Yu Shun's back soaked with sweats as he scanned the surroundings intensely. He was caught off guard, not expecting to encounter the Flame Castle inside the vast portal. Things worsened with the fact that the Flame Castle got help from the men in the military uniform.

He used all his zombies to create a wall to protect his girlfriend and himself from the bullet while facing the Flame Castle's group. Because of his class, he was forced to allocate at least one attribute point from two that he got from leveling up into Magic Power.

Yu Shun allocated the remaining one attribute into Strength, Agility, and Stamina in turn. So the guns that pointed at him were his biggest weakness ever since he could subordinate the zombie. Having low Vitality, a bullet anywhere in his body would be fatal. On top of that, he had to protect Luo Lan as well.

'Should have risked it and fought them rather than entering the portal!' Yu Shun regretted his decision by entering the portal. Now they had an external help, fighting them with his zombies almost impossible to him as his back would open wide to get shot.

For the first time since he got his class, Yu Shun felt so helpless. He could feel his girlfriend was quivering behind him as she shared his anxiety as well.

Yang Wen signaled Cai Peng through his eyes from his position. It was a signal asking the latter to release the shoot. Taking out his pistol to save the bullet for his main gun, he fired the pistol toward the big guy.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Cai Peng fired three times toward the big-guy in the middle. Each of his shots caused Luo Lan's body to shake in fear.

Clank! Clank! Clank!

Buckler raised its shield and received the three consecutive bullets. A clear metal noise resounded, causing Yang Wen to frown, 'What the heck is that? Are they even human?'

Cai Peng and his team had fired toward the three big guys in the black cloak. However, the bullet could not kill the three big guys despite the hit. They stood strong and made no noise despite the bullet hitting their bodies, indicating they did not or even could not feel the pain.

Such a reaction caused Yang Wen to be extra careful to not attack Yu Shun carelessly. 'But he avoided the fight as well, that means he does not confident that he could win against us,'

"Surrender and you will receive painless death for what you have done!" Yang Wen tried to coerce the young boy to receive a sneer from Yu Shun.

Leaving him with no choice, Yang Wen signaled his subordinates to approach the target slowly, 'I will take a risk and get it done before focusing on this damn game,'

In their third step, they heard a playful voice from the side, "Yo! Young'un, we meet again,"

Everyone including Yu Shun and Luo Lan looked toward the voice. They saw a man wearing a black coat and casual attire on top of the tree. The man grinned at Yu Shun while waving his hand.

At the sight of this man, Cai Peng's face instantly paled. He immediately recognized the man who had trashed their camp recently. His body tensed up as he directed his pistol toward Tang Shaoyang. His nine subordinates did the same as him, the trauma left behind by Tang Shaoyang to them was deep enough to scare them by his presence.

Tang Shaoyang did not care about the pistol pointed at him. He ignored the empty threat and jumped off the tree. Then he approached Yu Shun slowly step by step, "We meet again, young'un," he repeated the word with a wide grin plastered on his face.

"Who are you? Don't interfere with the Flame Castle's matter if you don't wish to perish!" Yang Wen warned Tang Shaoyang only to be ignored. The man did not even glance at him as he approached the target.

Yu Shun's eyes went wide at the sight of Tang Shaoyang. He was surprised to see the crazy man here, 'Ah, it should be them, the Tang Empire,' in their first meeting, he remembered the crazy man offered him to join his empire.

Even though Tang Shaoyang did not show any hostility toward him, he ordered his only stage-4 zombie to come forward. Shredder, it was the kind of a zombie that had a sword as its hands.

Shredder stood in front of him and Luo Lan, protecting its Master from the uninvited guest. Instead of getting offended, Tang Shaoyang scanned Shredder interestingly. He never this kind of zombie before, unfortunately, [Basic Detection] did not work on the zombie because it was Yu Shun's property. He could look for the zombie information only if Yu Shun agreed to show it to him.

Since the opposite party was wary against him, Tang Shaoyang stopped withing three meters distance. He had no weapon in his hand that brought relief to Yu Shun, still unaware of Inventory Bag's existence.

"You seem in a bad shape?" He asked the obvious thing. He then glanced at the Flame Castle that was fuming at him. After that, he glanced at the military side as well. The group flinched slightly the moment their eyes met with his.

Yu Shun did not bother to answer as he kept looking toward Tang Shaoyang. He did not want to lower his guard only to be attacked by the crazy man.

"Since you don't want to exchange a small chit chat, what about we get to the main topic?" He then grinned at the young boy, "I have an offer for you, do you want to hear it? The offer could get you out of this tough situation,"

Yu Shun preferred to not speak with a madman, but the quivering he felt from his girlfriend forced him to reply to hear what the madman had to offer him, "I am all ears,"

"Join my empire, I will grant you protection and safety for you loved one," he pointed at the quivering Luo Lan, "Don't worry about the position, as long as you contribute to the empire you will get promoted very fast, especially with your unique skills,"

"The higher your rank, you will get more privileges that I can't disclose now," of course, the privileges in his mouth was just all talk to tempt the young boy to join the empire. There was no special privilege yet, all of it was still in planning progress had not been implemented yet.

"I doubt about that!" Yang Wen could no longer stay silent after hearing what the man said. He pointed his index finger at Yu Shun, "He's a criminal of murder, you better stay out of this matter, friend," since the man had an unknown identity, he tried to be polite on the surface. If he could avoid a conflict, it would be much better. Yu Shun alone had given them a lot of trouble, another unknown variable would only make things complicated.

Yang Wen tried to warn Tang Shaoyang that Yu Shun had committed an atrocious crime, "If you try to shield the criminal, it's the same for offending us, The Flame Castle," in the last resort to avoid the conflict, he tried to use the name of his faction.

"Friend? You?" Tang Shaoyang snickered at Yang Wen, "Don't try to scare me with that shitty Flame Castle of yours! Flame castle, water castle, damned castle, I don't give a shit!"

'Madman is a madman after all,' Yu Shun thought to himself but he was just a lion cub that was being cornered by the hunters. He desperately needed help to come out of his predicament.

After saying that, Tang Shaoyang turned away from Yang Wen and looked toward the young boy, "Give me your answer, Young'un. I don't have to waste that much to wait for your answer. Now or never!"

Meanwhile, Yang Wen was infuriated by how Tang Shaoyang talked shit about his faction and how he was treated like air. He pulled the pistol he got from the military guys and directed the muzzle toward Tang Shaoyang.

'In the end, you are only one person! Let's see how you are going to face this!' Yang Wen braced himself, "Leave or I will shoot!"

Cai Peng and his subordinates paled at where the situation went to. He wanted to remind Yang Wen that guns were useless in front of this man but he was too far to remind his new ally.

Tang Shaoyang only briefly glanced at Yang Wen before pressuring an answer from the young boy, "Give me your answer, boy!"

At this point, the only way out of his predicament was the madman in front of him. But once again, he was still paranoid about what happened in his old school where those people tried to take his girlfriend from him. He was afraid Tang Shaoyang was one of those kinds of people. His girlfriend Luo Lan was a rare beauty, after all. Her charm was enough to invite a disaster, at least, he had to kill no less than twenty people on the way to SZ Establishment.

"I want us to discuss this properly!" That was Yu Shun's answer. He was implying to take care of the threats first before they talked seriously. He would take the madman's decision into his consideration whether he should join the absurd empire or not.

"Good enough for me," Tang Shaoyang maintained his grin and turned toward Yang Wen who was still pointing the handgun at him, "I advise you to scram unless you want your head off your body!"

Unfortunate for him, the threat did not work, "You force me!" With that being said, Yang Wen pulled the trigger three times.

Bang! Bang! Bang!