Gulf Town, the neighborhood north of Raymont Estate.
The morning fog showed no sign of dissipating, even though it was already past ten o'clock.
The entire neighborhood was dead silent until a high-pitched, piercing scream shattered the quiet, sounding as if someone had just been murdered. Then came someone's complaint, saying there was no need for it to be that loud...
Another ten minutes or so passed.
Familiar footsteps echoed, drawing closer and closer. A dark figure emerged in the mist, looking like a small mountain from afar. As it approached, its true form was gradually revealed: it was that shark-headed goblin.
After just one night, this thing's height had actually reached three and a half meters, its body noticeably bulkier. Lying in ambush, Wu Shuang's eyes widened in surprise. He hadn't expected this monster to be capable of growing—it seemed able to grow by eating living corpses, and at a remarkably fast rate.
It seemed to have truly gorged itself last night, with plenty of shredded flesh and bloodstains still clinging to its teeth and the corners of its mouth.
Carrying a large bone club over its shoulder, it walked along while looking around, as if patrolling its own domain, until it stopped in front of Raymont Estate and looked over.
By now, it already knew the old knight was gone, so it acted without restraint, searching for the source of the noise and quickly locking onto the living corpses lying on the ground.
It had eaten a mountain of them last night to the point of bursting, but by now it had mostly digested the meal. Reaching down, it picked up a dead corpse from the ground and habitually began stuffing it into its mouth...
"Hey, fathead, over here!"
A female voice echoed, making the goblin freeze mid-bite as it turned its head toward the sound.
On the roof of the adjacent two-story building, a weird figure had appeared at some unknown moment. Remarkably, it had two heads—there was another one resting on the left shoulder, which was the one that had just shouted.
As for the other person, he was holding a large black barrel in his hands. Silvery-white threads bound the black barrel to his body, extending in a spiral pattern, though its function remained unclear.
The goblin didn't recognize the object, but having seven dark openings pointed right at its face felt deeply unpleasant and insulting. Before it could react, however, thunderous gunfire resounded across the entire town, followed immediately by bone-shattering agony.
"ROAR!!!!"
Wu Shuang pulled the trigger, firing all seven barrels simultaneously. A dense spray of pellets flew straight at the goblin's face. At a point-blank range of less than five meters, missing was completely impossible.
Dozens of lead pellets slammed into the goblin's head, sending shredded flesh and filthy blood flying, even bringing out small fragments of bone. The force knocked the goblin backward, forcing it to retreat.
Wu Shuang also stumbled back a few steps. The gun's recoil was dispersed across his entire body by the hair, preventing him from getting injured like last time. It could be said to be a resounding success.
"Great. Prepare to retreat. Here's the gun—keep reloading!"
Wu Shuang said, having no inclination to check the results as he turned and ran immediately.
He had tied a thick rope to the rooftop beforehand specifically for fleeing. Using the rope to cushion his descent, he landed in two bounds. Immediately after, the entire building shook as rubble exploded outward.
As expected, even a headshot could hardly kill it. Wu Shuang had examined the bones of these fish monsters before and knew their skulls were exceedingly thick, resembling a fusion of human and fish bones. The thickest part at the forehead even exceeded five centimeters; only the eye sockets and bridge of the nose were relatively fragile, making it extremely difficult to kill.
Therefore, the sole purpose of this strike was to blind it and destroy its vision, not to deliver a lethal blow.
The corpse laid out on the ground had also been prepared to make it stop, giving Wu Shuang, whose marksmanship was only mediocre, ample time to aim and blind the creature's eyes.
The tactic worked!
Listening to the furious roars echoing from behind, Wu Shuang looked back at the collapsing building, a smile forming at the corner of his mouth.
But it wasn't over yet!
"Wu Shuang, in front of us!"
Mia warned. Up ahead, a living corpse had rushed out from nowhere—likely drawn by the noise—and lunged toward Wu Shuang. But it took a flying axe straight to the face—thrown by Mia—which lodged into the living corpse's leg.
Wu Shuang followed up with a casual sword stroke, finishing it off effortlessly.
The northern district had actually been cleared out fairly well, but there were always stragglers, so they still had to stay on guard against living corpses.
"Mia, how much longer to reload?"
"Just give me fifteen more seconds."
"Got it!"
Wu Shuang responded. By then, the heavy footsteps of the goblin could already be heard from behind. It was pursuing them at a frantic pace, narrowing the distance between them to barely twenty meters.
And this goblin wasn't blind.
Wu Shuang had initially wondered why it was pursuing so fast, but looking back, he realized that shot had only destroyed the left side of the goblin's cheek and the bridge of its nose, exposing the white bone beneath along with embedded lead pellets, but leaving its right eye completely unharmed.
Because of the close distance, the pellets hadn't spread wide enough. While the power had increased, it failed to reach the shark-head's other eye; after all, the creature's eye distance was quite wide, so the spread couldn't cover both.
Seeing the gap closing, Wu Shuang made a split-second decision and ducked into a narrow alleyway, intending to kite the creature by running in circles, taking full advantage of his smaller size to wear it down.
However, after running for barely ten seconds, he felt something was wrong. His steps slowed as he dispatched a living corpse trying to attack him, his brow furrowing.
"That fathead didn't follow us!"
Mia said, voicing what Wu Shuang was thinking. The footsteps hadn't followed them into the alley; in fact, they had stopped entirely.
A few seconds later, when the footsteps resumed, the sound was actually heading in the opposite direction.
"Fuck, this thing has brains! It retreats when the situation turns against it!"
Wu Shuang cursed. He had originally intended to replicate the kiting tactic he used against the living corpse horde, only for the opponent to refuse to play along.
He couldn't let it escape. This creature was 100% capable of holding a grudge and learning its lesson; next time, it would probably be even harder to deal with, and if its injuries healed, it would be an even bigger headache. He had to kill it once and for all.
Thus, the tables turned. Wu Shuang grabbed the gun and chased after it instead. The back-and-forth drained a lot of his stamina, but fortunately, he managed to catch up.
"Don't run! Hold it right there!"
Wu Shuang shouted. Since he wasn't as fast on his feet, if the shark-headed goblin was determined to flee, he really wouldn't be able to do anything about it.
However, he had miscalculated—or rather, underestimated the creature's intelligence—and by the time he realized it, it was already a bit too late.
Sensing Wu Shuang following behind, it spun around immediately, revealing its left hand, which it had intentionally kept hidden in front of its chest—holding a massive pile of rubble gathered from the buildings.
"Watch out!"
"Fuck!"
Mia's warning and Wu Shuang's curse rang out almost simultaneously.
Then, the shark-head hurled the rubble in its hand right at them.
To the creature, they might just be small pebbles by the roadside, but to Wu Shuang, they were essentially flying bricks. He immediately ducked to minimize his hit area, but he still took the brunt of several flying bricks. A larger piece was blocked by Mia with her shield, but the impact sent the shield flying and severed quite a bit of her hair.
Another piece lodged into Wu Shuang's left shoulder, likely injuring the bone. In addition, numerous stone fragments pierced under Wu Shuang's skin like grenade shrapnel, though the power was much lower since they were over twenty meters apart.
This monster... just the stones it threw were comparable to artillery shells!
"Wu Shuang...!?"
"I can't lift my left arm. Help me hold the gun, quick! It's rushing us!"
Wu Shuang said. Unable to lift his left hand to hold the gun, he had Mia use her hair to assist, aiming the weapon at the goblin once more.
However, at that moment, the opponent used its left hand to shield its remaining right eye, while the bone club in its right hand was already poised to strike.
Rate on N.U.
