Chapter 18 Strange Stone Formation

The map for this battle was a massive maze of strange rocks. Thousands of cylindrical stone pillars stood irregularly in the desert, each varying in height and thickness. The thickest resembled pagodas, while the thinnest looked like flagpoles. Although the pillars were densely arranged, there was no discernible pattern.

A bright moon hung in the sky, a gentle breeze stirred, and thin clouds drifted.

This environment was practically a paradise for assassins.

Walking on sand naturally left little sound. Coupled with the cover of the wind, it was difficult for opponents to detect Xiao Tan's movements.

The surrounding maze of strange rocks provided countless hiding places. Even if Xiao Tan appeared in the enemy's line of sight, he could disappear again in just three to five steps.

Under these conditions, if one of the combatants was an agility-based fighting player, and the other specialized in shooting, the latter was basically doomed.

And this battle unfolded under such a prerequisite...

Some might wonder, although the two players who met were random, the map should be determined based on the players' data. How could the system generate such an unfair match map?

The answer was simple... because the environment of the strange stone formation had no effect on Bu Tiange...

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...

Accompanied by continuous, muffled sounds, two swift shadows crisscrossed.

Since the start of the script, this was the nth time Xiao Tan had faced this kind of attack. He knew very well... although the attack wasn't fast, it was powerful and came at tricky angles. If he tried to block it with his own strength, he would definitely lose a lot of survival points. Therefore, he had to dodge it in an awkward posture and continue to move.

"This isn't a solution..." Xiao Tan panted, his feet moving constantly, thinking to himself, "Unknowingly, half of my survival points have been depleted, and a third of my stamina is gone. I can't even get close to him... Speaking of which, his ranged attack is very strange... Is it a spiritual energy weapon?"

He guessed correctly. At this moment, Bu Tiange, who was standing atop a giant stone pillar, controlling two boomerangs for ultra-long-range attacks, was using a spiritual energy weapon.

[Name: Thunder Boomerang]

[Type: Spiritual Energy Weapon]

[Quality: Excellent]

[Attack Power: Relatively Strong]

[Attribute: Electric]

[Effect 1: Flying Back (Senses the user's position and automatically flies back to their hand)]

[Effect 2: Hunt (Locks onto the target and makes precise attacks)]

[Effect 3: Ultrasonic (During flying back or hunting, if conditions allow, it can sense and avoid obstacles)]

[Effect 4: Thunder (Releases a powerful electric shock, can only be activated in melee combat, after use, the Thunder Boomerang will lose all effects for one hour)]

[Note: In 1977, a tourist traveling in Australia accidentally died after being hit in the back of the head by his own boomerang. As a result, his soul traveled tens of thousands of years into the past, becoming a Koori (Australian Aboriginal, nomadic people, with no fixed dwellings, scattered throughout Australia. Before the European occupation of Australia, there were more than 500 Koori tribes, with a population of up to 750,000). From then on, he embarked on a legendary journey full of adventures, romances, sweeping the continent, and slaying gods and demons, becoming a legendary figure. Many years later, a weapon he once used reappeared somewhere in the multiverse, and that is the Thunder Boomerang!]

As can be seen from the item description, this thing wouldn't be affected by the strange stone formation. With the help of the ultrasonic effect, the Thunder Boomerang could sense the presence of obstacles like a bat, and make appropriate accelerations, spins, and changes in direction in the air to bypass obstacles and directly hit the target.

Of course, it wasn't as if the Thunder Boomerang was a guaranteed hit. There was still the phrase "if conditions allow" in the effect description. This meant that there were situations where conditions weren't allowed. For example, if the obstacle was a ten-meter-high wall, and the user was standing at the base of the wall, throwing the boomerang at a forty-five-degree angle towards the ground, that would be a situation where conditions weren't allowed. No matter how powerful the boomerang was, it couldn't reverse its spin the moment it left the hand, fly vertically upwards, bypass the wall from the top, and then descend diagonally to hunt the opponent...

Generally speaking, the user of the Thunder Boomerang couldn't aim in a direction and angle that was too outrageous when throwing, and there couldn't be particularly large obstacles between the target and themselves... like a dam. This way, the advantages of this weapon could be brought into play.

Right now, Xiao Tan was being made miserable by these repeated, precise attacks.

A dozen minutes ago, when the battle had just started, Xiao Tan had tried to approach his opponent, but was forced back by the heavy firepower of their rapid-fire weapons.

At the time, Xiao Tan wasn't anxious. He was a patient person, and he remained calm under these circumstances. He thought: At worst, I'll drag it out into a war of attrition. As long as I use the obstacles to maneuver around you, your bullets will eventually run out.

Unexpectedly... Bu Tiange's spiritual energy weapon came calling again and again.

Thus, Xiao Tan was in a dilemma. Forcing his way closer would likely result in him being riddled with holes before he even reached attack range. But running around to wear them down... the opponent simply ignored him.

In short, Bu Tiange's tactic was to respond to all changes with constancy, sticking to the spot and harassing with ranged attacks.

As this continued, Xiao Tan was the one being worn down, both in terms of survival points and stamina.

"Tch... If it weren't for those boomerangs, his camping style of fighting would have been judged as passive play..." Xiao Tan muttered irritably, dodging another round of boomerang attacks. "What should I do..."

If Feng Bujue were here, he probably would have come up with a dozen tactics even more despicable than the opponent's. But Xiao Tan's tactical level was basically "going with his gut." Sometimes, he would have a flash of inspiration and make an amazing move, but most of the time, he was far inferior to those strategy-type players.

"Wait... Even if this guy's attacks are automatically tracking... how is he locking onto my location in this pile of rocks?" Finally, after running for his life for more than ten minutes, Xiao Tan realized this problem that he should have thought of earlier.

It was nighttime, and he was already several hundred meters away from the opponent, surrounded by towering stone pillars. How was the opponent aiming?

"Is it some kind of heat-sensing skill..." Xiao Tan thought anxiously. "Hmm... It's been more than ten minutes since the fight started, and his attacks have never stopped. If it's an active skill, that would take a lot of energy. Could it be a passive eye technique..." He quickly rejected this speculation. "No... A passive heat-sensing eye technique would make it impossible to see normally. It shouldn't exist."

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...

Another round of attacks. Xiao Tan stepped twice on a stone pillar beside him, flipping backward in mid-air, dodging again.

"If it's not a skill... then it must be equipment," Xiao Tan thought. "It couldn't be Soul Sense, could it..." Although he had heard Brother Jue and Sister Yu describe the concept of Soul Sense, he felt he only had a vague understanding of it since he had never experienced this ability himself. Moreover, Soul Sense was extremely rare and not something that was everywhere.

"I didn't see him wearing anything on his face before... but face equipment can be hidden, which means..." Xiao Tan jumped off the ground as he thought of this.

He chose a huge stone pillar with a diameter of several meters, stepped on the vertical surface of the pillar, and ran around the pillar.

After running around a few times, he flashed again and lightly leaped onto another pillar next to it, repeating the process...

At the same time, Bu Tiange, who was standing at a high point hundreds of meters away, actually stopped attacking. Because a bizarre scene appeared in his thermal goggles—a blurry area of high temperature appeared near the originally clear hot spot, like a orange mist, concealing the target's whereabouts.

"What is he doing..." Bu Tiange wondered, "Did he start a big fire?" Thinking of this, he quickly changed the goggles to display mode and flipped them up to his forehead, using his own eyes to look into the distance.

But, the distance was still pitch black...

This was only natural... The footprints that Xiao Tan left with his Flying Nightmare Footprints were burning with black fire.

"Eh?" Bu Tiange put the thermal goggles back on and found that the high-temperature area was getting larger and larger...

On the other side, Xiao Tan saw that the opponent hadn't attacked for a while and knew that his method was working. He sped up, jumping and running between more pillars, leaving as many black fire footprints as possible, expanding the effect of visual interference.

"What exactly is going on..." Bu Tiange lost track of the opponent, feeling a bit flustered, and his scare value also increased slightly. "There is obviously no firelight, but the high-temperature area is getting bigger and bigger... Is he spraying high-temperature bodily fluids everywhere..."

Without being able to determine the opponent's location, his spiritual energy weapon lost its usefulness. The Hunt effect simply couldn't be activated.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Xiao Tan gradually approached the area where the opponent was located and began to create a "footprint encirclement" around Bu Tiange's camping spot.

"He's a studio player, and his overall strength is definitely stronger than mine. Even if his level is the same as mine, he definitely has the advantage of resource integration in terms of equipment and skills. With more choices, the combination will be more reasonable..." After getting rid of the passive situation, Xiao Tan began to plan his offensive strategy, "However... he's not one of the top players on the combat power rankings, and the difference between our strengths shouldn't be too great... As long as I can seize his flaws, create an advantage at a specific time and place... I have a chance to win."

"Coming, huh..." Bu Tiange wasn't stupid either. Seeing that the area around him was gradually becoming a high-temperature zone, and that the range was getting smaller and smaller, he naturally knew that the opponent had reached a very threatening distance.

"Tch..." Bu Tiange simply took off his goggles. Anyway, when he looked out with heat sensing... he was already surrounded by an orange mist, so there was no point in wearing them anymore.

"Haa... Whoo..." Bu Tiange took a deep breath to calm his emotions and steady his trembling hands.

His personality and his sister, Cai Bupa Ne's, were complete opposites. His sister was a fierce tomboy, while his personality, to put it politely, was timid and weak. To put it bluntly, he was effeminate.

The reason why Bu Tiange chose shooting specialization was because he wanted to avoid direct melee combat (he entered the game during the closed beta, and there were no spiritual arts or summoning specializations to choose from at the time). Having been used as a human punching bag by his sister since childhood, he had long developed a strong psychological aversion to physical conflict. It was not difficult to see from his fixed defense tactics that this kid's style was to never give others a chance to get close.

Tick, tick—

Suddenly, two extremely faint sounds came from Bu Tiange's left. Without saying a word, he turned the heavy machine gun he had set up and swept a barrage of bullets towards that side. But having lost his heat-sensing device, he didn't even know what he was shooting at.

"The fire from the machine gun firing isn't enough to dispel the shadows between the stone pillars, and the sound of gunshots and falling shell casings can serve as my cover..." Xiao Tan hid behind a stone pillar, calmly thinking. "Sure enough... he relies on some kind of heat-sensing device to confirm my position. Now, he's basically blind..."

It turned out that the faint, rustling sound just now was made by Xiao Tan grabbing a handful of sand and throwing it hard against a stone pillar. It was a deliberate test.

At this moment, the situation had completely reversed. Wang Tanzhi was like a beast lurking in the darkness, testing his opponent's reactions with ease and looking for an opportunity to kill with one blow.

As for young Bu Tiange... after his operating pattern was seen through and one of its links was broken, he fell into a state of absolute passivity.

As a player who specialized in shooting, Bu Tiange's eyesight was also not bad, but because Xiao Tan was hidden in the darkness and his clothes were dark in color (Xiao Tan's assassin's suit was a dark red jacket with a gold shawl), it was extremely difficult to capture his figure with the naked eye.

Conversely, Xiao Tan, who also had a C-level scouting specialization, didn't have these worries... Bu Tiange always stood on top of that giant stone pillar, using it as a vantage point and defensive point. Xiao Tan could catch a glimpse of the opponent just by peeking out slightly from behind a pillar.

"Haa... haa..." Bu Tiange tried to keep his breathing as quiet as possible. Fear made his vision and hearing more acute, and he thought to himself, "Stay calm... the opponent is testing me, I can't fall for it." He composed himself. "I'm too nervous... There's actually no need to rush to fire. I have the high ground and the machine gun in hand. No matter how fast he is, he can't get close to me in an instant. At the beginning of the script, he was forced back like this... Nothing will be different now." He made up his mind. "Yes! I'll fire when he actually appears in sight. Haphazardly firing wildly will only give him an opportunity."

Tick, tick—another sound.

This time, Bu Tiange just turned his head warily, staring wide-eyed in that direction, without pulling the trigger.

Whoosh, whoosh... Following closely behind the previous sound, another series of sounds came from the darkness in an arc, stopping abruptly three seconds later.

"He didn't fall for it this time?" Xiao Tan thought. He had wanted to repeat the trick, using the method of throwing sand to attract the opponent's attention. When Bu Tiange fired, he would go around to the blind spot of his vision, step on the pillar twice, and complete the assassination.

But he didn't expect that... after he threw the sand and started up at high speed, the opponent didn't fall for it...

Therefore, Xiao Tan quickly stopped his momentum, reduced his footsteps again, and hid himself.

Within these short few minutes, neither of them spoke, nor did they use any substantive killing moves, but this game of wits and courage had already entered a white-hot stage.

Suddenly, the wind picked up...

The sound of the wind passing through the strange stone formation covered by the night made a desolate echo like a wail.

Driven by this desert evening wind, a dark cloud slowly covered the moonlight...

At this moment, with a "click," a point of light actually lit up from behind a stone pillar. Then, a man wearing a miner's helmet walked out from behind the pillar.

At the time when dark clouds were covering the sun, this light source appeared so dazzling, and the miner's helmet was a striking yellow color. It was difficult to ignore even if one wanted to.

"Hey... that's too arrogant." In an instant, the phrase flashed through Bu Tiange's mind, but his actions didn't slow down because of it. He immediately aimed his gun at Xiao Tan and pulled the trigger.

However, in that instant, that point of light turned into a streak of light.

Bu Tiange also expected that the opponent wouldn't sit still and wait for death. High-speed movement was only natural. "Hmph... Do you think you can rush up? You can't be faster than bullets, can you?"

Of course, Xiao Tan couldn't be faster than bullets, at least not yet. But he didn't need to be faster than bullets. He just needed to be fast enough to deceive the opponent's eyes...

The gun fired, and the dense firepower of the machine gun poured down.

In the same second, the point of light in the darkness split into two. A second later, it split into three. Three blurry streaks of light appeared intermittently and then disappeared, spiraling diagonally up the stone pillar.

"I knew you would use this skill!" Bu Tiange didn't panic. He had already used this move, A Flower Has Already Faded as the Wind Ceased to Scatter Fragrant Dust, when Xiao Tan first tried to break through the fire network. At this moment, his means of using afterimages to create light trails had already been discerned by Bu Tiange.

"The result this time won't change!" Bu Tiange slightly adjusted the muzzle of the machine gun, increasing the range of the barrage, covering all three light and shadow trails in the fire network. Last time, he also used this method to push Xiao Tan back, knocking off a lot of his survival points.

But this time, a scene that puzzled him appeared.

One, two, three... The three points of light disappeared one by one.

Darkness returned, and before Bu Tiange's eyes... there was nothing.

"They're all afterimages?" At this moment, Bu Tiange's scare value soared. "Where is the real body?"

This question was quickly answered.

A cold sleeve blade pierced into Bu Tiange's neck from behind, passing through the cervical vertebrae and emerging from the front of his throat. The gushing blood bloomed into a cloud of blood mist in the air, scattering with the wind.

Ten seconds ago...

Ignoring the consumption of survival points, Xiao Tan deliberately turned on the light of the miner's helmet and forcibly rushed up the side of the stone pillar with his afterimage skill. When he successfully reached a certain height, he left the last three afterimages, and at the same time... reached out and turned off the light on the miner's helmet. Then, he curled up his body and used the Demonic Bat Phantom on the stone pillar in front of him, taking advantage of the skill effect... instantly appearing on the other side of the stone pillar.

Thus, he successfully disappeared from the opponent's sight.

Three seconds passed, and under the cover of the gunshots, Xiao Tan had unknowingly arrived behind Bu Tiange... taking his ninth victory.