Monster Synthesis Master - Chapter 29
Chapter 29: His Target—The Jack Gang!
As Lin Ke touched the bullet holes on the car, a corner of his lips couldn’t help but twitch. The Jack Gang thugs have actually reduced a perfectly good car like this to such a state! Didn’t they have any sense of moderation when they fought? Oh, how my heart aches.
What? Did you just say that I’m the one that battered the car? How can that be! I’m the man that has gotten Basic Marksmanship down pat. I wouldn’t do something like aim my gun at the thug but end up shooting the car. Absolutely impossible!
That’s right! After Lin Ke fought his way out of the inn and finished off the last assassin with three gunshots, his Basic Marksmanship’s progress bar had finally reached 100%. Together with the wonderful sound of a system notification reverberating in his mind, Lin Ke finally got his very first special ability.
[Basic Marksmanship Lv1: Firearms Hit Rate +5%, Reloading Speed +10%, Firing Rate: +5%]
After successfully unlocking Basic Marksmanship, Lin Ke couldn’t resist showing off his one-handed reloading right away. He took out a full magazine from his gun sling and tossed it into the air.
He then flicked the gun’s current magazine off. The pistol spun around his fingers with a flourish before he gripped the pistol and aimed the magazine well at the falling magazine. With a clack, the magazine entered the magazine well.
Lin Ke swiftly loaded the gun with a snap before spinning around and raising the pistol with both hands, aiming it behind him.
Forbes had just run over to Lin Ke at this point. When Lin Ke suddenly raised the gun and pointed it at him, he was so frightened that he hastily held up both arms. “Don’t fire, Boss! It’s me, Forbes!”
Smack!
The Glock 17 returned to the gun sling. The corners of Lin Ke’s lips couldn’t help but quirk upward as he replied, “Of course, I know it’s you.”
Lin Ke had always had these fancy reloading sequences tucked away in his memory. However, because he previously had yet to unlock Basic Marksmanship, he had lacked the extra 10% Reloading Speed. As a result, he couldn’t perform such sequences at all.
However, he could easily achieve a fancy one-handed reload now.
I unlocked Basic Marksmanship so quickly this time! Lin Ke thought emotionally to himself.
He remembered that when he previously played Destiny for the first time, it’d taken him almost 500 shots before he’d managed to unlock Basic Marksmanship.
That had been his first time playing the game back then, so he hadn’t been able to fire accurately at anything at all. Not only did his aim have to be accurate—his proficiency would only increase when the bullets hit their targets—but he also needed to endure the firearms’ recoil.
However, ever since his rebirth, Lin Ke had basically been firing at the enemies’ physical weaknesses at close range the whole time.
When one hit an enemy’s weaknesses, not only would they deal additional damage because of critical hits, but the proficiency increase would also double. This was also the reason why he had unlocked Basic Marksmanship so quickly this time.
This was especially true under the circumstances where undercurrents surged in Sand City because he would encounter battles almost every day. The unlocked Basic Marksmanship had allowed Lin Ke’s strength to advance yet another level!
“Get in the car, Forbes!”
Forbes felt a little lost. Aren’t all the thugs already dead?
“Boss, where are we driving to?”
Lin Ke unlocked the car with his key. The Jack-O’-Lantern V8’s car lights blinked as it emitted a beep when the doors unlocked.
Lin Ke patted the car hood and replied in a voice full of heartache, “The Jack Gang has damaged my beloved car so badly, so I’m obviously going over to seek reparation fees!”
Forbes let out a couple of howls and got into the passenger seat daftly.
There were bullet marks on the car’s window glass. The smooth and level transparent glass had already cracked like a dense spider web. Whitish gaps could also be seen all over the glass.
This decision of Lin Ke’s wasn’t a willful one either. The Jack Gang was just an unremarkable gang among Sand City’s third-rate gangs. Lin Ke initially thought that they would only be able to find their way here the next day at the earliest. However, to his surprise, they found his lodging the very same night.
Since he’d already struck first in such a clear-cut manner, he might as well storm the Jack Gang’s base and wipe out the whole gang. If he earned a round of profits along the way, he might be able to unlock the Universal-type class by tomorrow.
[You’ve triggered the D-Level mission, [Full Extermination]. Accept/Reject?]
[Mission Prompt: The Jack Gang already knows your lodging. They’ve already lost 17 members, so they definitely won’t let this matter rest easily. Rather than resigning yourself to fate and waiting for them to come to you, you might as well take the initiative to strike and completely wipe the Jack Gang off the face of Sand City!]
[Mission Reward: 10,000 EXP]
Accept! This is a mission that practically gives away EXP for free. Why shouldn’t I accept it?
Lin Ke had gained 2,500 EXP when he killed ten Level 5 ruffians in quick succession earlier. Although he had verbally talked down on his opponents and declared that he was outright storming their base, he still needed to go about it in a safe and steady manner nevertheless.
Thus…
Lin Ke looked at the 7,750 EXP in his EXP bar. He then glanced at his 50/150 HP before he wordlessly decided to level up.
[Leveling up from Level 5 to Level 6 will consume 2,800 EXP. Will you level up? Yes/No]
Yes!
Lin Ke’s HP was restored after he leveled up. His arms and shoulders—which had been vaguely aching just now—were now free of pain. It felt like they had gotten a new lease on life.
Lin Ke then took a look at his updated stats and was incredibly satisfied by what he saw.
Name: Lin Ke
Race: Human
Level: 6
EXP: 4,950
Class: N/A
Status: Refugee, Mandala Spokesperson
Health Points: 150/150
Energy Points: 40/40
Stats: Power (3), Agility (3), Endurance (15), Intelligence (4), Energy (2), Charm (1), Luck (1)
Latent Capacity Points: 6
Talent: N/A
Skills: N/A
Equipment: Sharp Dagger (White), Glock 17 Pistol (White), Bezos T1 Tactical Machine Pistol (White), Pump-Action Shotgun (White)
Special Abilities: Basic Driving (65%)
[Basic Marksmanship Lv1: Firearms Hit Rate +5%, Reloading Speed +10%, Firing Rate: +5%]
Appraisal: Hehe, someone has shot his own beloved car!
Lin Ke’s smile had been getting wider and wider when he first looked at his stats panel. However, he started cursing in mind—though the smile remained on his face—when he saw the last line where the system appraisal was.
This system definitely doesn’t have a mother! It must be a true-blue orphan system!
Now that he had leveled up, he was ready to head over to the Jack Gang’s headquarters to do some posturing.
Lin Ke got into the driver’s seat. He reclined the seat, lifted his legs, and then kicked the windshield out. My feet may be the ones kicking, but my heart is the one that’s aching! I’ll definitely make the Jack Gang pay for ruining my car!
After kicking the broken glass away, his field of vision immediately cleared up.
Sand Condor swooped down from the top of the building and dove headfirst into the car from the windshield-less front.
Treasure Hunter Rat also jumped out of the gun sling and returned to its exclusive seat—the backseat.
Vroom!!
The car lights lit up, and the roar unique to the V8 engine sent Lin Ke’s blood boiling just like a ball of fire.
Lin Ke knew the Jack Gang’s base like the back of his hand.
He said, “Forbes, you don’t need to go in when we reach the destination later. Stay outside and look after the car for me.”
“Okay, I’ll definitely get the mission done!” Forbes was overjoyed the moment he heard that he didn’t need to go in and fight. He immediately promised to complete his task well.
“Little Treasure, Sand Condor, I’m counting on both of you later. If both of you perform well, I’ll bring you guys to the uptown area tomorrow to have some red wine and beefsteak. You guys will get to experience what life is like in the upper-class society.”
Upon hearing this, even the usually lazy Sand Condor also began squawking in a rare show of emotion. Sit in a V8, drink red wine, eat beefsteak, and be an upper-class Sand Condor! Not bad, not bad.
Late in the night, an engine roared to life, and wheels squealed as they rubbed against the ground. The car then turned and left the inn, its target—the Jack Gang!
Nobody in the inn became angry or flew into a rage during this entire process. Although all of them had been in their rooms just now, they heard the earlier gunfight in the corridor very clearly.
Even though they didn’t know what the whole ruckus was about, a refugee wearing flax clothing had actually taken out every single one of the ten Jack Gang thugs.
Fly into a rage? Who would dare to!
It was only after Lin Ke drove off that some of them finally mustered the courage to open their doors and stick their heads out to see what had happened. However, a mere glance was enough to make them gasp in shock.
The battlefield in the corridor was too damned thrilling. Blood, severed limbs, and guts were splattered everywhere. The scene was extremely horrifying!
Many of them were so frightened that they shut their doors at once, lest they think back to what they’d just seen and end up with nightmares.
However, one of the guests was not like the others. After finishing up the sketch in his hands, he stuffed his pencil into the suit’s shirt pocket.
His action was very strange because nobody ever used their suit pocket to store a sketching pencil.
The man then walked over to the entrance, picked up the wooden door on the floor, and placed it upright at the side. When he went into the corridor, he merely cast a cursory glance at the six corpses stacked there, seemingly totally disinterested.
The artist then moved in the opposite direction and approached Room 505, where another two dead bodies laid on the floor.
One of them had their chest punched right through. This corpse’s bowels and other viscera were splattered all over the wall. The other corpse was in an even more exaggerated state—both his head and chest had been blown apart.
The artist stepped past the dead bodies and went straight into Room 505. As if he was entering a museum, he walked back and forth in the room as he looked around and examined the interior, occasionally reaching out and touching a few things here and there.
Another set of footsteps rang out in the corridor. The wooden floor emitted creaks as the owner of the footsteps walked through the corridor.
In a small inn like this—where all sorts of messy dealings took place—the artist wasn’t the only gutsy person around.
The other person also crept down the corridor. He mentally reconstructed the earlier battle through the corpses and bullet marks.
The excessively curious person then noticed a room with a wide-open entrance. In other words, the room that Lin Ke had crashed into using his shoulder earlier. The person walked into the room.
Moonlight spilled onto the desk, immediately making one notice the sketch draft resting on the desk.
He picked up the sketch—it was surprisingly one of Lin Ke holding up a shotgun in one hand and a Glock in the other. The dramatic and harsh drawing style and expression techniques vividly and thoroughly displayed the scene that had taken place in the corridor earlier.
“This…” The person holding the sketch frowned deeply. The guest was in the room the whole time, so how did reconstruct the earlier battle so thoroughly? It is practically an exact portrayal of the earlier battle! Whose work is this exactly?
His gaze shifted to the signature at the sketch’s lower-left corner. The person holding the sketch gasped in shock immediately. “What?! To think it’s actually him…”
Before he could fully utter his words, a large hand suddenly appeared behind him without him realizing it. It then clamped over his mouth in a death grip.
“It seems like you’ve found out about it.” A lazy, low, masculine voice rang out.
The person—whose mouth was currently being covered—widened his eyes to their limit. They were so wide that they couldn’t get any bigger. His body violently trembled all over, and he frantically shook his head as if he’d just seen the Grim Reaper.
“Ugh…” He desperately wanted to say something, but his mouth had been covered so tightly that he couldn’t utter even a single word.
“I know what you want to say. You want to say that you’ll keep this matter to yourself and that you won’t ever tell anyone about it…”
The frightened person frantically nodded in response. Only a short few seconds had passed, yet large beads of perspiration had already formed on his forehead and were trickling down his forehead rapidly.
The messy-haired artist leaned in from the back, lightly positioned his head against the other party’s ear, and whispered in a low voice. “… Sorry, but this is a secret mission.”
He’d only just spoken when his other hand moved lightning-quick.
A long, narrow object suddenly impaled the other party’s lower jaw and passed through his head, fully piercing into the curious man’s brain.
No sound was made at all. In fact, the artist even supported the curious man’s body as it went limp; he then laid it down gently.
The artist didn’t cast a second glance at the corpse. Instead, he tidied the sketches on the table and placed them in his file. He then dragged his suitcase and left the inn soundlessly, just like how he’d soundlessly arrived here.
If one insisted on pointing out some kind of change, then it was when he left…
The drawing pencil was missing from his suit pocket.
