Mechanical Alchemist

If it were just steel wires, they would have snapped countless times during such battles.

Regrettably, Su Lun now had plenty of witch hair in his possession.

Infused with dark spiritual power, it became an elemental substance. This transparent thread was not only undetectable by others but even with obstacles in between, the threads could manipulate the puppets as if pulled by magnetism.

It was just a flick of his fingers, and a space fissure instantly appeared on the bodyguard's neck.

Just as the man seemed to be coming out of his daze, and a fatal crisis loomed, his expression changed drastically. But before he could react, the black space fissure had already silently severed his head.

With a "gurgle," the head fell to the ground.

Watching this scene, a sinister smile spread across Su Lun's lips.

Yet, he did not dare to be careless and with another pull of his fingers, he once again manipulated the detestable living corpses outside.

At this time, the "mechanical tyrannosaur" Toynbee, who was under the effect of the curse magic, had also regained consciousness.

....

Toynbee, enduring severe pain in his head, charged into the shattered building.

He arrived just in time to see the scene of the bodyguard's head falling.

Then, seeing Su Lun flick his fingers again, a deep sense of dread flooded his eyes.

He had seen this gesture a few times before. Every time he saw it, a peer expert was inexplicably killed.

Toynbee initially planned to capture the "helpless" Su Lun and claim some credit.

But seeing this, that thought instantly dissipated, and instead, terror overwhelmed him.

Watching the headless corpse spurting blood, his instinctive crisis response prompted him to unhesitatingly release the steam boiler's pressure valve. He didn't dare to advance but rather, a burst of steam sent him flying backward.

Luckily for Toynbee, his quick reaction allowed him to escape just as a foot-long space fissure appeared where he had been standing.

The fissure that should have split open his chest missed due to his body being flung backward, sparing his life.

A mechanical leg broke off cleanly and clattered to the ground.

Although a broken mechanical limb does not cause pain and still left him with fighting capacity,

Toynbee dared not charge back into the ruins.

During his retreat, seeing the "stoically cold" Su Lun flicking his fingers again, he turned even paler with fear.

Having no intention of confronting him head-on, he hurriedly took cover behind another building.

Even so, a frightening space fissure barely missed him as it passed by.

Luckily he had chosen to dodge and flee just in time; otherwise, the tricky consecutive strikes would have certainly been fatal!

In his relief, Toynbee also cursed furiously, "Who the fuck said this guy could only strike once more?!"

Now he was watching as Su Lun killed Young Master Danze's bodyguard with one strike and then swung two more at him, looking as though he could keep going.

"Doesn't the use of that forbidden item bring cursed backlash?"

Amidst cursing, Toynbee was even more terrified. Without a cursed backlash, who could stop the black scythe?

With all fighting spirit drained, he did not forget to hide his body more tightly and muted his presence, fearing that if Su Lun sensed him, another strike would come his way.

....

"Did I evade it? Phew... My body's at its limit."

Panting heavily, Su Lun did not pursue the steam faction's officer who had flown away.

Forcing himself to execute three strikes with his fractured sternum had almost reached his limit.

As the urge to kill ebbed away, after a second or two, he felt his stagnant blood circulation begin to normalize and his strength slowly returned.

"The inner city really has some absurdly strong bodyguards..."

Su Lun looked at the headless corpse on the ground and muttered to himself.

He didn't dare delay any longer, removed the bodyguard's storage ring, and harvested the soul. He also didn't forget to throw an incendiary grenade to burn the blood he had spat out.

Unfortunately, he couldn't deal with the blood outside in time.

Su Lun had already heard the sounds of pursuers coming, so he continued to sprint deeper into the ruins while controlling the eight-armed spider spear.

...

"Seven second-tier pursuers, two dead, two crippled, and three remain..."

As Su Lun ran, he also thought about finding a terrain to kill off the remaining few.

But he was not confident about it.

Firstly, his severely injured body could not withstand intense combat;

Secondly, although he had dealt with the most threatening melee professionals, he was not confident he could kill Geiger, the "Gun King" with the "Sixth Sense" talent, using the black scythe.

Moreover, having used the black scythe to slash thrice already, Su Lun was not sure that the next backlash, the detestable zombie, could withstand it.

By now he had essentially shaken off his pursuers and saw no need to risk an ambush anymore.

Because he had run haphazardly while being chased, Su Lun looked around and felt that he had already reached a very dangerous area within Dawn Relic.

Not long after, the noise from the pursuing enemies behind him gradually faded, and his speed also slowed down.

The fog in the air grew thicker, and then, he saw a low, broken city wall.

That's when Su Lun realized that he had arrived in the "Central District of Dawn City" on the Scavenger's map—a black area.

The surrounding fog had already reduced visibility to an extremely low level, so he dared not venture deeper nor turn back, but coincidentally, he saw a building resembling a bunker and dashed into it.

....

A moment later, the fog in the air grew even denser, almost reaching the point where he couldn't see his own hand.

Su Lun didn't dare to leave the bunker.

It was a well-known experience among Scavengers that regions with thick fog tended to be active with high-level aberrant monsters.

Fortunately, after focusing on listening for a while, he heard no noise of pursuers coming after him.

Su Lun breathed a sigh of relief.

Only then did he start to carefully observe the bunker where he was hiding.

The bunker was not big, roughly ten or so square meters in size.

It looked like a wartime fortress.

The walls were exceptionally sturdy and thick, almost a meter thick. He had also noticed many irregular damage marks on the outer walls when he entered, which looked like they were made by large aberrant monsters stomping and smashing. There were no fractures, proving the structure was very solid.

After looking around, he saw no waste excretions from aberrant monsters, so Su Lun breathed another sigh of relief, thinking that no aberrant monsters were active here regularly.

The entrance and air vents were also very small, and he could easily block them to prevent aberrant monsters from entering.

Feeling it was safe enough, he decided not to go out for the time being.

With that thought, Su Lun used odor-eliminating water to remove his own scent. He then took out a bulletproof plate and a mechanical skeleton, and made a simple yet robust one-way door at the entrance before finally settling down to rest.

Not thinking about sitting because it was uncomfortable, he flipped through the dust and surprisingly found a good item: an ancient long sword of quality comparable to the famed swords on the market.

In the relics, anything that had survived the years was generally very valuable.

If put on the market, this weapon would be worth over a million.

Unfortunately, after searching more, apart from some broken pottery, he found no other valuable items.

Su Lun then leaned against and collapsed on the walls of the bunker to rest.

He gently pressed on the wound on his chest, feeling bursts of stabbing pain, the sensation of rib bone shards piercing the flesh.

It was fortunate that Su Lun had the Spider Spear as his legs. Otherwise, a normal person sustaining such a severe injury wouldn't even be able to walk, and could do nothing but await death.

However, the situation was improving.

Even without taking any healing medicine, Su Lun could distinctly feel the stabbing pain easing.

His injuries were healing quickly, rather than worsening.

The "X Serum" had endowed him with an ultra-high regenerative ability which was now exerting a tremendous effect. The heightened cellular activity was rapidly repairing his severely damaged body as if filling holes.

...

"Whew..."

Su Lun exhaled a long breath of turbid air.

His wounds were healing on their own, without him needing to do anything.

In this moment of rest, he finally had the leisure to tally up his recent gains.

The greatest gain, naturally, was the materials obtained from the "White Monastery."

Su Lun hadn't expected that this one trip out would completely resolve the "Silk Thread" issue.

The Oliver family members had aggravated the witch into a second stage lord status, thereby directly producing a very rare "dark gold material."

[Wailing Witch's Skull]

Details: Dark gold curse material; this is not merely a skull, but also a complex source of curse magic, with a complete structure and inherent magical patterns; as long as there is sufficient energy, it can indefinitely produce witch's hair.

Seeing the information identified from the skull, Su Lun's gaze trembled slightly.

It was not just the hair strands but even the source producing the hair strands that had been secured in one fell swoop.

With these hair strands, he felt like he truly was a Puppeteer now.

Of course, there was also the[Tears of Alice]that had gathered all the magic power of the Wailing Witch's body.

But Su Lun hadn't yet figured out how to use this material deemed "very rare" even by the All-knowing Eye, so he didn't dwell on it much.

Additionally, there were several storage rings and assassination-derived implants and induction materials.

He had killed two first-tier control mages and a second-tier company chief, Blum, in the space.

The implants and induction materials of the two magicians were not bad. The one controlling the thorns yielded a silver-class professional material for[Thorn Sorcerer]; the Slowing Light Beam magician's abilities came from his talents, so his magical implants and induction materials were normal and slightly damaged...

And although Blum's second-tier implants and induction materials were made of black iron, they were very valuable, the black iron implant[Swift Lizard's Magic Muscle]and the necessary [Airsprite Dagger]for induction.

Although the bodyguard was also second-tier, there wasn't anything special in his storage ring.

All together, they would likely fetch a good price.

What interested Su Lun the most, however, was the decapitated alchemical automaton and storage ring left behind by the "Trickster" Lloyd.

Now that he had some free time, he took out the automaton, which looked exactly like a real person, and started to study it carefully.

Upon inspection, it indeed turned out to be an ancient alchemy product from a thousand years ago.

The automaton's skin was very similar to the biomimetic skin Su Lun had seen on Number Nineteen, with high resistance to both physical and magical attacks. However, the materials and craftsmanship were clearly entirely different.

The automaton was hollow inside, containing just enough space for the dwarf to manipulate, along with some complex control components.

Su Lun tried it out and thought that he might be able to make a biomimetic puppet in the future.

....

Then, a pleasant surprise came!

In the pile of books within the storage ring, Su Lun discovered a large number of exclusive Puppet Master texts.

Moreover, he found a very important-looking golden chest. Upon opening it, inside was a second-tier golden alchemical implant schematic—[Thousand Threads - Lion's Mane Ballad]!

Looking over the schematic's effect description, it was exactly the same ability that the "Trickster" Lloyd had demonstrated with threads bursting from his body. When deployed, it looked like the mane on a lion's neck, wildly scattering...

The gold blueprint was almost something that the top finance tycoons of the inner city regarded as prohibited.

Su Lun felt that if he were to rely on his luck alone, he might never find such suitable gold blueprints for a Puppet Master in his lifetime.

"Now this is really a windfall..."

As Su Lun looked at his spoils of war, he suddenly felt that being chased and almost killed was worth it.

He also guessed that both the "Wailing Witch's Head" and these blueprints were likely advancement items prepared for Young Master Danze Oliver.

Now they had fallen right into his hands.

Amazing...

Indeed, hunting down professionals from the same field was the best shortcut to finding materials related to one's profession.

If there were an even better shortcut, it would be to hunt down professionals from the same field within the inner city.

Moreover, there were some Puppet Master-specific tomes that couldn't even be bought in the market, such as "Puppet Manipulation Techniques I and II", "Triple String Technique", "Thread Control Tactics"...

Su Lun claimed to be a "Puppeteer", but in reality, he was just a novice, only knowing a bit about puppet crafting, and completely ignorant of other professional skills.

In terms of professional proficiency, it was even worse than his side job as a "Gunslinger".

All puppet manipulation techniques were self-taught; no one instructed him, nor did he have Soul Shards to extract.

But now it was different.

With these exclusive professional tomes, there was no need for him to blaze a trail. These books were like a smooth pathway...

If he truly digested the contents of these puppet tomes, Su Lun felt that his puppet control level would improve significantly, and he would really be starting properly.

"It's a shame the dwarf's renowned Puppet Master secret 'Marionette Theater' wasn't in the storage ring..."

Su Lun muttered to himself, feeling slightly dissatisfied.

He thought that next time he encountered it, he must ask the Puppet Master thoroughly.

...

As Su Lun went through his spoils, he kept an ear out for any noise outside.

He thought the Oliver family's guys would catch up, but after waiting for an hour or two, they still didn't show up.

There wasn't even the sound of a crow flying in the sky.

He guessed it might be related to the thick fog outside.

Far from feeling relieved, he became even more cautious.

If the Oliver family's people dared not come, it meant the fog definitely harbored great dangers.

Luckily, he had this sturdy little fortress.

Su Lun had no intention of going outside anymore.

Then, as he waited, a minor mishap occurred.

Su Lun looked at his body, suddenly sprouting crow feathers...

Looking at the panel, there was an added "Curse Magic - Crow Feather Parasitism".

Su Lun frowned, guessing that his blood left on the previous battlefield had been tampered with by the 'Blood Crow' Langfero to concoct a curse.

But he only frowned.

Then, he began to pluck out the feathers.

If he didn't have "X Serum", he would probably die.

But now... aside from being disgusting, this level of curse wasn't of much use.

So, Su Lun stayed in the fort, the fog outside growing thicker, and then he noticed that the dark spiritual power in the air started to become more violent...