4 Months Before…
Quinn, Vorden, Erin, and the others walked through the portal and into the scavenger planet.
Immediately the world distorted as one by one they came out, the bright light blinding their sight for a few moments. After all, the red portal planet was in its night cycle.
As their vision slowly cleared, what welcomed them were strangers looking very excitedly at them.
They immediately began calling out loudly, seeing the people coming out of the portal.
"Guys! Lord Grazer has returned! Everyone come to welcome him!"
"Call the acting leader! They are here!"
Only a few minutes passed before the acting leader hurried, his face devoid of any happiness, as if someone was forced to play a certain role.
Just as he came to the front to welcome his master, the last person to exit the portal was Quinn.
Suddenly, he could hear people gasping as if something horrible happened.
As he lifted his gaze to look, he halted stunned.
Before entering the scavenger planet, Quinn had already discussed their next actions. He had strictly made Marr and the others aware that if they tried to pull any move behind their backs, they should consider themselves dead.
Everyone had agreed, and for now they were doing exactly as they had been told.
Quinn stood in front of everyone. Standing beside him to the right was Vorden, followed by Erin, Ray, Michael, Sarah, and Amy.
Marr stood at Quinn's left, followed by the remaining survivors of the guild.
Quinn held the shriveled corpse of Grazer by the back of the neck and tossed it to the ground.
"Well… this will be a bad reputation for you, Quinn," the System said in his head.
"Well anyway, let's see how this goes."
The acting leader's expression slowly changed from grim to horror.
The same expression appeared on the faces of the others around him.
"What happened…?"
The others started muttering among themselves.
Quinn boldly stepped forward and spoke.
"Your leader is dead. I was the one who dealt with him. And I am here to make a deal with you."
"Since I killed your leader, I will take the responsibility… and I have decided to become your new leader."
Dan was still stunned by the fact that Grazer was dead.
He and Grazer had a long and bloody history, and seeing him reduced to a shriveled corpse was still hard for him to believe.
"Impossible," the acting leader Dan said.
He dropped to the ground, staring at Grazer's body.
"I don't believe a boy like you would be able to take down Grazer."
"But even if that were the case, killing the leader does not qualify you to become the next leader."
"If anything, I should be the one to take the lead!"
Dan stood up, his voice growing louder.
"I worked hard for this guild! I was the one who made this guild!"
"But then Grazer came… a stranger just like you."
"Unfortunately we weren't strong enough to destroy him, and he took the position of leader."
"But I was not sitting idle all this time either !"
"I fought day and night, growing stronger, waiting for the day I could take revenge on him."
"Back then I was too weak to fight back… but that is not the case anymore!"
Dan's posture instantly changed into a battle stance.
"Scavengers! Fight for me! Stand with me!" he roared.
Quinn had a puzzled thought in his mind.
"Well… that explains a lot, you were right system, this was the wrong way to introduce myself to the guild."
Just as Dan; readied himself, holding his his spear straight at Quinn—
Marr suddenly stepped in between them.
"Stop!" she shouted, raising both her hands.
"Please stop, Dan!"
"This guy is a whole level above you! You will end up killing yourself!"
Even though Marr had initially thought about going behind Quinn's back, it was too risky to attempt. She had seen his abilities with her own eyes.
"Marr, you don't get a say in this," Dan snapped.
"Get out of my way!"
"Fight with me and we can take him down! Grazer is gone now!" Dan shouted.
"Dan, would you please listen—"
But it was too late.
Dan had already committed to his attack.
He quickly activated the active skill of his advanced-tier spear. Powerful lightning energy enveloped the entire weapon.
Dan spun the spear rapidly as sparks crackled around it.
The guild members gathered around and understood the situation instantly.
All the fighters within the guild rallied to the front, holding their beast gears and wearing armored equipment.
Quinn coming into their base while holding their dead leader was not a welcoming sight. To them, it was a direct challenge.
And all of them were ready to rage in and defeat the outsiders.
After all, taking the enemy out before they were ready always gave an upper hand.
And they were certain that sheer numbers would be enough to take down a few outsiders.
Though the scavengers' best fighters had been sent out on the mission to the red portal planet, they still had strong fighters at the base in case of emergencies.
And this was one.
No matter what had happened to Grazer, this way of arriving was not an acceptable introduction in their eyes.
After all, they didn't know who these outsiders were or what intentions they carried.
But what fueled Dan the most was the fact that these outsiders were just teens.
In comparison, Dan and the scavenger members had years of fighting experience.
They were sure they would win.
Dan himself was a B-class adventurer, and his warriors were B and C class adventurers.
So Dan rushed forward with his strongest warriors.
Quinn and the others readied their weapons as well.
They were not in their best condition, but they would fight with everything they had.
Vorden immediately placed his hand on Quinn's shoulder with the intention of copying his attributes, since it had already been more than 24 hours since his last copy.
But Vorden suddenly had a confused expression.
He couldn't copy Quinn's abilities.
"Quinn… shit… I can't copy your powers!"
"Huh?"
Quinn frowned slightly.
"…It's okay. Just stay behind me and use the daggers I gave you."
Quinn stepped forward, moving slightly ahead of the others.
"This is troublesome."
Dan was ahead of the others with his spear in his hand as he came charging toward Quinn.
Quinn extended his foot and manipulated the earth and water beneath the ground.
The soil instantly turned into a muddy swamp.
The warriors behind Dan were caught off guard as the ground swallowed their legs and froze them in place.
Dan noticed the sudden change and immediately leapt forward, launching himself through the air toward Quinn.
Everything was happening within seconds, yet Quinn was reacting at an insane speed.
Marr watched the brief moment carefully.
Quinn stood there almost too casually, as if the incoming attack was just another annoying bug.
Her heart started beating faster.
As she saw Dan's figure leaping toward Quinn at full speed—
At the last fierce moment, Marr suddenly jumped in front of Quinn.
Her eyes filled with tears.
Dan brought his spear down.
Then he saw Marr standing in front of Quinn.
His expression instantly changed to alarm.
"MARR!" he screamed.
But it was too late.
He tried to stop the spear, but the momentum was too strong.
The spear pierced through the air straight into Marr's chest. But The momentum was still too great as it continued forward toward Quinn.
Quinn had already hardened his body.
He stretched his hand forward and, in that infinitesimal moment, formed an earth spear of his own.
The spear instantly solidified, shining because of the intense compression of earth energy.
The two spears collided.
Because of the immense speed and momentum, they aligned perfectly for a split second—
And the next moment both spears shattered into pieces.
Quinn immediately formed an earth barrier behind him to stop the flying shrapnel from hitting his comrades.
Everything ended within a few seconds.
Dan collapsed onto the ground near Marr.
His eyes filled with tears.
"Marr… why did you do this?"
But Marr simply smiled and looked back at Quinn weakly.
"Please… don't kill him… like you killed Grazer…"
"Please… he is my hot-headed, stupid brother…"
Marr collapsed to the ground, breathing her final breaths.
All the guild members stood frozen in shock.
Dan was too stunned to even move.
That was when Quinn shook the dust off his body, still standing shirtless.
His body shimmered with a faint reddish glow under the bright light of the planet's sun.
Red scaly patches ran across his neck and veins, glowing faintly.
His right eye had a golden ring circling the iris.
His left eye glowed blood red.
Quinn knelt down beside Marr.
"I'm not that cruel, you know," he said softly.
Then he placed his palms over Marr's chest.
Dan remained kneeling beside them, still frozen.
A sharp green glow escaped from Quinn's fingers and enveloped Marr.