"Report to whom?" Pardo asked.
"The Treasure-Stealing Gang's command center." Raven fished a communicator out of his pocket and said, "Use this."
The communicator arced through the air and landed steadily in Pardo's palm.
"This communicator has no signal. You need to be in a specific location to make contact. When the time comes, input your position into it, and you'll be able to get in touch with headquarters."
After saying that, Raven didn't bother waiting for Pardo's reply. He shut the car door, stepped on the gas, and drove off.
Cough cough cough—
Choked by the exhaust fumes, Pardo became even more convinced that she couldn't stay here long.
Once the car had left, Pardo immediately found a stray cat nearby and tied the communicator to its body.
"Meow?"
"Hehe, I'll leave the patrol to you. I need to get out of here fast."
"Meow meow meow?"
...
Arriving at the front line, Raven checked the communicator's locator and saw that it was dutifully patrolling. He nodded with a smile. It seemed this newcomer was quite obedient and hadn't run away just because she was being sent to the battlefield.
Then Raven glanced at the "recruiter," the Treasure-Stealing Gang's vice leader, and questioned him, "You really had the nerve to pick such a young girl?"
The vice leader chuckled. "Extra money delivered right to our door—why not take it? It's on the way anyway. What's wrong with giving her a ride? Boss, she's from Dusk Street. Even if we didn't send her off, she'd die there sooner or later."
"Or what, boss? Did your conscience suddenly wake up? Planning to become a living saint now?"
"Heh." Raven gave a sly smile and agreed, "'With great power comes great responsibility'—that's all nonsense. Isn't it all just about picking up more monster corpses and getting a cut from Heliopolis Life Sciences? A few more 'abilities'—that's the real goal."
Heliopolis Life Sciences had long ago issued a notice. They required monster corpses and the bodies of the dead infected with the curse for research.
As compensation, they would provide a strange drug called the Awakening Serum. This drug could grant people incredible power in a short period of time, even abilities that surpassed human limits—what the gangs called "abilities."
Naturally, this drove Barcelona's underworld into a frenzy.
Abilities—something that only existed in novels—could now be obtained for real. Wasn't that far more tempting than wealth or weapons?
Unfortunately, those cursed monsters couldn't be artificially bred. They only appeared during the Seven-Day Tide.
To ensure their respective interests, the Seven-Day Tide Defense Accord came into being—to divide up both monster and human corpses.
That was also why the four largest gangs could coexist so peacefully. Rather than fighting over territory, enhancing top-level combat power through Awakening Serum was the true path.
And as the gang with the largest number of members, the Treasure-Stealing Gang naturally held a unique advantage. Even without monster corpses, sending some cannon fodder to become infected by the curse would still yield considerable numbers.
The communicators given to newcomers weren't just tools for monitoring them. More importantly, they were used to locate the corpses of these "cannon fodder," so they could be recovered quickly and conveniently.
After all, if corpses weren't retrieved promptly, members of other gangs with sticky fingers would steal them—and the Treasure-Stealing Gang was particularly skilled at that kind of thing.
That was also why the communicator had remained in Raven's pocket earlier. It wasn't that Pardo had clean hands—it was because the communicator itself wasn't anything good to begin with.
And that was why the Treasure-Stealing Gang's recruitment requirements were so loose. Unlike other gangs, where people would fight tooth and nail just to get in.
Suddenly, Raven brought something up. "By the way, have those people been sent in? Why are they looking for sand sifters? Could it be there's a pharaoh's tomb beneath this city?"
Seeing the familiar vice leader fall silent, Raven's brows furrowed. It was as if he had suddenly realized something.
"That bandage on your hand... you're injured?"
As he spoke, Raven raised his arm like an iron clamp, preparing to strike first and subdue his vice leader.
However, the vice leader moved even faster. The bandages on his arm suddenly unraveled and coiled around Raven's neck like a scarlet snake.
"An ability! Hmph—"
At that moment, Raven understood the vice leader's intent to rebel.
No—this person wasn't the vice leader he knew at all. He was an impostor.
"Do you think such a weak, useless ability can control me? Pathetic!"
As the boss of the Treasure-Stealing Gang, Raven naturally had an ability as well—his body, hard as steel.
The muscles of his body suddenly writhed like worms, blasting apart his suit.
But beneath the torn clothing, what emerged wasn't a well-built physique or bulging muscles, but a grotesque, writhing white carapace.
"As everyone knows, the stronger the ability, the more severe the physical mutation."
"And my entire body has mutated. You can imagine—I am now the strongest lifeform!"
The white carapace wasn't his true ability, but a side effect of obtaining it.
The shell emitted a harsh clicking sound and oozed a sickly green mucus.
When the mucus dripped onto the ground, it corroded the floor into honeycomb-like pits.
"Just bandages, and you think you can hurt me?! Don't underestimate me!"
Raven's fingers turned into blades as he stabbed fiercely into the bandages, trying to tear them apart. Although the bandages couldn't suffocate him, he couldn't be sure what this "vice leader" was planning.
Even if the bandages were made of steel, his fingers could secrete corrosive fluid and melt them.
"Bandages? No, no, no, Boss Raven—you'd better take a closer look. What exactly do you think these are?"
The vice leader suddenly spoke in a girl's voice.
"Hm?" Raven looked carefully and realized that the bandages had already dispersed into invisible, microscopic threads.
"Haha, can't see them clearly, can you? Let me tell you—these are magic threads, also known as... nano blades!"
"You—!"
Before Raven could finish speaking, his vocal cords were no longer under his control. He felt his body go numb, and his vision began to slide downward from above.
What was happening?
His face also slid down from his head.
"Don't make a sound. If someone notices, it'll be troublesome for me."
Crack.
Raven was sliced apart by the tiny nano blades. Red flesh and white matter mixed together and scattered across the ground.
"Heh. Not even as tough as a Honkai Beast shell, and you call that a body of steel? At best, you're just soft—touch you and you fall apart."
The vice leader flicked a hand and caught Raven's face, then pressed it onto his own.
His body rapidly expanded, transforming into Raven's build.
"Hehe, now... I am Boss Raven."
A sweet voice contrasted sharply with the terrifying body.