Chapter 1 The Beginning

"Mr. Soren… do… do I really have to keep my eyes covered? But I can't see anything…"

"Yes, because they are already here."

Soren didn't explain how he knew someone was coming, and Reina didn't ask any further questions.

Although they hadn't known each other long, Reina had an almost blind trust in this stranger introduced by her aunt.

Knowing that the assassins were strong, knowing that this underground cave was full of dangers, she had never seen the slightest panic on this man's face, he was always calm and composed. Because of this composure, Reina herself felt affected, and had a kind of坦然 facing death.

At this moment, she was being led by Soren, with a thick blindfold over her eyes, not knowing where she was going.

Being blindfolded naturally meant completely giving up on fighting.

It wasn't that Reina's combat ability was weak. On the contrary, her fundamentals were quite solid. Whether it was fighting, marksmanship, or alchemy, she far surpassed ordinary Tier 1 professionals.

However, in the current desperate situation, if she wanted to survive, Reina's combat power was not enough against either the mutated monsters or the assassins.

On the contrary, focusing on being "bait" would give her a greater chance of survival.

After being blindfolded, she didn't notice the pairs of scarlet eyes lighting up in the surrounding darkness, nor did she see the almost morbid grin overflowing on Soren's face.

In this dangerous situation, Soren once again felt the adrenaline rush that he loved. "He" also liked this feeling of walking a tightrope.

Escape?

Tsk tsk…

No… I will kill the people, I will take the sealed objects, and the monsters… I will kill them too!

Isn't this the perfect opportunity for some high-quality spider leg materials? There happen to be suitable targets here, and quite a few of them.

"The upcoming battle will be very dangerous, but as long as I'm not killed first, you won't die before me… Remember, if you are poisoned, inject the antidote, but never take off the blindfold, and don't run around…"

"Yes, I understand."

Reina only felt that Soren's voice was becoming more and more sinister. Just hearing it, she felt a surge of murderous intent.

Soren released her hand, and Reina felt as if she had fallen into an endless abyss. A strong sense of fear instantly enveloped her heart. The world before her was completely dark, and there was no one speaking in her ear. The gurgling sound of sewage was particularly clear…

She felt a "person" staying by her side, but her intuition told her that it didn't seem like Mr. Soren anymore, but something terrifyingly unfamiliar.

.......

Not long after, a figure quietly walked in from the tunnel they had come from, just as Soren had expected.

He saw the two figures in the distance, but stopped cautiously.

He slowly raised the gun in his hand, aiming at one of the two figures.

Instead of shooting, he directly exposed his position and called out, "Miss Reina, where are you…"

Daniel knew very well that even if he didn't speak, the small mechanism he had triggered at the tunnel entrance earlier would have exposed his presence.

At this time, Reina was shocked when she heard Daniel's voice.

Sure enough, Mr. Soren had guessed correctly.

She took a breath and, not wanting to reveal any flaws, pretended to be pleasantly surprised and turned her head. From a distance, she shouted loudly in the direction of the sound, "Teacher Daniel, I'm here!"

Daniel probably thought that his identity as an insider hadn't been exposed yet, and continued to act, his tone very anxious: "Oh, God, I finally found you. You don't know how worried I was when I learned that you were being chased by monsters… Miss Reina, did Assistant Rosa save you?"

Soren, hiding in the shadows, sneered when he heard the probing, "Knowing that the opponent is far inferior to oneself, yet still so cautious… No wonder he can be an insider."

He should have already discovered Rosa's body, but now he was pretending not to know.

All for the sake of saying these few words, closing the distance a little, so as to deliver a fatal blow!

Hearing this, Reina said directly, "No, Teacher Rosa died to save me. The guide saved me."

But before the words could fall, she suddenly heard a "bang". Almost at the same time, a gust of wind blew through her hair, which was the feeling of a bullet grazing her ear.

Reina was shocked. That Assistant Daniel had indeed fired.

An insider!

He wants to kill me!

However, the bullet was not aimed at herself, but at the "Mr. Soren" beside her!

.......

Without sight, all of Reina's attention was focused on hearing.

Hearing the gunshot, her heart instinctively skipped a beat, and she secretly cried out in alarm.

Although she was shocked that her usually respected Teacher Daniel was actually the insider of this assassination, she was even more worried about the Mr. Soren beside her!

However, before the worried emotions could dissipate from her heart, Reina immediately heard a second gunshot in an extremely short period of time.

"Bang!"

But this shot was not fired by Daniel, nor by the "Soren" beside her. Listening to the direction of the sound, it came from another direction in the darkness.

Could there be a third person here?

In addition to surprise, Reina also noticed an anomaly. That was that the "Mr. Soren" beside her made a crisp sound like wood breaking after being shot.

No, it was the instant she heard the gunshot and reacted, splinters of wood had already splashed and hit her body.

A puppet?

Although Reina couldn't see, she guessed what was happening, and her heart was inexplicably excited and pleasantly surprised!

Mr. Soren actually guessed that the enemy would shoot at him, and arranged a puppet substitute in advance?

.......

Soren had guessed that the assassins would come after him from the moment he saved her, and never took any chances.

Although those highly corrosive amoebas had completely corroded Reina's belongings, as long as there were people skilled in tracking, the subtle traces they left in the passage would not escape their notice.

And coincidentally, this Daniel was a Silver professional very skilled in tracking - a "Ranger"!

Therefore, after extracting the information from Rosa's corpse's memory, Soren knew that this guy would definitely come.

He was very sure of one thing, and that was that if Reina didn't die, everything he, the insider, had done would be meaningless.

And Ren wanted to trick this guy, so he didn't choose to leave Reina alone as bait.

After all, if there were traces of two people, but only one person appeared, it would definitely arouse the vigilance of this "Ranger" Daniel, and the ambush would be meaningless.

The puppet left beside Reina was naturally to attract firepower.

As for why Soren was so sure that Daniel would shoot "himself" first, instead of killing Reina first, he was eighty percent certain.

Between two people, would a cautious "gun expert" first kill a student he knew well and could kill at will, or kill an unknown stranger?

Of course, there was a gamble involved.

But what's the point of being bait without any risk?

But no matter who Daniel shot first, the result would be the same.

Whoever shot first would expose their position and lose the initiative.

.......

In a duel between experts, skills and experience are similar, and often the victory is determined by details.

Soren also learned from Reina that Daniel was a genuine "gun expert", one of the gun instructors at the Black Tower Academy.

He didn't dare to underestimate him in the slightest.

This was not a watered-down expert like Jack, but a gunslinger who was possibly even better than himself.

Faced with a gunslinger of the same level, it depended on who seized the initiative. Often, the victory or defeat was decided in an instant.

Just now, Daniel's opening inquiry was actually to paralyze the opponent, looking for opportunities and distance to ensure a fatal shot.

Even Soren couldn't find any flaws in this cautious response.

But that guy never expected that he would hit a substitute puppet with one shot.

If one shot failed, then… it was Soren's chance!

Seeing the moment the fire lit up, Soren also unhesitatingly drew his gun and pulled the trigger.

"Bang~"

The muzzle spat fire.

An armor-piercing alchemical bullet sprayed from the muzzle, not hitting the head, nor the heart. The first shot hit Daniel's right hand holding the gun.

Because Soren knew that with the combat suit and gas mask, this shot would definitely not kill that guy.

The Black Tower's combat suits had special reinforcement in vital areas. As long as the energy was sufficient, even alchemical bullets might not be able to break through. But this kind of clothing protection was not without its shortcomings. In order to ensure flexibility, the stability of the joints would be relatively weak.

And the palm was the place with the most human joints. (The information was also from Reina)

The armor-piercing bullet could not be fatal, but it was enough to break the hand bones.

With the sound of this gunshot, Daniel's firearm immediately fell out of his hand, and a cloud of blood mist exploded, revealing the white bones.

But even after being shot, this guy didn't even groan. With a flash, he hid behind a stone pillar.

Because Daniel had already judged from the timing of the shooting that Soren was also a "gun expert"!

He knew very well that if he didn't leave, the second shot would definitely follow.

.......

"What a cautious fellow!"

Soren fired a shot to break the opponent's right hand, but the enemy did not give him any chance to hit a second shot.

Gunslingers of the same level knew very well what the other would do.

Being able to be an assistant teacher at the Black Tower Academy, even if it was at Tier 1, he must be an elite among his peers. Daniel and Rosa were almost both half-step Tier 2 existences, and each had very strong combat methods.

Soren knew that even if that guy lost his hand, his true combat power wouldn't be lost much.

Because… Daniel's true strength was his close-combat ability!

And at this moment, suddenly hearing a violent "hissing" sound coming from the darkness, like the feeling of a high-pressure gas tank exploding in an instant, it suddenly caused a shock wave that agitated the entire space.

"Here it comes!"

Soren's pupils suddenly shrank, and he suddenly saw a figure crashing over like a cannonball.

The speed was so fast that it didn't give anyone any time to react, and it directly broke the cement pillar, and then crashed into Soren's body.

The muscles didn't have time to react, but Soren Soren had been prepared for a long time. Seeing him curl his fingers, the steel wire on the mechanical glove pulled his body to forcibly shift sideways by a body position.

With a "thump", an invisible phantom flashed.

The two hugging figures directly crashed into the wall in the distance, instantly crashing out a large area of ​​spider web-like cracks.

Such a barbaric impact was enough to crush a flesh-type professional into pieces!

Daniel just felt that he had succeeded, but suddenly felt that the "person" he was holding in his arms felt wrong. Looking closely, it was a life-size puppet.

"Not good!"

Daniel's face changed drastically, and he instantly understood something: the other party knew his implanted device and his talent abilities like the back of his hand!

"That guy is actually a puppeteer?!"

But it was too late to understand at this time.

This kind of misjudgment was fatal.

........

A few meters away from the smashed stone pillar, the firearm had been aimed at Daniel again.

Soren knew that this "Ranger" profession had a strong perception ability, so he deliberately made a noise to lure the opponent to seize the opportunity and rush over.

This was the advantage of information asymmetry.

Soren knew almost everything about this Daniel's abilities, but the enemy knew nothing about him.

If he really had to fight fairly, Soren's chances of winning would not exceed 20%!

This guy was a "new school" alchemist. His alchemical implant was a black technology product that combined steam machinery and traditional implants—[Resentful Skeleton Jet].

After accumulating steam, an instantaneous burst would produce super-strong thrust like a jet aircraft. This thrust could make people move quickly like a cannonball, and the linear killing power was extremely strong. It was almost impossible for professionals of the same level to avoid it.

This ability alone was not too tricky…

The most important thing was that this implant had a very high affinity with his talent!

Although his talent was not the rare B-level, it was also a very strong mysterious ability in actual combat - [Talent C-001 - Magic Nullifier].

A strange talent that could instantly block the flow of energy in the opponent's body when touching the enemy with both hands at close range.

As long as he was touched by his hand, dark spiritual power, strength, magic power, and even blood flow rate… would be instantly blocked or slowed down.

This implant plus talent was simply a nightmare for close combat.

Combined with high-speed impact and close-fitting magic nullification, even a professional one level higher would suffer a big loss!

This was also one of the most important reasons why Soren wanted to cripple one of his hands with the first shot!

........

Daniel's face was ashen, and he smiled miserably in his heart: "He actually used Miss Reina as bait, hehe… What an amazing calculation."

At the last moment of his life, he realized that every step of his attack was within the enemy's calculations. From entering this space, to shooting, to rushing… the other party had calculated every move he made.

The key was, he never thought that someone would dare to use the young lady of the "Reese Family" as live bait!

However, it was too late to wake up now.

In a duel between experts, one mistake might still have a chance to turn the tables, but consecutive mistakes were almost a dead end.

The inertia of the impact hadn't disappeared, and there was no time to dodge. Soren's rune firearm had already spat fire.

One shot hit his intact left palm, crippling his most threatening hands. Then, several shots hit the ankle joint, knee joint, shoulder joint, elbow joint…

Bang, bang, bang, bang…

The gunshots were endless.

If one shot didn't work, then two consecutive shots would be fired at the same position.

At such a close distance, it was impossible for Soren to miss.

Even the combat suit could not dissolve such a terrifying continuous impact energy, and blood holes were punched out one by one.

This Daniel had already lost his life due to two mistakes.

The enemy had been beaten into a sieve of blood, but at this time, Soren's face did not show any relaxation. Instead, his pupils suddenly shrank.

A murderous intent had quietly arrived, making his hair stand on end.

Just when he shot and killed Daniel, a jelly-like transparent figure in the darkness behind him staggered for some reason and suddenly made a noise.

Soren squinted his eyes, seemingly not surprised at all, and thought, "Sure enough, he's here, the stalker…"

At this instant, he abandoned the firearm and abruptly bent his fingers on both hands, revealing two strange puppets with shimmering blue rune lights all over their bodies as the leather jacket on his back tore open.

He grabbed with both hands in the void, and the two puppets floated around him like Dharma protectors. Their wooden jaw joints kept opening and closing, as if they were grinning and laughing heartily.

"Gaga, gaga…"

In the dark sewer, this sound was particularly harsh.

At this moment, pairs of red strange eyes gradually lit up in the surrounding darkness. Those monsters also walked out of the darkness under the stimulation of a specific smell.

At this moment, the clarity in Soren's eyes was also replaced by violence and a grin: "Want to assassinate me, hehe… I am a ‘Puppet Master’!"

ps. There is a group number in the introduction. Interested friends can add it~