Chapter 15 Understanding Each Other's Strengths

Since the social bar still showed Xiao Tan and the others as "in game," Feng Bujue went to the Thriller Box again. Compared to the afternoon, the number of items inside had almost tripled and was still increasing. This time, even just looking at the names, he couldn't possibly see them all, so he had to use fuzzy search to browse.

He unconsciously killed an hour like this. Feng Bujue returned to the login space and looked at the friend list, just in time to see Xiao Tan and the others' statuses change to "idle" one after another. The three of them left the script almost at the same time, so there were basically only two possibilities. The first was that all three of them died at the same time. The second, of course, was being teleported after successfully clearing the game.

Feng Bujue still thought the second possibility was more likely, mainly because he had a lot of confidence in the fighting power of the two ladies... He didn't apply for communication either. He directly invited the three of them to join his conference room. After receiving the information, Xiao Tan conveniently invited Feng Bujue into the team and then transferred the captain's authority to him.

Si Yu was the first to walk in. She looked at Feng Bujue's expression and, driven by intuition, asked a very sharp question: "You lost the Killing Game?"

"Sort of..." Feng Bujue replied.

At this moment, the door opened for the second time, and Bei Ling walked in just in time to hear the conversation between the two. She smiled and interjected, "Guild Leader, a loss is a loss. What's with the 'sort of'?"

"Let's not talk about it." Feng Bujue felt that he could only answer with these four words.

After the door closed, it immediately opened again, and Xiao Tan also walked in. He was holding snacks in his hand and asked with a mouthful, "Yo, Brother Jue, is this look imitating the Joker?"

"That's right, personally matched by yours truly." Feng Bujue replied quite proudly.

"This taste is not to be complimented." Si Yu poured a bucket of cold water on him with her comment.

"Ahem..." Feng Bujue immediately pretended to be serious and changed the subject, saying, "That... apart from the Killing Mode, I also checked out the Nightmare difficulty single-player survival mode."

"And you failed to clear it?" Bei Ling maliciously interjected, revealing a playful smile.

"Clearing it I did..." Feng Bujue looked solemn. "But the feeling after clearing it, how should I put it... It would have been better to just die halfway."

"So, the plot was depressing." Si Yu keenly noticed something.

"Heh... Anyway, I personally don't recommend you guys... especially Xiao Tan, to play that kind of mode." Feng Bujue said.

"I wouldn't go even if you asked me to. I'm not too brave to play any single-player mode that isn't 'Nightmare'." Xiao Tan replied.

Bei Ling narrowed her eyes and glared at him with a contemptuous look, "You were still yelling and screaming when playing the team mode. Because you're in the same club, I was so embarrassed..."

"Forget it, you'll get used to it after a long time. Since Xiao Tan wasn't scared offline and survived until the end, you should admit that he still has some strength." Feng Bujue said.

"Yeah... using a tone of trying to excuse me, he said something that sounded like a finishing blow... impressive." Xiao Tan sadly swallowed another bite of snack.

Feng Bujue ignored him and started to get to the point: "Alright, let's talk about what to play next. Considering there are four of us, if we want to play the Killing Game together, we'll have to do a 2v2 internal war, or should we continue with the team survival mode?"

"You haven't queued for team survival with us before, so let's queue once." Si Yu replied.

"Agreed." Bei Ling responded.

"Seconded." Xiao Tan added.

"Also, after this script, us girls are going offline." Si Yu said.

"Understood, sleeping in the game pod for too long is bad for the body." Feng Bujue smiled, he still remembered what Si Yu said in the afternoon, "You guys have already cleared two long team scripts this time, it's about time to rest after playing another one."

"Then, since we're all sitting in the conference room, it's better to understand each other's statuses before queuing." Si Yu said.

"That makes sense, so we don't enter the script without knowing our teammates' details." Feng Bujue nodded in agreement, "That would negate the meaning of forming a team in advance."

Si Yu then took the lead, as if demonstrating, and said, "I'm level 15 now, and my title has been updated to [Spirit Swordsman]. The title ability passively increases damage against spiritual creatures when using sword weapons. My highest specialization is Fighting at D-grade, and the worst are Medical and Summoning, which haven't been opened yet. My main weapon has just been replaced, and I should be able to use this one for quite some time." As she spoke, she displayed an item from her knapsack on the conference table in the form of a three-dimensional projection, with all its data clearly visible.

[Name: Consecration]

[Type: Weapon]

[Quality: Ordinary]

[Attack Power: Medium]

[Attribute: None]

[Effect: Increases the holder's spiritual energy recovery speed by 50%]

[Equipment Condition: Fighting Specialization D]

[Remark: The true power of this sword has been sealed. Only when the number of evil spirits it has slain accumulates to a certain amount can the seal be lifted, and this sword can unleash its original power.]

"Oh... this is very strong. It's not a spiritual energy weapon, but it's an equipment that can grow." Feng Bujue said.

"Spiritual energy weapon?" The other three looked at him curiously.

Feng Bujue then transformed his Death Poker into a projection on the table in the form of data, and by the way, he described his situation in Si Yu's manner.

Here, I will list Feng Bujue's current status in more detail from a God's perspective.

Title: [Plot Explorer], Experience: 11000/15000, Skill Points: 1580, Game Coins: 204600.

Specialization: General D, Machinery E, Reconnaissance E, Fighting D (mask bonus), Shooting D, Medical F, Spiritual F, Summoning n/A

Knapsack 7/10: Mario's Pipe Wrench, Eye of Hatred, M1911A1 Pistol (two bullets remaining), Echo Armor, Survival Value Replenisher (Medium) *4, Dagger, Flashlight.

Equipment: Jazz Dance, Casey Jones' Mask, Death Poker.

Space 3/10: Puzzle Card - Monkey, Puzzle Card - Sunglasses, Puzzle Card - Rotate.

Skills: [Sloppy Repair], [Brat's Low Sweep], [Spiritual Sense Gathering], [Decisive Victory from a Thousand Miles Away]

After listening to Feng Bujue's introduction, the other three seemed quite surprised. Of course, he didn't describe it in such detail, but just followed Si Yu's routine, talking about his title skills, highest specialization, and unopened specializations. In addition, he showed off the Death Poker.

However, based on this information alone, it was enough to determine that he was very strong. In fact, in terms of the level of a level 15 player, Si Yu basically represented the highest level among ordinary players. The difference between her and professional players was nothing more than online time and attitude towards the game. Under the same level and equipment conditions, Si Yu's combat level would definitely not be worse than Jianghu's Dao Jianxiao or the Four Heavenly Kings of the Gods. But she only had Fighting as her one specialization trained to D-grade, and she hadn't activated any spiritual energy weapons either.

Like Feng Bujue, having all specializations opened except for Summoning, and having three D-grades and two E-grades, regardless of whether he had equipment bonuses or not, just based on this comprehensive data, it was unattainable by others.

Of course, there were also many hidden dangers in Feng Bujue's development to this point. Compared to those players who specialized in one or two specializations, his most obvious lack was practical combat experience. The battle with Kuang Zong Jianying showed this. Moreover, he still didn't have a truly main combat skill. Spiritual Sense Gathering only enhanced his physical fitness. For a player like him who didn't know any fighting techniques, it was like putting 97-octane gasoline into a tractor... In fact... a little diesel would be more suitable.

A player's own strength and the character's data strength are two different concepts. If Feng Bujue's title ability [Decisive Victory from a Thousand Miles Away] was his signature skill, then he was actually just a puzzle-solving player with very high specialization levels.

"Brother Jue, this weapon is invincible! How did you get it?" Xiao Tan asked.

"I did a hidden quest in the Killing Game." Feng Bujue replied. "Speaking of which... setting aside the result, that script was pretty good. It borrowed the setting of *Pili*. I just had to create a suitable poem title for myself to complete the task." (*Pili* is a Taiwanese puppet show franchise.)

"Poem title? You can even think of something like that?" Bei Ling asked.

"What are you talking about? This is my forte." Feng Bujue said. "Speaking of which, it's rare that your two nicknames also have such a *Pili* vibe. Do you want me to come up with two for you too?"

"No need."

"Thank you, but no thanks."

The two girls instantly refused.

"Uh... alright." Feng Bujue said awkwardly. "Then let's continue. Xiao Tan, tell us about your combat power situation."

Xiao Tan put a potato chip in his mouth, sucked his fingers a few times. Looking at his expression, it was as if he was thinking, or as if he didn't even know his basic status and was secretly glancing at the game menu.

After a few seconds, he finally opened his mouth and said, "Um... I'm also level 15 now, and my title has finally changed. It went from [Flustered Sneak Attacker] to [Nervous Skirmisher], which feels a little better... The title ability is still an active skill called [Bee Sting], which can inflict a bleeding status on enemies. My highest specialization is Fighting at D-grade, and the Spiritual and Summoning specializations haven't been opened. General and Shooting are E-grade, and the other three are F-grade. My main weapon is a store-bought item, the ordinary quality [Damascus Short Sword]. I sold my original kitchen knife. I still haven't used that [Slow Quicksand]... Oh, right, Brother Jue, your Winchester shotgun is still with me. I forgot to return it to you earlier."

Feng Bujue waved his hand and said, "Keep that gun, I have plenty of weapons now." As he said this, he stood up and lifted the stool he had been sitting on.

Due to the obstruction of the conference table, everyone had only now noticed that Feng Bujue had not been sitting on the chair that came with the conference room from the beginning. He had been sitting on a folding stool all along.

"Seeing everyone's reactions, I'm relieved." Feng Bujue said this as he put the folding stool into his knapsack, occupying the eighth slot.

"Hey... is that also a weapon?" Xiao Tan asked.

"That's right, and after the experiment just now, I'm very sure..." Feng Bujue said, "This thing can really be used to hide murderous intent while sitting."

"Don't tell me you're planning to use this to sneak attack others in the Killing Game..." Bei Ling quickly saw through his idea.

"That's a must."

"I wish you success..."

Feng Bujue shrugged, then said to Xiao Tan, "Getting back to the point, can you tell me more about your skill [Bee Sting]?"

[Name: Bee Sting]

[Special Ability Type: Active]

[Consumption: 7% of maximum Stamina Value]

[Effect: Can be activated the moment you hit the target, causing the target to be affected by the slightest bleeding effect for two minutes. This effect can be stacked up to ten times. Regardless of the number of stacks, the duration is calculated from the last time it was released. (No cooldown time, requires a cold weapon that can cut the target's skin to release. Can only be applied to one target at a time)]

[Remark: If you don't have an advantage in strength, try a war of attrition.]

Xiao Tan roughly described the effect of this skill. Feng Bujue nodded after listening. "Very good. If you combine it with a Stamina Value replenisher, you might be able to grind down very strong players."

"Players?" Xiao Tan smiled. "I'd be lucky to use this to deal with a very clumsy Boss-level monster. If I'm fighting a player, they'll use medicine or bandages, right?"

"No, the disgusting characteristic of your skill is most suitable for dealing with players." Feng Bujue shook his head. "As long as you graze them, they'll bleed, and you can repeatedly graze them without a cooldown. In a full Stamina Value state, you can apply the bleeding effect to the opponent more than ten times... The duration of the skill is awkward, and the bleeding damage is insignificant. If you ignore it, it will stack, and if you treat it, it will waste bandages. At that time, your opponent will definitely struggle with this endless 'Bee Sting'. Using bandages is too wasteful when the effect is mild, but waiting until the effect is severe will cost more health potions."

Si Yu obviously agreed with Feng Bujue and added from the side: "As for what you said about grinding down a clumsy Boss, you're overthinking it..."

Xiao Tan looked blank: "Ah? Why?"

Feng Bujue sighed: "If there really is that kind of Boss, its own recovery ability would be enough to offset the effect of your skill. This is a very simple principle. Agile monsters are relatively fragile, while very slow monsters definitely have amazing destructive power or defensive ability."

Xiao Tan said: "Ah... I see. But to be honest, I really don't want to fight players. I don't feel like it suits me."

"Alright, they're just talking about your skill." Bei Ling said to him, then turned her head and said, "It's my turn, right? I'm a little lower in level, level 14, and my title hasn't changed. It's still [Adept Gunslinger]. My title ability is passive, but it has nothing to do with combat. The effect is that I can put three different weapon magazines in one slot of my knapsack. My best specialization is naturally Shooting at D-grade. Except for Summoning, I've opened all my other specializations, but I'm not as good as the guild leader. My General, Machinery, and Reconnaissance are E-grade, and the remaining three are F-grade. As for weapons... I don't have a specific main weapon. I often use three guns."

The four of them had now finished exchanging information. Feng Bujue thought for a moment and then said, "Um... I roughly understand the team configuration. Then... let's get ready to go."