Chapter 20
Chapter 20
Inside a luxurious living room, Qian Youquan’s furious voice thundered.
“They failed?! How did they fail?”
“He’s just a fucking piece of trash with an F-rank Talent! How could so many people fail to kill him?!”
“Did I pay you to go eat shit?!”
Qian Youquan kicked over a table, his eyes bloodshot.
“And now he’s an Anomaly Hunter!”
“How am I supposed to kill an Anomaly Hunter? Answer me!”
After his humiliating departure from the cafe, Qian Youquan immediately investigated Qin Lan.
Only after seeing his photograph did he realize that Qin Lan was the unlucky student whose college entrance examination result he had taken.
At the same time, he learned that the thugs’ assassination attempt — or rather, their very public murder attempt — had failed.
Qian Youquan panicked and regretted his earlier decision.
Why had he not hired more people and eliminated the problem in one stroke?
Now the matter was far more troublesome.
Killing an ordinary boy from the slums and killing a 1-Star Anomaly Hunter were entirely different things.
The former required only a negligible amount of money to smooth matters over.
The latter could bring a devastating blow down upon the Qian Group.
The newly appointed director of the Anomaly Hunter Bureau in Safe Zone 088 was notoriously hot-tempered. Rumor said he did not even respect the Safe Zone’s chief administrator.
If he discovered that someone had attempted to murder an Anomaly Hunter under his nose…
Forget Qian Youquan. Even if his parents grew several extra heads, there would not be enough to pay the price.
As Qian Youquan raged, the Qian Group employees nearby scarcely dared breathe.
Only after his anger subsided slightly did someone speak in a low voice.
“Young Master, although the Anomaly Hunter Bureau strictly forbids any faction or individual from attacking an Anomaly Hunter, it does not forbid internal conflict among Anomaly Hunters…”
Qian Youquan stopped and slowly turned toward the speaker.
“Continue.”
The employee swallowed and explained cautiously,
“Several Anomaly Hunters are affiliated with the Group. If you insist… we could ask one of them to act inside a Fallen Zone.”
“A novice Anomaly Hunter dying in a Fallen Zone is hardly unusual.”
“But the price may be extremely high…”
The other employees’ expressions changed. Several wanted to object, but one glare from Qian Youquan silenced them.
“Good. Do it.”
“Contact them immediately. Any one of them will do… As long as that bastard dies, everything is negotiable.”
Qian Youquan smiled coldly.
…
[[Road to the Netherworld] instance complete.]
[Calculating rewards.]
[Special objective incomplete. No additional reward.]
As the light warped, Qin Lan’s figure gradually appeared.
“What a shame. It was only an ordinary 1-Star anomaly. Even after I killed it, there wasn’t much curse energy to absorb.”
Qin Lan sighed regretfully.
The final anomaly had been a wronged spirit lost on his way home from school. He randomly selected passersby to escort him home.
No matter what they heard along the way, they could not look back. Otherwise, the little boy’s spirit attacked.
Qin Lan first courted death as usual and gained a few attributes. Then he spent curse energy and used several baton strikes to send the boy to meet his parents.
—
Name: Qin Lan
Race: Human
Strength: 4.4
Constitution: 3.6
Speed: 2.5
Spirit: 2.4
Curse Energy: 20
—
Qin Lan’s attributes had already risen considerably.
The gains from being killed by a 1-Star anomaly were now negligible, so he abandoned the idea of grinding after only one death.
Absorbing the anomaly’s curse advanced his Talent reset from one minute and thirty seconds to one minute and forty seconds.
“Good thing the baton secret art has control effects. Otherwise, that little brat would have escaped.”
Remembering the battle made Qin Lan even more satisfied with his skill.
Its damage was low, but its mechanics were extremely powerful.
Even the incorporeal spirit had been forced into [Stagger], preventing escape and leaving it helpless against the next two strikes.
Unfortunately, both corpses dissipated after their curses were absorbed, so Qin Lan could not take them back to the Safe Zone.
Otherwise, he could have completed an Anomaly Hunter Bureau assignment along the way.
Still, Qin Lan was in no hurry.
He planned to remain in the Fallen Zone for some time. He could bring back any 1-Star anomaly corpse he found later.
Beep, beep.
As Qin Lan considered where to wander next, the communicator on his wrist sounded.
“Hmm?”
He glanced down and discovered a message from another nearby Anomaly Hunter.
“Within three kilometers? A 2-Star Anomaly Hunter… Why is he contacting me?”
Qin Lan frowned as alarm bells rang in his mind.
After Lu Xingshan’s warning, he had deliberately avoided other Anomaly Hunters’ operating areas and traveled alone through the Fallen Zone.
Yet someone was actively approaching him?
He immediately recalled Qian Youquan’s threat.
“The Qian Group also knows several Anomaly Hunters with close ties to it…”
“I see.”
“I just joined the Anomaly Hunter Bureau. I have no achievements, history, or friends… Uh, that unreliable idiot doesn’t count. Even my Talent is the lowest F-rank. Whoever is approaching certainly doesn’t need my help.”
Qin Lan knew that conflict between Anomaly Hunters was tacitly tolerated. Killing one another was officially forbidden, but many underhanded methods existed.
A simple example was deliberately tricking a teammate into triggering a fatal rule inside an instance.
Or… allowing a cursed artifact to run wild.
Qin Lan opened a chat window on his communicator.
[Director Lu, could you look up a 2-Star Anomaly Hunter in our Bureau whose ID is Peng Haiyang?]
[Lu Xingshan (Director): ?]
[Lu Xingshan (Director): Am I a search engine? This is another Anomaly Hunter’s private information. I can’t simply give it to you.]
Qin Lan curled his lip.
“That old bastard…”
[The next time I obtain a 3-Star cursed artifact, I’ll offer it to you first.]
[I’ll even accept seventy percent.]
The other side showed that Lu Xingshan was typing, but no message arrived.
Qin Lan’s expression darkened.
“Seriously? His appetite is that big?”
[Sixty percent.]
Still no response.
[Director, fifty percent is my absolute limit! If I get killed in the Fallen Zone, I’ll become an anomaly and haunt you every day!]
This time, Lu Xingshan wasted no words. He immediately sent a document.
Qin Lan opened it and smiled after a quick review.
—
Name: Peng Haiyang
Rank: 2-Star Anomaly Hunter
Kill Record: Four 1-Star anomalies; one 2-Star anomaly
Talent Rank: B
Talent: [Confinement Field]. The user may briefly create a field with a confinement effect. Until the ability expires or is voluntarily canceled, imprisoned targets cannot leave the designated area.
Cursed Artifacts: [Severed Finger (1-Star)], [Filthy Pipe (1-Star)], [Foul Burial Shroud (1-Star)]
—
At the same time, the communicator showed that the 2-Star Anomaly Hunter, Peng Haiyang, had reached Qin Lan’s vicinity.
“You certainly made me search for you.”
A laughing voice came from behind him.
Qin Lan turned. A man in an Anomaly Hunter Bureau uniform was smiling at him.
The bronze badge on his chest gleamed faintly, marking his rank.
“You’re Qin Lan, right?”
Peng Haiyang greeted him warmly, without a trace of malice on his face.
“Exploring a Fallen Zone alone immediately after becoming an Anomaly Hunter is dangerous for a novice.”
“Why not form a team?”
His apparent concern was actually an attempt to confirm whether Qin Lan had companions hiding nearby.
Qin Lan smiled at the transparent pretense.
“No need to probe. I’m alone.”
“What did the Qian Group offer that made attacking me worthwhile?”
The smile gradually disappeared from Peng Haiyang’s face.
His expression turned cold, and he abandoned the disguise.
“So you’re not stupid… If you knew I came for you, why didn’t you run?”
“Do you think I won’t dare attack because your communicator records everything?”
Qin Lan asked with interest,
“Isn’t that true?”
Seeing his apparent naivety, Peng Haiyang burst into laughter.
“Ha-ha-ha! I thought you might be clever. You’re still an idiot!”
His smile carried vicious malice.
“It’s only a communicator. There are countless ways to block its signal. I activated a jammer as soon as I arrived. Every video feed has stopped transmitting!”
“Once I kill you, I’ll clean the scene and make it look as though an anomaly did it. Even the Anomaly Hunter Bureau will have no evidence against me!”
Qin Lan nodded in realization and thanked him politely.
“I see. Thank you very much.”
Peng Haiyang looked confused.
“Thank me? For what?”
Qin Lan drew the crowbar from his waist and grinned.
“For teaching me how to kill an Anomaly Hunter in a Fallen Zone without being held responsible.”
“And… for delivering three cursed artifacts.”