Fatal Shot

Boom!

The radius of the flaming tornado rising from the ground into the air was astonishingly huge. In an instant, it clashed with the vehicle squad that was speeding over.

The energy aircraft, traveling in auto-pilot mode, were not prepared for such a situation. Even though the intelligent program had instantly reacted, most of them were still devoured by the Fiery Windstorm.

Since they were luxury aircraft, they were incomparable to average vehicles. As they were sucked in by the flames one by one, the tops of the aircraft projected semi-transparent energy forcefields!

Although this Fiery Windstorm skill was a Level-40 skill, its power was clearly dispersed significantly due to its huge radius, and as such, it was unable to destroy the forcefields around the high-end aircraft.

But there was no need to be anxious! This Fiery Windstorm was actually like an attack signal—a signal that lured out countless players who took the bait!

Seeing that someone had taken action first, the many players intending to take action knew the clock was ticking. They dared not wait any longer and, one by one, released attacks that had been prepared long before.

In the sky, a kaleidoscope of energy beams appeared one after another—Wind Blades, Fireballs, Ice Arrows...

Boom!

A khaki-colored “meteorite” with a diameter of over three meters fell from the sky, heavily smashing onto the forcefield of a luxury aircraft that was already escaping from one side.

Although it was essentially an attack made up of energy just like the Fiery Windstorm, an Earth Manipulator’s Level-40 “Heavenly Meteorite Drop” move was much stronger and also much heavier!

Crack!

The forcefield around that luxury energy aircraft instantly flashed as it was sent tumbling straight down more than 10 meters in the air by the force of this attack.

Boom!

Even though the energy aircraft that was made of a new model of alloy material, it was unable to escape unharmed after falling from such a height—the energy forcefield completely vanished, and the vehicle body was badly mangled from the fall.

Other than this one, the other two fleeing energy aircraft were similarly seriously dealt with. Countless bullets and energy attacks were launched at them. In practically an instant, the weakened energy forcefields were hit, dealing them the same fate as the first aircraft.

The fear of an area made chaotic by energy attacks was actually a weakness of energy aircraft in War! This was because their levitation capabilities and movements in the air were dependent on energy crystals; upon entering a region containing the mayhem of chaotic energies—and with their energy forcefields already destroyed—their power systems would greatly be affected! This was also the reason that so few energy aircraft were used out in the wild (players were unable to store energy aircraft in their “vehicle space” in the first place).

These three were the main targets because seated in these three vehicles were the mission targets. This had been the last key information released by the “internal line”! It was also why so many players had dared to attack following the Fire Manipulator. It was clear that, at the last moment, the system had deliberately added to the fruits of their potential victory!

However, even though the three energy aircraft had all fallen to the ground, their high-grade material meant that the degree of safety they offered was extremely high. Even after the vehicles crashed down from the sky, not one target elimination notice appeared. And by now, more than 10 minutes had already passed since the starting attack. No more than 100 meters from the landing point, a few levitating armed patrol aircraft were starting to fly over.

Will I have time to succeed? This was not only Feng Luo’s thoughts but also those of the players watching the battle from inside Ginza Hotel and those concealing their identities in the surroundings, who were still holding back from taking action.

Dadada...

At that moment, a sudden string of gunshots resounded.

Hidden in the green corridors in the surroundings were actually who had taken out six-barreled heavy machine guns and were firing towards the vehicle squad. A trail of bullets hit onto one of the energy aircraft, creating countless bullet holes across the body of the vehicle. Even bulletproof luxury aircraft wouldn’t have been able to withstand the close-range, continuous firing of the machine gun bullets!

−399

−459

−384

A string of damage coefficients appeared above the vehicle, representing the passenger inside being ripped into pieces by the machine gun bullets. A system message flashed across the vision of every player participating in the mission.

Mission target Kashiwagi Shinichi has died. The assassin player earns 400 points!

“Hmm,” said Feng Luo. “It seems that these NPC army officers are not considered by the system to be Quasi-Boss models. As such, the difficulty of this kind of assassination mission should basically be reduced.”

By calculating the damage and realizing that this federal personnel’s HP was only around 7,500, Feng Luo realized that for this mission, the system had not set the NPC targets to be the rebel Commanders previously exiled from the city. They were not equivalent to the kind of Commander-grade monsters that required over 10 people to kill them.

Feng Luo heaved a sigh of relief inside. Come to think of it, this mission had originally been a solo investigation, so the targets certainly wouldn’t be set to too high a level of ability—that would have been exceeding a player’s solo-kill limit!

But they even dare to take out and use machine guns straight away. It seems I’ve overestimated the intelligence of these players who have earned the right to this mission.

Even though this Machine Gunner player had obtained the top prize of all those points, Feng Luo had, in his heart, already deduced this player’s impending death!

With the obvious gunshot sounds of the machine gun and the player’s firing position, the Guards would effortlessly pinpoint his location, and he wouldn’t have enough time to quickly retreat—not with his machine gun taken out. Even if he had enough money to choose to simply leave his machine gun behind, it would still be extremely difficult to retreat if he was noticed by the Guards!

“Damn! What the f*ck is going on?!”

“How exciting! I have to take down this situation.”

“Brothers, how brave of y’all—actually attacking NPCs!”

“F*ck! Brothers, is this a Hidden Mission?”

Near the landing point, there were quite some players and native NPCs. At a time like this, NPCs’ first reaction upon seeing this kind of “horrifying attack” would be to scream and run. Players, however, were different. Many would stay on the spot with excitement on their faces. Some were rejoicing in the calamity, wanting to see these daredevil players who had attacked the NPCs be subsequently reduced to ash by the guns of the Guards.

Some other players were a little smarter, suspecting that this was probably some kind of mission as they loudly chattered with the people around.

“Right, it is a Hidden Mission!”

“Brothers, hurry up and fight! It’s rebel Commanders seated in these cars. If hit, contribution can be earned, and rare equipment can even be produced!”

Some players participating in the mission turned and answered immediately, “Everyone, help! Once it’s done, we’ll give everyone a share!”

But this method would not fool the players into helping them fight. Because just as these players started to attack, they immediately received a system warning, and their Criminal Points had instantly surged.

“F*ck! I’ve been given 500 Criminal Points! My total just surged by 10 times!”

“I’ve been given 1,000! F*ck it, already got the system wanted message!”

“F*ck! These guys are cheating!”

Cheating or not was another matter. In any case, Feng Luo had discovered a player who really might have been “cheating” the others. The Scout beetle was highly sensitive to energies. Thus, Feng Luo was the first to locate the Fire Manipulator player who had unleashed the “Fiery Windstorm” attack at the start.

It was a tall, skinny male player wearing a suit. He looked like a normal white-collar worker. He had simply fished out a staff from the case in his hand and assembled it, then unleashed the Fiery Windstorm before immediately turning to leave, as if unconcerned with points or whatever else followed!

“This person has some other intention...”

This had made Feng Luo rather interested.

At that moment, the system flashed the second message.

Minami Saburo, has died. The assassin player earns 300 points!

This meant that only one target was still alive and was definitely inside the energy aircraft that had barely managed not to explode despite being seriously mangled.

“F*ck! This guy is still not dead!”

“This won’t do. Must retreat already!”

“Hurry up and fight—just a bit more!”

But the site where the last energy aircraft had crash-landed was closest to the landing point. Before it could explode, over 10 armed levitating Guard aircraft had flown over from the landing point, entering the attack range.

Moreover, there were numerous patrol aircraft and even energy helicopters flying in from all directions, converging on Dongsang City. The weapons on board the vehicles fired madly at the crowds of people below.

Unsurprisingly, the NPCs were now fleeing in terror. Left near the landing point were the players participating in the competitive mission, not including the Dongsang City players who had taken out their weapons and attacked before. Thus, the actions of some of these greedy players could be expected!

“47 seconds!” said Feng Luo. “The dispatch speed is much faster than I imagined. It seems like in this mission, if quick thinking were enough, there’d be no need for an assault!”

Feng Luo lowered his head and looked at the remaining time displayed on the terminal, indicating how long it would take for the Guards to completely surround them.