Old Lindun

"Turns out I wasn't shot dead by these guys because they recognized the origin of this firearm."

Suren felt somewhat relieved. Death had brushed past him once again.

After interrogating him for over an hour, he gave the last surviving member of the Silver Hand Wilderness Hunter Group a quick death.

Only then did he understand that these people hadn't attacked him earlier because of the Rune Firearm—the famous Three-Headed Ghost—hanging at his waist.

It was Iron Head Ivan of the Crow Gang's personal firearm, capable of carrying the energy fluctuations of special Alchemical Bullets with tremendous power.

It turned out that the baldhead still had quite a fierce reputation in the city called Old Lindun. He was a veteran assassin of the Crow Gang, ruthless and vengeful, and few people dared to provoke him.

Those guys had seen Suren alone and developed murderous designs for his wealth. However, they couldn't figure out his relationship with Bald Ivan, so they had tested him first.

Sure enough, a man didn't become rich without unexpected gains.

Suren obtained the supplies as he had wished. His Storage Ring collection had increased by ten, and he now had abundant water and food.

He didn't know the basic prices in this world, but seeing that the eight corpses together had fewer Alchemical Bullets than Bald Ivan alone, he guessed that the price he had paid probably hadn't been small either.

Still, he had definitely made a profit.

He stripped the two most valuable things from the corpse of Silver-Arm Dick.

A strange blood vessel and a bone.

Cursed Object: Trembling Witch's Blood Vessel

Quality: Black Iron

Details: Job Advancement Material for the Warlock Mechanical Branch's "Gunsmith" profession; after advancing, grants a moderate increase in technique and a slight increase in neural reflexes. The cursed properties are relatively well preserved, but it must be re-enchanted to achieve optimal effectiveness;

Evaluation: Body compatibility: 61%. An ordinary Job Advancement Material.

Golden Humerus

Details: A first-order Alchemical Implant with relatively high compatibility with the Gunslinger profession; it can replace part of the host's skeleton; Toughness +6, Stability +153%, Skeletal Hardness +175%;

Two cursed objects with their properties intact.

According to Lawen, each of these two things could be sold for at least one hundred thousand Liso on the black market.

And an ordinary mechanical worker in this world earned no more than three thousand Liso a month.

That was a fortune capable of making someone rich overnight.

Suren was also glad that he had trusted his judgment and killed Silver-Arm Dick at the first opportunity.

According to Lawen, official "professionals" were all extremely powerful.

Dick's two Mechanical Arms had been modified in the direction of a Gunsmith. He had replaced both arms with Firearm and Artillery Prosthetics. If he were given the chance, he would definitely become a humanoid Gatling.

The flexibility of this kind of "prosthetic" was on an entirely different level from that of an External Skeleton.

Even if his mind were subjected to Mind Control, his Mechanical Arms would automatically activate the counterattack device. That was an ability carried by the implant.

And machinery was fundamentally outside the range of Mind Control.

If Suren had hesitated even slightly earlier, once the Mechanical Arms' Automatic Counterattack Device activated, he would definitely have been the one to die.

Several days later, after following the route on the map and nearly dying several times upon encountering monsters, Suren finally arrived safely at the city known as Old Lindun.

This was also the only human settlement he had learned about from Lawen.

An underground city.

"It really is magnificent."

Although Suren had already heard about Old Lindun's towering walls from others, he was still deeply shocked when he personally saw the hundred-meter-high concrete wall that resembled a dam.

A city with an area no smaller than the central urban district of a provincial capital from his previous life was completely enclosed by such a wall. The sheer scale of the construction was enough to be called an architectural miracle.

Moreover, the towering wall bore many terrifying traces: claw marks from colossal beasts, impact craters resembling meteor strikes, and corrosion marks left by spells.

It was difficult to imagine how fierce the battles back then had been, or what kind of "existences" had left so many terrifying marks of battle on this wall.

Indeed, this city was also an Ancient Relic.

Long before these humans appeared here, it had already stood silently in this place for thousands of years.

The All-Seeing Eye confirmed this claim.

Suren looked closely at the towering wall, and a string of text appeared.

City Wall

Details: An ancient city wall that has stood for more than 1,400 years;

Old Lindun had four enormous city gates in the east, south, west, and north.

If Suren hadn't learned about Old Lindun's situation beforehand, he might have foolishly entered through the main gate.

After all, that appeared to be the only passage into a city of this scale.

If he did that, he would be inspected at the city gate. Since he had no "legal identity," he would immediately be subjected to a separate interrogation. The worst possible outcome was that the original owner's identity would be exposed, forcing Suren to face another assassination attempt.

As for the area beyond the walls? Aside from going out to hunt the wilderness, no one would choose to live outside the city for long.

Because it was impossible!

It was like remaining in a nuclear radiation zone for an extended period. Even without encountering monsters, the dense and violent Dark Spiritual Energy would give people a high chance of "mutating."

And the most common monsters outside the city walls were mutated humans wandering everywhere.

But in reality, there was another way to enter the city: "gang smuggling."

Suren had learned a great deal of useful information from Lawen.

Old Lindun was divided into the Inner City and the Outer City.

The Inner City was where the rich and elites gathered, while the Outer City was the commoners' district.

Although all of Old Lindun was managed by Grand Duke Roberto, who controlled the Black Tower, and the Raphael Family behind him, the actual control over most of the Outer City's districts was in the hands of the three major gangs.

The Outer City had three major gangs: the Steam Brotherhood in the East City District, the Iron Cross Society in the South City District, and the Crow Gang in the West City District.

They also represented the three mainstream branches of Alchemy in this world: the Mechanical Faction, the Fusion Faction, and the Ancient Magic Faction.

The essence of Alchemy was "Material Equivalent Exchange." The Ancient Magic Faction possessed abilities resembling those of mages, allowing them to cast various spells. They specialized in potion refinement, enchantment, and the occult.

Although they could cast spells, they did not worship any elemental gods. Their spells were not driven by magical laws, but by the pure fusion of energy and elements. They used alchemical laws to exchange equivalently and change the forms of elements, or alter their properties.

For example, an alchemist standing on the ground could use Alchemy to transform the form of earth elements and create the Earth Spike Technique. They could also consume more energy to exchange earth elements for fire elements and release the Fireball Technique.

The Mechanical Faction was also known as the New School.

Their Alchemy research was mainly used to manufacture mechanical equipment, firearms, mechs, and steam devices. It also produced Mechanical Curse Mark Implants!

The "Mechanical Prosthetics" that had puzzled Suren earlier were essentially semi-technological products founded on Alchemy, rather than pure technology.

The Fusion Faction was a combination of the two branches. It had mechanics skilled in Mechanical Modification as well as Ancient Warlocks who studied spells, and it accepted practitioners of all kinds.

Suren couldn't use the original owner's identity, so he had no legal identity with which to enter the city.

He could only choose to join one of the three major gangs and smuggle himself in.

Bald Ivan, whom he had killed earlier, was a major figure in the Crow Gang, while that Silver-Arm Dick was from the Steam Brotherhood. Although no one knew that Suren had killed them, he felt it was best to be careful.

Especially since he still had some spoils of war to sell. He didn't want to get into trouble over them, just as he had nearly been murdered for his wealth after someone recognized Bald Ivan's famous firearm, the Three-Headed Ghost.

"Looks like joining the Iron Cross Society is my only option."

Suren avoided the city gate and circled around to a section of the wall in the South City District.

Looking up, he saw that someone had already set up a crude iron cage lift on the wall to help people enter the city.

Suren had no choice. This was the only way to enter the city.

Without much hesitation, he walked over.

Joining a gang came with good benefits and provided sufficient extraordinary resources.

But in reality, most people in Old Lindun would rather work as laborers their entire lives than join a gang.

That was because gang members suffered extremely high casualty rates and had short lifespans.

They had replaced the city's Public Security Office and also handled mutated incidents, violent conflicts, and wilderness-hunting missions in their districts. All these combat-related fields had extremely high casualty rates.

It was somewhat like the mercenaries from Suren's previous life who took money to risk their lives on the battlefield.

Managing the chaotic slums was also the most important reason the Black Tower of the Inner City tacitly allowed the three major gangs to exist.