Sullen and Kai rode away on motorcycles according to the planned route, changing bikes midway and traveling for a while.

The fact that they hadn't been chased after so long meant their cleanup work had been thorough.

The first phase of the heist hadn't encountered any major problems.

But as they rode, Kai felt the motorcycle was a little unstable. He muttered, "Huh... Sullen, why do I feel like the motorcycle is wobbling a bit today? Could it be the stuff is too heavy and broke something..."

Sullen had actually noticed the anomaly earlier. The feeling came quickly. Kai had only said half a sentence when Sullen's expression changed instantly. "Get off the bike!"

Without explaining further, he immediately took out the folding bulletproof shield, and the two of them used it as cover.

In the next instant, a mushroom cloud thousands of meters high suddenly rose from the direction of the desolate park several kilometers behind them!

The ground seemed to be churning violently, as if something was about to burst out, making it difficult to stand.

Moments later, a deafening roar like thunder exploded in their ears.

Rumble...

The shockwave rushed towards them like an overwhelming tsunami, the compressed air causing a momentary stagnation of breath. A huge force slammed into the bulletproof shield with a "bang," and the two were almost blown away.

Fortunately, they were far enough away. Once the shockwave passed, although they were a bit dusty, they weren't hurt.

Kai patted the dust off his body, looked in the direction of the explosion, and muttered with an incredulous expression, "Could it be that the Molotov cocktails we dropped ignited some underground marsh gas pool?"

Other than that, there didn't seem to be a better explanation.

"I don't think so. The distance is too far..."

Sullen stared at the rising mushroom cloud and replied.

Suddenly, he realized something.

That transport team was heading to the secret lab...

The explosion was exactly in that direction...

Could it be...

The secret lab exploded?

.......

The explosion came abruptly.

The outer city was very large, but humans usually only gathered where there were buildings.

This "Desolate Park" in the West District seemed to have once been an ancient park, but now it was desolate and sparsely populated.

Now that he thought about it, wasn't this the perfect location for a secret lab?

Although he wasn't sure if it was a deliberate detonation or an accidental explosion, Sullen's first reaction was: "Could it be someone blew it up?"

Moreover, because of the explosion, a series of clues in his mind instantly connected. A cold and beautiful face instantly appeared—the S-class wanted criminal with a three-million bounty!

"Could it really be that woman?"

Thoughts flashed through Sullen's mind, and the more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed.

He had encountered that woman when he went to Knight Street to save Danny's three friends.

At the time, Sullen hadn't understood why she would go against the grain and cause trouble for a human trafficker.

Now that he had intercepted this batch of goods, he also knew that the Steam Party was transporting supplies to a certain lab. Moreover, this lab was researching "X-Serum" and was located somewhere in the West District.

When he put it all together, he immediately guessed why those Steam Party guys were capturing vagrants and orphans.

Because he had once learned from Danny that the Black Tower executives had conducted a large number of live experiments to advance the "X-Serum Project."

Now that the research was still ongoing, it made sense that a large number of people were needed for experiments.

That kind of live-experiment lab couldn't be set up in the inner city, so the outer city, where human lives were cheap as grass, was the perfect place.

And that woman went to the human trafficker, most likely to use the clues about the destination of those people to pinpoint the location of the lab!

So, did she really blow it up?

.......

"That woman stole important items for extracting 'X-Agent.' If she really blew up the outer city lab now, the Black Tower executives must be hopping mad..."

Sullen suddenly became concerned about that woman.

It was a pity to see someone with conviction die.

Sullen guessed the cause of the explosion but wasn't interested in lingering, since it wasn't his home that was blown up.

He called out to Kai, "Let's go. There should be a lot of people coming to see the show soon."

A relaxed smile also appeared on Kai's face. "Heh, this explosion has really helped us out. The traces at the scene of the robbery are probably mostly destroyed now."

"Yeah, indeed."

Sullen also raised an eyebrow, thinking their luck was pretty good.

The two pushed the overturned motorcycle and started on their way again.

Since he guessed it was man-made, the fact that the explosion happened to coincide with their robbery day was probably not a coincidence.

Those secret labs couldn't be entered and exited at any time like a vegetable market in order to maintain secrecy. It was highly likely that today was a day for centralized resupply.

It was possible that not only Sullen and his team intercepted this batch of goods, but there were other supply convoys, such as people for experimentation.

That woman probably infiltrated by other means.

However, it had nothing to do with them.

They were just ordinary small-time robbers.

.......

Sullen and his partner did not take the goods back to their residence on Green Street, but instead found some dilapidated buildings and secluded places in the sewers along the way, where they hid the goods in batches.

After setting up some warning measures, the two burned the clothes they had used in the crime and disposed of all traces that could be used to track them, before returning to Green Street.

The news of the explosion in the West District quickly spread throughout the outer city. Even the higher-ups of the Crossroads Society sent people to find out what had happened.

But the news circulating among the ordinary gang members was that it was a marsh gas explosion. The Steam Party also seemed to be deliberately controlling the news, and there was no mention of "laboratory."

As for the "robbery" that Sullen and his partner participated in, it was unclear whether the Steam Party intended to investigate secretly, or whether they blamed it all on the explosion. At least, there was no news on the market that anyone was looking for the goods or the robbers.

But the calmer it was, the bigger the matter.

Because Sullen discovered... the bounty for that S-class wanted criminal in the black market had increased again.

This time, there was no price listed. Instead, it said: Anyone who provides effective information can obtain permanent residency rights in the inner city, hereditary titles, and any existing cursed materials recorded in the Alchemist Guild, depending on the value of the information...

It was clear that the bounty issuer was "desperate."

This unprecedented bounty price was enough to tempt almost anyone.

Permanent residency in the inner city was a benefit that almost anyone in the outer city would break their heads to fight for;

Hereditary titles, even the major families in the inner city would probably dig three feet into the ground to find the person;

And the reward of any cursed material was enough to tempt even second- and third-tier professionals who had no interest in fame and fortune.

And this was just the reward for providing information!

Moreover, this time, the bounty order not only posted the woman's original photo, but also various disguised photos, as well as detailed data on her height, bones, and dimensions...

The pink-haired bunny girl outfit that Sullen had once seen was also among them.

In other words, even if she covered her head, interested people could recognize her by her figure!

Sullen felt that with this bounty, it would be difficult for that "walking gold mine" not to be caught.

Thinking about the next gathering of high-level professionals in the black market small circle, he planned to inquire about the news and also ask Mr. Black if he was interested in that batch of goods.

But right now, Sullen had another important job.

That was to decipher the *Journal of Undead Research*!

.......

Sullen hadn't looked at the *Journal of Undead Research* much before, because he felt it was pointless to study it.

At least, it wouldn't be useful for the time being.

Translating those ancient ciphers would waste a lot of his time and energy, and the research content was too high-end, so even if it was translated, it wouldn't be of use.

Most importantly, without the key ingredient, "X-Serum," it was impossible to successfully research the undead.

But now it was different. Sullen had finished X-Serum in his hands.

If he could successfully translate the formula for the anti-mutation agent from the journal...

Not only could he try to create "undead," but if the serum could be used on humans, it seemed like a great idea to give himself a shot.

After returning from the robbery, Sullen didn't run around, but stayed in the basement to study the ciphers in the *Journal of Undead Research*.

Most of the books left by ancient alchemists were encrypted.

The higher the level of the content, the higher the degree of encryption.

It was almost impossible to decipher an ancient code that had never been seen before by relying on individual strength alone.

But there was a shortcut to learning to decipher codes in modern times, and that was that "cryptography" was now a systematic discipline at the Black Tower Academy.

A large number of cryptography experts and archaeologists studied it all day long, deciphering the laws of a large number of ancient ciphers, and compiling various cryptographies into textbooks.

This also made it easier and easier for modern people to decipher ancient alchemical scrolls.

Most of the dazzling encryption methods that ordinary people saw had ready-made formulas that could be applied.

As long as the type of encryption and the key to the cipher were known, many ciphers could be cracked almost idiotically.

And Sullen had the most complete set of *Complete Book of Ancient Code Decryption* textbooks in Old Lunden.

The textbooks recorded almost all the cipher encryption and decryption methods on the market.

This also greatly reduced the deciphering time and reduced the difficulty.

Moreover, Sullen had a shortcut within a shortcut, which was the Eye of Omniscience.

Before he had read the *Complete Book of Ancient Code Decryption*, when he saw those ciphers with specific rules, the Eye of Omniscience might prompt, "This is a text with a 'three-grid horizontal and vertical displacement encryption rule'..."

But after reading it, it now directly became, "A cipher written with 'R'lyeh Encryption'..."

This was also the rule he had gradually discovered after using the Eye of Omniscience for so long. That was, the information identified by the eye would appear in a form that conformed to his cognitive description and was the easiest to understand.

The more knowledge Sullen himself had, the easier it would be to understand the identified content.

Now, when used to decipher codes, when Sullen read the content in the journal, it would directly prompt the specific name of the encryption method.

Then he only needed to find the content of the relevant code in the textbook like looking up a dictionary, apply the formula directly, and he could decipher it.

This saved him too much time.