Catastrophe Card King

This lady was adept at observing and interpreting behavior as part of her occupation. Looking at Leonard Churchill’s indifferent demeanour, she took the initiative and presumed that he didn’t think highly of black iron and needed something of higher quality.

Her clear eyes shifted as she continued, “It’s rather rare to find breathing methods of silver quality. The Hunters Association has a few, and so do some major factions, but…”

She didn’t continue, seemingly expecting that her guest would know of what she was not saying.

After all, these pathways were not something just anyone would dare covet.

Leonard listened silently.

So, there are various quality levels of breathing methods?

Seeing that he didn’t respond, the lady continued, “Moreover, there’s the ‘Law Enforcement Officer Training Camp’ of the Governor’s Mansion. They publicly advertise that they provide breathing methods free of charge, along with a complete [Heart 6 – Law Enforcement Officer] Professional Sequence and subsequent promotion pathways. After all, the Miller Family are high-ranking nobles, they are not in short supply of breathing methods or profession cards.”

However, she advised, “However, handsome, you must already know that Sinless City isn’t exactly friendly to law enforcement officers. Even with such favorable conditions, there aren’t many who end up there. You…”

Leonard interjected appropriately, “I’m not particularly interested in becoming a law enforcement officer.”

By now, how could he not understand the conflict between the upper-class nobles and the lower-class hunters?

If he were to express a desire to become a law enforcement officer in the Lower City of Sinless City, his corpse might be dumped in an unknown gutter by morning.

After racking her brain, the lady continued, “The ‘Medical Association’ does recruit medical apprentices, but their breathing methods tend to be healing-oriented, so very few hunters choose to go there… The last option would be the black market, but I am guessing you’ve been there, and without sufficient knowledge of the inner workings, it could easily result in losses, it’s all luck. There are also casino fights, sometimes they offer profession cards and breathing methods as prizes…

But I would suggest that if you have time, you can go to the Hunter’s Guild Market on Grove Street in South City first, there are often unexpected surprises…”

Leonard wasn’t looking to change his breathing method, but rather to start learning one.

Hence, his requirements weren’t high.

Given the present circumstances, he thought it would be alright to just find a random breathing method to cope for now.

After listening to the lady, Leonard had some ideas and decided to start by checking out the Hunters Guild Market.

The lady was talking up to this point, seeing that her customer didn’t show much reaction, she thought she had been speaking too much so she put on a tipsy expression and exclaimed, “Oh- I’m sorry, handsome. It looks like I’ve had quite a bit to drink and ended up rambling…”

Leonard chuckled, “No, that was good.”

To others, perhaps this was commonplace information.

But for Leonard, it was quite useful.

At the very least, the information was worth the price of the drinks.

Seeing the lady finish her drink, she prepared to order another one.

Seeing this, Leonard quickly rose to his feet.

He didn’t plan to spend all his money here.

The mechanics apprentice in the city factory only earns less than 3000 a month, and he had already spent several days’ wages just drinking in this place. It wasn’t cheap.

Besides, gathering information from a single place could easily expose his intentions.

As Leonard stood, he casually draped an arm around the lady’s slender waist and said, “Thank you, Miss Sally. I’m a bit tired tonight and I’ll stop drinking here.”

There were hundreds of nightclubs on Downing Street, he decided to try somewhere else.

The lady looked stunned as he rose to leave, “Ah…?”

Wasn’t there… supposed to be something else?

Before she had time to gather her thoughts, Leonard had already left his seat and disappeared into the crowd.

Leaving the lady feeling dumbfounded by the bar.

At this moment, a man who looked like a pimp came over and asked, “Sally, what was the deal with that new face just now?”

The lady shrugged, “Just a hunter who came back from exploring the caverns. He was asking about breathing methods. Not worth paying attention to.”

The pimp: “Oh?”

“Ah… I was hoping to get something more out of this tonight, but he only had two drinks.”

The lady complained a bit, swirling the empty glass in her hand. She then shot the pimp a teasing smile, adding, “But, he was quite handsome-”

The pimp glanced at her, then said again, “Pay more attention. There might be a big upheaval in the city these few days. There were also orders from the Demon Cross today saying that information is quite valuable recently…”

The lady rolled her eyes, “I know.”

Sinless City was very large, there was no rush to familiarize himself in one day.

After exiting the Old Gun Tavern, Leonard decided to find another bar to sit and gather more information before visiting the market.

The large mechanical clock on the distant bell tower was swinging incessantly, the hands showing twelve o’clock.

It must have been midnight.

Despite Downing Street’s dazzling lights, chaos and disorder were hidden everywhere underneath. Waste water flowed along the cobbled, uneven streets, rats rummaged for food in rubbish bins in the alleyways, and tattered beggars could be seen everywhere. In addition, there were punk gang members with malicious looks –

This abrupt contrast between wealth and poverty was everywhere to see.

As Leonard Churchill walked down the streets, he suddenly became aware of something amiss. “Is someone tailing me?”

He initially wanted to see if anyone in the nearby crowd was causing him trouble, but he noticed something different.

A green-haired youth was perched at the alley between two buildings, his gaze constantly wandering over the “Bull Tavern” across the street.

Several figures lingered in the shadows of the alleyway behind him.

A clumsy way to tail someone.

It was far worse than the methods used by Demon Cross to track him down.

Seeing that their interest was not in him, Leonard Churchill chose to ignore them.

He slowed his pace, not wanting to cause any trouble.

Shortly after he stopped, the butterfly door of the Bull Tavern opened and a few burly men in blue uniforms from the Gold-digging Dock came out.

At the same time, the green-haired youth in the alley spotted them and nervously gestured. The figures in the shadows suddenly drew out their weapons.

“Assassination?”

Only then did Leonard realise what was happening, and he quickly sought cover.

In an instant, the guns in the hands of the green-haired lad’s group went off, spitting fire.

The burly men, caught by surprise, quickly sought cover and then drew their own guns, returning fire.

Both sides engaged in a gunfight on the street.

For a time, the sound of concentrated gunfire, much like that of firecrackers, rang out in the street.

However, the gunfire didn’t last long before a third group joined the fray.

Several steam motorcycles hurried in, and a group of people, clearly gang members, dismounted, drew out various weapons, and sprayed bullets towards the green-haired lad.

The whole gunfight ended in less than two minutes.

The green-haired lad’s group of amateur assassins were wiped out entirely, with several casualties on the other side as well.

The bike gang that arrived later quickly checked the bodies, confiscating equipment and previously claimed items.

Leaving behind a pile of corpses.

Having unexpectedly encountered a gunfight that ended as swiftly as it began, Leonard Churchill was left shocked and incredulous. “Is it just me or are the manners here in Sinless City somewhat… rustic?”

He’d expected fighting and killing in the ruins, but he didn’t think it would happen right in the city.

What was most absurd was that the pedestrians on the street seemed unaffected by the incident, other than being startled by the sudden noise.

As if all they’d witnessed was some impromptu entertainment, no one seemed to care.

Life continued as normal in the various pubs as crowds flooded back.

The bodies were still lying in pools of blood.

Leonard Churchill fell into deep thought.

He wanted to see what would happen next, so he lingered at the scene.

It wasn’t long before a shiny black steam truck arrived.

Four men in black uniforms and gas masks emerged from the truck, body bags in hand.

Leonard watched as they fiddled with the bodies, then expertly bagged and loaded them into the truck.

The black truck drove off.

Leonard’s attention, however, was diverted elsewhere.

He saw the ad on the side of the truck: “Golden Oak Security Company now hiring corpse collectors, $3,500 per week, Address: No. 117 East City Street…” “The pay for corpse collectors is so high?”

Leonard was surprised at first glance.

The salary was even higher than most hunters who ventured outside.

However, what interested him was actually something else…

Corpses?

The Demon Feast required corpses with extraordinary traits, and he’d been fretting about where to find so many to feed on.

At just the first glance of the ad, Leonard Churchill already knew what he’d be doing for quite some time in the future..