CHAPTER 6

Food? Fighter?"** Ragna, still somewhat confused, had no idea where he was. The blatant hostility of the scavengers surrounding him left no room for thought. 

*Bang!* One of the scavengers raised his weapon and attacked Ragna. A surge of electricity enveloped him, crackling around his body. The scavengers then rushed forward, weapons in hand, intent on tearing him apart. 

After an energy weapon attack, most duplicated matter would be shattered into unusable fragments, rendering it inedible. The electric net clung to Ragna, emitting a weak current in an attempt to incapacitate him. 

Ragna gripped the power grid with both hands. A flash of light erupted from his palms, and with a forceful tug, he tore the grid apart. 

"Is that all you've got? You think this can trap a Protoss?" As an Aesir Protoss with awakened divine power, Ragna was far beyond the reach of most firearms in the universe—let alone a mere electric net. 

The destruction of the power grid momentarily stunned the advancing scavengers, but they quickly regrouped and charged again. 

"Hack him to pieces!" 

"We can't afford to lose this food!" 

"You want to use *me* as food?" Ragna blocked a scavenger's machete with his left hand. With his right, he delivered a punch that shattered the skull of another scavenger swinging an iron bar at his head. A swift kick sent a third attacker flying, his dagger clattering to the ground. 

"You think you're worthy?" Ragna's fists and feet moved with deadly precision, leaving the swarming scavengers heavily wounded or dead. 

"He's too tough! Kill him!" 

"We need that food!" 

Some scavengers hung back, watching in horror as Ragna decimated their comrades. The ground was littered with the fallen, their groans filling the air. 

Finally, Roar, who appeared to be the leader of the scavengers, barked orders. He grabbed his weapon and opened fire on Ragna, unleashing a barrage of energy beams. The beams tore through the scavengers still surrounding Ragna, reducing them to ash in an instant. 

Ragna raised his arms to shield his eyes from the onslaught, stepping back under the force of the barrage. While the weapons couldn't harm him, the relentless assault was far from pleasant. 

"Damn it, nothing's working!" 

"What kind of Protoss is this?!" 

"Keep firing! Don't stop! Bring out the heavy artillery!" 

Panic spread among the scavengers as they realized their weapons were useless against Ragna. 

However, under the orders of their leader, the scavengers did not retreat. They all knew that in this garbage dump, being alone meant certain death—or worse, becoming someone else's food. 

"What a waste of potential. If we could sell him to a grandmaster as a fighter, we'd make at least a million," the leader muttered, glaring at Ragna, who was physically resisting the energy beams. Despite his frustration, he didn't order his men to stop shooting. 

They had already crossed the line with Ragna. They couldn't control a powerful Protoss like him. Their only option now was to kill him. 

Ragna staggered back, shielding his eyes with his arms. Though his vision was partially blocked, he could still see clearly enough to notice the scavengers hauling out a defective energy cannon. Behind him lay a heap of garbage. 

Ragna knew he could easily evade the scavengers' attacks by using the trash piles for cover. If he dodged their barrage long enough, he could turn the tables and wipe them out. But he wasn't interested in testing whether his body could withstand their firepower, nor did he feel like rolling around in the filth. He needed another way to deal with this group. 

"These energy beams are blinding… blinding?" Ragna muttered as the high-speed particle beams struck his arms and scattered, creating a dazzling light show. 

Suddenly, an idea struck him. He activated the divine power of the sun, and a brilliant, violent light erupted from his entire body. 

"I am the incarnation of the sun!" Ragna declared. 

The scavengers screamed in agony, their eyes burning from the intense light. Temporarily blinded, they dropped their weapons and began firing wildly in panic. 

*Bang! Bang! Bang!* The stray beams tore through the scavengers, reducing many to ash. A few beams struck Ragna, but they were powerless to stop him. 

Some of the smarter scavengers stopped shooting the moment Ragna's light flared. They immediately covered their eyes and tried to flee. Familiar with the terrain, they knew they could escape by weaving through the garbage mounds and hiding in the trash mountains, where they'd be hard to track. 

But the chaotic energy beams and Ragna's relentless pursuit didn't let them off so easily. Three of the fleeing scavengers were shredded by their comrades' stray shots, while another narrowly dodged an energy beam only to be knocked down by Ragna. 

Ragna stood calmly, watching as the scavengers turned on each other until the chaos finally subsided. Of the large group, only two remained standing, clutching their guns and babbling incoherently as they stood back-to-back. 

There was also the scavenger leader, who had fallen among the corpses the moment Ragna unleashed his light. He had dodged four attacks and, despite the searing pain in his eyes, lay motionless, pretending to be dead. 

But such a cheap trick couldn't fool Ragna, who had awakened the power of the sun. The leader's body still radiated heat and light, unlike the cold stillness of a corpse. 

Ragna charged forward, delivering a powerful punch that sent the last two scavengers crashing to the ground. Then, he stepped on the leader, who was still pretending to be dead, and growled, "I ask, you answer. If you refuse, you die. Understand?"