Unite the Three Hunter Clans?

For the tough-skinned Terra, bullets won't be fatal if the weapons are slightly modified. So these things produced on the Lungmen site under the guise of "police riot control weapons" can indeed be used directly for riot control.

The muffled, slightly leaky gunshots continued incessantly.

They finally quieted down for a while.

Gail Industries' security, chasing Toland's figure, once again stopped in front of the smoke, while the Tsvonnek police arrived late.

Behind the security guards were the branch's senior executives, and then Oute and Dyster.

Seeing this, those who made money from the parade suddenly realized: Oh no, are they going to have their pay docked?

These villains didn't realize that if Rhodes Island hadn't intervened in time, a dozen people would have died in the stampede, and dozens, even nearly a hundred, would have been injured, some seriously.

Even the fact that they themselves can still do their calculations here despite the "wounds" from their leaky air rifles is thanks to Oute's desire to settle down in Tsvonnek.

On the one hand, the casualties of these people are actually insignificant in Kazimierz; rural conflicts and brawls are far more brutal. On the other hand, Tsvonnek is now at the last mile of the "Leithanien Sister City" campaign.

A few protests targeting the infected are harmless—at least that's what Gail Industries' money says. But causing such casualties in the city... what do the Leithanien think?

More importantly: what if that damned Qiesibo gets a pretext to bring the Campaign Knight into city management!?

This dictates that once casualties occur, city officials will do everything in their power to suppress them. And these are resources they have already consumed, or are about to consume.

The high-ranking officials whispered amongst themselves, and only after the smoke cleared did the Tsvonnek police slowly prepare to evacuate the crowd, carrying large loudspeakers.

Oute waved in greeting.

Nearl breathed a sigh of relief, "Handover!"

The soldiers loosened their formation, allowing the Tsvonnek to take control of the crowd and slowly disperse them.

At the same time, Nearl frowned and pretended to listen intently. Soon, she took a long axe and disappeared.

The mayor wiped his sweat, forcing a smile through his wrinkles, "It's all thanks to Rhodes Island's strong support!"

The police chief, however, was quite perceptive. He let out a sarcastic hiccup. "Hiccup! I think the Campaign Knight have completely misjudged the situation. Why are they investigating the Leithanien?"

"Hic! Well-trained, with Ursus accent, and those axes!" Clearly, he was mixing in some personal feelings. "It's not Leithanien spy who's infiltrated! It's Ursus ...hiccup, Dr. Sweat!"

"That damned wild horse bastard..."

The Pegasus, in the story, is regarded as an "impossible beast." It is the offspring of a griffin and a horse—but the griffin feeds on the horse. This relationship was appropriated by the Kazimierz as a derogatory term for the Ursus people (Note ①).

His vulgar language was stopped by others through violence.

Upon closer inspection, it turns out that many of these city officials reeked of alcohol!

The mayor said, "Don't worry about him, we were just having a party... He drank a bit too much."

"But he's right about one thing," the mayor exclaimed excitedly, "Despite their crude weapons, the Rhodes Island soldiers are truly fantastic! I'd love to see them with proper weapons. Would you mind hiring them...?"

So, it doesn't matter who it is, as long as it's not Grandpa Knight?

"The priority is to resettle the people," Oute stopped the mayor's plan.

While the powerful were celebrating their good fortune, rejoicing that a fool had fallen from the sky and voluntarily saved them from financial ruin, little did they know they were inviting a wolf into their home...

"Operator Nearl, proceed to target location," the terminal instructed.

Meanwhile, the Radiant Knight, Nearl, is following Oute's guidance to find her other "uncle."

In the alley, Toland lifted the manhole cover.

He planned to circle around a few more times before returning to the guild headquarters.

The axe blade cleaved through the fierce wind, and Toland's already unremarkable longsword broke in two.

"Margaret Nearl," Kuranta introduced herself.

Upon seeing yet another horse girl wielding a long-handled weapon, Toland's fake smile vanished completely.

"The emblem of Rhodes Island?" Toland said helplessly, "I was just doing a good deed once in a while, why are you bunch of good people chasing after me to kill me?"

"... Doc Otter?"

Damn it!

It's Mind Flayer!

Seeing Margaret suddenly start talking to herself, Toland mustered another bit of strength and crawled into the half-open sewer.

Sometime during the process, the crystal shell had sealed it off.

"Mr. Toland," Oute tilted his head, "What have I done to make you so disrespectful to me?"

Chapter 305 Unifying the Three Major Hunter Divisions?

Faced with Oute's questioning, Toland instantly hid all the evasiveness on his face behind a smile, "Oh dear, seeing someone like you, I can't possibly greet you in such a rude manner, can I?"

"In front of your nephews and nieces, you should save your breath with those greasy platitudes that will ruin your image," Oute said bluntly. "Perhaps we can cooperate— Rhodes Island and the Bounty Hunter Guild."

"... Huh?"

Won't that eyepiece fall off?

Toland's eyes widened, and even Nearl exuded a simple, genuine worry.

"To show my sincerity, how about I 'treat' you first?"

No, at most I just dislocated my shoulder intentionally when I got out of the way; it's not like I was injured anywhere!

Before Toland could speak, Oute snapped his fingers.

The dislocated arm of the hornless Sarkaz had twisted, undulating waves of flesh beneath its skin, as if countless tiny insects were crawling and slithering about.

Fate Reconstruction!

Now Toland understood: five parts sincerity and ninety-five parts threat.

Seeing that Toland was no longer making excuses, Oute began to state his position. "The bounty hunters, though scattered and disorganized, could form a formidable armed force if they were to unite. More importantly, they are rooted in the vast countryside and shipping lane towns, making them, in terms of their fundamental strength, the complete opposite of Kazimierz."

Toland said, "While the authorities aren't happy to see us, the term 'opposition' is a bit of an overstatement!"

He further defended himself, saying, "Besides, we also have bases in the city, you know!"

"So, do you want the heads of Fire Lung, Yellow Smoke, and the others?" Oute asked bluntly.

"How did you know...!"

Looking at Margaret's cold face, Toland suddenly realized.

"By the way, I can't read minds."

In the original timeline, bounty hunter leaders such as Fire Lung, Yellow Smoke, and Cranial Cavity appeared as background figures for Skadi's appearance in the "Grani and the Knights' Treasure" event that took place in 1097.

It was precisely because the major bounty hunter groups that dominated the industry encountered Skadi, this "Catastrophe," that Toland had the opportunity to unite the vast majority of bounty hunters in the name of the "Bounty Hunter Guild."

However, before Rhodes Island had even ventured north and the search for the Knight's Treasure had reached its climax, these bounty hunters were still working for the wealthy, the corrupt, and the ruthless corporations, and Toland's grand ambitions were nowhere to be realized.

"But I still don't see any way the guild and Rhodes Island could cooperate."

Besides, you've already ruined my plans, and now you're using this to talk about cooperation!?

Toland thought to himself, "This is a bad omen."

The words of righteous indignation, spoken by Oute, who was possessed by Nearl, were uttered in an extremely calm tone. "Now, the behavior of bounty hunters being hired by giant corporations to disrupt rural production and life in order to lower land prices is utterly despicable."

Nearl, however, was moved and interrupted, saying, "[Generally speaking, Doc Otter, you always have a more practical reason. What is it this time?]"

"The entry of large corporations into rural areas, whether they repurpose the land for industry or plantations, will disrupt my positioning of the Rhodes Island Kazimierz office. In the long run, the best time to intervene is now."

Toland clicked his tongue in astonishment. "When I was gathering intelligence, I heard that Doctor. Oute of Rhodes Island was very outspoken..."

I never expected them to be so outspoken!

"Excuse me for asking a question, but why did you just kill Zhizhuotu? Wouldn't it have been better to keep him alive?"

"You lack the channels to grasp the pulse of the upper echelons of a giant corporation and the movements of Kawalerielki, but Rhodes Island does not." Nearl's eyes were indifferent. "Under these circumstances, the harm of cooperating with someone who keeps Zhizhuotu alive outweighs the benefits."

"What does 'damage' mean...?" Toland frowned.

"Cooperating with people who harm their homeland and manipulate public opinion—even if it's 'cooperation' that's threatening, coercive, or condescending—would greatly damage the spirit of Rhodes Island," Oute said. "Unlike secular governments, the morale and spirit of Rhodes Island are largely maintained by idealism."

This is completely different from his speech.

"Rhodes Island should not venture into the dark realm unless absolutely necessary, and it should not even venture into the gray realm unless there is sufficient emotional support."

This was precisely the biggest takeaway for Oute after the Lai Village incident.

Rhodes Island can now use the excuse of "human rights over sovereignty" to work together as a unified force. As a multinational corporation, Rhodes Island does not have the double standard of "sovereignty over human rights" and can use it with great ease.

Toland smiled, a smile concealing a mixture of mockery, cynicism, and annoyance stemming from Oute's recent actions.

"Doctor. Oute speaks his mind. Why don't you hand over the evidence of Fire Lung and Yellow Smoke's illegal involvement in domestic violence to our guild?" Toland said. "We'll take care of them immediately!"

It turns out that Toland's most basic goal was to obtain the nail that would be enough to put an end to the deaths of Fire Lung, Yellow Smoke, and others. This coincided with Oute's idea of launching a class-action lawsuit to bring Gail Industries to an end.

These scattered and disorganized soldiers greatly hindered Toland's first step in unifying the bounty hunters.

Aside from sitting at home waiting for Catastrophe to wipe out his rivals, Toland certainly needs to be more proactive and assertive. The Bounty Hunter Guild is already disliked, and if his competitors die from excessively direct violence, Toland's grand undertaking of "mediating civil disputes" might be prematurely exposed to the authorities.

Oute remained silent.

Toland didn't even bring up the fact that "Oute set a trap for him, which added another charge to his name" in the negotiations, which clearly wasn't the attitude for long-term cooperation.

Even if that scoundrel bears 99.99% of the responsibility, isn't Mr. Toland Cash, who took advantage of the negotiations between Rhodes Island and Gail Industries to force his way into Gale's administration building, completely without fault?

The sound of two people's footsteps could be heard outside the alley.

It turned out that Oute himself and Dyster had arrived together.

Nearl shook his head, realizing, amidst the sudden dryness, that Oute was gone for good.

"Guild Leader, we share a common stance on maintaining the traditional way of life in Kazimierz," Oute said. "Therefore, Rhodes Island is willing to provide Rhodes Island's international travel pass to hunters who are willing to accept its constraints."

In fact, a significant number of the operators who "went to the island" initially did so for this very convenience.

Toland beamed, "Oh dear, this is so embarrassing! Hey! Doctor. Oute! What kind of constraint is it?"

He has put aside the matter of Oute ruining his plans and is preparing to cooperate with Rhodes Island.