Chapter 1 Qian Tiao's Arrangement

Qian Tiao had considerable influence in both the inner and outer city.

Even though Suren had caused such a disturbance in Old Lingdun, she had still managed to find a good doctor within an hour to help Suren resolve the backlash from the Black Scythe curse.

Because Suren had precisely controlled the intensity of his slashes, the curse backlash wound wasn't large. With x-serum and the money-burning "Life Conversion Alchemy Array" to prolong his life, he ultimately made it through without any real danger.

Then came the plan to leave the city.

Originally, Suren had planned to travel alone, finding an opportunity to join a random group heading to Dawn City. But Qian Tiao's arrangement was clearly more appropriate.

She arranged a legitimate identity for Suren.

To prevent his identity from being exposed, Qian Tiao didn't arrange for him to join a Hunter Troupe affiliated with the Cross Society. Instead, she had him join a merchant guild transport team in the inner city. Suren became a freelance sniper hired by the Hunter Guild, possessing a registration badge and a series of authentication certificates issued by the Hunter Guild. His background could withstand scrutiny. He replaced a hunter named "Johnny" who was originally supposed to come.

.......

On this day, a massive transport team was moving slowly through the dark tunnels of the underground cave.

This was already the seventh day that Suren had been traveling with this "Thorn Bird Merchant Guild Transport Team."

The roar of steam engines echoed through the team. Those were the sounds of dozens of steam-powered mechanical dogs. These simple mechanical animals didn't have combat functions, but they could carry heavy loads, and their small size allowed them to navigate the rugged mine tunnels in the cave. They were the mainstream transport tool used by hunters to haul heavy objects.

Dawn City was currently building a large hunter camp and needed a large amount of building materials. This was a good opportunity for merchants to make money, so a large number of transport teams were heading underground during this time.

The hunters were going to the ruins anyway, so they also accepted the merchant guild's employment, earning some escort fees along the way.

This transport team had hired five fully staffed small hunter troupes and some freelance hunters with good reputations in the Hunter Guild. Such as "Johnny," whose identity Suren had taken.

There were a total of one or two hundred people in the team, and Suren wasn't conspicuous among them.

They had already encountered two small-scale attacks by mutant monster groups in the past few days. Several people had died, but fortunately, there weren't any major losses.

Moreover, because he was a hired freelance hunter, he didn't have any acquaintances. He hung at the back of the team, appearing very aloof.

Of course, this was the persona that Suren had deliberately cultivated to conceal the abnormality of his body.

Because he had injected the "x-serum," a side effect had turned all the skin on his body blue.

To prevent anyone from noticing, he wore a gas mask the entire time, and his hands were covered with expensive bionic skin gloves, not exposing a single bit of skin.

Fortunately, hunters in the underground cave were mostly fully armed, so this getup wasn't too out of place.

......

The transport team moved forward into the depths at a moderate pace.

Suren carried a large black box on his back, which was a sniper rifle case used to conceal the scythe's existence. He hadn't been able to find a new corpse to make a living dead in the past few days.

As he walked, a thirteen- or fourteen-year-old boy happily ran towards the back of the team.

He enthusiastically waved the gas mask in his hand, shook it at Suren, and excitedly said, "Mr. Johnny, can you help me see what's wrong with my mask..."

This child was called "Tommy," the youngest son of the "Drunken Hunter Troupe" leader. Because he liked adventure, his big-hearted old man had brought him along.

The day before yesterday, the transport team had encountered a mutant monster attack. Suren had casually killed a monster, saving this little guy who was about to have his neck bitten off by the monster. He had also won the friendship of the Drunken Troupe because of this.

This unreserved little guy would occasionally come to ask about shooting and mechanical issues, in addition to thanking him.

"Mr. Johnny, your parrot mask is so pretty."

Tommy looked at the mask on Suren's face with envy, pouting, "Compared to you, mine looks like an 'Ugly Duckling Mask'."

"Hehe, let me see..."

Suren took the Ugly Duckling Mask without feeling troubled and carefully looked at it.

Of course, it couldn't compare.

Suren wasn't wearing an ordinary gas mask on his face; it was the modified [Plague Doctor's Beak Mask].

He originally thought he wouldn't need this after killing Sergei, but after injecting the x-serum, Suren discovered that his cell activity had become extremely strong. Some minor toxins had no effect on his body at all and could be automatically metabolized.

He had also tested the mask's curse characteristics a few days ago. After carefully observing the attribute panel, he concluded that his current cell activity could withstand the mask's side effects, and with the antidote, he wouldn't easily be poisoned to death at least.

Thinking that he had to wear a gas mask to cover his face anyway, he simply modified the appearance of the beak mask.

After all, whether it was the 99% poison resistance or the ability to increase toxin resistance over time, there was no better gas mask than it.

But because it was a trophy, Suren also transformed the original cool and mysterious style of the beak mask into a gaudy "parrot mask" to prevent people from recognizing it.

Not only did he change the black main color to the parrot's yellow-green, but he also added a rib-like mechanical device like a windshield wiper to clean the goggles and covered the beak with a deliberately mysterious black cloth. This was a mainstream punk style on the market. Simple mechanical modifications completely changed the appearance, making it look instantly "commonplace."

But it was this rib-like modification that attracted little Tommy's strong interest.

Seeing Suren inspecting his work, Tommy muttered to himself, "Mr. Johnny, I want to make a mechanically operated goggle that can flip open automatically, so it can stay on my hat when I need a wide field of vision. But it always makes a creaking sound, and it's still very stiff even after I oiled it..."

"Oh?"

Suren found that this little Tommy had a lot of mechanical talent. He had cobbled together something quite interesting in just one day.

He took a brief look and found the root of the problem, saying, "Actually, you're already doing very well. You can move the gears here a little bit, and the force of the steel wire will be transmitted more smoothly. The reason it's jamming is because you designed the device too complicated. The more complicated the machine, the more likely it is to break down..."

Little Tommy listened very carefully next to Suren.

Before long, Suren handed the mask back.

This little boy had a good understanding. He seemed to have understood completely, and he smiled happily, "Oh, thank you, Mr. Johnny. I know how I need to modify my 'Ugly Duckling Mask'!"

With that, he happily ran away again.

Suren smiled as he watched.

The monotonous escort mission also had some small pleasures.

.......

After walking for a few more hours, the team stopped.

"Alright, we can stop now. We'll set up camp here today!"

The person shouting was Abagong, a tall, thin old man. His appearance, like his personality, always made people feel that he was very mean. He was the most respected person in the transport team and an inner-city steward of the "Thorn Bird Merchant Guild."

At this order, cheers of excitement came from the team.

Finally, they could rest again.

The mechanical dogs formed a circle on the periphery, protecting the people of the merchant guild inside. Those inner-city guys always disdained being with the outer-city people.

The hunters, on the other hand, needed to build their own camps.

Suren also took out the army tent from his backpack, built a place to sleep in an inconspicuous corner, and then crawled inside.

Finally, it was time to rest. This was also when Suren felt the most comfortable time of the day.

He dragged the "invisible living dead" into the tent, then unwrapped the shroud, revealing the rune living dead and the Great Black Scythe inside.

Suren also took off his gas mask, exposing a strange blue-skinned face to the air.

If an outsider were here and saw the two blue-skinned monsters in the tent, they would definitely be frightened.

Suren was used to it, though.

He took out the rune pen and began to redraw the alchemy materials on the faded runes.

This was a hunter who had died in an attack the day before yesterday. His body was intact, so Suren had collected it to use as material.

While redrawing the runes on the living dead, he examined the muscle changes in the corpse, muttering to himself as he analyzed, "The x-serum's amplification of the corpse varies greatly from individual to individual. Melee-type professionals should be more suitable for making living dead. It's a pity that I didn't have the opportunity to bring out the bodies of the previous second-tier professionals. Otherwise, using the bodies of those professionals should be able to withstand more slashes..."

Although the backlash was all about being cut in half with one blow, the recovery ability was much worse.

Even though the living dead was also injected with three "second-generation x-serums," Suren also discovered that this female corpse was much worse than the previous male corpse. Under the same circumstances, the number of times it could withstand the backlash would have a significant difference.

But it didn't affect much... They were all consumables anyway.

......

Speaking of the "x-serum," Suren looked down at the bulging, knotted muscles under the blue skin of his arm again, his expression quite complicated.

He had been on the road these past few days, and even though he hadn't done any high-intensity training, his muscles were constantly full of an expanding pump.

That was the manifestation of muscle growth.

It was reflected more directly on his data panel. Except for his mental strength, almost all his physical data had increased by more than double.

Moreover, this growth process was still continuing at a decreasing rate and would probably be completely digested within the next few months.

After completely absorbing the serum, Suren could predict that his physical fitness would be much stronger than that of an average melee-type professional!

In addition to the increase in physical data, there was another very obvious ability enhancement.

That was that his efficiency in meditating and absorbing "dark spiritual power" was vastly different from before he injected the serum.

Before, Suren could probably increase one unit of dark spiritual power by meditating for one night.

But now, he would increase three units by meditating for one night!

Although the dark spiritual power in the cave was indeed denser than in Old Lingdun, it hadn't reached three times the level.

Moreover, it wasn't just the concentration, but also the absorption efficiency and feeling.

Suren felt that meditating before was like forcibly pouring dark spiritual power into his body. But now, even if he didn't actively use breathing techniques, dark spiritual power would automatically enter his pores. Not only was there no sign of distortion in his body, but there was also a silk-like sense of pleasure.

It was like... the feeling of a mage's "elemental affinity" being greatly enhanced.

Suren also estimated that his current state should soon reach the minimum attribute requirements for advancing to a second-tier professional.

Even because his body had become stronger and his dark spiritual power had soared, his containment value would also become very high. He estimated that he could withstand at least second-tier gold-quality or higher advancement materials and alchemical implants.

This also made Suren have greater expectations for his trip to Dawn City.

If he could find a powerful spatial curse object, he wouldn't have to worry about his body not being able to withstand it and miss the opportunity to fuse with that high-level professional material.

.......

Suren had almost finished redrawing the runes on the living dead and wrapped it up again with the shroud.

At this time, he thought of something and took out a dark doll from his storage ring.

This was an experimental product, a voodoo doll that solidified the [Curse Art - Straw Man] warlock's spell.

Suren named it [Voodoo Doll].

But because this was a new work, too many functions and data needed to be tested before it could be used in actual combat.

Suren thought that this boring escort would last for another half a month, so he collected some blood samples to test it out. It just so happened that Steward Abagong had fallen off the mechanical dog on a downhill slope earlier and shed some blood.

Suren didn't know what he was thinking, but a slightly apologetic smile appeared on his face. "A distance of over a hundred meters, the effect shouldn't be bad... Mean Mr. Abagong, sorry, I can only use you to test it out first."

He muttered a sentence and picked up the blood samples he had collected, smearing them on the alchemy array on the back of the doll. A flash of light disappeared, and the doll seemed to instantly gain spirituality. A layer of gray mist appeared on the face of the faceless doll. It was vaguely similar to Mr. Abagong, looking slightly terrifying.

Suren was very familiar with the "Straw Man" spell in his memory, so there was naturally no reason for failure.

He picked up a rune steel needle and stabbed it into the doll's leg.

This spell wasn't the kind of method that could easily kill with one strike. The distance was far, there weren't enough blood samples, and he wasn't stabbing the heart or head, so it could only torture people.

As soon as this needle went down, Suren's keen hearing allowed him to instantly hear a scream.

"Ouch..."

He didn't know what Steward Abagong was doing, but listening to the scream, it seemed quite painful.

"Subtracting the time it takes for the sound to travel through the air, it was delayed by about 1.3 seconds from the time I stabbed down to the target screaming. I don't know if it's because he's slow to react, or if the spell is delayed due to distance..."

Suren muttered in his heart and recorded his experimental data: "September 1st, test subject #001, ordinary middle-aged man... Blood sample quality e, one hundred and thirty meters, needle stabbed in the calf, 1.3-second delay before screaming..."

He recorded the data.

Suren thought for a while, then picked up the rune steel needle again and stabbed it into the same leg of the doll, then pricked up his ears.

"Huh... This time the screaming reaction is obviously slower. Maybe he was prepared for a stab in the same leg? Should I try another one?"

Suren thought for a while, then changed legs and stabbed it.

In an instant, he heard Mr. Abagong's screams and curses. Suren finally confirmed something and added a sentence to his notes: "It is basically determined that the casting distance and reaction speed are inversely proportional. In the future, I can focus on testing the precise numerical values of distance and delay..."

Then he stabbed a few more needles, and he hardly heard any screams. The blood samples had also become very weak.

Suren also recorded: "Casting will consume the target's biological sample, greatly reducing the curse effect and significantly shortening the casting distance..."

.......

Suren tested the attributes of the first version of the [Voodoo Doll] and had some new inspiration.

He took out a new piece of wood and planned to carve a modified warlock's doll.

But as he was carving, he heard footsteps approaching outside the tent.

Little Tommy came to inform him that Mr. Abagong had called all the mercenaries to gather for an emergency meeting.