Mechanical Alchemist

"Is this... could this be the scythe called the 'Forbidden Scythe'?"

As thoughts raced through his head, Su Lun immediately thought of something.

In the memories he had stripped from the monster, it clearly harbored a wary emotion towards that scythe, which meant that the scythe-shaped object was definitely not ordinary; there was a high probability that it carried a curse.

Moreover, its design fully matched the description of "Xiupunos's Night Scythe" given by the higher-ups of the gang previously.

Thinking back, the guy who attacked the gang headquarters had fled in the direction of Green Street and was suspected of hiding in the underground sewers. Su Lun instantly concluded that the scythe in the monster's memory was very likely that item!

"So that guy actually ran here? Is the scythe here because the person is dead, or did they escape?"

Su Lun felt that, in all probability, the person was also dead.

That place was a monster lair. The likelihood of a living person getting out was not great.

....

Although he had gained unexpected intelligence from the memory fragments of the monster's corpse, it did nothing to change Su Lun's current predicament.

No matter if that scythe was the Forbidden Scythe or if it had some incredible utility, it was deep in the sewer, and it couldn't solve his immediate crisis.

And even though Su Lun's mind now contained some "sewer layout maps," the consciousness of a monster differed greatly from that of humans. Even if Su Lun now found these pipes familiar, that was all there was to it. Other than the exit in the tower block, he could not think of a better escape route.

But at that moment, a tide of monsters surged from the depths of the dungeon, staunchly blocking the subway tunnel, turning the only exit into a dead end.

Not far off, the gunfire from those Steam Party guys had already begun to grow sparse.

The greater the commotion, the more mutated monsters it attracted.

It was also thanks to their fierce firepower that most of the attention was drawn away from Su Lun and his companion, otherwise, the monsters would have torn the two of them to shreds in an instant.

Red Hair, solid as ever, wielded his Flame Spell in one hand, setting ablaze every corner in a conflagration; his area-of-effect spell covered a wide range, scorching the monsters into emitting piercing shrieks.

However, like gunmen, while magicians inflicted high damage, their weakness was also evident.

Once they are approached closely, they have poor melee capabilities.

Besides, even with Red Hair using semi-mechanical casting, there were still casting intervals.

The throng of monsters would seize these gaps to surge forward and land a few bites.

As the number of gang members alive by his side dwindled, Red Hair's demise was also within expectations.

On the other hand, the situation for Su Lun and Kai was not looking too good either.

As they fought, they were forced back into something like a culvert in the tunnel used to avoid train drainage.

The upside was that they only had to deal with the monsters in front of them and not enemies on all sides.

But the downside was that with more and more monsters gathering outside, the difficulty of breaking out was mounting.

....

"This is bad... There are too many monsters, and we are injured. The likelihood we can break through is low; we can only wait for rescue."

But Kai's words also had an element of self-comfort.

Even with a fully armed Steam Party squad wiped out here, the support troops from Green Street, even if they received the message, might not make it in time to break through and save them.

Unless... a higher-up personally showed up.

However, both of them might not last that long.

Thinking this, Kai swung his weapon mechanically while cursing furiously, "Damn it, how could the city's sewers have such a large-scale cluster of mutated monsters!"

This was something that puzzled Su Lun as well.

Having monsters outside the city with thick spiritual power was not strange. But why were there so many monsters in Old Lington City's sewers when there were limited conditions for mutations and people regularly cleared them out?

The density of monsters in these sewers was definitely abnormal.

Moreover, identified by the All-seeing Eye, they were all mutations caused by special environmental factors.

The sewers seemed to be affected by some reason, causing nondirectional mutations in the monsters and awakening all kinds of strange abilities in them.

Like the previous wall-crawling creature with the long proboscis, the hulking mass resembling a mountain of flesh, the high-reaching creatures with elongated arms and legs, and the corrosion creatures that could spray acid...

It was these creatures with long-range attack methods that had driven Su Lun and his partner into steady retreat.

"..."

Su Lun, hearing Kai's angry outburst, did not respond; his trigger fingers were starting to go numb.

The number of monsters was indeed overwhelming; he could hit targets without even aiming properly.

Yet despite killing so many, a relentless stream of new creatures kept coming.

....

"I'm going to use explosives to collapse the tunnel entrance, Captain Kai, be careful!"

"Got it!"

In the time it took to reload, Su Lun snatched a moment to throw a grenade, which blasted away a crowd of monsters, momentarily easing some pressure.

He suspected that there might be certain issues in the sewers, but now was not the time to ponder them.

It was also fortunate that he had Captain Kai, a melee professional; otherwise, no matter how good Su Lun's shooting was, if he couldn't fire a few shots, he would have been overwhelmed by the monster tide.

On a second glance, due to the prolonged high-intensity battle, Kai's condition was worsening, and he was struggling to cope. Without hesitation, Su Lun decisively chose to detonate targeted explosives and collapse a part of the tunnel.

This would make the exit narrower, reducing the space for the monsters to attack.

But by doing so, they wouldn't be able to get out either.

With a "bang," rubble fell and precisely blocked most of the entrance.

Kai also seized the chance to cut several huge stones from above with "Blade," blocking the last bit of passage space as the two slumped down there.

Outside the rocks, they could hear the "shh shh shh" of the monsters tirelessly digging.

Those sharp-toothed monsters dug quickly, and the rubble was unlikely to hold for long.

Seizing the precious respite, the two hurried to bandage their wounds and reload their ammunition.

In this life-and-death moment, Su Lun didn't hold anything back and took out the remaining alchemical bullets to load into "Triple Ghost's" cylinder.

Kai, not accustomed to firearms, stuffed several grenades on his person.

Both of them looked ragged from the monsters' acid spray wounds and the biting marks, but luckily, after cleaning the wounds and injecting healing medicine, they were not in grave danger.

After all this, they still had a few minutes of rest.

Kai looked at Su Lun and sighed, "Brother, it looks like we're not going to make it over this hurdle today..."

As someone who had grown up in the gang underworld, Kai had long been prepared to die on the streets, and he was quite resigned when he said this.

He had expected to see some fear on Su Lun's face, but he found the guy calmly loading ammunition, showing no sign of fear or panic.

Kai thought back to the scene where they had turned the tables and killed the members of the Steam Gang, and to this moment, it still felt like a dream to him.

The two of them had actually turned the tables and killed thirty of their opponents?!

Heh, it was worth it.

Kai couldn't fathom why Su Lun was so calm, and puzzled, he asked, "Aren't you nervous right now?"

Su Lun didn't explain much, "I've always been a bit cold by nature."

Kai had a moment of realization, "Oh."

Perhaps feeling that death was near, Kai suddenly became more talkative.

"Su Lun, I didn't expect you to know 'Gunfighting'..."

"Yeah, I've always practiced my shooting skills."

"Is that a renowned gun, 'Triple Ghost'?"

Having formed a partnership through adversity, and uncertain about their survival, Su Lun felt no need for secrecy, especially since the gun was easily identifiable.

He nodded lightly, "Yeah."

Hearing this, Kai looked at Su Lun's bald head and smoky makeup, seemed to guess something, and suddenly became more interested.

After a moment's hesitation, his face full of mischief, he asked, "Could it be... are you 'Iron Head' Ivan's son?"

"..."

Listening, Su Lun's eyelid twitched, unsure how the guy's mind had leapt to that conclusion.

Kai guessed that it surely wasn't the case but found some humor in the midst of suffering, jokingly saying, "Don't worry, I'll keep your secret."

Su Lun clarified, "No, I killed him."

"You actually killed Ivan?"

Kai listened in disbelief, as this was even more shocking than being the assassin's illegitimate child.

Ivan was a veteran assassin of the Crow Gang, a more troublesome professional than the former "Steel Gorilla," Sis - not someone just anyone could kill.

But then he thought about Su Lun's displayed combat abilities and guessed that there were many secrets about him.

A young "firearm expert" who also knew gunfighting techniques definitely had no ordinary background.

But in the gang, many people had secrets in their past. He didn't pry further and said seriously, "If we can get out alive, I'll keep your secret."

"Yeah."

Su Lun didn't say much more.

There was no point in hiding any further since he had already revealed some of his hand today.

In fact, on reflection, the only real secret he couldn't expose was the original owner's identity.

As for the rest...

Having two S-grade talents didn't show any overt characteristics – as long as he kept silent, nobody would know;

His profession as a "Puppeteer" could be passed off as an ordinary Puppet Master;

And as for shooting skills, in a gang where firefights were as common as meals, it was only a matter of time before they were revealed.

Although they hadn't known each other for long, Su Lun felt that Captain Kai deserved some trust.

Besides, he had saved his life before.