Arknightcraft Modpack
Chapter 519: Bringing An RPG To A Knife Fight
The moment Steven said that, it carried quite a bit of intimidation.
If he were just standing there alone, people of Terra—who didn't recognize the AK as a symbol of lethal destruction—might not necessarily feel that he was threatening.
After all, aside from being a bit handsome, Steven himself didn't seem particularly special. Even the inexplicable aura that used to make people feel uneasy around him had been concealed ever since he started wearing the fashionable little accessories deliberately made for him by Nian.
But no matter how ordinary a person might seem, when they stand in the middle of a blood-soaked scene and smile at others, the feeling becomes completely different.
Just like now.
At Steven's feet lay black-clad men scattered all over the ground. Blood had dyed the street red. The slum onlookers had vanished the moment the gunfire started. The atmosphere alone was enough to raise the tension dramatically.
The men who came out of the bar still couldn't understand why this seemingly extraordinary young man had a pair of stockings—apparently belonging to their own young lady beside him—pulled over his head. But given the situation, none of them dared ask.
"Please calm down, sir. If there are any conflicts or misunderstandings between us, we can sit down and talk them through slowly. Right now, the most important thing is not to accidentally harm the innocent lady standing beside you, wouldn't you agree?"
The middle-aged man who clearly appeared to be the manager of the bar smiled at Steven. With the same mouse ears on his head and a tail behind him, he practically embodied the idiom shifty-eyed and rat-faced.
Though he spoke politely, the subtle signals he gave to his subordinates—encouraging them to close in around Steven—made it obvious the situation wasn't as peaceful as he claimed.
"What do you think? Feels like he's hinting at me about your status—suggesting that you're important to the boss behind this bar. Is he not on good terms with you?"
Ignoring their small maneuvers, Steven simply turned his head and looked at Lin Yuhsia beside him. The man's implication had been ridiculously obvious—he was practically teaching Steven step by step to take the girl hostage.
Sure, the stocking over his head slightly obstructed his vision, but Steven's mind was still perfectly clear. No one likes being used as someone else's blade, so he figured he might as well ask the person involved directly.
"What do you think? I admit this bar has some connection to me, but think about it—when I was almost dragged away just now, where exactly were these people?"
Lin Yuhsia rolled her eyes at Steven after he pointed it out. Strange as he was, he did seem to keep his word. He had clearly been ready to let her leave earlier, yet here he was casually discussing the situation with her face to face.
"And they definitely wouldn't care about my safety. In fact, forcing you to attack me is probably exactly what they want to see."
Without the slightest attempt at concealment, Lin Yuhsia directly exposed the bar manager's intentions in front of everyone. She had seen through it from the start. The man wasn't stupid, if he wanted to seize an opportunity, the best outcome for him right now would be to make Steven, an outsider, abduct her… or even kill her outright.
"Ah, the borrow someone else's knife to kill thingie, huh? Too bad I've got a perfect counter."
After hearing Lin Yuhsia's answer, Steven showed a look of understanding. The situation was easy enough to piece together. Since everything had been spelled out for him, handling it became much simpler.
Even though it seemed like he had somehow gotten tangled in a strange internal power struggle, that didn't stop him from accomplishing his own goal.
Watching the tattooed thugs aggressively surrounding him, Steven smiled and raised the AK in his hands—its barrel still warm from firing.
Unlike the earlier black-clad fools, however, these tattooed men had witnessed the weapon's destructive power. They quickly avoided the direction of the muzzle while activating protective barriers of Originium Arts around their bodies.
Not only that, Steven could clearly feel something locking onto him.
If he wasn't mistaken, in the next second, an Originium spell would directly strike the spot where he was standing.
These people really didn't care at all about the girl standing beside him. Just as she had said, their actions were essentially forcing her toward death.
"If you want to stay alive, then take me hostage and leave here together. I have an Originium shield on me. It should be able to withstand those Arts attacks."
Lin Yuhsia, who had also noticed this, frowned. As expected of people who had clawed their way up from the slums—even their rebelliousness was decisive. While she herself wasn't worried that this group could truly do anything to her, Steven was a different story.
From her perspective, aside from the strange gun in his hands, Steven didn't show anything particularly special. He looked like nothing more than an ordinary person wielding a powerful weapon.
Before, it could be said that those men in black had lost simply because they weren't familiar with the weapon he held. But now that these people had clearly realized that point, the situation was completely different.
She could tell that while the gun in Steven's hand had decent power, if the opponent was prepared with Originium shields, suppressing them as easily as before wouldn't be so simple.
Moreover, Steven himself was just an ordinary person. If he were struck by Originium Arts, it would be over in an instant. The people inside the bar had probably thought of the same thing, which was why they had taken up this stance.
As for why they still hadn't attacked, it was because they wanted to force Steven to take her hostage first. That way, if anything happened to her, they could conveniently push all the blame onto him.
"Sigh~ Do you have that thing called Stockholm syndrome or something? Why are you helping me come up with solutions?"
Compared to Lin Yuhsia, Steven could also see through these simple schemes. Yet the expression on his face was even more relaxed than hers—as if the people surrounding him weren't a group of ruthless gangsters but just a bunch of kids fooling around.
He even had the mood to joke with Lin Yuhsia.
While speaking, Steven lowered the AK in his hands. Then, like performing a magic trick, he pulled out a straight, dark-green tube about a meter long from his inventory and rested it on his shoulder.
The hollow structure only allowed people to see a pitch-black opening at the front of the tube. As for what was inside, no one could tell. When Steven put down the AK, everyone present thought he might be giving up resistance.
Even Lin Yuhsia—who prided herself on being well-informed—couldn't recognize what the strange object in Steven's hands was supposed to do. But her instincts told her it was definitely not something simple.
As for the tattooed tough guys, thinking that Steven had switched to some kind of melee weapon and was preparing for a glorious close-range fight, the caution on their faces lessened quite a bit.
Among everyone present, only Steven still wore that same confident and relaxed expression.
"You said you have a shield, right? Then you'd better put on a reliable one right now. Also… things might get a little… loud in a moment."
As he spoke, Steven aimed the tube resting on his shoulder at the tattooed men who were confidently closing in around him.
With his free hand, he plugged one of his ears. Then he gave the enemies—who still hadn't figured out what was happening—a smile that looked almost like a farewell.
You like using shields and long-range attacks, huh? Then have a taste of saturation bombardment. What era do you think this is? Still expecting me to find the enemy's Originium caster and engage in some sniper duel?
As Steven pulled the trigger, a small mushroom cloud suddenly bloomed in the slums of Lungmen.
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Note: Character Illustration is in this Google Drive:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1iuyfwNVFHzIi9H4rWNT_lAm7jTSiah_M
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Tn: I updated the story daily, but if you want to see more chapter of this story ahead of time, please go to my Patreon.
Latest Chapter: Chapter 617: A Bold Guess[1]
Link: https://www.patreon.com/Thatsnakegirl/posts/arknightcraft-160680628[2]
[1] https://www.patreon.com/Thatsnakegirl/posts/arknightcraft-160680628
[2] https://www.patreon.com/Thatsnakegirl/posts/arknightcraft-160680628