The Joker, The Trickster, And The Magician

Fortunately, any corpse have a chance to drop a stat card, even if it wasn't killed by Wolfram. It all depends on luck, and on the two fighting soldiers.

Three of the goblins were easily immobilized in an instant, as for the remaining ones, they managed to approach the soldiers and slash away with their swords and daggers.

The soldiers weren't amateurs, they counter-attacked as they used their rifles as a weapon, clashing it with the frail weapons of the enemies.

They were experts so the fight wasn't particularly difficult, they finished the attacking goblins then went to finish the other ones, which were immobilized a few seconds earlier and were trying to escape with blood leaking from their fresh wounds.

As the two of them walked toward the ugly goblins, Wolfram showed himself, surprising both the soldiers and the crawling goblins.

The soldiers were alerted at first but they relaxed when they saw it was just a comrade, still, they didn't drop their cautiousness as they gazed at him with curiosity.

"I've heard gunshots from afar so I hurried here, I'm glad I finally managed to find living people!"

Wolfram expressed his thoughts with a helpless smile, he showed an expression of relief, making his words sound a bit more believable.

One of the two soldiers walked up to him while still keeping his guard up and replied

"It is fortunate for us too. It's been a rough day here with all those goblin attacks, our rations are running low so we were forced to venture into 'unknown' territories."

After the earthquake, this floor became infested with goblins so any room could have numerous hidden goblins prepared to launch a sneak attack. Wolfram sensed some truthfulness from the soldier's words but they didn't seem to say everything about their situation back at whatever camp they may have estabilished, obviously they are still feeling cautious about his identity.

Wolfram gazed at the goblins with bewilderment, he inspected them thoroughly with a wide-open mouth as if it's the first time he's seeing them then added

"I've been unconscious till recently, the room I was in collapsed causing everyone but me to die."

Although they didn't totally believe Wolfram, it's still good to stumble upon a human rather than a monster, the soldier patted the newcomer's shoulders and comforted:

"A new comrade is always a good thing! We have a small base not far from here where there are a few other survivors. We should get out of here before more goblins arrive."

A cold glint flashed across Wolfram's eyes, it was quickly hidden and went unnoticed by the soldier. Wolfram was no fool, he knew that he wasn't trusted or else the soldier would have told him where their base was or their numbers.

Soldiers guarding this floor are, more or less, familiar with each other but there are still special cases where an unfamiliar soldier appear, this was what Wolfram was betting on, however, it didn't seem to work as expected.

'Anyway, it doesn't matter much, I just need to know where their base is.'

"I'm Giichi and he's Baldwin."

Wolfram nodded and said

"I'm Wolfgang"

Wolfram spat a fake name without a care in the world, it's not like they're going to remain together for long, from the looks of it. After he introduced himself, he crouched next to the goblin corpses and fiddled with them as if he was inspecting him, he hid his actions skillfully as he successfully retrieved four stat cards that were crushed on the spot.

The soldiers didn't find his action weird and stuffed their bags with water bottles and snacks and by the time they finished, Wolfram was already done 'inspecting the corpses'.

In total, he gained 0.2 Vitality, 0.1 Magic Control and 0.5 Perception. It was a pleasant gain, especially the Perception, which strengthened his senses, including his hearing, which is very beneficial in such a place.

Wolfram's ears twitched as he heard light footsteps coming from the opposite corridor, he stared at that direction and said

"We should go, they are coming."

The group of goblins coming is greater in number than this one, from their footsteps, Wolfram guessed that they were at least twenty marching together, even he, wouldn't be able to handle them.

Both soldiers frowned as they couldn't hear anything but they still complied and left this area, leaving only the lifeless corpses of the ugly goblins.

*[Sensor Hearing] Lv1 acquired! +0.1 Card Points.*

As he stared at the red card in front of him, Wolfram began to understand this card system. He speculated that the skills he was proficient at before the earthquake would be easier to obtain.

He easily obtained [Sneak] and [Lightsteps] thanks to his past experience, as for his hearing, it was 'trained' when he was an assassin and although it wasn't drastically strengthened like right now, it was still better than the average people.

This could also explain the [Dagger Mastery], he was an expert user of daggers, guns, and staffs too. He had done countless dangerous jobs so if his speculations are right, he'd be able to cause those skills he practiced to appear in the system thus allowing his to obtain more CP.

The three of them took a simple train formation where one is walking behind the other instead of walking together. Wolfram was in the middle, Baldwin was in front of him and Giichi was behind him, staring at him with a weird look.

"You should have noticed the appearance of this strange system, right, Wolfgang?"

Giichi spoke with a low voice as they proceeded down the wide corridor which was half-destroyed. Giichi focused on Wolfram's expression as he said that but was unable to notice anything out of the norm.

"Yeah, about that, it came as a huge surprise. I still don't know how it works, though."

Hearing this, Giichi's eyes turned cold as he questioned

"Then how were you able to hear the goblins from far away? I'm already Lv3 yet I heard no sound."

Although Baldwin didn't say anything from the moment they met, he was interested to hear Wolfram's answer.

Wolfram spread his hands innocently and replied

"I think it's a skill, it's called [Sensor Hearing], I've had it since the start."

"Oh so it's like that. A few of the survivors in our base obtained special skills, they are all varied."

By saying half of the truth, Wolfram somehow won the trust of the soldier. Actually, Giichi wanted to test Wolfram and see if he'll fabricate a lie or not, and coincidentally, Wolfram's words matched what Giichi had experienced beforehand.

'Special skills you say? I'd very much like to see them.'

Wolfram secretly licked his lips as he imagined people unleashing powerful soundwaves or others flying in the air. From what he saw earlier, the movements of the soldiers are slower than his which means that their speed stat didn't increase like his.

They were lv3 so they much have gained something upon leveling, unfortunately, he doesn't know the details or else he would have finished them off sooner.

There's a high chance he'll be discovered when he'll reach the base, especially if the commander is there, which means their path is about to separate sooner than expected. He could sense that they were more relaxed than a few minutes ago which means this area is secured and there are no monsters lurking around.

Soon, the trio reached an intersection that led to two different paths, one was barricaded using tables and chairs with only a small space in between, barely enough for a human to pass through.

As for the other, there was no barricade, it actually reeked of blood as the walls were dyed with red liquid and several corpses were laying around, they belonged to both goblins and humans.

Apparently, they were no longer in the area where prisoners were held, this was indicated by the signs on the roof, each one pointing in a direction with a word written on them.

To the right, where the barricade is, was written 'Research', to the direction they came from is 'Prison' and to the left, it's '5th floor'.

From the number of corpses and the gloomy feeling about that area, Wolfram could feel that the reason the soldiers are still holed up here despite two days or more is because of what's lurking in there, he didn't know the specifics but it's most likely a strong monster or a big group of goblins.

'Guess it's parting time.'

Wolfram thought to himself as he suddenly dashed straight at Baldwin and unhesitantly used his military knife to slit the throat of the unsuspecting victim, who dropped his guard a bit when they arrived here. His suspicions of Wolfram lessened by a lot but who would have thought that their new friend would attack out of the blue, especially when they're so close to their base.

Although he was a veteran soldier, Wolfram's sudden dash and his precise and fast actions were not something that could be resisted by the surprised Baldwin, before he could shout or move his body, a fountain of blood was already gushing out of his neck.

Giichi, who was on the back, was momentarily startled before he raised his loaded rifle and prepared to shoot at Wolfram, who swiftly finished Baldwin and used his body as a shield, trying to block the bullets coming from the enemy.

The rifle started shooting unceasingly as it littered the poor Baldwin's body with countless holes, causing a rather gory sight. Wolfram didn't care as he pushed the body of the dead soldier at his foe and appeared from behind the falling corpse, shooting Giichi with his rifle.

The soldier was already prepared, he didn't back away as he would be an open target for Wolfram, instead, he charged to the front, pushing the body of his dead comrade away and grabbing his handgun, trying to blow Wolfram's head off.

Unfortunately, there was a short time period where the corpse obstructed Giichi's view of Wolfram, and by the time he regained vision of that area, there were no signs of the enemy.

He hurriedly looked behind him, afraid that the enemy had already gotten behind his back but it wasn't the case. Giichi tightly held the handgun and surveyed the area but even after a few seconds passed, there was no sign of the enemy. The soldier breathed a sigh of relief and slowly advanced forward, trying to go back to his base to notify the people there about what happened.

He cautiously approached the barricade and pushed away some tables to barely get through when suddenly, his instincts alerted him, he hurriedly turned around only to see a flying chair coming right at him. The soldier clumsily rolled away and safely dodged the chair, however, the next thing he saw was Wolfram, who was three meters away from him with a rifle pointed right at the crouching Giichi.

"What are your intentions? Do you think you can get away after what you did?"

Giichi wasn't scared despite being in such a difficult position, he coldly looked at Wolfram and declared confidently.

"My group will arrive shortly, they must have heard the gunshots. You'll have nowhere to run to."

Confused, Wolfram tilted his head and retorted

"Who said I'm running?"

Shocked, Giichi was about to speak again but wasn't able to as a bullet went right through his forehead, instantly killing him. Wolfram hummed happily as he retrieved the card that came out of the dead Giichi then went back the way he came from, wanting to loot the corpses that he saw earlier but couldn't inspect due to having some 'company'.

He didn't feel bad for killing these soldiers, either they were good or bad people, it doesn't matter, they were his enemies, people who wanted him dead, so he'll kill them without mercy.

In such a world where the strong would prevail and rule, you can only survive by becoming stronger and eliminating any potential problem that may hinder your progress.

It wasn't certain that they'll kill him if they knew his real identity, however, they'll surely not treat him kindly. In fact, there's a strong chance that they'll force him to become bait, after all, who would care about the life of a murderer, he's better off dead than alive.