"Move out!"
At the order, the underlings immediately raised their weapons, whipped into a frenzy.
"No need to come after me. I came to you."
The bandit leader was about to set out with his gang, eager for blood, when a man's voice suddenly reached him.
Startled, he snapped his head up.
A young man strolled out of the bushes.
"Boss! That's him!"
One of the underlings recognized Chen Lun and immediately alerted their leader.
The burly man first scanned their surroundings. Finding no suspicious movement, he broke into a mocking grin.
"Just you?"
"Mm-hmm."
Chen Lun answered casually and walked slowly toward them.
The bandit leader's grin grew even more vicious. At his signal, his underlings closed in from both sides, carrying an assortment of weapons.
"You had the nerve to follow us here alone? Who do you think you are? Some hero?"
He raised his iron-clad fists and flexed his fingers, producing a crisp metallic scrape.
Chen Lun simply drew the flintlock from his belt holster and aimed it at the burly leader.
"Oh-ho, whoa... Look, boys! What's this? A gun!"
The burly man seemed utterly unafraid. He spread his hands and looked at his underlings.
"Didn't your mommy tell you to stop reading those lone-hero stories and stay home drinking your milk?"
The underlings burst into laughter, their eyes full of excitement and mockery.
The people locked in the iron cages in the corner of the camp sighed inwardly at the sight. They had thought rescue had arrived, only to discover it was just a young man obsessed with playing the hero.
"Why couldn't he get more people first? Did he have to come here alone to get himself killed?"
One man cursed bitterly and pounded the iron cage, muttering foul words.
"I admire him."
A blond young man sat in another cage. He wore a pointed hat adorned with a white feather and a filthy cloak.
His dark green eyes watched the confrontation ahead, a pleased expression on his handsome face.
"He has a touch of the flair I had back in the day. Admirable. Truly admirable."
"Shut up, you pretty boy! All you ever do is talk big!"
The man shouted irritably.
The blond young man rolled his eyes, then sprang to his feet, pointing at the man as he shouted back.
"Keep barking like a dog, and I'll kill you with two punches once I get out of here!"
"Oh, really? Come on, then! Maybe you wouldn't have been caught if you'd spent less time bragging!"
The other prisoners covered their ears, looking thoroughly exasperated. They seemed accustomed to arguments like this.
Facing the bandits, Chen Lun raised an eyebrow and asked:
"I'm very interested in those iron gauntlets you're wearing. Could you tell me where you got them?"
The bandit leader looked at Chen Lun, his gaze turning cold.
"Looks like you still don't understand your situation. Without those guards of yours, what can you do with a single gun?
You'll get one shot at most before we catch you, clean you up, and sell you on the black market...
Looks like you've been pampered in a sheltered little world. Such soft, delicate skin. I'm sure plenty of buyers would love you! Now..."
Chen Lun silently drew a second gun.
The bandit leader's eye twitched, and the words on his tongue went unspoken.
"That's fine. If you won't tell me, my guns will get me the answer."
Holding a flintlock in each hand, Chen Lun aimed one at the burly man and the other at the surrounding underlings.
"Get him! Don't be scared! Even with two guns, he only gets two shots! Once he's fired them, he's harmless!"
The underlings charged with wild howls.
But as the muzzle swung toward them, they all took a step back. That was easy enough to say, but none of them wanted to be the unlucky bastard who got shot first.
"Fuck! Useless bastards!"
The burly man cursed furiously.
He immediately took the lead, striding forward and swinging a fist at Chen Lun. Seeing this, the other underlings rushed forward after him.
Bang!
Bang!!
Two gunshots rang out almost simultaneously.
Two blossoms bloomed almost simultaneously.
Blood burst from one underling's forehead, and he toppled to the ground. The other bullet struck the burly man's iron gauntlet, throwing off a spark.
"Get him! He can't shoot anymore! Grab him! I'm going to make this brat suffer!"
The burly man glanced at the bullet mark on his gauntlet, still shaken, and roared in fury.
Bang, bang, bang!
Bang, bang, bang, bang!!
A relentless barrage of gunfire froze his expression before disbelief spread across his face.
"Wh... what's going on?"
Wasn't a flintlock only supposed to fire once before it needed reloading!?
What the hell was this!?
How many shots had he fired already!?
The black-haired young man's hands moved swiftly, his face expressionless, as though he were playing a beautiful piano piece.
He strolled, turned, pulled the triggers...
Flames and gunsmoke kept bursting from his twin guns, and the underlings before him fell one after another, screaming.
They had no chance to fight back. It was a slaughter!
Thud!
At last, the final bandit fell.
Chen Lun looked helplessly at the flintlocks in his hands, their muzzles still smoking.
"Well... out of ammo."
The bandit leader caught the barely audible mutter and suddenly jolted.
An opening!
The burly figure darted forward, pouncing like a savage tiger. He raised his iron-clad fist and brought it crashing down.
The black metal gauntlet blasted out a rush of air as it hurtled straight toward Chen Lun's head!
Bang!!
The bandit leader stared, his eyes wide with disbelief.
He slowly lowered his head and saw the flintlock pressed against the left side of his chest, trailing gunsmoke.
"Didn't you..."
An agonizing pain pierced his heart, draining all the strength from his body.
Then he followed his underlings to the ground, dying on the spot.
Chen Lun holstered his guns and crouched, looking down at the corpse.
"I lied, idiot."
Unfortunately, the bandit leader could no longer hear him.
[Bandit camp eliminated. D-rank quest: Pursue the Routed Foe completed!] [Quest rewards received: 300 experience points and 500 Copper Crowns.]
Ignoring the notifications, Chen Lun stripped the iron gauntlets off the corpse and examined them.
"These gauntlets... are the 'Frenzied Hands'?"
He had planned to study the other pair after returning, but now he had a pair right here.
He was quite curious about them.
Equipping them gave an ordinary person's combat strength a considerable boost. In a sense, they were high-tech brass knuckles.
[Frenzied Hands - Mechanical Gauntlets] Item description: A product born from craftsmen's clumsy attempts to imitate a masterpiece. Crude workmanship stripped away the original's precise and powerful functions, leaving only the most basic impact amplification. Of course, you can also use them to carry hot pots and metal basins. At least their heat insulation is decent...
"That's it?"
Chen Lun immediately lost interest.
The gauntlets might have been a decent weapon for an ordinary person, but they were pretty damn useless to him.
That tiny impact boost alone was essentially worthless to Chen Lun, whose Strength was already at 22 and could reach 24 with the [Surging Badge].
As for the extra protection, simply covering his hands with a layer of scales would make them several times tougher than these gauntlets.
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