Francis rode for thirty minutes before he finally pulled off the main road.

He killed the engine and let the bike coast the last few meters in silence.

Tires whispered over cracked asphalt before the machine nudged to a stop behind a row of abandoned warehouses.

The darkness swallowed sound. Only the echoes of wind between rusted buildings and the faint creak of loose sheet metal overhead.

For the first time in hours, he allowed himself to breathe in relief.

Swinging off the bike, he ripped away what remained of his shredded clothes.

The deep gash along his forearm had already closed. Even the spear’s exit wound had sealed, forced shut by his parashift, though the scars still remained.

Dried blood cracked and flaked from his hands as he flexed them.

But his mind wasn’t on the wounds.

That girl.

She kept crawling back into his thoughts

He replayed the encounter from the beginning, stripping it down to its basic parts.

Powerful. Too well-equipped. Her gear and weapons were on a level that even elite Federation agents from the big clans couldn’t casually show off.

How the hell did a criminal syndicate afford someone like that?

Money only bought so much loyalty once you reached a certain height.

And she wasn’t alone.

He had sensed the second presence early on — faint, almost invisible even to his vibration sense.

But instead of attacking with the number advantage, she chose to talk. She let him walk.

Francis’s eyes narrowed. He stared at the blood still staining his hands.

’Why would she let me go? What is she plotting? And what is her real background?’

He pushed off the bike and paced slowly along the warehouse wall.

His first guess was an ambush. She was pretending to be uninterested in the fight, trying to lower his guard so they could strike.

But none came.

Even now, while deliberately leaving himself wide open, he sensed no one following him or locking onto his position.

That meant killing him was not her main priority.

’If she was really a part of Dark Chain, letting me walk away made no sense.’

An entire facility gone. Dozens of men. Thirteen Special Categories. Vance.

All of it erased in one night by a single person.

Any organization would treat that as an existential threat. They would want him dead or captured, not negotiated with.

An idea came to mind.

’Did she lie about working for the Dark Chain... or maybe—’

His thoughts moved to one possible conclusion.

’She’s a double agent. Part of another group working to tear the syndicate apart from the inside.’

If that was true, then his rampage across their operations tonight had not hurt her at all. In fact, it helped her.

Every facility he burned, every high-ranking member he killed, every hub he dismantled—it all weakened the organization.

He was doing her work for her without being asked.

Francis almost laughed.

’So I was someone else’s weapon tonight.’

Not that he really cared.

As long as she stayed out of his way, he would continue tearing the Dark Chain apart.

Besides, time was on his side. Sooner or later, even someone of her caliber would stop being an obstacle.

She might think of him as nothing more than a useful tool she could discard whenever she wanted. But sparing him would become the one decision she would never recover from.

He moved deeper into the shadows until he found a decent hiding spot between two collapsed walls.

Only then did he pull out the haul he got.

One by one, he tore into them.

[Special Category Liver +40]

[Special Category Liver +45]

[Special Category Liver +60]

[Special Category Liver .....]

A total of 685 livers—that was what the cleanup crew brought him, with the exception of Vance.

Most of them had potential, yet none of it mattered against him.

The gap in strength was too wide. Whether someone had 10 points or 100, they would still die just as fast.

’Six hundred eighty-five, huh...’

If he hunted normal humans in a populated city, he would have to wipe out a whole block just to get this much.

Hunting criminal packs in isolated places proved efficient and clean. If another chance came his way, he would not hesitate to take it.

Right now, his bottleneck was his limited energy. No matter how strong he became, it would be useless if he ended up exhausted to death. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

[DING!]

The next series of notifications began. This time, they were for the innate talents he absorbed.

[Spring Joints III -> IV ->V]

[Host, your spring joints have reached the requirements to evolve.]

[Processing...]

[Processing...]

[Reinforced Spring Joints]

[Strengthens all joints in the body, allowing greater force output with minimal movement. It improves impact efficiency and reduces strain during high-intensity actions.]

Francis felt the change in his body. It was like his joints were locking and popping as their flexibility reached new heights.

He threw a casual jab, and the air split apart from it.

’I was able to generate this much force using only one talent. Not bad.’

The best and easiest way to describe the change in him was like a helical spring being reinforced to hold far greater force than before.

[Muscular Acceleration I>II>III]

[Kinetic Calibration: I>II>III>IV]

[Shockwave Emission: I>II]

[Trajectory Reading: I>II]

All of them were redundant abilities so far, except for the last one.

[New Talent: Kinetic Siphon]

[Briefly absorbs the momentum of an incoming attack and adds it to the user’s next strike. 20% momentum capacity. Cooldown 1 minute.]

He did not remember anyone ever using this skill, since they all died too quickly.

However, if he understood correctly, it only absorbed an attack’s momentum. That meant consecutive attacks, or anything beyond its limit, would still pass through.

This sounds like a stronger version of a kinetic damper. With offensive use.

’This one’s good. Level it enough, and it becomes a one-shot skill.’

He saved the final liver for last. This one was different—darker, heavier, the edges almost black and the tissue dense like cured leather.

The moment his teeth broke the surface, the effect was immediate and overwhelming.

Power flowed through his body like a pressure valve blowing open all at once.

His muscle throbbed simultaneously, not from pain, but from the sheer volume of energy flooding through channels that were not built to carry this much at once.

Then it stabilized.

[DING!]

[Special Category Liver Consumed]

[System assessing value.]

[+1220 Livers]

He stared at the number. Even Lex, at the peak of his crystallized state, fell behind slightly.

[New Talent Acquired: ...]