Chapter 23
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Silver Dragon
Chapter: 24
Chapter Title: Gang Sweeping Operation (7)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The elite guards led by Vulcan finally set foot inside Blackwater Village.
They advanced step by step with utmost caution, like hunters stalking a ferocious beast.
The dust-settled streets were eerily quiet, the windows gaping like black mouths in silence.
Above all, corpses of gang members and Trade Federation mercenaries littered the ground everywhere.
Each one bore just one or two clean holes in the head or chest—neat deaths.
In the deathly silence where every living thing held its breath, Vulcan quietly swallowed his rage.
'Damn it! What kind of gunslinger is this? Was there a monster like him among the ones we know?'
A few pieces of information suddenly flashed through his mind.
[Trinity Port attacked by unknown bandits]
[Silas, dispatched to ally with nearby factions, has gone missing. Search requested]
Suspicious reports had come flooding in all at once after months of silence.
Vulcan shook his head, trying to clear it. Showing weakness in front of his men would only hurt morale.
"You rat bastard! Quit hiding and crawl out here!"
Vulcan shouted mockingly, but there was no reply.
Tat-tat-tak!
Instead, his eyes caught a glimpse far off—a falcon's feathers and the silhouette of its rider flashing past an alley intersection.
Whoosh!
At the same moment, a blue flash slammed into Vulcan's armor. The bullet ricocheted off, but the precision was astonishing.
It was over in an instant—a perfect taunt.
"That's him! Chase him down!"
Vulcan yanked his horse's reins without hesitation.
The guards followed him in a furious charge toward the village's heart, where the ghost had vanished: a small plaza.
One thought filled his mind at that moment.
Cordon off that sneaky rat and crush him!
"High chance of enemy ambush, sir!"
One of his adjutants warned, but Vulcan bellowed back decisively.
"Coward! That's exactly why we charge straight through!"
From what he'd seen so far, the villagers' weapons were mostly single-shot rifles.
"They're fighting better than expected, but they're still just villagers. We end this at close range before they can swap lead awkwardly!"
A rough battle plan formed in his head.
Dozens of rifles firing in unison from cover—that was intimidating.
But what if they broke through that one volley?
'We crash in during their reload and tear them apart!'
Besides, he wore the Trade Federation's magitech steam armor. Leading the charge, he could tank a few bullets.
"To catch a falcon, you have to enter its nest!"
They chose to march right into the heart of a massive trap.
It was the very moment Vulcan and his unit reached the plaza entrance.
"Charge!"
Clack-clack!
The cavalry thundered in, kicking up clouds of dust.
Whoosh!
A blue flash whistled through the air, clipping a small bell hanging somewhere in the plaza.
Ding!
The clear bell toll rang out.
With Jinwoo's signal shot skyward, white smoke erupted from countless spots.
"Now! Fire!"
The old sheriff's roar unleashed dozens of muzzles from windows ringing the plaza, all belching fire at once.
Tat-tat-tat-bang!
Bullets crisscrossed from every direction into the narrow choke point where the enemy had entered.
A rain of lead poured down.
The perfect kill zone!
"Argh!"
"Enemies everywhere!"
"Charge! Draw swords!"
The vanguard guards screamed and fell first.
But amid bullets whizzing past his head, Vulcan grew even more certain.
'Gunfire stopped! They're reloading!'
His men, as if shaking off any panic, drew pistols, swords, and axes, ready to storm the buildings.
As the villagers reloaded, that falcon flapped back into view atop a roof.
"Even a skilled sniper's useless up close!"
"Kieeeek!"
The guards, confident until now.
"What can one guy do alone? At best, a revolver!"
Then their expectations shattered.
Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh! Whoosh!
Jinwoo unleashed fanning.
Every time his hand hammered the hammer, blue flashes poured from his hip!
"Aaaagh!"
Vulcan was horrified.
"What! What is that! Why won't the bullets stop?!"
A storm of perfectly aimed bullets!
Duck behind a crate on the right? A shot from the left building pierced his back.
Hug the left wall? A bullet from the right window blew his head open.
The steel armor they boasted of was powerless as paper against the hail of bullets from all sides.
Worst of all, that barrage from a single pistol.
The reality that one man wielded firepower worthy of a magic magitech gun or dwarven Gatling crushed their spirits.
"At this rate, the plan's falling apart...!"
Meanwhile, the frenzied villagers finished reloading and unleashed another volley.
Tat-tat-tat-bang!
The close-range barrage swept through the mercenaries with deadly accuracy.
"Aaaagh! No place to... hide!"
"No!"
The tide of battle turned.
Screams shattered their morale in an instant.
As they panicked, blue bullets rained from above. The third volley!
'Where the hell did it all go wrong?!'
The formation collapsed in seconds, command structure paralyzed.
Elite soldiers flailed like beasts trapped in a slaughterhouse, collapsing one by one!
Sensing defeat, Vulcan lashed out in fury.
"You filthy vermin!"
Vulcan roared in rage and drew his Atlas pistol.
Ziiing!
The blue-glowing barrel charged and spat fire.
Kaboom!
A building wall exploded wholesale, ambushing villagers screaming as they fell.
But control of the battlefield had fully shifted to Jinwoo.
While the villagers' crossfire shredded Vulcan's elites, Jinwoo didn't wait.
A blue falcon dove like a meteor from the roof into the plaza's chaotic heart.
"There he is! Kill him!"
A few guards, snapping out of the ambush daze, swung muzzles toward Jinwoo.
But his movements defied common sense in their sights.
Falcon kicked off bullet-riddled walls vertically or used a fallen wagon as a springboard for aerial leaps, nullifying their aim.
Jinwoo's red-tinged eyes pierced the most efficient hunting path through the chaos.
'Right flank grouping around the commander. Start there.'
Their attempt to reform ended in failure.
Jinwoo ghosted through them, precisely slitting the throat of the last junior officer barking orders.
"Damn it! Don't scatter! Surround him!"
Vulcan screamed madly, firing his Atlas pistol wildly.
But Jinwoo had already slipped his line of fire, scanning for the next prey.
Scatter those trying to clump.
Eliminate leaders first.
Shoot the backs of the terrified to amplify fear.
"Huff... huff! Am I the only one left?!"
By the time Vulcan realized something was terribly wrong, nothing but corpses surrounded him—no living subordinates.
Bullets still flew from the encircling buildings.
His elite soldiers groaned, bleeding out across the plaza.
And before his eyes, the ghost rider who'd orchestrated it all gazed leisurely from Falcon's back.
Like a predator sizing up how to finish the largest remaining prey after the hunt.
Steel Vulcan was perfectly isolated in this slaughterhouse.
With everything lost, pure madness filled Vulcan's eyes.
"You bastard! I'll die here, but I'll drag you to hell with me!"
With his roar, the Atlas pistol fired.
The blue energy round tore through the air, but Jinwoo was already gone.
Falcon circled Vulcan as if reading its master's intent.
Ghostly, unpredictable motion.
Kaboom! Kaboom-kaboom!
Vulcan's shots cratered the ground and toppled buildings.
Each bullet packed small cannon power, but the bulky armor couldn't match Falcon's speed.
Game knowledge etched in his mind pulled up the strategy fast.
The enemy before him was a classic Trade Federation charge-type commander.
Like Gerion before, clad in powered armor.
'Iron Man in a Western? Providence bastards anyway.'
Jinwoo grumbled inwardly but recalled the intel.
The armor itself was tough—even for his Infinite Ammo Pistol.
'But the back plating's thin. Power supply's exposed!'
Jinwoo bided his time.
The moment Vulcan reared back in rage to fire again—now!
Whoosh!
Jinwoo's pistol flashed. The bullet pierced Vulcan's back, right through the faintly glowing power supply.
"Kuh...?"
The steel giant froze comically.
Black smoke and sparks burst from the armor's back.
"Damn it all!"
His prized Atlas tech became a heavy iron coffin once its heart was destroyed.
Thud!
A small internal explosion rocked it, and the massive body crashed to the plaza center with a boom.
The commander's hollow death utterly broke the last enemies' will to fight.
They dropped weapons, screaming in flight.
Tat-tat-bang!
"Aaaagh!"
Villagers' vengeful shots pierced their backs.
Clean victory—no survivors!
"We won!"
"We... we did it!"
Moments later, villagers poured from buildings, cheering wildly.
They rushed toward their heroic savior.
"Gunslinger!"
"Eastern gunslinger! Thank you!"
But Jinwoo turned his back on their cheers, heading for Vulcan's corpse.
'Thanks can wait. Something more important's here. Let's see if this triggers the quest.'
Jinwoo rifled through the motionless Vulcan's pockets, pulling out a singed, half-burnt bundle of papers.
[Classified Trade Federation orders]
The quest reward was another quest.
This long, brutal battle had been, for him, merely the process to obtain this one scrap of paper.