The Alchemical Implant Blueprint

The captive was sniped, and everyone from Green Street slunk back to their territory.

In a basement not far from the Blackwood Building headquarters, a young man was wiping down his beloved sniper rifle.

A few minutes ago, he had used this very rifle to snipe a very important captive of the gang.

Because of his identity, he had easily avoided suspicion during the manhunt for the gang members and returned to this basement.

But he had not fled, as if he were waiting for something.

Before long, a cloaked man entered without making a sound.

The young man seemed to have expected him. Without turning around, he remained focused on wiping the sniper rifle in his hands.

The cloaked man asked, "Did you take care of him?"

"Mm."

The young man nodded.

Then, as if he had thought of something, his expression darkened. "Old Captain, this is the last thing I promised you I'd do. I won't do it again."

"Mm."

The cloaked man did not care in the slightest. He had come to silence him in the first place.

At that moment, the young man seemed to have guessed what was coming as well, a bitter smile filled with complicated emotions hanging from the corner of his mouth.

He set down the cloth in his hand. His eyes trembled with tears as he took one last look at the cloaked man. "Old Captain, I've repaid what I owed you."

The cloaked man's gaze sharpened slightly when he heard that. After a moment of silence, he asked, "You're not going to try escaping?"

The young man smiled and shook his head. "My life was once saved by you, Old Captain. By doing this for you, I was prepared for this outcome. If you didn't kill me, I wouldn't have the face to stay in the gang anyway."

"Any last words?"

"No. I have no family. If I die, I die. No one will care. I won't cause you any trouble, Captain."

"."

The young man's last words seemed to stir something in the cloaked man's heart, but he still struck without hesitation.

As he looked at the corpse, a faint tremor finally appeared in those cold, sinister eyes.

That captured prisoner had to die.

But he also knew this was the president's test. Whoever went to kill the man at that moment would definitely be the mole.

So they needed an intermediary who would not be suspected.

If they had not been in such a desperate situation, he would not have wanted to kill the old team member he had personally trained.

Before long, Suren and Kai's group returned to Green Street.

Once they were back on familiar ground, the gang members' gloomy moods quickly vanished. With a huge sum of one hundred thousand in their hands, the coming days would be a festival for them.

The convoy regrouped in the same alley where they had assembled earlier. The ammunition was stored, the casualties were counted, the damaged motorcycles were sent to repair shops, and the seriously wounded were referred to mechanical clinics.

Gang fights happened all the time, and everyone was familiar with the procedures.

Soon, all the miscellaneous matters were taken care of.

Captain Kai was still somewhat downcast. He said to everyone, "All right, go do whatever you want."

Sam and the other veterans had been waiting impatiently. They exchanged meaningful looks and said, "Captain, shall we get going?"

Kai nodded. "Mm. Don't overdo it, and remember to assemble on time tomorrow for patrol."

"Got it!"

The veterans dispersed excitedly.

Suren had originally planned to leave with the crowd, but Kai called out to him.

"You performed very well during this operation."

Kai praised Suren's performance before getting straight to the point. "Your marksmanship is good. If you're thinking about becoming an advanced Profession Holder, practice diligently in your spare time. Once you meet the advancement requirements, I'll mention you to the officers. The gang will then allocate some resources to you."

"Mm, thank you, Captain."

Suren nodded.

However, he had no intention of pinning his hopes of advancing on the gang, nor did he want to become some "rising star of the gang."

He already had the advancement material for the Abomination Puppeteer Profession, and the money from selling the spoils he had taken after killing Baldhead should be enough for the time being. He planned to quietly develop his strength and had no intention of showing his face before he had the power to protect himself.

Kai was probably still brooding over the killing of the captive, so even though he wanted to talk more, he was not in the mood.

"If there's anything you don't understand about supernatural Profession advancements in the future, or if you run into any problems, tell me."

After a pause, he forced a smile onto his face. "Everyone worked hard on this mission. If there's nothing else, Suren, go relax for a while."

"Mm."

Suren did not say much either.

He was just about to leave when something suddenly occurred to him. "By the way, Captain, I have a question I'd like to ask you."

Kai raised his eyebrows. "What is it?"

Suren deliberately hesitated for a moment before asking, "I saw that Boss Angel's alchemical wings were very powerful. I wanted to ask, if I have the chance to become a Profession Holder in the future, would it be possible for me to get that kind of implant blueprint?"

This was something he had wanted to ask earlier. The wing implant was the one he had seen so far that appealed to him most. It could fly and fight. More importantly, compared with implants focused on the growth of tank-like physiques, such as Vajra Scales and Golden Humerus, he felt that the wings suited his career plans better.

"Haha, you think that implant looks cool too?"

Kai's eyes suddenly lit up when he heard that.

He laughed. "I used to really want Boss Angel's Thousand Kill Wings implant too. Back then, I thought being able to fly and use the wings as throwing knives was incredibly cool."

It seemed everyone had an innocent childhood dream, only for it to become unreachable after growing up.

Kai looked at Suren as if he had found someone who shared his feelings.

But suddenly, he changed tack. "Later, after I became qualified to be a Profession Holder, I discovered that it was simply impossible."

Suren frowned in confusion. "Impossible?"

Kai seemed to realize that Suren had misunderstood and explained, "In the gang, as long as you've made enough contributions, you can buy any implant blueprint in the gang warehouse at a price below market value. Even the alchemical blueprints belonging to the officers and the president are available for purchase!"

Suren did not rush to speak as he listened.

This was also what he had learned earlier. As long as one joined a gang and made even a modest contribution, they could spend money to buy an implant blueprint.

That was one of the benefits of joining a gang.

That was why he had asked the question just now. He had also been confused about why Kai said it was "impossible."

Kai smiled and continued explaining, "You should know that Profession Holders can't refine alchemical implants without conditions. They need a certain Containment Value. Boss Angel's implant has an extremely potent curse trait, so it requires a very high Containment Value from the body."

"Containment Value?"

An unfamiliar term surfaced in Suren's mind. He truly did not know what it meant.

Only after hearing this did he learn that Containment Value was approximately equal to Dark Spiritual Energy plus one's rank.

Kai continued, "For ordinary people like us, meditating through a Breathing Technique until our Dark Spiritual Energy is full would probably give us around seven or eight hundred points. If we had an advanced Breathing Technique, that upper limit might be somewhat higher."

After a pause, he gave a bitter smile and continued, "Boss Angel's Thousand Kill Wings is a Silver Grade implant, and its requirements are extremely high. To fully contain it within the body, you need a value of at least nine hundred to one thousand to ensure that you won't be mutated by the implant's curse trait!"

"Oh?"

Suren understood now.

So that was the difference represented by the "Black Iron" and "Silver" quality grades of implants. The higher-grade the implant, the stronger the body's ability to withstand it had to be to prevent mutation.

However, when Suren heard that one thousand points of Dark Spiritual Energy were enough to ensure that the Silver Grade Thousand Kill Wings would not cause mutation, his thoughts became somewhat strange.

He glanced at the data panel, at his Dark Spiritual Energy, whose upper limit had already risen to "1157," and his brow twitched slightly. The Heigam Breathing Technique the original owner learned seems to be of a rather high grade.

Ordinary people at the first rank only had seven or eight hundred points of full Dark Spiritual Energy. Even very capable officers only had a thousand, yet he was already nearing twelve hundred.

Moreover, it felt as though he had only barely reached full capacity and had not yet reached his limit.

This was enough to show that either the gap between Breathing Techniques was enormous or the original owner had extraordinary talent.

Before Suren could think further, Kai said, "So you should understand why I said it was 'impossible,' right? It's not that you can't get the blueprint. Even if you did, you couldn't use it. Boss Angel's Dark Spiritual Energy is so high because he spent many years hunting outside the city. He stayed in that highly mutagenic environment for a long time."

Spending a long time in a highly mutagenic environment could indeed increase the body's tolerance for Dark Spiritual Energy. However, that method was more likely to cause mutation than to improve one's strength.

"Oh."

Suren nodded thoughtfully, but his mind was on something else.

In other words, his physical condition could actually allow him to choose something better than a Silver Grade implant?

At that moment, Kai remembered how he had once said that he wanted the Thousand Kill Wings and been reprimanded until he was thoroughly humbled by Smoker Boss.

He gave a bitter laugh and repeated that same line of reasoning. "An alchemical implant should ideally suit your innate abilities first, and your Profession second. Actually, the Thousand Kill Wings isn't particularly suitable for a Gunslinger Profession. It's better suited to Assassins and Rangers. I think you should look for blueprints that enhance vision and technique, such as the Titanium Alloy Eye, which is a powerful Gunslinger-type implant on the market, or the Dexterous Hand Bone."

"Ordinary implant blueprints only cost twenty or thirty thousand. Now that you've received your bonus, you can start keeping an eye out. Blueprints are the sort of thing you can only find by chance. When you come across one that suits you, you must buy it."

"If you're not satisfied with the blueprints inside the gang, you can also take a look in Shadow Alley in North City. Good things occasionally show up on the black market."

"Oh, you haven't had your Dark Spiritual Energy tested yet? Whenever you think it's necessary, I'll take you to headquarters. They have testing equipment there that can give you an accurate understanding of your condition."

Listening to Kai's grandmother-like reminders, Suren smiled. "All right."