Chapter 1 Half a Day Later

Half a day later, outside the inner city.

Sullen, covered in dirt, scrambled out of a sewer in the northern city in a sorry state.

As soon as he got out, he collapsed on the ground, gasping for breath. Although the air quality in the northern industrial district was so bad that every breath drew in a mouthful of dust, it was still much better than the poisonous gas in the sewers!

After catching his breath for a couple of seconds, the zhi-zhuang (combat suit) dissipated. Without any hesitation, he immediately took out a "high-efficiency antidote" and injected it into his neck.

The next second, the black color of the poisoning on his face stopped spreading.

After injecting the antidote, Sullen finally breathed a long sigh of relief.

"Just how many terrifying monsters did the 'x serum' leak create... These sewers are almost full!"

Looking at the dark sewer entrance, he was still shaken.

The danger level in the underground caves was even worse than being hunted in the inner city.

If he hadn't been able to run so fast, those centipedes with over a thousand legs that could spit fire and poison would have killed him on the spot.

If Danny had been in this situation when he escaped three years ago, his hundred-odd pounds of meat wouldn't have been enough to fill the gaps between the teeth of those terrifying mutated monsters.

But, in the end, he was lucky enough to survive.

…

Sullen looked back at the towering inner city walls, his gaze somewhat complicated.

Originally, he had planned to follow the transport team to broaden his horizons, but he didn't expect that this one-day tour of the inner city would turn into a one-day tour of the gates of hell.

The various blockades and pursuits gave him the feeling of repeatedly jumping back and forth at the gates of hell.

However, even though he almost lost his life, he did gain two things.

Not far behind him, a steel wire was stretched out, and something invisible seemed to be tied to it.

That was naturally the sealed item that had saved his life this time—the [Shroud of Ötzi the Iceman].

Just using it in the city for half a day had cost him one or two years of his lifespan.

He had survived, and the price was worth it, but he didn't dare keep it close to him anymore.

This thing was indeed a good treasure for saving his life, but he couldn't put it in a storage ring, nor could he tie it to his body at any time, so he could only drag it along from a distance like this.

Although the data panel didn't show the "lifespan" stat, as long as this thing was within a meter of him, he could detect subtle changes in some of his body's stats.

So, he deduced that the effective range of this sealed item was about one meter.

Sullen thought that if he wanted to carry it with him in the future, he would have to tie it to a "living corpse."

Living corpses had no lifespan, so they should be immune to this curse trait.

He had even thought of a very suitable puppet tactic. When the time came, he would create an "invisible living corpse," which would be a natural assassin. If the scythe could also be tied to the "invisibility," it would be a terrifying weapon for ambushing people, and even top-level professionals might be caught off guard.

…

For now, the shroud would just have to be dragged along.

While taking the time to catch his breath, Sullen took out the [Isaac's Alchemical Manuscript] from his chest.

The cover that had previously been called "Precious New Pearl" had already rotted in the sewer, revealing the true appearance of the manuscript.

The book cover felt like rough crocodile skin to the touch, and it had an intaglio engraving of an extremely complex eight-pointed star alchemical array. The identification showed it to be an "unrecognized high-level sealing technique."

Just looking at the cover, a strong sense of mystery rushed towards him.

Opening it, the pages were even more bizarre. They didn't feel like dry parchment, but more like "living human skin."

When touched, the pages even trembled slightly, like a young girl's sensitive skin.

If Sullen didn't recognize this thing and saw how strange it was, he would probably find a place to hide it first.

But after identifying it with the Eye of Truth, this manuscript was not only not strange, but it was also very useful.

However, its curse trait was a bit special.

[Isaac's Alchemical Manuscript 3]

Description: An alchemical notebook written on the skin of some unknown creature;

Curse Trait: Fate is an endless chain of cause and effect, and the development of the world itself also follows this principle and causal relationship. This is a notebook stained with fate. It will cause those who come into contact with it to be drawn into the cause and effect of the notebook... Whether it's a blessing or a curse, who knows?

Detailed Explanation: Carrying it with you grants the aura 'Sir Isaac's Blessing,' which will allow you to learn alchemy with half the effort; you will often have "sudden realizations," "flashes of inspiration" that allow you to understand some profound alchemical knowledge;

The curse trait is that obtaining the notebook will involve cause and effect.

Sullen didn't think this was a big deal at all.

Cause and effect existed; everything followed this law.

Afraid of getting into trouble?

Being chosen for the transport team had already passively gotten him into trouble.

Even if he threw the manuscript away at this moment, he wouldn't be able to get rid of it.

Therefore, this curse trait didn't seem to have any impact on Sullen at all.

Moreover, it was noted that whether it was a blessing or a curse, who knows?

On the contrary, its positive buff aura, "Isaac's Blessing," made Sullen feel that this manuscript was very useful.

He was now coming into contact with more and more alchemical knowledge, and it was becoming more and more profound. Many deep-level alchemical techniques not only required time to learn but also required comprehension to understand.

This manuscript would increase his learning efficiency n-fold, and the benefits would be immeasurable.

Moreover, seeing that the manuscript number was "3" meant that there were at least two more manuscripts like this. If nothing else, one of them was in the hands of the person who had left the text on his retina.

As for the content, it was also encrypted, and now was not the time to decipher it.

After catching his breath and recovering for a moment, Sullen put away the notebook.

Now he had an important thing to do, and that was: run!

Escaping the inner city was only the first step. The crisis was far from over.

…

Although Sullen had been a wanted criminal before, because he was low-key, it hadn't had much impact on his life in the gang.

Now that he was being hunted down by the Umbrella organization, the situation was completely different.

Moreover, now that he knew that Smokey Samb was an inside agent, there were definitely more inner city moles in the Cross Society.

Naturally, he couldn't go back to the Cross Society, and even the identity of "Sullen" couldn't be used temporarily in the outer city.

He could only leave the city to hide for a while.

After all, even the most powerful tracking had geographical limitations and a shelf life.

As long as he ran far enough, all tracking methods would be useless.

It just so happened that a large-scale wasteland reclamation camp had been built near Dawn City, so living outside the city for a long time was also guaranteed.

Sullen thought that he had originally planned to go take a look, and now was the perfect time.

What he needed to do now was go back to Green Street, pack up his belongings, and run.

After all, since he was leaving the city, he still had to take the scythe and the living corpse, which were things that could save his life.

Sullen had already thought out his escape plan in his mind, and he ran wildly.

…

Not long after, Sullen picked the lock on a motorcycle on a road in the northern city and drove all the way towards the southern city.

Because he had anticipated that he might have to run away one day, he had made preparations early and mastered several secret channels for leaving the city.

Moreover, the outer city was not like the inner city. As a local, he knew the roads very well. There weren't as many professionals in the outer city, and the pursuers didn't have such good mechanical equipment. Even if he was surrounded, the risk factor wasn't high.

The premise was that he didn't run into a second-order professional.

But the outer city was sparsely populated, and the probability of running into a second-order professional was a thousand times lower than in the inner city.

Before long, the motorcycle sped along and had already entered the Cross Society's territory in the southern district.

Which meant that the number of enemies would decrease sharply.

But Sullen was not careless.

He knew very well that if the Umbrella organization hadn't caught him, they would definitely have guessed that he was already in the outer city.

Sullen didn't know what methods the other party had, but such a large organization would definitely not let it go so easily.

He was very careful along the way, constantly guarding against being chased.

The motorcycle was riding very fast. Not only could ordinary people not catch up at this speed, but even if someone was tracking him, he would be discovered instantly.

But in the end, no matter how careful he was, he was still being chased.

He had defended against people, but there were other things.

While riding, Sullen suddenly noticed a red-eyed crow following his motorcycle.

After turning a corner, the crow was still following.

He casually fired a shot, and the crow fell to the ground with a caw.

However, after this shot, Sullen had a very bad premonition.

In Old Lingdun, crows only liked to gather in the eastern city. Because only the old-school warlocks of the Crow Gang would feed these carrion birds, which foreshadowed ominous events. Crows were the faith and ability of those guys.

Sure enough, the premonition became a reality.

After Sullen shot down the first crow, he gradually discovered that more and more crows were following him.

They were like surveillance cameras, their red eyes staring at people and making their hearts palpitate.

As more and more crows appeared, Sullen opened fire, and the crows exploded into clouds of green blood mist.

Instantly, he recognized who was using this ability and was greatly surprised: "The Crow Gang's 'Plague Doctor' Sergei! Why would this guy be working for the Umbrella organization?!"

…

Sergei was the younger brother of Gwenbu, the "Crow Godfather," the leader of the Crow Gang, one of the three major gangs in the outer city. He was a feared veteran second-order professional.

These "old-school" alchemists all possessed some strange abilities. They were bizarre and very troublesome.

This professional, Sergei, was the [Plague Doctor], who specialized in various curses and tracking, killing people invisibly.

This was the guy that even the Cross Society's executives least liked to see.

Legend had it that Sergei had a tracking secret technique. As long as his crows devoured the target's blood, nails, or hair, his crows would help him find the target.

Seeing this flock of crows, Sullen no longer doubted that he had been discovered.

At this moment, just as he was about to raise his gun while riding the motorcycle, he suddenly felt an itch in his throat, as if something was blocking it, and he gagged.

The next second, with a "blegh~" sound.

He suddenly opened his mouth and spat out a feathered black crow, which flew away with a caw.

Seeing this, Sullen's heart turned cold: "A curse!"