Chapter 1 The White Broken Wall

　　Outside the south city of the Dawn Ruins, there was a "White Broken Wall," a landmark and a must-pass for scavengers heading to the south city.

　　It offered a wide field of vision, wasn't too far from the camp, and had the ruins right behind it.

　　Being able to fight and retreat made it the perfect place for a transaction.

　　Suren figured the Oliver family wouldn't dare to come early and set up an ambush, afraid of alerting him.

　　But he still arrived more than half a day early to observe from a distance.

　　Everything was going according to his script.

　　.......

　　The agreed-upon transaction time was 2:00 PM.

　　Suren didn't show himself early, but waited for the people he was trading with to appear before walking out of the ruins.

　　Three people came.

　　"Iron Cripple" Magitan was probably afraid of dying, so he didn't come in person, sending a manager and two bodyguards instead.

　　They didn't seem to know anything.

　　The two sides met.

　　The goatee-bearded manager followed the transaction procedure, getting straight to the point: "Did you bring the money?"

　　Suren took out the prepared money bag while saying, "I want to see the goods."

　　The two sides exchanged items.

　　A glance from the Appraisal Eye confirmed that the item was real, the detailed explanation of the [Puppet Theater] spell.

　　Suren was a little delighted to get the secret manual, but it was also within expectations.

　　If the item had been fake, he wouldn't have been able to stall for time.

　　The Oliver family probably thought that even if they gave him the real thing, he wouldn't be able to take it away alive.

　　.......

　　The manager was still counting the money bag, a seemingly normal process.

　　But Suren noticed that they were counting the money slightly slowly.

　　They probably received some orders to delay time.

　　He pretended not to know and waited patiently.

　　Because he was also waiting for the enemy's encirclement to form.

　　Was the setup just for a secret manual?

　　No, it was to wait for those high-level professionals who were coming to kill him!

　　At this time, the manager didn't know what kind of person he was facing, and thinking about stalling for time, he casually started a conversation.

　　He looked at the raven mask on Suren's face and said with a smile, "Yo... Your gas mask is very unique. It looks like a high-level alchemical item?"

　　Suren said directly, "Of course, it’s the ancient cursed item from the Crow Gang's 'Plague Doctor' Sergei."

　　He needed to hide it before, so he modified it into a parrot mask.

　　But now, he had too many debts to worry about.

　　He was already an SS-class wanted criminal, so he didn't care about being hunted down by the Crow Gang.

　　Hearing this, the manager didn't realize the seriousness of the matter and raised his eyebrows with a smile. "A fake? Tsk tsk... No wonder it looks so familiar. But then again, the craftsmanship is really good, even if it's a fake, it's master-level. It must have cost a lot of money, right?"

　　Hearing this, the corners of Suren's mouth revealed a smile that wasn't quite a smile. "No, it's not a fake. I killed that guy. This is the trophy."

　　“…”

　　As soon as he said this, the manager was stunned for a moment.

　　His eyes couldn't help but carefully observe the details of the crow mask again, and he felt more and more that something was wrong.

　　Thinking about his boss's instructions to delay time, he suddenly broke out in a cold sweat. He immediately realized that something big was wrong, but he still forced a dry laugh, "Heh... haha. You're really joking..."

　　"You think I'm joking?"

　　Suren smiled contemptuously.

　　Seeing that the time was almost up and the encirclement was probably complete, he ignored the three people in front of him.

　　Because at this moment, his brow suddenly furrowed, and he realized that he had been targeted by a killing intent.

　　"Heh, you've been lying in ambush for so long before exposing yourself. Do you know that I have the ability of malicious perception..."

　　Suren raised his eyebrows unhurriedly.

　　He also determined that the one aiming at him was a gun master.

　　An ordinary sniper couldn't open fire so quickly after aiming.

　　Even with that one glance, he could clearly see the guy who had shot through his arm before, the "Gun King" Geiger, firing from a small slope a thousand meters away.

　　However, this time, Suren wasn't flustered at all.

　　[B-098-Sixth Sense] surely hit?

　　For ordinary professionals, and even most second-tier professionals, it was indeed a "sure hit."

　　But here, there was actually a cause-and-effect relationship that hadn't been sorted out.

　　Geiger's sniping target actually used his ability to predict the target's prediction, and then pulled the trigger.

　　The prediction came first, and the shooting came later.

　　But if the target dodged after he fired, he could also avoid this [Sixth Sense].

　　No one did this because sniper bullets had a very fast muzzle velocity, and ordinary professionals couldn't wait for the bullet to leave the barrel before dodging. That would be the same as "waiting for death."

　　Suren couldn't do it before.

　　But he could now.

　　Feeling the killing intent, he didn't make any evasive movements in advance.

　　The Omni-Knowing Eye, which had been enhanced by his ability, allowed him to clearly capture the opponent's trigger pull.

　　Then, the moment the muzzle spewed fire, an alchemical bullet engraved with runes was also ejected.

　　At this moment, Suren focused his eyes, and everything in his eyes seemed to slow down a hundred times.

　　The white smoke of gunpowder burning solidified at the muzzle, forming a cotton-like flower; the fire also formed a beam of rhombus-shaped light, slowly dimming...

　　He could even clearly see the bullet leaving the barrel, creating circles of ripples in the air. Geiger's whole body also trembled because of the recoil.

　　The bullet, which was too fast for the naked eye to capture, left the barrel bit by bit, and then pierced through the air...

　　Suren accurately judged that the landing point of the trajectory was his brow, and then tilted his head slightly.

　　At such a long distance, his super-high nerve reaction speed was enough for him to easily avoid it.

　　The bullet grazed his ear, creating a gust of wind.

　　"Bang!"

　　After the bullet passed, a thunderous gunshot was heard belatedly.

　　It was this slow-motion movement that seemed to take a long time, but in reality, it was just an instant.

　　No one saw what happened clearly.

　　It seemed that Suren just tilted his head casually and avoided being shot in the head.

　　Geiger, who was firing not far away,

　　Upon seeing this,

　　His face changed drastically.

　　.......

　　This sniper shot was like the command shot that opened the prelude to the siege.

　　"Swoosh~"

　　"Swoosh~"

　　"Swoosh~"

　　A series of signal flares exploded in the sky.

　　Upon closer inspection, the signal flares also dropped layers of silver powder after burning.

　　It was like snowing, and it covered the ground in the blink of an eye.

　　"Developer powder..."

　　Suren squinted his eyes and looked at the silver powder all over the sky, and the corners of his mouth under the mask raised slightly.

　　The Oliver family had prepared well to deal with him.

　　With this developer powder all over the sky, it was impossible for Suren to hide any invisible objects nearby.

　　In this way, even if there were Abomination Living Corpses, after they appeared, their slashing movements could be captured. It wouldn't be like before, where space cracks appeared inexplicably to kill people.

　　This "developer powder" directly reduced the threat of the Black Scythe by more than half.

　　However,

　　Suren wasn't surprised by this method at all.

　　Because Sabina's information channels allowed him to know everything about these guys' capture plans.

　　"So, are they going to charge in all at once next?"

　　Suren's eyes narrowed, and he raised his hand and fired three shots like lightning, directly killing the three people in front of him.

　　His nerve reaction speed was so fast now that even if the other party touched the gun first, there was no threat.

　　Then, he clapped his hands together in a sorcerer's seal, and eight hideous spider spears condensed behind him.

　　Then, he tore out a sealing scroll. After unfolding it in the air, it revealed ten six-pointed star space sealing patterns drawn on the scroll.

　　Before the scroll landed, Suren quickly put his hands together and shouted softly, "Seal Release!"

　　The scroll exploded, and a dozen puppets appeared around his body, making strange noises of wooden joints rubbing together.

　　The sealing technique of the space scroll was much faster than taking them out of the space ring one by one!

　　After doing all this, Suren ran towards the ruins.

　　It looked like he was fleeing, but in reality, he wanted to break up the enemy's encirclement so that he could kill them one by one!

　　"Ten second-tier professionals, tsk tsk, the Oliver family really spent a lot of money this time..."

　　While retreating, Suren took in the entire battle situation.

　　But to his surprise, Geiger didn't continue shooting?

　　Looking back, Suren saw that a fight had broken out at the sniper point?

　　A cloaked figure with ghostly movements was fighting with Geiger.

　　Suren guessed who the cloaked figure was and frowned.

　　However, there was no time to do anything extra at this time.

　　.......

　　The other party had long formulated a detailed capture plan and guessed that Suren would definitely "flee" towards the ruins.

　　The moment the signal flares exploded in the sky, a second-tier earth mage had already cast a large area of "Quicksand Technique" to cover the only way to escape to the ruins.

　　When Suren stepped on it, the solid ground under his feet turned into soft mud.

　　In another breath or two, this soft mud would turn into quicksand.

　　At that time, even the Eight-Armed Spider Spears would sink deep into the sand.

　　This was obviously a tactic aimed at his escape.

　　Unfortunately...

　　Those guys underestimated Suren's current speed.

　　His agility allowed him to control the eight spears to step accurately on those hard gravel, and then rush out of the hundred-meter-wide quicksand pit before the ground was completely sandified.

　　The enemies were in groups of two, cooperating with each other and taking care of each other.

　　In front of Suren, in addition to the earth mage, there was also a female mage burning with raging flames.

　　Second-tier professionals were not nobodies.

　　The earth mage was Horace, the leader of the large scavenger gang under the Oliver family, "Sand Demon".

　　This female mage was actually Virginia Addy, a former magic instructor at the Black Tower Academy who was now hired by the Oliver family as a special consultant at a high price, "Sunflame Woman"!

　　Her fire magic was as hot as the sun.

　　They weren't surprised to see Suren rush out, and the killing moves followed one after another.

　　Virginia's eyes were like torches. She pinched a sorcerer's seal, and the red six-pointed star under her feet shone brightly. The flames all over her body changed from red to gold, and she whispered, "Elemental Profound Meaning - Golden Scale Fire Python!"

　　As soon as the sorcerer's seal was completed, she pointed her hands forward, and a golden fire python shot out from between her fingers like lightning.

　　When it appeared, it was only the thickness of a forearm, but it grew in the wind, and in the blink of an eye, it became the thickness of a jar mouth, a hideous python about ten meters long. The fire python's scales were shining with golden light, as if it wasn't an elemental body, but was cast in pure gold. It had an unstoppable momentum.

　　Wherever the fire python passed, the ground was scorched black.

　　Even though Suren was still a hundred meters away from the fire python, he could clearly feel the burning heat that scorched his lungs.

　　The surging power of the fire element was like a tsunami, crashing against his face, as if it wanted to burn everything.

　　As expected of a former magic instructor at the Black Tower Academy, this move was an impeccable second-tier profound meaning-level spell.

　　This spell was fast and had a wide range. Any second-tier professional would have to avoid its sharp edge.

　　Moreover, the spell wasn't condensed from ordinary flames.

　　Virginia fused a special alchemical colony that could mutate her own elements—the [Golden Flame Crow's Elemental Core].

　　It was this mutated golden flame that had extraordinary elemental penetration and formed a high temperature that could even quickly melt steel!

　　......

　　Area-of-effect spells also had a very tricky point.

　　That was, it was almost impossible to block with physical means.

　　Even if you could use a shield or something to block part of it, the ubiquitous fire element could still burn the target in a 360-degree, all-around way!

　　Suren saw the fire python coming at him, and his eyes reflected the fire.

　　Instead of dodging, he raised his hand and pulled out an alchemical puppet.

　　The alchemical puppet blocked in front of him. As soon as the mechanism was activated, its arms suddenly split open into a trumpet shape.

　　When the fire python was still a few meters away, the blue and purple double-colored compound heptagram array on the puppet's arm suddenly lit up.

　　The power of wind and thunder mixed together, and a huge wind vortex instantly formed, turning into a black hole that devoured everything.

　　The golden python, which was more than ten meters long, rushed up. Before it could show its power, it plunged into the black hole vortex. The impact speed was extremely fast. The golden light flashed and disappeared, and the surrounding light suddenly dimmed.

　　This was actually the latest version of the [Black Hole Puppet], which Black had helped him create!

　　.......

　　Seeing her sure-fire spell being swallowed by a puppet, Virginia's face changed drastically.

　　She looked at Suren, who was rushing towards her, and immediately realized the danger. The flames all over her body surged and overflowed several meters, covering her entire body in a thick shield of flames.

　　Almost at the same time as it absorbed the fire python, the alchemical puppet that had absorbed the fire python suddenly opened its mouth and spat out a mouthful of golden flames.

　　Looking closely, it was actually a fire python that had shrunk by a third!

　　However, this python wasn't going for the female mage, but for the earth mage, "Sand Demon" Horace!

　　At such a close distance, it was impossible to avoid.

　　Horace had also sensed the danger early on. When he saw the fire python, he had already cast his alchemy. The color of his skin instantly lost its blood color and turned into a rocky, earthy yellow.

　　The fire python spewed over, and the figure was completely engulfed in the sea of fire...

　　However, after the flames extinguished in an instant, a guy who looked like he was wearing diamond armor slowly opened his eyes.

　　This move had no effect on this "Sand Demon" Horace at all.

　　Suren looked calm and murmured in his heart, "Silver Colony [Sand Scorpion Armor], its defense is indeed extremely strong..."

　　He wasn't surprised at all.

　　Because before he came, he had already obtained detailed information on these ten people.

　　Colonies, the abilities they were good at, talents...

　　He knew everything!

　　Suren didn't slow down, and the hundred-meter distance was covered in the blink of an eye.

　　He didn't give the enemy a chance to cast a second spell. He raised his hand, and several strange puppets flew towards the two people in front of him.

　　The female mage had flames protecting her body. Originally, any puppet that approached would be burned to ashes, but... Suren had a [pz-911 Mechanical Limb]!

　　It was difficult to control before, but now it was completely fine.

　　The [Amand Metal] dagger on the mechanical limb was designed to break through all kinds of elemental shields!

　　Moreover, the completely elementalized witch's hair wasn't afraid of burning at all.

　　The mechanical puppet wasn't afraid of the flames. It pounced on her.

　　It didn't need any rules. Like a street thug, it held a dagger and stabbed her in the stomach dozens of times...

　　In the flames, the two figures were entangled in a mess.

　　It was conceivable that a fire mage with a weak physical body would be attacked at close range.

　　Virginia's professional advancement direction was elemental mutation. She had almost given up on defense in order to maximize her damage.

　　Originally, with the super defense of "Sand Demon" Horace, it wouldn't be a problem to protect herself, even if she couldn't kill anyone.

　　But how could Suren give him a chance to rescue her?

　　Suren didn't just have two hands. The eight spider spears could run, jump, and control puppets!

　　At the same time as Virginia was fighting hand-to-hand with the mechanical puppet, several strange puppets had firmly clung to Horace's legs.

　　In order to fight, this earth mage had condensed a strong earth element under his feet early on.

　　Now, as soon as those few strange puppets clung to him, they frantically absorbed the earth element like whales, instantly weighing thousands of pounds.

　　This was actually a [Lead Sink Baby]!

　　With these few thousand-pound babies clinging to him, Horace was dragged down and couldn't move.

　　Suren naturally didn't expect the two control-type babies to hurt this guy with rock armor.

　　He raised his hand and pulled out [Thunder Serpent], and the moment the muzzle was raised, he fired four shots in a row.

　　Four bolts of lightning spewed out from the muzzle, like a line...

　　Horace, who couldn't move, had originally prepared for defense. He was confident that even a professional of the same tier couldn't break through his earth element armor in a short time.

　　Not to mention a fire gun?

　　But when he heard the four gunshots that were almost in a line, his face changed drastically, and he suddenly realized something, "Gun Profound Meaning - Multiple Superimposed Shots!"

　　How could there be four flashes of fire?!

　　Horace's face changed drastically in an instant, and a look of disbelief appeared in his eyes.

　　He had heard of this profound meaning of guns, which was the famous gun skill of the gun master "Blind Detective" Bill, which could easily break armor.

　　However, this profound meaning placed a great burden on the shooter's body. Even that gun master could only perform three superimposed shots. This was already the limit for a shooter.

　　Even three superimposed shots might break his elemental armor, but it wouldn't be fatal...

　　But what was this "four superimposed shots"!

　　.......

　　Reality didn't give Horace time to doubt. Four armor-piercing bullets hit his brow in succession.

　　The first impact shattered a thin layer of skin, but the condensed earth element rippled slightly like water waves.

　　The second impact created a slight crack in the elemental armor, and the ripples became larger and larger.

　　The third impact broke through the elemental armor, but after entering the armor, its power was exhausted.

　　The fourth shot directly pierced through his skull and exploded his head with one shot.

　　Blood exploded in front of his eyes, and "gray mist" immediately floated out of the corpse.

　　"Sand Demon" Horace died on the spot.

　　Not far away, "Sunflame Woman" Virginia, who was fighting hand-to-hand with the mechanical puppet, was also stabbed dozens of times, and the fire element shield on her body flashed and dissipated. Her life had already disappeared.

　　In one encounter, Suren had already killed two second-tier professionals in a row.