly revoked.

Since the [Manager] profession was still intact on him, it meant that the person who defeated the Omen was definitely weaker than him.

For someone weaker than himself to kill a Bone Woman, which could ignore defense and possessed extremely high speed, the Manager couldn't think of any other possibility besides a Phantom!

"Investigate! You must find this person! By the way, the Bone Woman is a corpse mutation. Yesterday, we didn't receive any information about corpses appearing here, only the notification of an Omen appearing. This means the corpse was moved here by someone. Start investigating from those who received the corpse disposal task yesterday evening!"

The Manager quickly sorted out his thoughts and issued instructions to the subordinates behind him. This wasn't just about coveting the other party's extremely powerful Phantom; more importantly, it was about protecting his vested interests.

Since they possessed a powerful Phantom, it meant that the other party could relatively easily obtain combat-related tags and snowball from there. Once the other party's strength surpassed his own, the Infinite City would remove his Manager profession, and then the two would compete again.

The Manager profession meant control over the Garbage Dump and a monopoly on high-quality professions. Having grown accustomed to the convenience brought by this position, the Manager could no longer give it up!

Therefore, anyone who might threaten his position must die!

Meanwhile, Feng Xue, who had already fallen asleep, was unaware of such matters. However, his comfortable sleep didn't last long before the vibration of his Work Card woke him up.

"Hello, what's up?" Feng Xue picked up his Work Card, saw Old Li's communication request, and casually pressed the answer button. Then, he heard Old Li's voice coming from the Work Card—

"The Manager gang has gone crazy for some reason and is suddenly conducting a city-wide search. If you have any secrets, remember to hide them well. I'll be leaving the Landfill Area next. If anything happens later, you can go find Old Xia on East Street. He's also a Novice Instructor and won't refuse your help!"

"Wait, what do you mean by leaving? Do you have an escape route?" Feng Xue was slightly stunned and immediately stopped Old Li from hanging up. Old Li, hearing this, said helplessly:

"What escape route? I'm just going through the wilderness. Alright, I still need to notify others, so I won't chat anymore."

"No... I also..." Before Feng Xue could finish speaking, Old Li had already hung up. When he tried to call again, he was met with a busy signal, indicating that the line was in use