With a blood-curling scream, a Krayt Dragon Gang member fell down, smoke rising from two scorched spots in his back.

  Rumor rose from his crouched position behind a boulder, from where he had ambushed the enemy. That was the eighth one he killed, which meant only the guy he had let go earlier was still around of the first group.

  Of course, that still left Alo'Reme and his other eight men, who by now had to have found a way to the top of the plateu, and were probably making their way down.

  Should he head up? Or go down and try to give them the slip? With only one man guarding the path down, it would be easy to sneak by.

  No, they would eventually catch up to him since he was on foot. And in the open desert he wouldn't have any advantage over them.

  Plus, there was a part of Rumor that really wanted to bury them all here. Not only because he hated them - it had been nearly 24 hours since he last slept, thanks to the bastards hunting him - but also because he could feel the rewards would be good if he managed to kill them all.

  The Mind seemed to favor boldness. All the best rewards Rumor had gotten until now had come from fighting.

  Plus, he had entered The Mind by getting bled to death like a pig. Would the kind of place that required this price of entry really be satisfied with a tester who only did the bare minimum?

  Rumor didn't think so. And... for the first time in his life he had a chance to be something more. To grow stronger than Scarface Mikhail, than the soldiers who burned down The Quarter, stronger than anyone.

  He wouldn't settle for mediocrity, not anymore.

  Determined, Rumor turned his gaze upwards. He couldn't see them, but he knew Alo'Reme and the others were there.

  They probably still thought they were the hunters. Soon they would realize that wasn't the case anymore.

  ...

  Ay was getting desperate. At first, he had been pissed off that the human dared to attack them, and even killed two of his men right in front of him.

  But then he started to find more bodies. Some stabbed to death, others beaten to a pulp. And nobody was answering his calls.

  There was something about the rocky formations that interfered with long-range communications too, so he couldn't even contact Alo'Reme.

  Alone, and finding only fresh bodies everywhere he looked, Ay's anger had given way to unease, and then fear.

  He knew very well he was the next in line.

  "-y... Czzt- ...there? Ay, whe- ...fuck are you?"

  "Boss!"

  Ay almost jumped in relief when his radio crackled to life. It was all broken up, but Alo'Reme's gruff voice was unmistakable.

  "Boss, I'm here! You gotta be careful! That human isn't normal! He already--"

  "Already what?"

  Ay froze when that detestable voice reached his ears. He dropped the radio and spun around, only to feel a piercing pain on his abdomen.

  Looking down, he saw the handle of the knife stuck under his ribs. And holding it was none other than Rumor, the human who had given his Krayt Dragon Gang so much trouble over the last couple days.

  "Die!"

  Ay started bringing his blaster pistol about, but a hand clamped onto his right wrist, stopping it from going any further. Rumor smiled mirthlessly at him, a grin that promised only pain, before headbutting Ay.

  "Urgh!"

  Blood gushed out from his broken nose and Ay felt dizzy. But his head cleared quite quickly when Rumor roughly pulled out the knife from his body and stabbed him again.

  And again. And again. And again.

  Four times in total, until the light completely vanished from Ay's eyes and he fell down lifelessly.

  Satisfied, Rumor crouched next to the body and patted it down. While he wouldn't get any proper rewards from the system until this whole crusade was over, miscellaneous items which didn't even warrant a description, like the water flask he now triumphantly held, could be taken.

  "Ay? Ay, are you there?"

  Alo'Reme's voice came from the radio again as Rumor took a big gulp of water. The tester hesitated for a second, then grabbed the device.

  "Sorry, Ay has left the building. As has everyone else with him."

  There was a stunned paused from the other side before Alo'Reme erupted.

  "Human! How dare you! I'm going to--"

  Rumor turned off the radio and threw it away. He didn't need to listen to any threats. All he wanted was to get Alo'Reme angry so he would make mistakes, and that had been more than accomplished.

  Now, he had to find a good spot from which he could observe this area. Alo'Reme would undoubtedly find his way here to confirm his right-hand man was truly dead.

  Finding crevices to hide wasn't hard. Finding good ones, though? That was another story.

  Rumor's fingers, palms, elbows, and knees were covered in scratches. Although they healed far more quickly than humanly possible thanks to the system, it was still a hassle, and he couldn't help but let out a sharp hiss of pain every now and again when a particularly sharp rock cut open another gash in his body.

  If nothing else, by the time this incursion was done, Rumor's pain tolerance would have drastically grown.

  Finally, after what felt like way too much time, Rumor found the perfect spot. It was a nook in the rock wall about 3 meters above the ground, and with a perfect line of sight to Ay's body. Better yet, the back opened to a fissure that led to another ravine, which gave him a perfectly concealed escape route.

  For the next hour, Rumor waited, taking the chance to replenish his depleted stamina. All the aches of his bruised and battered body wouldn't go away until he got to sleep in a proper bed, but he felt much better now.

  And just in time too. The twisted maze that was the underside of the plateu carried along the noise of several pairs of feet. Not long after, Alo'Reme and 7 other Krayt Dragon Gang members showed up.

  Like all the other gangsters, they were an odd mix of half a dozen different alien species. Rumor saw another Trandoshan, two Miralukas, one Rodian, and many others he didn't recognize.

  "Ay! When we catch him, I'm going to gut that little womp rat!"

  Alo'Reme was livid when he saw Ay's fallen body, the blood of his lieutenant being greedily absorbed by the thirsty soil of Tatooine.

  The other gang members, however, were uneasy. They were thugs, not soldiers or bounty hunters. They were used to shaking down weaklings for money, not hunting people.

  Although they wouldn't back down from a little bloodshed now and again, it had always been them who delivered it. Being on the receiving end... It didn't feel good.

  And it was about to feel a whole lot worse. Rumor aimed his [ C-21 Scout Saboteur (Damaged) ] at Alo'Reme's head. In a movie, the protagonist would take out all the subordinates first and leave the final boss for last.

  Rumor wasn't in a movie, and although he was undoubtedly the protagonist of his own story, he now had a prime chance to weaken, or even kill, the strongest enemy, and he wasn't going to waste it.

  TZIIING!

  The sound of the blaster firing bounced off the walls, and Alo'Reme's head snapped to the side, followed by his whole body crumbling to the ground. Black smoke and the smell of burnt flesh rose to the air.

  [ You attacked Krayt Dragon Gang member Alo'Reme. Calculating attack value... Deducting target's defense... ]

  [ You struck Krayt Dragon Gang member Alo'Reme in a vital area. Target's defense was ignored. Calculating attack value... ]

  [ You attacked Krayt Dragon Gang member Alo'Reme while in stealth. Adding stealth bonus. Calculating attack value... ]

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  [ You have dealt 39 points of damage to Krayt Dragon Gang member Alo'Reme. ]

  As Rumor suspected, even a shot to the head wasn't enough to take down Alo'Reme. The alien wasn't a mid-level enforcer for the Krayt Dragon Gang for nothing. The 15 points he had on vitality gave him at least 30 defense and 150 HP. And that was without counting his base stats and whatever other equipment he had on.

  Thinking like that, 39 damage wasn't that bad. Plus, ruled by stat numbers or not, The Mind was still a very realistic place. Nobody could walk away from getting shot in the head like it was nothing.

  While the other gang members were stunned by the surprise attack, Rumor took the chance to let fly a couple more shots.

  Most missed as the thugs finally ducked for cover, but he still scored one hit to someone's neck, and another two body shots.

  Not a bad result overall. But when the enemies started returning fire, Rumor decided it was time to duck off.

  Taking his pre-planned escape route, he left the Krayt Dragon Gang members to wonder if he was still around, and squeezed through the passage to the other ravine.

  Once there, he dusted his clothes and turned his gaze upwards again. He had seen the direction Alo'Reme and the others had come from.

  Time to give them a surprise.

  ...

  Finding where they had parked their hovercrafts was surprisingly easy. There was practically a straight path to the top of the plateu that Rumor had missed multiple times.

  Turns out being unfamiliar with this kind of terrain was a big disadvantage, who would have guessed.

  The three hovercrafts were quietly humming as they, well, hovered, about half a meter above the ground. Only one thug, an alien who looked like a shriveled husk, had been left to guard them.

  His mouth opened in shock when he saw Rumor emerging from the depths of the plateu instead of his companions.

  His surprise cost him a precious few seconds before he started to fumble with the blaster in his waistband. Seconds which Rumor took full advantage of to get closer and fire his Scout Saboteur, wounding the alien in the shoulder.

  Instead of waiting for the 1,5 seconds it took until he could fire again, Rumor discarded the gun and charged his injured opponent.

  Tackling the alien, he donned his [ Rusted Brass Knuckles ] and started raining punches on him.

  The Mind allowed a tester to have both a meele and a ranged weapon equipped at once. Of course, it was physically impossible for him to hold his Ottegan blade and blaster in the same hand, but the brass knuckles were a different story. Although they threw off his aim slightly, not having to waste time taking them out of storage and putting them on was worth it.

  [ Krayt Dragon Gang member Amunabt has died. ]

  Getting up, Rumor let out a deep breath, feeling the tight knot in his chest unwind a little. He wasn't completely out of the woods yet, but he was in a much better position now than when the day started.

  In fact, he could leave right now if he wanted. Sabotaging the 2 other hovercrafts wouldn't be that hard, and it would ensure he had at least 12 hours before Alo'Reme and the others made their way back to Mos Espa.

  But that would be unsatisfying. He had been hunted down through the desert for hours. He almost lost his life multiple times. His body was battered, bloody, and bruised.

  He didn't want to end it like that. All thoughts of whether Alo'Reme could even be considered real or if he was just a construct of The Mind, like the rest of this world, flew from his head.

  He wanted revenge.

  Knowing Alo'Reme and the others would have heard the latest fight and figured out where he was, Rumor didn't waste any more time, and started preparing the battlefield to his advantage.

  Mastering the controls of the hovercrafts was easy. A lever controlled the speed, and you turned the wheel for changing directions. Simpler than driving an automatic car.

  All he had to do was turn two of the vehicles towards the path the gangsters would be coming from, tie a rope made of his destroyed clothes to the levers, and wait.

  Alo'Reme was the first to surface on the plateu, half of his head wrapped in bandages and the smell of burnt flesh still faintly discernible.

  "Wh--"

  His eyes widened when he saw the two hovercrafts aimed at him, and Rumor behind them, bare-chested and smiling.

  Then the tester tugged on the rope.

  With a rumbling noise, the two hovercrafts started accelerating. Straight towards Alo'Reme.

  "Run!"

  The enforcer turned around and sprinted back the way he came desperately, but his own men blocked his way.

  "No!"

  The crash was loud. The path was only wide enough for one hovercraft to enter at a time, and it would be scrapping the walls if it tried.

  Shoving two of them there at once? Metal twisted, rocks fell, and smoke rose to the air in large pillars.

  As for the Krayt Dragon Gang members? In the clash of metal and flesh, it was clear who won.

  When Rumor went to investigate, it was to find a scene of absolute carnage. Mangled bodies, dismembered limbs, and blood everywhere.

  All the low-level thugs were dead, crushed to a paste. Only Alo'Reme was hanging on to life, despite being the first to be hit, thanks only to his high vitality.

  But he wasn't long for this world. His chest had caved in, both of his arms where twisted unnaturally, and one of his legs was just straight up gone. Even if Rumor did nothing, Alo'Reme had only minutes left.

  "Y-You... Coward..."

  The whispers barely left his lips, and Rumor watched indifferently. Was he a coward?

  Yes. Rumor would be the first to admit that. This was the first fight in his life he had run towards, instead of away from, and only because his hand had been forced.

  And yes, he had used a cowardly method to win. But so what? He was alive. Alo'Reme was dying. What better proof that he was in the right was there?

  Feeling a surprising detachment now, when compared to his earlier need for revenge, Rumor aimed his blaster at Alo'Reme's head and squeezed the trigger.

  [ You have dealt 19 points of damage to Krayt Dragon Gang member Alo'Reme. ]

  [ Krayt Dragon Gang member Alo'Reme has died. ]

  [ Battle summary: You have slain 17 low-level Krayt Dragon Gang thugs and 1 mid-level Krayt Dragon Gang enforcer. ]

  [ You have defeated a large force of the Krayt Dragon Gang at once through a mix of strength and strategy. Many people in Mos Espa are in awe of your guts. ]

  [ Your relationship with Krayt Dragon Gang has fallen from Hostile to Nemesis. ]

  [ Your reputation with the Hutt Cartel (Mos Espa) has grown to Familiar (2.500/3.000). ]

  [ Your reputation with the Hutt Cartel has grown to Unknown (300/1.000). ]

  [ Your reputation in Tatooine has grown to Unknown (35/1.000). ]

  [ You have acquired: 25.000 wupiupis, Delicious Unknown Fruit (x4), Decent Quality Military Bandages (x7), High-Powered Slugthrower, Slugthrower Magazine (x2), 1-Star Random Skill Scroll, World-specific 2-Stars Skill Scroll. ]

  Wow. The rewards he gained this time around were staggering. Although it might seen like he had taken a loss in the quantity department, especially considering how many Krayt Dragon Gang members he had killed, the quality had definitely gone way up.

  TWACK!

  Rumor was about to examine his rewards when he stopped cold. Between his feet, still shaking slightly, an arrow was embedded into the ground.

  Slowly raising his head, Rumor bit down a curse.

  Out of the pan, into the fire.

  Everywhere he looked, Tusken Raiders were staring back at him.