152: Ranger Appears

On a night at the edge of the New Union wasteland, thousands of ragged refugees gathered in the plaza of an abandoned shopping mall.

On a makeshift stage in the center of the plaza, a middle-aged man in golden robes was giving an impassioned speech, his voice echoing through the ruins via a loudspeaker.

"Families! The path of The Hunt represents judgment and purification!" the cult leader "Golden Robe John" waved a self-made "path Scripture," "Those heretics who reject the truth will all be purified by the divine light..."

The refugees unconsciously echoed him. They didn't truly believe, but merely wanted to find some hope in their desperate lives.

Suddenly, a clear shout came from the top of a tall building a hundred meters away: "Stop! You madman who blasphemes the will of The Hunt!"

The crowd stirred, turning their heads to look. On the top floor of a dilapidated office building, a figure in a gray cloak stood against the wind, the moonlight outlining him with a silver edge.

"It's the Ranger!" someone in the crowd exclaimed, "The Ranger who specializes in hunting down cult leaders!"

Golden Robe John's face changed drastically, and he shouted at his security personnel: "Stop him! Quick—"

Before he finished speaking, the gray figure had leaped from the hundred-meter-tall building. His cloak flapped in the wind, and just as he was about to hit the ground, a pale blue-white light burst from his waist, slowing his descent. He landed lightly behind the crowd, kicking up a cloud of dust.

"A Pathstrider!" someone shrieked, backing away.

The gray-robed man threw back his hood, revealing a weathered yet still handsome face—it was Luigi, who had been missing for a long time. His right hand rested on the silver revolver at his waist, his voice steady and powerful: "Everyone, please step aside."

The crowd parted like a tide, forming a passage. Two hundred meters away, Golden Robe John was frantically hiding behind his bodyguards.

"You distort the true meaning of The Hunt, and profit from the suffering of the innocent," Luigi advanced slowly, each step seemingly in rhythm, "Today, The Hunt, which you have blasphemed, will judge you and end this injustice!"

Golden Robe John hysterically ordered his bodyguards to shoot, but the bullets only grazed past Luigi.

Luigi drew his revolver, its barrel glowing with a blue light: "Arrow of The Hunt, no evil shall be spared."

A dazzling white light burst from the muzzle, streaking like an arrow across a hundred meters, accurately piercing Golden Robe John's forehead. The cult leader's body stiffened for a moment, then crashed to the ground.

Dead silence enveloped the plaza until a trembling voice broke it: "Mr. Luigi... Is it really you? You... you are..."

Luigi put away his revolver and turned to the crowd: "This is no miracle, but the power of a path." He looked around at the confused faces, "A path does indeed seem somewhat mysterious, but it is certainly not as these charlatans claim."

Inside the abandoned shopping mall, Luigi sat on a collapsed pillar, surrounded by hundreds of refugees. The flickering firelight illuminated his weathered face, the scar on his jaw particularly prominent.

"I know you have many questions," he rubbed the silver revolver in his hand, his voice low and hoarse, "This is not some divine power, but a choice I made after half a lifetime of conviction."

A dust-covered teenager pushed to the front: "Mr. Luigi, how did you become... a Pathstrider? And what does 'choice' mean?"

Luigi's gaze became distant: "It all started eight years ago. Back then, I was the young master of a real estate group."

He unbuttoned his shirt cuff, revealing a hideous scar on his wrist, "Until I discovered that the pharmaceutical group deliberately inflated the price of nano-agents, bankrupting countless families..."

"So I chose to practice my grandfather's family motto, 'Justice in heart and in action,' and publicly assassinated that CEO. You all know this part of the story."

"After that, because the court was unable to gather enough people to hold a trial, I was kept in the police station."

"For five whole years, I received thousands of thank you letters," Luigi told the refugees, "Those families crushed by medicine prices, those patients who could finally afford generic drugs and nano-agents..."

He pulled out a yellowed letter, on which was scrawled: "Thank you, Uncle Luigi, Mommy can take her medicine now."

"That's why after I was pardoned, I did the same thing in the Central Roma Continent," Luigi's voice carried suppressed anger, "Hoffman, the CEO of New Union Resources Group, that beast who treated locals like slaves..."

"Originally, I thought I would die on the night I assassinated him, but what I didn't expect was that on that very day, I embarked on a path, a path called The Hunt."

"This is how I became a Pathstrider," Luigi put the letter back in his inner lining, "To be precise, the path of The Hunt chose me, just as the Interstellar Peace Corporation says."

"Because my lifelong belief is 'to hunt injustice and judge evil,' and for this, I am ready to offer my life at any time."

The crowd fell silent. The teenager suddenly asked: "Then... can we also become Pathstriders?"

Luigi shook his head: "A path is not a gift, but the ultimate test of belief. Perhaps you think you have firm belief and will, but a path cannot be deceived."

The roar of an engine came from afar. Luigi suddenly turned, his right hand on his revolver: "The Sons of Purity are here, you should hide first."

He took one last look at the crowd: "Remember, a path is not a superpower, but a belief lived out with one's life. If you truly want to change the world..."

Gunfire interrupted his words, and Luigi charged out into the bullets. A blue light flashed, his figure darting through the hail of bullets, each shot accurately hitting an enemy.

When the last enemy fell, Luigi had already disappeared into the night.

"Justice... in heart... and in action," everyone softly recited Luigi's words, looking with awe at his distant, ethereal figure.

In a Militech secret laboratory, a researcher wearing a protective mask was speaking into a recording device, his voice full of exhaustion.

"The seventh experiment failed."

Inside the isolation chamber in the center of the laboratory, a convulsing soldier was being held down on an operating table by a robotic arm.

Meredith watched all of this coldly through the blast-proof glass: "Another one gone mad?"

The chief scientist wiped the cold sweat from his forehead: "Yes, sir. All subjects injected with 'hunt serum' showed severe symptoms of schizophrenia. We precisely replicated all the substance components in Luigi's blood sample, but..."

"Useless!" Meredith cut off the scientist's explanation, "I don't want excuses! I want results!" She turned to the central control screen, which displayed the last footage of Luigi's activities in the wasteland, "Continue to increase the dosage."

"Sir..." the scientist hesitated, "We have already lost 35 elite soldiers..."

"Then use death row inmates for the experiments. If that still doesn't work..."

Meredith suddenly showed a dangerous smile: "Then we'll try a different method." She pulled up an encrypted file, "According to intelligence, Luigi has a weakness, that disabled girl at the Central Roma Continent mine."

Anna pushed her wheelchair through the abandoned parking lot, the moonlight casting mottled shadows on her incomplete right arm. Suddenly, she stopped, looking around alertly.

"I know you're here," she said calmly, "Come out."

Six fully armed soldiers emerged from the shadows, their gun barrels glinting coldly. The leader took off his helmet, revealing the distinctive Militech neural interface.

"Miss Anna, our boss would like to invite you as a guest," his robotic voice was devoid of emotion, "Regarding your savior."

Anna sneered: "You think capturing me will draw out Luigi?" Her left hand quietly pressed a button on the armrest of her wheelchair, "He's much smarter than you think."

"That doesn't matter," the soldier raised a syringe, "As long as you're in our hands, he'll eventually—"

Before he finished speaking, a blue light flashed. The soldier's robotic arm suddenly exploded, and he watched in horror as the gray figure appeared in front of Anna at some unknown moment.

"You made a mistake," Luigi's revolver gleamed coldly in the moonlight, "Using crude threats to coerce a Pathstrider, and a Pathstrider of The Hunt, no less."

The remaining soldiers frantically opened fire, but all the bullets strangely veered off course. Luigi's figure transformed into a blue stream of light, weaving through the hail of bullets. With every gunshot, another soldier fell.

In less than three seconds, all six soldiers were down. Luigi put away his revolver and turned to Anna: "You shouldn't have come out alone."

"I knew you would come," Anna handed him a data chip, "Look at this, information I gathered online. Militech has set up laboratories in three wasteland cities, and Qilu Corporation and United Energy are making similar moves."

Luigi read the chip's contents, his brow furrowing deeper: "They're replicating path power..."

"More than that," Anna pointed into the distance, "They're even offering a 5 million credit points reward to capture you alive."

"Hmph," Luigi snorted disdainfully, "They don't dare to go after the Corporation, nor do they dare to go after Aventurine, but they come after me instead."

"It seems they think I'm an easy target."

"Very well, then let's see what happens."