Mechanical Alchemist

Su Lun looked at the sniper rifle that hadn't broken the glass and, to prevent any unexpected changes, put away the rifle and immediately charged down.

Although the truck had broken down, the cab had a bulletproof modification, and the people inside weren't foolish enough to open the door and come out.

Su Lun stopped Kai from wasting another alchemy bomb to blow up the front of the truck and used burst fire to penetrate the glass, killing two people.

Oh... there was a slight surprise.

The "barbarian" Buck, who surprisingly hadn't died in the previous explosion, burst out of the flames and swept over with a volley from the honeycomb gun on his right arm, nearly causing Kai to be injured.

However, after all, he was only a first-order professional and a mechanical gunman with limited ammunition. Su Lun and Kai, working together as professionals, quickly killed him on the spot.

Thus, all twelve members of the escort team in the three vehicles were killed.

....

Kai, looking at the steam faction's people who had been wiped out in front of him, wore a smile and said, "Heh heh, the entire vehicle is fitted with bulletproof plating. This cargo might be more valuable than we thought... And luckily, Brother Su Lun, you had prepared the alchemy bombs, otherwise they might have gotten away."

Su Lun felt that Kai was right—the truck was clearly a specially aged transport vehicle, which also proved that the goods they were transporting were very valuable.

He said, "Let's get moving quickly, they must have already sent out a distress signal. If we delay any longer, we might run into trouble."

"Mmm."

Kai nodded as well.

The reason the two had chosen this ambush spot was not only because it was secluded but also because they had considered the time it would take for steam faction reinforcements to arrive.

Now that they had dealt with the enemy so smoothly, they also had enough time to unload the cargo.

Su Lun didn't dare to be careless and walked up to the side of the carriage, then pressed his ear against it and listened carefully.

The carriage walls were thick, and he didn't hear any movement.

Meanwhile, Kai was fiddling with the lock on the carriage door, and quickly discovered that he was at a loss with the mechanical lock. He turned and asked for help, "Su Lun, this lock looks like a 'Cortes alloy lock'; it can't be opened without a key. Should we blow it open with an alchemy bullet?"

Su Lun shook his head and said, "An alchemy bomb costs six hundred thousand for a single one. Using a bomb to open a lock is way too extravagant. Also, what if there are good things inside and they get damaged by the blast?"

"That expensive?"

Kai immediately retracted his hand, feeling shaky at that price, even though he was a captain of the Cross Society.

In an instant, he looked at Su Lun with an expression of awe, exaggeratedly saying, "Brother, are you that rich?"

Su Lun didn't bother to explain much and gave him a glance, "The anti-tank mines weren't cheap either."

Robbery also required investment of resources because with their ordinary equipment alone, they could not possibly deal with the escort team.

Kai knew it wasn't the time for gossip and showed a resigned face, "So what do we do now?"

"Of course, we use another, more cost-effective method..."

Su Lun walked over, took out some materials, and started to draw a Hexagram Alchemy Array around the lock.

Kai, watching Su Lun draw the alchemy array, asked curiously, "What's this?"

He was purely a close-combat professional who, aside from the alchemy array that disarmed equipment, knew almost nothing about alchemy.

This was also a common issue among most professionals from the outer cities: capable in battle but nearly illiterate when it came to theoretical knowledge.

Su Lun skillfully finished drawing the alchemy array and explained offhand, "First-order alchemy 'melting technique,' a very practical auxiliary alchemy. The main materials for drawing the array are magnesium powder and a mix of mithril powder, which upon activation generate an extremely high temperature, capable of melting most known metals. It should be enough to deal with this lock."

Kai felt like he had learned a lot, but then asked again, "Aren't you a gunman? How do you know alchemy spells? Moreover, alchemy knowledge is very expensive and not easy to learn..."

"Got it from the black market."

Su Lun didn't elaborate much, the spell formula really came from the black market, but it was from the textbooks provided by Mr. Hei containing basic spells.

To the outsiders of the inner city, the expensive spell formulas were merely examples in the textbooks of the noble students.

It just so happened that Su Lun had stripped memory from two assistant teachers before and had some knowledge foundation, which made it easy for him to pick up.

As he spoke, he said to Kai, "Step back a bit."

No sooner had the words left his mouth than Su Lun formed a few sorcerer's seals with his hands and pressed one hand onto the formation. Immediately, the Hexagram Array lit up with a blinding white light. Even from a distance, a skin-pricking heat could be felt.

Then, a miraculous scene ensued.

Once the alchemy array was activated, the high temperature instantly melted the entire metal lock, causing the alloy to turn into a puddle of red liquid like magma, dripping onto the ground.

Kai, who was standing at a distance, watched in surprise and muttered, "How do I feel like you know everything..."

An gunman who could make alchemy bombs was understandable, but knowing alchemy too, that was strange.

Alchemy wasn't something you could just learn by drawing a Hexagram Array; it also required learning the spell formula, Quick Seal Formation, material combinations, a whole set of casting procedures...

Normally, even for a magician with great talent to learn a first-level spell, it would take at least a month or two of hard practice to become proficient.

Why would any gunman be so bored as to spend so much time learning a support spell?

Su Lun didn't offer him further explanation, "Captain, get ready to work!"

....

With the locks destroyed, the door to the truck's carriage was easily opened.

Kai no longer pondered why Su Lun knew alchemy and instead looked forward with anticipation to see what valuable cargo was inside.

But just then, Su Lun's ears twitched; he heard something stirring inside the carriage and his face suddenly changed, "Quick, get out of the way!"

Kai hadn't figured out what was happening yet, but hearing Su Lun's urgent warning, he didn't hesitate and leaped back.

In that instant, a huge dark shadow darted out of the carriage. It leaped out and with a powerful punch hit the ground where Kai had been standing a moment earlier, blasting a half-meter deep crater into the ground.

Kai let out an exclamation, "Damn, what the hell is that!"

Su Lun also stiffened his gaze upon seeing the monster that had just appeared.

[Abomination Warrior]

Detailed description: A first-and-a-half-order mutant monster created by Serum X, which had lost its sanity but could still execute simple slaughter commands through special conditioned reflex training; the potion enhancement gave it superhuman strength, high-speed movement, high recovery, high strength, high physical resistance, and medium magic resistance...

This was a nearly three meters tall, blue-skinned humanoid monster with an ugly visage.

"Conditioned reflexes? It must have been the incorrect way of opening the carriage that activated this monster..."

Looking at the identification information above the monster's head, Su Lun immediately made a guess.

It turned out that there was not only a full transport squad of the Steam Faction but also a guarded monster.

Just what was inside this carriage that warranted such cautious measures?

Blue skin, it kind of reminds me of a zombie...

As thoughts flickered through his mind, Su Lun's movements did not slow down at all. He immediately raised his hand and fired two shots at the monster in rapid succession.

"Bang!"

"Pop!"

The alchemical bullet fired in a rapid succession passed through the monster's occiput, but it penetrated only shallowly.

And more eerily, the bullet head was slowly being squeezed out by the muscles, the wound visibly wriggling and healing itself!

"Such high resilience!"

Su Lun was surprised to see that his two combined shots failed to injure the monster, which was not the usual outcome when he shot ordinary professionals—each shot would leave a gaping wound, but this creature only had a bullet hole the size of a pinky finger.

What was more terrifying was the monster's self-healing ability, which was so exaggerated it was hard to believe.

Meanwhile, Kai's reaction wasn't slow either.

After dodging a punch from the monster, he rushed forward with his arm transformed into a blade, and sliced down at the monster's unprotected thigh.

With the blade's cold light flashing, a normal body of flesh and bone would have been severed by this strike.

Yet when Kai made his move, his expression drastically changed, as if his blade had struck a tree bark, almost getting stuck in the monster's flesh.

Upon closer inspection, the cut had barely left a mark, causing no significant damage whatsoever.

Moreover, in the blink of an eye, the scratch had already healed as if it was never there.

Because of the momentary snag of his blade, Kai was about to dodge when a fist as big as a casserole pot smashed into his abdomen, hitting his ribs with the force of a charging rhino despite his attempt to evade.

With a "pfft," he couldn't help but spit out a mouthful of blood, his body flying out like a bullet.

In this encounter, Kai had fallen into peril.

....

Seeing the monster about to pursue Kai, Su Lun fired several shots from a distance, aiming to draw the monster's attention.

Watching various alchemical bullets explode at key points on the monster's body, Su Lun confirmed one thing—the monster had extremely high physical defense, but not particularly strong magic defense!

But the armor-piercing bullets from the double-shot had difficulty penetrating, and although ammunition like the "magic-breaker bullet" could inflict some damage, they couldn't cause much harm if they didn't penetrate the skin.

His successive shots successfully attracted the monster's attention. The over three-meter-tall body might have seemed bulky and clumsy, but it moved with incredible speed!

The monster turned its head and surged forward, the ground cracking beneath it, and charged like a cannonball towards him.

"So fast! This monster's speed has reached that of a second-order professional!"

Su Lun felt the overwhelming pressure bearing down on him but was well-prepared.

His muscles tensed to the extreme, and with a pull on the steel wire, he used the monster's passing momentum to spin several times in the air before landing.

Although it looked somewhat clumsy, Su Lun's mind was coldly analyzing many useful pieces of information: "Very fast in a straight line, but its ability to change directions seems inferior... strictly physical attacks, no equipment, doesn't cast spells, low intelligence..."

This was a monster whose certain attributes surpassed those of a second-order professional, yet it also had clear weaknesses.

He instantly judged that they could fight it!

....

Kai, seeing Su Lun knocked away, suppressed the discomfort in his chest and charged back into the fray like lightning.

He felt that as a melee assassin, although he could not overpower it, he could take a few hits without dying temporarily.

But Su Lun, a gunman with a frail body, was another matter. If the monster got close, one punch could be lethal.

In a rush, Kai said, "This guy's strength has already reached that of a second-order professional, we're no match. Get ready to retreat!"

Su Lun seemed to ignore him completely, with no intention of fleeing, his guns still firing continuously.

He was well aware that without alternating cover, Kai wouldn't last long either, and he urgently said, "You can't outrun it, don't run, dodge with tactics!"

If they chose to flee outright, the monster's terrifying speed would catch up to either one of them in an instant.

Once it caught them, a single mistake would result in instant death on the spot.

This was the tricky part of dealing with this monster; you couldn't kill it in fight, outlast it in attrition, or escape it in flight.

....

The monster was ferocious, its punches and kicks strong enough to split metal and break stones.

Kai moved with agility, maneuvering around the explosion-proof truck, now diving under it, now circling to the back, barely managing to protect himself.

But no matter how he attacked, it was like scratching an itch for the monster.

If the stalemate continued, the situation would eventually go awry.

Not to mention being killed by the monster, the mere fact that they were being held up was enough for the Steam Faction's reinforcements to arrive.

"Damn it! How could there be such a monster inside the carriage!"

Kai cursed angrily, seeing the cargo right before his eyes, yet they were forced to abandon it.

He also understood Su Lun's battle strategy—it seemed they were trying to kite the monster, alternating in drawing its attention to look for an opportunity to retreat—and he shouted urgently, "Su Lun, I'll hold it off, you snipe from a distance, we might still have a chance..."

He wanted to persuade Su Lun to retreat and gain enough distance for sniping, which would give them both a chance to escape.

But Su Lun's plan was clearly not to run away.

He vaguely guessed what was in the shipment and decided to take the risk.

"Stall it for a moment for me. Get ready to fight back!"

"???"

Kai paused in thought.

Before the words had settled, he caught sight from the corner of his eye that Su Lun had already stowed away his guns and was rapidly forming hand seals, with a pentagram array already lighting up under his feet.

"Such quick hand seal speed!"

Kai was astonished but could not understand what Su Lun was planning to do.

Was he going to unleash his equipment and fight it out?

But... you couldn't kill this monster!

In that instant, while the doubt had yet to show on his face, Kai's gaze suddenly froze.

The familiar feeling he had known in battle returned...

....

With an emotionless face, Su Lun completed the hand seals and uttered softly, "Equip... Disengage!"

As the pentagram array fully lit up, his eight-armed spider spear, glowing with dark golden light, loomed ominously.

PS. This Friday, or perhaps September 1, the shelf is coming. I hope everyone will come to support the subscription on QiDian then; otherwise, the pre-order numbers make me feel like kneeling. Thanks in advance.