If it were steel wire, battles like this would have snapped countless times.

Unfortunately, Suren now had enough witch hair.

Injected with dark spirit energy and transformed into an elemental state, this transparent thread wouldn't be noticed. Even with obstacles in the way, there was a magnetic-like force between the strands, enough to control the puppet's movements.

With a flick of his fingers, a spatial rift instantly appeared on the bodyguard's neck.

Just as the man seemed to be waking from his daze, the deadly crisis turned his expression. Before he could react, the black spatial rift silently severed his neck.

With a "glug," his head hit the ground.

Suren watched, a grim smile twisting his lips.

He didn't dare be careless, his fingers again twitching, pulling on the Abomination Ghoul outside.

Because at that moment, the curse caster, Mechanical Alchemist Toynbee, also regained consciousness.

…

Toynbee, enduring the throbbing in his head, rushed into the shattered building.

Just in time, he saw the bodyguard's head hit the ground.

Then he watched as Suren flicked his fingers again, and his eyes widened in horror.

He'd seen that gesture a few times before, and each time, a high-level expert was inexplicably killed.

Toynbee had originally intended to come in and capture the "helpless Suren," but seeing this, he was scared out of his wits.

Watching the headless corpse erupt in a fountain of blood, his instinctive reaction was to release the pressure valve on the steam boiler. Instead of charging in, a blast of steam sent him flying backward.

Thankfully, Toynbee reacted quickly. As the jet propelled him away, a foot-long spatial rift appeared where he'd been standing.

The rift, which would have sliced his chest, missed because he was thrown backward, saving his life.

A mechanical leg, severed cleanly, clattered to the ground.

Although losing a mechanical limb didn't hurt and he could still fight, Toynbee didn't dare charge back into the ruins.

As he flew backward, watching the "Suren" with the wooden expression flick his fingers again, his face turned even paler.

He had no intention of confronting him head-on and quickly hid behind a building.

Even then, another hair-raising spatial rift brushed past him.

He was fortunate to have dodged and escaped in time, or those two tricky cuts would have definitely killed him!

Relieved, Toynbee cursed inwardly, "Who the hell said this guy could only cut once more?!"

Now he'd seen Suren kill Danze Shao's bodyguard with one cut and then slash at him twice, and it looked like he could cut many more times.

"Doesn't this guy suffer any backlash from using that sealed item?!"

Amidst his cursing, Toynbee didn't forget to hide himself even more securely, holding his breath, afraid that Suren would see him and send another cut his way.

…

"Dodged it? Whew… My body's at its limit."

Suren gasped for breath, not bothering to chase the fleeing man.

He had pushed himself to the limit, barely managing to unleash three cuts with his broken ribs.

After a second or two, he felt the stagnant blood circulation return to normal, and he could exert himself again.

"Second-tier Professionals are fast…"

Suren muttered, looking at the headless corpse on the ground.

He didn't dare delay, took the bodyguard's storage ring, and harvested the soul. Then he didn't forget to toss a fire bomb to burn away the blood he'd spat out.

Unfortunately, he couldn't deal with the blood outside in time.

Suren heard the sound of people chasing him and continued his escape deeper into the ruins, controlling the Eight-Armed Spider Spear.

"Seven second-tier pursuers, two dead, two with broken legs, and three left…"

Suren ran, thinking about finding suitable terrain to kill the remaining three.

But he realized he wasn't confident.

First, his injuries couldn't withstand high-intensity combat.

Second, although he'd taken care of the most threatening close-combat fighters, he wasn't sure he could kill "Gun King" Geiger, who had the [Sixth Sense] talent, with the Black Scythe.

Moreover, after using the Black Scythe three times, Suren couldn't be sure that the Abomination Ghoul would survive the next backlash.

He had basically shaken off his pursuers, so there was no need to risk an ambush.

Because he'd been running haphazardly, Suren felt like he'd arrived in a very dangerous area of the Dawn Ruins.

Not far ahead, the sound of pursuit gradually faded, and his speed slowed.

The fog in the air grew thicker, and then he saw a low, crumbling city wall.

Suren realized that he'd arrived in the black zone on the wilderness map—the "Inner Ring of Dawn City."

The surrounding fog had made visibility extremely low. He didn't dare go any further in, nor did he dare turn back. He happened to see a bunker-like building and dove inside.

…

A moment later, the fog in the air grew thicker, almost to the point where he couldn't see his hand in front of his face.

Suren didn't dare leave the bunker.

Wilderness explorers had a saying passed down through generations that areas with dense fog were more likely to be home to high-level Aberrations.

Fortunately, the pursuers didn't seem to be coming.

After listening intently for a while and hearing no signs of pursuit, he heard strange rustling sounds in the fog, like some animal gnawing on bones.

Suren breathed a sigh of relief.

He finally took a closer look at the bunker he was hiding in.

The bunker wasn't big, about ten square meters.

It looked like a wartime fortress.

The walls were unusually strong and thick, almost a meter thick. When he came in, he'd noticed many irregular marks on the outer walls, as if large Aberrations had hit and stepped on them.

The entrance and ventilation openings were also small, and could be easily blocked to prevent Aberrations from entering.

The dust was thick, and everything in the bunker had decayed with age.

Suren breathed another sigh of relief when he saw no signs of Aberration droppings.

He felt that it was safe enough here and decided not to leave for the time being.

He planned to hide until the fog cleared.

He used a deodorant potion to eliminate his scent.

Then he took out a bulletproof vest and mechanical skeleton, making a simple but sturdy one-way door at the entrance before finally relaxing.

He hadn't expected to find something good while sitting down and rummaging through the dirt: an ancient [Flame Longsword] with a quality comparable to a famous sword on the market.

In the ruins, things that had survived the ages were usually very valuable. On the market, this weapon would be worth over a million.

Unfortunately, after searching, he found nothing else of value except for some broken porcelain.

Suren leaned against the wall of the bunker, gently pressing the injury on his chest.

A series of stabs, that was the feeling of broken ribs.

He was lucky to have the Spider Spear as legs, otherwise a normal person with such a severe injury wouldn't even be able to walk, only wait to die.

However, things were improving.

Even without taking healing potions, Suren clearly felt that the stabbing pain was lessening.

His injuries were recovering quickly, not worsening.

The ultra-high self-healing ability brought by the "X-Serum" was playing a huge role, the ultra-strong cellular activity rapidly repairing his severely injured body like patching holes.

…

"Huff…"

Suren let out a long breath of stale air.

He was finally awake and alive.

His injuries were healing automatically, without him needing to do anything.

Now that he had stopped, he had the peace of mind to check his previous gains.

The biggest gain was naturally the materials he had obtained at the White Abbey.

Suren hadn't expected this trip to completely solve the "thread" problem.

The Oliver family had stimulated the witch into a second-stage Lord state, which directly produced another very rare "dark gold material."

[Head of the Crying Witch]

Detailed explanation: dark gold curse material; this is not just a head, but also a complex curse formula source, with a complete structure and natural magic patterns; as long as there is enough energy, it can infinitely produce witch hair.

Not just the hair, but even the source of the hair production was taken care of in one step.

With this hair, Suren felt like he was truly a puppeteer.

Of course, there was also [Alice's Tears], which gathered all the magic power of the Crying Witch. Suren hadn't yet figured out how to use this material, which was identified as "very rare" by the All-Knowing Eye.

Then there were a few storage rings and implants gained from killing people.

In the space, he killed two first-tier control mages and Bloom, the second-tier commander of the Warblade Squad.

The implants and profession materials of the two mages were good. The one who controlled thorns dropped a silver-level Profession material for [Thorn Mage]; while the light-delaying mage's ability came from talent, and both the implant and profession materials were normal magic type, and damaged…

Although Bloom's second-tier implant and Profession materials were black iron, they were very valuable: the [Wind Lizard's Demonic Muscle], a black iron implant for the Strength-Agility system, and the [Wind Sprite Dagger], required for Profession advancement.

The bodyguard's storage ring didn't have anything special.

All in all, they would sell for a good price.

But what Suren was most concerned about was the headless alchemical puppet and storage ring left behind by Trickster Lloyd.

Now that he had time, he took out the alchemical puppet, which looked exactly like a real person, and began to study it carefully.

After identifying it, it was indeed an ancient relic from a thousand years ago.

The puppet's skin was very similar to the bio-skin he had seen on No. 19, but there were obvious differences in both materials and craftsmanship. The manufacturing techniques were completely different.

The puppet was hollow, with a place just big enough for the gnome to control it, as well as some complex control components.

Suren tried it out and thought he might be able to make a bionic puppet in the future.

…

Then, an unexpected surprise came!

Suren found a large number of exclusive puppeteer tomes in the pile of books in the storage ring.

Moreover, he found a golden box that looked very important. When he opened it, he found a second-tier golden alchemical implant blueprint inside—[Thousand Threads · Great Lion's Mad Song]!

Looking at the blueprint's function introduction, it turned out to be the implant that gave Trickster Lloyd the ability to emit threads all over his body. When cast, the threads would burst out like a lion's mane…

Golden implant blueprints were almost considered forbidden treasures by the top magnates of the inner city.

Suren felt that he wouldn't be able to find a puppeteer's golden blueprint in his entire life if he relied on his own luck.

"I'm really rich now…"

Looking at the spoils of war, Suren suddenly felt that being chased and almost killed earlier was worth it.

He also guessed that both the [Head of the Crying Witch] and this blueprint were probably the advancement items prepared for Danze Oliver.

Now they had fallen into his hands.

Tsk tsk…

Sure enough, hunting down same-system Professionals was the best way to find profession materials.

If there was an even better shortcut, it would be hunting down same-system Professionals in the inner city.

What's more, there were some puppeteer-exclusive books that couldn't even be bought on the market, such as: *Puppet Manipulation Techniques I and II*, *Three-Line Art*, *Thread Control Manipulation Techniques*…

Suren was said to be a "Mystic Puppet Master," but in reality, he was just a half-baked one, only knowing a little about the production of Mystic Puppets, and completely ignorant of other professional skills.

His professional level was even worse than his sub-profession, "Gunslinger."

All puppet manipulation was learned by himself, with no one to teach him, and no soul shards to strip.

But now it was different.

With these books, he didn't need to forge his own path. These books were a smooth road…

Suren felt that if he could digest all the content of these puppet books, his manipulation of Mystic Puppets would improve several levels, and he would be considered truly initiated.

"It's a pity that the gnome's famous puppet mastery [Puppet Theater] wasn't in the storage ring…"

Suren muttered to himself.

He thought that he must ask that puppet master next time he met him.

…

Suren checked his spoils while keeping an eye on the movements outside.

He thought that the Oliver family would chase after him, but one or two hours passed and they still hadn't arrived.

There wasn't even the sound of a crow flying in the sky.

He guessed that it might be related to the thick fog outside.

Instead of feeling fortunate, he became even more cautious.

If even the Oliver family didn't dare to come, it meant that there must be great danger in this fog.

Luckily, there was this small bunker.

Suren didn't plan to go out.

Then, as he waited, a little accident still happened.

Suren watched as crow feathers grew on his body…

Looking at his status panel, a [Curse Art · Raven Feather Parasitism] had been added.

Suren frowned and guessed that the blood he had left behind had been cursed by the "Blood Raven" Langfelo.

He began to pluck the feathers.

If he didn't have the "X-Serum," he would probably die.

But now… other than being disgusting, this level of curse wasn't of much use.

Suren stayed in the bunker, and the weapons outside became denser and denser. Then, as the fog reached its maximum density, he discovered that the dark spirit energy in the air had become violent…