Death Notice

After the Alien appeared, it obediently walked around Odo and stood behind him like a faithful bodyguard.

After summoning the Alien, Odo ignored it. Instead, he reached into his robe and pulled out another Magic Scroll engraved with black symbols on its surface. The Summoner looked at the Magic Scroll hesitantly, unable to make up his mind for a moment. This thing was almost a secret weapon he had prepared for this Metropolis Domination War.

Such Magic Scrolls were rare and hard to buy on the market. It was specially prepared for him by the Leader of the Sky Float rookie team.

Just as Odo hesitated, the Alien behind him silently crept closer, slowly opening its mouth. Its tongue, filled with sharp teeth, shot out like a bullet toward the Summoner’s back of the head, trying to attack its own master, Odo.

Sadly, Odo was a professional Summoner after all. The odd behavior of his summoned creature immediately alarmed him deep inside. The Summoner spun around suddenly, dodging the Alien’s tongue while his pupils instantly turned bronze-colored, glaring fiercely at the Alien.

“Roar!” The Alien staggered back as if hit hard, tilting its head, falling backward onto the ground, and rolling in agony. At the same time, Odo’s face turned a little pale as he gasped quickly a couple of times, his pupils slowly returning to normal.

“You traitorous beast! If you try that again, I’ll feed you to the Black Scale Beasts!” Odo spat out cruel words, but inside, he sighed softly.

Although this Alien had been captured and raised by him since its juvenile stage, Aliens were naturally intelligent, cruel, and heartless. It knew that attacking its master would extinguish its own Soul, yet it still refused to be tamed. If this Alien hadn’t already reached the Sixth Tier, the peak of a mid-level being, and there was a slim hope of advancing to a higher tier, Odo would have replaced it long ago.

Thinking this, Odo lost the mood for contemplation. With a shake of his hand, he tore open the Magic Scroll engraved with black symbols. The instant the scroll was uncovered, a ball of white smoke floated like a light veil over the Alien writhing on the ground.

Enveloped by this white mist, the Alien gradually became transparent. Soon, the massive beast vanished from the spot, leaving only its faint hissing sound to be heard. “Quiet!” Odo scolded softly. His expression slowly turned grave, and he raised his staff again.

As the blue gem at the top of the staff glowed faintly, another Alien appeared before the Summoner. Its size and movements were almost identical to the previous one. But upon careful look, this Alien seemed clumsy in action, only able to follow the Summoner’s orders to do simple tasks.

Qin Lun used Swift Wind Step and Claw Chain to jump swiftly among the tops of many stone pillars, searching back and forth like a net. For a while, he looked quite like Spiderman. At each pillar top, he pretended to look around. In truth, his seventy-meter-radius Detection Aura had long seen every detail of the surroundings.

The Black Scale Beasts that had been chasing Qin Lun below the pillars earlier were now gone. They might have lost their target, or the Summoner had given up the pointless pursuit.

The arena itself wasn’t very big, and Qin Lun’s Detection Aura was even more useful here. After searching back and forth twice, he had covered most of the space. To his surprise, the Summoner hadn’t moved at all and was still in the corner where he first appeared.

The reason was simple. The orange glows representing the Black Scale Beasts had all gathered there. At their center, two larger red glows stood out; one should be the Summoner himself.

Seeing this, Qin Lun frowned slightly, then smiled. “A trap?”

In this arena, stone pillars were everywhere. Over twenty Black Scale Beasts couldn’t really move well anyway. The diagonal corner near where the two Apostles emerged was more open, making it easier for the beasts to surround an enemy.

An ordinary archer seeing the Summoner set up like this might be overjoyed to stand atop a pillar and start a ranged battle. But Qin Lun didn’t think that way.

The pillars in the arena were made of large, sturdy stone, each top barely a square meter wide. An archer could certainly fight from high up here, but it locked them into a small space. If knocked down by the Summoner’s spell, they would be instantly surrounded by beasts. Then, escaping would be very hard.

“You worked so hard to set this trap. I won’t waste your effort without smashing it!”

Qin Lun’s eyes showed a touch of mockery. He was becoming more certain that the opponent Summoner hadn’t experienced many Quest Worlds. Probably, he had grown up under others’ protection all along.

These Lone Apostles deliberately trained in big teams had a fatal weakness. They always fought in groups with simple combat roles—just handling one part of battle. Tanks only defended; archers only did long-range attacks; support classes just boosted fighters.

These team-fighting Lone Apostles had a shallow understanding of roles. Without facing hardships or lots of real fights, they wouldn’t know the hardships and pains of solo Lone Apostles.

Solo Lone Apostles had no team help. They learned close combat even if Class Changed to archers. Class Changed to tanks, they improved defense while also building attack skills. This spread their resources thin but made them independent, ready for all situations.

Odo’s trap didn’t think at all about whether Qin Lun had other skills, treating him as just a pure archer. Clearly, in his team, that’s how newbie archers were. To him, the archer job should look like this.

“He’s here!” Staring at the foe suddenly appearing on a pillar ahead, Odo’s eyes narrowed. But a flood of heat in his chest spread through his body, making him feel boiling blood.

In the Sky Float rookie team, Odo had never faced an enemy head-on like this before. It wasn’t his job. However, he wouldn’t agree if he knew Qin Lun’s analysis.

In the rookie team, he was the only one who watched the whole battle. If ranged damage fell short, he stepped in. If the tank slipped up, he filled in with his summons. Sometimes, when support classes lost mana, he used summons to save desperate comrades.

No solo combat ability? Ridiculous! Odo absolutely refused to think he couldn’t fight alone. To him, Summoners were the only all-around job fighters among Lone Apostles. He insisted on joining the Metropolis Domination War just to prove his skills through it.

Qin Lun looked at Odo pressed against a pillar and surrounded by Black Scale Beasts, grinning wide to show white teeth. But when his gaze shifted to the Alien by the Summoner, his eyes brightened.

“No wonder you’re so confident. This Alien is your secret card?”

“Alien?” Odo paused briefly, glancing at the Alien beside him, and gave a faint smile. “This is the Titan race’s biochemical beast. Since you recognize it, that’s better—saves me from feeling like I’m bullying you!”

“Haha, I should be the one bullying you! I really wonder why your rookie Leader made you join the Metropolis Domination War. Meeting an opponent like you in the final selection match is my good luck!” Qin Lun laughed loudly, wrapping the Claw Chain a few times around his left arm, then drawing his twin guns again.

“How do you know I’m from a big team…?” Odo’s face changed slightly, and he tried to ask more, but Qin Lun already fired.

“Bang! Bang!” A white and black bullet cut two light streaks through the air, speeding toward Odo.

“Hmph!” Odo dodged behind the pillar with a step. While lifting his staff, the Alien before him and half the Black Scale Beasts flooded toward the pillar, crawling up its side like ants.

The clock-like pupils that had faded in Qin Lun’s eyes returned, but this time with only two hands. The three-handed Clock Eye consumed too much power. Earlier, Qin Lun used the three hands not through the Clock Eye’s main ability but as a substitute for Heavenly Insight Eye, just for scouting.

In the cold, emotionless clock pupils, the two hands twitched slightly. Everything around Qin Lun seemed to slow down dozens of times. Even the paths of the bullets he just fired became clear, and he could see the wave-like trails as they cut through air resistance.

You think hiding behind the pillar is enough? Let me show you what a real archer looks like!

“Snap!” Qin Lun snapped his fingers without expression. With the snap, each side of the black and white bullets sprouted a mini Pentagram Array as tiny as a fingernail.

These mini Pentagram Arrays shimmered like glittering glass mirrors. Shattering with a clatter, they turned into two Elemental Bursts that hit the bullets diagonally, making them instantly veer off their original paths.

Reflection Gun Art Three—Crystal Mirror Refraction!

A single refraction wasn’t enough to reach the Summoner around the pillar. But after the crystal mirror refraction, the two bullets crossed paths. Less than a fraction of a second later, they collided again. The white bullet slammed into the side of the black bullet, changing its path a second time. The face of Odo finally came into view.

Reflection Gun Art Two—Ballistic Refraction!

Gazing at the bullet now close, Odo was dumbstruck with confusion, frozen for a moment. Luckily, the Protection item he carried acted on its own, unfolding a faint white magic shield instantly before him.

“Pop!” The Demon’s Song black bullet struck like tough leather. It pierced the shield but was badly weakened, only grazing the skin between Odo’s eyebrows.

“Clatter!” The sound of the bullet hitting the ground woke up the dazed Odo.

“I’m hurt!” The Summoner wiped his forehead and looked at the blood covering his hand. His pupils slowly widened, and his shoulders trembled slightly.

Fear, regret, excitement, confusion… at that moment, all kinds of feelings rushed into Odo’s heart, turning his handsome, pale face purplish-red.