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Chapter Seventeen: Unmasking the Purgers

For most people, death remains shrouded in mystery and fear. Perspectives on what awaits in the afterlife vary widely, each one as bewildering as the next. But for the purgers, death is an unyielding certainty.

Purgers, blessed with unnaturally long lifespans, bear the weight of knowing that this existence is their sole chance. They grapple with the awareness that death holds no second chances or reincarnations for them. They are trapped in an irrevocable decision, forced into their grim profession by various pressures beyond their control.

Many returnees painted purgers as psychopaths due to the brutal and vicious manner in which they eliminated their targets. However, these actions were driven by a deep-seated rage toward returnees. It had become second nature for purgers to harbor intense hostility, leading to savage murders.

Minka, clenching her fists in frustration, shared their cruel fate. "Purgers are never content with merely ending our lives. They take pleasure in tormenting us."

"Such as?" Gaige inquired.

"They inflict injuries to immobilize their victims, forcing them to run desperately for hours before the final kill. Sometimes they feign losing track of their prey, engaging in a macabre game of hide and seek before showering their victims with bullets. There's something even more perverse they do, but most returnees don't succumb to a single bullet. They either get riddled with bullets or end up exploding."

The audience, those who had witnessed such horrors inflicted on their fellow returnees, couldn't help but frown. The mere thought of it sent shivers down their spines.

Gaige, on the other hand, remained stoic. He was no stranger to brutality; he had torn apart the first purger he encountered, making him no different from the purgers haunting their group.

"Weapons?" he inquired.

"It's peculiar," Minka began. "They exclusively wield firearms and explosives. I've never seen a purger with any other type of weapon."

Gaige pressed for more information, and Howl chimed in with an observation. "It seems they can't use any other weapon besides their own."

"What do you mean?" Gaige probed.

"Recall when we were fleeing from the one with the gatling gun?" Howl recounted.

"Yes, what about it?"

"He dropped the gun while chasing me and ended up with my weapon. He used my gun to slow me down but didn't intend to kill me. I overheard him talking about losing points."

"Points? Are we some kind of experience for them?"

"I'm uncertain, but I sense they must kill us using their firearms, not other weapons."

Gaige found Howl's information quite valuable. It meant that purgers couldn't kill them as long as they could disarm them. However, the challenge lay in actually accomplishing that.

"Anything else?" Gaige inquired once more.

"Oh, yes," Minka recalled, snapping her fingers as she remembered. "Beware of purgers with red clothing; they can wield peculiar chains in addition to their deadly firearms. These chains are incredibly tough to break and can be slow and heavy. It's easy to avoid them as long as you remain vigilant."

Gaige clicked his tongue. While those chains might be slow, a horde of purgers using them could still apprehend them.

"Don't worry, purgers never cooperate in groups, as we've told you," Rowan assured. "They compete to eliminate us, often engaging in infighting before turning to their primary targets."

Gaige shifted his focus to a critical question. "Do you know how many purgers there are?"

"Do you mean how many we've encountered?" Rowan clarified.

"No, I mean the total number of existing purgers."

"We can't be certain, but perhaps around twenty per city."

Gaige's eyes widened in surprise. He had anticipated a higher number, perhaps four or five at most, but twenty was significant. Once again, he marveled at everyone's determination to survive.

"We frequently move from one location to another, searching for places marked by purgers." Rowan approached the entrance and pointed to chalk marks in the yard. Though it looked like child's play, these markings served as purgers' indicators for places they had purged. "Thanks to Minka, we can enter here safely, but once her powers wane, we can no longer sleep soundly at night."

Gaige nodded, fiddling with his long silver-blonde hair. Everyone's faces flitted across his mind one by one as he formulated a plan.

After crafting the plan in his head, he withdrew a pen and paper from their shopping bag and began to write. His handwriting was messy due to Earth's influence hindering his communication with Earthlings, but his message was clear and grammatically sound.

"Are you suggesting we stay inside this building during the purge?" Gaige inquired.

"Yes," Gaige affirmed.

Gaige had written on the floor instead of the table, piquing everyone's curiosity about his plan. Howl's group possessed skills for creating weapons and traps, Strazz had poisonous fog and smoke, Minka concealed and tracked, Andy's strength and stealth, Rowan's knife skills, and Gaige's aura and divine powers. Gaige believed that, with a solid strategy, they could ensnare the purgers and defend themselves to survive the purge.

"Is this acceptable?" Gaige asked Rowan, who remained the group's leader.

"This is brilliant!" Rowan exclaimed, his eyes sparkling with newfound hope in Gaige. He cheered, "Everyone, let's not succumb to the purge!"