They had brought Reed along because transferring the Membership Card required its owner to be present.
That was also why Hanks had said they could not force him.
Unfortunately, as far as An Kai was concerned, that rule might as well not have existed.
Entering the city again after three hundred days, An Kai was still drawn to its spotless streets.
It was hard to imagine that the City Lord of the lawless Chaos City was actually a clean freak.
Hanks led the way, taking An Kai and Reed along the right side of the street.
The streets of Chaos City were roughly twenty meters wide.
The paths available to ordinary residents were confined to the two sides, with a combined width of less than two meters.
The rest of the street was reserved for those with power in Chaos City.
After following Hanks for a few minutes, An Kai had already seen several carriages roar past.
According to Hanks, the factions behind those carriages were some of Chaos City's major powers.
Aside from the City Lord's faction, four powers dominated Chaos City.
Those four factions had all the manpower and resources they could want, and they were also partners of the Bounty Tower.
Over the years, they had completed countless bounty missions for the Bounty Tower.
Likewise, they had collected rewards from the Bounty Tower until they could barely carry any more.
Beds made of magic stone, Golden Houses cast from gold...
Hanks's boasts left An Kai yearning for it all...
If I robbed them, how many resource points could I get for all that?
With Hanks leading them, the three finally arrived at the Bounty Tower.
The Bounty Tower was a ten-story building over fifty meters tall, with two silver pillars more than twenty meters high standing before its entrance!
In front of the silver pillars, a squad of forty class holders stood guard, while dozens of scantily clad hostesses waited at the entrance to welcome the Bounty Tower's members.
Everything before him dazzled An Kai.
Those two silver pillars in particular, each over twenty meters tall and roughly three meters wide, made his eyes gleam!
How many skill points would those be worth?
If there had not been so many class holders on guard, and if he had been certain he could escape Chaos City...
An Kai would have hauled off those two silver pillars long ago...
"Kid, forget it. The leaders of Chaos City's four major factions are tier two experts. Even they wouldn't dare cause trouble here!"
"You're only tier one... forget it!" Hanks had meant to say the First Tier-One Level, but on second thought, there was no way this brat An Kai was really at the First Tier-One Level...
An Kai tore his lingering gaze away as Hanks dragged him off to transfer the Membership Card first.
During the transfer, the Bounty Tower asked Reed five times whether he was doing this willingly.
They even said the Bounty Tower would stand up for him.
But the moment Reed saw An Kai's smiling, predatory expression, his courage deserted him...
If the Bounty Tower stood up for him, he did not know whether An Kai would survive.
But he knew that if he nodded, that bastard would definitely shove that damned iron sword through his head!
In the end, after weighing his options, Reed transferred his Membership Card, with its balance of zero, to An Kai.
The transfer had been nerve-racking, but it had ended without incident.
For Reed, at least...
An Kai did not care what Reed was thinking. If Reed dared betray him, he had better be prepared to live in the Bounty Tower for the rest of his life!
No, not the rest of his life. At An Kai's cultivation speed, it would not be long before he could squash Reed even if he hid inside the Bounty Tower...
Fortunately, Reed knew what was good for him.
That spared An Kai a stint of biding his time and enduring hardship...
Once the transaction was complete, An Kai and Hanks sent Reed away and headed toward the Bounty Board.
Inside the Bounty Tower, there was a Bounty Board that ranked bounties by the value of their rewards.
When An Kai and Hanks arrived, they happened to find the Mountainbreaker Gang, one of the city's four major factions, turning in a bounty.
The man leading them stood nearly two and a half meters tall, his entire body covered in bulging muscles.
He also held a spiked club covered in dark brown stains!
"That's War Wolf, head of the Mountainbreaker Gang's Resource Hall."
"A Knight at the Eighth Tier-One Level. Unfortunately, their gang leader slaughtered his mount for a feast."
Hanks's explanation stunned An Kai.
Then he accepted it. Now that was more like Chaos City...
The spotless streets and abundance of rules had almost made An Kai believe this was a gathering place for decent people.
Behind the burly man, his subordinates were dragging someone along like a dead dog.
After exchanging a few words with the aloof beauty behind the counter, the burly man dragged the dead-dog-like figure up to it.
He yanked the man's hair back, revealing a youthful face. "Take a look. This guy is definitely on the Bounty Board!"
The beauty behind the counter had presumably seen plenty of scenes like this. After a few glances, she answered with absolute certainty, "He isn't."
"What?! Impossible!"
Seemingly unable to accept it, the burly man suddenly bellowed.
As his voice rose, the beauty behind the counter grew visibly impatient!
"No shouting on the premises!"
Bang!
A thunderous shout suddenly rang out from nowhere!
Immediately afterward, the burly man crashed to his knees as though an immense weight had settled on his back!
His teeth ground together with an audible creaking sound...
Lv9 earth spell: Gravity Vortex!
An Kai recognized the spell that had brought the burly man down.
His gaze passed over the beauty behind the counter and landed on a Mage dressed in robes embroidered with gold thread, holding a Staff made of magic stone and topped with an earthy-brown gemstone that radiated the aura of earth magic!
A Mage Insignia marked "Ninth Tier-One Level" hung on the Mage's chest!
That lavish appearance was exactly what An Kai thought a Mage should look like!
Red!
His eyes had gone red!
If it had been remotely feasible, An Kai would not have hesitated for a second. He would have stripped that Mage bare!
Perhaps sensing An Kai's ravenous gaze, the Earth Mage turned his head slightly and looked in his direction...
"Head down!"
At Hanks's sharp, quiet command, An Kai quickly came to his senses and immediately lowered his head.
Only then did he avoid meeting the Mage's gaze.
A moment later, the beauty behind the counter coldly said, "Get lost."
Only then did the burly man flee in disgrace, supported by his subordinates.
As for the youthful-faced fellow who had been dragged around like a dead dog, he had slipped away the moment the burly man ran into trouble...
Only after the Mountainbreaker Gang had left did Hanks lead An Kai toward the counter to look for a suitable bounty mission.
"Forget it. That's one of the four Mages retained by the Bounty Tower. He's at the Ninth Tier-One Level, not someone you can set your sights on."
"If the old geezer were here, there might be a chance..."
Hanks noticed An Kai's grave expression.
He assumed An Kai had been shaken by that Mage's power.
Little did he know that An Kai was actually calculating how long he needed to cultivate before he could borrow that dazzling outfit.
And why that Mage's Mage Insignia was different from the one the old guild leader had given him...
"Kid! You're in luck! This bounty mission looks pretty good!"
Before you continue