Mechanical Alchemist

Didn't Captain Kai say to let them find their own opportunities to make a move?

Su Lun wasn't about to hold back. Right now, the people of Green Street were already at a disadvantage, and giving the enemy the initiative to start the battle was simply a recipe for death.

The thought had barely formed when the frost on his face vanished in a flash.

"Heh heh..."

A sinister laugh echoed in Su Lun's heart as he released the shotgun in his hands.

In that instant, it was as if time slowed down, and the shotgun fell through the air at an agonizingly slow pace.

During that time, his hands reached with lightning speed for the handles of the two pistols at his waist.

The shotgun hadn't yet hit the ground when the pistols were already in his hands.

Draw guns, aim, pull the trigger!

The entire sequence of actions flowed like water, without any hesitation, so fast that onlookers only saw a fleeting shadow of his hands dancing.

While the Steam Party members were still enjoying the thrill of being the hunters, and while Kai's people were still racking their brains without success to break the deadlock, suddenly, the entire tenement building erupted with thunderous gunfire.

"Bang!"

A loud explosion.

Listen carefully, and one would realize it was actually two overlapping gunshots.

The range and accuracy of a shotgun wasn't enough to kill the two gunmen aiming at his head from upstairs in one hit, but large caliber pistols could!

Su Lun's mastery over dual-wielding enabled him to precisely target both enemies at once. His advanced firearms expertise allowed him to draw his guns with unbelievable speed, even faster than the snipers who had their fingers already on their triggers.

After the gunshots, two heads burst open upon impact, drenched in scarlet.

In that instant, time seemed to stand still.

The gunshots came too unexpectedly...

So much so that the seventy to eighty people inside the tenement building were all stunned.

Nobody expected a "newbie" to suddenly lash out and become an assassin under such circumstances.

After Su Lun pulled the trigger, his nerve reflexes had heightened to the extreme. While his pistols still spat flames, his body, helped by the recoil of the bullets leaving the barrels, toppled backward.

Throughout the process, his face wore an almost numb calmness.

Seizing the moment when everyone was stunned, he furiously kicked the ground and rolled away, breaking free from the crowd.

Almost at the same time, Kai, a professional himself, also reacted. In his heart, he called out, "What an opportunity!"

Without any delay, the muscles in his legs bulged with veins, and like a spring compressed to the limit, he shot out with a "whoosh".

Taking the initiative to start the battle was also Kai's plan.

However, with most of the enemies watching him before, he had no chance to strike first.

Now, with Su Lun's two shots, not only had the deadlock been broken, but Kai also felt the pressure lifted, creating a chance to counterattack. Given room to maneuver, he could burst forth with a speed so astonishing, the enemy couldn't even turn their guns fast enough to catch him, breaking the stalemate!

....

The newbies didn't yet understand what had happened, but in the next second, a battle was ignited by the sound of gunfire.

Instantly, nearly a hundred muskets on both sides exchanged wild fire, like thunderclaps on a summer day, deafening to all.

Bang, bang, bang, bang...

The gunfire lit up the tenement building, and the violent shock caused the surrounding buildings to shed stone chips like snowflakes. Under the dense barrage of bullets, the floorboards and load-bearing columns burst apart like tofu...

Kai charged forward, and the majority of the firepower was diverted away.

But even so, the people of Green Street, caught under the high ground barrage of the enemy, were still on the brink of destruction. Only a few veterans managed to roll and dodge the bullets in time, barely retaining the ability to return fire; the newbies instantly became live targets, with blood holes opening up all over their bodies, dying on the spot...

Under such a barrage of fire, even Su Lun, already meters away from the crowd, was not free from pressure.

Having fired the first shot, he too attracted quite a bit of gunfire. Despite his reflexes being as quick as a cheetah, he was still cornered into a dire situation by the salvo.

In that moment of rolling, he felt very clearly the fiery wind of several bullets brushing past him. Although his reaction was swift, some stray bullets still hit his body.

But he had managed to keep his life.

Su Lun hid behind a solid stone column, panting heavily.

Under a hail of bullets, even the best agility was useless, and his back was trickling with blood from the iron pellets.

However, as long as he didn't die at first, the ferocity in Su Lun's eyes grew more and more intense.

Clutching his pistols, he counted down in his mind: "Five, four, three..."

Indeed, in less than five seconds, the gunfire suddenly died down by half.

He knew this was the interval when the heavy firearms ran out of bullets after their first round.

Su Lun's eyes turned fierce, and in his heart, he shouted urgently, "Now's the time!"

With no hesitation, he burst out once more!

...

In the case of any ordinary person, under such circumstances, they'd definitely be thinking of self-preservation.

But Su Lun was well aware that unless he killed all these Steam Party thugs, there was no way he could walk out of the tenement building alive today!

Although Captain Kai was very strong, facing two professionals from the enemy side, he had no chance of winning.

If Kai were to die, Su Lun's fate would be nothing but a dead end!

Therefore, Su Lun wasn't counting on any strokes of luck; even though he wasn't the main target of the enemy at the moment, he had to take the initiative to strike.

....

Su Lun emerged directly from behind the stone column, seemingly without aiming, his hands were already firing alternating shots.

Yet, these shots, which looked like random firing, resulted in an enemy falling to the ground each time his gun barrel spat fire from above.

If someone observed closely, they would find that not only did the bullets hit, but they also almost always struck fatal areas, such as the heart or head...

In that moment, Su Lun with pistols in hands, his face cold as death itself, mercilessly reaped the lives of his enemies like the grim reaper.

Two revolvers, one loaded with six bullets and the other with eight, culled twelve to thirteen lives in just 2.4 seconds!

Identifying positions by sound, analyzing trajectories to judge the enemy's location, this is the miraculous "advanced firearms proficiency". It's a mysterious feeling, as if the firearms were part of the arms, and the bullets they fired were tied to an invisible string...

As the thought occurred, the bullet had already arrived.

When Su Lun had charged out earlier, he had in fact already determined the approximate positions of the dozen or so gunmen. Where his gaze fell, he locked on, not needing to take time to aim again, firing as naturally as breathing.

However, bullets were, after all, finite.

No matter how strong, he had only two guns.

Getting the upper hand was purely because Captain Kai had constrained the majority of the firepower, catching the members of the steam party by surprise. But the enemies were underworld members used to licking blood from their knives—how could they give him a chance to reload and fire again?

Su Lun was very clear about this; he had only one chance to shoot.

After unleashing a barrage of gunfire, he didn't hesitate to roll again, emptying the spent cartridges from the cylinder as he took cover behind a sturdy stone pillar.

The entrance to the cave was less than ten meters from here.

In the next second, a torrent of bullets poured onto the pillar as Su Lun curled his body as tightly as possible to avoid being hit.

"Da, da, da, da..."

The sound of gunshots stung the eardrums as splinters and bullet fragments zipped by.

At that moment, Su Lun's gaze also regained its clarity.

...

Even the members of the steam party knew quality when they saw it, and none could help but be astounded at the exceptional marksmanship Su Lun displayed.

Except for the 'Iron Gorilla' Sis who was fearless in the face of bullets, no one dared to randomly expose themselves, all shrinking behind cover to shoot.

It was damn terrifying, a headshot with every bullet, enough to make anyone feel a tingling sensation in their head.

'Red Hair' Kuntu cursed out loud as if to question the informant who provided erroneous intelligence: "Damn it, how could there be a 'firearm expert' among those Cross Society guys! Didn't they say that besides Kai, there wasn't a single threat, what the hell is going on now?!"

'Firearm expert' was an exclusive title for senior gunmen.

In the whole outer city, apart from the few well-known 'firearm masters', this was already the ceiling of combat capability an ordinary person could reach with a gun.

Such gunmen were few and far between in the three major gangs, and now an unknown newcomer turned out to be a 'firearm expert'?

But which 'firearm expert' wasn't an old marksman who had spent decades feeding bullets into their guns?

He looked young, so how on earth did this newcomer develop such marksmanship?

A freak, perhaps!

Kuntu swore angrily in his heart.

Originally, with two professionals from the steam party joining forces to deal with Captain Kai, the plan had seemed foolproof. Just when victory seemed within reach, an unexpected complication arose!

A gunman of this caliber simply couldn't be underestimated. Otherwise, for professionals, it would be an extremely deadly threat.

It was this opportunity that gave Captain Kai the chance to catch his breath. His face brightened with joy as he withdrew rapidly, likewise taking cover behind a stone pillar. The position just happened to allow him to make eye contact with Su Lun.

The two exchanged a glance, and Captain Kai couldn't conceal the shock in his eyes. He had known Su Lun was a good shot, but he could never have imagined his marksmanship was at such a high level!

There was a 'firearm expert' hidden in his team?

But now was not the time to discuss this.

Su Lun also made a gesture to him, pointing to the 'cave entrance' not far away.

Captain Kai instantly understood; with the enemy in a commanding position, it was impossible for them to rush out. Even with Su Lun's remarkable marksmanship, it would be very difficult for him to kill the two professionals amongst the enemies.

The only way out now was to escape into the cave below, where they might be able to hold out until reinforcements from the gang arrived.

But the enemy didn't give them any chance to breathe.

The bullet battle may not have broken the load-bearing column, but flames could burn it!

....

Su Lun knew that Kuntu could control flames, though he had never seen it before.

And in the next instant, he immediately experienced the measures of this pseudo-professional!

A dazzling red light suddenly lit up at the bottom of the large cylinder building.

Sensing danger, Su Lun glanced over with the corner of his eye, and saw a jet of flame spraying out from a mechanical spray gun on Kuntu's arm. As the flames made contact with the air, they instantly turned into a small fireball, and in the blink of an eye, the fireball grew into a massive one with a diameter of about ten meters in the wind!

This was not simple combustion, but also a ranged spell created by fire control techniques!

"Alchemy · Explosive Bomb!"

Before the fireball even hit, Su Lun felt as if the air had been scorched dry, breathing brought a burning, stinging pain.

"Not good!"

Su Lun muttered to himself that the gap in combat power without alchemical augmentation was still a bit too large compared to a formal professional...

Previously suppressed from raising his head by gunfire, he hadn't noticed that Kuntu had already closed in.

This fireball was unavoidable.

Su Lun was exceedingly decisive. Before the red light had brightened, he had already switched to a strangely shaped firearm in his hand.

It was that famous gun—the [Triple Ghost]!

In his current predicament, he intended to risk being severely burned by the direct hit, aiming to fire an alchemical bullet at Kuntu. Only by being prepared to suffer mutually assured destruction could there be a slim chance of turning the desperate situation around.

But at this critical juncture, a figure suddenly charged through the flames towards him!

"Eh...?"

Su Lun, seeing it was Captain Kai, immediately realized what he intended to do.

In that moment of realization, he felt like he had been hit in the stomach by a cheetah, and he along with the figure were hurled violently backward.

So fast!

Almost at the same time, the overwhelming flames lashed out like a tsunami, fiercely crashing onto the two of them.

Using the force of the impact, the velocity of their fall increased dramatically. After a loud explosion, they both plummeted straight into the dark depths of the "cave".

....

Seeing Su Lun and Captain Kai fall into the hole, Kuntu roared, "That guy is injured! Pursue, we cannot leave any survivors!"

He was well aware of Captain Kai's serious injury from that hit; now was the best time to finish him.

Without hesitation, about thirty members of the steam party chased into the cave in a single file.