In the empty factory hall, in front of a simple iron-frame office building.
The roar of the Vulcan cannon was like a dense roll of thunder.
The orange-red muzzle flash converged, turning half the factory into rubble in the blink of an eye, finally coalescing into a torrent of steel, like a meteor shower, and blasting straight towards Roy.
Hammerhead's strength, experience, and aim were all quite good; an ordinary person would have no way to evade.
But for Roy, if he fully focused his mind and dodged with extreme concentration, he could still avoid it.
However, there was no need. It was too much effort.
Facing the storm-like metal torrent, Roy stood his ground. He simply grabbed the front of his suit jacket with one hand, lifted it slightly, and turned his head away.
The incredibly violent flood of bullets, as if hitting a wall of solid bronze, was completely blocked.
This lasted for a full half-minute.
With the Gatling gun's terrifying rate of fire, nearly 3,000 rounds were unleashed.
And during that half-minute, Roy silently counted that he had stacked the Fortification rune a total of 10 times.
His opponent was using a Gatling M137, firing 7.62mm full-power rounds.
On average, 3 of these rounds could blast a 10-centimeter-deep hole in a reinforced concrete wall.
3,000 rounds would mean a pit nearly 10 meters deep.
In other words, the durability of a single Fortification rune was equivalent to about 1 meter of reinforced concrete wall.
Although it was a rough estimate, the durability was quite impressive.
With his current mental strength, it shouldn't be a problem to research a 10-layer stacked rune array later, perhaps adding some rune combinations for resilience and dispersion.
Once his new equipment was ready, as long as he wasn't targeted by the cannons of multiple fighter jets, there should be nothing that could threaten him.
It was only half a minute.
Roy's thoughts had even started to wander.
By this time, the ammunition box at Hammerhead's feet was completely empty.
For a moment, the factory was deathly silent.
Hammerhead stood stunned for a good while before cursing, "Shit..."
Bang!
Before he could finish the sentence, Roy had casually fired a shot that struck Hammerhead right between the eyes.
This time, Roy was the one who was stunned.
Even someone as strong as himself had to use an enchanted suit to protect his head and face from a hail of bullets. What was with this Hammerhead guy?
"Where'd you buy your suit?"
"What's on your head?"
Almost simultaneously, Roy and Hammerhead spoke.
After speaking, they both felt something was not quite right. Roy flicked his toe, kicking the revolver from the ground into his hand. He quickly reloaded and fired three lightning-fast shots.
By now, Hammerhead had just thrown down the Vulcan cannon and was pulling a Remington shotgun from his back.
This time, however, all three of Roy's shots were rune bullets.
One Explosion bullet and one Freeze bullet both hit his opponent's chest.
One Penetration bullet struck his opponent's forehead again.
Two to the chest and one to the head, even a god would shake his head in defeat.
Hammerhead, who had once lorded over New York with his iron skull, was neatly and permanently put to sleep.
But to Roy's surprise, even the bullet enchanted with a Penetration rune failed to pierce Hammerhead's skull. It only peeled back the flesh, revealing a flash of silvery-white metal.
He casually cast an Appraisal spell.
As Roy sensed the word 'Vibranium' in the feedback from his mental information, his expression became extremely strange.
The iron skull was one of Hammerhead's core secrets; it wasn't even mentioned in the Continental's intelligence files.
As for Roy's memories, unless you were a die-hard comic book fan, who the hell would know the details about an 18th-tier Marvel villain like Hammerhead?
This was the reason for Roy's strange expression.
What kind of sane person would replace their skull with metal? And Vibranium at that.
With those resources and technology, making a Vibranium-coated suit of old European plate armor would be far better than putting Vibranium in your own head.
Was he afraid of being headshot? Or was he afraid someone would steal his Vibranium?
"Damn it, what a freak!"
As Roy complained, he had already extracted the essence of Hammerhead's soul, converting it into a soul crystal.
A high-grade soul crystal. This was a rare item.
Although it couldn't compare to the legendary soul crystals needed to create the essential tower spirit for a mage tower, a high-grade soul crystal was already capable of producing a weak intelligence. It was an excellent choice for either crafting advanced golem puppets or for assisting a rune factory.
Ah, but his influence, resources, and knowledge seemed insufficient for now.
If all else fails, creating a magical version of an artificial intelligence would also be possible.
In this technological age, having a personal AI would probably be a great help.
It's settled then.
After putting away the soul crystal, Roy thought for a moment, then casually cast an Extraction spell and a Cleaning spell to remove the Vibranium skull from Hammerhead's head.
Roy had already tested it with rune bullets.
This Vibranium stuff was extremely special and precious, even when ranked among magical metals.
A high-grade soul crystal and a small amount of Vibranium.
Thinking about it this way, Hammerhead was a good guy. He shouldn't disturb his sleep.
The unexpected windfall put Roy in a very good mood, so much so that even the bastard Hertz looked much more pleasant.
"Hi~ Hertz. Haven't seen you in a few days. How come you're about to die?"
"So pitiful. For the sake of our kinship, I'll give you a chance to leave some last words. Speak!"
Hertz's hand was still pinned to the wall. He grimaced, his face filled with terror.
"Roy, you can't kill me! We're on the same side! I'll give you the territory back..."
"Foolish! If I kill you, the territory will be mine anyway."
"..."
Roy scolded Hertz with a serious expression. Hertz's face immediately became savage, with a hint of grievance.
Seeing that Hertz was too 'happy' to speak, Roy shrugged and stepped forward to pull out the dagger. "Hertz, don't worry, I'll try to be as quick as possible. Take a deep breath, you might feel a little dizzy..."
Watching Roy approach, Hertz immediately recoiled like a short, fat 'delicate flower.' Even after tripping and falling, he continued to squirm backward.
"Roy, calm down! You really can't kill me! I have people behind me."
"The underboss... no, the congressman! I work for Mr. Wilson! And Frank Lucas!"
"Fuck, don't come any closer! Stop right there!"
"Do you have any fucking idea what you're doing?! You damn piece of shit! Roy, for the sake of our brotherhood, I'm begging you!"
"Money! And the goods! I'll give them all to you!"
"Roy, listen to me! As long as you deliver this shipment to Southeast Asia, you can get in with the military!"
"Super Soldier Serum! Yes, with this shipment, we can research the Super Soldier Serum..."