Endless Evolution: Last Star

"Oh, you want to try your luck?" The man in the cowboy hat asked, smiling broadly at his probably last visitors.

"Yeah... What do you have to do to get the golden slime, that seems to be the grand prize, doesn't it?" Adam asked, pointing to the toy.

The man shook his head.

"No. The grand prize was taken just a few hours after I opened. It was a huge rainbow slime, you had to hit the center ten times to get it." The man pointed to a round target behind him with a small red dot on it.

"By the way, she was a Phantom like you, if I'm not mistaken, her name was Hazel. She did it in just one try! I've never seen anything like that."

Adam smiled bitterly.

"Yeah... I know her. I tried to beat her in a shooting range once, but she easily defeated me. Well, let's get started. How much does it cost per try?"

The man looked around at the crowds of people moving toward the exit and waved his hand:

"Ten credits. To get the golden slime you have to hit the center at least five times or try again."

Adam nodded, paid, and picked up the antique shotgun. It had been specially modified to shoot rubber bullets instead of shotgun shells, and it was also much lighter so that even a child could use it.

Bam. Bam. Bam.

A few shots and Adam hit six times right in the center. That was enough for Trici to get what she wanted.

"Yeah! It's so soft! Just like I wanted!" Trici exclaimed, cradling a golden slime that was almost as big as herself.

Then, another toy caught her eye - a simple green slime, much smaller than the golden one.

"Oh, you want to try to get it? It's not very hard, you only have to hit the center once, and I'll give it to you. Normally, the terms are more complicated, but you're my last visitor, so... let's do it that way." The man suggested.

Trici agreed, but... she stopped as she remembered something important.

"Brother! Can we get more ice cream...?"

Adam rubbed his cheek, puzzled. He wasn't sure if the stores were still open.

"Here." The man pointed north, to a small ice cream stand, "If you hurry, you can make it, they should still be open. I know the owner, he always works until the last minute, as do I."

Adam nodded.

"Silvana, keep an eye on her, I'll be right back!" Adam uttered, quickly running forward.

Silvana nodded, walking over to the man and paying for Trici's attempt.

"Go ahead. I'm sure your brother will be very happy if you can do it." Silvana said with a slight smile on her face.

"Yes!" Trici exclaimed excitedly, taking the gun in her hands and aiming as accurately as she could.

Step. Step. Step.

At the same moment, as if waiting for this moment, a group of men came out of the corner with devious smirks on their faces.

"Hey, do you mind if we ask you a few questions?" A muscular, bald man said with a sly smirk.

Silvana frowned heavily as she glanced at the man's wrist - there was a tattoo of a broad wing with sharp feathers.

'Proud Wing... Bastards, so it was them all along? What's more, they've made preparations.' Silvana bit her lip, looking at the cameras that some of them had.

"Guys, I'm not accepting any more visitors." The owner of the shooting range waved his hand, "Go away. There's nothing for you to do here. The fair ends in ten minutes!"

"Old man. Shut up." The man snorted, clenching his fist tightly, "Otherwise, I'll make sure you won't be able to talk for a long time. You'll be picking your teeth on the ground!"

The old man gulped. They may have both been simple men, but against such a mountain of muscle, he didn't stand a chance, and neither did Silvana...

Thanks to her training, Silvana was stronger than most ordinary people.

However, she was weaker than the average military man and definitely couldn't handle a group of trained men. After all, she was just a mere human.

...

Adam ran back quickly, holding a chocolate ice cream for Trici, and a strawberry one for Silvana, which he decided not to take for himself. He only needed a minute to get back, but after a few seconds, he stopped with a horrible grimace on his face.

A powerful punch to the jaw knocked out the shooting range owner. Silvana was on the ground. She couldn't help Trici.

Trici on the other hand... She was doing her best not to cry, looking at the golden and green slimes lying on the ground, in the dust.

The reason Proud Wing did this was very simple - they wanted to provoke Adam, and they knew that by now there would be a crowd around the range.

In fact, if Adam had not returned or had delayed for a few minutes, Proud Wing would not have succeeded. People would start asking questions and realize they did it for no reason, then they would be blamed and the police would arrest them.

However, since Adam was in a hurry to get his sister ice cream as quickly as possible, everything went according to Baldhead's plan. After all, now, he could redirect all the attention from their group to Adam by talking complete nonsense.

"There, he's finally here! That Factom just beat up that man and hurt those girls! I don't know what they did to this Phantom, but his attempt to apologize with ice cream is impossible after what he's done!" Baldhead exclaimed, waving his arms and drawing attention to himself.

Many people in the crowd frowned or got strange expressions since what Baldhead was talking about sounded completely unrealistic. Moreover, some people had been here from the beginning and saw what happened.

However, Baldhead knew that this could happen and prepared in advance.

"I saw everything! It really happened!" Someone in the crowd exclaimed.

"Yeah! Me too! Phantoms do mayhem all the time!"

"We should punish him!"

Other people didn't see it, but everyone who shouted had a wing tattooed on their wrist, neatly hidden by their sleeves.