Mechanical Alchemist

This second-tier assassin possessed a highly skilled stealth ability, and Su Lun's current perception was not enough to easily capture him.

But he had no intention of looking for that guy in the first place.

Because those dusky red eyes were enough to weave a net of spiritual power that covered the entire cave, leaving no one in the cavern able to avoid it.

What they had to do now was to see who had the larger slice of luck, who could survive.

Indeed, just as Su Lun had expected.

The moment countless red eyes lit up, his body's panel displayed numerous "psychic attack" notifications, like a tide of area-wide coverage, wave after wave. Even without directly looking at the monsters, one would be more or less affected.

Su Lun was still unscathed, but that assassin wasn't so fortunate.

Almost simultaneously as the spiders sealed the nest's exit, over ten meters away from Su Lun in the void, that hooded man also felt the impact of the psychic shockwave and revealed his form once more.

The guy was extremely vigilant, seeming to immediately sense the abnormal spiritual power fluctuations around him and directly pulled out a potion, stabbing it fiercely into his waist.

Watching that guy inject the potion and instantly become spirited, Su Lun guessed, "A sobering potion? Quite alert..."

However, the duration of a sobering potion was very brief, and as long as he remained trapped in this space, it was inevitably a dead end.

....

Professionals who could advance to the second tier, more or less, all had some tricks up their sleeves.

Perhaps taking a hint from Lena's dummy bait, the assassin also sharply realized that those red eyes of the spider monsters should not be looked at directly.

Confronted with such peril, the assassin decisively lowered his head, narrowing his gaze to his feet.

Su Lun, watching this little maneuver, also silently praised him for being impressive.

A professional assassin, indeed, had astonishing instincts.

But by doing this, his field of vision was reduced by more than ninety percent, which was definitely not easy, even for a second tier professional.

And the moment the assassin lowered his head, his hands shook, suddenly revealing two short blades flickering with lightning.

The man ignored the large spider dropping down from above his head and charged toward Lena, who was not far away!

"Tch, tch... can't even save his own life, yet he still aims to kill the target. Seems like he's a dead shot. But I've only just managed to save her; I can't let you kill her that easily..."

Su Lun was slightly surprised by the assassin's choice, but also thought it was just as well.

If the enemy wasn't targeting him, then he could free up his hands to strike back.

Seeing this, Su Lun's hand suddenly grasped as if catching hold of something invisible and instantly pulled it taut.

And just then, above Lena's head, the large spider that fell from the ceiling was suddenly dismembered in midair, as if cut into large pieces by an invisible blade.

Upon closer examination, surrounding Lena were threads of steel wire, as thin as hair.

The bodies of the Ghostface Spiders were fragile, and falling from a height, inertia caused their bodies to touch the threads, no different from hitting a blade's edge. In an instant, they were easily sliced into pieces, and green droplets of blood remained on the threads.

Seeing this, the assassin's eyes flashed with doubt, and his ambush instinctively halted.

The darkness of the environment and the need to avoid looking too high made it impossible for him to determine the exact nature of the threads.

Having been outwitted by that strange puppet earlier and still feeling apprehensive, his instinct told him that if this "guide" dared to confront him head-on, he must have other means hidden.

In reality, he didn't realize that Su Lun was simply gambling.

The threads were no match for a second-tier professional; what he was betting on was the opponent's cautious mentality.

Just at that moment, the assassin hesitated, but Su Lun didn't show even a hint of ambiguity.

With one hand controlling the silk threads, his other hand had already drawn the fire gun and did not give the assassin a chance to make trouble, and he fired several shots at that guy.

As expected, the assassin's nerve response speed had reached the extreme.

He caught sight of the orientation of the gun barrel, leaned backward to avoid a shot, then performed several consecutive backflips, perfectly dodging this round of gunfire. Even the "Curved Trajectory" hidden in the last shot just grazed by without hitting him.

....

Su Lun hadn't expected to wound him, his only goal was to distance them, and that had been achieved.

Because at that moment, the monsters on the ceiling had already launched their attack.

The "bizarre" creature also appeared to know that the second-order assassin was the most formidable threat among the three, instructing the giant spiders to surge toward the assassin.

Facing the tide of monsters, the assassin's methods were sharp and ruthless. He raised his hand to shoot out throwing knives that could pierce through several spider creatures at a time, even more lethal than the fire gun. With just a casual slash, he could easily sever half of a giant spider's body.

Even without daring to directly look at the red eyes of the monsters, he relied solely on listening for position and the movements of spider legs close to the ground, managing to dodge effortlessly, cutting through the spiders as if chopping melons and vegetables, not falling behind at all.

But... the ghastly spiders' methods of attack were not limited to this.

Moreover, there was an intelligent creature behind the scenes, secretly directing them!

It was then that the giant spiders on the ceiling suddenly stuck out their behinds, and torrents of white spider webs sprayed out.

When spider silk is fine enough, it appears as individual threads; but when it's as thick as a thumb, it becomes pools of sticky glue!

The assassin, relying on his agile movements, dodged this first wave of silk, but upon landing, he realized the sticky webs were already everywhere. It was like he had stepped into a swamp, his agility instantly restricted by a great deal.

Realizing the predicament, the assassin became somewhat panicked, but his first reaction was to attack Lena, not to flee, as at this moment the cave had been sealed by the spider webs... escape was now difficult.

Bombs and incendiary grenades were thrown around haphazardly as if they cost nothing, but in the wave of monsters, they were like a drop in the bucket...

....

On the other hand, Su Lun was also facing the same situation.

For him, a first-order professional without any implants, the spiders would be even more deadly.

But faced with the overwhelming spider webs, he did not dodge or avoid them, as a pale blue cold flame suddenly burst forth from his body.

As the spider webs touched the cold flame, they burned up like cotton upon fire, not even reaching Su Lun's clothes before they were consumed.

This was clearly the "Alchemy Arcanum: No Servant"!

This was also why he made Lena cover her eyes.

One reason was the fear of her being controlled by the spiders, and the second was to keep her from seeing his own methods.

If it were not for having previously stripped this skill from Rosa's corpse, Su Lun would certainly not have chosen the "three-way fight to the death" strategy.

Because of the cold flame, Su Lun had no need to worry about spider webs.

He freed both hands, dual-wielding guns, shooting at the approaching spiders from all directions.

With both guns blazing, he single-handedly formed a barrier of gunfire, preventing those fragile giant spiders from coming anywhere close.

For a moment, severed limbs flew everywhere, and green spider blood was splattered all around...

....

At the same time, because of the defensive barrier woven from steel wires around, the giant spiders were temporarily unable to approach Lena.

But this did not prevent them from spitting out spider silk from a distance.

Leina's heart was filled with extreme fear at this moment.

She could hear the dense gunfire and the sound of grenades near her ear... She could also hear the high-frequency "click-clack" movement of the monster's joints. Even without opening her eyes, she could guess that a massive number of monsters were eyeing her hungrily.

She stood there all alone, utterly helpless.

Just now she had been drenched in the foul-smelling spider blood, and now she was sprayed with a sticky substance...

But she couldn't open her eyes, nor could she move about recklessly.

All she could do was stand there, shivering uncontrollably, allowing the spider webs that sprayed over her from time to time to trap her securely.

However, fortunately, the spiders seemed to have the habit of storing food. Seeing that Leina wasn't escaping or showing any signs of attack, and after being stuck tightly by the webs, they didn't attack her anymore!

Leina, the bait, did not know why she was mysteriously out of danger for now...

But she could also hear the battles between Su Lun and that assassin raging fiercely from two different directions.

Suddenly, she heard the noise from one side abruptly stop.

Leina instinctively felt a pang of fear in her heart and prayed, "The sound of gunfire is still there, Mr. Su Lun must not be in danger yet..."

.....

At this very moment, Su Lun was killing like a madman.

The spider creatures were much bigger and clumsier than those flying moths they encountered earlier, and being merely crawlers, they were easier to hit.

He was almost getting a headshot with every shot, and when using alchemy bullets, he could kill a group with a single shot.

The spiders' two main trump cards, psychic control and webs, were completely useless against him, so Su Lun was like a god of death, killing or crippling hundreds of monsters in a short time.

Around him, the bodies of the spider creatures had piled up into a mountain, and more kept clambering over this "mountain of corpses" to meet their end.

There was not a trace of panic on Su Lun's face because, although there were many spiders in this nest, he did not believe they out-numbered his bullets!

But while he was in the midst of killing, the monsters suddenly disappeared.

The big spiders seemed to have received some signal and receded like the tide.

With a puzzled look, Su Lun looked into the distance and realized... The battle on the other side had already ended.

The "bizarre" creature hiding in the shadows, seeing too many of its minions dead or injured, finally showed itself.

And at this very moment, Su Lun saw the second-class assassin standing there like an idiot, absolutely still.

A spider spear easily pierced through his skull, skewering down straight through, leaving him chillingly slaughtered.

A formidable second-class professional had just died so easily under the "bizarre" creature's spider spear.

....

And Su Lun, watching the creature, his face turned solemn the moment he identified it: "Now we've got a real problem on our hands..."

Fortunately, it was a first-tier 'bizarre';

Unfortunately, it was a "Lord monster."

If 'bizarre' is a term humans use for the bosses among the mutant monsters, then a Lord monster is the boss among the bizarres, approximately ranging from "Gold+" to "Legend-".

And the bizarre that Su Lun and his group encountered at that subway hub station was just a "Black Iron level," several classes lower than the creature before them now.

Such creatures are extremely rare, usually found in very large-scale mutant monster groups with a slim chance of occurrence.

Encountering one of this level in the wilds was about as likely as winning five hundred million in the lottery for the Hunter's Wilderness group.

But once encountered, it almost always meant total annihilation.

"Lord-level creatures" tend to awaken unique abilities that allow them to crush those of the same tier, or even those of higher tiers.

Just like how this rank one lord easily killed a rank two professional.

Su Lun had guessed that there was "something strange" here. Neither iron nor silver would have surprised him this much.

But he hadn't expected it to be a lord.

....

This big BOSS was half human, half spider.

Its upper body was that of a naked female. Her skin was luminous and tender, exuding an ultimate sensuality and charm that made it impossible to look away. Her features were stunningly beautiful in a way that, at a glance, would immediately arouse instinctive desires in someone, making them want to pin her down and rub against her.

However, the bottom half was somewhat horrifying, a massive, menacing spider body with eight legs glistening a metallic shine... Fierce in appearance.

[Mutated Ghost-Faced Spider Queen (Lord)]

Explanation: A lord-level ghost-faced spider with powerful mental control abilities; due to mutations, its body has undergone unusual changes, regressing to ancestral bloodlines and its tier limit has been increased by 270%. The spider's flesh is exceptionally resilient, possessing high intelligence, a composite type of potent venom, and extremely fast movement speed...

Looking at the introduction of those "top-tier attributes," Su Lun didn't need to delude himself; he definitely couldn't win.

However, he didn't wait passively for death. He immediately raised his hand and fired two shots.

"Bang," "Bang"!

Armor-piercing alchemy bullets left two charred indentations on the Spider Queen's skin, and then, there was no 'then'...

The bullets fell to the ground, making two crisp "clang, clang" sounds.

"Skin that can block 'armor-piercing bullets'?"

Seeing this, Su Lun's brow twitched violently, and he lamented inwardly, "As expected, I can't kill it..."

But since he was going to face it sooner or later, he remained as calm as ever. He had identified the monster's attributes already, and opening fire was just to extinguish that last bit of vain hope.

In that moment, he seemed to make a certain resolve, muttering, "Can only try that, then..."

At that time, those two shots had also successfully attracted the Spider Queen's attention. A strong surge of spiritual power washed over Su Lun like waves, leaving him in a daze.

Even at this distance, watching his continuously diminishing spiritual power on his panel, he knew he could only hold on for a few more seconds before he would be completely controlled.

The spiritual strength of this lord-level creature had entirely crushed his own.

At this moment, the scene before his eyes flickered between realities: one moment it was a filthy monster's cave with the ghost-faced spider sprawling across it; the next it was an Elysium world fulfilling all sorts of fantasies, replete with naked beauties...

...

Su Lun felt his consciousness becoming increasingly confused, the crazed curvature of his lips growing higher, "It's time to gamble with my life..."

It wasn't entirely unexpected, it was just that he hadn't thought he would truly need to resort to this last move.

While he still retained a sliver of reason, he did not hesitate at all, pulling a potion from his right hand and fiercely stabbing it into his neck.

At the same time, he raised his left hand, curled his fingers into the air, and rapidly retracted the steel wire inside his mechanical glove, "whoosh," as if telekinetically pulling an object through the air, he grabbed something soaked in the nearby sewage into his hand.

Upon closer inspection, it was a dark, massive scythe.

And at the same time, the last bit of sanity in his eyes dissipated, turning blood-red. It was the moment he lost his reason that the overwhelming lust was also suddenly suppressed.

In this moment, with the black scythe in hand, Su Lun was like the Grim Reaper incarnate.