Fatal Shot

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

Bang!

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One gunshot. One double armor-piercing round that zipped across over 100 meters and broke a tightly shut window with thick curtains of a retail shop across the street. After that came a muffled whimper that implied that someone was hit.

Inside the house, two Roaring Dragon Mercenary Group Light Armor Warriors were hiding in the corner of the wall in a fluster. One player had his head lowered as he covered a location on his helmet. Its defense had been completely broken by the shot.

“F*ck,” said the player. “How is he still so accurate even with a shut window and a wall!”

To deal with this lone Sniper player behind the zombie horde in order to remove any additional worries in future battles a few minutes ago, the Heavy Armor Warrior captain arranged for them to sneak behind the zombie horde based on the information provided by the supercomputer of the Umbrella Corporation.

It was because, based on the real-time intelligence analysis provided by the Umbrella Corporation—even though the Sniper moved cautiously under their search—the supercomputer managed to narrow down the number of places where he could hide. In the end, it managed to narrow it down to only a few spots.

The only problem was that they did not expect the Sniper to have such sensitive senses. Just as they split up and tried to get closer, one of them carelessly stepped on a plastic box. The Sniper hiding in the house managed to discern it. After that, he did not flee in a panic like normal Gunner players did when closed in on by Light Armor Warriors; instead, he exposed his head and fired a shot straight at them.

A fragile, low-HP Sniper actually dared to face off against two Light Armor Warriors only around a dozen or so meters away from him? What a joke! Was the Light Armor Warrior’s reputation—of being the arch nemesis of the Sniper within 100 meters—unfounded?

Not to mention the fact that after fusing with the T-virus and huge amounts of potions provided by the Umbrella Corporation, the attacks of both players had increased by almost half, and their HP had also surpassed the 10,000 threshold. Even if they were to rush straight on against the shots of the Sniper, they had total confidence that before their HP dropped to half, they would be able to get rid of the Sniper with a series of combined skills.

Although the Sniper was on the second floor while the two of them were still in the streets on the ground floor, there was no reason for the Sniper to think that he could slow them down. The beginner level of the Light Armor Warrior’s Level-30 skill, Thunder Leap Slash, allowed them to leap over two meters. The expert level would enable one to easily leap onto buildings that were four to five meters tall. So, for them, this one-story building was not much of an obstacle!

“Thunder Leap Slash!” After entering the skill range, the player who was in the lead cast his skill. Heat was generated in his legs as his right leg pushed strongly against the ground under him. Then his body leaped into the air toward the building.

In his dark crimson eyes, he could see the face of that Sniper getting closer, yet he was not in the least bit panicked. He could also see a black pistol in the Sniper’s hands, which had an unbelievably large caliber…

That’s not right, thought the player. A pistol? When did he switch guns?!

Before he could gather his thoughts, he heard a loud pow! There was a flash of light created by the flames from the shot of the huge-caliber pistol in the dark environment. Then he felt his chest get hit by a bullet.

In the next second, a huge impact came from his chest, sending his body, which was already in the air, flying backward as if hit by a giant hammer.

Peng!

The Thunder Leap Slash skill that had already been cast was actually stopped forcefully halfway. He dropped and landed butt-first and gracelessly on the bloodstained limestone street.

Even though I’m a little unlucky, thought the player, my partner should have also used Thunder Leap Slash and gotten up there. He must have already succeeded in closing in, right?

Just as he thought of that—only half a second later—another figure flew out from the building with a thud.

Just what kind of pistol is this? With a pistol like this, how are we, Light Armor Warriors, supposed to continue playing!?

After embarrassingly returning to the street, the two Light Armor Warriors were full of complaints. They did consider the bullets and assumed that it was a rare characteristic of the enemy’s gun. After all, the model of the high-caliber Desert Eagle was quite eye-catching.

The cooldown time for one of the strongest close-quarter skills of warriors, Thunder Leap Slash, was quite long. So, after they fell to the street, their only option was to rush inside the shop to continue their pursuit.

However, at that moment, the Sniper began to retreat.

The Sniper moved through the shops and the other buildings beside it that were connected. His agility was comparable to Scouts, and the routes he chose were all complex and difficult to traverse. The path upon which he jumped and ran was the quickest as well as the most efficient.

In the end, the two Light Armor Warriors were stunned after half a minute. They had allowed a Sniper to escape their encirclement.

It was important to note that the Charge skill of Light Armor Warriors was completely unusable in a pursuit within a complex building structure, so their maximum speed was actually inferior to a Sniper who had cast Quick Sneak. This was especially true for this Sniper, who was not even over Level 42. His running speed was faster than the Level-50 Scout they had encountered before. In such a dark environment, when he ran, he was like a shadow.

Of course, they could have reluctantly accepted this fact on its own. What they couldn’t believe was that after the Sniper reached a safe position, he did not continue to run. Instead, he turned around and started shooting at them with his sniper rifle.

It was at that moment that they were truly shocked and learned the frightening accuracy of his marksmanship!

The previous defeat of their team’s Sniper was not due to carelessness; it was simply the huge difference in strength! In a situation where the light was dim, vision was limited, and both sides were continuously moving, the bullets of the enemy were like homing missiles. Every shot targeted their weaknesses.

If it wasn’t the chest, it was the head. Moreover, none of the shots missed. And throughout the firing process, even the enemy increasing the distance was ineffective. They did not even have the chance to shorten the distance while the enemy was in the process of aiming. With this, the offensive and defensive situation was reversed.

A Sniper was using hit-and-run tactics on two Light Armor Warriors? Who would believe that? But he really was!

It was because, while the enemy had already fired five to six shots, they had not even managed to land a single hit. The only positive point was that the attack of the opponent was not very high. The normal damage to their bodies did not even reach 1,000.

The situation seemed acceptable because, after they had fused with the T-virus and applied the bonus from the potions of the Umbrella Corporation, they had over 10,000 HP. Moreover, their HP recovery rate was also extremely high, if they used another blood tonic, they could easily recover 1,000 HP in a matter of seconds. Plus, although the Sniper was extremely agile, when it came to endurance recovery rate, it was incomparable to that of a Warrior. Especially when moving at high speed, one’s endurance would be depleted extremely quickly.

If things continued like this, as long as they could drain the opponent’s endurance, victory would still belong to them!

However, their assumption changed after a short moment. The expected depletion of the opponent’s endurance never came, and they were no longer able to continue bearing the attacks of the opponent.

It was because, after the first few bullets fired by the opponent in the beginning broke a sufficient percentage of their armor, the shots that followed were all high, terrifying weak-point damage!

Weak-point damage was several times more powerful than normal damage, and every shot took away around 3,000 of their HP. Even if the two of them had over 10,000 HP and were under the effects of potions—with their defense increased substantially—they could not withstand so many shots from this opponent.

Hide?

The two of them had the same thought at the same time. After that, along with their low HP, they hurriedly hid inside a tightly closed shop. After enduring past the cooldown time of the blood tonics, they immediately applied some to recover their HP.

Then, unexpectedly, after just over a dozen seconds, a gunshot rang out again.

The opponent’s shot actually managed to hit them—even though he could not see them accurately. It was as if he knew exactly where they were hidden.

Just what kind of crazy person is this?!

Inside the shop, the two Light Armor Warriors looked panicked.

“What the hell! Could it be that the gun of the enemy Sniper has a heat detection function?”

“But every player in War has a biochip in their body. In situations like these, it would automatically regulate body temperature to some degree. In such a short amount of time, and with the wall between us, the heat detection wouldn’t be able to locate us so easily, would it?”

By now, both of them had HP that was less than one-third of its original, and the blood tonic was in cooldown status. Even though the effects of the Umbrella Corporation’s drugs endured—resulting in an HP recovery rate that reached an astounding 0.5 percent per second—if they got hit two more times, they would die. Or, if they received a hit to their critical points, they might even be killed in just one shot.

And if they were to die, they would have to receive the penalty of dropping stats permanently.

“Captain, we’re in trouble!” After retreating to a corner where they were certainly safe from being shot, one of the Light Armor Warrior reported through his internal communicator in a panic.

Ra-ta-tat…

From the other side of the communicator came the sounds of a fierce battle. There were tearing sounds of machine guns and zipping sounds of assault rifles, as well as the sounds of explosions. There were even sounds of people screaming for help.

“What’s going on!?” The tone of the Heavy Armor Warrior from the other side seemed a little dark.

“This Sniper is an expert amongst experts,” the Light Armor Warrior said as he felt his face burning. “Even the two of us couldn’t get close to him, and right now, we’re almost done for!”

After all, to be forced into this situation by a Sniper when it was two against one—just how were they supposed to face such a situation when both of them often called themselves “elite experts”?

“Two Light Armor Warriors versus one Sniper. And you can’t even get close?” The voice of the Heavy Armor Warrior was frighteningly cold. “You’ll have to think of something yourself. We can’t spare anyone to help you guys! It’s impossible. As long as you can delay him, it’ll be thanks to your strength. We can’t have another Sniper coming here!” After speaking, he hung up the communicator.

***

The Heavy Armor Warrior had an awful expression as he stared at the security personnel provided by the Umbrella Corporation being headshot one by one. In particular, he saw a Machine Gunner from the Roaring Dragon Mercenary Group being struck in between the eyes.

“Damn it,” he said. “Sniper. They’re all snipers! How come the enemy has two insanely powerful expert Snipers with them?”

He could vaguely feel that this mission was heading toward something called “failure.”