As they turned back to see who said that, they saw Arka sitting beside Jargo. His sword was pressed close to Jargo's neck, while he sipped tea with his other hand.
"How foolish your people are, aren't they?" he said with a smirk.
The bandits looked down to see who they had been beating.
To their shock, the one lying bruised and unconscious was the same man who had mocked Arka for ordering tea.
The bandit with the red band—William—stared at Arka in disbelief.
"H-How did you reach there?!"
Arka set the tea down and glanced at him.
"By switching places."
Jargo looked at him in frustration.
"What are you talking about? Do you think you can fool us by saying whatever you want?"
Arka pressed the sword a little deeper against his neck.
"You talk too much… even after knowing you could die if I push this sword just a bit further."
The bandits slowly began walking toward Arka, ready to attack, but Jargo raised his hand and stopped them.
"You want to kill me?" he asked.
Arka nodded without hesitation.
Jargo then pulled out a knife.
"Then I challenge you to a duel."
[ARKA, DON'T ACCEPT HIS CHALLENGE. IT'S A TRICK TO KILL BOUNTY HU—]
"Okay then, I'm in," Arka said, removing his sword from Jargo's neck.
"There's nothing more fun than fighting."
[YOU SUICIDAL MANIAC! YOU'LL GET KILLED!]
Arka leaned back slightly and replied to Lisa with a grin,
"Killing or getting killed depends on my skills—and I'm proud of them. So don't ruin the moment."
[JUST DO WHAT YOU WANT, BUT DON'T GET KILLED.]
---
Outside the pub, Jargo and Arka stood facing each other. Jargo held a knife, while Arka stood with bare hands.
"Why aren't you using your sword?" Jargo asked, confused.
Arka scratched his head.
"Why should I use that? I save it for bigger purposes."
Jargo gritted his teeth.
Too arrogant... but I'll break your attitude and your bones with just one move.
He subtly signaled the other bandits, and they quietly walked away from the area, leaving the two alone.
From inside the pub, the girls watched through the window, hope flickering in their eyes.
Then Jargo charged at him with a loud yell, swinging his knife straight at Arka's neck.
Arka stepped to the side smoothly, dodging the attack with ease. Jargo didn't stop—he turned quickly and slashed again, aiming for Arka's chest.
Arka ducked, grabbed Jargo's wrist mid-swing and twisted it hard, forcing the knife to drop.
Jargo grunted in pain, tried to punch but Arka blocked it with his elbow and landed a clean punch on Jargo's face, making him stumble back.
Arka walked toward Jargo, who was lying on the ground. He pressed his foot against Jargo's chest and smirked.
"What kind of duel was that? It just started and ended already. No fun."
Jargo didn't look scared. Instead, he began laughing while staring up at the sky. Confused, Arka slowly looked up—and his eyes widened. His smirk disappeared.
All the bandits were standing on the rooftops, holding plasma guns, all of them aiming directly at him.
"You're dead," Jargo said, still laughing.
All the bandits up on the rooftops burst into laughter and opened fire on Arka.
Shit! I can't dodge! Arka thought as a rain of plasma blasts flew toward him.
Thick smoke quickly covered the entire area, surrounding him from all sides.
Jargo jumped to his feet and ran back, laughing loudly.
"Haha! This is our killer strategy! No bounty hunter has ever survived it!"
The girls gasped as the thick smoke completely covered Arka. The bandits were still laughing and firing nonstop at the same spot, confident in their victory.
Suddenly, a calm voice came from behind Jargo.
"What's happening here?"
Jargo instantly dropped to his knees. All the other bandits followed and kneeled down as well.
A man stepped forward. He had a long black beard, a large, fat stomach, and one missing hand. His face was terrifying, and he was casually smoking a cigarette. Jargo looked up at him.
"Boss, why are you here?" he asked.
The man took the cigarette out of his mouth and spoke in a cold tone.
"Because I heard a mosquito came here to hunt us… but got hunted instead. What a pathetic mosquito." He spat on the ground.
"I fear the pathetic one isn't the mosquito... but its hunter."
The smoke began to clear. Arka was still standing—but something about him had changed. His eyes, once icy cold blue, were now blood red.
"What?! How are you still alive?!" Jargo shouted in shock. His eyes couldn't believe what he was seeing. How had that bounty hunter survived plasma guns?
"Because of one of my abilities," Arka replied with a cocky grin.
"I call it—Technique Reversal."
"Don't think we're fools! This isn't some fantasy movi—" Jargo began to yell, but the boss raised a hand, and Jargo instantly went silent.
"What's this 'Technique Reversal'?" the boss asked, narrowing his eyes at Arka.
[HE IS D. COCK, THE BOSS OF ALL THESE BANDITS. BE CAREFUL. DON'T JUDGE HIM BY HIS BODY.]
Arka nodded at Lisa's warning, then turned his eyes toward D. Cock.
"Technique Reversal is an ability I have. If any attack continues for more than three seconds, I automatically become immune to it. My body starts to store the energy of the attack, and I can reverse it—launching the exact same technique back at the attacker with the same force, moves, and element."
He paused for a moment, smirking again.
"But there are limits. If the attack is physical combat, it won't work. This only applies to what I consider techniques—like guns, swordsmanship, and so on."
"Wait... doesn't that mean he can reverse the beams we fired on him with our plasma guns—" one of the bandits on the rooftop muttered in fear.
Arka heard him and glanced up with a smirk. His mouth slowly opened.
"Technique Reversal...Plasma."
Suddenly, plasma beams started firing in all directions, covering the entire area in a 360-degree blast.
The girls screamed and hid behind the walls, trying to protect themselves. The bandits panicked and scrambled for cover, but most were hit directly by the plasma beams and turned to ash on the spot.
The buildings around them began to melt, the walls crumbling under the intense heat. But Arka kept smirking, completely unfazed.
Jargo and D. Cock were the only ones unharmed, protected behind a glowing neon barrier cast by D. Cock's AI system.
After a few moments, the firing stopped. The entire place had turned into ruins—buildings collapsed, the pub was nearly destroyed, and the ground was scorched.
The girls slowly came out from hiding and ran away in panic.
More than ten meters of the area was reduced to ash and rubble.
Suddenly, Arka vanished from his spot and appeared right behind Jargo and D. Cock.
SLASH!
In one swift motion, he sliced Jargo's head clean in half.
"This guy talked too much trash," Arka muttered, then casually swung his sword through the air to shake off the blood.
D. Cock's eyes widened in surprise at Arka's speed. His eye twitched in frustration. He threw the cigarette to the ground and pulled out a large axe from his back.
"How dare you kill my man?" he growled.
Despite his heavy body, D. Cock charged at Arka with surprising speed. His swings were sharp and calculated. One of them came so close, it sliced a few strands of Arka's hair.
Arka quickly moved behind him and landed a solid punch to the side of his skull, sending him flying. The force was strong enough that D. Cock's skull nearly cracked from the impact.
But D. Cock didn't even flinch. He got back up like nothing happened and charged at Arka again, his face full of rage. Their fight turned brutal—Arka dodging sharp axe swings, landing counters, while D. Cock came at him with pure force and anger.
One of them was fighting for revenge, the other for money, fame, and for fun.
People from nearby alleys and buildings peeked out, stunned. It was the first time a bounty hunter had made it this far—to actually face D. Cock in person. Until now, every other hunter had been killed long before getting close.
This bastard won't die that easily... I have to use that thing, D. Cock thought to himself. He muttered something quietly to the AI system in his chest. Arka noticed but didn't let his guard down, keeping full control of the fight.
Suddenly, D. Cock backed off with a smug grin on his face.
"What are you smirking for, fat bullshit?" Arka snapped, annoyed.
But then—something massive appeared in the sky. Its shadow loomed over Arka, covering the ground beneath him. He slowly turned around to look.
His jaw dropped.
"Wh-what's that?!"