The traits Rock-Solid and Agile seemed only useful if he were fighting in close quarters with a carrot, but there was no need for him to go around risking his life fighting people with a root vegetable.
Although Double-Headed Dragon was only a green trait, its effect was insanely good.
After selecting the third trait, the system interface refreshed, and the panel for the carrot in his hand changed along with it.
– [Name: Carrot] [Affix: Double-Headed Dragon (Green)] Effect: Allows travel back and forth between the inside and outside of a Hollow.
Note: Defaults to the nearest unit when selecting a Hollow.
Uses: 1/1 – Teleportation!
This thing was a literal lifesaver.
What was the most important thing right now?
His own life, of course!
Jiang Yu slipped the carrot into his jacket pocket, feeling deeply satisfied.
“Friend, are we following the carrot’s guidance to leave the Hollow?” Shepherd asked.
Under the system’s influence, the data on the carrot had been scrambled, so it naturally no longer contained exit coordinates.
Besides, unless it was an absolute emergency, Jiang Yu didn’t want to use the carrot’s trait anyway.
It was a consumable with only one use left, making it best kept for saving his life.
“The carrot is a half-finished prototype and doesn’t have a Hollow exit loaded.
We’d better look for an official rescue team.” Hearing Jiang Yu’s answer, Shepherd didn’t object.
Either way, if he wanted to get his money, Jiang Yu had to lead him safely out of the Hollow.
The two followed the landmark signs, heading toward the plaza.
Along the way, they encountered a few citizens.
Some had low Ether aptitude and were painfully suffering from Ether erosion.
Others were huddling together for warmth, supporting one another in small groups.
When the citizens saw the gun in Jiang Yu’s hand, they initially thought he was a Hollow Raider.
But upon realizing he had no intention of robbing them, they followed far behind him.
Having an armed person clearing the way ahead offered at least a small sense of security.
“Friend, why don’t you charge those citizens behind us a protection fee?
Charging a few tens of thousands of Dennies per person shouldn’t be hard, and together that’s a pretty tidy sum,” Shepherd said, pushing up his glasses, which now had only a single lens left, as he asked with a look of deep meaning.
Jiang Yu looked back at the citizens trailing them, pointed his heavy shotgun toward the sky, and pulled the trigger.
*Click!* It was a dry fire.
“I’m earning your commission fee.
As for these citizens, if they want to follow, let them.
If I go up there shouting for protection money, wouldn’t that make me just like those two Hollow Raiders back there?” Jiang Yu retracted his gaze and immediately shot a small Ethereal that had just popped up in front of them.
*BANG!* The Ethereal flew backward and dissipated into tiny specks of light.
Since the first pull was a dry fire, the probability of firing a live round on the second pull increased drastically.
This Frugal trait was genuinely bugged—as long as he kept exploiting this quirk, he could save a fortune on ammo.
Jiang Yu nodded in satisfaction and slung the heavy, solid-metal shotgun over his shoulder.
He glanced at Shepherd, whose face was full of utter disbelief.
Seeing him look like a total bumpkin who had never seen the world, Jiang Yu held the shotgun out to him.
“Wanna take a shot?” Although Shepherd had weathered plenty of storm and stress, it was his first time seeing such a bizarre weapon.
It clearly had no bullets inside, yet it could still fire.
Did it have some kind of special module installed?
Taking the shotgun from Jiang Yu, Shepherd examined it with curiosity.
Crafted entirely from metal, its first impression was incredibly heavy!
There were numerous modular interfaces on the gun body, likely meant for mounting and dismounting other weapon attachments.
The barrel itself was an external module—he had seen Jiang Yu install it earlier.
Opening the loading chamber, he found it completely empty without a single shotgun shell inside.
He looked at Jiang Yu in confusion.
“It can bang even without bullets?” Jiang Yu smiled and pointed his chin forward, where several Ethereals wielding weapons were rushing toward them.
“Give it a shot and see!” Jiang Yu chuckled.
Driven to act on short notice, Shepherd raised the heavy shotgun and aimed at the charging standard Ethereals.
With a deafening *BANG*, the shotgun’s recoil nearly dislocated his shoulder, and a scalding metallic casing ejected into the air.
The leading Ethereal was blasted backward, instantly dying and turning into specks of light.
Shepherd watched the casing arc through the air, finding it completely mind-boggling.
There were clearly no shells loaded—where did that casing come from?
“Incoming!” Jiang Yu’s warning pulled Shepherd out of his daze.
Ignoring the sharp pain in his shoulder, he pulled the trigger again.
*BANG!
BANG!* Gunshots echoed as the other two Ethereals fell to the ground in response.
*?* With a 50% probability, he had actually managed to fire three consecutive live shots!
“Holy crap!
Shepherd!
You’re blessed by RNG!” Jiang Yu slapped his shoulder and praised him loudly.
“Haha, modest, modest!
It’s just that your gun works well,” Shepherd laughed with a smile.
Although he didn’t quite know what RNG meant, judging by the genuine admiration on Jiang Yu’s face, it couldn’t be a bad thing.
Shepherd lowered the heavy shotgun and rubbed his nearly dislocated arm.
It was hard to imagine that the young man before him could maneuver this weapon so effortlessly.
Right, the casings!
He lowered his head to search the ground for traces of the spent casings, but there was nothing left on the floor.
Returning the gun to Jiang Yu, he pushed up the broken glasses on the bridge of his nose.
Strange, far too strange!
Jiang Yu saw through his confusion and smiled.
“I modified this gun using some special methods, so it has a few unique traits.
How does it feel?
Want to buy one?” Shepherd hadn’t expected Jiang Yu to still be in the mood to pitch his weapon at a time like this.
Rubbing his arm, he asked tentatively, “How many Dennies?” “Considering you’re an old client, I’ll give you a discount—200,000 Dennies.” Factoring in the money spent buying the gun from the middleman plus the cost of pulling the traits, it had cost less than 60,000 Dennies.
He was making a tearful profit of 140,000.
Looking at Jiang Yu’s bright, beaming smile, Shepherd suddenly felt a wave of black-marketeer vibes coming off him.
“Haha, never mind.
I’m not an Agent; I don’t need to enter Hollows to fight.” Jiang Yu didn’t mind that he failed to hawk off All Men Are Equal.
The weapon he wanted to sell most wasn’t this shotgun anyway, but the tachi sitting at home that had been granted a red trait.
Just thinking about that broken blade gave Jiang Yu a lingering chill.
He had to quickly find a sucker to buy it off his hands, or he didn’t know when he might end up suffering a backlash from its trait.
Right at that moment, a sharp whistling sound suddenly broke through the sky.
Jiang Yu was quick on his feet; he grabbed Shepherd’s arm and yanked him back.
A piece of rubble descended like a meteor, brushing past the top of Shepherd’s head and kicking up a cloud of dust, almost punching a hole straight through his skull.
Looking up, they saw a dark shadow leap down from the rooftop, crashing straight toward them.
“It’s a High-Grade Ethereal—a Dullahan!” Shepherd cried out in shock.
Jiang Yu raised his shotgun and pulled the trigger at the rapidly falling dark shadow, but unfortunately, two consecutive pulls were dry fires.
*BOOM—* The dark shadow slammed heavily onto the ground, whipping up a massive cloud of dust as a deep crater formed on the floor.
Dense smoke billowed out, obscuring the vision of both men.
Before either of them could react, the Dullahan thrust its head out from the thick smoke, swinging a massive curved blade in its hands as it slashed down at them!
Without time to think, Jiang Yu swung his heavy shotgun up to meet it.
The metal gun body collided with the sharp blade, instantly producing an ear-splitting screech.
The Dullahan’s blow was heavily laden with force, and the momentum forced Jiang Yu to stagger back several steps.
Taking advantage of this gap, he sized up the bizarre monster in front of him.
Unlike other Ethereals, this creature’s body exhibited a strange purple hue, and artery-like blood vessels stood out across its limbs and torso.
Seeing a High-Grade Ethereal appear, the citizens not far away immediately turned and fled, disappearing from sight in mere moments.
Standing behind Jiang Yu, Shepherd stared nervously at him.
“Looking at its appearance…
if the handbook isn’t wrong, this is a Plasmic…” “Mr.
Shepherd, find a place to hide first so you don’t get caught in the crossfire during the upcoming fight,” Jiang Yu interrupted, speaking to him with a grim expression.
This was his first time encountering a legendary Dullahan, and crucial to that, it was a Plasmic variant—an exceptionally powerful type even among Dullahans.
However, based on that single clash just now, he felt he wasn’t entirely incapable of putting up a fight.
After all, he was pretty badass himself!