Chapter 7: Miracle Card・Black Rock Axe (Please Support!)

In front of room "406," cold words spilled from Gu Ran's mouth.

"I'm counting to ten. If you don't open the door, you'll bear the consequences. I've already slaughtered the monsters, am I supposed to be afraid of adding another 'person' to the list?!"

He emphasized the word "person," a warning and a way out he was offering.

It was best if the other party took it, lest the previous words were not merely a joke.

In a world transformed, facing disasters, in the current environment, the soft-hearted couldn't survive long. He genuinely didn't mind another life on his hands.

No response; silence all around lent itself to an instinctive feeling that maybe there was a mistake.

In spite of this, Gu Ran's expression remained unchanged, his voice echoing on its own accord.

"10, 9, 8… 2."

He paused when reaching "2" because the door in front of him had already quietly cracked open.

A gaze peeked out from behind the door.

It belonged to a middle-aged man, who chuckled as soon as his eyes met Gu Ran's:

"Hahaha, little brother, are you injured? Wait, let me get you a first aid kit. I happen to have one at home..."

However, before he could finish, Gu Ran cut in:

"You have twenty seconds to return my things as they were, untouched. If anything's missing, I will come in and retrieve it myself."

"Trust me, that's something you wouldn't want to see!!"

The icy, rigid tone, accompanied by the vivid color of blood on him, stiffened the man's smile and flickered a subtle fear through the depths of his pupils.

But he covered it up well, quickly bouncing back to say.

"Brother, are you referring to the monster from earlier? I just happened to see someone come down from upstairs. That has nothing to do with me!!"

Regardless of his extravagant excuses, Gu Ran's expression remained utterly unchanged.

He stood quietly at the door, a wooden board shielding his chest, his face a mask of indifference.

At a glance, one's first impression would be, "This is definitely a stubborn man, one who won't be swayed."

As time slowly ticked away, and with Gu Ran silent, a hint of anger surfaced in the man's eyes, and with a click, he closed the door once more.

Seeing this, Gu Ran continued to stand still at the door, making no excessive precautions, as if he had no concern for any potential sneak attack from the other side.

It wasn't overconfidence, but a sense of assurance within him.

In fact, the moment the man revealed himself, Gu Ran's Eye of Insight had already obtained the man's complete information.

[Name: Sun Haitao]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 35]

[Level: None (Common human, yet to awaken)]

...…

Yes, he was merely an unawakened human, not yet a formal Card Master.

Therefore, even if the man attacked with the Mechanical Bow he had taken from Gu Ran, what of it? The worst-case scenario would be a waste of four card points.

Of course, this assumed that the man did not have a firearm like a "handgun," because even with the wooden board, it might not be safe.

Actually, the safest method would have been to take immediate action and use Soul Capturing Spirit Eye to control the man, then personally deal with the situation. This approach had an obvious advantage—there would be no surprises.

And he didn't choose to do that for two reasons: firstly, his cards were limited, and Gu Ran didn't want to waste them on an ordinary person.

Secondly, as someone who had lived in a peaceful society for over twenty years, the idea of killing someone without any reason was something he found extremely abhorrent.

"Let's hope he's smart about this!"

As soon as the thought crossed his mind, a soft sound of a door opening could be heard once more.

Gu Ran's eyes narrowed slightly. Although he didn't move, his attention was highly focused. Should he sense anything amiss, he wouldn't hesitate to activate his card abilities.

In the end, he didn't make a move; the middle-aged man finally handed over everything intact.

Gu Ran gave him a cold glance and didn't say much more, although he was unwilling to kill, it didn't mean he had any good intentions.

Self-help is a thief!!

He always despised those who were not clean-handed.

Of course... this all started with a piece of candy he lost out of the blue during kindergarten.

......

Back on the third floor of his home, he set aside the mechanical bow, quiver, fruit knife, and other items. Gu Ran didn't rush to check the loot from the ogre. Instead, he retrieved a damp mop from the bathroom.

He thoroughly cleaned all the bloodstains around the doorstep, decisively throwing his blood-stained clothing down to the lower floors.

At the same time, he endured the burning pain of his left shoulder as he washed his body clean, and then roughly treated the wound.

There was no other way; if he didn't get these things cleaned up, the strong scent of blood didn't bear thinking about what sort of demons and monsters it might attract. Now with his combat power greatly reduced, Gu Ran had to be extra cautious.

As for the monster corpses on the fourth floor, what did they have to do with him? Best of luck to them!

When he reappeared on the couch, clean and refreshed more than twenty minutes later, he couldn't hold back any longer and eagerly began to examine the cards on the table.

There were three cards in total. One was a card point card, and the other two seemed to be Miracle Cards.

This came as quite a surprise to Gu Ran, along with a sense of confusion.

"Could it be that defeating higher-level enemies results in a significant loot bonus?"

It wasn't strange for him to be puzzled. After all, by logic, he should have only obtained a single Miracle Card from yesterday's kill of the goblin, even with the benefit of being the first kill.

If the word "benefit" has been used, which only applies to the first kill and is a one-off chance for everyone, it wouldn't make sense that simply defeating someone at a higher level should yield benefits that exceed this so-called first kill bonus.

"Could it be that the first kill bonus is nothing more than a bluff?"

With these questions in mind, Gu Ran individually checked the properties of the three cards.

[Card Points x3]

[Note: This card does not occupy a card slot, and will disappear after use.]

After seeing the first card point card, Gu Ran's expression turned ugly. He had only gained 3 card points, not even enough to break even—he had started with 10 points and now had only 9 left.

But that wasn't the crucial issue. As his gaze moved to the other two cards, he suddenly had a bad feeling.

[Azurestone Card • Black Rock Axe • Fragment]*1

[Quality: Green Stone One Star (Common)]

[Passive: Equipping this card allows you to summon a finely-crafted Black Rock Axe as your weapon at will. (Note: Passive does not consume card points)]

[Active (Mighty Blow): Consumes 2 card points, after a brief charging period (the weaker the wielder's physique, the longer the charge time, and vice versa), throw the stone axe. The impact on the target is determined by the target's physique:

If the target's physique is weaker than that of the card's wielder, the attack will cause damage and trigger a knockback effect.

If the target's physique is similar to, or stronger than, the card's wielder, then it will only cause damage. (Cooldown 10 minutes)]