However, a trail of flames shot out from behind the door once it opened.

The searing blaze filled the hallway, engulfing it instantly with terrible heat. Almost everyone was completely consumed by the fire, and smaller flames could be seen extending out of the gaps between their bodies.

Boss, meanwhile, had kept himself in the last row thanks to his rich experience. And when the fires came, he somersaulted backwards to evade it.

"Argh!"

Amid two screams, Second and Fifth—who were standing at the very front—dropped to the floor.

It was a trap, damn it!

That was Boss's very first thought.

He aimed his handgun that had never left his grip at the door.

Meanwhile, a burning scent filled the corridor.

The clothes weaved from polyester and other chemical fabrics were left as a pile of charred blackness, clinging tightly to the victims' skin. Behind them, the hallway was filled with dark scorch marks.

Even so, neither Second nor Fifth died right away—they were lying on the floor, dying.

Summoned beasts! We still have summoned beasts!

All five thugs called out to their summoned beast in panic. In the already narrow hallway, the dozen or so creatures that had materialized in that instant left it stuck completely.

"Let me through! Let me through right now!" After Second and Fifth fell, the one closest to the door was Third, but he seemed to have seen something so horrific that he was shrieking crazily and trying his best to back away.

Even so, the goblins behind him had completely blocked off his retreat, preventing him from running just then.

Then, another streak of raging flames surged toward them.

It was much smaller than the first burst of flames, but no human's physical body would survive it either.

Soon, the fire was followed by massive talons resembling giant meat hooks that kicked toward Third.

Third's Summoner's Grimoire, which was floating outside his body, abruptly lit up, forming a screen of light which blocked the blazing chicken's attack.

In the end, summoners were immune to damage before the death of their summoned beasts.

Be that as it may, Third's summoned beast instantly appeared before him after he was attacked, as if a certain rule had been invoked.

It's a duel!

Even if summoners could stay immune from the attacks of other summoned beasts, their summoned beasts must duel directly! It was therefore impossible to stay immune by giving orders beforehand or hiding a summoned beast in a certain corner—the Summoner's Grimoire would forcefully bring your summoned beast to your side until every summoned beast you have is dead.

As such, the goblin that was force summoned by Third's Summoner's Grimoire was still spacing out, not quite realizing what had happened…

Before its belly was torn apart by razor-sharp talons in the next instant, gutting him in a split second.

Fresh, piping-hot innards spilled out of the goblin's belly right then.

Bang!

A deafening gunshot resounded in the hallway just then.

Most of the people in the residential complex were hence jolted awake from their sleep.

The blazing chicken's body twitched right then—a few feathers over its shoulders were pierced and a bloody hole appeared in it.

Enduring the pain, the blazing chicken's eyes went blood shot. It stretched out its wings like an eagle would, blowing a gust as it kicked out with its talons, instantly covering the few meters between itself and Boss.

Boss fired two more shots.

One missed, while the other hit the blazing chicken in the belly.

And after he was attacked, Boss's summoned beasts appeared before him to repel the blazing chicken.

Boss had three summoned beasts.

The first one lasted two seconds.

The second lasted three.

The third fled right away…

The blazing chicken looked askance.

Oh, a goblin. Not surprising.

Now, it was not just Boss and his goblin trying to escape—the rest of the gang and their summoned beasts were trying to get away as well. In fact, only one particular halfling and a slime turned out to have a stronger will to protect their masters, and stayed in front of them even if they couldn't win.

Green Skin walked up then, sending the nearest goblin flying to a wall with a slap before lifting one of the thugs with one hand.

Disdain, arrogance, and indifference showed all over his face.

Soon enough, Boss was found leaning against the wall, glancing between the blazing chicken and the goblin warrior before laughing self-deprecatingly.

Back in the day, he had been one of the kings of the capital city. Just by holding a cleaver in one hand, he could gather protection fees along a whole straight row.

Death had most certainly crossed his mind, especially since he had resolved himself to that ever since he got into a life of crime.

He just did not expect to die to a nobody in the middle of nowhere.

He had imagined that if he were arrested or killed, his name would be reported in the news so that everyone across the provinces or even the whole country would know him.

On the other hand, no one would know him even if he died right here…

It was a mess of troubled feelings the instant he thought about it.

"Bro, I'll apologize because we were in the wrong… I do have some money, though—there's over twenty million bucks in my accounts, and I'm giving it all to you as my penance. I promise you that I won't cause any trouble for you from now on, and all this happened only because they goaded me…"

Boss sighed inwardly at the sight of his two summoned beasts that were killed in an utterly gory fashion. He was aware that he would never get away, but he was not willing to just wait for his death either.

Chen Yining merely looked at him with a vague smile.

What good was money now?

It was worth less than toilet rolls—they could at least clean their bottoms with those.

Indeed, Chen Yining would only change his mind if Boss could offer a hundred big, fat top-grade pigs.

And at the mention of pigs, he remembered the girl at the pig-farm in the suburbs…

"How did you manage to break into our house?" he then asked.

Boss held nothing back and told Chen Yining everything… though he did distort the truth a little, claiming that the others wanted to break into Chen Yining's house, and that he was forced to go with them.

There was a strange expression on Chen Yining's face after he heard Boss's story.

"Bro, what do you think? I promise I won't ever show up again." Boss said earnestly.

Even so, Chen Yining had Green Skin kill his last summoned beast and smiled, shaking his head. "Sorry, I prefer rooting out trouble."

***

Later, they found two guns, four bullet clips, four three-sided blades, and one machete from the five bodies.

They also had some cash, three lighters, a few packs of cigarettes, several gloves, nylon rope, and over a dozen different IDs…

Chen Yining was unfamiliar with guns, but it appears that each clip had seven bullets, and there were twenty-five remaining after the used clips were accounted for.

He then checked on the blazing chicken. The summoned beast had stopped bleeding, although there were scabs where the bullets struck.

The bullets did not pierce its body, and it seems that the blazing chicken would not be wounded as seriously as he had thought as long as it was not struck in the vitals.

Naturally, that also had to with the small caliber of the bullets.

Chen Yining fiddled with the gun, deciding then that the gun could not really be used for killing magical beasts and was for intimidating other humans instead.

After all, the Flame Country enforced strict control over firearms—most citizens went their entire lives without seeing one, let alone touching them.

Eventually, Chen Yining sighed at the sight of the corpse-strewn floor.

This was going to a pain to deal with.

And could they still stay in this residential complex after something like this had happened?