Viscus couldn't help but frown while walking to his new target. A couple blocks down, he would find the Hoarders' base of operation, an apartment complex that, according to Blayne, would look "desolate" and "disgusting", however that translated to a building near the heart of Vacuo.

Now, the Gamer wouldn't call himself a planner by any measure, and the other blond didn't appear like one herself, but when she practically showed him a 3D model of the complex and accurately pointed at the boss's room, on the floor just before the top, and chokepoints, Viscus couldn't help but feel some fear toward the girl.

It looked as if she had this plan in the making for a while, but that didn't make sense to Viscus. Would someone really just wait for some random guy with Aura to stumble upon the shop and be dragged into a feud?

The blond groaned, the idea itself not looking too weird considering the place of origin. She probably was doing just that, and he was the unfortunate victim. He shoved away any negative feelings and revised the information she had given him. If her words were true, then he would be facing around 10 men scattered around the base - a relatively small amount to a gang like that of the Blues, but it still meant a 1 versus 10 for the blond.

The sun had said its goodbyes when he was still in the shop, streetlights taking over. He checked over his inventory just as he was approaching the building. He was out of daggers, but he had a gun that, surprisingly, had a prefix of just "Low" in its quality and damage. A considerable upgrade given all his prior "Extremely Low" equipment, and that made him anticipate the armaments he would be making when he got employed.

Viscus took a deep breath once the building was in view. He was going to go in, beat them up, and, according to Blayne, make sure to kill the boss, and loot a safe most likely hidden in his room.

In a different timeline, he wouldn't have done any of that, but this wasn't a different timeline. He clenched his teeth then made his way to an alley to don his white mask. "This better be worth it."

A minute later and he was standing in front of the entrance, a man staring at him with a mean glare. "What do you want, clown?"

Instant hostility, one that the Gamer would return in kind. Faster than the man could blink, a punch had his head slam back to the wall with a crack, red dragging along as his body slid to the ground. The system notified him of the experience gained, something that he looked coldly at.

Above the body, however, Viscus noticed a glassy sphere: a camera. He only gave it a glance before stepping inside, his newly acquired gun held tightly in his hands. More likely than not, they noticed him coming inside and he would be facing gunfire at any second.

Viscus slunk through the first floor, surprised at the lack of encounters, but that changed as soon as he got close to the stairway. Once his foot was in view, gunshots echoed through the building, to which he quickly hid behind a wall. The barrage paused, and Viscus felt his heart quicken.

The blond peered, and the gunfire resumed, and he waited. It was a mistake, however, as he heard something clink beside him, his eyes widening. He tumbled away from the stairway, an explosion blasting him deeper into the corridor. Viscus coughed, his ears ringing, but it eased off into the sound of footsteps coming closer.

His Aura had tanked the hit in its entirety, nearly half of it gone from the blast, which made him hesitate to take any risks. At the current moment, though, he had to deal with the incoming gangsters, so he stood up and took aim at the smoke ahead. No shadow came in view, but he got an idea to flush them out.

He shoved his hand into his inventory, grasping a canister of red that he threw toward the stairway. It unceremoniously fell to the ground, but when Viscus heard someone yell "Watch out!", he shot in its direction. When the first bullet didn't work, the rest that followed did the job. A blast of flame nearly blinded the blond, the air near instantly becoming like that of the inside of an oven.

Screams and yells told a tale of fire on flesh, something that made Viscus clench his teeth and shudder. Rather than let them continue to suffer, the blond rushed into the smoke and was greeted with two men slapping away at their burning bodies, and one man staring at the top with a gaping mouth. Hurriedly, Viscus took aim and soon the two thugs dropped dead, and their companion nearly dropped his gun in freight. It slipped from his hand regardless when a hole was made in the man's head, and the Gamer lowered his gun, feeling his arms unstable.

'Don't think about it. Don't think about it.' He muttered to himself and climbed up the stairs, taking care not to trip on the burnt corpses.

Before he could take the last step, however, two shadows appeared coming from above, so he dashed in front of them to make the first strike. They didn't expect him to be right in front of them, and one dropped limp, the other yelling his name in anguish.

Viscus's gun clicked, and he tried to hide but the man above made sure to punish the blond for his mistake. Aura sank to nearly a third, but Viscus was able to find time to reload his gun, or at least fumble his way into doing so. More footsteps echoed from the other side, and the blond gulped in anticipation.

The instant a blond hair peeked, gunfire nearly singed it away, scaring Viscus from repeating his action. The gunshots paused, and Viscus decided to redo his tactic of throwing Dust at the enemy. This time, though, he took out a light blue canister and chucked it upstairs. He miscalculated his strength and it hit the ceiling, but the canister appeared to be too sturdy for such a hit to even make a dent.

Unfortunately, the canister went out of sight, so that plan was a bust. Cursing, Viscus rummaged through his inventory and pulled out another one, a red canister, but this time he had another plan.

Rather than chuck it and hope for the best, Viscus threw it and waited till it was far enough before taking aim and shooting. The first one missed, and, just before the canister followed its predecessor, the second one hit, and that made a bigger boom than Viscus predicted.

The building physically rumbled, and the blond nearly tripped from the sheer power of the explosion, and when the dust settled, Viscus saw an orange light coming from the stairs, and his mouth gaped when he realized what happened. The wall and half of the staircase were eradicated, with the remaining pieces covered in both ice and scorch marks, making him gulp in fear. He promised himself to never do that again, and trudged on ahead.

While on the lower flight, Viscus couldn't help but look at the exposed outside. Men and children stood outside, watching the smoking hole with something akin to amusement in their eyes. The Gamer ignored that and focused on his objective. The staircase was blown up, that much was clear, but there was enough of a window for him to jump and climb up, and he hoped no one would find him when he was vulnerable. Thankfully, he was safely on the third floor, one step closer to his target on the fourth floor.

Quickly, he reloaded his gun and moved on, but he didn't face anyone on his way up. The more he walked, the more he felt his heart beat, and his hands turn clammy. This was it, the final floor.

Like a pattern, the first step Viscus took into the 4th floor proper, bullets endlessly flew toward him. Many hit before he was able to back off, and he nearly tripped while going down the stairs backward, but he grasped the rail quickly.

From the brief moment he was upstairs, he noticed a barricade in the corridor with an undetermined amount of men, but it had to be a lot considering the amount of bullets shot at him. Unfortunately, they were far enough that his bombing strategy wouldn't work, so he had to do something else.

Taking a deep breath, he tried to think of a solution, but when a grenade rolled toward him, all thought disappeared from his mind and instinct took over. The stairs got scorched like the ones before, and his Aura went down to less than 10%.

At this point, Viscus didn't know what to do, and he doubted trying to stealth in front of an alerted enemy would do him any good. None of his skills were helpful in his situation, but he hadn't used up his most important resource, Mana.

He didn't know if it was possible on the spot, but he had to try and create a projectile using it, preferably an explosive one that could tear through the barricade. He cursed at his past self for the lack of preparation, but he had to grit his teeth and push through it.

The Gamer closed his eyes and began manipulating his Mana. Gathering it into a single point, and cramming as much as he could inside the point turned ball, until he felt it become unstable.

That was the cutoff point, and what he needed to believe the projectile would go boom.

The tennis ball-sized projectile floated above his hand, its borders seemingly barely holding on, and he quickly threw at his enemies, tanking more hits in the process. The [Mana Bomb] didn't care, however, and sailed at record speed.

Viscus didn't keep looking out of fear of being shot, but a blinding blue lit up the dark hallway, partially scaring the blond, and partially giving him expectation. When silence ensued, the Gamer took a glance and found the barricade eradicated, and the surroundings turned into rubble, with the sound of bricks falling from the floor above. Whoever was standing behind it couldn't have survived such a blast, Viscus hoped, then glanced at his status before sighing.

He would have to continue without Aura, and he lamented the loss of its physical buffs. Even his Mana was half empty with the usage of a single ability, but it would make do. Surprisingly, though, from the smoke walked out a single man, a sawed-off shotgun in his hand. Viscus shivered when he read the man's level, a whole 10 compared to his measly 4. Or was it 5 now?

Viscus shook his head, he had no time to check.

"You fucker." His voice rumbled, "You killed my men, destroyed my place, and want to kill me!? I'll fucking break you."

The Gamer took a deep breath. Given that the man survived the blast, either he was far enough to avoid the damage, or he withered it, which meant Aura. Which meant Viscus was at a disadvantage, and that made the blond hesitate.

He couldn't face him head on. His teeth stopped clattering and he schooled his expression. Still, shakily, Viscus began running down the stairs, fearfully hearing footsteps echo behind him.

"You're dead!" The man appeared just as soon as the blond stepped down from the first half of the flight. Without hesitation, he jumped down the stairs, and Viscus's eyes widened.

The Gamer hurried, but he tripped at the last step and saw himself tumbling forward. He cursed, but that gave enough time for the enemy boss to jump down right in front of him, and gun him down with his shotgun. Viscus hurriedly used his Mana to block the attack, but it dwindled quickly.

While still on the ground, Viscus took aim and shot at the boss, the bullets missing, instead hitting the gun out of his hand. The man stared at the blond in disbelief before rushing him down and grabbing him by the throat.

The Gamer struggled under the man's grasp, but the man wasn't done yet. "Fuck you!"

He smashed Viscus through the front door of one of the apartments, and dragged him inside. While on the way, he made sure to slam Viscus on every surface possible, and it was when they reached the living room that the blond mustered some Mana and used it to empower a punch coming from below, the attack hitting the man's extended elbow and dislocating it anteriorly.

That forced the man to yell out in pain while Viscus dropped to the ground, and he scrambled to get up but the boss recovered far quicker than the Gamer expected, and he was once again taken by the throat with his second arm.

The man grit his teeth as he slammed Viscus on the glass table, then on the wall, making a clear dent in it, and then he stared at the near limp figure in his hand. "Should have never messed with the Hoarders."

At the same time, Viscus's mind was in overdrive, and he figured out a risky solution not unlike what he did throughout his assault. Weakly, the Gamer pulled out a fiery canister and, using all of his strength, inserted it deep into the boss's mouth. "What the f-"

Nearly out of breath and with darkening vision, Viscus made a deathly laugh and stuck the muzzle of the gun into the canister.

"C-heckmate."

And the world turned red.

The explosion blew Viscus out of the apartment and back into the corridor, the blond relentlessly coughing and struggling to stand up. The apartment began turning into ash, and the gang leader with it. The heat licked the Gamer's exposed limbs, but he wasn't able to stand up till a minute had passed.

There were no screams of pain coming from inside, not that Viscus expected the man to survive a grenade exploding from his mouth. His imagination supplied a figure that made him shiver, but he shook his head and leaned on the wall, moving upstairs.

He couldn't help but painfully chuckle on the realization. He won.

He fought an entire gang on his own and defeated them.

He glanced at his HP and shuddered. He was a 4 HP, with 0 MP remaining. Yet, he felt proud at his [Mana Shield] for saving him from death. Had he not blocked the shotgun blast, he wouldn't have been standing then and there.

Midway through the stairs, the blond's legs gave out, and he hurriedly took hold of the rail. Maybe he should give himself more rest, his mind supplied, and he was soon sitting on the stairs taking his breath.
His breaths were shaky, but clearly improving with time. The pain in his body was easing by the minute, but it was still a while more before he would be able to get up and follow on his promise.

To take his mind off his surroundings, the Gamer decided to check out his notifications, finding 13 notifications for his kills, and one for his level up to 5. Some more mentioned various stat improvements, but what caught his eye was a notification that, while he only had seen it once before, made him confused.

[Luck Remaining : 0%]

He tried finding a reason for this notification, but he had no idea what Luck did. It did something, that much was clear, and he could consider himself lucky enough to survive these combat encounters, but he felt there was something more to it.

Maybe his Luck did help him in some way. The System, hateful as it is, wasn't his enemy, and he would hazard that Luck did assist him in his battles, and that made him think about investing more into it. Something that later Viscus should consider, anyway.

Minutes later and the Gamer felt his body rested enough. Taking a deep breath, he went upstairs and toward the boss's room, a goal in mind. While the other blond was explaining the place's layout to him, she made sure to mention the boss's room, and what it had.

A safe that, according to Blayne, would hold all the protection money, and Viscus would earn himself a portion of it if he was able to bring the lien to her. While that portion was only 25% of what the safe held, he found himself caring more about the prospect of the job and all the advantages that lien wouldn't have helped with.

Experience, tools and equipment, and access to any information and materials to build himself a strong arsenal to contend with the future elements. "Y-yeah, c'mon Viscus, up we go."

Soon enough, he was standing in front of an open door leading to the boss's place, and he took a step inside to the sight of a, surprisingly, tidy home. Viscus wasn't here to appreciate, though, and quickly moved till he found a room that made him gulp.

On first glance, the room was filled with what Viscus assumed to be drugs, two screens showing the camera feeds to his left, and a painting that didn't fit the place's entire aesthetic. Shaking his head, Viscus moved to the painting and took it off, thankfully finding a safe hidden behind, and that made him pause. He didn't have the number combination.

Looking around him for any hints, the blond clicked his tongue and decided to bruteforce it. With Aura regenerated and Mana in spades, the Gamer empowered his hands and dug them into the wall before pulling out the entire safe outside. Its sheer heaviness was countered by the supply of Mana, and it soon disappeared from existence before he took a sigh in relief.

He looked at his inventory and found the safe's icon in one of the slots, but it still couldn't access the lien inside, unfortunately. Regardless, Viscus had completed his job, and he left with haste in fear of some authority finding him. Vacuo or not, he did not want to deal with that.

And also to get himself a new pair of clothes. He wouldn't go back to the shop looking half scorched and filled with holes, would he?

Pasta has delivered on the promise, as promised.

Before I continue, I'd like to say I'm very grateful for your enthusiasm, Sir Guest the Second, and I understand your concerns. There is an incredibly long delay between my releases, I know, but if I just time skip the whole story, it wouldn't be one, would it? I have something to tell, development to show, and characters to play with!

Now this chapter. Written and Done in the same Tuesday and final edit by today Friday, Maakl2001 and I made sure to discuss the events and I'd like to apologize if there were.. too many explosions.

We tried to think of another scenario, we really did, but I think I trapped myself within a pot this time.

Alas, the chapter is here and ready to be consumed.

Unfortunately, my course to become a 5 star meal is resuming starting tomorrow, so, unless we are lucky and this pasta makes time for next chapter, you might want to expect a relatively later release (aka, don't expect a next Friday release, but be surprised if it somehow happens).

Then again, things are never going to be easy, would they?