Reincarnated as a bamboo rat, it begins its extreme survival struggle.

"But for us, this tool is enough, after all, we have never fought against enemies stronger than us."

The leader of the shadow thieves, acting like a major villain, introduced the magical equipment he possessed and began to talk about their main business.

They could ambush severely wounded adventurers on the outskirts of various dangerous locations, or seek out and fight heavily injured magical beasts.

From a purely economic perspective, their team's profit model is quite good, exchanging high returns for minimal costs, but it's simply unethical.

Bell also learned why he was being targeted by these guys. They probably used this magical item to see the intensity of his life energy and thought he was an easy target, so they decided to take advantage of him.

But Bell didn't panic after being examined by others. Judging from the expressions of these people, they probably hadn't seen through his true form and only knew the intensity of his life energy.

Otherwise, if these guys had discovered my rat identity, they would have already taken action.

"Tell me, what do you want to do?"

"It's simple, it's just about making money. We've been watching you ever since you appeared in the Agricultural Guild. We don't know what you did in the Agricultural Guild, but you must have done something big. We found out what kind of deals you made in the Agricultural Guild."

This group's decision to follow Bell was not impulsive; they had been keeping an eye on Bell for a long time and had gathered a lot of intelligence.

"Besides what happened at the Agriculture Guild, you went to the Hunter Guild today. This time you traded six monster cubs with the potential to become overlords. This is not something an ordinary person can do, and judging from the strength of your life energy, you cannot accomplish these things on your own."

"Tell me, what city are you from? What kind of power do you have backing? What is your purpose in throwing so many resources into Cangxing City?"

The Shadow Thief looked confident that he had Bell completely under his control. The other three Shadow Thieves behind him were the source of his confidence. Now he was eager to know where the force that had thrown out so many resources in Cangxing City came from and what their purpose was.

With this information, he could make a fortune in the taverns of Cangxing City, not to mention that he planned to squeeze even more money out of Bell.

Chapter 142 The gun comes out like a dragon

The four shadow thieves formed a pincer movement, gradually tightening their encirclement and trapping Bell and Edu inside, blocking all of Bell's escape routes.

They were slow to act, partly because they were waiting for their leader to negotiate, and partly because they were afraid that Bell might suddenly attack and injure or kill their men.

But at this moment, Bell controlled Edu's body and stood still in place. The reason he didn't move was that he was waiting, waiting for his power to be ready.

"Hmph, acting so recklessly, aren't you afraid of being caught off guard and losing your boat this time?"

"Dude, verbal threats won't work. We need to believe in magic; this thing has never failed us."

Faced with Bell's words, the Shadow Thief showed an indifferent attitude, raised the monocular telescope in his hand, and looked like he had the upper hand.

"Then there's nothing to talk about."

With a sigh, Bell gave up on communicating with these guys.

After a brief exchange with Edu, Bell felt a mysterious yet extremely familiar power flowing into his body and prepared to fight back.

“Edu, now follow my rhythm and recite the passage I taught you.”

"Ah."

Even while Bell was arguing with the shadow thief, he had already separated his consciousness and entered the dream world.

On Bell's floating island, there is also the gun-wielding inheritance bubble of that ancient corpse. Bell has never intended to inherit the inheritance in this bubble because it would distort Bell's individual will and turn him into a martial arts fanatic who pursues gun skills.

But this does not mean that Bell cannot use its power in other ways.

Mithril is widely recognized as the most suitable material for magical conduction in this world. However, few know that mithril can also be used as a rope to connect to the Sea of ​​the Dead under special circumstances.

The Dream World is, in a sense, an extension of the Sea of ​​Depravity. With Bell's spiritual power as the connection, a link is formed between mithril, a material in the real world, and the Gun Technique Heritage Bubble.

Bell could feel the power within the inheritance bubble enveloping him and Edu, but this power still needed some external force to activate it.

"I was born in a snowstorm, and from a young age I fought only to survive. Humans have seven emotions and six desires, and when thirteen emotions come together, I understand my gun's intent..."

Bell spoke first, and Edu echoed him. The rhythmic cadence of their voices caused the surrounding magic to resonate—the power of a bard.

This situation startled the shadow thieves. They reacted quickly, their daggers instantly enveloped in shadow, and they thrust straight at Edu's body.

Nothing happened, but interrupting Bell and Edu's chanting was undoubtedly the best thing to do.

The daggers thrusting from all sides blocked Edu's options for dodging. If Bell hadn't been so reckless, he could have easily escaped from his Ratsuit and used a jump-off maneuver to dodge the attacks and launch a counterattack.

But Bale clearly wouldn't give up on Edu. If Edu could trust him completely and hand over control of his body to Bale, then Bale would guarantee that he would clear the level without taking any damage this time.

Bell's dark shadow sprang out from the shadow beneath Edu's feet, twisting and deforming rapidly in the air.

At the same time, facing attacks from all sides

Edu, under Bell's control, twisted his body into an extremely unscientific angle.

He dodged the daggers thrusting from both sides, and at the same time, the twisting shadow was shaped into a large spear of uniform thickness and about two meters long.

"I started practicing with a gun when I was three years old. Once I got the hang of it, I became one with the gun and couldn't put it down. When I was nine, I mastered the Thirteen Deadly Spears and killed the demon monkey of Flower Fruit Mountain in the heavens. When I was twenty, I had thoroughly studied all the gun manuals in the world and was invincible in the martial arts world!"

As soon as the sentence was recited, the power from the bubble of the spear master's inheritance was suddenly activated. This power was neither magic, nor life force, nor spiritual power; it was formless and intangible, but the power of skill.

Holding the Shadow Spear, Edu blocked the attack from the front with the butt of the spear, and at the same time, he turned around and thrust his spear, piercing the throat of the Shadow Thief behind him before the Shadow Thief's dagger could pierce him.

The master of spearmanship has reached a state of perfection, a skill that can even transcend the limitations of the physical body and the laws of nature, reaching a legendary realm.

"Longing for you, endless remembrance; short longing, yet boundless sorrow; the first shot—longing!"

With a sweep of their guns, the two, now masters of marksmanship, instantly swept away the three shadowy thieves who were attacking from the side.

At this moment, the three shadow thieves were sweating profusely. In their perception, the aura of the guy in front of them who was holding the shadow spear had suddenly become an unfathomable, extremely profound and terrifying existence.

Meanwhile, Bell and Edu, in their mastery of the gun, coldly surveyed the three shadow rogues, preparing to launch a second attack.

He didn't even need to look at the shadowy thief who had been shot behind him, because that guy was already doomed.

The first thrust, delivered in his masterful spearmanship state, had already disrupted a crucial point in the flow of qi and blood within his body. With the aid of his exquisite technique, the magic and life force within this shadow thief were completely out of balance and could no longer be restored to normal.

At the same time, the spear that pierced him was no ordinary weapon; it was an attack form that had fully unleashed its shadow.

The shadow has three states. Bell previously used the ability to enter the shadow world, and this time he used the ability to transform into a shadow monster.

The shadow can transform into a shadow monster, which attacks the shadow of Bell's enemies, killing the enemy's main body through the shadow. This type of damage ignores any defensive capabilities.

Shadows can manifest in many forms; they can act independently to attack enemies, or they can coalesce into a fixed form like they are now, for Bell to use.

Among the various ways of using it, the only constant is that the Shadow Monster's attacks can directly kill the enemy's main body through its shadow, ignoring any defensive capabilities.

The shadow thief who was stabbed now had his shadow disintegrate into a large, chaotic mass of shadows, no longer recognizable as human, which meant that his life had come to an end.

"Quickly, scatter and run!"

With one member instantly gone and facing an extremely strange opponent, the Shadow Thief, who were used to bullying the weak and fearing the strong, scattered like birds and beasts, the three of them fleeing in three different directions.

However, Bell and Edu, who were already in the zone, had their consciousness completely integrated, and they could not let the enemy in front of them escape.

"How much longing and passion can last in one night? Even the ends of the earth are not far enough. The second shot—heartbreak!"

Holding the end of the spear in one hand, Edu twisted his body at an astonishing speed. A sharp, circular beam of light emanated from the tip of the spear, which was his shadow form, and instantly slashed at the waists of two shadow thieves who hadn't run more than a few meters away, cutting them in two in mid-air.

Ningningzi, pierced through Tazan's resurrection armor with one shot! (*^▽)

Chapter 143 Edu Severely Injured

Bell's physical attributes are not high enough to compare with these Shadow Thieves. If they were to face each other head-on with equal strength, Edu would be subdued instantly.

But sometimes, experience and skill can make up for a lack of strength.

The marksman, now reduced to bone powder and sold, had fought countless battles in his lifetime. His experience could handle situations ten times more complex and dangerous than this.

Edu's movements are slow; this is an objective and unchangeable fact.

But from God's perspective, after he picked up the Shadow Spear, he merely shifted the shaft slightly, and the attacking Shadow Thief fell into the rhythm of Bell and Edu's battle.

Once in Gun Master mode, Bell and Edu perfectly demonstrated the principle of "an inch longer, an inch stronger," instantly killing three people.

Seeing that things were not going well, the shadowy thief at the head of the group activated the shadow beneath his feet at high speed, enveloping him and making a rapid escape.

This guy was slower to get up than his teammates, but faster to run. Even though it was a four-person team effort, his presence created a huge opening in their encirclement.

If the four of them were a united front and fought with all their might once they decided to attack, the battle would be much more difficult. But if their morale was low, then this group would no longer pose a threat.

"Seeing is believing, hearing is believing—Third shot: Blind Dragon!"

Edu and Bell closed their eyes and threw their guns.

Without visual locking or projecting mental energy, the marksman's mind has already locked onto the enemy.

With a flash of dark light, the Shadow Thief, who had disappeared under the shadow, reappeared. The long spear formed from the shadow was already in his back, piercing him and pinning him to the ground.

The attack hit its mark, and the shadow spear slowly dissipated, along with the shadow rogue's shadow, vanishing without a trace.

The shadow's mission is complete, and in the twenty-four hours before it re-forms, direct sunlight will inflict real damage on Bell that cannot be avoided.

While fully activating the shadow can grant powerful combat capabilities, it is also a double-edged sword. During the 24 hours without the shadow, Bell's activity range will be severely restricted.

"Edu, are you alright?"

As Bell stopped chanting "Thirteen Deadly Shots," the pure martial will within him quickly faded, and his temporary [Gun Master] status also rapidly disappeared. Soon, Bell reverted to [Intermediate Gunner].

But Edu, who bears this power, is currently in a very strange state.

His whole body was trembling, his skin was flushed, and his blood and qi were surging abnormally. If left unchecked, Edu's body would suffer irreversible damage.

However, compared to the physical harm caused by the reverse flow of qi and blood, Edu suffered a more severe mental shock.

Bell was able to break through the erosion of the gun master's will with his strong mental strength and maintain the independence and integrity of his rat personality.

However, Edu did not possess such strong mental power. Even though Bell had blocked most of the consciousness erosion left by the Gun Master, it was still difficult for Edu to resist.