"Boss, they don't seem too friendly. What should we do?"
Having noticed the situation, Liam quickly scurried a few steps closer to his two partners, lowering his voice to ask Wayne's opinion.
Wayne quickly assessed the situation. Their arrival was a bit sudden, and for now, he could only come up with a temporary plan:
"Permission to use extraordinary abilities and firearms, but for now, focus on proportional retaliation. Try not to escalate the conflict proactively. First, let's see what their deal is. While ensuring your safety, prioritize capturing that one guy."
"Yes, sir!" Liam and the gathered "Chameleon" responded simultaneously.
At a short distance from Wayne and the others, there were two masked figures each in the front, left, and right directions, and three behind them, all slowly approaching Wayne's group.
Besides their nine wood-carved masks painted with oil, there was also a large black-faced mask with bared teeth, standing on a slightly elevated position further to the left and front. It hadn't moved much since appearing, with two long bird feathers stuck on its head.
Judging from the formation, that position was obviously the most conspicuous. It was clear at a glance that he was the leader of these guys, even his equipment was different. It was hard for Wayne not to keep an eye on him.
However, these guys were all wearing masks with extraordinary reactions, making it impossible to recognize who was who. They were also holding indigenous-style melee weapons like war clubs and short spears.
Although they had already shown a "hostile" demeanor, it was difficult to confirm whether they were there to "warn," "threaten," "beat up," or "kill everyone."
The situation was unclear. Considering that he had slightly intimidated those community "leaders" in that basement today, these guys might have been secretly sent by them to show that they wouldn't be easily manipulated.
Therefore, for the sake of prudence, Wayne still intended to observe first—being ruthless when facing criminals was out of necessity, but if it was just facing ordinary people who were disobedient, proactively escalating to violent confrontation was not very necessary.
After all, the entire community, both openly and secretly, probably had at least nine hundred indigenous people.
If they really all went crazy, even counting Inessa and the others who were still outside the community, the detective agency would have to fight a hundred people per person. Leaving aside whether they could win or whether they had enough bullets, just thinking about it felt exhausting...
Moreover, bullets cost money to buy.
But not proactively "escalating" the conflict didn't mean not taking action. The detective agency, after all, started by arresting wanted criminals. There was no reason to just talk nicely after being deliberately "ambushed." Even if Wayne could tolerate it, the agents probably couldn't.
Now that they were here, they naturally had to fight first.
It could only be said that if the other party didn't intend to make the detective agency "draw blood," then the detective agency would also be restrained when taking action, controlling the situation to the level of a "brawl."
If the other party's actions crossed the line, then they would have escalated first. Faced with different situations like "brawl"—"drawing blood"—"threatening life," the detective agency also had several levels ranging from "knowing when to stop," "leaving someone alive," to "regardless of life or death," depending on who the other party was, what their intentions were, and to what extent they took action.
In the absence of firearms for the time being, even if the other party were all extraordinary individuals, there were only ten people in total. Their arena combat skills might not be very strong.
And on Wayne's side, he himself was currently stuck at Tier 4. Although he couldn't advance even with a full mana bar, he could at least be considered to have reached the "Great Perfection of the Initial Tier." In addition, there was Lina, who was at Tier 6 even without divine empowerment, a large spider Peter, and...
Wayne inadvertently turned his head and glanced, then his pupils shrank.
Damn, Liam and "Chameleon," you two are already "invisible" so quickly?!
Although he knew that this was their normal state when using extraordinary abilities, they hadn't even started fighting yet. At least let me spout a few trash-talking lines to boost morale...
Unfortunately, the opportunity to make things lively was fleeting. Seeing that two people had "disappeared in place," the masked men around them immediately sped up their pace, raising the weapons in their hands, obviously entering a combat state.
Lina glanced at Wayne while taking the time to tie up her blonde hair with a hair tie, and then they each chose a direction. She ran diagonally backward to play where there were the most people, while Wayne ran diagonally opposite to her, trying to take the opportunity to catch that "Big Black Face."
The sound of wind breaking through the air appeared.
The first thing that flew towards Wayne was a flying stone lasso, with "lines" of extraordinary power attached to it.
This thing was two stones connected by a rope. After hitting the prey with a spinning motion, the rope would wrap around the prey several times due to inertia, making it quite suitable for a "first encounter kill."
Some early colonist "warriors" who hadn't seen the world and couldn't dodge this kind of rotating flying weapon would have smart guys thinking of blocking it with their bodies, trying to take a hit and then counterattack.
As a result, they would often be directly entangled by the rope. If they were unlucky, just being delayed for a few seconds would be enough for them to return to the embrace of the Holy Spirit.
After the establishment of the American Federation, many white-skinned immigrants who grew up in towns had long forgotten this thing that had been eliminated from the battlefield by firearms many years ago, and had once again become "prone to being hit."
—But the "Westerners" were not among them.
Wayne bent his knees, dodged to the side, and the flying stone lasso passed over his chest at a high position. Unfortunately, it didn't hit a masked man who was "fighting in the void" with Liam, and was stepped on by the other party.
Cowboys in the West had long since learned from the Indigenous people. These tools are still in use today. Nowadays, skilled cowboys are adept at using both the "flying loop" and "flying stone" lassos. The children in Black Rock Town have few toys, so they are familiar with these tools from a young age, and even if they can't always dodge them, they know how to avoid them.
"Chameleon's" camouflage principle differs from Liam's. Liam's is somewhat close to "transparency," while "Chameleon's" involves changing the colors near its body.
Therefore, when Liam fights, he occasionally likes to stand in open spaces, making his opponents dizzy. On the other hand, "Chameleon" prefers to "stick to the edges" when fighting, launching surprise attacks when people are unprepared.
The masked man who threw the flying stone lasso was ambushed by "Chameleon," who had stuck to the edge. A punch to the stomach, followed by an uppercut. An ordinary person would be dazed for a second or two after such a blow to the chin.
However, the "mosaic" on the mask suddenly flashed in the minimalist lines of sight. Not only did the opponent not stagger, but he also drew a war club from his lower back and swung it upwards in a "half-moon slash."
"Bang!"
The bullet fired from Wayne's gun deflected the war club, causing sparks to fly from the embedded stones.
Ignoring the leisure for idle chatter, it's not like they don't have guns on them.
Wayne had two masked men standing in front and behind him on the road. He didn't want them to bleed for the time being, so he put in a little effort. The "Chameleon" closer by even helped to share one.
The overall impression is that,
these people are weaker than expected, not as intense as the arena in the detective agency.
However, the masks on their faces are quite interesting. Occasionally, the "mosaic" flashes, and their muscles become hard, or their strength suddenly increases a lot, and their pain seems to disappear.
It's more than enough to deal with ordinary people, but unfortunately, their endurance is poor. The effect seems to last only for a moment. Based on their average foundation, they still can't compare with the guys in the detective agency who study fighting all day long.
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The "mosaic" on that "big black face" was the heaviest, but the result was not as good as the other "wooden masks." Seeing the situation was bad, he turned around and ran.
Wayne quickly caught up with him with a flying kick. After controlling his hands, he applied an "American stranglehold," smashing his knees directly onto the opponent's body, one knee locking his neck, one knee pressing his spine, and then he lifted the mask.
Under the mask was a community "leader" who helped lead the way today. Among the "leaders" who could communicate, he was the oldest, had the worst spoken language, and seemed to have the lowest status compared to the other proper "chiefs."
This guy surrendered quickly: "We didn't intend to really hurt anyone at first, we just wanted to warn you and let you end the community lockdown sooner."
It's best not to believe anything people who have been arrested say before the official interrogation. However, when "Chameleon" was "fighting two-on-one" before supporting Wayne, he was poked by the opponent with a short spear. It was obviously not sharpened, and the malicious intent didn't seem too great.
Seeing that this guy's extraordinary reactions mainly came from that "big black face" mask, Wayne slightly relaxed him, "Spread your hands and feet, keep your limbs and chest on the ground, and don't get up until allowed."
"Yes, yes." The other party tapped his chin lightly on the ground a few times.
Reaching out to pick up the "big black face" mask next to him, his spiritual intuition suddenly warned him, unable to distinguish the direction.
Accompanied by the continuous sound of "poke, poke, poke," several darts were almost simultaneously nailed to the ground next to Wayne. Even though he had already reflexively dodged, one dart still pierced out of his abdomen, with the dissipating "lines" on it.
A group of people wearing Indigenous clothing and painted faces slowly revealed themselves around. This time, the "lines" of extraordinary power could be seen emanating from their "bodies."
The guy lying on the ground, seeing the tip of the dart with blood coming out of Wayne's body, was obviously shocked: "These people weren't called by me! It's not our business!"
I can see that, what are you shouting for?
Although these people were wearing feather crowns to cover up, Wayne, as an experienced shooter, could still see that at least two of them clearly had short hair in the style of "civilized society" on their heads, even their hairstyles were different from the Indigenous people in the community.
The war axes held in their hands were sharpened, faintly reflecting a cold light in the night.
Wayne held the revolver in one hand and forcefully pulled the nearly one-meter-long dart out of his stomach, piece by piece.
The scene was a bit bloody, but Wayne, at this time, looked around expressionlessly, his extraordinary abilities fully activated, and spiritual power faintly overflowed from his body, carrying an aura of majesty.
Damn it,
This thing actually has barbs on it, I don't know what else was added,
Ah, it hurts... (Ｔ▽Ｔ)
And it's a "compound" type of excruciating pain, even more intense than being shot by a bullet.
