West District, inside a shabby two-story villa.
Li You, pale-faced, knelt on the floor, his body trembling uncontrollably with fear.
King Snake, ruler of the West District, sat in a worn leather chair, his expression cold and sinister.
"Li You, you fled here from another town. I took you in and gave you food to eat. And how did you repay me?
"You swore to me before that if you failed to contain the Taboo Object, you would bring me your head. Now it is time to honor that promise."
Li You trembled even harder and pleaded, "Commander, this is not my fault! If Bai Ye had not appeared out of nowhere, I definitely would have contained it..."
"Shut up, you useless trash!" King Snake interrupted darkly. "I hate people who make excuses for their failures. People should look for the reasons within themselves. You are both human—why could Bai Ye succeed while you could not? Are you not human? What exactly are you?"
"Commander, please give me one more chance! I am still useful! I spent more than ten years training my right hand, and my gambling tricks are unparalleled. I can watch over a casino and win money for you!"
"Fuck you! Grey Soil Town is full of poor bastards. Where the hell am I supposed to open a casino? Since you do not want to die with dignity, I will help you die with dignity!"
King Snake gave his subordinate a look. The man immediately understood, cocked the pistol in his hand, and aimed it at Li You's head.
Li You shook like a leaf, begging without pause, tears and snot streaming down his face. "Commander! Commander! I do not want to die! Spare me! My mother is still waiting for me to return! I am her only son!"
The miserable pleas brought an unwilling look to the subordinate's face, but beneath King Snake's icy gaze, he still slowly pulled the trigger.
Unexpectedly, Li You, who had been begging for mercy moments ago, suddenly sprang up. His right hand became little more than an afterimage as he snatched the gun from the subordinate's hand in an instant, then lunged at King Snake.
King Snake only saw a blur before a gun was pressed against his head.
Li You seemed like an entirely different person. With a vicious expression, he pointed the gun at King Snake's head. "Get back! Or I will kill him!"
The sudden reversal left everyone wary of hurting King Snake. None of them dared move rashly.
No one had expected Li You to possess such nerve—or such speed.
Clap, clap, clap...
Applause rang through the room. King Snake clapped with a sneer and praised, "As expected of Magic Hand. Your sleight of hand truly is extraordinary. Even I did not see it clearly."
"Cut the crap. Tell your men to move aside!"
King Snake's expression did not change. He casually lit a cigarette, exhaled a smoke ring, and said, "Do you know? The thing I hate most in this life is having a gun pointed at my head."
"Damn it! You are still acting tough with a gun pointed at you? I am pointing one at your fucking head! What are you going to do about it?" Li You roared, pressing the muzzle hard against King Snake's skull.
But the next moment, when the muzzle struck King Snake's head, it produced a crisp metallic clang.
Li You froze, his face turning pale in an instant. "Alloy..."
Crack!
Bang!
The sound of bones breaking and a gunshot rang out at the same time.
"Ahh!! My hand!" Li You screamed miserably. His right hand, along with the pistol, had been crushed by King Snake's mechanical arm.
Only then did he see clearly. King Snake not only had a metal prosthetic eye; beneath the sleeve on his right arm, he also concealed a mechanical arm gleaming with cold metal light!
"Hmph. You do know a thing or two." King Snake released his mechanical arm and let his subordinates pounce on Li You.
He touched his slightly scorched scalp. The artificial skin there had torn open, revealing not stark white human bone, but a glint of cold metal.
He sneered. "I told you, I hate it most when people point guns at my head. Someone once did that to me, so after that incident, I spent a fortune embedding an alloy plate in my skull."
Li You no longer had the heart to listen. He wailed as if his heart had been torn apart—not because of the pain, but because his Magic Hand was ruined. His proud right hand, honed through years of training, had suffered a comminuted fracture.
"Ahhh!! My hand! My Magic Hand that I trained for so many years..."
It was as though his eyes had been veiled by a layer of ash called despair. He looked like a man whose soul had been ripped away.
Li You allowed the lackeys to restrain him without the slightest resistance.
"Just kill me..."
"Oh?" A cold smile curled across King Snake's lips. "You were begging for mercy just now. Why are you looking to die now?"
Li You gave a bitter laugh. "I have relied on this hand to survive my entire life. Now my proud Magic Hand is ruined, and I have become useless. What meaning is there in living?"
Two clear tears slid from the corners of his eyes. Looking at the empty space beside him, he choked out, "Mom, your son has failed you. I will never let you see the day I make something of myself. My hand... is ruined..."
After saying that, he seemed to lose all the strength in his body and collapsed limply onto the floor.
"Hahahaha..." King Snake suddenly burst into laughter, his smile brutal and cruel. "You want to die? I refuse to let you die. I will make you live forever with the title of cripple hanging over your head, suffering for the rest of your life!"
The pleasure of destroying something another person cherished made King Snake feel immensely satisfied. He waved his hand, allowing his subordinates to drag the crippled Li You away.
Bang!
Li You, limp as a dead dog, was ruthlessly thrown into a dumping ground. Countless piles of garbage slid down and completely buried his body.
The two lackeys covered their noses and mouths in disgust before quickly leaving.
After they had gone, the garbage shifted. Li You cautiously crawled out from the dump, and there was not a trace of desolation left in his bright eyes.
"Hahaha... King Snake, that idiot. I knew psychos were into this sort of thing."
He clutched his right hand, laughing while baring his teeth against the piercing pain. Step by step, he walked into the distance as cold moonlight spilled silvery radiance over the ground, lighting his way forward.
He subconsciously raised his head to gaze at the moon, lost in thought.
It was clearly the same moon, yet he felt that tonight's moonlight was especially beautiful.
Then, suddenly, he smiled.
"Hehe... I get to live another day!
"How wonderful!"
His face was filled with the wild joy of surviving a disaster, yet deep within those bright eyes lurked a lingering shadow.
Clearly, he was not nearly as carefree about the loss of his Magic Hand as he appeared.
"Deputy Commander Bai, time is of the essence. Let us go eliminate the Mutated Beast!"
Early in the morning, Tan Jie, ruler of the East District, arrived at the door with dozens of armed subordinates behind him.
Bai Ye yawned. "There is an old saying: sharpening the knife does not delay the chopping of wood. I have barely even handled a gun before. How can I rush into action?"
Tan Jie paused, thinking that Bai Ye had a point. Although Breath of Bones was useful, it was still a firearm. Without accuracy, it was less convenient than a machete.
"What do you mean?"
"Practice shooting first, naturally!"
"Fine. I will practice with you."
Tan Jie had struggled across the wasteland for more than ten years. Though he had never received formal training, practice had made him proficient, and he had some experience with shooting.
Thus, on the first day, Bai Ye spent the entire day practicing with a gun under Tan Jie's guidance.
Bai Ye had a great time that day, satisfying his craving to shoot. He wasted quite a few of Tan Jie's bullets and ate plenty of meat.
Tan Jie, meanwhile, felt his heart bleed. Both bullets and meat were scarce resources in Gray Soil Town. Every bit used meant one bit less remained, but in order to deal with the Mutated Beast, he had no choice but to grit his teeth and support Bai Ye.
Before you continue