Forge a path to success.

Chapter 10 The Outsider's Bullet (Part 1)
Chaos erupted beneath the gray stone tower where the artifacts were being salvaged. Bandits wearing burlap hoods appeared out of nowhere. They seemed to know the terrain better than the salvage workers, launching attacks from behind cover and in blind spots, easily driving the workers out of the tower.

Most of the salvage workers scattered on the spot upon seeing this, but a few with some backbone remained to guard the entrance. A young salvage worker brandished a stick and drove away the thieves, his youthful face showing a mixture of shock and anger.

"Brother, are you crazy! These are all colleagues who are just coasting along in the workshop, what on earth are you doing?!"

This was the third attack this month. Although the bandits had covered their faces with sacks, he recognized the familiar figures. Most of them were veteran salvage workers who had worked at the Anza workshop. When he first started, these seniors had taught him the skills, and at his farewell banquet, he had personally toasted each of them. But how could these honest and hardworking salvage workers have gone mad like this after only a few months?
The attacking bandit in the sack had a ferocious look in his eyes. He punched the young man hard in the corner of his eye, making him see stars.

"What a load of rubbish!" the bandit roared. "Wearing scavenged clothes and carrying spare change from selling garbage, outsiders have absolutely no chance of survival in this wretched city. Even if we scavenged garbage for ten thousand years, we'd never be able to go home!"

He snatched the stick and immediately began to beat the young man mercilessly. The poor young man was bleeding from his head and was beaten unconscious. The defenses at the entrance completely collapsed, and the bandits, their eyes bloodshot, swarmed in. The bandit leader charged at the forefront, encouraging his men as he attacked.

"The government wants to use us homeless people as livestock! They'll exploit outsiders to death like this!" the bandit leader shouted. "How long are we supposed to stay here? If we don't take action, how can we ever return to our own Dust Island?!"

"Break the curtain! Leave the city! Return home!" The bandits' reply was as orderly as an army's: "Break the curtain! Leave the city! Return home!"

Most of the bandits followed their leader into the gray tower, while a few who remained began to build a defensive line. Four bandits armed with long-barreled guns scaled the walls and took up firing positions, while the rest cautiously scouted the surrounding area. The bandit furthest from the entrance saw two figures charging towards the stone tower. He immediately raised his gun and aimed, but before he could pull the trigger, a dark shadow struck him in the chest. The bandit stopped breathing instantly; he felt as if a rhinoceros had gored him in the chest!

The next moment, a silver tentacle snatched away the bandit's long-barreled gun, and a precise hand chop knocked him unconscious. Chu Hengkong picked up a dark, unremarkable stone; it was this little thing that had interrupted the bandit's firing.

“If you hit the head, you don’t need to waste time finishing off the enemy,” Chu Hengkong said.

“I’m afraid you’ll smash their brains in if you hit them on the head!” Ji Huaisu shouted from the side. “Remember you are a law enforcement officer now. You are not allowed to kill unless absolutely necessary.”

"I'll listen to you, Captain." Chu Hengkong dodged a water bullet by tilting his head. "Let's split up now, it'll be troublesome if you get hit..."

The bandits were far more capable than the thugs under Hugos's command. They were organized, planned, and clearly trained, knowing how to seize high ground and snipe from behind walls. The two men moving side-by-side were easy targets, and he wasn't confident he could both charge and protect Ji Huaisu at the same time.

"No need, follow me and charge."

However, this girl was the type to ignore all advice. She rushed out without taking any defensive measures, only to be met with seven specially made water bullets! These bullets had the explosive power to send an adult male flying a hundred meters. With the same attack repeated seven times, even a body made of steel would be shattered in mid-air.

Chu Hengkong quickly used his tentacles to wrap around Ji Huaisu's waist, trying to pull her to safety. But he noticed a golden light emanating from Ji Huaisu's hand, several times brighter than when they were gliding through the air. Almost instantly, the golden light solidified into a semi-transparent knight's shield.

Those powerful water bullets were deflected by the light shield; they couldn't even make Ji Huaisu retreat a single step!
"Holy crap, that's..." "A Calamity Knight!" "A crazy woman from the Resurrection Squad!"

"Why does she have a tail?!" "Look closely, she's connected to the man behind her. That witch must be using sorcery to absorb energy!"

The bandits gasped, a series of different exclamations erupting from them. Ji Huaisu slowly looked at the tentacles at his waist, and the veins on his forehead were faintly visible.

"Is there something wrong with you?"

"I..." Chu Hengkong awkwardly withdrew his tentacles. "Let's go, charge! Give me the minions." Ji Huaisu glared at him fiercely, then charged forward, shielded by her light shield. She was practically an invincible vanguard; neither water bullets nor the pebbles thrown by the bandits could shake her light shield. The barrage of seven specially made water guns couldn't even slow her down. Three bandits rolled out from behind the wall, attempting to attack from the side or rear blind spots, only to be met with stones that seemed to have eyes. The first stone struck their wrist, disarming them; the second struck their heart or groin, causing injury. Chu Hengkong's right hand moved rapidly, and with cries of pain, three of the enemy were no longer able to move.

In just a few seconds, Ji Huaisu had reached the unguarded entrance, while Chu Hengkong retreated from behind the light shield and darted up the right-hand wall like a shadow. The bandit guarding the high ground hadn't even seen the enemy's face before being struck in the back of the head by a hand chop and fell to the ground. Chu Hengkong used a sliding step to bypass the fallen enemy's body, and with a backhand elbow strike, he finished off the second bandit.

The two guards on the right side of the entrance fell in an instant, and the bandits on the left wall quickly raised their guns and created distance. They breathed a sigh of relief; the entrance gate was still between the two walls, and even the tentacle couldn't reach that far.

Chu Hengkong did not use his tentacles; he raised the stolen gun amidst the stunned gazes of his enemies.

Two gunshots rang out, and the last two bandits were propelled high into the air by the fountain-like water jet. Chu Heng leaped down the wall and returned to Ji Huaisu's side. The fight on the wall lasted less than two seconds, and Ji Huaisu had just entered the Gray Stone Tower.

"Your basic skills are good. I thought you were the type who didn't use guns."

"I just don't like using guns." Chu Hengkong shrugged. "Before, a knife was enough for me when I went on missions."

"In your hometown, do people use swords more often than guns?" Ji Huaisu became somewhat interested.

"The firearms in my hometown are more advanced than those in Huilong City. Anyone with a normal mind can use a gun." Chu Hengkong used his tentacles to pick up a few pebbles. "I'm an abnormal minority."

The gray stone tower was pitch black. The power source had been shut off by the bandits who had entered earlier, with only faint rays of light filtering through the cracks in the stone walls. Apart from the sound of their footsteps, there was no other movement inside; the earlier bandits seemed to have melted into the darkness. Chu Hengkong pulled out a white, charged iron ring and tapped it against the wall, while Ji Huaisu observed the water guns he had captured.

This gun was different from the water guns used by thugs in terms of its design; the slender barrel was painted dark blue, making it look like a modified hunting rifle. Ji Huaisu glanced at it twice and clicked his tongue loudly.

"I know who modified the 'skilled' torrent gun!" She roared towards the top of the tower, "Come out, Mimori Nozomi! If you resist any longer, I'll put you in jail for ten years!"

A man's strange cry came from above, shrill and high-pitched like a bat's song: "Locked in jail? Heh heh, what's the difference? We've been locked up in this wretched city for over twenty years!"

No one is taking away your freedom of movement—

"Stop lying! I already know! It was your dear old man who shut down the shipping lanes!" Mimori Nozomi screamed. "Shut down! Gone! We can never go back! What can we do but blast your damned water curtain apart with a single shot?!"

"Break the curtain! Leave the city! Return home!"

The bandits' shouts thundered, echoing through the empty stone tower. Dozens of dark blue modified guns emerged from the darkness, unleashing a torrent of high-pressure water bullets. This time, Ji Huaisu was no match for them; she dragged Chu Hengkong into the side corridor. Chu Hengkong remained silent, memorizing every word they uttered, searching his mind for the name "Sansen Wangxiang."

This morning before practice, he made a special trip to headquarters and noted down every wanted poster on the bulletin board. The one for Mimori Nozomi was located in the middle, and it had a description that interested him:
【"Cluster Cannon" - Mimori Nosaka】

Bounty: 15 Flowing Pearls.
-
A demon-possessed person who possesses relics.
-
They roam the various floating islands in the workshop area, randomly robbing people.
-
A "skillful hand" of quality! Beware of boxing and artillery and illegally modified weapons!
(End of this chapter)