"Are you sure we can get something from that pauper?" A bald man with a deep scar on the right side of his face asked in a low voice, his tone laced with suspicion.
"You know my aspect has an amplifying effect on my hearing. I definitely heard someone breaking the floor this afternoon. This guy took part in the awakening ceremony today and successfully awakened the Rage Ape aspect..." Another voice added, filled with greed.
"This guy must have hidden something precious or a lot of money and dug it out today, thinking about leaving the slums."
"This guy is part of the Lion Gang. Although it's just a small gang compared to our Roaring Dragon Gang, it will still be troublesome if we are discovered by them," Scar, the person who had spoken first, added with a hint of worry.
"What are you afraid of..." Razor, the second man, spoke with a hint of disdain.
"Not to mention this guy is just an outer member of the Lion Gang. Even if he were a core member, the Lion Gang wouldn't dare to go against our Roaring Dragon Gang."
Scar thought for a moment before nodding.
"Since that's the case, then let's finish it quickly."
Razor nodded, and both of them quickly headed toward Ryan's house.
Ryan, who was sitting on the wooden bed, frowned as he listened to the conversation between the two men.
Although he was more than ten meters away and separated by walls, he could still hear them clearly because of the enhancements his body had received earlier.
"I specifically dug out the talent crystal during the afternoon when there was a bit of hustle and bustle to avoid getting targeted, but someone still heard me breaking the cement floor..." Ryan muttered with a helpless look on his face, sighing inwardly.
However, he was not afraid of the two people who were coming to cause trouble for him.
If it had been before he mutated his aspect, Ryan would have immediately fled upon learning that someone was targeting him.
After all, although he was a member of a gang and had taken part in many gang fights, he was still just sixteen years old, with a somewhat underdeveloped body due to a lack of proper nutrition.
But now, after he had awakened the Bloodline Aspect, his body had undergone a complete transformation, and he was far stronger than before.
Taking a deep breath, he didn't wait for the two men to come to him, as he feared they might break the fragile door of his home. Instead, he stood up.
As he tried to stand up, Ryan suddenly felt something. He looked at his right hand, which he had pressed down on the mattress while standing, and his eyes twitched.
'It seems the increase in my strength is greater than I thought...' He muttered inwardly, looking at his hand that had torn through the mattress and unknowingly plunged deep into it.
Shaking his head, he walked toward the door and, while walking, picked up the iron hammer he had used earlier to dig out the talent crystal.
When he picked up the iron hammer, which weighed around two kilograms, he didn't feel any weight at all, as if he were lifting a toothpick instead of a hammer.
Remembering how he had felt some weight earlier that afternoon when he had used the hammer to break the floor, Ryan's lips curled upward slightly.
Scar and Razor had just reached outside Ryan's house and were planning to forcefully open the door when suddenly—
Clank!
The sound of the lock opening echoed, and the wooden door slowly began to open.
Razor and Scar were taken aback when they saw this. However, before they could think further, their eyes widened in fear, and a chill shot from the soles of their feet all the way up to their heads.
Ryan, who knew that being careless could bring about one's demise, did not try to act arrogant despite his increased strength.
The moment he opened the door, he smashed the iron hammer down toward Razor's head.
Razor and Scar had never imagined that they would be attacked even before they opened the door. As such, neither of them was able to react in time, and the iron hammer smashed directly onto Razor's head.
Crack!
The sound of bone breaking echoed across the dimly lit surroundings, and the force of the hammer instantly shattered Razor's skull, shaking his brain so violently that he wasn't even able to let out a scream before collapsing to the ground, his life and death unknown.
Scar felt as if he had been thrown into a pool of ice-cold water, and his entire body began to tremble.
He shakily looked at Razor, who was lying in a pool of blood flowing from his cracked skull, and his teeth began to chatter.
He was about to scream, but before he could do so, Ryan's hand moved at lightning speed and covered his mouth, preventing him from alerting anyone else in the area.
Scar tried to break free from Ryan's grip, but to his horror, he discovered that Ryan's strength was far superior to his own and he couldn't even move his head.
Ryan didn't give Scar the chance to do anything else. With his other hand, he smashed the hammer down again, giving Scar the same treatment as Razor.
With the sound of his skull cracking open, Scar also fell to the ground, forming another pool of blood.
Ryan looked at the two bodies lying in the puddles of blood, his heart pounding loudly due to the adrenaline rush, and took several deep breaths to calm himself.
Ryan checked both of their breathing and discovered that they were already dead.
Because of his three years of experience in the gang, during which he had gone through similar situations many times before, Ryan didn't feel much about killing these two people who had come to his doorstep with malicious intentions.
In fact, the injury on his left arm had been caused one month ago when he fought against a member of the Blood Wolf Gang.
That person had smashed a steel pipe against Ryan's left arm, nearly breaking the bone.
Of course, Ryan had retaliated in the same manner and smashed a pipe between the man's legs, destroying his future generations and sending him to meet his ancestors in hell.
After confirming that both of them were dead, Ryan finally took the opportunity to carefully look at their faces and raised an eyebrow.
"So it's this guy..." He muttered to himself, looking at Razor, who lived next door to him.
Thinking about this, he couldn't help but frown slightly.
'This guy is part of the Roaring Dragon Gang. Compared to the Lion Gang, which only has around one hundred members, the Roaring Dragon Gang has over five hundred people. From what I've heard, their leader is already a Rank Two Evolver.'
Ryan wasn't sure how strong a Rank Two Evolver was, but he was certain that he wasn't a match for someone like that yet, even with his enhanced body.
'Although it's unlikely that their leader or anyone of higher rank would care about the deaths of two bottom feeders, it's still best to remain cautious...'
With that thought in mind, Ryan immediately picked up both bodies and, taking advantage of the nighttime darkness, threw them far away from his home.
Returning to his house, he looked at the blood-soaked soil just outside his door and covered it with a large amount of mud and dirt.
Because the dirt roads outside were already uneven to begin with, the slightly raised patch of ground outside his house didn't appear suspicious.
After cleaning everything and confirming that nothing remained behind, he finally sighed in relief and was about to go back inside when he suddenly felt something, causing his expression to change.
'What is this strange feeling...'
He stood outside his house, frowning. For some unknown reason, he felt as if something about him had changed.
He carefully looked at himself, but he didn't notice anything unusual and still couldn't figure out the source of the strange feeling.
Just then, he thought about his status window and opened it to see if there was something new there... And the moment he looked at his status window, his eyes widened in disbelief, and he immediately broke out in a cold sweat.