Chapter 1 The Spoils of War

In the vast cursed space, the will-o'-the-wisps continued to burn.

The high-temperature smoke was so dense that it was impossible to see one's fingers.

Fortunately, the threads of the [Puppet Theater] covered every corner, allowing Suren to precisely locate the hundred-plus corpses.

This search yielded countless spoils of war.

Hundreds of storage rings, alchemical implants, professional materials...

Equipment, firearms, ammunition, steam-powered machinery...

If Suren hadn't had his own storage space, he wouldn't have been able to take much of it with him.

Of course, in addition to the spoils, Suren also harvested more than a hundred soul fragments.

It had to be said that the quality of the Oliver family's elite team's soul fragments was much higher than those in the outer city.

Back then, during the Cross Society and Steam Party gang wars, Suren had harvested fragments from hundreds, even thousands, of people. While the total amount was considerable, the quality was far inferior to this hundred-man elite team.

Most of the outer city gangsters were uneducated brutes who couldn't even read the common script. They possessed a lot of strange knowledge and practical skills, but their alchemical knowledge was almost non-existent.

But this hundred-man team was almost entirely composed of people from the inner city.

Not to mention the few Tier 2 professionals and dozens of Tier 1 professionals, even the ordinary team members were mostly literate, and many had studied in the academy system.

Harvesting these soul fragments, Suren felt that the gaps in his basic knowledge were instantly filled.

Mechanics, runes, various types of spells, tracking techniques, wilderness survival experience, monster bestiaries...

Bomb mastery, swordsmanship, rope binding, escape techniques, cooking, flirting skills...

These elite team members each had their own areas of expertise.

Suren's harvest felt like he had gathered a wealth of knowledge from every field.

Of course, harvesting so many soul fragments in a short period of time came at a cost.

Suren hadn't dared to carefully digest all the extra information, simply stuffing it into his mind.

Even so, it felt like being drunk, his mind was hazy.

After digesting some, he continued to harvest...

He also discovered a pattern: the higher his mental strength, the more efficient his absorption, and the haziness became weaker and weaker.

.......

Suren kept track of the time.

It would take an ordinary professional about half an hour to rush here from the camp at full speed. If they had to accommodate the speed of a puppeteer like Danze, whose physical body wasn't very strong, it would probably take an hour.

Suren wasn't in a hurry and stayed in the sealed space for about half an hour.

After harvesting the spoils, he had plenty of time to gather all the corpses he could find and burn them in a fire to destroy the evidence.

After doing all this, he found a direction near the sealed barrier, opened a dimensional rift, and stepped out.

The surrounding scenery changed, transforming from a smoke-filled environment to a field of low, dilapidated buildings.

Suren looked around; it was roughly where he had predicted, based on observations before the sealing.

The location of the dimensional rift was concealed by the ruined buildings, avoiding prying eyes.

When he came out, many people had gathered outside the barrier, in all four directions.

To ensure success in the assassination of Suren, the Oliver family had deployed dozens of teams in the southern ruins.

Unable to open the barrier or see what was inside, the late-arriving pursuers were bored and chatted around the barrier about the operation.

"Hey, do you think Mr. Lloyd and the others caught that wanted criminal?"

"Is there even a question? Once this barrier is sealed, not even a fly can escape."

"It's a pity I was a little too far away and missed this wave of free rewards. Young Master Danze said that there would be a reward for participating in the encirclement, and a heavy reward for catching that guy..."

"Yeah, the guys from the Third Regiment got lucky. Hey, do you think that 'SS-rank wanted criminal Suren' has three heads and six arms? I heard that at least five Tier 2 professionals came for this encirclement..."

"Who knows? An SS-rank wanted criminal must have some tricks up his sleeve. But it seems like there are more than five Tier 2s, maybe seven or eight?"

"We'll let you in on a secret, but don't spread it around. The reason Young Master Danze is so frantic is related to the last raid on the monastery. I heard that the young master suffered a great loss that time, had his materials snatched, and Suren even killed a few Tier 2s..."

"Tch, that's an exaggeration, right? Suren is just relying on having two 'Sealed Items.' Give them to me, and I can do it too..."

"..."

Suren listened to a few sentences in the ruined building and roughly discerned the enemy's location without going out.

There were quite a few enemies outside, but if there were no Tier 2s, there was almost no threat.

More and more teams were returning, and he didn't plan to stay here any longer.

He was about to use Teleportation when he suddenly heard gunfire.

However, the people outside didn't seem to be moving.

"Still haven't caught him? That guy can really jump around."

"I heard that guy just killed the Fifteenth Team in the north by himself. If the patrol hadn't spotted him, he almost destroyed the barrier."

"Everyone be careful. The patrol team is responsible for the pursuit, so we just need to guard the barrier."

"But speaking of which, Suren, the SS-rank wanted criminal's accomplice, is really loyal; he dares to come and die alone in this situation..."

"..."

Suren frowned when he heard this.

My accomplice?

His eyes flickered, and he immediately thought of something.

During the ambush at the trading location, he remembered that someone had helped him block the subsequent shots from "Gun King" Gage.

Suren immediately guessed who it was.

.......

The gunfire receded into the depths of the northern ruins.

Suren didn't delay, using his sorcerer seals and teleporting several times to escape the surveillance of those people.

He followed the direction of the previous gunfire and saw a ten-man elite squad supporting two wounded members, cautiously walking back towards the barrier.

Suren originally wanted to go up and "ask for directions," but suddenly, his ears twitched slightly, and he noticed something.

Looking again, a figure suddenly darted out of the mist in the distance, a hooded assassin appearing and disappearing.

The man was extremely fast, his movements like a ghost, flickering in and out of sight.

His whole body was pressed very low, as if he were sticking to the ground. Even more strangely, his feet didn't seem to be stepping on the ground but on the air.

"Oh... Sky-Stepping Gait?"

Looking at this movement technique, Suren had some related knowledge in his memory.

He had seen it once before when Qian Tiao used it.

This was a very high-end esoteric movement technique that required extreme physical coordination and explosive muscle power. Even Tier 2 melee professionals rarely knew it.

If his eyesight hadn't improved, it would definitely be the speed of teleportation.

Suren raised an eyebrow as the man darted through the crowd like a ghost.

As the figure passed, a series of explosions rang out in the air, "Pa," "Pa," "Pa"...

Then, there was a burst of gunfire, "Da," "Da," "Da"...

Bullets struck sparks everywhere on the ruins, but the hooded assassin had long since disappeared.

In the crowd, a scream rang out as a soldier's neck had been cut half an inch deep, blood gushing out. The cut was very precise, right in the gap where the mechanical skeleton wasn't covered. He died on the spot.

"Damn it! Damn it!"

The captain's face turned black with anger, but he was helpless.

Suren clearly saw the cloaked man and muttered, "It really is Kai..."

Saying that, he didn't delay and teleported into the crowd.

Before those guys understood what was happening, eight spider spears pierced through them, and the corpses fell together.

Suren knew that Kai was nearby and called out into the thick fog, "Captain, long time no see."

Hearing this, the hooded man stopped.

Although he couldn't see his face, his scrutinizing gaze was clearly shocked.

He killed an elite squad in one encounter?

Looking at the familiar dark golden eight-armed spider spears, Kai also recognized this person as Suren.

Suren collected the spoils from the corpses, threw a fire bomb to burn the evidence, and then said to Kai indifferently, "Let's go, we'll talk somewhere else."

Saying that, he looked at Kai and led the way into the depths of the ruins.

The hooded assassin hesitated for a moment.

Looking at that back, he thought for a moment and followed.

.......

Suren walked in front,

Kai followed not too closely, not too far, without saying a word.

Two friends who once had a life-or-death relationship were caught in a very awkward atmosphere.

Suren raised his eyebrows.

He had a very strange feeling.

Kai was still alive, but his soul seemed to be dead.

Finally, after walking for a while, Suren stopped in a place that wasn't easy to be surrounded.

It wasn't that he didn't want to go further, but he discovered that Kai had gunshot wounds.

Suren found a stone pier to sit down on and threw a potent healing potion.

Kai instinctively caught it, looked at it, and seemed to hesitate.

He also found a stone and sat there, holding the potion in his hand without moving, seemingly not caring about his wounds at all.

The atmosphere not only didn't ease but became even more awkward.

After thinking about it, Suren spoke to break the ice, saying, "Thank you for earlier."

Whether it was blocking "Gun King" Gage before or coming to the barrier, he was risking his life to save him.

Even alone, he was trying his best to save people.

Suren knew that the man in front of him was still the Captain Kai from before.

Kai's gaze was somewhat wandering, he didn't look at Suren, but stared at the architectural contours in the depths of the ruins, gradually becoming profound.

After a long silence, he uttered three words: "I'm sorry."

Suren heard the deep self-blame in his tone but shook his head, "Captain, I've never blamed you, you don't need to blame yourself so much."

Although Suren didn't know what had happened to Kai, he knew that he must have been very sad after the escort incident.

The man he trusted like a father, Qian Tiao, had become a traitor to the Cross Society, and an opportunity that he thought would lead to success had killed his most trusted brother.

Kai shook his head and said, "The reason I've survived until now is to say 'I'm sorry' to you."

But after saying this, he also sighed in relief.

He finally turned to face Suren and took off his hood, smiling at Suren, "Brother, I'm very happy to see that you're still alive, and I'm also very happy that you've become so strong..."

The smile was sincere, and his eyes sparkled with relief.

At this moment, a trace of life could finally be seen on him, but these words were more like a farewell, the smile gradually fading, and the last bit of attachment to the world was gone.

Finally, Suren knew why he wasn't worried about the injuries on his body.

The half of his face covered in mutated flesh, and his deathly gray mental state, made him look like a corpse walking out of a grave.

"Does my appearance... scare you?"

Kai laughed mockingly.

Obviously, he knew that he wouldn't live long in this state.

But he didn't want to say more, stood up, and said, "Okay, I've said what I needed to say. Seeing that you're still alive, I have no regrets."

Kai put on his hood, threw the potion back to Suren, and said with a dry laugh, "Anyway, I won't live for a few more days, so I won't waste such a good potion."

"..."

Suren looked at the potion in his hand, his expression somewhat complicated.

Kai grinned, finally showing his signature brilliant smile, "In the next life, I'll still be your brother."

But it seemed like he hadn't smiled in a long time, and the expression felt very strange to him.

Before the smile could fully form, it was withdrawn again.

After a pause, he was a little uncertain, looked at Suren, and added, "I hope you don't mind."

Suren watched Kai about to leave, thought of something, shook his head, and called out, "Captain, wait!"

Kai looked back at him with a puzzled expression.

Without wasting any words, Suren threw him two potions.

Looking at the potions in his hand, Kai frowned, even more confused.

Suren didn't wait for him to ask and directly said, "The blue one is [Aberration Suppressant]. After injection, it should solve your problem. The green one, you should recognize, is the 'X-Serum' we snatched from the Steam Party convoy that time."

"???"

Kai looked at the two potions, his expression becoming very complicated.

Doubt, surprise, confusion... More than anything, disbelief!

Aberration can be reversed?

But when he saw the green potion, he seemed to recall the raid, a look of reminiscence appearing on his face.

Thinking about it now, if Suren hadn't been so strong, that incident would have caused a lot of trouble.

Thinking about it again, it seemed like a very, very long time ago...

Kai's eyes suddenly became deep.

Suren didn't give him much time to think and explained in detail, "'X-Serum' has a 75% chance of greatly enhancing your physical strength after injection, and a 25% chance of death. But after looking at it, your body has a high tolerance for aberration, and the success rate of injecting the potion shouldn't be low. You can choose to inject 'X-Serum' first, then inject the [Aberration Suppressant]. Of course, there's one small side effect: your skin will turn blue for a long time."

Generally speaking, once aberration occurs, humans will lose their will and become monsters in a very short time.

But Kai's condition was special.

Suren had seen it once in the Hunchback of Notre Dame space.

Relying entirely on willpower, he hadn't fully mutated.

But sooner or later, it was a dead end.

.......

To tell the truth, Kai also owned half of those "X-Serums".

Now that Suren was confident, it was only natural to give him one.

Hearing this series of words that anyone would find bizarre, Kai's expression became very rich.

In his current situation, he was doomed to die, but Suren was saying that he could save him?

Doubt?

No, not at all.

He just felt... complicated.

Kai looked at Suren, then at the potions in his hand, as if he had returned to the days when he was still in the Cross Society.

Several times in desperate situations, Suren was always able to bring him hope in an unbelievable way.

Kai thought of something and smiled.

But then he gave a bitter laugh.

The light that had just appeared in his eyes suddenly went out again.

He shook his head, not thinking about the potions, and said, "I am now an outer member of the Umbrella Organization. They kept me alive because they wanted to find clues about you through me. The reason I'm alive is to see you and say 'I'm sorry.' Now... I have no regrets. Even if I can still live, I won't continue to work for them."

The life that Qian Tiao had arranged for him

wasn't what he wanted.

Suren: "Then defect."

"It's not that simple..."

Kai's tone was very heavy, as if bound by an invisible shackle.

He shook his head and explained, "To control some special outer members, the Umbrella Organization makes them take a slow-acting poison. They must collect the antidote every month, or they won't live long. I won't go back..."

Suren looked at Kai, his tone slightly strange, "If it's the antidote to the Umbrella Organization's 'Grom Parasitic Toxin'... I think I happen to have it on hand."

"???"

Kai's eyes twitched violently when he heard Suren directly name the toxin.

He inexplicably felt a sense of absurdity, yet a real... familiarity!

This guy seemed to know everything and couldn't be stumped by anything!