Fatal Shot

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

In truth, if one only looked at the deadlines, the three-edged military stiletto was far more deadly!

This was due to the structure of the military stiletto. In fact, the wound created by a three-edged military stiletto will be in a square or rectangular shape, making bleeding difficult to stop because each side would compress against each other. Moreover, military stilettos had “blood grooves” that could quicken blood loss and cause oxygen to enter and block the veins, increasing the mortality rate.

The game reflected the characteristics of the three-edged military stiletto by inducing the “bleeding” special effect and causing the injured player to continue to suffer damage whenever someone was hit by the weapon. Only after special drugs or treatment from a Doctors would the effect be removed. Otherwise, one would have to wait until the “bleeding” effect’s time limit ran out.

But the three-edged military stiletto did not have the attribute of “Strength +15.” It did not provide its wielder with the power to turn the tide in a hand-to-hand fight.

The two of them tangled together on the ground covered with branches and leaves. Feng Luo’s gaze and expression were savage while the face of the rebel army Reconnoiter, the captain of a small squad, was flushed red. He was unable to block the Mad Dog military knife that was inching closer and closer to him!

Pu!

−6070!

The rebel army Reconnoiter captain resisted for a few dozen seconds before the white blade of the Mad Dog completely punctured his camouflage-painted neck. The moment an artery was severed, a red-colored damage value of over 6,000 appeared overtop of his head.

The color gradually drained from the despairing eyes of the Reconnoiter captain. The severed artery sprayed out a huge amount of fresh blood. Some even splashed on Feng Luo’s face. The stench of blood stimulated his nervous system!

Killed Level-41 Elite Rebel Army Reconnoitre Small Squad Captain. Received 1,500 experience. Received one medal point.

“Phew!”

Hearing the notification from the system, Feng Luo relaxed his grip. Panting heavily, he pulled the bloodstained Mad Dog out of the Reconnoiter captain’s neck before standing up.

He guessed that the small squad captain died with such an aggravated expression because, as a Reconnoiter of the Scout profession, he was the most adept when it came to close-quarters combat. Yet, before he could display any of it, Feng Luo had turned the fight into a super close-range melee through the most direct and violent method.

Although the difference between close-quarters combat and super close-range melee was small, this difference, in fact, negated all the skills-based advantages of the Reconnoiter of the Scout profession. The fight was simply a competition between attack and strength.

In terms of strength, Feng Luo had the “+15 Strength” attribute gained from the Mad Dog military knife. Normally, this attribute was only present in the equipment of warriors. As such, even if the opponent was two levels higher than Feng Luo, there was no way his strength was higher.

Based on the damage of their close-range weapons, Feng Luo should not have been able to beat the small squad captain Reconnoiter who specialized in assassination. However, one couldn’t forget that Feng Luo had the S-grade talent, “Lethal.” The bonus increase of a 100 percent chance of inflicting lethal damage was not limited to bullets. He could use any type of weapon, and as long as he scored a hit on a vital point, he would inflict lethal damage that exceeded others by 100 percent. This alone was sufficient to make up for the gap of damage between their blade weapons in the fight!

This was especially true in fights against humanoid monsters such as soldiers in the rebel army. Although they possessed AI and combat techniques not inferior to players, as well as the ability to use equipment and skills, the rebel army monsters had a clear disadvantage. Their HP was a lot less than other monsters of the same level. Compared to a common Elite-grade monster that had around 10,000 to 20,000 HP, this rebel army small squad captain actually only had a little over 6,000 HP, which was considered extremely low. It was due to this fact that Feng Luo had gained the opportunity to slice its throat!

The emotions generated in this sort of extremely close-range combat was undeniably amazing. It was rare for Feng Luo to have an opportunity to kill opponents at close range, as he was used to being a Sniper who dispatched his enemies using bullets at long-range. The moment the blade of the Mad Dog sliced into the neck of the opponent, as blood splashed onto his face, Feng Luo had felt a sense of exhilaration that was hard to put into words.

“This feeling… It has been a long time,” Feng Luo said, looking at the body of the rebel army Reconnoiter captain.

His eyes were still wide open, and he lay on the ground on a bed of bloodied leaves. Feng Luo was quite certain that this Reconnoiter had died very confused, as he had executed a near-perfect ambush. Just how had he been discovered, and why had his attack been blocked?

In truth, it was due to a special skill Feng Luo’s character learned: “Death Sense.”

Death Sense was a passive skill, and its effect was as the name implied; when an opponent initiated an attack that would be lethal to him, he would be able to sense the direction of the attack. This was not a skill of the Gunner profession. It was actually a rare skill that Feng Luo had learned during a hidden mission he had previously completed.

Skills in War could be learned by buying skill chips sold in stores. Apart from that, there were also rare skill chips that were not sold in stores that could only be obtained through missions or through killing monsters. Rare skills were not necessarily stronger than normal skills. However, they usually had unique effects, which was why the value of rare skill chips was quite inflated. They were not even inferior to the price of Rare-grade equipment.

Feng Luo had been lucky to obtain the rare skill from a mission. And today, it had resulted in a tremendous effect. Apart from that, after getting rid of the Elite Reconnoiter captain, the system had awarded him with one medal point in addition to the experience.

Medal points were rewards that were difficult to obtain. Only by completing extraordinary kills or special mission would one be able to obtain medal points in War. Furthermore, after the Elite rebel army Reconnoiter captain died, several white crystals and the brown combat boots he wore dropped onto the ground beside the corpse.

As Feng Luo picked up the combat boots, he found out that, to his surprise, they a piece of Level-38 Rare-grade equipment!

Assassination Reconnoiter Combat Boots

Grade: Rare

Defense +65

Defense Coefficient: E

Agility +10

Movement Speed +15%

Bonus Effect: Decrease Stamina consumption by 35% when moving

Level Requirement: 38

Overall Evaluation: Excellent

In War, most equipment did not require item appraisal because the personal terminals of players stored information on a lot of the common equipment and items. One only needed to scan the item to learn the attributes of a piece of equipment. Only some items obtained through quests or dropped from monsters of the Commander-grade or above required item appraisal services from a professional appraiser.

Feng Luo hadn’t expected the Elite rebel army Reconnoiter captain to drop a piece of Rare-grade equipment. Although in theory even low-level monsters had a chance of dropping Rare pieces of equipment, the probability was so low that it probably did not even reach one in ten million.

Elite-grade monsters mostly dropped Fine-grades equipment of the same attributes, and the probability of dropping a piece of Rare-grade equipment did not even reach 0.001%. However, Feng Luo remembered reading the conclusion of a player on an online message board, stating that completing an “outstanding kill” alone would increase the chances of Rare equipment being dropped. Perhaps this was the reason the Reconnoiter captain had dropped a Rare piece of equipment.

Although the combat boots were only at Level 38, their attributes were actually pretty decent. In particular, the rare attribute that decreased Stamina consumption by 35 percent when moving definitely piqued Feng Luo’s interest.

In War, there was an attribute known as Stamina. All actions and activities of players consumed Stamina, and once Stamina reached a certain value, players would enter a “weakened” state. If the Stamina value were to reach the bottom, one might even enter a “fainted” state.

Stamina recovered constantly. However, intense combat or running at full-tilt for a short period of time was certain to make it so that the Stamina recovery rate could not keep up with the consumption rate, and, as a result, it would decrease substantially. In the fierce battle between Feng Luo and the rebel army Reconnoiter, both sides had exerted their strength and fought for only a few dozen seconds, and now, Feng Luo’s Stamina was only at 62 percent.

Even though there were potions to replenish Stamina, the rate of recovery was fairly slow. Moreover, the cooldown time was quite long. As such, players normally had to keep a constant eye on their Stamina in battle, in addition to their HP value. Plus, the Stamina recovery rate of the three main professions varied. Manipulators were the slowest, followed by Gunners, and Warriors’ Stamina recovery rate was far better than the other two.

Gunners that focused on agility actually had a faster maximum movement speed than Light Armor Warriors who focused on increasing their strength. However, the main reason why Gunners could not widen the distance after being closed in on was that the Stamina recovery rate of the Warrior profession was far greater than that of Gunners. In addition, high-speed running consumed a lot of Stamina.

Gunners couldn’t last very long if they ran at full speed, while Warriors could maintain high-speed pursuit for a long time. Furthermore, when paired with the explosive Charge skill, which increased speed, a Warrior’s rate of movement was sufficient to make it so that most Gunners would be unable to shake their pursuit.

That was why the attributes of this pair of combat boots were so good. A decreased Stamina consumption, plus a bonus of 15 percent to movement speed, paired with the 10 percent movement speed bonus from the Desert Eagle—if a Light Armor Warrior were to close in on Feng Luo in the future, he would clearly have the upper hand.

He had enjoyed a thrilling kill and obtained a piece of equipment. This battle had certainly been enjoyable!

Feng Luo was in a great mood! However, what he needed to do right now was leave immediately. The formation of the players on the battlefield had started to crumble. The momentum seemed to have shifted toward the rebel army. The victor had been decided!

After equipping the combat boots of the Reconnoiter—exchanging them for his original Level-35 Fine-grade combat boots that granted an 8 percent speed bonus—Feng Luo quickly disassembled the M110 that he’d thrown to the side previously and put it in his anti-gravity spacial backpack. After that, he immediately ran toward the direction he had come from.

Perhaps it was only an illusion, but before he retreated, he glanced behind him and thought he saw the shadows of two energy off-road military vehicles behind the rebel army.

For military vehicles to appear in an indigenous forest did not seem reasonable. But Feng Luo, who was in a hurry to leave, didn’t give it much thought.