At night, in New Hanover, in a small farm near Soldering Iron Lake, four strangely dressed men wandered here.

They were of different genders and ages, but they were all dressed in the same strange way, they all wore white robes with yellow linings, and they looked like they were well organized, and the fact was, in their own words, brothers and sisters who shared the same faith.

The eldest of the four, the man with a short gray beard, spoke: "It is said that tonight the 'prophet' will come to this lake to spread God's will, to convert the lost who have just joined us, and to give our Lord more godly lambs." ”

"I've heard of it, too," said a young man who looked to be in his early twenties, with some excitement, "and it is said that the Prophet who is here today has brought the latest revelations from His Excellency the Shepherd, and these newcomers are truly blessed." ”

The only woman among the four was a little annoyed: "Why didn't I have such a good opportunity when I joined?" I wish I could hear the Shepherd's revelations with my own ears. ”

After the woman had finished speaking, she turned to another person who had not spoken: "Joseph, I remember you said that you once had a relationship with His Excellency the Shepherd, right?" Tell us what kind of person Your Excellency the Shepherd is. ”

The question flew into the air on an early summer night, however, without repercussions.

The woman was a little strange, she took the kerosene lamp in her hand, and walked cautiously towards the place she remembered Joseph, calling his name tentatively as she went:

"Joseph? Where have you been? Joseph? About...... Oh, my God. ”

She finally saw Joseph, his body still standing upright, because a sharp feathered arrow pierced his throat and pinned him firmly to the outer wall of the cottage in the farmstead, and his face revealed emotion, in addition to pain, but also in a deep sense of surprise, not like the expression of a man who had been killed suddenly on his deathbed, unless, he had come face to face with his murderer.

"Hey! Hey! The woman screamed, "Come and see, Joseph has been killed!" ”

Her screams, like the words she had asked Joseph before, echoed through the cloudy night sky, but no echo could be heard.

The woman turned around in some disbelief, and found that the two places where the lights had been left on had been swallowed up by the darkness of the night.

In the back of his head, there is a crisp click. The sound was familiar to the woman, the sound of the hammer of a gun being pulled off.

The woman's body stiffened instantly.

"Now, my dear lady," a young voice like a demon came from behind her, "how about we talk?" ”

"Who are you?" The woman's voice was filled with horror and anger.

"It doesn't matter," said the voice behind her, "my question matters." ”

"You don't want anything out of my mouth." Women are tenacious.

"Your so-called prophet seems to be called ...... Obadiah Feige, huh? ”

The woman was furious: "How dare you call the prophet by his name! ”

"For I do not need to bow down to him, ma'am," said the young voice, "well, I have only one question, and that is, where will you, the High Prophet, meet the new members of you?" Think about your answers, my gun can smash your head at any moment. ”

"Oh, no, no, sir, please let me go," the woman's voice began to tremble, "I'm just confused by these people, and I haven't done anything bad, please let me go?" ”

"As long as you say what I want, I promise you'll be fine." Said the young voice.

"Oh, yes, sir," said the woman, "come closer, sir, for I am afraid that the wall has ears, and if they know that I have leaked the secret, they will ......."

The young voice said, "I understand your thoughts very well. ”

As soon as she finished speaking, the woman heard approaching footsteps behind her, and after about two steps, the footsteps disappeared.

"Now, you can say, I don't think there will be a third person who can hear you at this distance." The young voice seemed to be a lot closer.

The corner of the woman's mouth opened into a sinister grin, and the hand that had been hidden under the robe turned around to stab at the person behind her.

"Die! You devil! Accept the early judgment! The woman's eyes were full of exuberant murderous intent.

At this moment, the sound of gunfire rang out, and the woman's shrill roar came to an abrupt end, and there was a hole in her head that was deeper and darker than the night.

As the smoke of gunfire billows from the muzzle of the gun is blown away, Brandi Munny, wearing a black manor hat and a classic black suit with a black Ulster coat, emerges from the shadows with a retro gentlemanly demeanor from head to toe.

He looked at the woman lying on the ground who had returned to the world, and sighed softly: "I don't want to kill a woman, but it's a pity that you won't be able to give you a chance." ”

As for why Brandi is here, instead of enjoying the most comfortable room within a hundred miles of the Valentine Hotel, it has to start with a chat he had with Schultz and Django yesterday.

After fighting alongside Django once, the conflict between Brandi and Django was mostly gone. In this wild land, heroes always cherish heroes. So, after finishing all his work in the sheriff's office, Brandi took the lead and picked up Schultz and Django at the Smithfield Tavern.

Dr. Schultz was a very talkative elder, and at the banquet, he kept talking to Brandi about his native Germany, about the interesting people and things he encountered when he was a dentist, and about the dangers and interesting things he experienced after turning bounty hunters.

Brandi believed that if LaVine, the writer who was obsessed with writing western novels, was also at the table, then he would faint with joy, or he would be frantically recording in his notebook until his handwriting was broken, and Brandi realized that in this wild west, even ordinary people have the value of capitalization and close-up.

Compared to Dr. Schultz, Django is extremely reticent, even after three rounds of wine and five flavors, Brandi still doesn't get any gossip about him, but Django tells him some information about the bounty hunter.

It wasn't until then that Brandy learned that it wasn't just a petty thief or a train-busty crook who ran the train to the police, but that anyone who ran to the police station to collect a bounty could be called a bounty hunter.

Bounty hunters are actually a profession that does exist in the U.S. judicial system, they have federally issued identification, and they have law enforcement authority that is higher than that of ordinary police officers and sheriffs granted to them by U.S. law.

In addition to the priority of law enforcement, bounty hunters also enjoy benefits that belong only to this industry. Not only can they enjoy discounts that belong only to bounty hunters in all kinds of shops throughout the United States, but they can also buy goods exclusive to bounty hunters in shops that have obtained relevant legal certifications, and because of the nature of the bounty hunter's profession, the federal government has given bounty hunters enough freedom, and all work is based on the bounty hunter's personal will as the first consideration, and generally will not be subject to too many restrictions from the government.

However, the most crucial thing, and the most appealing thing about Brandi, is that bounty hunters can take on more difficult and lucrative bounty jobs, which can be said to be very attractive to Brandi.

Although he now has a fortune of nearly $10,000 from the late two legendary bounty hunters, and a huge payment from the eldest lady who escorted the Cornish family, he is still full of money.

It wasn't because he had any big goals, to be sure, he did want to do something big, but he didn't have any idea what to do, and even if he only took into account the many expenses of his life in the future, Brandi was sure that the more than 10,000 dollars would still be spent one day.

Of course, he could have pulled out a gun in the town's shops or even in the bank and ran away with a windfall, but given the image he had painstakingly created as a "crime buster", no one would think that you were robbing a shop or bank openly and had anything to do with law enforcement.

So, he now needs a job that is reasonable and legal and pays well, and becoming a bounty hunter certified by the U.S. federal government is a very good choice.

So, the next day, he went to Sheriff Malloy to ask about it.

Sheriff Malloy was surprised that Brandy didn't know enough about the real bounty hunter, after all, Brandi still had the identity of a student of a legendary bounty hunter, and a legendary bounty hunter like Major Warren, who had turned from an officer to a bounty hunter, was a representative of a real bounty hunter.

Fortunately, Brandi had already thought of his words, and two sentences dispelled Sheriff Malloy's suspicions, so Sheriff Malloy gave him a detailed description of the Bounty Hunter's rank, the difficulty rating of the bounty mission, and the requirements to become a Bounty Hunter.

The federal government divides bounty hunters into six tiers, which are Novice, Beginner, Veteran, Veteran, Veteran, Excellent, and Legendary.

Each Bounty Hunter can submit an application for promotion to the local government after meeting the promotion criteria of the corresponding level, and this application will be submitted by telegram to the state government, which will issue a certificate representing the status and rank of the bounty hunter.

Although the qualifications issued by different states are slightly different in shape, they all follow the basic principle of distinguishing grades by the color and material of the qualifications, and the colors and materials that represent the relevant grades are also the same, according to the order from the lowest to the highest, which are white paper, black iron, blue steel, red copper, silver yin, and gold gold.

This is just like the laws of this country, although the laws vary from state to state, but in principle they all follow the U.S. Constitution and other federal laws.

The main purpose of grading bounty hunters is to deal more effectively with criminals of different dangers and avoid unnecessary casualties among bounty hunters. Of course, in the decades since the emergence of government-certified bounty hunters, there have been no cases of high-ranking bounty hunters dying at the hands of the youngsters, but at least this hierarchy has played a protective role for bounty hunters.

For individual bounty hunters, leveling up means more discounts, a wider variety of class merchandise, more difficult quests, more bounties, and more, all of which are irresistible temptations for anyone working as a bounty hunter.

However, while higher level bounty hunters can enjoy more benefits, it is not easy to level up.

Bounty hunters who want to improve their level need to submit an application to the state government to upgrade their level, this link can choose to submit directly to the state government or submit it to the town government first, and then the town government will transfer it to the state government, and the state government will evaluate all aspects of the bounty hunter, and if it meets the standards, it will issue a qualification certificate for the relevant level, and if it does not meet the standards, the application will be rejected, under normal circumstances, this process will take a month to complete, among them, if the bounty hunter wants to be promoted to the legendary level, If eligible, the state will need to assess their eligibility and submit the application to the federal government in Washington, D.C., where the federal government will approve the application and issue a directive to the state government for approval before the state government is eligible to issue a gold Legendary Bounty Hunter certificate, which will take an additional month to complete.

There are many criteria for the government to review and judge the level of bounty hunters, but there is only one criterion that is the most important, and that is the difficulty and number of bounty quests to complete.

In the United States, there are two types of bounty tasks: one is issued by law enforcement at the town and county levels, and the bounty is generally provided by the informant and is open to all those who are interested in the bounty; The other is issued by the federal government, and the bounty is issued by the federal government, and only federally certified bounty hunters are eligible to receive it, and the bounty issued by the federal government is generally not placed on the bulletin board in front of the sheriff's office or police station, but needs to be collected by the local sheriff on his own.

Under normal circumstances, the bounty for wanted warrants issued by law enforcement at the town and county levels will not exceed $100, and the difficulty is not high, and will not be included in the bounty hunter's KPI, while the bounty issued by the federal government is the most important assessment indicator for the promotion of bounty hunters, and has a difficulty rating recognized by the federal government.

Bounty tasks issued by the federal government are different in terms of difficulty, with the lowest one-star and the highest five-star, bounty missions of different difficulty, the nature of the criminal, the danger of the task, the bounty offered, the level of the bounty hunter for everyone, etc., in principle, all levels of bounty hunters can take these tasks, after all, the level does not represent personal ability, but this difficulty evaluation mode can still effectively provide reference information for bounty hunters to measure their probability of completing the task.

The bounty quests of one-star difficulty are mainly for fraudsters and economic criminals, most of whom are powerless, even if they carry guns, they may not be used, and everything is fine if they don't fight themselves, so they are not dangerous, and the bounties provided by such quests generally do not exceed a hundred dollars, and are generally aimed at novice and entry-level bounty hunters.

Two-star bounty missions focus on hunting down murderers or dismantling local gangs, and are generally dangerous, offering bounties ranging from $100 to $400, and only experienced "entry-level" bounty hunters, as well as bounty hunters who have reached the "Veteran" level or above, are capable of completing such tasks.

The bounty mission of three-star difficulty is mainly to hunt down cross-state murderers and robbers who wander to the local area, such prisoners are usually very cunning, have strong combat effectiveness, and there is the possibility of having a considerable number of helpers, it is quite dangerous, and the difficulty is very high, even high-level bounty hunters have the possibility of missing in the face of prisoners at this level, so the rewards provided are relatively rich, generally between four hundred dollars and seven hundred dollars, only experienced "veteran" level bounty hunters, or higher level "senior". "Bounty hunters have the guts to take on this kind of task.

The four-star bounty mission, also known as the Notoriety Bounty, is pursued by the state's most dangerous and intractable criminal groups, which are so well-organized and powerful that the average law enforcement force simply can't find their traces, and even if they do, they don't have the ability to take them down directly, which is why these bounties offer quite generous payouts, generally between $700 and $1,000, except in very special circumstances, except in very special circumstances, only experienced "veteran" bounty hunters, or higher level "excellence" Bounty hunters of the caliber have the guts to take on such quests.

The five-star difficulty bounty mission, also known as the legendary bounty, can be named the name of the legend of the criminals, none of them are easy to match, these criminals are basically more than a thousand dollars, and there is no upper limit, in the United States, in addition to the senior "excellent" and "legendary" level bounty hunters, only the Pinkerton detective company has the ability to capture these criminals.

For example, if you want to be promoted to the "Senior" level Bounty Hunter, you must have at least one exact record of completing three missions to qualify for the corresponding promotion, and whether you can be promoted also needs to evaluate the success rate of the task, the total number of tasks completed, and so on.

Brandi patiently listened to Sheriff Malloy and asked how to become a bounty hunter. As long as the local sheriff believes that the applicant has the qualifications to become a bounty hunter, he can submit an application to the state government, and such applications will generally be replied to within half a month, and a paper bounty hunter card will usually be obtained.

The reason why it is so easy to pass is because the law enforcement force of the United States is seriously empty at this time, so there is a great demand for people like bounty hunters, and as long as there is an application, it will generally pass directly. Of course, Sheriff Malloy didn't say this explicitly, but he didn't know it, and Brandy knew it.

However, Brandi has some petty selfishness, he says that he doesn't want to waste time and energy on those simple tasks, and since his abilities are obvious to all, he wants to apply directly to become a higher-level bounty hunter.

Rao is as calm as Sheriff Malloy, and he was also taken aback by Brandy's ambitions, he said that this kind of thing is not without precedent, but the procedures are cumbersome and the requirements are stricter, however, Brandi only needs to complete a task of the corresponding level to prove that he has the ability to become a bounty hunter of that level, and the rest of the procedures can be done by himself, of course, he can't take the legendary level task, even if he has captured a legendary-level criminal, he can't directly apply to become a legendary-level bounty hunter, Otherwise, it will directly destroy the promotion rules of bounty hunters that have lasted for decades, and the consequences will be unimaginable.

Brandi didn't expect that it would be so troublesome to satisfy his petty selfishness, but in order not to waste time on those simple tasks, Brandi decided to take a gamble, so he directly took the notoriety bounty of Valentine, and began a series of investigations and searches.

After two days of investigation, he received definite information that one of the targets he was looking for would appear near the lake tonight, so he chose a time to come to this small farm at night, just to arrest the prisoner.

Brandi searched for specific information about his target in a minion he killed, straightened up, moved his somewhat sore waist, recalled his hard work in the past few days, and couldn't help but sigh: "Grandma, why is it so difficult to eat in the system?" ”