Mechanical Alchemist

Su Lun knew exactly what had surprised the "Sand Demon" Horace.

"Sequential Firing" was far from being as simple as pulling the trigger four times in a row. This gun art required not only high skill and proficiency with firearms but also extraordinary muscular reflex speed, strength, and resilience.

Though Su Lun's firearm skills might not have measured up to the "Blind Detective" Bill from before, when it came to physical strength, not a single gunman in Old Lington could reach his current level.

He lacked neither skill nor proficiency with guns, and his body was strong enough.

That's why he could barely manage to fire four shots.

Even so, after executing the "Quadruple Sequential Firing," Su Lun felt a sharp, burning pain in his forearm, as if a few muscle fibers had snapped.

It was worth it to take down this tough-skinned brute in a flash.

And it wasn't a big problem, for his highly active cells were rapidly healing those minor injuries.

...

One engagement killed two second-order professionals, and "gray fog" immediately appeared on both corpses.

Su Lun casually absorbed it.

'Acquired 3 memory shards of "Horace Walker"'

'You have gained a small amount of "Potion Knowledge"'

'You have mastered a large amount of "Wilderness Hunting and Combat Experience"'

'You have mastered a large amount of "Earth-based Alchemy Technique Fragments," increasing your Alchemy casting experience by +25'

'Spiritual power +0.8'

The memory strength of a professional Hunter Group leader yielded a plentiful harvest of hunting knowledge, which was not bad.

And that female sorceress gave Su Lun a little surprise.

Back when he stripped the two assistants from the Black Tower Academy, it felt as if Su Lun could soar on the spot. Now, after stripping a formal teacher, a vast amount of solid theory and practical combat memory shards flooded his mind, filling many gaps in his "skill tree."

'Acquired 5 memory shards of "Virginia Eddie"'

'You have received a piece of information: "Young Master Danze is really unrestrained, touching and feeling up in front of so many people... He seems to have a special fondness for mature women..."'

'You have gained a large amount of "Comprehensive Alchemy Knowledge"'

'You have acquired some "Intermediate Enchantment Knowledge"'

'You have proficiently mastered "Second-order Rune Drawing Skills"'

'You have mastered a large amount of "Fire Element Technique Fragments"'

'You have mastered the Fire System Technique [Fire Vine Entanglement Technique], increasing your Alchemy casting experience by +41'

'Spiritual power +0.9'

That felt good.

Mages usually possess higher spiritual power and stronger souls, resulting in more complete fragments when stripped.

Having digested those memory shards, Su Lun suddenly felt his pores relaxing and his face beamed, "The magic instructors of Black Tower Academy... Indeed, their memory shards are of extremely high quality!"

Previously, he had been intensively studying Alchemy theory. Enjoy exclusive adventures from empire

Runes, spells, every branch of Alchemy required a considerable amount of time to learn.

Now that he had advanced to the second order, he needed to grasp second-order knowledge, and the difficulty had increased a notch.

Su Lun always felt his time was insufficient.

Because he could always control his focus, his learning efficiency was already not low. But to master mid-to-high-level rune knowledge without spending ten to eight years was out of the question.

However, no matter how hard he studied, could anything be faster than stripping finished soul shards?

If he didn't count the repetitive knowledge, the knowledge stripped from the body of "Virginia Eddie" could save Su Lun years of study.

From this perspective, having many enemies didn't seem to be entirely a bad thing.

....

Su Lun instantly took down an enemy in one encounter, tearing a hole in the encirclement.

He didn't stick around, and after absorbing the gray fog, he took off with two bodies in tow.

As to why he took the bodies...

Of course, he planned to harvest the storage ring and wait for the occupational equipment and inauguration materials to converge.

The possessions of a second-order professional are all valuable goods.

Moreover...

He felt that if he didn't give those behind the illusion of "we can catch up," they wouldn't chase so desperately.

....

For anyone, the combination of the "Quicksand Technique" and "Golden Scale Fire Python" tactics would either be lethal or peel off a layer of skin.

But now, not only had Su Lun handled it perfectly, but he had also managed a successful counter-kill.

Seeing the situation unfold, the experts sent by the Oliver family all turned pale.

How could they not have arrived first? Two old, battle-hardened second-order professionals couldn't even hold back the enemy for a moment and were killed instantly?!

Wasn't it said that the kid, aside from that sealed item, the black scythe, had no means dangerous to a second-order professional?!

But what about that puppet capable of absorbing second-order arcane spells?

They knew that the SS-ranked criminal was an expert in firearms, but what was this "Quadruple Burst" all about?

A master of firearms couldn't achieve this arcane shooting technique, and yet this firearms expert used it to take down a defensively skilled 'Sand Demon' Horace. Who would believe that?

Only then did everyone realize that the intelligence they had received was quite different from the actual situation.

Of course, they knew from the start that there was a catch.

A criminal showing up in the city on his own, exposing his identity by selling so much stuff, and specifically asking for the "Puppet Theater" was clearly a provocation to the Oliver family.

But even knowing it was bait, they had to bite.

The Young Master Danze of the Oliver family was now fuming with rage and would not rest until he killed "Su Lun," who had stolen his opportunity.

Furthermore, even with the catch, they had brought ten second-order professionals; what could go wrong?

This team composition was already considered an "almost foolproof" pursuit force.

Otherwise, to hunt down a first-order criminal, would they need to call out top professionals?

The faces of the eight remaining experts turned dark after seeing two of their peers of the same order killed before their eyes.

But they dared not stay, and continued to chase in the direction where Su Lun had fled.

Because the command had already come through their communicator.

"Keep chasing!"

If they took money from the Oliver family, they had to follow orders.

...

As Su Lun ran, signal flares and reveal powder burst in the sky all along his path.

"Reveal powder" was spread everywhere like rainfall.

The consumption of these special signal flares alone was no small sum.

Su Lun, of course, knew that the eight pursuers were relentless because in the ruins, there were several dozen teams disguised as wilderness hunting groups active nearby, waiting to capture him.

Because on his ear, he also had a communicator tuned to the same frequency obtained from Sabina.

He was clear about the enemy's movements and their capture plan!

The encircling pursuit teams needed more time to close in.

Su Lun would not foolishly wait for the enemy to completely surround him before taking action. After stripping the two corpses of their spoils, he discarded the bodies. Though his speed increased by a fraction, this was already intentional restraint; otherwise, if he were to control the Octo-Spider Lance and run at full speed now, no one in the ruins could catch up with him.

As he ran, he glanced back at the eight second-order experts behind him.

After consideration, he decided to kill a few more.

To reduce the threat for the upcoming battle.

....

The enemy's capture plan this time had almost taken everything into account.

The pursuers' professional synergy was perfect with close combat, magic, crowd control, tracking... they had it all.

But perhaps because he had just killed two, the remaining eight did not act rashly, keeping their distance.

Oh, to be precise, there were seven running, with one more flying above.

Su Lun looked up and glanced at the large bat.

This guy had a pair of bat wings as an augmentation, the famed Bounty Hunter "Dark Wing Assassin" Derek Wellman, who excelled in long-range sound wave attack techniques. Agile and not weak in close combat either. However, his defense was his shortcoming.

He probably thought that Su Lun couldn't do anything to him, continuously flying in the sky while launching sound wave attacks. They were like area bombardments, exploding all around Su Lun and creating holes everywhere.

If it weren't for Su Lun's own high agility, just these "sound wave cannons" would have been enough to give him a hard time.

But the opponent came prepared, and Su Lun wasn't without his own preparations.

He had long analyzed the information of his pursuers, knowing who among them was the easiest to kill.

This Derek Wellman was one of the priority targets to eliminate.

It might have looked like Su Lun was fleeing in a pitiful state, but in reality, everything was still within his expectations.

Just then, seeing that the time was ripe, Su Lun suddenly took out a bunch of mechanical spiders from his storage ring and scattered them on the ground.

The mechanical spiders landed and scurried around noisily, spreading out in a fan shape.

In these complex ruins, they were not constrained at all; they climbed walls and vaulted over rocks rapidly.

The pursuers behind didn't know what Su Lun was up to, but seeing his "unusual" actions, no one dared to probe rashly. As they watched the mechanical spiders rush towards them, they each brought out their defensive measures, their movements uniformly pausing.

"Boom~"

"Boom~"

"Boom~"

"..."

A series of explosions rang out, as dozens of mechanical spiders blew up thunderously.

The thick smoke quickly obscured a large area of visibility.

Those people thought Su Lun was trying to disrupt visibility to escape. There were urgent shouts through the communicators, "He's trying to flee, Wellman, go and catch him!"

The other seven were in the midst of the smoke, only Derek in the sky had unobstructed vision, so the task of pursuit naturally fell to him.

"Roger!"

Before his words ended,

A large bat emerged from the dense fog.

At this moment, he was completely unaware that Su Lun, taking advantage of the explosion earlier, had already activated his secondary implant.

When infused with dark spiritual power, the [Wailing Witch's Hair] becomes completely transparent.

If anyone could sense the energy fluctuations, they would definitely "see" Su Lun at this moment like a jellyfish, with transparent tendrils floating all around him. These tendrils kept extending towards the sky, increasing in number...

Bat wings could fly,

but their unique structure endowed Wellman with enough agility to easily dodge bullets.

But he couldn't fly very high.

The guy was pursuing Su Lun and felt an odd sensation around his body, subtly unsettling.

Having an alarm was one thing, but it didn't mean he could just stop the chase, did he?

Neither sound waves nor vision revealed any anomalies, so he didn't take it to heart.

But as he flew, Wellman suddenly saw the "Su Lun" hanging below make a grasping motion with all his fingers in the air.

A sudden sense of crisis overwhelmingly gripped his heart.

Wellman was on guard for Su Lun to control the few puppets nearby to attack, when suddenly he felt something terribly wrong, his expression drastically changed.

That's when he realized countless silver hairs had instantly formed around his body.

He immediately recognized what it was, crying out in his mind, "The [Thousands of Threads] augmentation... Damn it! Weren't they saying this kid was just a Tier 1 professional? This is clearly a Tier 2!"

Su Lun on the ground sharply narrowed his eyes, not giving him any chance to fly away.

His fingers danced skillfully, and working with a few spider spears, he suddenly clenched fiercely, uttering softly, "Secret Technique: Caged Bird!"

And then, the silver threads in his hands abruptly tensed!

....

Puppet Masters could not only use puppets to fight, but their threads were a formidable weapon as well. Especially a Puppet Master who had merged with the "Thousand Threads" enhancement, capable of controlling countless threads!

This "Caged Bird" control secret technique was exactly the one previously found in the storage ring of the "Trickster," Lloyd.

Utilizing a tremendous amount of threads to control the target.

Originally, this was a trick that could only be performed in his "Puppet Theater," but now Su Lun had the witch's hair that could become elemental. When casting this spell, it was a form of invisible killing!

Wellman's body was completely surrounded by silver hair strands, leaving him with no place to escape.

Even if his bat wings were agile and he wanted to fly away, it was futile!

Because at this moment, the threads around him had already tightened like a cocoon, trapping him tightly.

His bat wings were restricted and could not take flight, and his throat was slit by countless strands, trying to use sound waves, but not a single sound could come out of his throat.

No matter how exquisite your martial skills, no matter how agile your movements, once trapped, you wouldn't be able to move.

What if you could snap a hundred strands?

There were still a thousand, ten thousand more!

Su Lun's "Thousand Threads" alchemy enhancement's main material was the "infinite hair strands"!

The witch's hair also possessed strong "regenerative properties," and even if broken, it could rejoin!

It was at the moment when the threads had the enemy under control that Su Lun on the ground erupted with cold flames, yanked the threads with tremendous force, and his body shot up. At the same time, several sharp spider spears revealed their poisonous tips, stabbing forward.

One descending, one launching upward, the two figures were like magnets attracting each other, and with a "whoosh," they collided.

After advancing to the second tier, the level of the laws raised by a tier, and Su Lun's current "No Servant" cold flame could penetrate an assassin of the second-tier profession, as easy as flipping one's hand!

At this collision, several sharp spider spears easily pierced through Wellman, who was trapped like a mummy.

"Hiss!"

"Hiss!"

"Hiss!"

"Hiss!"

Four sounds of piercing through brocade and silk rang out.

Throat, heart, both sides of the waist, four spider spears crossed through, and blood spurted out like arrows.

A moment later, a gray mist emerged.

"You have obtained 'Derek Wellman's Soul Shards*2'"

"You have learned 'Introductory Toxic Potion Making'"

"You have acquired some knowledge of 'Sound Wave Attack Techniques'"

"You have grasped a small amount of 'Elementary to Intermediate Rune Knowledge', alchemy casting experience +11"

"Spiritual power +0.4"

Su Lun did not bother to digest those memory fragments too much. After landing, he gathered the threads and continued to run forward, pulling a "mummy" behind him.

....

Not far away, those seven second-tier professionals had just rushed out of the smoke area and happened to witness the spectacle of the spider spears piercing through the body.

The seven of them were thoroughly astounded.

They had thought the explosion of the spider bombs and the rising smoke was some lethal tactic, but it turned out to be ordinary smoke.

However, it was precisely because of their cautiousness that they delayed for a few breaths' time.

When their vision was restored, they saw another comrade had been killed...

How did that guy do it?

Wasn't Wellman supposed to be able to fly? How was he caught and killed?

They didn't see the dense, invisible threads in the sky, only a "mummy" trophy hanging behind "Su Lun," as if it was a silent mockery...

"Keep chasing, be careful not to get separated, that guy has very tricky methods!"

"Damn it, the intel is wrong, Su Lun must have advanced to the second tier! The Black Scythe hasn't shown up yet, and it's very likely that he is going for it. Everyone, be cautious."

"Have the troops set up to encircle him arrived? Good... We can't let him escape, drive him that way. Janet, we'll cover you, get ready to cast your spell..."