Chapter 107: Cosplayer?

The bet was on, on one side, one promised to be an apprentice, and on the other side, the other had to ask out his secret crush.

Under such circumstances neither side wanted to lose, so taking the left and right sides of the building, they both headed to their respective opponents trying to end it as soon as possible.

......

[Ethan POV]

Separating from Viktor, he quickly went to his opponent, a tall man with a green mohawk, a nose ring, and a metal bat in hand.

Looking at him, Ethan couldn’t help but blurt out his thoughts.

"Hey, isn’t this the total cartoon gangster look? How the hell are you cosplaying the apocalypse?"

"I guess people really do have different priorities," said Ethan, still focusing on the nose ring.

And the cartoon gangster in question, hearing the sudden voice, instantly reacted, iron bat in hand.

"Hey! Who is that? This is a restricted area!"

"Come out or you will face the full wrath of the Iron Thumb of Helios!"

However, hearing him say this, Ethan, who had finally landed, couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

"Hahaha! No, no! You cannot be serious!"

"Is your name really the Iron Thumb, and you’re one of the five fingers!" "Hahaha!"

Looking at the guy in front of him, Ethan realized these guys were jokes.

’Ugh~ I can’t believe I was bullied by someone who has a cartoon gangster cosplayer called the Iron Thumb as his subordinate.’

Sighing inwardly, Ethan looked more at the person in front of him, and sure enough, he was a full-on cartoon gangster.

Not only did he have a nose ring, but paired with the eye piercings and denim leather jacket, the only thing Ethan felt was missing was a bike with a giant skull strapped in front of it.

"I see, you’re not from here; if not you wouldn’t dare laugh in my presence."

"State your name and take off your mask. If you do that and beg, then I might spare your life."

’Slurp’

Licking his metal bat, he ran his thumb across his neck, signaling that if Ethan dared to disobey he would be dead.

However, what he did just made Ethan’s facial expression drop.

"You did not just lick your bat and run your thumb across your throat."

"You sir are critically unwell. You look quite old, too. Are you still a chuunibyou?"

Pausing for a bit, Ethan’s eyes lit up as if he seemed to understand something.

"So that’s it!"

"You were probably someone who was addicted to stuff like anime, and when the apocalypse happened, this was your opportunity to live out your fantasy."

"However, in that case, why would you choose to be a gangster instead of the protagonist?" said Ethan, his fingers on his chin.

Yet his words only served to make the Iron Thumb more angry.

"That’s it, enough words with you! Die under my iron thumb!" Yelling this, his metal bat began to transform into liquid.

Under Ethan’s gaze, the metal bat in his hand transformed into a giant metal thumb threatening to crush him.

"I am the Metal Thumb! Lord of metal! Prepare to pay for mocking me!" he yelled.

Yet in the face of this, Ethan remained calm.

"I see, so your ability is metal control? Although I have a bet to win, a quick analysis never hurt anyone."

Activating his mana sense, he saw it.

As early as the Iron Thumb activated his ability, a faint inscription in his mana core lit up.

Afterward, this inscription allowed him to transform and morph the shape of the metal in his hand.

Analyzing the structure of this inscription, Ethan was rapidly deducing his own metal control spell.

At the same time, dividing his attention, he used his left hand to cast another spell.

"Ice-Make: Grab!"

Activating it, a giant hand of ice emerged from the ground, clamping the thumb in place.

At the same time, two other icicles appeared on his shoulders.

Bang!

Bang!

Smashing into the Iron Thumb’s feet, they pinned him to the ground, leaving him unable to move.

"You know, after thinking about it, I don don’t really have time to stay here and analyze it. I’ve already spent too much time laughing about it."

"In that case, I’ll just take your core with me and study it later."

Not giving him a chance to reply, Ethan shot his hand, covered in mana, straight into the Iron Thumb’s abdomen.

Feeling his core, regardless of the blood covering his hand, and with his stunned eyes, Ethan pulled it out, killing him on the spot.

"As I expected, that bastard Helios is too cautious to choose competent people to guard his treasure. I’m sure the so-called other five fingers are idiots like these who are easy to control."

"Plus, as if that wasn’t enough, he seems to have only given them enough cores to barely enter E-class."

"No, it’s like they’re not E-class yet; it’s more like a half-step E-class." Using his air walk to the next finger, a thoughtful expression flashed through Ethan’s eyes.

It seemed as much as Helios was a madman; he was a cautious madman, someone who couldn’t even trust his closest people.

For such a person, Ethan raised his caution level by several meters.

Although he didn’t know what he would do, if Helios could go so far in choosing subordinates, he couldn’t imagine what kind of traps remained where the crystals were hidden.

"Poison? Explosives? An alarm? Or maybe even all three?" Muttering to himself, although Ethan couldn’t be sure what, he could be sure it wasn’t going to be easy.

Shaking his head, he looked forward. A few meters away from him, a middle-aged man was wearing olden-days knight armor and a shotgun in hand.

"Damn, what is with these guys and cosplayers??"

First it was the cartoon gangster; now it was this guy? What next was he going to see a dwarf with an oversized hammer?

Cursing out loud, he felt today was going to be a really long day