Chapter 1 Wood Doll and Cold Legs

　　Suren put away the half-carved wooden doll and put his gas mask back on.

　　As soon as he stepped out of his tent, he heard that Mr. Abagong rubbing his legs and grumbling as he walked out of his luxurious mobile tent: "Damn it, this underground cave is not a place for humans to come, my old cold legs are acting up again..."

　　Suren heard this, and the corners of his mouth under the mask lifted slightly.

　　.......

　　This time, the "Thorn Bird Merchant Guild" hired a total of five small wasteland reclamation groups, as well as some scattered wasteland reclaimers. These fifty or sixty fully armed wasteland reclaimers were also the main force for transportation security.

　　Suren found a corner and listened quietly.

　　An emergency meeting meant that something had gone wrong.

　　Before long, everyone arrived, and Mr. Abagong got straight to the point.

　　"I just received the latest news. In the D24 area, which we will enter in about three days, several transport teams have been attacked by mutated monsters and almost completely wiped out. But this batch of supplies must be delivered to the Dawn City ruins camp on time. So, I hope you will be prepared, send more people when camping and on night watch, and be sure to ensure the safety of the transport team..."

　　It was obvious that this manager, who had never been to the underground caves outside the city, was a little nervous, and he also spread his fear to everyone in the transport team.

　　The more wasteland reclaimers who went to the Dawn City ruins, the less safe the road became. On the contrary, it was like "chumming the water" for fishing, and the human aura attracted more and more mutated monsters.

　　The underground caves were not human territory. They would always be a paradise for monsters.

　　Humans were just one of the delicious foods in the eyes of monsters.

　　The deeper into the ground, the stronger and more numerous the monsters.

　　At this point, the wasteland reclaimers also began to discuss.

　　"I heard when I came here before that a large 'three-eyed poisonous lizard' (sanyan duxi) group seems to be very active near D24. Several wasteland reclamation teams have encountered small-scale monster harassment before, and suffered considerable losses..."

　　"Those mutated monsters are a bit tricky. They are fast, appear in groups, and a bite can infect people with toxins that rot flesh... Do you have enough antidote prepared?"

　　"Not much. Hopefully we won't encounter large-scale monster groups, otherwise we'll be in trouble."

　　"Everyone, prepare in advance. Try to put the sentry further away when camping..."

　　"Well, that's the only way."

　　"..."

　　The leaders of the five wasteland reclamation groups got together to discuss.

　　After all, they all made a living from this, and no one was scared off by the danger.

　　.......

　　In an inconspicuous corner, Suren also quietly listened to the operation plan arranged by the leaders.

　　The passages in the underground cave were complex and winding, and there were many routes to Dawn City.

　　The route the transport team was taking now was the closest one that the wasteland reclaimers had explored so far.

　　But it was not the secret artificial passage that Suren knew before.

　　It took a lot of detours and passed through some dangerous areas marked on the map.

　　However, Suren, who was traveling with the team, didn't care.

　　He didn't feel much urgency when he heard it.

　　He knew about the "three-eyed poisonous lizards." They were a great threat to non-professionals. But for him, those monsters that could be killed with ordinary firearms were not a threat.

　　What's more, with the "invisible living corpse" as a powerful weapon in hand, even if a high-level mutated monster came, he had the means to fight back.

　　Even if he really had to run, most mutated monsters might not be able to outrun him with his eight-armed spider spear.

　　Before long, the meeting was over.

　　Suren wanted to go back to rest.

　　But Benson, the leader of the "Drunken Hunter Group," came over.

　　"Brother Johnny!"

　　"What's up, Captain Benson?"

　　"Hehe, Tommy has been bothering you these past two days."

　　Benson was a big, red-nosed man with a hearty personality.

　　Although he hadn't been in contact with him for a long time, Suren had a good impression of him. Because he had saved Tommy before, this big man was always very polite to him.

　　Suren smiled and said, "It's not much trouble."

　　Benson looked like a helpless old father, "Hey... This kid is a constant worry. I saw that he liked tinkering with those mechanical things, so I wanted to send him to a repair shop as an apprentice. It wouldn't be rich, but at least he could live a carefree life. But the kid didn't want to, and insisted on becoming an adventurer, a real Mechanical Alchemist. That's why, unable to resist his daily shouting to come out to reclaim the wasteland, I wanted to bring him out to see the world. I didn't expect that he almost had a problem on the road. If it weren't for you, brother, that kid would have suffered a big loss."

　　"Tommy actually has a lot of mechanical talent..."

　　Suren smiled. He felt that this big man should have other things to talk to him about.

　　Sure enough, Benson was polite for so long before he finally revealed his intention: "By the way, that... Brother Johnny. The road ahead may be dangerous. If we really encounter a large-scale mutated monster attack, stay closer to our group. We can take care of each other."

　　He was very polite and considerate of Suren's feelings.

　　Saying they were taking care of each other was actually wanting to take care of him, this lone wolf.

　　After all, in the eyes of ordinary people, gunslingers were a profession that needed teammates to protect them, especially snipers. Once a monster got close, they were close-range weaklings.

　　Suren understood that this was to repay the kindness of saving Tommy before.

　　He didn't say much and nodded with a smile, "Okay, thank you."

　　.......

　　In this way, the transport team continued to move towards the depths of the underground cave.

　　On the way, they did encounter several small-scale mutated monster attacks, but because the transport team had a large number of people and sufficient firepower, they managed to repel them without any danger.

　　Suren was a sniper and didn't need to engage in close combat, just occasionally fire a few cold shots.

　　No one cared about such a slacker and aloof guy in the team.

　　Suren's daily life was also very regular.

　　He studied the [Voodoo Doll], tinkered with some machinery, meditated to increase his dark spiritual power, and recorded the detailed changes in his body data after injecting the "X-Serum"...

　　Then he studied and interpreted the [Isaac's Alchemical Manuscript].

　　When he was ambushed by the Umbrella organization at the "White Sail Warehouse" before, Suren was very puzzled as to why those guys chose to kill people to silence them when they could have quietly taken the things away.

　　Later, in the battle on Green Street, Suren killed three Tier 2 professionals from the Umbrella organization. After stripping away the memory fragments of the ice-type mage who ambushed them at the warehouse, he finally understood that the reason why the Umbrella organization wanted to silence them was because they actually regarded this manuscript as a "pollutant" within their organization, believing that the manuscript's cursed properties would contaminate anyone who came into contact with the notes and cause great harm?

　　Their order was to clear out everyone who had come into contact with the notes and recover the manuscript.

　　Moreover, this was an order directly issued by the Black Tower Duke's Mansion!

　　But this made Suren very confused.

　　He identified the detailed information in this manuscript and found that there was no "contamination property" at all.

　　The only cursed property was just that contact with the manuscript would involve some "karma" related to the manuscript, whether it was a blessing or a curse, which was not considered pollution at all?

　　Suren felt that this was probably a measure taken by the Black Tower's higher-ups to monopolize super-tier alchemical knowledge?

　　After all, he also learned from the memory of another Tier 2 professional that the Umbrella organization knew about the existence of this manuscript before. Moreover, they also speculated that this was one of the five manuscripts left behind by the legendary Sir Isaac that recorded "God-Tier Alchemy"!

　　After thinking hard without success, Suren wanted to find the answer in the notes.

　　He had been deciphering this manuscript for the past few days.

　　Unexpectedly, with his not-so-brilliant deciphering methods, he actually managed to translate the contents of the manuscript with some difficulty.

　　The result was...

　　He discovered that this notebook was just an ordinary alchemical notebook, at least as far as he had seen so far.

　　The content recorded above was also a special kind of alchemical armor.

　　Back then, Sir Isaac wanted to use a "heart armor" to withstand additional dark spiritual power, and also attach a continuous recovery "Blue Buff" to the human body. This would allow alchemists to never lack dark spiritual power in battle and release more powerful spells without worrying about mana consumption...

　　Moreover, the content of this manuscript was also very user-friendly. It seemed that the half-god alchemist was afraid that his descendants would not understand his wonderful ideas, so he explained it step by step from the basics, gradually guiding them from simple to complex to successfully create that kind of "heart armor."

　　The first few pages that Suren understood recorded the manufacturing blueprints for [Isaac's Alchemical Heart (Tier 1)]. The main material used was the heart of a Tier 1 mutated monster. Although the runes and refining formulas were complex, they were all entry-level knowledge that low-level professionals could master by slowly learning.

　　Moreover, the magical thing was that he had to understand the content in front before the content behind would automatically appear.

　　These past two days, he understood the first few pages, and then he deciphered the next few pages. The content behind was [Isaac's Alchemical Heart (Tier 2)].

　　Thinking about it, the content behind this notebook still had Tier 3, Tier 4, Tier V...

　　It was completely a normal notebook.

　　This was completely a classic that recorded alchemy, and besides alchemical knowledge, it was higher-level alchemical knowledge.

　　There was nothing that could be regarded as "pollution."

　　Suren felt that the only special thing was that sentence that was suspected of "blasphemy."

　　Sir Isaac wrote such a sentence on the title page with an arrogant tone: "The so-called God-Tier creatures are nothing more than high-level materials in the face of great alchemy."

　　Suren guessed that the end of this notebook might be to use the heart of a so-called god to refine an [Isaac's Heart]?

　　.......

　　The transport team walked deeper into the underground cave for several days, and finally entered a high-risk area. The atmosphere in the team gradually became tense.

　　On this day, they chose a relatively safe place to camp as usual and increased the number of people on night watch.

　　Suren also set up his tent and started his daily research.

　　But unexpectedly, in the middle of the night, a group of uninvited guests broke into the camp.

　　"Someone is attacking the camp!"

　　"Everyone, prepare to fight!"

　　"..."

　　The sentry issued a warning, and the outside suddenly became noisy.

　　Suren didn't dare to be careless either. He packed up the invisible living corpse and walked out of the tent.

　　Unexpectedly, although the commotion was loud, there was no fight.

　　Because the intruders were not mutated monsters, but a famous bounty hunter group from Old London City.

　　Moreover, although the members of the several wasteland reclamation groups guarding the camp were angry, they didn't dare to take action.

　　Because among these rude intruders was a Tier 2 professional, the branch leader of the "Iron Knight Bounty Hunter Group," "Flower Sword" Hall, an experienced swordsman who specialized in court rapiers.

　　After all, they had signed a protection contract, and the wasteland reclaimers in the transport team also had clothes to protect the transport. They held their weapons and confronted each other, not allowing this group of uninvited guests to enter the core of the camp.

　　Although the other side had a Tier 2 professional, the transport team had one or two hundred people after all. If a real fight broke out, it would definitely be a lose-lose situation.

　　The other side didn't dare to act rashly either.

　　Then Hall negotiated with Abagong, seemingly said something, and this merchant guild manager actually easily agreed to let them search the camp!

　　"We are chasing a very dangerous wanted criminal. Please cooperate with us. This is also for your safety."

　　"Everyone, come out of your tents, open your tents and large bags, we want to check!"

　　"Take off your masks, please show your faces..."

　　"..."

　　A total of ten people came from the Iron Knight Group. Judging by their temperament, besides the Tier 2 Hall, there were at least several formal professionals.

　　This was already a very strong team configuration.

　　Suren watched this group of people storm into the camp aggressively, seemingly looking for some "wanted criminal."

　　Hearing this, his brows also furrowed.

　　Because he himself was a wanted criminal.

　　Could it be that the people from the Umbrella organization chased him here?

　　His first reaction was this.

　　.......

　　These guys drove everyone out of the tents and then checked them one by one.

　　Suren was now covered in blue skin and couldn't be exposed to light. Once he took off his mask, it would definitely attract attention.

　　But he was also a little puzzled... This "Iron Knight Group's" handling was a bit presumptuous, wasn't it?

　　After all, the people in this transport team were all wasteland reclaimers with legal identities. Bounty hunters were not law enforcement agencies, and they didn't have the right to search at all. This was the most important reason why Qian Tiao arranged this legal identity for him, to avoid some unnecessary trouble.

　　And this rude behavior naturally aroused the dissatisfaction of the leaders of several wasteland reclamation groups.

　　Captain Benson spoke directly: "Hey, hey, 'Iron Knight Group,' don't go too far. We are wasteland reclamation groups, not some wanted criminals. We have no obligation to cooperate with your search!"

　　At this point, the leaders of the other four groups also echoed: "That's right! Why are you searching us?"

　　The wasteland reclaimers were not afraid either. It was about to turn into an armed conflict.

　　The search was obstructed, and Hall's face turned ashen.

　　Ordinary bounty hunters didn't dare to kill legitimate wasteland reclaimers.

　　But he seemed to be carrying some urgent order and didn't have time to waste any more words. He took out a wanted warrant and a golden badge, directly revealing his identity, and said coldly: "This is the highest-level wanted warrant issued by the Black Tower. I am a special law enforcement officer of 'Umbrella' in the outer city. Just half an hour ago, this heinous wanted criminal assassinated Lord House, the chief intelligence officer of the Old London Intelligence Office. Anyone who obstructs the pursuit of the murderer will be treated as an accomplice of the wanted criminal and killed without mercy!"

　　Seeing the golden badge that Hall showed, the faces of the several wasteland reclamation group leaders changed drastically, and they instantly didn't dare to speak anymore.

　　It was better to offend anyone than to offend the Umbrella organization.

　　.......

　　On the other hand, Suren's expression also became a little strange.

　　So it really was an Umbrella organization's sleeper agent?

　　So a high-ranking official had just been assassinated?

　　He looked at the wanted warrant and understood that these people weren't here to arrest him.

　　From a distance, he could also see the portrait on the wanted warrant clearly.

　　Wasn't this the woman who blew up the experiment?

　　The woman had caused even more commotion than him before. She definitely couldn't stay in Old London City anymore, and it was expected that she would escape outside the city.

　　But she didn't stay low-key after escaping and caused another big commotion?

　　Suren's brow twitched.

　　The "super mechanical warrior" who was rumored to exist only for battle was so capable of causing trouble?

　　Being able to force Hall to reveal his identity and search the camp in a hurry meant that they were sure that the woman should be nearby at this moment.

　　However, Suren was not concerned about the woman's situation, but about himself.

　　Because at this time, a guy from the "Iron Knight Group" had already walked to his tent and, holding a gun, ordered: "Hey, you... take off your mask!"

　　Hearing this, the gaze hidden under Suren's gas mask turned cold.

　　A thought flashed through his mind: Should I kill them all...?

　　ps. These two chapters are transitional chapters and feel strange... I don't know where the problem is.