Act20: No Man's Land

[Part 1: The Meaning of Scars]

Clark Sean returned home, feeling relieved but empty inside.

Four-Eyes and Clark went back to their adoptive parents' house and sat on the rooftop.

They didn't dare go home or to the hospital. People from the public security investigation agency came to question them, wanting to investigate the ballistic records at the scene to prevent stray bullets from hitting innocent civilians. In Lieyang Fort, shootings happen every day, and there are also innocent victims hit by stray bullets.

If these victims cannot receive medical treatment and are unable to call for help after being hit by bullets, the soldiers' powerful memories will be crucial. They will need to memorize the trajectory of every bullet at the crime scene and inform the public security authorities so that subsequent officers can search the buildings and rooms to locate the bullet impact points.

This method was a life-saving bible left by the gunsmith to the people of Guangling Zhixi and the underworld. So, even as he was shot and fell to the ground, Four-Eyes was still reporting the gun's muzzle direction and the number of bullets at the scene of the shooting to the police emergency center. Through years of drills, these habits have saved countless lives.

Clark brought over a basin of clean water, a knife, surgical forceps, and disinfectant alcohol.

Four-Eyes took off his glasses and shaved his beard, finally looking like a young man in his early twenties.

They don't want to go to the hospital and can't afford the high cost of surgery. Although Guangling Zhixi will reimburse part of their medical insurance, that money should be used for more important things, such as rescue teams pulling them out of the crime scene for emergency treatment when they are unable to save themselves, ICU care and treatment, situations where Universal Elixir don't work, major neurosurgery, and other emergencies. In such cases, the medical bills will become terrifying astronomical figures.

"Banner," Clark finally said, revealing the Four Eyes's real name, "Why did you go and block the gun barrel?"

I thought that young Banner was only twenty years old. He wasn't a police academy graduate; he was Clark's informant, who later recommended him to the team leader, making him a member of the warband.

Clark patted his good friend on the shoulder, then cut open Banner's blood-stained clothes with a knife, revealing a series of horrific mounds of flesh.

"What do you think?"

Banner nonchalantly replied, "I thought this beast didn't have much firepower. He pulled out a pistol. How powerful can a pistol be?"

Clark plunged a knife into Banner's chest, removing the shrapnel from the flesh.

These lead bullet fragments, mixed with ceramic powder from the armor and some Kevlar fibers, had grown into the flesh due to the divine power of White Lady's artifacts, some even reaching deep into the heart and lungs before they could be completely removed.

The excruciating pain was driving Banner to the Gate of Death; he gritted his teeth and stared wide-eyed.

Clark worked swiftly, cutting away the six large mounds of flesh, cleaning out the pustules and inflamed areas inside Four-Eyed's body, and immediately washing it with White Lady's products.

Before opening the bottle, Clark asked, "The Universal Elixir?"

Banner couldn't speak and shook his head vigorously.

Clark began stitching up the wound. "A little scar is better than nothing."

He pressed on the wounds; some of the deep bullet wounds required strong pressure on Banner's torso to close the wounds in his limbs as much as possible. The White Lady's products would cause some growths and polyps, and if strange sarcomas were left, they could very well turn into cancer.

These are the treasures the gunsmith left for the soldiers of the warband.

--This legendary figure's healing speed is ridiculously fast; in terms of survivability, the Gunsmith is two or three generations ahead of the Warband.

It's not that the medics in the warbands are lazy or undisciplined, but gunsmiths usually face extremely harsh combat environments. Field medics rarely encounter the extreme situation of continuing to fight while administering medicine. When wounded soldiers need treatment, it often means that their fighting spirit is close to collapse and they are no longer able to fight.

These valuable experiences were transformed into instructions for using White Lady's products and Universal Elixir, usage standards, and medical procedures for managing the side effects of White Lady's products.

After Clark performed the bullet removal surgery on Four-Eyes, they were supposed to go to the hospital for a full-body checkup and use ultrasound to examine his internal condition. However, Four-Eyes's wounds were concentrated in his chest cavity, and the bullet impact point was obvious. So, they used the gunsmith teacher's makeshift method to locate the lesion.

Clark picked up Banner, pressed on his sternum, and checked the spinal nerve reflexes and major blood vessels to make sure the boy showed no signs of paralysis or major blood vessel dissection/embolism.

It was Banner's turn to perform surgery on Clark, and it was quite difficult.

Clark was shot in the thigh and abdomen, and part of his intestines were torn. The filth from his internal organs went into his abdominal cavity, initially causing a severe infection. Under the healing effect of White Lady's products, it turned into a dense cluster of bright red lipomas.

They were squeezing Clark's kidneys, causing his spleen and stomach to arch into a huge gourd-shaped belly, much like the Vita Imprint about to erupt.

A bullet happened to be caught in the thigh bone, lying horizontally between the bones. As soon as it entered Clark's body, it rolled horribly, and before it could break the boy's bones, it got stuck in the bone marrow.

The two young men were able to return home conscious and begin their self-rescue procedures because they were well-versed in the Six Arts. In the past, these terrifying complications from White Lady's products required professional medical treatment, but now they can be considered minor injuries, and they don't need to leave the front lines immediately.

After administering local anesthesia to Clark, Banner, carrying a knife, cut open his superior's swollen abdomen. When he smelled the foul odor, he merely frowned and forced himself to remove the dense clusters of lipomas in his abdominal cavity, enduring the nausea.

These were pieces of fat, about the size of a finger, tightly wrapping the infected material. While protecting Clark's immune system, White Lady's products were also mimicking the healing behavior of the Vita Imprint in saving the host. The filth overflowing from the intestines was isolated from the circulatory system by these lipomas, turning into little "burdens."

"It looks just like passion fruit," Clark joked.

Banner threw all the filth into the sterilizing bucket, and you could hear shrapnel hitting the bucket. "Self-reliance is the way to go. If you had to go to the hospital, this surgery would probably cost you three thousand three hundred."

Clark: "More than three thousand three hundred, right?"

Banner: "I don't know either, I haven't been to the hospital in a long time."

Clark abruptly changed the subject. "Banner, why did you take that money and then come to block the gun?"

That was a very skillful question; for a moment, the Little Four Eyes even wondered if he'd been given the wrong anesthetic.

--Does this mean Clark was only conscious while under anesthesia?

"What's the meaning?"

Clark: "I didn't have much time to think; it was just a split second. It was too critical and too short—I later thought, if you had that $40,000, would you have shot me, because we're not on the same side anymore?"

Banner emphasized, "It's forty-one thousand five hundred dollars!"

Clark: "Yeah. With so much money, they can even use my head to buy their future! Oh oh oh oh oh! Oh!~ No no no! No!"

Four-Eyes gently poked at Clark's large intestine with tweezers, pulling at Clark's nerves. Although he had undergone anesthesia, some nerves in his intestines were extremely sensitive, and even partial anesthesia was ineffective.

"I won't ask anymore, I won't ask anymore!" Clark's voice trembled.

After Banner cleaned Clark's abdominal cavity, he used White Lady's products to create new body tissue. At this point, Clark was somewhat anemic and his consciousness became blurred, but he regained consciousness under Banner's patting, tapping, and acupressure stimulation techniques.

Apart from the muscle definition, the smooth side of my waist had an irregular triangular diagonal scar, from which the tumor was removed.

Banner began the surgery to remove the bullet from Clark's femur. He avoided the major artery, chose a spot with thicker fat, and used a tourniquet to tightly bind the muscle group near the heart. In just over ten seconds, with exquisite and ruthless technique, he pulled a whole bullet out of the bone.

After the bullet struck Clark's leg bone, it turned into a flat piece of lead, held in place by the newly formed bone, like a steel bar embedded in cement. The surrounding muscle and tendons tightly wrapped around it, making it easy to remove with a simple cut and a gentle tap.

Only then did Four-Eyes speak, his forehead beaded with sweat, his concentration reaching its limit.

"I really do like money, Clark. I really, really like money."

Clark: "Hmm"

Banner: "If you ask me why I took the money and then recklessly went to put myself in front of a gun—people are contradictory, aren't they, Clark Sean, my little boss?"

Clark: "Hmm"

Banner: "I just felt that you couldn't die. If you ask me what I was thinking then, I was terrified. I was afraid you would die."

Clark didn't even respond.

"I'm afraid it won't be fast enough. My gun is still in its holster. It'll be a little slow to pull it out and reload." Banner, while pouring new flesh and blood onto Clark's thigh, took a moment to ask, "Want Universal Elixir?"

Clark: "A few scars are good too."

"I grabbed the money and rushed over." Banner suddenly felt a lump in his throat, and for some reason, he started crying, tears streaming down his face—he was only twenty years old, and all he felt was lingering fear. "I thought you couldn't die, you couldn't die!"

"As for why? I don't know either. I want you to talk to that leopard beast about the human flesh trade, and don't risk your life to provoke or anger him."

"I never expected this beast to open fire on us directly; it had no intention of sparing our lives."

"I saw he was holding a pistol. It seemed like his breastplate could withstand it, but it must have been incredibly painful!"

"At that time, I thought I might die, and that's when I started to regret it. A pistol can break through armor plates, and a pistol can fire high-powered rounds. These monster hybrids know how to deal with the armor on the warriors of the chapter."

Clark: "If it weren't for that homeless man..."

"The gunsmith saved us," Banner interrupted. "The gunsmith saved our lives."

Clark: "You think that homeless man is a gunsmith?"

Banner: "No, no, no, no, Clark, you didn't understand what I meant."

After treating their wounds, the two brothers sat side by side on the stone platform of the rooftop water room railing, smoking and looking at the distant city street scene.

"What does that mean?" Clark scratched his head, trying to ignite Banner's anger.

Banner coughed as he smoked; his newly formed lungs and trachea were not yet adapted to the stimulation of nicotine and tar.

"Without the gunsmith, we won't make it to the second round, Clark. You can't break this beast's fingers, you don't have the ability."

"Without the gunsmith, we might not have even gotten a penny. We would have been shot the moment we got out of the car and approached the leopard hybrid."

"Without a gunsmith, I can't even open the trunk, let alone see that kidnapped young reporter—these powerful monsters won't give me that chance."

"Clark, all miracles are the result of diligent study and practice day and night."

"I don't think that homeless man was a gunsmith, because gunsmiths don't leave survivors; he was probably just a kind passerby."

As he said this, Banner took out the gun brand pistol. This crudely made and simply structured firearm was a killing weapon from a hundred years ago. It could be bought for only forty dollars in Lieyang Fort, mainly because it was cheap, readily available, and easy to find.

It has almost become another symbol of the gunsmith, because the gunsmith can create all the parts of this gun by hand using Soul Power, including the special steel with the spring structure.

Clark still couldn't believe it. "So, he's really dead?"

"Clark, this is the key factor that made me realize the truth." Banner pulled the slide of the M1900. The gun looked very cheap, the gun oil inside smelled terrible and the lubrication was mediocre. It made a piercing whistling sound when it slid, and there were pits on the steel surface, indicating that it was not a product made by a gunsmith using cutting techniques.

"This hero lives within everyone," Banner said, opening the barrel to check the bullet and release the sleeve. "I will fight the White Shark Association to the end. I will continue to fight. Millions of people should share the same thought as me. The gunsmith has entrusted us with the will to fight."

"Clark, you should understand this better than I do. The team leader likes you so much because you both believe in justice."

"The team leader is incapable of upholding justice, so he wants to climb to a higher position in the battle group, gain power, and then talk about justice. But that path is blocked."

"I think this is not something that can be explained in just a few words."

"It's so complicated, Clark."

Banner pursed his lips and wiped away his tears.

Clark got up to collect the medical waste without saying anything more.

Life goes on, and the word "gunsmith" takes on a new meaning; it no longer seems to refer to a specific person, action, or event.

It has become a way of life and a means of survival.

[Part ②· Tathagata]

In front of Wulong Fortress, Kaycee explained the whole story to Xiao Min.

Xiao Min changed into casual clothes and sat at You De's tea stall, talking with some friends about the kidnapping case on Romero Street. She was the one who saved Clark and Four Eyes.

"Sister Bailu rang the Summoning Bell, and after my mother (Red Sister) received the news, she immediately informed the BOSS. We're on our way right now, just one bus after you."

Kaycee: "You guys wear masks, so we're just copying you."

A Hao was extremely anxious, feeling that something was wrong.

Did the teacher come or not?

Daniel immediately replied, "The Tathagata."

Just then, the multimedia television at the tea stall reported on police incidents in various parts of Lieyang Fort. Mysterious people wearing clown masks were found in several terrorist attacks, indicating that Xiao Min and Kaycee were not the only ones imitating them.

"This time it should be the teacher, right?" A Hao chattered excitedly, "Look, look! This one!"

He pulled Daniel to the television, carefully watching the mysterious man's posture as he fired a gun from the drone's perspective.

Daniel: "It looks like it, but it's not. The teacher isn't that tall."

A Hao immediately switched to Channel 6: "What about this one! What about this one!"

There was a mysterious person who rushed into the fire, grabbed a military dog, and rolled out, his body engulfed in flames.

Daniel: "This is a woman, not a teacher."

A Hao switched to Channel 1 again. The TV commercial had just finished airing when a child kidnapping case occurred near the kindergarten in the Northern Barn District of Lieyang Fort, and a masked stranger was also seen there.

"Wow! She's even wearing Flash Butterfly Armor! She must be a teacher now, right?!"

Daniel: "That's a prototype made by a 3D printer. It looks a lot like the Flash Butterfly Armor, made of PLA plastic, and it even reflects light. It's much more flashy than the teacher's suit."

"Oh dear!" A Hao suddenly exclaimed—

--The "unnamed person" in the live broadcast suddenly tripped and fell, snatched two children from the bandits' convoy, and was unable to fight back while holding the children. He appeared to have been shot in the back, and his ankles were wrapped in a large plastic garment.

Xiao Min: "Oh no! His life is in danger!"

The next moment, scattered armed civilians emerged from the Lilan Avenue residential area in the Northern Barn District. These ordinary people picked up their weapons and confronted the convoy of human traffickers and robbers. Four garbage trucks blocked the two roads in front of and behind the kindergarten.

Crimes occur constantly in Lieyang Fort. Koruyaf was right; it is a city of sin. Without the sun's rays, it breeds demons.

The news of the gunsmith's wife's arrival seemed to have given these stories a new twist.

The fierce battles of the past few days had drained Xiao Qi's mental energy, but with the students' protection, she was finally able to get a good night's sleep.

She had a very long dream. When she woke up, she saw her husband's students surrounding her. She sat up straight, waiting for news from Bailu, her mind a jumbled mess, still haunted by some lingering illusions—

Every time the mother wolf's pups and the three military dogs would sit guarding the luggage rack outside the door, afraid that their mistress would take the weapons case out. Her husband raised them little by little; the children grew up with them, and there are so many memories and so many emotions associated with them.

Daniel explained the whole story to his teacher's wife, including how Bailu rang the Summoning Bell. He was worried that the reinforcements sent by the BOSS might alert the enemy, and if that alerted George Joshua, 9527 would be very bad.

At this moment, Manager Todd was extremely busy, and the city's law enforcement agencies were malfunctioning. On the other hand Jiang Bailu's date with George Joshua was repeatedly postponed.

With the president swamped with official duties, Harris Conte's death temporarily freed the Jiali of Cruise Ship No. 2 from the mind control of the Minotaur. Although a new pharmacist has come to fill the gap, these doctors specializing in psychotherapy and neuropharmacy can continue to control the high-class prostitutes on Cruise Ship No. 2. The handover of affairs also requires a period of adjustment among the staff.

The gunsmith's wife's fighting prowess exceeded the expectations of Manager Todd and Chairman Joshua. The successive falls of Ghost Arm Ron and Bull Warrior served as a wake-up call for George Joshua, but he remained composed and confident.

Even if high-ranking thugs die, they are still thugs and cannot damage the foundation of the White Shark Association. On the contrary, the resistance encountered by various violent agencies in the city is similar to that of Dongfang Hao's foolish son a few years ago.

"These ignorant bastards dare to impersonate gunsmiths and oppose the War Gang!"

Manager Todd was furious and squatted down next to Joshua.

"President, don't worry, I will handle these matters well."

When the word "gunsmith" came up, George Joshua finally couldn't hold back anymore.

--Fear began to creep into his heart, and he began to tremble.

"Is he dead or not?"

Todd: "Of course he's dead! Ming De himself said he's dead! His son stated this fact without hesitation!"

"So who exactly are these masked men in Lieyang Fort?" George Joshua scratched the back of his head, utterly perplexed. "Why is a dead man able to roam freely in my territory? Has this bastard become a ghost?!"

Todd was speechless, astonished and horrified. If the gunsmith had transformed into a pure spirit form, it would be a true legend of the Baba Yaga Night Demon for every follower of the Madness Butterfly Sect.

George Joshua continued, "Don't let these little things ruin my romantic date, Todd. Only criminals like to wear masks—and these are criminals! You handle this well. If you catch one or two, hang them from the station archway and bleed them dry, torture them to death as a warning to others, just like before!"

Todd immediately replied, "No problem, President! It's just that I've never understood..."

Joshua glared at him and immediately retorted, "Are you questioning me?"

Todd sensed a strong killing intent, and cold sweat broke out on his forehead. "No... I... I just wanted to say, President, at this critical juncture, are you still going to meet with Jiang Bailu?"

"You think I'm afraid?" George Joshua sneered. "At this crucial moment, if I can marry the sister of the Nameless War King, these petty villains in Lieyang Fort will naturally disappear without a trace!"

"Think about it carefully! These troublemakers, under the guise of gunsmiths, think they're some kind of masked heroes, playing a game like the good guys catching the bad guys from comic books."

"But the gunsmith's most cherished family member is right in my bed! I can use drugs to control her! Hypnotize her! Turn her into an obedient slave!"

"I'll say it again, Todd! Women are men's spoils! As long as you possess nameless women and treat them as spoils, these foolish and ignorant ordinary people will naturally understand which side to stand on!"

"This is an indelible nature deeply embedded in the genes of Homo sapiens! If one day you can find a wizard who knows the secret of transformation, capture Ming De, and turn it into a woman too! Let me ride on this feline Jiali, and let all the inhabitants of the underworld see the ugliness of their god—then I! I, George Joshua! will become a new god!"

Manager Todd was covered in sweat.

He only knew the chairman was a fucking bastard, but he didn't expect him to be this bastard.

"But... President, I'm afraid I don't have the ability. I..."

With a wave of his hand, George Joshua sent a crimson spirit rushing into Manager Todd's body.

"My soul power will do the work for you! Go, Todd!"

"[No Man's Unmanned Zone] will help you; its divine power can sweep away all obstacles!"

The Blood Transfusion Pill within Manager Todd's body is of the same lineage as that of George Joshua. The moment the crimson spirit entered his body, this psychic possessed the powerful soul might of an immortal being.

His skin kept sinking and bulging, like soft yet tough rubber. His fingers seemed to have been stretched out as he reached for his notebook to discuss the upcoming plans with the chairman. His supple fingers immediately stretched out and took it for him.

Todd stared incredulously at the resilient body, finally gaining confidence.

"I will certainly live up to your mission, President Joshua!"