CHAPTER 192: BLACK SINNERS MAKE THEIR MOVE

Pergina knew exactly what had just gone down.

Demi’s reaction made perfect sense.

"Uh... Kiri, don’t you think you should apologize to Demi real quick?"

"Sorry! Senior!"

Kiri jumped to obey.

But the way she kept staring at Demi showed she was totally confused.

Why was it soft?

That didn’t make any sense.

Senior’s should definitely be hard as steel, only getting soft after tons of modifications.

"Is there something wrong with me?"

Demi’s voice dropped low, her eyes flashing with serious murder vibes.

"No... nothing at all, Senior!"

Kiri shook her head like crazy.

In her memory, when she first met Senior, she’d already swapped out most of her organs with steam-powered machinery, obviously including...

It used to make her face ache something fierce.

Could it be that Senior hasn’t gotten her upgrades yet?

The pain temporarily cooled down Kiri’s overexcited brain. She had a sneaking suspicion she’d figured it out.

Master had never been this gentle when patching her up!

Demi’s face went dark as a storm cloud.

"Hey, why do you keep calling me Senior anyway?"

She crossed her arms, throwing down the gauntlet.

It was crystal clear that Kiri had made one hell of a bad first impression on Demi.

Demi’s words reminded Pergina:

"That’s right, Kiri, I don’t remember having such an adorable student."

She kept applying the medicine, even blowing on it now and then—really going all out.

"What! She’s not your student, Master!"

The color rushed back into Demi’s pale face as pure joy took over.

Finally, this moment has arrived!

Kiri’s expression turned dead serious.

Thump—she dropped into a respectful bow:

"Master, I’ve heard amazing things about your reputation! I want to become your apprentice!"

The air went dead silent.

"..."

Demi’s hands clenched into fists.

What a brazen little witch!

Without Master’s say-so, she was already calling her Master.

The nerve of her!

Master probably felt the exact same way.

You want to apprentice? In your dreams!

This was just a false alarm after all.

Should I take her on?

Pergina found herself torn.

This girl gave off this weirdly familiar vibe, like she’d already been her student for ages.

But she had this gut feeling that if she accepted this girl, it would definitely spell major trouble down the road.

Take her... or not?

Hmm, what’s Master thinking about?

When her master didn’t answer right away, Kiri’s eyes lit up and she quickly added:

"Master! Outside the door, under the third tree to the right, there’s a treasure chest. That’s my apprentice gift for you!"

"A treasure chest?"

Whoosh!

A gust of wind whipped by, the shop door burst open, and Pergina had vanished into thin air...

A few moments later, Pergina’s thrilled voice rang out:

"Hot damn!"

Clatter clatter.

The shop door slammed shut hard. Pergina strolled back to Kiri like nothing had happened.

Only her steps were bouncy as hell, and the grin on her face hadn’t faded one bit.

No... it can’t be...

Demi wanted to say something but stopped herself, getting a really bad feeling about this...

Pergina cleared her throat and said with mock seriousness:

"Kiri! I can see that your talent is off the charts and perfect for my alchemical ways. Today I’m taking you on as my student!"

"Master!"

Like she’d done it a thousand times before, Kiri had pulled off another successful apprenticeship!

She jumped up happily and beamed at Demi:

"Senior!"

"Heh... Jun... Junior..."

Demi’s eye twitched.

She’d definitely celebrated way too early.

...

"To celebrate Kiri joining up, tonight we’re hitting the little tavern to party!"

"Hell yeah!"

Kiri cheered, thinking to herself:

How should I ask Master for the Valkyrie Sacred Relics?

"..."

Fate!

Demi sighed inside her head. Maybe this was fate’s way of testing her.

...

Night had fallen.

Second District.

On a three-story sandstone building across from the Remnant Ash shop:

"Barossa, where’d you stash your soldiers?"

"Hidden in houses throughout the surrounding streets."

"Willie, where are your officers?"

"Inside the shop pretending to be customers and checking things out."

"Anything weird going on?"

"Nothing strange—it really is just some ordinary funeral parlor."

Carlos suddenly spoke up:

"Gentlemen, four unknown life forms are hauling ass straight toward us!"

This was Red Spirit high up in the sky outside sending Carlos a heads-up.

Captain Barossa and Security Officer Willie’s faces went stone-cold serious.

The psychic energy in their bodies got ready for action.

Moments later, they could sense four life forms giving off seriously weird vibes approaching bold as brass from different directions.

Their target was the Remnant Ash shop, no question about it!

...

"The balls on these bastards!"

Rage flared up in Captain Barossa’s chest.

The four life forms’ inhuman auras were completely out in the open.

Like cold fireflies in the dead of night, totally obvious—this was a straight-up slap in the face!

He was about to give the signal to grab this crew!

"Hold up, this bunch might just be cannon fodder for a test run."

Security Officer Willie stopped Barossa cold.

He suspected there were other Black Sinners secretly watching from the shadows.

Hearing this, Carlos gave a secret nod to the security officer’s sharp thinking.

After years of guerrilla warfare, Black Sinners had learned to cover their tracks and wouldn’t show themselves easily.

When they get close to the shop, Purple Vortex will move in to control them! Make damn sure they can’t send out any intel! Then Red Spirit will read their soul waves!

Carlos sent orders through the soul link.

These four Black Sinners’ auras weren’t that strong—felt like small-time players.

"Roar!"

"Wah!"

...

Getting closer and closer to the Remnant Ash shop, the four Black Sinners couldn’t help but slow their roll.

"Weird, why did Lady Luckybe set us up to hit this shop? And specifically told us to let our auras show when we got close?"

The leftmost Black Sinner looked at the crappy funeral shop ahead and asked his buddies.

"Uh... Lady Luckybe didn’t seem to spell it out..."

The second Black Sinner shook his head. The higher-ups hadn’t spilled the beans about why they were attacking.

The third Black Sinner signaled everyone to stay sharp:

"Watch yourselves. Lady Luckybe called all four of us at once. The target’s probably not some pushover."

Hearing this, the last Black Sinner said in a flat voice:

"Earlier today, I already scoped it out good. Inside it’s all regular humans—no threat to us whatsoever!"

While whispering among themselves, the four Black Sinners entered the street where the shop sat.

They crept up quietly and stood in front of the locked-up shop door.

The shop inside was black as pitch—obviously this place didn’t do business after dark.

But they didn’t jump straight into the attack.

They looked at each other:

"You go first!"

"..."

The four Black Sinners stared each other down.

Years of laying low had taught them that attacking after their buddies would cut down their chances of getting first dibs on the glory, but would seriously reduce the odds of running into trouble.

Black Sinners who’d managed to survive this long had way outgrown the age of being hotshots and rushing to be first for their kind.

Hell, if they weren’t like this, they never would’ve been able to stay hidden this long with just bottom-tier strength.

One minute crawled by... five minutes dragged past...

Still, nobody wanted to be the first to make a move.