I Explore Urban Legends - Chapter 83: The First S-Rank Incident (Patreon)

As his pickup truck drew closer, Liam unconsciously picked up the pace.

Just then, several Reptilians suddenly crawled into view ahead of him, blocking his path.

Liam immediately ducked behind the rooftop safety wall and stole a glance at the pursuers behind him.

No good. The Reptilians were almost on him. Taking the time to deal with the ones ahead would slow him down too much.

He peered over the edge.

Not bad. Only about six stories.

Time to jump.

Liam vaulted over the safety wall and dropped into free fall.

To slow his descent, he reached out and grabbed a fire pipe running down the side of the building.

“SCREEECH! THUD!”

With a piercing scrape, Liam slammed heavily into the ground.

Numbness shot through his legs, and the skin on his hands had been scraped raw. But when he looked up and saw the Reptilians still some distance above him, he knew the risk had been worth it.

Liam shook out his legs and, without waiting for them to fully recover, hurried toward his pickup truck.

He finally reached it, yanked open the door, tossed the nearly shattered camera inside, and pulled a bulletproof vest and an M16 rifle from the back seat.

Aside from portability, a rifle completely outclassed a handgun in both power and accuracy. Besides, even if Liam could enhance a firearm’s power, he still couldn’t make bullets curve through the air.

He had tried controlling a bullet’s trajectory before, but bullets simply moved too fast. At his current level, he couldn’t react quickly enough. Even if he barely managed to control one, he still couldn’t guide it accurately into a target.

Liam transformed the weapon in his hands into a blaster rifle. He had grown rather fond of the “BIU! BIU!” sound blasters made. Not only did it sound completely harmless, the beams themselves were also quite nice to look at.

“Bang!”

A bullet suddenly whizzed past him.

Liam looked up.

The Reptilians were pursuing him along the walls. Interestingly, they crawled on all fours while wrapping their tails around their submachine guns and firing continuously.

Their accuracy suffered considerably, but they could still maintain suppressive fire.

In urban combat, creatures like these were devastating weapons.

Liam took cover behind the pickup. The truck’s body couldn’t stop bullets, but it could slow them down and block the Reptilians’ line of sight.

He extended his rifle from behind the truck and took aim.

“BIU! BIU!”

Beams of light streaked toward the Reptilians, immediately putting them under tremendous pressure.

Judging from their behavior, these monsters were completely rational biological weapons, capable of responding logically to almost any situation.

But faced with their current predicament, the dozen or so Reptilians began to lose coordination.

Some retreated, apparently intending to attack from another direction.

Others increased their climbing speed, trying to reach the ground as quickly as possible.

Their formation began to break apart, making it difficult for them to surround Liam.

Liam seized the opportunity and poured all his firepower into the Reptilians climbing down toward him.

Once he had dealt with those directly ahead, the remaining Reptilians leaned halfway out from alleys on either side and opened fire.

Liam was now taking fire from two directions. More and more bullet holes appeared in the vehicles around him, but the enemy’s numbers had fallen below ten. They no longer had enough firepower to saturate the entire area.

That gave him room to fight back.

During a brief lull in the barrage, Liam extended his rifle around the side of the truck and returned fire.

Now that he had enough time, he could fully infuse the shots with spiritual energy, giving them enough power to punch through concrete walls and strike the targets behind them.

Beam after beam vaporized the Reptilians’ limbs. Pale yellow blood splattered across the ground, only to disappear shortly afterward.

Their numbers continued to fall, but they never retreated. They kept mechanically carrying out tactical maneuvers, though none of them did any good.

Before long, Liam had eliminated every remaining Reptilian.

He breathed a sigh of relief and stood up. Several bullets had struck his bulletproof vest, and all the fiberglass inserts had shattered.

These ballistic inserts were lightweight and strong, but once hit, they released large amounts of glass fiber. The inner lining was no longer wearable, so Liam simply took off his shirt and began inspecting the battlefield bare-chested.

One unusual trait of Reptilians was that their bodies automatically destroyed themselves after death.

That actually made things easier for Liam.

Any Reptilian still lying intact on the ground had to be alive.

With his rifle raised, Liam approached the fallen Reptilians and finished off the ones that were still clinging to life.

Once he was sure the area was clear, he picked up one of the submachine guns and examined it closely.

The weapon had a strange design. Both the grip and trigger were larger than standard dimensions, probably to accommodate the Reptilians’ bodies. To solve the ammunition problem, it was also fitted with an enormous drum magazine, eliminating the need to swap magazines during combat.

Ordinary humans couldn’t use these weapons, and Liam didn’t consider them worth taking as trophies.

His biggest gains tonight were the footage from the laboratory and the card Victor had secretly given him.

Just then, Lily appeared on Liam’s shoulder. Since he wasn’t wearing a shirt, she wrapped her arms around his neck instead, hanging from his back and even swinging back and forth a couple of times.

Liam turned his head and noticed the card was still clenched between Lily’s teeth. He reached back and took it from her.

In the morning sunlight, Liam could make out an address.

It belonged to the largest hospital in Boston.

Lily looked at him curiously.

“Little One, why are you smiling so much?”

Liam touched his face and only then realized he was wearing an enormous grin.

“Because I found the truth, of course!”

Lily rubbed her head against Liam’s back.

“What truth did you find?”

“No idea.”

Liam drove his bullet-riddled pickup toward the TV station. He had no intention of cleaning up the battlefield. The Reptilians would do that for him.

In fact, he hoped they wouldn’t.

If they left the scene untouched, it would mean they could no longer keep themselves hidden.

When Liam returned to the RV covered in injuries, Frank was stunned.

“How did you get hurt this badly? What happened?”

“Just got into a shootout with a bunch of Reptilians.”

Liam answered with obvious excitement.

Watson had already approached him anxiously and started licking his wounds.

Liam rubbed the bear’s head, sat down on the couch, and took out the Events Logbook.

[Reptilian Hybrid]

[Event Level: C]

[Exploration Progress: 100%]

[Reward: Accelerated Regeneration (By consuming large amounts of food, the effects of spiritual energy healing can be enhanced.)]

[Reptilians]

[Event Level: S]

[Exploration Progress: 2% (Phase 1: 10%)]

This time, Liam had completed a C-level event, and the reward happened to enhance his healing ability. Exactly what he needed right now.

But what really caught his attention was the fact that the Reptilian event had reached S-level.

What exactly did S-level mean?

Even the Home of Wanderers, a faction spanning more than half the country, possessing its own complete pantheon and ethnic group, and supported by hundreds of thousands or even millions of immigrants, was only considered A-level.