The drunk glanced back at the dumpster again. "The God Remains have already been collected by the cleaners. Don't they only collect the garbage at midnight?"
"Did I actually spend most of the day drinking with Blu? And the two of us only got through four or five bottles in all that time?!"
He scratched his head dejectedly, muttering to himself, "Getting old. Can't hold my liquor anymore... Two bottles knocked me out for most of the day. I'll have to drink less... wouldn't want... wouldn't want it to interfere with hunting gods..."
With that, he staggered away again.
Qin Siyang didn't hesitate, nor could he afford to think any further. He simply sprinted tirelessly through the alley.
The alley was dark and deserted, allowing him to flee at full speed.
When he reached its end and returned to the main road, he resumed pretending to be an ordinary pedestrian, walking briskly with his head down before slipping into another alley at the first opportunity. This escape strategy worked smoothly the whole way. No one paid any attention to the shabbily dressed boy.
Perhaps his advancement in his sequence had replenished his stamina. His earlier exhaustion had vanished, and every muscle in his body felt even more energized as he moved.
I've been running for almost twenty minutes and passed a bus stop, but no one's caught up with me.
Qin Siyang remained intensely vigilant. His heart pounded, blood rushing to his head and keeping his concentration at its peak.
He scanned his surroundings from the corners of his eyes, listening for footsteps behind him, terrified of being discovered.
Damn it! If that drunk hadn't spotted me, I could've eaten everything! I only needed a little more time!
Thinking of the drunk, Qin Siyang felt resentful, but also somewhat fortunate.
The man had been so drunk that he could barely walk, taking two steps forward and one back while leaning against the wall.
He probably hadn't been able to see Qin Siyang clearly, and his mind had likely been just as muddled.
If the person who saw him hadn't been drunk, they would probably have noticed something wrong immediately and reported him to the United Government.
He might already have been caught by now!
Heaven really had been watching over him.
If I get caught with this backpack full of God Remains, no amount of explaining will save me.
Even without the remains in his backpack, they would still narrow down their search to him, making escape difficult. And his backpack held more than a dozen pieces of God Remains.
He had taken them because he could already foresee that, after tonight, his easy access to God Remains from dumpsters would almost certainly be gone.
The theft of God Remains wasn't particularly serious, since the remains were useless.
During his last visit to the internet café, Qin Siyang had read, "Humans cannot digest God Remains. They can only vomit them back up unchanged or pass them through their bowels."
No one would take useless God Remains.
Yet, although God Remains were useless, their disappearance was extremely strange.
If they were useless, why would anyone steal them? Could there be some conspiracy behind it?
God Remains disappearing from two different dumpsters on consecutive days would attract even more attention.
The Police Bureau had probably already noticed.
Qin Siyang had stolen from dumpsters two days in a row because he wanted to grow stronger as quickly as possible. Someone else might have taken a gradual approach, waiting a while between trips and leaving some behind each time.
But Qin Siyang had suffered for "taking things gradually" in his previous life.
He had believed that working meant slowly accumulating experience, growing step by step, and eventually earning promotions and raises. Yet he had never received a promotion before his death.
That had taught him that careful, long-term planning suited capitalists with an established foundation, not penniless people like him. Chasing immediate gains was the best way for workers at the bottom to turn their lives around.
He was too vulnerable to unforeseen changes. Even the slightest disturbance could crush him.
What if the United Government stationed guards at every dumpster in the future? What would he do then? Hide for the rest of his life? Who knew when another opportunity would come?
Given a second life, he refused to wait silently again. If he could do something today, he would never put it off until tomorrow.
The sooner, the better. Delay only invited complications.
It was clear that any future attempt to take God Remains from dumpsters would carry a high risk of exposing him.
Since this was his last chance, and the person who had discovered him was a slow-witted drunk, of course he would take as much as he could.
Besides, whether he took these God Remains or not, once the United Government caught him, escaping would be difficult.
Fortune favored the bold; the timid starved!
Noticing that a little blood had begun seeping through his backpack, Qin Siyang shifted it into his arms, then ducked into an alley and continued racing home.
Unlike the main road, where dim streetlights stood at regular intervals, the alley was completely dark.
The only light came from the stars overhead, filtering through the Safe Zone's protective glass canopy.
With his improved physical abilities, Qin Siyang could see the road inside the dark alley perfectly clearly.
The darkness worked to his advantage, concealing his face. Even if someone was there, he could run straight past without worrying about exposing himself.
I'll just run all the way home like this!
However, just as he turned into another dark alley, something unexpected happened.
A knife flew out of a corner, aimed straight at his right eye.
What the hell?!
His agility already far surpassed that of an ordinary person. The instant he saw the knife, he dodged aside.
The knife fell to the ground, striking the alley's paving stones with a sharp clatter.
Qin Siyang fixed his gaze on three figures beside the road.
All three had long, unkempt hair and mocking expressions.
"Who'd have thought a fat sheep would wander right past us while we were sleeping here?"
"Looks like the three of us are in luck!"
The three men stood and surrounded Qin Siyang.
"What do you want?" Qin Siyang asked coldly.
"What do we want? Do you really need to ask? We're robbing you, obviously."
Robbing me?
Can't they see how worn-out my coat is? What's the point of robbing a poor kid like me?
"I don't have any money." Qin Siyang frowned, growing anxious as time slipped away.
He had no time to stand here arguing with these three.
The disappearance of the God Remains from the dumpster could be discovered at any moment. He needed to get away from Safe Zone Exit No. 89757 as quickly as possible.
He was only two stops away from it, nowhere near a safe distance yet.
And he was carrying a backpack stuffed with God Remains!
One of the men brushed aside his greasy bangs, revealing a wicked grin. "No money? That's fine. Just leave your backpack."
These three are after my backpack?!
Qin Siyang glanced at the backpack in his arms and covered the spot where blood was seeping through, inwardly realizing things had taken a bad turn.
"There's nothing valuable in this backpack, but I can't give it to you."
"Nothing valuable? Then open it and let us see!"
Qin Siyang looked at the vagrants trying to rob him, but he wasn't panicked.
All three were ordinary people. If he wanted to escape, they couldn't possibly stop him.
As he considered which direction to break through, one of them spoke mockingly again.
"Kid, you're running through these alleys like your life depends on it. Got something precious in that bag you don't want anyone seeing? How about this? We're not greedy. Keep a quarter for yourself and split the other three quarters between us. We'll all help keep your secret. Sound good?"
Another chimed in, "Exactly. Leave the goods, and we can pretend we never saw you. Otherwise, you're in for a beating. Even if you get away, the three of us can report you to the Police Bureau! When you turned in here, the streetlight lit up your face. We've already memorized it!"
At those words, Qin Siyang's feet, poised to flee, stopped moving.
These three had seen him, which meant they could expose him.
If they really reported him to the Police Bureau, wouldn't all his efforts have been wasted?
Suddenly, a murderous impulse rose in his heart.
The criminals, seasoned by years of operating in society's gray areas, immediately caught the vicious gleam in his eyes.
"Boss, this kid's got a pretty fierce look!"
"He wants to fight? Ha! A penniless brat like him? If he's willing to fight, whatever's in that backpack must be worth a fortune! Let's kill him and keep the riches in that bag for ourselves!"
With that, each of the three drew a knife and lunged at Qin Siyang, one after another.
Qin Siyang had never killed anyone. A moment earlier, it had only been a passing thought.
For someone who had spent an entire ordinary life in a civilized society, killing wasn't easy.
He hadn't been able to commit to it, but now the three criminals had conveniently left him with no other choice.
"If heaven wants you dead, you can't blame me."
"Cocky little bastard! Kill him!"
Seeing that Qin Siyang had nowhere to dodge and would surely be pierced by their blades, the three men were already feeling triumphant.
Yet to his eyes, their attacks were as feeble as those of three-year-olds.
Qin Siyang shot a straight punch at the face of the man closest to him.
As his fist struck the man's nose, his knuckles distinctly felt the sharp vibration of bone snapping.
Qin Siyang discovered that he could now perceive the faintest details in a split second. Actual combat had made him aware of his transformation.
Blood sprayed from the man's mouth and nose.
Thud!
Qin Siyang's punch lifted the man clean off his feet and sent him flying seven or eight meters before he landed, rolled a little farther over the paving stones, and finally stopped.
His heightened senses allowed Qin Siyang to witness every detail of his lethal punch, and hot excitement surged within him.
He had killed someone!
The face, no longer recognizable as human, stared toward Qin Siyang and the other two criminals with a grotesque expression.
The two men shuddered in fright at the sight, instantly realizing they had provoked a Sequence Ability User!
But despite their fear, neither retreated.
Both were fugitives wanted for murder. They knew perfectly well that it was kill or be killed now, and begging would do no good!
Their only chance of survival was to kill Qin Siyang!
The two charged at Qin Siyang even more frantically, knives ready to stab him to death.
Qin Siyang stepped back with his left leg and swept his right leg through the air, kicking one man squarely in the waist.
More sharp cracks of breaking bone traveled through his leg.
The man folded in half at an unnatural angle, his body swinging through the air with Qin Siyang's leg.
When Qin Siyang pulled his leg back, the flying man slammed directly into the last criminal charging in to kill him. Both tumbled backward several times.
Without hesitation, Qin Siyang leaped forward, landed beside the man left dazed by the collision, and raised his fist again.
"Spare me! I'll give you all my money..."
Even now, the criminal's instinct to survive drove him to beg for mercy.
Qin Siyang gave him no chance to continue. His fist smashed into the side of the man's face, shattering his skull.
"Once you're dead, your money will still be mine."
After killing all three men in succession, the murderous intent in Qin Siyang's heart gradually faded, swiftly replaced by an inexplicable emptiness.
He let out a wistful sigh.
He had never imagined he would actually kill someone.
But he had done it to protect himself. There was nothing more to say.
Besides, Qin Siyang had a persistent feeling that killing these three men might not be an ending, but a beginning.
The beginning of learning to accept that he could kill.
Qin Siyang silently encouraged himself, calming his body, which was trembling with tension from having killed.
Once he calmed down, Qin Siyang didn't leave immediately. He remembered that some sequences mentioned in [Godslayer Camp] could read a corpse's final memories.
To avoid exposing himself, he wrapped his fist in one man's clothing and pounded all three faces beyond recognition. Only then did he consider that matter settled.
After checking the scene, carefully cleaning away the bloodstains, and taking all the money from their clothes, he stuffed the three bodies into a dark, abandoned warehouse.
He started a fire to burn the bodies, throwing in his bloodstained coat as well.
He did this to prevent any Sequence Ability User from tracking him through the scent on the corpses.
Although he didn't know whether any Sequence Ability Users could track people by scent, he felt it was entirely possible.
He had chosen this warehouse for the same reason: to prevent anyone from following his scent.
He had noticed that the road outside the warehouse was muddy and covered with many different footprints. Plenty of people had been here, which could confuse the scents.
To avoid leaving his own footprints in the mud, he carefully used his strength and agility to hop across the stones, leaving none behind.
Hopefully, nothing will go wrong.
Worried that the firelight would attract attention, Qin Siyang fled at full speed once he confirmed that the flames had engulfed all three men.
This time, he ran with every ounce of strength he had, like a madman.
Anyone who saw him in that alley would probably have thought that what had just raced past wasn't a person, but a speeding vehicle.
Qin Siyang ran for over half an hour before returning to a main road again.
His heart still stirred with excitement from his first kill.
But none of his panic remained, and his gaze had grown firmer.
"I regret their deaths. That's all."
Before you continue