ZZZ: A Hunter's District Zero!

Anby, completely unsuspecting, nodded seriously and agreed.

"Alright, in that case, we’ll rest here for two hours before setting out."

She agreed so readily not only because of the trust she had built in Andrew, but also partly due to a reluctance she didn’t want to admit.

Regardless of whether Andrew’s reasoning was sound, Anby successfully convinced the other team members with the logic of "it’s better to be safe than sorry."

Watching the Silver Squad immediately start assigning shifts for guard duty and rest at Anby’s command, I got the feeling that this so-called reason was really just Anby convincing herself, while the others were simply following their captain’s orders.

"Well then, I should get going. Lastly, as a memento of us fighting side-by-side, here’s a gift for you."

With that, Andrew took off the ornament hanging from his tachi and handed it to Anby.

This was a cloth ornament Andrew had made, modeled after the "Hope Scarf: Silver." After all, the original Dragon Lantern Wing Ornament was at home, on his Blazing Light Tachi, Icebrink.

And a tachi without an ornament just felt like it was missing something.

So Andrew had made this one from memory.

As he passed it over, Andrew used the motion of removing it as cover, secretly crushing something in his left hand and smearing a bit of it onto the ornament.

Anby, still unsuspecting, took the ornament, nodded solemnly, and then carefully folded it bit by bit before tucking it into the innermost compartment of the pouch on her waist.

Andrew didn’t know that this was actually the first gift—a real gift—that Anby had ever received in her life.

With a wave, Andrew left decisively, as if he had something very urgent to attend to.

"Wait..."

The words caught in her throat. In the end, Anby couldn’t bring herself to voice the faint plea for help that was in her heart.

How could she ask for help? Ask someone to unconditionally help them fight a danger he didn’t even need to face? Anby couldn’t do it.

As Andrew departed, all the members of the Silver Squad, except for the two injured ones who lay still, unable to move, stood up involuntarily. They watched his figure silently until it disappeared into The Breach, watching the first stranger they’d met vanish before their eyes.

Pulling back her reluctant gaze, Anby shook her head to calm herself, trying not to dwell on those messy thoughts. She closed her eyes quietly, awaiting the arrival of the final judgment.

————

"Belle, please find me the fastest route back to the shop. Don’t worry about the Ethereal distribution, please."

"No problem!"

As Andrew’s Proxy, fulfilling the agent’s route request at a moment’s notice was a Proxy’s top priority. In just ten seconds or so, a new route map appeared before Andrew’s eyes, with a speed so fast it would make any first-time witness exclaim it was impossible.

"So fast. You truly are a legendary Proxy."

"Hmph, it’s only at times like this that you’re not teasing."

As Andrew charged forward, the surrounding scenery blurred into a streak, but even so, his body remained steady, so much so that Belle, sitting on his shoulder, barely felt any bumps.

The Ethereals on the path were crushed as Andrew plowed through them like a dump truck. Any Ethereal that stood in his way was sent flying with a single punch.

"Your potion has a side effect like that? How come you’ve never mentioned it before?"

Belle couldn’t help but ask, looking at Andrew’s face, which remained completely unfazed even after he had already sprinted halfway.

"Of course it’s fake. Why would I carry a medicine with such a serious side effect on me?"

"Ser... serious... you say?"

Multiple fractured ribs and obvious ruptures in several internal organs, yet one bottle of medicine and he was back to normal in two seconds. It even healed the muscle strains from the previous fight.

Even if he had to rest for two hours afterward, you could totally call it a miracle drug, right? And that’s considered a serious side effect?

Belle didn’t understand. Belle was thoroughly shaken.

Although Andrew had told her it was a healing potion, his casual attitude when he’d tossed it over made Belle completely fail to realize just how powerful this stuff was. This went way beyond the level of a mere healing potion, didn’t it?!

She secretly decided that when Eous returned, she absolutely had to swap out the potions he kept casually in his backpack—originally intended as a perk for agents—for a diluted version at the very least.

However, Belle still couldn’t understand Andrew’s specific plan as she watched him sprint all the way to the blacksmith’s shop.

"Andrew, what exactly is your plan?"

Seeing Belle’s confused gaze, Andrew didn’t slow his pace and said matter-of-factly:

"To rip out the problem by the roots, of course."

"Rip it out by the roots?"

Andrew nodded and replied seriously:

"Yeah. We could have them leave with us right now, but the research institute is still there. The researchers and the research data are still there. If we don’t get rid of them, a tragedy like this will sooner or later happen again. That would make it all meaningless."

Understanding immediately, Belle had a moment of epiphany. She smacked her right fist into her open left palm, a plan quickly forming in her mind.

"So when you asked them about their next move, you were confirming that they’d go back to the research institute! Then we can call the police and have that place shut down for good!"

But the various experiences from his first life prevented Andrew from being so naive as to think this could be solved simply by calling the police.

"No. With technology this advanced, the police alone could never eliminate it completely. No matter how diligent they are, they wouldn’t be able to eradicate it entirely. It would just force them to hide it somewhere deeper."

In New Eridu, only three entities could pull off such sci-fi-level technology: the military, the city government, and the TOPS consortium. And considering the Silver Squad’s military identity, their backer was self-evident.

"Isn’t that... too dangerous? In the worst-case scenario, we might have to face the military head-on!"

Belle’s gaze was fixed on Andrew, her worry impossible to hide. Although the battle she’d witnessed had given her a profound understanding of Andrew’s strength, her concern hadn’t lessened one bit.

"Don’t worry, Belle. I didn’t tell them to rest for two hours just for fun."

——

In just over an hour, Andrew was already back at the blacksmith’s shop on Sixth Street.

Up in his room on the second floor, the kind of equipment panel you’d only see in a hunter’s personal tent appeared before Andrew. As he took off the Dullahan gear piece by piece, Andrew approached the display stand holding the Lockblade Dragon armor set.

Reality wasn’t a game. The so-called Low Rank armor was made from damaged parts or leftover materials from a hunt, something you could get with Guild Points. But as the hunter of this dragon, the final forged product would only be the complete, high-quality version.

That’s also why the tachi Andrew wielded was the Blazing Light Tachi, Icebrink, itself.

As he put on the armor piece by piece, the helmet finally covering his face, the full power of the Lockblade Dragon set began to course through his body.

If the strength of the Dullahan gear was a steel plate, then the Lockblade Dragon set was Gundanium Alloy! He was sure it would give those inhuman bastards an endless, nasty surprise!

-

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