June 8, 1346, Evening
Nearly three days had passed since the last banquet, and Altair's 'Factory Plan' was still in preparation.
He had now arrived in East Borough, preparing to complete another assassination. As before, based on the information gathered from his investigation, he lay in wait on the 'target's' inevitable path, waiting for the 'target' to appear so he could resolve it with a single shot.
The dimly lit path before him was the very route the current 'target' had to take.
Altair lay bored on the roof, looking up at the crimson moon in the sky, which was shrouded in dark clouds due to the pollution from Backlund's factories. The night scenery of this city was even worse than the cities of his own era.
Upon hearing a sound from around the corner of the intersection, he turned to look and saw five drunkards stumbling along, supporting each other.
As time passed, they drew closer. Once Altair confirmed these individuals were the targets, he sat up halfway to ensure a better sniping position.
A 'lever-action rifle' was certainly stylish, but lying prone was inconvenient for reloading.
As Altair finished the bullets in the rifle and packed his things to leave, he instinctively looked down at the corpses.
1, 2... 4, 4! One corpse was missing!
He immediately jumped down from the building and walked forward to confirm.
There were indeed only four corpses; one person had escaped. Looking at the blood trail before him, he thought, "You won't get away."
Altair followed the blood trail closely. As he reached the corner of the path, a dagger suddenly lunged toward his eyes.
Altair instinctively arched his body backward to dodge the attack, completing a high-difficulty backbend.
Watching the dagger pass over where his head had just been, he twisted his body and used the momentum to kick the passing dagger away.
As the dagger fell, Altair watched the person before him warily.
He thought to himself, 'He was hit in the chest by a.45-70 round-nose bullet and didn't die, and he still has the strength to flee and counterattack. Is he even human?'
Seeing that Altair didn't attack immediately, the enemy spoke anxiously, "Who sent you? Don't kill me! I'll give you money, I have lots and lots of money..."
"I have a house in Backlund's West District, I have..."
Seeing that Altair had no intention of letting him go despite his offer to buy his life, he hurriedly said, "Do you know about Beyonders? I can give you a formula. You can use the formula to concoct a potion and become a Beyonder."
Upon hearing the word 'Beyonder', Altair understood why the man wasn't dead despite his condition; he was a Beyonder.
However, he was curious about which Pathway could tank a shot like that—with a hole blown through his chest—and still survive. He asked curiously, "Which Pathway's potion formula do you possess? What is its name?"
Hearing the Assassin ask about the potion formula, the man knew he still had a chance of survival. 'After all, who could refuse becoming a Beyonder?'
He breathed a sigh of relief and said, "'Criminal'. Don't misunderstand, don't misunderstand, the name of the potion formula for this Pathway is just 'Criminal'. I am a Beyonder of this Pathway myself, so I can guarantee the formula is correct. Besides, look at me—I can still move after being hit by your high-powered 'high-pressure steam rifle'. This shows this Pathway is very strong; you will definitely be satisfied..."
Upon hearing this, Altair lost interest. Only someone with a broken brain would choose the 'Abyss Pathway'.
Taking advantage of the man's relaxed guard, Altair quickly moved behind him, stomped on his knee joint, and caught his head with his hand and shoulder. With a 'crack', the target completely lost his life.
When it was all over, Altair released the body, and the lifeless husk slumped to the ground.
Looking around, he noticed that perhaps due to the commotion, someone had turned on a gas lamp in a house, but likely out of fear, no one appeared to stop him.
Thinking of this, Altair shook his head with a self-mocking smile. Perhaps what was happening now was quite common in East Borough; after all, the security here was only slightly better than in the Docks District.
He didn't want to look for trouble, so he helplessly dragged the man's corpse into the depths of the alley.
Seeing a dark red gelatinous substance flowing from the corpse's chest, Altair used a pre-prepared cigarette case to collect it, tucked it into his pocket, and stood up to leave this den of trouble.
He didn't have a cheat like 'Sefirah Castle'. He couldn't store a 'Beyonder characteristic' in a cigarette case for long; this was just a desperate measure for now. He could only do this temporarily and use materials to create a 'Spiritual Wall' to seal and preserve it properly once he returned to the manor.
As for where the cigarette case came from, Altair could only offer his 'apologies', thinking, 'Using your own cigarette case to hold your own Beyonder characteristic counts as treating you well.'
After leaving the scene, Altair took the back alleys home. To pass the time, he skipped and hopped, heading home with elegant dance steps.
If anyone had passed by, they would have surely taken Altair for some poor soul driven mad by fear. After all, what normal person would run and jump so crazily with their clothes covered in blood? When he reached home, he entered through the door Hahn had left for him. Seeing Hahn still sitting by the door, he walked up and found him asleep. He gently patted his shoulder and said, "Hahn, wake up. I'm back. Don't sleep here, go to your room."
As Hahn slowly opened his eyes, he saw Altair with large bloodstains on his clothes. He pointed at the blood and asked anxiously, "Count Altair, you..."
Seeing Hahn's reaction, Altair looked at his clothes and realized it was indeed inappropriate. He said, "This isn't mine. I got it from an enemy while 'hunting' today."
Hearing Altair's words, Hahn lowered his finger in relief, shook his head slightly with a sigh, and asked helplessly, "Count Altair, it seems today's outing wasn't very smooth. Should we pause for a while?"
Hearing Hahn's concerned words, Altair shook his head and said, "It's fine, Hahn. I just happened to run into a Beyonder this time. Ordinary people are no match for me. Rest easy."
He then took out the spoils of war and handed them to Hahn. "This is my trophy from this time—the Beyonder characteristic of a 'Criminal'. Help me seal it with materials."
"I'm going to take a bath first. Now that you mention it, there really is an unpleasant smell all over my body."
...After explaining everything, Altair returned to his room, took off his blood-stained dirty clothes in the washroom, threw them aside to be dealt with tomorrow, and sat in the bathtub for a warm soak.
He thought to himself, 'It seems