Fatal Shot

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio  Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Since you are the first player who has gotten a pet in War, you are hereby awarded a special badge of honor, which has been sent to your inventory.

When Feng Luo had first gone online after the system was updated, he respawned in his room in Silvermoon City. Just then, there was a notification of the good news.

“Huh?”

Feng Luo stopped in his tracks. Never would it have crossed his mind that the online game War would offer awards for trailblazers. Was he dreaming?

However, based on the name, “badge of honor,” it sounded like a simple memento, so he didn’t expect too much from its attributes. He was not in a hurry to look for it in his inventory. Instead, he was excited about checking on his pet that he had worked so hard to gain.

Regarding the incident of taming the Golden King Beetle, he could roughly guess that he had succeeded, as it was only by taming it that he had managed to boost his points, although he had experienced an early death.

“Where has my pet gone?”

At first, Feng Luo searched around for it, but to no avail. He then realized that there was a high-tech feeling of a silver-black bracer strapped on his hand.

Pet Space Bracers

This constructs a special environment suitable for pets and acts as a home for pets (Note: if the pet stays too long in the space, its loyalty points will drop).

While skimming through the properties to find out more about the usage of this accessory, Feng Luo followed the instructions and pressed a button at the top.

Then he saw that the air in front was suddenly moving like water ripples. A white light flashed across his eyes, and a fist-sized Golden Beetle appeared on the table in front of him.

Untitled, Golden King Beetle, Special Boss Pet. Species code: ??. Level: 1. Loyalty: 60%. HP: 100. Psionics index: 10. Egg storage: 10/10

Pet’s Talent: Devouring (S)

Pet’s Skills – Mental Link, Eggs Injection, Wormhole (pseudo)

The Golden King Beetle titled “Boss” only had simple attributes shown on the menu, but this was because it was only at the first level. In fact, almost every one of its talents and skills came with a long, expandable property bar.

For instance, for the talent of this beetle, Devouring (S), the specific content read, “By devouring crystal cores, it has a chance to gain additional attributes or skills.” Undoubtedly, this talent, labeled S-rank by the system, was somewhat similar to the evolutionary talent of Feng Luo, but it was actually more powerful than his because it could get additional skills.

However, this talent devoured the crystal core rather than the crystal itself. In this regard, it was definitely a “money-consuming” talent!

A crystal core was only obtained when monsters above Commander rank dropped it by chance. Thus, even the lowest-grade crystal cores were worth thousands of credits. If it was a crystal core from a Boss, the price would be more than a million credits. Moreover, the king beetle also needed to devour the crystals as food, which was the reason why the Gatherer Beetles had previously been stealing crystals dropped by monsters.

This pet was quite money-consuming. Whether it was worth spending so much on it, it all came down to its ability. Fortunately, the overall attributes of this Beetle King seemed to be worth the cost!

There were only short descriptions for its basic attributes and skills. However, that didn’t mean that they were ordinary. Each of them was indeed powerful.

For instance, its first skill: Mental Link. There were not much of a description of this skill. It only said, “The mental link is created through ‘psionics index’ to control the swarm of beetles.” This was why the Golden King Beetle had been able to command the swarm of beetles before.

However, it was the term “psionics index” that held Feng Luo’s attention.

The term was in his memory from a setting within StarCraft. It was a kind of spiritual energy found in the mind. This energy had a connection with the user’s brain, giving the user the ability to powerfully change the material world after undergoing some hardcore training. To put it simply, this was a supernatural ability similar to the mutant’s abilities in X-Men or the Force from Star Wars!

This boosted Feng Luo’s confidence. The beetle was definitely related to the Zerg in the StarCraft! Unfortunately, even if it had become a pet, the column for the species code was still occupied with “??”. Feng Luo had a feeling that there was a mystery to be unraveled.

The second skill, Eggs Injection, was no doubt the core skill of the Beetle King. The Golden King Beetle could produce eggs and inject them into the corpse of a monster, which was then catalyzed by the psionic index to quicken the process of hatching small beetles. The little beetles would then consume the monster’s body and absorb its energy, upgrading its own level and attributes in the process. The upgrade speed was much faster than that of a player.

Also, if the monster had been an Elite or higher rank, the hatched beetles would have a chance to evolve from an ordinary beetle to an Elite, then progress to Commander rank—or even become Boss! In addition, they could also be upgraded when participating in the killing of players.

As he read this, Feng Luo heart skipped a beat. All the trouble of getting a pet biochip and risking his life in the process to catch the King Beetle had been totally worth it!

This wasn’t just a beetle pet; there was a chance to form a beetle army!

However, such an extreme pet certainly would have its limitations. In fact, in the Level 1 state, the king beetle could only produce a single egg per day, and the maximum storage was ten eggs, so it was impossible to form a beetle army on short notice.

Most importantly, hatching beetles and controlling them required the use of psionics, and the energy used could only be recovered slowly by the King Beetle itself. At present, the Golden Beetle only had a maximum of ten points in its psionics index, which was only enough to catalyze the hatching of Gatherer Beetles—beetles of the lowest level.

Also, the more advanced Suicide Bombeetles, Bladed Beetles, and Energy Beetles required dozens of energy points, while Steel Beetles and Spray Beetles required hundreds. As for the Scout Beetles that had seemed to be the most advanced beetles during the previous battles, they required a total of 250 points of psionics index for incubation!

The only good news was that the speed of laying eggs, the maximum capacity, and the recovery speed of the psionics index could increase by a certain amount each time it upgraded.

If the King Beetle devoured a psionics crystal, it could immediately restore the psionics index, similar to how a player could use an MP potion.

Of course, Feng Luo didn’t have to think twice to know that the psionics crystal was definitely a rare item—rarer than the crystal core! In fact, he did not find any relevant information after checking the forum. This might not be something that could be owned by players in the current game version.

Lastly was the skill Wormhole (pseudo). The term “wormhole” was easy to understand. In its astronomical context, it signified a fast-moving space passage that might exist in the actual universe. However, the content of this “Wormhole (pseudo)” skill was more in line with its literal meaning.

With the help of psionics, this skill was used by the King Beetle to open a portal for the beetles to pass through, so that the beetle could enter or exit the pet space easily. This may have actually been a special skill added by the system in order to release the common beetles more easily.

But there was also a limitation: The skill consumed the psionics index, which meant that it was impossible for Feng Luo to fight using the tactic of releasing and collecting the pets continuously.

Feng Luo was already mentally prepared for these restrictions. Although this King Beetle had once been a Boss, it had become a pet now. If it was powerful enough to deal with hundreds of players before it was tamed, then the number after the fact would naturally be less.

Even though there were all kinds of restrictions, this Golden Beetle was still undoubtedly a powerful pet. Plus, it was likely to be the only one of its kind!