Henry walked toward Pastor Philip and said, "Pastor Philip, could I ask you to handle Barrett's funeral arrangements? He was a war hero and should have a decent burial. I'll pay the expenses."
"Of course, I'd be happy to," Pastor Philip nodded in agreement.
At this time Mayor William also walked over. Henry immediately reported to him: "Mayor, these were all assassins and bandits. I took advantage of this duel opportunity to lure them out and eliminate them all at once."
Mayor William looked at Henry kindly and said gently, "Henry, you did very well, but doing it this way is still a bit too dangerous. Your own safety is more important."
Henry nodded and said, "I understand, but I was confident."
After a pause, Henry said firmly, "I'm the town's sheriff. I must kill these bandits and ensure the townspeople's safety. There have been many assassins coming to town recently. I'll clean them out one by one. You should also be more careful, Mayor."
William nodded and said, "I will. After you find out where these gangs came from, let me know."
Henry readily agreed: "Alright."
After speaking, Henry nodded to Philip and William in acknowledgment, then turned and walked back to the police station. There was still much cleanup work to do.
Townspeople he encountered on the road all enthusiastically greeted Henry, and he smiled and responded to each one.
For the townspeople, after the initial panic, they found that only a few unlucky ones had been lightly wounded by stray bullets.
So there was no problem, and it actually sparked their fanatical pursuit of Henry's marksmanship.
This was mainly because Henry's shooting was precise without injuring bystanders, while those bandits probably had at most half their number get a chance to fire one shot, and they were all aiming at Henry.
Even so, Henry had consumed four gray pearl shells against them, showing these fierce bandits' superb marksmanship.
In that situation just now, life and death were decided in an instant.
Their ability to fearlessly ignore townspeople interference and exchange fire with Henry while maintaining basic accuracy was indeed remarkable.
The progress bar had reached 60%.
Below were 11 gray pearls, 11 white pearls, and 4 green pearls.
This gang had many elites - undoubtedly fierce bandits, adding 3 green pearls, 10 white pearls, and 8 gray pearls.
However, only two green pearls had the flowing halos of skills or talents.
It was predictable that as Henry became more comprehensive, new skills and talents would definitely become increasingly rare.
Returning to the police station, Henry ignored the officers busy inventorying the bandits' belongings, entered his office, closed and locked the door, then walked to his office chair and sat down, silently thinking: Use the two green pearls with skills.
Instantly, Henry was surrounded by warmth that appeared from nowhere. He found he was naturally born with much faster reaction speed than others, and this speed wasn't just actual speed but also included neural perception. For example, the flight trajectories and wing-flapping motions of insects like flies or dragonflies - if he concentrated, he could see them quite clearly.
It seemed these insects were all moving in slow motion, like video playback slowed down by more than five times.
However, he could only concentrate like this for one second now, needing at least an hour before entering this state again, and each subsequent entry's duration decreased by almost 50%.
If he forced himself beyond these time limits, Henry would suffer from mild dizziness at best, or severe vomiting and unconsciousness at worst.
Then came extensive whiskey and brandy brewing and blending techniques and experience.
When Henry regained consciousness, he found only two minutes had passed as expected, and his skill panel showed an additional Brewing LV3.
It seemed that talent for accelerating neural reaction speed by more than five times should be Barrett's.
Thinking about it made sense - without something special, how could he have built such a reputation? How could he have survived over 200 formal duels?
Henry silently expressed gratitude to Barrett in his heart: Thank you! Rest assured, I'll make good use of your money and talent to accomplish things beyond your imagination. You can rest in peace now.
Additionally, Henry suddenly realized this talent combined with his release pearls' ability to repair abnormal conditions was simply a match made in heaven!
If this was truly the case, it meant Henry could extend the duration of using this talent by ten times or even a hundred times.
Henry could barely restrain his impulse to immediately test this idea, deciding to save it for future real combat instead.
Save what he could - no waste.
Moreover, Henry's reaction speed already far exceeded ordinary people. Combined with this talent, the only thing limiting his shooting attack speed was the mechanical reset speed of gun internals.
But his throwing knives, daggers, boxing, and swift sword attacks wouldn't have such limitations.
Henry again struggled greatly to control his urge to immediately find a place to test.
Meanwhile, William had also returned to his family manor.
As soon as he entered, Janice ran over asking, "Grandpa, did big brother Henry win? Is he alright?"
William looked at her concerned and nervous expression and said gently, "Yes, he won beautifully, and he's completely fine. He even additionally shot and killed twenty bandits who tried to surround him."
The expression on Janice's face instantly relaxed and became excited as she pressed, "Wonderful! Grandpa, tell me the details."
At this time, even seven-year-old Frank ran over, looking eagerly at William.
William chuckled and walked to sit on the sofa in the center of the hall, narrating like he was reading a storybook to his two grandchildren.
Before he knew it, Mikaela had also sat beside William, listening quietly.
After a few minutes, William finished recounting this duel and bandit elimination event.
Frank and Janice listened with sparkling eyes.
"Henry is really super cool. I like him so much," Janice praised without concealment.
Frank nodded repeatedly like a pecking chicken, showing agreement.
His biggest regret was not going to the cemetery with Grandpa last time, missing the chance to witness Henry's mighty display personally, only able to watch helplessly as his sister Janice bragged to her friends each time.
William and Mikaela had no concept whatsoever that these violent matters were inappropriate for children to know.
After Frank and Janice were taken upstairs by servants for afternoon naps, Mikaela said, "Henry's marksmanship is actually so excellent. I remember Barrett was the king of firearm dueling!"
William said, "I didn't expect it either. I was worried for him the whole time before. Only being there in person could you truly feel Henry's power - truly incredible!"
Mikaela smiled and said, "It's better that Henry is powerful. He's the only remaining sprout of his lineage."
William nodded and said, "Henry is truly an excellent child. He's not only powerful in combat but also has a grateful heart and is very thoughtful."
Mikaela looked at William with confusion.
"To help Linda, he commissioned Benjamin to purchase the house Linda wanted to sell, completing the transaction at Linda's asking price and trying to calculate generously for her, almost double the actual marketable price, while Linda knows nothing about all this."
Mikaela very much appreciated this gentlemanly behavior and said with a smile, "Invite him for dinner again when there's time these days. I'd like to meet him."
"Alright, but he just took over the sheriff position and just recruited 24 new officers, so he should be busy for a while."
(End of Chapter)
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