Chapter 85: T-Ban Level

There was a ruckus outside the door. "Blind Detective" Bill, with his super-sharp ears, was the first to catch on. His two flintlock pistols were already locked and loaded, aimed right at the office door.

Roy, not as sharp but still on edge, whipped out his pistol too.

He knew it wasn't his fault. As this thought zipped through his mind, he wondered, "Did Bill, my old buddy, lose it again and imagine some freaky monster?"

But nope, not this time.

Just as that thought crossed his mind, a blue-skinned freak covered in golden runes showed up at the office door.

This wasn't some figment of Bill's imagination; this thing was real and detailed.

It didn't look human, but it had a weird, alive vibe. Not a monster, but definitely not normal.

"What the hell is this thing? And how is it so damn fast?"

Roy's face went pale as he stared at the blue-skinned freak.

He'd just heard the noise downstairs, and in a blink, it was at the door, like it had teleported or something.

With past experiences in mind, he didn't dare use his identification ability right away.

Just looking at the golden runes on its skin made Roy's heart race with a sense of deadly danger. Without a second thought, he started chanting the name he'd just seen in his notes: "Tyrmido M. Chi."

Bill was quick too. Hearing the noise at the door, his finger was already pulling the trigger.

Time seemed to slow down. The flames from the pistol's muzzle moved in slow motion, but the blue-skinned freak sped up.

The bullets hit its skin, sparking for a moment, but didn't stop it.

In a flash, the blue-skinned creature was right in front of Roy and Bill, raising a hand and delivering a simple punch to Bill's head.

Blood splattered.

Bill, the legendary gunslinger, didn't even get a chance to fight back. He was dead instantly!

The blue-skinned creature, having taken out Bill, turned its attention to Roy and threw another punch.

Roy saw it coming, not just fast but with a force that made his scalp tingle and his body feel like it was about to explode.

Luckily, he finished chanting the last syllable of the name just in time.

In an instant, the scene shifted, and he was back in the basement of 88 Ginkgo Street.

Roy gasped for air, like he'd just escaped a massive weight, cold sweat dripping down his forehead.

His eyes still flickered with disbelief, and he muttered with lingering fear, "So strong, what tier is that living corpse?"

Roy hadn't even had time to identify it. Just one glance made him feel like he'd glimpsed some forbidden terror, filling him with an instinctive dread he couldn't shake.

Roy felt that the blue-skinned creature was beyond any professional he'd ever encountered.

Thinking back, he realized that the complexity of the runes on its skin indicated that the creature's tier was insanely high.

In Old Linton, people called incomprehensible ancient knowledge "super-tier knowledge." Clearly, the runes on the blue-skinned creature were way beyond Roy's understanding.

Roy immediately thought of the research content in the diary and realized that the blue-skinned creature was a "living corpse."

"'Blind Detective' Bill was actually killed instantly by that creature."

Roy's eyes flickered with seriousness.

Even though he'd faced death many times before, he'd never felt such an oppressive presence.

"Good thing I didn't rashly go to the morgue; otherwise, I wouldn't even know how I died. The lower levels of that hospital probably have more than just one blue-skinned freak."

Looking at the empty basement, Roy's face turned grim as he judged, "To be able to kill a second-tier professional instantly, this cursed space isn't just a red S-level; it's a black 'T-Sealed Level'!"

Roy felt a bit lucky. Thanks to the Eye of Truth, he knew how to break the space in advance, and thanks to finding Bill as a temporary teammate, he found the clues.

Otherwise, if he'd faced that creature alone, there would've been no chance of survival.

However, since Bill was already dead, Roy didn't feel any guilt about using his temporary teammate.

In fact, when Bill was killed, Roy had even absorbed the dissipating "gray mist" from his body.

"Obtained 'Bill Strauss' memory fragments *4"

"You got some intel: 'Deputy Director of Dark Tower Academy, Nikola J. Emmerich, has gone rogue. The organization's order is to find him. I finally found some clues and checked out 88 Ginkgo Street, but it seems like a trap set by that guy.'"

"You've picked up some auditory skills and learned [Sound Localization (Beginner)]."

"You've unlocked a mental perception ability [Malice Detection]."

"You've mastered the gun technique [Multiple Overlapping Shots], firearm experience +547."

"Mental strength +1.19."

With the crisis over, Roy's brain started working again.

"The space actually kept Bill's soul intact."

Roy was blown away by how much he gained, even though Bill had been dead for months.

He even thought that if he went back in, he might see Bill again.

Nope, Roy was sure there wouldn't be a next time.

Even though he was curious about what kind of "cursed object" was behind such a terrifying cursed space, he knew it was probably another [Sealed Object] level treasure.

But it was way out of his league, so Roy immediately ditched that unrealistic fantasy.

Looking at his gains, he felt like life was worth living again.

The new skills he picked up made Roy super satisfied, and his perception and combat abilities had shot through the roof.

[Sound Localization] and [Malice Detection] were practically made for a gunslinger. One was an auditory perception skill, and the other was a passive mental perception.

Digesting the memory, Roy felt like he'd opened the door to a whole new sensory world.

Before, he thought the basement was quiet, but now it was a symphony of sounds.

Listening closely, he could even pick out the sounds of mice crawling in the walls, cockroaches scuttling, and air flowing.

Roy had taken another shortcut.

The ability to hear and locate sounds was something an ordinary person might never grasp in a lifetime, as it required the focused development of auditory skills, something only a blind person who relied on hearing to perceive the world might achieve.

The [Malice Detection] was why Roy had been shot when he tried to check Bill's condition earlier.

Before, Roy had a certain degree of "killing intent detection" due to his high mental strength.

This skill was an advanced version of that ability.

One could only detect killing intent when it was right in front of them, while the other could sense any malicious intent at the slightest disturbance. It wasn't just limited to killing intent but included other nasty thoughts as well.

The higher the mental strength, the greater the range and precision of the perception.

It was a versatile offensive and defensive ability.

The [Multiple Overlapping Shots] gun technique was a high-level skill that Roy had long heard of but had been unable to learn due to a lack of opportunities and insufficient technique.

Now, he had it down pat, making him feel that he could now perform "double overlapping shots." As his strength grew, multiple overlapping shots would come naturally.

After today, Roy finally had a way to deal with tough targets.

It was indeed the soul fragment of a "gun master."

However, after reviewing his skill gains, the message that had entered his mind made Roy frown.

"The Deputy Director of Dark Tower Academy has defected, and Bill came to investigate him."

Seeing the name "Nikola J. Emmerich," Roy's memory happened to include an impression of this deputy director, extracted from the memory of his female assistant, Rosa.

In Rosa's memory, he was a kind, respected, and amiable elder.

Defected.

Roy found the term very abrupt.

In the vast underground world, with only Old Linton as a city, where could a deputy director of Dark Tower Academy, who lacked neither fame nor power, defect to?

However, Roy didn't dwell on the grudges and entanglements of the bigwigs in the inner city. He was more concerned about another matter.

"From Bill's memory, it seems he had already guessed that he had fallen into the deputy director's trap. This 88 Ginkgo Street is a 'trap'!"

A thought flashed through Roy's mind, and he suddenly felt uneasy, considering a possibility: if it was a trap, would a hunter come to check if any prey had fallen into it?

Just like a spider always watching its web. Even if it wasn't the prey it was waiting for, it would still come to check if there was any movement.

As soon as Roy had this thought, a sense of crisis surged through him.

Without any hesitation, Roy grabbed the scythe with the black blade from the corner and bolted out of the room.

And as it turned out, his gut was spot on!