Listening to the noisy sounds coming from not far away, Feng Xue knew the gang members had likely arrived, promptly pressed down on the hood over his head, and confirmed that he had entered a state of concealment before quickly fleeing the scene of the crime through the narrow alley.
Having disengaged from combat, the speed boost from the Silent Boots was still quite significant. Combined with the Assassin's suit which reduced his presence, despite the clothes on his left rib and right arm being dyed red with blood, he successfully evaded the gang members who may or may not have tried to track him and returned home.
With the treatment from the Silent Boots, his wounds had begun to crust over, and the white robe, soaked in blood, was gradually regaining its cleanliness — a distinctive feature of pseudo artifacts. As long as they were not completely destroyed, whether they were dirty or damaged, they would slowly recover over time. However, if the damage was too severe, the self-healing could take a long time. At that point, inputting some "Identity" could speed up the repair process.
At this moment, Feng Xue actually felt quite fortunate. The climate in Infinite City was controlled just like central air conditioning, ensuring there was no fog. Although the Holy Mother could unleash its greatest lethality in the darkness, in fog, and against female opponents, faced with the harbinger of corpse transformation, the damage from peeling organs might still be less than that of merely sharp weapons.
Nevertheless, today's incident made Feng Xue realize that the birth of such omens wasn't an extremely low-probability event. After pondering for a moment, he made a decision —
He would only work at night and only take female cadavers unless he acquired a stronger weapon.
…
On the other hand, standing precisely where Feng Xue had fought the omen before, the gang leader "Manager" wore a subtly changing expression. Next to him, two middle-aged individuals were scanning the area, each bearing the label "Appraiser".
A moment later, as if discovering something, one of them suddenly looked up and said affirmatively,
"There's no mistake. The omen that appeared here should be the 'Bone Woman'."
"Bone Woman? That's already a very high-level type. Even if just born, it possesses Anomaly Level combat capabilities, and its appearance is close to that of an ordinary person. It's too dangerous if it were to blend into the landfill area. Can you tell which way she ran?" The other Appraiser furrowed his brows and walked over here while the one who discovered the clue replied with a peculiar expression,
"No, there's no need to chase anymore. She was killed here just now. Come look at the marks on this rock. This is a mark dispersion phenomenon that only appears after the omen is slain; otherwise, that rock would never have absorbed 'female' elements."
The Appraiser who caught up looked where his colleague pointed and indeed saw the rock with 'female' elements. Based on their past experience, he even outlined approximately where the Bone Woman had died.
Inside this marked circle, the two Appraisers progressively found some items affected by the mark's radiation. However, these elements, not naturally matching the items, wouldn't solidify but would gradually fade and disappear over time. This was why this phenomenon was called mark dispersion rather than element dispersion.
Listening to the two Appraisers' back-and-forth discussion, the Manager finally couldn't hold back and said,
"So you mean to say that in less than ten minutes since I received the notification of the omen's appearance and rushed here, someone has already slain an Anomaly Level omen, the Bone Woman, which is close to a true Kaidan?"
"As unbelievable as it sounds, the traces at the scene do indeed indicate so," replied the part-time detective Appraiser, pointing at the almost footprint-free ground, marked only by a few inconspicuous drag marks and a few scratch marks, adding,
"The person likely encountered the omen in that house and chose to flee immediately but was caught up by the Bone Woman, and the battle occurred here, all within about three minutes."
"This is impossible! Although the Bone Woman appears human, she's ultimately an omen of a corpse type; she couldn't possibly be killed that easily!"
The Manager's face was filled with disbelief. As the person who had faced omens the most in the entire landfill area, he knew well how troublesome corpse-type omens could be. If it were those with obvious weaknesses, it would be manageable; but for types like the Bone Woman, Suture Monster, and Frankenstein, which could be seen as irrational Kaidan, even he would have to fight by trading blood for blood, unless...
"It's very likely that the opponent has a Pseudo Artifact that restrains the Bone Woman!"
Yes, it must be a Pseudo Artifact. Although ordinary Pseudo Artifacts that contain restraining elements could cause effective damage, they wouldn't allow the holder to exceed the physical capabilities of the Bone Woman.
As for having the strength to confront or even overpower the Bone Woman, the Manager had never even considered this, for he was incapable of it.
This wasn't a case of "If I can't do it, nobody can" arrogance, but because the "Manager" role was only bestowed upon the strongest person in the area (excluding equipment). If there were someone stronger than him, the Manager role would be automatically revoked.
The fact that the "Manager" role was still securely his meant that the person who had defeated the omen was definitely weaker than him.
For someone weaker than himself to kill the Bone Woman, who could ignore defenses and possessed extremely high speed—aside from a Pseudo Artifact, the Manager could think of no other possibility!
"Search for him! We must find this person! Moreover, the Bone Woman is a corpse mutation. There were no reports of a corpse appearing here yesterday, only warnings of an omen, which indicates that the corpse was moved here. Start the investigation with the people who took on corpse disposal tasks last night!"
The Manager quickly organized his thoughts and issued orders to his subordinates. This wasn't just because he coveted the powerful Pseudo Artifact the other possessed, but more importantly, it was to safeguard his vested interests.
Possessing a powerful Pseudo Artifact meant that the other could easily acquire combat-related accolades and, through that, build momentum. Once the other's strength surpassed his, Infinite City would strip him of the Manager role, and the competition for the role would start anew.
The Manager role meant control over the landfill and a monopoly on high-quality positions. Having grown accustomed to the conveniences this role brought, the Manager was not about to give it up!
Thus, anyone who might threaten his position had to die!
Meanwhile, Feng Xue, who had already fallen asleep, was unaware of any of this. However, his comfortable sleep was short-lived as the vibration of his work badge woke him up.
"Hello, what's up?" Feng Xue picked up his work badge and saw Lao Li's communication request, casually pressing the answer button, then heard Lao Li's voice coming from the badge—
"The Manager's gang has gone crazy, starting a citywide search; if you've got any secrets, make sure to hide them well. I'm leaving the landfill area soon, and if you run into any trouble, you can look for Lao Xia on East Street, he's also a Newbie Guide, and won't refuse to help you!"
"Wait a minute, what do you mean by leaving? Do you have a way out?" Feng Xue was taken aback and quickly spoke out to stop Lao Li from hanging up. Hearing this, Lao Li replied helplessly:
"There's no special way, just heading into the wilds. Okay, I still have to notify others, can't talk anymore."
"It's just... I also…" Before Feng Xue could finish, Lao Li had already ended the call. When Feng Xue tried to call back, he was met with a busy tone indicating that the line was still engaged...