Untitled
Ransel had been locked away in a hotel room for days, completely immersed in magic research.
The magical inspiration born from her talent and her instinctive grasp led her unknowingly to realms she had never imagined.
Even without understanding the theoretical principles, her intuition and instincts reshaped everything into the correct magic.
Every time her hand moved, she modified spells, and new ones emerged.
The more she researched, the greater her mana pool and the more spells she could wield, with casting speed growing ever faster.
After the research, she took on work from Darin's information office and brought in bounties.
With her expanded mana, using mana detection made tracking bounties a simple matter.
While hunting bounties and employing the modified spells, she studied magic anew.
Though no particularly meaningful income arose from her traits, by repeating this cycle she had accumulated enough money to live normally without worry.
It had been a full month since she began living by alternating research with bounty hunting.
"She couldn't have gone far. That bastard is worse than a rat in a drain."
The rain pouring down outside disappeared into the sewer.
The floor was littered with trash and broken machine parts.
A shadow moved through the area that had not been cleaned in a long time and reeked of foul odors.
District 54. A filthy slum where exiles, criminals, and vagrants lived.
Four figures hurried through this wretched place.
Fully armed, they did not relax their guard as they drove the prey into the corner.
A burst of light exploded in the dark alley, and casings rolled across the ground.
"Gayle! Keep an eye on the 11 o'clock direction. I'll handle the 5 o'clock."
"Be careful. If you let your guard down because you're wounded, you die."
After capturing four more bounties in the past month, Ransel had begun to gain a name among bounty hunters.
As a result, she was now able to join the team of four hunting bounties.
The more people there were, the smaller the reward, but this time it did not matter.
They had joined this job specifically to experience how other bounty hunters pursued their targets.
The two at the front scanned ahead and quickly turned the corner to claim the space.
A dead end. There stood a man in filthy rags, back turned.
Tommy Davidson. A veteran soldier and executive of a massive gang.
The man accused of kidnapping and torturing a weapons technician from Felders to steal secrets.
When Gayle realized the man before them was the bounty they had been chasing—Tommy Davidson—he smirked cruelly.
"Finally found you. You rat bastard…"
For bounty hunters, the life or death of the target meant nothing.
Capture would yield a hefty reward, but capturing was never easy.
They had never planned to capture Davidson from the start.
The moment they could not hide their joy at the thought of the massive bounty after killing him, Davidson chuckled in the dead end.
"You thought you had just pushed me into the corner?"
His face was gaunt from days without sleep or food due to relentless pursuit.
Dark circles under his eyes from exhaustion hung long and heavy.
His eyelids fluttered as if they would close at any moment, yet his eyes were sharp and piercing.
This bold man, who had kidnapped and stolen secrets from Felders' weapons technicians, had not lost his will even at this point.
Instead, his murderous aura sharpened to overwhelm with sheer numbers.
"Since you dogs started following, I haven't seen any other pursuers. That means the corporations dumped this chase on trash like you."
His worn-out military boots stepped forward.
Rain splattered, and the moment Davidson's figure emerged from the shadows into the flickering streetlight.
Davidson moved like lightning, gripping his knife and charging toward the bounty hunters.
Despite his exhausted body, his speed was incomparable to any criminal.
"That means if you kill me, there won't be any other pursuers for a while…!"
"Die!!"
"Shoot! Shoot!!"
The unexpected resistance made the bounty hunters fire simultaneously.
The alley filled instantly with the light from gunfire.
Quickly stepping back behind the debris on the ground, they hid their bodies and threw things to create a brief moment of chaos.
Not missing that gap, Davidson swiftly threw debris in the alley, piercing the line of fire.
He snatched the knife thrown into the air and stabed it in reverse into the nape of the neck of the lead bounty hunter.
"Damn it, Thomas! This filthy bounty hunter bastard!"
"Kuaaaaaah!!"
He grabbed the instantly killed corpse and used it as a shield, charging straight at the other hunters.
When he came within a certain distance, Davidson threw the corpse.
Gayle hurriedly dodged but Davidson's brutal hand caught his collar.
Dragged without resistance, he met the knife and died instantly.
Davidson grabbed Gayle's collar again and charged once more.
Bullets barely grazed past the shield of corpses.
The knife Davidson stabbed pierced through one bounty hunter's chest and emerged.
In just a few minutes, Davidson had killed three pursuers.
He pulled the knife from the corpse he had thrown and looked up.
"Three. One left…"
Between the flowing blood, a woman's long silver-white hair caught Davidson's eye.
Her eyes were slanted, unable to tell if they were closed or open.
Her long gray hair reached her waist.
Her lips curved in a way that was impossible to tell if she was smiling or crying.
Seeing her team member sprawled coldly on the ground, she sighed.
"As expected, I'm better off doing this alone."
She had lost every member of her team in an instant, yet her expression did not change.
It was as if she had expected this outcome.
As if she had foreseen Davidson standing before her.
Even though her plan had failed and she was in mortal danger, Davidson felt she was smiling somehow.
"You… why are you smiling?"
"Does it seem like I'm smiling?"
The corners of her lips, which had been twitching in suppressed emotion, soon curved long and upward.
Her eyes and mouth twisted strangely as she formed a smile.
The next instant, gray eyes appeared between her eyelids.
Her arm swung once in a wide arc, pulling the gun's trigger.
The moment she moved her shoulder, Davidson instinctively twisted his head.
Gunfire and a hot something brushed past his cheek.
"Weren't you sorry just now? If you had turned your head a little more to the side, your temple would have flown off."
Looking at the woman who spoke with genuine regret, Davidson brushed his cheek with his finger.
A single line of hot blood crossed his cheek.
Realizing that instinct had saved him—had he not twisted his head, he would have died instantly—Davidson's face twisted horribly.
"Crazy woman…!!"
Davidson scattered a terrifying killing intent as he charged at Ransel.
While rummaging through the corpses, he picked up a cigar and put it in his mouth.
He sparked electricity at his fingertips and lit the cigar.
From the blood-stained cigar came a rather sophisticated aroma.
It seemed he was smoking quite an expensive item, judging by how much money he had left.
Ransel glanced at the body on the floor and exhaled smoke.
He had been quite a formidable opponent.
Fearless even in front of guns and bold enough to charge, plus the cruelty of using corpses killed in a mesy way as shields.
All supported by combat experience and nearly perfect knife-handling skill.
Had Davidson not been bound by swift magic and moved properly, the result might have been different.
It felt as if the level of opponents she met was gradually rising.
Now she felt a little ashamed to compare them to the Gibton she had caught at the beginning.
'No, perhaps such opponents were always there from the start.'
Hikikomori and retired soldiers should never be compared.
Ransel rubbed the cigar on Davidson's head, crushed it, and stood up from her seat.
As the sole survivor of the four-person team, the bounty belonged entirely to Ransel.
She had tracked and caught the bounty herself, of course.
She returned to Darin's office to receive the reward and then to the hotel.
The money in her account had grown to just over ten million credits.
Without a bank account, she had stacked cash, but the grand scale from such a large amount was impressive.
Rather, it felt more real than the number stamped on her account, and she was in a good mood.
'No. That's not it.'
She slapped her cheek to control the strange thoughts flowing in that direction and stuffed the cash bundle into a large bag.
Checkout was approaching.
She would reserve another room again, use Davidson as fertilizer, and resume magic research.
But before that, there was one place she had to visit.
Ransel slung the money bag over her shoulder and stepped out of the room.