Birth Of The Crafts-God

Ignoring the looks of disgust and intrigue from different people who noticed his 'uniqueness', Lucas began considering how to stand out from other vestige-smiths and stores on the spot. He came to the conclusion that he had to do so in the most distinctive way possible which was by competing against the two factions of weapon-type vestiges, the Forger faction and the Multiplex faction.

There was a certain phrase Lucas had learnt from Earth, and that was 'there's no such thing as bad publicity', and this inspired his idea. If Lucas was to basically stay in line with the other vestiges and abide by the philosophy of one faction, it would be hard for him to stand out. Even if he practiced both philosophies, the situation would still be the same.

In fact, many would doubt his expertise as most vestige smiths focused on one area.

Hence, the only way to really make a hit was to rely on an entirely new school of thought—one that might bring about doubt but also curiosity.

Having thought of an idea, Lucas began walking again, this time around planning to check out a few material stores in the market zone.

Just then, Lucas spotted an individual walking towards him from the front. There were many others who were similarly walking either from behind or from the front as this was a somewhat busy street, away from the Eretrean Vestige-smith League's building and quite close to the ever-busy market zone. As such, there were a lot of people going and coming from different directions.

Despite the traffic, for some reason, this individual stood out in Lucas' senses.

At that moment, Lucas noticed that one of the individual's hands, hidden inside his jacket, was being pulled out. Alarm bells rung in his head and without even a moment of hesitation, Lucas jumped towards the side.

*Bang*

The sound of a gunshot reverberated in the area, drawing the attention of the crowd to the scene. Few among the crowd on the street fled to a safe distance before glancing backwards, while the majority were merely stunned and frozen on the spot.

At Lucas' original position, a figure had collapsed on the ground, eyes wide open with one arm gripping their chest. The young lady was dumbfounded, being confused for second before turning anxious, scared and sad. She could feel the last bits of life flowing away from her and try as she might to run away from it, death was slowly pulling her into its embrace.

"M-murder!"

A bystander abruptly yelled with disbelief.

The crowd was dazed silly.

This was Baylands City, this was the capital region. How could such even happen? Despite the fact that this was the West Wing district, the poorest and least safest district in Baylands City due to its proximity to the Wastelands, it was actually very safe. There had been no desolate beast tides approaching the gates of the district much less invading the district in the last eighty years.

Crime rates (against hyumans) were at an all-time low and incidents of murder were barely ever heard about.

All these resulted to the average citizen having a very low sense to danger. One could say that their warning systems were turned off, which was why the majority didn't think to take cover or retreat right after the gunshot. A murder, much less one with a hot weapon, had never occurred in over thirty years.

The result of such an extended period of peace was quite obvious at this moment.

'Damn it.' The man who wielded the gun vestige cursed as he looked at the corpse a few metres away from him.

Just as he had pulled out his gun and taken aim, Lucas had jumped to the side, dodging the shot. However, there was a hyuman behind him who became the victim of the attack. That miss had caused a relapse in the assassin's thoughts and Lucas took the opportunity to dash away from the scene.

The man knew he was in big trouble after not only missing but killing a hyuman. If the victim was simply Lucas, although he would be arrested, his boss could pull some strings and get him out with the condition that he would be forced to never step foot in Baylands City again. He might also get a fine and some jail time due to his usage of a vestige, but that would be all.

However, the victim was a hyuman. Even his boss would be forced to cut off any tracks that would lead to him, otherwise the consequences would be severe. The case might even be handed over to the Red Fangs of the Baylands City Patrol Corps due to the involvement of a gun vestige; and if it were, death would be an even better option for the man.

The mission could have been done with a regular cold weapon-type vestige, but the previous attempts had shown that the target was not an easy figure to kill. Hence, why the man went for a hot weapon. There would be no trace of it, no killing intent, and it could be fired from a range. Nothing was supposed to go wrong, but it did.

"Damned fucking bastard. This is all your fault." The man roared before chasing after Lucas.

Lucas' heart was beating profusely but he had managed to calm it down as he continued running. The assassin's moment of hesitation was enough to give Lucas a fifteen metres head-start, but that wasn't enough. The opponent had a gun and the previous attempt had already revealed him. As such, he would have less concerns about shooting again.

Lucas maneuvered through the buildings and the crowd, weaving left and right while using any and every thing as a cover. Even if it was wrong to use a living being as a cover, in the face of such a threat, Lucas wasn't bothered about right or wrong, but simply surviving. This was a trait he had developed in his first life when he was forced to live in a dog-eat-dog world as an orphan.

Unsurprisingly, Lucas' actions forced the assassin to not take aim again as another shot would potentially kill someone else and increase the crime on his head.

The realization of the death of the young lady had awoken a sense of fear and dread in the crowd, causing chaos all around as everyone ran in different directions. This chaos proved useful for Lucas and unfavourable for the man. Despite trying his best to chase after Lucas, the man eventually lost him in the crowd.

'I need to get out of here.' The man eventually gave up on his mission and decided to escape.

Since his boss would abandon him, it was best to run away now. If he were caught, it would be the end of him. As for selling out his boss to the patrol corps, that would be a dumb move; even more so than his current crime. As such, the best cause of action was to attempt an escape from the west Wing district and Baylands City as whole.