Chapter 1 The Difference Between a Professional

After successfully becoming a professional, Suren clearly felt the difference between "professionals" and "non-professionals."

Moreover, this was just the difference in the increase of body attributes and skills after the job change. The real key to improving the combat effectiveness of a "professional" lies in "alchemical implants."

Although Suren couldn't see other people's attribute panels, he could guess that his attributes would definitely crush other professionals of the same type by a large margin, as he had advanced to the rare profession of "Puppet Master" using gold materials.

This made him even more "worried" about the future direction of his alchemical implant choices.

With such good talent attributes, it felt like a waste to use ordinary implant blueprints. Even the silver implant [Thousand Killing Wings] of Goethe, the cadre "Night Angel" in the gang, always felt somewhat unsatisfactory to Suren.

The high agility attribute matched, but the high skill and high mental power were somewhat wasted.

Without much thought, after successfully becoming a professional, Suren meditated in the hotel for a whole day.

He needed time to adapt to the surge in attributes after the job change.

[Rune Puppet] brought a leap-like improvement to his physical fitness. Moreover, for a long time in the future, this growth would continue in a decreasing form until the curse characteristics in the material were completely digested.

Throughout the entire "digestion" process, he would often hear whispers from the void beside his ears. That was the enlightenment that the alchemist who refined the inheritance material of the "Puppet Master" wanted to give him. This process might lead to the comprehension of more professional abilities.

…

Night fell, and the fog that enveloped the entire city gradually thickened again.

It was time for the shift assembly again.

Suren woke up from meditation ahead of time.

His thoughts returned to reality, and the unbearable noise from the next room rushed over again.

He glanced at the harsh environment of the room, frowned, and muttered, "Looks like I need to find a long-term residence."

He checked out and walked out of the hotel.

Suren arrived at the meeting place a quarter of an hour earlier than the scheduled time.

In front of the abandoned building next to Green Street, a bonfire was lit in an iron bucket, and the swaying firelight cast monster-like shadows on the wall.

However, the atmosphere today was a little strange.

Captain Kai sat on the steps next to him with a cold face, without any smile. The veterans didn't laugh or joke today either, as if they knew what was going to happen, and stayed quietly one by one.

Suren walked to the edge of the road, found a place, and squatted there, imitating the rogue posture of the veterans.

People came one after another, and some people, seeing that the atmosphere was not right, whispered to each other.

"What happened? The captain's face doesn't look good…"

"Hey, the sniper who attacked us yesterday has been investigated. It's Miller, an old member of the gang. That person has a very good relationship with Captain Kai, but alas…"

"Ah… Are you saying that Captain Miller of Red Street is a mole?"

"Shhh, the captain is in a bad mood, don't mention it."

"…"

Suren listened from the side and roughly understood the reason for Kai's dark face.

But he wasn't too surprised.

He had long guessed that there couldn't be many gunmen who could accurately snipe targets at that distance. If it was someone from inside the Cross Society, it would probably be easy to find out.

Friends turning into moles, Kai's face naturally wouldn't be good.

However, when Suren heard that the gunman had committed suicide, he felt that things didn't seem so simple.

But he didn't think too much about it. That was a matter for the gang's higher-ups to worry about.

Before long, everyone had arrived.

Kai didn't waste any words at all, and said directly with a dark face, "Those who didn't show up for the gang's operation yesterday, stand up!"

Although the voice was not loud, everyone could hear the merciless chill in his tone.

Everyone looked at each other, and at this moment, two old gang members stood up with pale faces.

"Captain, it's not that I didn't want to… I drank too much yesterday, and I really didn't hear the gathering…"

The bearded man just wanted to explain something, but Kai interrupted him and said expressionlessly, "Joe, you are also an old member of the gang, you should know the gang rules very well. Do it yourself…"

"I…"

Hearing this, the bearded man named Joe had a very ugly face.

But he also knew that the gang rules didn't allow for any leniency, so he gritted his teeth and didn't say anything more. He picked up the axe not far away, and then unhesitatingly砍向his left wrist.

With a crisp sound of bone cracking, the sharp axe cut off his wrist, and the severed palm fell to the ground, blood spurting out.

Joe was covered in cold sweat, looked at Kai, and lowered his head: "Captain, I was wrong."

Kai still didn't speak, and glanced at another person, "Dunn, what about you?"

"I…"

The skinny punk with a cockscomb hairstyle was also trembling and walked out, although he was so scared that his face was pale.

Not everyone can chop off their own hand without blinking an eye, and this guy was still so scared that he stammered, "Captain, I… I can't do it…"

As soon as he finished speaking, a cold light flashed, and another severed palm landed on the ground.

A burst of howling and screaming resounded through the broken building.

…

Suren and a group of gang members witnessed a bloody gang execution scene, but this was a common episode.

The discipline of the gang was very loose, but when you touched the gang rules, there was no leniency.

However, the problem of severed limbs in this world wasn't a big deal either. The most basic mechanical prosthetic limbs cost only ten to twenty thousand yuan. But those two unlucky guys didn't participate in yesterday's mission and didn't get the bonus, so they would probably have to hang around with a severed hand for a long time.

At seven o'clock in the evening, Kai led the crowd to patrol the three blocks of Green Street on time.

Half an hour later, the shift ended.

The veterans drank, the ones who wanted to find women went to find women, and they dispersed in a hubbub.

Suren sat next to the octagonal cage of the Scarlet Stronghold again and began his gambling night.

Perhaps gamblers who don't care about winning or losing are always lucky, and Suren won two games in a row.

However, the bets were not big, one thousand per bet.

Originally, he wanted to bet evenly on one side of red and blue for all the games tonight, just like yesterday, so as to save the trouble of betting every time.

This kind of betting method would definitely not make him rich, but according to the probability, he wouldn't lose too much either.

Suren didn't come to gamble for money in the first place, so he didn't care.

But just as he was planning to bet like this, a bold female voice suddenly came from behind him, seemingly asking him.

"Which side do you favor in the next match?"

Looking back, it was a heroic green-haired woman with four long knives hanging from her waist.

She walked straight to Suren's side and lay on the fence in a carefree manner. Looking at her serious appearance, it seemed that she could see more clearly because she was close to the octagonal cage, a proper "gambling addict" look.

"Boss Qiang Tiao?!"

Suren looked at this person and felt very familiar. Looking at the ferocious tattoo on one of her exposed arms, he immediately recognized her. Wasn't this Qiang Tiao, the cadre of the Cross Society, the "Four-Armed Rakshasa"?

Although she wasn't wearing the sexy and revealing red leather armor she wore yesterday, the loose dress that looked like a kimono today was equally difficult to conceal her towering figure.

Qiang Tiao was slightly surprised by Suren's title, raised her eyes and glanced at him, "Yo… a newbie?"

Suren nodded, "Yes."

Thinking that she probably didn't treat him like an outsider because of the "Cross mark" on his clothes.

Qiang Tiao didn't seem to care about the title, and said, "Just call me Sister Qiang Tiao like Little Kai and the others."

Suren nodded, "Okay, Sister Qiang Tiao."

He was thinking, what is this cadre doing at the arena?

Qiang Tiao's gaze fell back on the octagonal cage. She seemed to have a kind of fanatical obsession with gambling.

It seemed that she really came to gamble.

She asked again, "I think you seem to have good luck… Who do you think will win the next game?"

"I can't tell either…"

Suren also knew that the two red lottery tickets in his hand exposed the fact that he had won two games in a row.

But his betting was purely a disguise. He came just to [reap] the memory fragments of the corpses, so how could he favor any side?

Qiang Tiao felt that his evasive answer was very unsatisfactory, and raised her eyebrows and asked, "Then which side are you going to buy?"

"The red… blue side, I guess."

Suren felt that if he bought red again, it would give people a very perfunctory feeling, so he changed his mind to blue.

Unexpectedly, when Qiang Tiao heard this, she immediately waved to the betting girl and said loudly, "Come, bet 10,000, on the blue side."