"Get out of the way!"
Lan'erwusi knocked over a hawker carrying a basket, his eyes scanning back and forth between the soot-blackened brick walls.
Ignoring the screams and curses behind him, he only wished he could go faster.
He felt like he had never run so fast before.
Those damned Punishers had been chasing him for a long time.
Like hyenas, they couldn't be shaken off.
He had never been in such a sorry state since he could remember.
"Stop!"
Lan'erwusi's knuckles scraped against the brick wall, the rough surface tearing off bloody skin.
Behind him, the sound of a brass whistle tore through the thick fog, and six beams of kerosene lamp light crisscrossed the alley. He could even hear his own heartbeat, the pounding in his ribs making his eardrums ache.
"Why is this happening?" He spat out a mouthful of blood, the gun wound on his left shoulder constantly tearing as he ran, dark red blood seeping out.
Three figures in black uniforms outflanked him from the right. Lan'erwusi kicked off the wall, using the momentum to leap. Thanks to his Beyonder physical quality, he easily cleared the wall in front of him.
But unfortunately, his physical quality was nowhere near enough compared to those Punishers from the Storm Pathway behind him.
"No, I definitely can't go to the train station."
Tingen Train Station was not far ahead, but given his current situation, he couldn't escape by train as planned.
The sound of the Punishers' leather boots was closing in, so Lan'erwusi immediately changed direction and rushed into the bar street next to the train station. The terrain there was complex, and it was always piled with various goods, making it ideal for hiding.
He quickly ran into an alley next to a tavern and found various 雜物 piled inside.
Looking at the gap between two piles of crates in front of him, he rolled directly into it without thinking—this was a dead corner for unloading goods at the back of the tavern's kitchen, and the rotting vegetable leaves made a sticky squishing sound under his shoes.
"Search! He absolutely can't escape!" A hoarse roar mixed with the sound of firearms rubbing against each other.
Lan'erwusi bent his body, trying to curl into a fetal position, the rotting vegetable juice flowing down his collar into his wound.
He bit his trembling knuckles with his teeth, the smell of blood mixing with the surrounding stench of decay.
…
He heard someone approach the box.
The footsteps suddenly stopped.
"Click!"
The hammer of the revolver made a crisp metallic sound. Lan'erwusi's pupils constricted as the canvas above his head was lifted, and he screamed frantically in his heart.
'Why is this happening! Why is fate doing this to me!'
Lan'erwusi really couldn't understand why he was exposed so quickly this time. Even if there were some imperfections in the details of his fraud, it was too fast!
From heaven to hell in just one day.
He had already fallen into despair, but unexpectedly, the Punisher cursed and kicked an empty wooden box nearby: "Damn rat!"
The footsteps rushed in the wrong direction.
Time seemed to pass very slowly. One minute passed… five minutes passed… twenty minutes passed.
Only after there was no movement at all did Lan'erwusi crawl out of a hole at the bottom of the crate. He tore off the vegetable leaves stained with an unknown liquid and spat.
"Damn it!"
Lan'erwusi, in extreme anger, suddenly thought of a lingering bomb. His expression turned from anger to a sinister smile.
"Ha, ha, hahaha!"
"You all want me dead!"
"Alright!"
"You, and this city, will all be buried with me!"
…
Perhaps due to the recent oppressive experiences, Luo En fell into a peculiar state of suppression after forging rosell's diary.
How leisurely cats are… Looking at Lachi still lying on the bed, Luo En couldn't help but sigh.
Pets are so easy, they don't have to worry about anything.
Lately, he had been working non-stop, his mind highly stressed.
This suffocating state reminded him of how he felt during exam week.
But unlike before, failing exams at most meant failing a course, but mishandling a Beyonder incident meant losing his life.
In this recent state of constant rushing, he even felt that his Robot potion had been partially digested.
"I'm too passive right now…"
The hidden existence, the notebook, and that female Assassin in Backlund—too many things lingered in Luo En's mind.
mystical item box…
This Beyonder item suddenly appeared in his mind.
Perhaps it could give him some inspiration.
But a moment later, Luo En shook his head. He was now suspicious of the accuracy of this box.
The last time he used the mystical item box to find that notebook.
According to the instructions on the note in the box, he went to Iron Cross Street, but not only did he not find the notebook, he also unexpectedly encountered a Beyonder incident.
And then came a whole host of other messy events.
Although it might be that the steps given by this box were incomplete, it was a fact that the goal was not achieved.
Moreover, this mystical item box consumes a lot of spirituality, and each use significantly worsens one's state, which is unacceptable for Luo En, whose nerves are already tense.
"Sigh"
Luo En knew he was in an inescapable state of anxiety. The long-unresolved situation gnawed at his nerves like rusty gears.
This situation is actually easy to alleviate: find something to do.
Distracting oneself is a good way to solve anxiety. Forging the notebook was also for this reason.
"Perhaps, I can get a more handy weapon." Thinking of the "Phantom" that could misfire at any time, Luo En had this idea.
Getting a more handy weapon for self-defense had been in his mind for a long time.
But the weapons of this era didn't quite fit his aesthetic.
"Perhaps I can plagiarize… design one."
At this moment, Luo En recalled his identity as an electromechanical student.
Although he didn't study pure mechanics, some basics were common.
With this idea, the first thing that came to his mind was his favorite gun before he transmigrated—the Winchester M1887.
This governor-style gun left a deep impression on him.
There was no way around it, the lever-action reloading was just too cool. The mechanical beauty of it had an attraction for males that words couldn't describe.
Moreover, shotguns in this world were still at the level of double-barreled blasters, so the lever-action Winchester could be said to be a huge improvement.
He picked up a pen and quickly drew some things on the scratch paper in front of him.
But what he drew was more of a rough concept sketch than a design drawing. It only showed the general structure of the basic mechanism, with no specific parameters at all.
But this was unavoidable. Luo En had stumbled upon these gun structures by chance while watching videos on his phone.
Videos that could pass review could at most briefly explain the basic structure. If they were to release specific parameters, the platform would probably be in trouble.
The reason he chose a shotgun was that, compared to other submachine guns and machine guns, shotguns were more in line with the industrial level of this era.
Before transmigrating, people always said that AKs were easy to make, that a small workshop could hand-make them, but that was a rumor. AKs mainly excelled in reliability and maintainability.
As a mechanical student, Luo En knew very well that building an AK required quite mature industrial equipment and systems, and most of AK's parts were stamped out, a technology not yet available in this world.
In Luo En's opinion, not including Beyonder factors, the industrial level of this world did not even reach the level of World War I.
After all, tanks existed during World War I, but this world was still playing with steam.
The era in which the Winchester was born was very consistent with the industrial level of the current world.
Most importantly, how could a revolver's firepower compare to a shotgun's?
If he could have a shotgun with Beyonder power, the sense of security it would provide would be unimaginable.
"Bang!"
He suddenly made a trigger-pulling motion in the air, a self-mocking arc forming at the corner of his mouth.
"Haha, I feel like I've really become a believer of the God of Steam and Machinery."
He suddenly remembered the shares in the arms factory he inherited from his cheap old man.
If he could really build this gun and mass-produce it, he would definitely make a lot of money. This gun was very popular in his original world, and he didn't think its sales would be poor in this world.
"However, the blueprint specifications required in this world are definitely different from those in the original world."
"Forget it, I'll have to change it later anyway…"
After a few hours, a simplified design sketch of a Winchester appeared before Luo En's eyes.
Creak... Creak...
The window was blown open by the wind, making a slight sound, which brought him back from his sense of accomplishment. He went to the window, felt the crimson moonlight, and subconsciously frowned.
"I always feel like something bad is about to happen."