Mechanical Alchemist

Having left the apartment at number 88 Ginkgo Street, Su Lun briskly made his way by darting through various alleys.

He was very familiar with the block near Green Street and quickly took shortcuts by climbing walls and vaulting over to the rented house he had leased.

The small device he had set up by the door when he left had not been touched, and only then did he feel safe to enter the basement.

The basement housed many pieces of equipment and mechanical gear, which were too bulky to take or tidy up in haste; he had to leave them behind for now.

Because he had long been prepared to flee, Su Lun's residence was always equipped with escape essentials.

After topping up a few storage rings filled with ammunition and supplies, he rushed to the dissection table.

On the dissection table lay a runic zombie, covered in healing scars. Su Lun looked at it muttering, "Old pal, whether we can escape this time depends entirely on you."

Without delay, he proceeded to the corner to take out a large black scythe hidden inside a secret compartment and strapped it to the hands of the zombie.

Then he attempted to wrap them all up with "Osiris' Mummy Wrappings" so he could take everything with him.

Initially, he didn't expect the wrappings to also wrap the scythe, which was another banned item.

To his surprise, once wrapped, they were completely enveloped.

The scythe and the body instantly disappeared from sight.

The combination of two banned items and the zombie formed a massive invisible weapon that now came into existence.

"This does make things much more convenient..."

Su Lun felt a small surge of excitement and slightly lifted his fingers, manipulating the zombie to walk out. Though invisible, he could clearly sense its position.

After nearly a month of tinkering, he had become adept at precisely controlling the zombie, smoothly guiding it out the door without any mishaps.

However, the only imperfect aspect was that while thin, the control lines were still slightly visible.

He thought about how the problem could only be truly solved by eventually obtaining the "Wailing Witch's Curse Hair."

....

Having once been a prominent gangster in Green Street, Su Lun was very familiar with everything about it, and he could recognize almost every merchant and permanent resident there.

The location of the leased basement was not known to anyone else, and his previous caution had saved him much trouble now.

As he stepped onto the street, he didn't go far before spotting trouble.

Green Street was completely cordoned off!

At the street corners and alley mouths, some unfamiliar faces appeared, dressed in plaid suits and cold-toned wool overcoats, wearing gloves and newsboy caps... Although unseen by ordinary people, a tracker could instantly discern those distracted looks differing starkly from those of ordinary residents.

"The Umbrella Organization people arrived so quickly? It seems they must have other methods of tracking and pinpointing me..."

Although he never counted on luck, being surrounded, Su Lun still felt a bit troubled.

However, the timing was just right.

He now had the zombie and the scythe.

Even if the capturing team had high-ranking professionals, it wasn't as if he was completely at their mercy.

With this in mind, Su Lun tightened the control wire of the zombie.

With an unchanged expression, he walked onto the main street as if a regular person.

....

Since enemies had already appeared on Green Street, Su Lun didn't think they would fail to see through his disguise.

This was the calm before the battle.

Sure enough, he had not walked far before he suddenly saw total darkness before him.

It was as if the lights had been turned off; he could see nothing.

"Visual Deprivation!"

Su Lun instantly realized what was happening, a chill running through his heart.

It was a highly advanced control spell.

Then, at the same moment, he also realized he could no longer hear anything.

"Auditory Deprivation!"

Unable to see or hear, in that instant, it felt as though he had plunged into an endless abyss, a massive wave of terror rushing at him.

Moreover, what made Su Lun more solemn was that even with such high spiritual power, he was instantly affected, which meant that the person attacking was overpowering in rank.

Definitely a second-order professional!

"Heh, three second-order professionals came to capture a small gangster like me; they really think highly of me, don't they!"

Su Lun scoffed inwardly, immediately perceiving something.

Though stripped of vision and hearing, he felt no panic at all because that pinprick-like "malice" was like a blazing fire in the darkness, allowing him to "see" clearly.

The direction from which hostility first emanated was precisely that of the spell caster.

"Ten o'clock direction!"

Su Lun sneered inwardly, already prepared for a decisive battle.

Even as his senses were deprived, he clenched a hand into a fist and used the invisible zombie nearby to suddenly strike in the direction from which the malice emanated.

"Swoosh~"

He seemed to hear the sound of rushing wind.

Just as this strike was executed, Su Lun suddenly found his vision and perception restored!

A quick glance to the side, he sensed the malice coming from the ten o'clock direction where the top of the roof had a brick chimney cleanly sliced, and beside it lay a bisected female body.

"Got her!"

Su Lun's eyes lit up, already noticing the grey mist around the body.

Clearly, the enemy hadn't come alone!

There were still two second-order professionals!

Having previously experienced in the city, the Umbrella Organization's well-trained elite team often attacked with a combination that left the target utterly defenseless.

After control, there were certainly other tactics employed.

In that instant, even without sensing malice, Su Lun immediately felt an intense chilling sensation from beneath his feet.

The familiar feeling of feet being stuck to the iced ground was unmistakably that of the same second-order ice Mage who had previously ambushed the convoy in the inner city "Alum Warehouse".

A Mage whose high rank the alchemical bullets couldn't even dent!

The sensation of his body freezing stiff was intense, but as soon as Su Lun looked in that direction, he immediately controlled the zombie to strike again with the scythe.

This time, with visual targeting, Su Lun precisely aimed for the black-clothed figure's neck.

With fingers tracing through the air, he sharply pulled downward, the black-clothed Mage casting spells a hundred meters away suddenly turned pale.

With a look of shock in his eyes, the target was supposedly stripped of his senses, so how could he still strike back with such precision?

A flicker of doubt crossed his mind.

Since his attack was unexpected, and the man in black was still casting a spell, it was too late to dodge.

By the time his eyes caught Su Lun's motion of swinging his blade, a black spatial rift had already formed at his throat, and Death descended without warning.

The silky sensation of a cut passed, a head fell to the ground, and blood spurted high like a fountain.

"Xiupunos's Night Scythe"? But how did he control it so precisely..."

Just before dying, this final thought emerged in the mind of the man in black.

He recognized that spatial rift.

But he couldn't understand how that strike was so precise...

Others would never expect that Su Lun was possibly the only person in the world who could precisely control the scythe's distance and power.

Due to the terrifying backlash of the curse, ordinary people couldn't possibly risk their lives to practice controlling the scythe so precisely time after time.

But Su Lun could.

Because he had reanimated corpses to use over and over!

This was also why he risked taking extra time to go back to his place to fetch the scythe.

With the scythe in hand, he truly had the confidence to escape!

....

With those two strikes, he consecutively killed two second-class professionals, instantly breaking their lethal group attack technique.

But, it wasn't over yet!

In Su Lun's perception, a very strong intent to kill was hidden in a nearby tavern, a threat that a first-class professional couldn't pose.

Just as Su Lun's second blade swung down, the tavern's window suddenly shattered, and a burst of gunfire surged out.

Su Lun had sensed his presence long ago, so how could he be unprepared?

While his right hand controlled the reanimated corpse to slay the man in black, his left hand had already pulled out a puppet to shield his side.

Almost at the same moment, the cannonball collided with the puppet.

With a loud "boom," the all-defense-rune-equipped puppet was blasted to bits, showing the power of the cannonball.

Su Lun was also blown away by the impact, spitting out a mouthful of dirty blood, "Pu~"

Since the puppet blocked the cannonball that was meant to be lethal, he ignored his own injuries and during his backward flight, he raised his hand and slashed towards the source of the gunfire.

The person hadn't seen the "invisible reanimated corpse" but had heard the whizzing sound of the blade cutting through the air.

The instinctive sense of crisis of a high-class professional made him shatter the glass with a crash and jump out just after firing.

But even with such quick reaction, the armored covering of his upper thigh felt a coldness as a sudden spatial rift appeared and neatly severed both legs. His legless torso, spewing blood, leapt from the window.

The scythe's spatial rift appeared in a blink, and combined with Su Lun's precise striking ability, wherever his gaze locked, the rift appeared right there, almost impossible for anyone to dodge easily.

Having both legs cleanly cut off, the bleeding was enough to cause instantaneous shock, yet the fellow clenched his teeth, relying on one last bit of willpower to pull the trigger on his mechanical arm.

Su Lun wanted to deliver another strike to completely remove this thorn, but just then a burst of blood mist exploded by his side.

He realized something was amiss and quickly dodged.

It was fortunate that the legless man was seriously injured so the cannon had no "locking skill." Su Lun awkwardly rolled on the ground several times, which just so happened to dodge the lethal cannon attack.

On a second look, after firing, the legless man had also completely passed out.

....

Su Lun didn't linger over the corpse, but gazed at the blood mist around him, his brow slightly furrowed, "I've reached the limit..."

Indeed, using the knife too frequently had triggered the backlash to burst forth prematurely.

Three long cuts had sliced the undead into several sections, instantly erasing all signs of life.

The black scythe fell out as well.

Su Lun looked at his "Old Pal" that had helped him greatly, feeling somewhat emotional.

It was unclear whether it was because there was no time to spare or the Umbrella Organization thought that they didn't need many high-rank professionals to deal with Su Lun.

Fortunately, it seemed that there were only these three second-order professionals near Green Street.

"Old Pal" had completed its glorious mission.

Su Lun didn't look further, flicking out the steel wire from his mechanical glove, pulling the scythe and bandages back to his back. He then threw an incendiary grenade onto the body to completely destroy it.

Then he drew his twin guns and started firing at the members of the Umbrella Organization across the street.

....

The three trickiest second-order professionals were killed in a few exchanges, and Su Lun's crisis was instantly alleviated by ninety percent.

Ordinary professionals posed a limited threat to him.

Moreover, in the outer city, there weren't as many people wearing "Frost Titan Armor" as in the inner city.

These folks in coats and hats were the favorite targets of gunmen!

Even if they wore bulletproof vests, too many critical weak spots were exposed on their bodies...

After unleashing his mechanical suit, Su Lun retreated while fighting, using the buildings on Green Street to his advantage. With a pistol in each hand, he pressured the enemy from daring to poke their heads out, while also gathering Soul Shards and loot from the three second-order professionals he had just killed.

Since he had patrolled these blocks countless times before, he knew every alley here.

Having torn a hole in the encirclement, Su Lun reached an alley; just over the fence, and he could immediately jump out of the encirclement.

But just then, he suddenly noticed thick smoke billowing from the street corners.

Instantly, Su Lun knew who had arrived.

However, the sense of hostility was somewhat erratic, and he didn't rush to act.

He knew well, that this was the ability of Smokie.

Seeing the smoke, Su Lun deliberately lowered his gun's muzzle and put on a face of combined shock and joy, excitedly saying towards the thickest part of the smoke, "Smokie boss, is that you? Have you come to rescue me?!"

Upon hearing this, the figure of Smokie slowly emerged from the smoke.

This grim-faced man looked at Su Lun, who had caused a huge commotion, a complex flicker in his eyes hardly noticeable, yet he said, "Yeah. I'll take it from here, you find a chance to escape first."

He could never have anticipated that an insignificant "little fish" by Kai's side would bring him so much trouble!

As he spoke, Smokie, enveloped in thick smoke, slowly walked towards Su Lun.

The dense "malice" also grew more and more tangible.

"Perfect!"

Su Lun, appearing completely unguarded, had a face of ecstatic relief after a narrow escape, and even sheathed his guns back into their holsters.

But his smile had not yet spread across his face when it suddenly stiffened. The next moment, he swiftly pulled the black scythe from his back and slashed down at the figure before him!

The Smokie across from him instantly froze in confusion.

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