Thriller Paradise

———

Item Name: Armor Piercing Explosive Flammable Bullet

Item Type: Consumable

Quality: Excellent

Special Effect: Explode after piercing through the first layer of the target's protection; if the bullet is unable to pierce through the protective layer, it will explode regardless, but the power of the explosion will be halved.

Usage Requirement: Marksmanship C or Workmanship B

Remark: A product of depleted uranium alloy, it is in liquid form to help with the penetrative power. It has extremely strong piercing ability and the explosion deals fire damage.

———

One could find quite a number of such unique ammo at the auction house and most of them sold for quite a high price. For instance, they cost more than a large health potion recovery potion (120,000 Game Coins). But those who had the chance to use such ammo before knew that… with ammo like this in their inventory, they could change the wind of the whole battle or even decide the outcome of the battle before it even started.

In the state of the current Thriller Paradise, most teams of slightly above average level had a player that specialized in marksmanship. It was these kinds of players that would often turn the outcome of the battle around and the damage that they could cause could be earned through a relatively low budget.

For a player who specialized in fighting mastery, to get a weapon that would have the same effect in battle, the starting price would be at six digits. But that was not the case for marksmanship-focused players.

They only needed a normal quality gun paired with a bullet that sold for more than 10,000 Game Coins a piece and they could unleash the damage that could rival fighting-focused players after they had spent more than 100,000 Game Coins.

Of course, the difference was that ammo was a type of consumable and it could only be used once. But think of it this way. This was not something that had to be used after they had been purchased. They were treated more of as an insurance card or a final trump card. They would only be used at the most suitable and crucial moment. Perhaps one might not even use such powerful ammo after more than a handful of scenarios.

So, in terms of mathematics, during the period of medium to low level, buying a normal gun and about thirty such special bullets were a much more worthwhile purchase.

Perhaps those fighting-based players who spent more than 100,000 Game Coins had been eliminated and you would not have gone through half of your store of special bullets yet.

For a wealthy person in real life like Gu Xiaoling, selecting this mastery to specialize in was a bit of a waste. It was publicly approved on the game forum that the most 'expensive' mastery to train was summoning and workmanship and marksmanship and sleuthing were the two masteries that could be trained with little to no investment.

Of course, if one just wanted to burn money, it did not matter what kind of mastery to focus on. It was just a bullet that cost about 10,000 Game Coins after all. Exchange that into RMB, and it would cost about five RMB per bullet. By spending 50,000 RMB, one could buy a whole magazine of such bullets and pair them with a Gatling gun to swipe the battlefield with.

…

Now back to the issue at hand. The Armor Piercing Explosive Flammable Bullet soared through the air and headed for the shell of the Lego Fugu Gladiator. Even though in this scenario, the strength of the toy was all quite impressive, but this shot from Laughing Soul was definitely not a layer of Lego blocks could defend again.

Pi, pi, pi… After a series of quick and consistent strange noises, the bullet pierced through the outer shell of the Lego Fugu Gladiator and entered the inner part of the machine.

Coincidentally enough, the spot that the bullet hit was incredibly serendipitous… it was the area between the main driver cabin and the side driver cabin. If the bullet had strayed slightly from its path and found its way into any of the cabin, then it would have exploded in a vacuum. Its fiery energy would expand and explode without anything to stop it. Naturally, that would cause humongous damage to the driver that was trapped inside the cramped space. However, this bullet was lodged inside a stack of Lego blocks and the result of that was…

Hong… pat tat pat tat pat tat…

After a loud explosion, the pieces of Lego blocks came crashing down to the ground. A scene that completely unexpected appeared. The Lego Fugu Gladiator was blown in half. The front half consisted of a large and rounded fish head and the latter half was the slimmer fish tail and two legs. The two drivers were seated inside their cabins that had escaped most of the damage, but both of the drivers had suffered a loss of thirty-five percent Life Points.

Xiao Tan who was inside the fish head was a trapped monkey, but… the man was rather startled by the sudden explosion and he was too stunned to move his body and crawl out from the cabin. Feng Bujue who was at the fish tail swiftly made a correct assessment of the situation that had happened before them. "That was the effect of Armor Piercing Explosive Flammable Bullet (The four from Underworld Frontline had exchanged a view of their respective equipment and skill before starting the scenario)… It is indeed a brilliant choice under the circumstance… but luck is not on their side. The bullet did not explode in open air."

As he mumbled to himself, he reached out to toy with the many buttons before him. After all the Lego Fugu Gladiator had already died before it could do anything. Since he was still inside the cabin, he decided to try to see which of the weapon was still working and attempted to use them to launch a counterattack. To his surprise… the offensive ability of this Lego Fugu Gladiator was far more powerful than he imagined.

After a bunch of random pressing by Brother Jue, the following five events happened:

1. The fish head that had lost contact with the side driver cabin somehow received the command from the weapon system. It puffed up and many sharp needles grew out from its surface.

2. The fins of the fish head started to spin around like a saw.

3. Theme song from Hare Tokidoki Buta started to play inside the side driver's cabin.

4. The later half of the Lego Fugu Gladiator started to transform with the joints where the two legs were attached to the body acting as the axle, the cabin turned around ninety degrees and the legs underneath turned into a stabilizing half-squatting position.

5. A cannon extended out from the top of the side driver cabin at a 45-degree angle and it fired out a round cannonball. ten seconds later, the cannonball was sucked down by gravity and dropped into the cannon. It exploded inside it and caused Feng Bujue to lose another ten percent of Life Points from the minor explosion.

"The thing is still moving after it has been split in half…" Laughing Soul's eyes wandered between the two parts of the Lego Fugu Gladiator.

"And the two parts have become even more disgusting than before…" Passing Rain added. Laughing Soul took a glance at the status of the opponents in the game menu. She confirmed that both Brother Jue and Xiao Tan were still alive, so she quickly stated, "Both parts of the Lego monster have transformed to an extent after the explosion. That can only mean that there are people controlling it from both ends." She provided a logical analysis. Even though the process was not hundred percent accurate, she reached the correct conclusion.

"But the thing's movement is so strange… it feels more like the driver is messing around with it," Passing Rain observed.

"Then, there are three possibilities." Laughing Soul's brain moved fast to fill in the blanks, she replied quickly, "One, the leader and Xiao Tan have not mastered how to use this Lego vehicle; two, the thing has already malfunctioned and it cannot be controlled like normal; three, this is purposely done on purpose to confuse the two of us."

"So…" Passing Rain prompted for her to continue.

"No matter which case is the truth, it is of no influence on us," Laughing Soul said as she installed yet another Armor Piercing Explosive Flammable Bullet into the sniper rifle. She smiled brightly. "We will just reward them with another shot." Just as Laughing Soul took her aim at the stranger looking fish tail part of the Lego… Feng Bujue who was inside it opened the forbidden glass case and pressed the button with the yellow and black warning symbol.

"I refuse to believe that weird primary student can make a real atomic bomb from Lego blocks!" Feng Bujue roared at the top of his lungs as his hands pressed down on that button.

Tsk! Pew!

That was the sound of a rocket flying into the air…

The Lego Fugu Gladiator who was squatting suddenly had flame coming out from its rear end. The part that joined both of the legs to the rest of the body disengaged. The fish tail propelled the body forward and sent the body that was already at ninety degrees into the air…

"Hey! This thing itself is the head of the rocket?" Feng Bujue was as stunned as he could be. "The happy song that is playing inside the cabin is an accompaniment to this suicide mission‽"

Laughing Soul and Passing Rain at the top of the rack both lifted their heads. One looked up from behind the sniper rifle's scope and the other put down the night vision goggles. Both of them saw the thing catch fire in the darkness of the mall, the torpedo fishtail that was slowly rising into the air. And the expression on their faces could only be described as awe and confusion…

This proved a stroke of luck for Xiao Tan. When the two girls' attention was otherwise occupied, he recovered and pushed open the hatch of the main cabin and poked his head out to look. And to his surprise, he managed to catch the 'fish tail rocket' starting its rise into the air…

"What the… What the hell is going on…" Xiao Tan found it hard to close his mouth. "Is Brother Jue rising to the heaven now?"

"Hmm… There is no reason to panic." Feng Bujue inside the rocket told himself. "At a moment like this, everything will be solved if I can find a time machine… No, stop!" He forced his mocking nature from kicking in. "Okay, calm down and think about this. This time I have not set an attack target so it will rise in a vertical straight line into the ceiling of the mall. So, if I open the hatch and jump out, I can easily get to safety using Geppo." But once he thought about that, something changed his mind. "But this rising rocket will have attracted Passing Rain and Laughing Soul's attention already… If I open the hatch, there is a good chance I will be struck down immediately."

The reality was as Feng Bujue predicted. After the temporary shock, Laughing Soul raised her sniper rifle and aimed it at the fish tail rocket that was way beyond her normal sniping point. Several seconds later, the hatch really did open. At that moment, Laughing Soul paid her full attention to the opening of the hatch. But at the same time as the hatch opened…

There was a pop, and the other end of the fish tail rocket was knocked out from inside. As the Lego blocks crumbled to the ground, a figure shrouded in red shot out from inside the cabin. He used a very fast speed combined with Geppo and reached a spot that was already more than one meter away in the blink of an eye.

He rushed to the top of a shelf that was nearest to him. This distraction employed by Feng Bujue was very successful.

He knew that once he opened the hatch, the opponent's attention would be gathered at the opening. That was his moment of opportunity. As long as he opened another opening at the other end and blasted out with the speed boost from Body Enhancement Spell, Laughing Soul who was aiming at the hatch would not have time to move her scope around.

After all, this was not Counter Strike, where a small move of the mouse could swing the scope of the gun for more than sixty degrees. When one was actually wielding a heavy sniper rifle, to want to move the scope to chase after a high-speed moving target, that was near impossible.

"Xiao Tan has discovered our location and he is running on the wall." When Passing Rain said that, she was already rushing forward and the direction she was headed was where Feng Bujue had landed earlier.

"Okay, leave it to me." Laughing Soul naturally understood what her cousin meant. She held the sniper rifle to the edge of the shelf. And with a glance downward, he saw Xiao Tan who was running on the edge of the shelf. "That idiot… you should have run to the back of the shelf before you start running up the wall," she mumbled as she moved the crossfire of the scope to aim at Xiao Tan's leg.

On the other side, after several leaps, Passing Rain arrived at the top of the shelf where Feng Bujue landed earlier but the latter had already disappeared.

Using her instinct, Passing Rain continued her chase down a direction. By then, she had put away the night vision goggles and was holding instead her favorite blade, the Holy Seal.

Boom!

There was a loud blast that came from afar. It was the sound of the rocket exploding when it came into contact with the ceiling of the mall. The power of this explosion was not small (at least in the scope of the toys), but it was not as powerful as an actual atomic bomb. It was about as powerful as a large firecracker but the Lego blocks that blasted off it was more dangerous than shreds of red paper. This environment of the mall would not be destroyed by the attack of the toys, but this rocket had activated the fire alarm. The lights at the ceiling of the mall came on at the same time and the spigots at the top of the ceiling started to spray water. For the players who had been shrunk, this was like a sudden heavy rainstorm.

"Yo, that wet beauty over there." Feng Bujue's voice came from behind Passing Rain, "You're looking for me?" Passing Rain slowly turned around and raised her hand to pull back her bangs so that they would not block her sigh. Perhaps it was the light and the mist, but her face looked particularly blurry and fair. This was a side of Passing Rain that Feng Bujue had not seen before.

"Have you decided not to run anymore?" she asked.

"After the lights got switched on, it is only a matter of time before you spot me." Feng Bujue commented. "Plus, I never intended to run away in the first place." He also pulled his hair back and made it into a hairstyle that Chow Jun-Fatt had made famous. "After all, I am the stronger party, isn't it? Look, I could have ambushed you from behind, but I decided to send you my greeting instead."

"Humph…" Passing Rain smiled. This smile was like a smirk and a scoff melted together.

"It's rare to see you smile at me," Feng Bujue commented.

"I rarely smile at anyone," Passing Rain replied.

"So, it's not just me…" Feng Bujue said.

"Can we please discuss this later?" Passing Rain tried to change the subject.

"Since we're both as wet as it could be, what does it matter anymore?" Feng Bujue shrugged.

"If you want to chat, we can chat offline another day." Passing Rain raised her blade and warned, "If you continue to stand there barehanded without showing any weapons, I cannot guarantee what will happen to you."

"Offline… you mean on the phone?" Feng Bujue still looked at ease and tried to bring the topic back.

"You want to ask me out?" Passing Rain pointed out.

"No, no, no, no…" Feng Bujue shook his head.

Passing Rain looked at him with her piercing gaze.

"Erm… fine, yes." Brother Feng was defeated by the gaze and defeated to volunteer the truth.

"Then that must mean… you have already found out that I too am staying in City S?" Passing Rain asked.

"Ah! Do you think so little of me? With my investigative ability…" Feng Bujue was about to gloat when Passing Rain cut him off. "If you lose to me in this battle, then please be prepared to be branded as a stalker and face the wrath of the law enforcement."

"Hey! Why did you suddenly turn this into a threat…" Feng Bujue gasped but then he was silent for a moment before asking, "Hmm… But then if I win…"

…

Using the skill from his title, Traces of Gales, Xiao Tan raced up the side of the rack and headed toward Laughing Soul. He was familiar with Laughing Soul's weakness—she was powerless in a close quarter battle. Please note that it was 'powerless', not 'relatively weaker' or 'average'. Therefore, getting close was advantageous to Xiao Tan and his only way to victory. But of course, things were not as simple as he thought…

The reason Laughing Soul was horrible was at close combat was mainly because she was too strong in other factors and most enemies would be killed before they got the chance to get close to her. An exceptional long-ranged combat skill combined with more than superior intelligence, she was definitely one hell of an opponent. Before the enemy approached, she would have come up with various methods to stop that.

"He is really such an idiot. If this was a real competition, people might not be so kind as to aim at your leg…" Laughing Soul mumbled as she fired at Xiao Tan's calf. Undeniably, she had held back. She had changed back to normal ammo and did not use any special ammo.

Bang!

The rifle rang out and as the bullet shot out, Xiao Tan used a minute reaction to change the trajectory of his running pattern and used Ephemeral Shade. The bullet seared through the shade that lasted for three seconds and Xiao Tan escaped unscathed.

"Oh?" Laughing Soul was pleasantly surprised. The fact that she had missed indeed shocked her. "Interesting. He managed to dodge the shot." She immediately took aim to fire the second shot. But in her scope, she saw something incredible. Xiao Tan started to move in a zig-zag motion and every two seconds. There would be a shade of Xiao Tan that appeared to muddle her vision.

"Not bad…" This time Laughing Soul was truly impressed. "Using the shades to confuse me and combine that with an irregular movement pattern… Even the running skill and the timing of the skill are changing." She smiled. "A true sniper's nightmare."

After commenting on that, Laughing Soul took out two other guns from her inventory…

One was the MP5 that she had been using and the other was her new toy, Uzi.

———

Name: Uzi

Type: Weapon

Quality: Normal

Offense Point: Normal

Element: None

Special Effect: None

Equip Requirement: Marksmanship F

Remark: Reliable, light, easy to operate, and cheap.

———

A player at level thirty was much stronger than a normal person in real life. Even for a girl, they could use the Desert Eagle singlehandedly with no problem. Therefore, for the current Laughing Soul, it was no trouble for her to enter the trouble straddling two mini rifle guns.

Rat tat tat tat…

The two guns with extremely fast unloading speed shot out a huge number of bullets in mere seconds. Xiao Tan was not that far from the top of the shelf. Facing this curtain of bullets that was a medium distance from him, he was powerless. His body would be covered in at least ten bullets. Naturally, that would inflict the bleeding effect and to make matters worse, the wounds would cause his movement to be influenced. The zig-zag pattern would be impossible to maintain so it was pointless to keep using the shades.

Laughing Soul was right before him, but he could not take one more step forward. If he stopped now, gravity would pull him down and all his effort would be lost. In this crucial moment, most people would be too flustered to make any sane decision, much less come up with a solution. But in Wang Tanzhi's blood, there was something instinctual that told him… the exact thing to do in that moment.

"Let's make this a bet…" In that moment, he focused and the usual kindness and peace in his eyes disappeared and a dangerous air gathered between his brows. Using the thorns in his arm, Xiao Tan used Reverse Spinning Slash while running vertically on the edge of the rack. For a Level C mastery, the success rate of making a skill work was seventy-five percent and that was not low. Using the action that was an extension of the skill, he grabbed the thorn in reverse and spun his way continuously to the top.

It took Laughing Soul by surprise that Xiao Tan had chosen not to retreat but to press forward, opting for offense as a form of defense. After ten seconds of continuous firing, her two guns were almost emptied of bullets. With one hand holding a gun, she could not reload swiftly. Therefore, the situation turned in that moment.

Reverse Spinning Slash not only helped Xiao Tan get up to the top of the rack and its force even bounced some of the bullets away from him and minimized the damage that he would have suffered. Laughing Soul had no choice but to retreat as fast as she could. She ran far away and pull distance from her opponent.

"He really got up here…" When Laughing Soul accepted that reality, she felt a bittersweet emotion in her heart. But she reminded herself this was not yet over. "Now that we are on the same surface, the advantage that I had in terms of elevation has disappeared… And he moves much faster than I am. Getting close to me is just a matter of time…"

In this short period of time that was required to snap one's finger, the shadow behind Laughing Soul had cornered her like lightning, not giving her any chance to rest.