A Team Wiped Out

"Who are you?"

Faced with the question, Suren gave the excuse he had prepared long ago. "I'm a Wilderness Hunter. My team ran into a group of Lightning Lizards earlier, and I got separated from them. I'm short on food and water now. If you're willing, I'd like to buy some, or trade for some."

Lacking knowledge of this world, he tried to keep his words ambiguous.

The story was half true, half false. It was not entirely made up; he really had encountered a group of giant lizards before.

But unexpectedly, the people before him seemed to be here specifically to hunt those large lizards that moved as fast as Leopards.

Suren clearly caught the flash of delight on the faces of the people across from him when he said that.

Sure enough, someone immediately asked, "You encountered a group of Lightning Lizards?"

"Yes."

Suren pointed back toward the passage. "On the left side of this passage, in the direction of B11 Zone, there's a large group of them. I suspect they have a nest there."

Upon hearing that precise answer, the delight on their faces grew even stronger.

The captain with the Mechanical Prosthetic glanced at the firearm on Suren's waist and asked, "You're alone? Which Wilderness Hunter Group are you from?"

Without thinking, Suren casually replied, "I'm from the Straw Hat Wilderness Hunter Group."

"Oh?"

The captain narrowed his eyes slightly, and something seemed to occur to him. His gaze fell upon the black Storage Ring in Suren's hand. "Are you from the Crow Gang?"

At those words, the expressions in the eyes of all eight people across from him turned faintly hostile.

"..."

Suren keenly caught their reactions and immediately became wary.

He did not understand the exact meaning of the term "Crow Gang." But he vaguely sensed certainty in the other man's tone, as though he had seen something in Suren.

Clearly, something was wrong.

He felt the problem might lie with the firearm at his waist.

He had not realized it without anything to compare it with. But now that he did, the Rune Firearm he had found in Bald Ivan's Storage Ring looked far more advanced than the weapons these people carried.

But clearly, admitting that he was a member of the "Crow Gang" might get him killed on the spot.

Suren knew that continuing to answer questions might lead to trouble, so he could only reply vaguely, "As you can see, I'm a free adventurer. Sorry, I only wanted to buy some food and water. If you don't have any to spare, then forget it."

"A free adventurer?"

When Captain Dick heard that Suren had no gang, his eyes shifted, and his expression suddenly became intriguing.

But he had clearly noticed Suren's concerns. A friendly smile suddenly appeared on his face, and he gestured for his subordinates to lower their guns. "No, what I mean is, if you don't have a gang, you can choose ours. As you can see, we're from the Steam Brotherhood. You can call me Dick."

As soon as he finished speaking, someone beside him added, "This is our captain, the famous Silver-Arm Dick of the East City Longge Street District."

Suren glanced at his silver Mechanical Arm from the corner of his eye and casually said politely, "Of course. I've heard of Captain Dick's great reputation."

Flattery never hurt. Whether he knew the man or not, praising him was never wrong.

From their tone, he guessed that this Steam Brotherhood was probably a major organization. And judging from the tone of the person beside him, this Dick was likely quite formidable.

"Silver-Arm" Dick suddenly changed his attitude and invited him warmly, "Brother, would you like to come into the camp and rest for a while? We can sell you some food and water."

"Then thank you very much."

Even though no guns were pointed at him now, Suren did not feel that he had the right to refuse.

He entered the camp, where a bonfire burned.

Suren had no intention of staying long, nor did he dare talk too much. But clearly, the other side had been probing into his background all along.

"What should I call you, brother?"

"My name is Suren."

"Brother, you aren't an official professional yet?"

"No, I'm not."

"Oh, then you should consider our Steam Society even more. As long as you join the gang, there will be plenty of Job Advancement Materials and Alchemical Implant Blueprints for you to choose from later. You know, aside from the Cross Society and the Crow Gang, no one in the Outer City can provide more resources than we can. And if you want to modify Mechanical Prosthetics, only our Steam Society is truly the best."

"I'll think about it."

Suren picked up a great deal of useful information from their words.

There seemed to be a distinction between the Inner City and the Outer City in that city.

And there were three major gangs in the Outer City.

Seeing that Suren did not agree, Captain Dick began talking about the purpose of their trip.

He tested him, saying, "We came out this time to prepare cursed materials for our Vice Captain Lawen's Alchemical Implant. Our targets are Lightning Lizard Leg Tendons or Cave Horned Dog Hide. If you have any of those materials, you can sell them to us..."

"Sorry, I don't. Our group encountered danger not long after setting out and got scattered. We didn't gain anything."

"..."

The atmosphere of the conversation appeared fairly harmonious.

The other side prepared three days' worth of food and drinking water for Suren.

Suren had not originally intended to think so badly of human nature, but with their next action, he knew it was time to make a move.

The All-Seeing Eye identified the water flask they handed him with several words: Water with Neuro-Paralytic Toxin.

Their purpose was already obvious.

The reason they had not acted earlier was likely because he was alone, and they were unsure whether he had some hidden trump card or unknown background. Now that they had tested him enough, it was time to act.

Poisoning the water was the best choice.

Once he drank it, everything would be over.

Even if he did not drink, there were so many of them that it would not be too late to act afterward.

Now that he knew they harbored ill intent, Suren's gaze toward them also became faintly hostile.

They looked as though they were sitting around the bonfire, chatting idly, but it was more like they were surrounding him.

And their wandering gazes remained fixed on the firearm at his waist. He suspected that the slightest unusual movement from him would prompt them to strike first.

Pretending not to know, Suren unscrewed the water flask. He had no intention of reaching for his gun.

He knew very well that even if he drew his gun quickly, he could fire at most one or two shots.

And there were eight of them.

Not to mention that highly threatening professional, "Silver-Arm" Dick.

But the good news was that, aside from the two sentries, the other six were all within ten meters of Suren.

And that distance was precisely within the range of the Cursed Item: Rune Abomination Puppet.

With a sincere smile on his face, Suren raised the flask as though he were about to drink.

But just as the flask reached his lips, he stopped, as though he had suddenly remembered something. He smiled. "Captain Dick, thank you for your warm hospitality. Although I encountered some danger on this trip, I did gain something..."

As he spoke, Suren calmly removed the cloth bag hanging from his waist, revealing the wooden box inside.

"Brother Suren, you're too polite."

Although Dick wore a broad smile, a trace of wariness flashed through his eyes.

He was very confident that even if the other man took out a grenade and detonated it right now, he could dodge it immediately.

"This is something I found earlier in the ruins of a manor. I still haven't figured out what it does, so I'll give it to Captain Dick."

Suren pretended to be innocently unaware as well. With a relaxed smile at the corner of his lips, he opened the box and took out the Rune Anomaly Puppet.

Since this world had Cursed Objects capable of Mind Control, there must certainly be things that could resist Mind Control too.

What he was actually calculating was that if the effect did not meet his expectations, he would still have an excuse.

Clearly, the other side had been fooled by Suren's "kind" smile. Seeing that he had made no dangerous movement that could be misunderstood, none of them was particularly guarded.

Of course, no one could have expected him to take out such an "evil thing"!

The instant the puppet was exposed to the air, something bizarre happened!

A wave of invisible Mental Power instantly spread outward.

Clearly, the puppet's power was stronger than expected.

Even Captain Dick's expression froze the instant he saw the puppet. The other five people beside the bonfire also seemed to have had their souls pulled away in an instant, their eyes becoming vacant.

This was the moment he had been waiting for!

A fierce glint flashed through Suren's eyes!

Without any hesitation, he drew the firearm at his waist and pulled the trigger at Captain Dick's eye socket.

Suren had paid close attention earlier. As the only professional in the team, this man possessed many strange Supernatural Abilities, just like Bald Ivan.

Therefore, even if he had been controlled, Suren still felt that this man had to die first!

With a bang, his head exploded like a smashed watermelon.

"Obtained Memory Fragment*2 from 'Dick Nelson'"

"You have gained some 'Intermediate Mechanical Knowledge'"

"Obtained a memory: 'There are more and more aberration incidents in the city. It feels...'"

"Steam mechanical combat experience +4"

"Mental Power +0.13"

Gray mist also appeared over the corpse. Suren swept out a hand, and the mass of gray mist was absorbed into his soul.

Before he even had time to process the information he had gained, he raised his hand and fired another shot at the sniper on the distant watchtower.

The shot struck the man in the abdomen, and a figure fell from above.

The two snipers were outside the puppet's range of control, but they had not expected Suren to suddenly attack.

Nor had they expected that, facing six members of their team, Suren could instantly "control" them and kill their captain in a single blow.

After firing two shots in a row, Suren knew he would not have a chance to fire a third. Their sniper was not an idiot.

Then he decisively leaped backward and hid behind a mud wall.

Sure enough, the next second, with a crack, a bullet blew a large chunk out of the mud wall.

The bullet pierced straight through the wall and nearly hit Suren.

Then came a burst of rat-a-tat-tat gunfire. The mud wall, nearly a meter thick, was reduced to rubble in the blink of an eye.

At this moment, the only remaining threat was the sniper hiding in the watchtower.

Suren knew that both his marksmanship and position were at a disadvantage. In a shootout, a pistol could never beat a sniper rifle.

Not caring about the expense, he directly drew the firearm loaded with special Alchemical Bullets and fired several shots at the sentry post.

Alchemical Bullet (Incendiary)*2, Alchemical Bullet (High-Explosive)*2, Alchemical Bullet (Concussion)*2.

Although the large revolver held only six rounds, it completely overwhelmed the enemy sniper with sheer firepower.

Suren did not know at the time that this volley had consumed ammunition costs that would take many gunmen an entire year to afford.

The three types of special bullets were astonishingly powerful. After the barrage, the entire watchtower had been blasted away.

The explosions a hundred meters away were tremendous. Especially the final two concussion rounds—even Suren, standing far away, felt his head buzzing.

He did not waste a moment and charged out immediately after firing.

Thanks to his enhanced eyesight, he saw the sniper struggling unsteadily to get back up through the thick smoke and dust. Then he fired two more shots.

Bang! Bang!

The corpse fell to the ground.

"Obtained Memory Fragment*2 from 'Synos Carter'"

"You have gained some 'Basic Alchemy Knowledge'"

"Firearm Experience +6"

"Mental Power +0.07"

Suren did not dare let down his guard. He found the other sniper, who had been shot in the abdomen, and finished him with another shot.

Only then did he return to the bonfire. Looking at the five people whose bodies were twisted strangely like marionettes on strings, he fired four more shots without mercy and killed four of them.

He left behind Vice Captain Lawen.

From the moment he erupted into action until the battle ended, the entire process had taken less than a minute. A full Wilderness Hunter team had been completely wiped out by Suren's decisive attack.

However, there was one small problem.

"Stripping too many memories at once is a little too much for my head."

After stripping memories from three corpses in succession, Suren found that his head had become somewhat heavy and muddled.

It felt as though he had stayed up all night, leaving his thoughts hazy and chaotic.

But he also discovered that if he did not strip them in time, the gray mist on the corpses would grow fainter and fainter. The longer the delay, the lower the quality of the memories he could strip. After roughly five minutes, the gray mist on a corpse would completely dissipate.

With that, Suren roughly understood some of the limitations of the Death Reaper ability.

After resting for a moment and fully processing the Memory Fragments in his mind, Suren finally opened his eyes.

Suren let out a long breath, his eyes shining with vitality. "With this Reaper talent, I feel like I can develop in this world until I'm invincible."

The soul fragments from the seven corpses had brought him far too many benefits. His mind was suddenly filled with all sorts of strange knowledge, as well as a greater understanding of this world.

He felt himself becoming visibly stronger.

After only a few minutes of processing, he felt that he had mastered knowledge and skills that would ordinarily take one or two years to learn!

Suren put the Rune Anomaly Puppet back into the wooden box.

He looked at Lawen, who had been tied up tightly, and muttered, "I hadn't planned on communicating with you this way."

Unfortunately, you insisted on harboring ill intent.

After the puppet was put away, Lawen awoke from his mental confusion.

As though waking from a dream, the man still seemed not to understand what had happened. But once he saw the corpses all over the camp, then looked at Suren, his eyes instantly filled with terror. "You..."

Suren did not give him another word to waste. He plunged a knife into his right leg and said coldly, "Now, I ask one question, and you answer one."

P.S. Please vote~

Thanks to "Gan Li Liang" for the tip. You're a familiar face from my previous book—thank you~