Chapter 1 The Situation

No sooner said than done.

In a flash, Brother Jue unfurled, adjusting his posture with a standard somersault, facing the direction of the gunfire.

In that instant, dark light flickered in his eyes, and countless precise real-time deductions were completed in a split second. Then, his body, at the theoretically fastest speed and most appropriate angle... struck an extremely strange pose, barely dodging the incoming bullets.

"Hmm... a total of twelve shots, each with special ammunition; judging from the accuracy and power, it should be a heavy weapon, but the rate of fire and magazine capacity indicate that this gun must have been modified in some magical way..." In just two seconds, these thoughts flashed through Feng Bujue's mind. After completing the dodging maneuver, he didn't forget to kick out a [Lan Jiao] (Storm Kick) toward the trajectory of the bullets.

But... he never expected that this kick would only stir up a gust of wind... and that wind weakened and dissipated before it even traveled ten meters.

Clearly, this could hardly be called a "Lan Jiao," its power probably not even as good as a "Gang Jiao" (Hill Kick)...

"What's going on?" Feng Bujue quickly glanced at the game menu, but found no anomalies in the skill bar.

Rat-tat-tat-tat...

Before his doubts could be answered, a second wave of gunfire rang out in the distance.

"The effect of Lan Jiao has been greatly weakened... Why is that?" While dodging with all sorts of bizarre and impossible movements, Brother Jue calmly pondered, "First of all, I definitely haven't been hit by any moves that can limit skill power... This can be confirmed through the data perspective. Secondly, this isn't caused by 'system limitations' either, because if the system were to directly impose limitations on the player... there would definitely be a voice prompt. So, the most likely conclusion at the moment is..."

Thinking of this, he suddenly spun around, stomped his feet, and charged straight toward a residential house on the street.

The timing of this sudden advance was excellent. At this moment... the gunman who had ambushed him from afar had just finished his second round of "twelve shots" and was reloading.

Of course, this wasn't a coincidence either, but rather within his calculations... While Brother Jue was thinking about the above, he didn't forget to multitask and calculate the number of times the other party fired.

Although only a few seconds had passed since the first gunshot, Feng Bujue had already grasped seven or eight tenths of the opponent's weapon performance through hearing and mental arithmetic. Unless the enemy had concealed some kind of trap in the attack from the beginning... such as "deliberately slowing down the rate of fire," "retaining magazine capacity to reload early," or "intentionally slowing down the reloading speed"... otherwise, it would be impossible for him to hit Brother Jue with the same weapon.

"If my guess is correct, the 'barrier' in this town is the reason why the power of skills has been reduced by eighty percent..." Feng Bujue leaped, supporting himself on the wall with one hand, and flipped into the yard of a residential house, his mind analyzing non-stop, "Currently, I've only used one Lan Jiao. This skill is Melee specialization, C-level, semi-energy attack... That is to say, this barrier at least affects C-level and below, Melee-type, outward-releasing moves."

Thinking of this, he tried to instantly activate [Ling Shi Ju Shen Shu- Gai] (Spirit Consciousness Gathering Art - Modified) and took a horizontal step with [Yue Bu] (Moonwalk), before stopping.

"Hmm... Spirit Art specialization, self-buff type, sustained skill, movement skill... have all been greatly weakened." Based on the experience of releasing those two skills just now, he compared them with the usual feel of releasing them, and quickly constructed a screening table in his mind, filling in this series of adaptation items, "Ah... this kind of statistical work is really troublesome..." He muttered in a low voice, then knelt down on one knee and poked the mud under his feet with [Ling Xi Yi Zhi] (Numinous Rhino Finger).

As for his move, at the time... none of the viewers watching the live broadcast could understand it.

But afterwards, someone understood it when watching the match replay, and then mentioned it on the forum... So everyone understood.

In short... Feng Bujue was "experimenting," using extremely short time and extremely low cost (some skills that consume less and have no cooldown time)... to test the specific effects of the surrounding "barrier."

This matter... at first glance, doesn't seem like much, but upon closer inspection... a person who is ambushed by others less than a minute after the start of the script can actually take care of this matter in passing while running away... What kind of insane psychological quality and rapid thinking is required to achieve this...

"Hmm... it's basically certain that most 'active skills' are suppressed in this barrier." After poking the ground, Brother Jue withdrew his hand, thinking to himself, "If used well, this may be an opportunity..."

Thinking of this, he took out [Yi Da] from his knapsack and picked up a stone from the ground.

"I was ambushed shortly after the opening CG ended... This can explain two things—first, my luck isn't very good. As soon as the script started, I appeared in the line of sight of a member of the Corpse Blade First Squad with excellent eyesight. Second, the person who shot me, because he decisively launched an ambush at the first moment, probably hasn't noticed the 'barrier' yet." While thinking, Feng Bujue had already jumped back onto the roof of the house.

Unsurprisingly, as soon as his foot stepped on the roof tiles, the continuous gunfire rang out again.

And... judging from the gunfire, the shooter's location was much closer than before.

"The only one in the Corpse Blade First Squad who can discover me in this dark and windy environment and immediately launch a ranged attack..." Feng Bujue continuously somersaulted on the sloping roof, dodging bullets like a juggler, while his mind was running non-stop, "According to the information revealed in the match recordings... As of the last rematch, that guy called [Doomsday Assault] definitely hasn't trained his Shooting specialization to S-level yet, but his Investigation specialization has reached S-level... Relying on a legendary-level firearm, he is indeed quite difficult to deal with at medium range... Fortunately, the distance between us was still very far when he attacked just now, and long-range precision sniping isn't his strength, plus he met someone like me who has zero-time-lag calculation, so it's no wonder he didn't hit a single shot..."

While Feng Bujue was thinking about these things, Doomsday Assault had already finished his third magazine of ammunition. This time, the latter didn't bother reloading, but directly changed his gun... Because at this time, the distance between him and Brother Jue had shrunk from more than three hundred meters at the beginning to within one hundred meters. This distance had already entered the range of Doomsday Assault's legendary-level weapon...

[Name: The Black Market Critical Shotgun]

[Type: Weapon]

[Quality: Legendary]

[Attack Power: ???]

[Attribute: None]

[Effect: The weapon's attack power increases with the player's level; increases maximum survival value by 14% and ranged attack critical hit chance by 32%; automatically generates lead bullets in the gun, no manual reloading required; the highest rate of fire for this gun is one shot every 2.6 seconds.]

[Equipment Requirements: Possess a knapsack (bound upon pickup).]

[Remarks: In the world of Azeroth, there is a place called Molten Core. One day, a group of greedy adventurers entered there, and as usual, went to plunder the monsters' money and equipment. Also on that day, a paladin stole a "Critical Shotgun" that should have been allocated to a hunter. From then on, a legend began...]

Looking at the item description, this weapon doesn't seem as eye-catching as other legendary-level equipment, but the actual effectiveness of this thing is extremely terrifying...

Just take the "Equipment Requirements"... This gun is essentially equivalent to having no equipment requirements; the six words "Possess a knapsack" look like some kind of prank by the game designer. To put it bluntly... this is a growth-type weapon that anyone can equip and use from level one to max level.

The 14% maximum survival value and 32% critical hit rate bonus are both extremely excellent effects... In Thriller Paradise, a game that blurs character attributes, this type of equipment that passively adds limits is actually very rare. The reason is... because such bonuses bring players a significant advantage.

In actual combat, as long as this [Black Market Critical Shotgun] can hit the torso... it can basically "one-shot" players of the same level. Even if it only hits the limbs, it can make the opponent lose more than 50% of their survival value.

This is the so-called "hard damage"... Either you use legendary-level defensive gear to compete with it, or you pray that you don't get shot... Otherwise, a shot to the knee can take your life (or make your combat power equivalent to that of a city guard in a certain RPG game).

"Yes... that's right..." Feng Bujue had also visually confirmed Doomsday Assault's location at this time, and clearly saw the opponent change weapons, "Continue to maintain the frequency of shooting, seize the rhythm, don't give me any room to breathe..."

Brother Jue would reappear in the opponent's field of vision naturally had a purpose. He was intentionally selling a flaw so that the opponent would continue to use firearms to attack, thereby having no time to take care of other things... In this way, the setting that "skills have been weakened"... may very well be ignored by Doomsday Assault.

And at this moment, Doomsday Assault dozens of meters away... was indeed as Brother Jue expected, still unaware of the barrier's existence.

It's really a coincidence, two minutes ago, Doomsday Assault was very lucky to be assigned to a higher terrain as soon as he entered the script; as soon as he gained the ability to act, he looked around... Relying on the eyesight of his S-level Investigation specialization and the not-so-bright moonlight in the sky, he actually discovered a figure more than three hundred meters away...

Then, Doomsday Assault took out his gun with the longest range without saying a word, and observed through the scope... He took a look, and wow... Feng Bujue!

At that moment, his heart was extremely excited. Because he knew very well... right now, it was an excellent opportunity for an ambush! When a player first enters the script, they are often still savoring the recently seen plot CG or thinking about what to do next... At this moment, it is almost impossible for them to react to a sudden ambush.

So, Doomsday Assault decisively opened fire at the time...

But he didn't expect that this oddball, Feng Bujue, could immediately make evasive maneuvers in that situation, and dodge them all, without even grazing his clothes...

However, since the attack has already begun, Doomsday Assault must continue it. This can be said to be a fixed mindset and common sense of shooting-type players—once you open fire, you must hit the opponent until they die. If the opponent escapes the field of vision, then he himself, whose position has already been exposed... will fall into an extremely passive state.

Therefore, things have evolved into the current situation.

In this high-tempo contest of less than two minutes, Doomsday Assault really hasn't had any chance to use any active skills... At least not at that distance where he didn't have a complete certainty of hitting...

"Doomsday Assault, right? Not bad!" Seeing the opponent gradually approaching less than seventy meters away, Feng Bujue shouted loudly, "Eat my move, 'Great Meteorite Art'!"

After shouting, he pulled back the slingshot and shot the stone in his hand.

The term "Great Meteorite Art" was obviously made up by Brother Jue, but the effect of [Yi Da] didn't disappoint him... A small stone, after being ejected by this legendary-level slingshot, gradually turned into an orange-glowing bomb in mid-air, its volume also rapidly increasing several times, really looking a bit like a meteorite fragment...

"Hmph... petty tricks." Doomsday Assault snorted coldly and raised his gun to shoot. His Shooting specialization was A-level after all, so hitting this kind of moving target with average speed and short distance... was not a problem.

After the shot, Brother Jue's "Great Meteorite Art" exploded and dissipated in mid-air.

"Feng Bujue... Shooting specialization is indeed your weakness!" Doomsday Assault responded triumphantly after breaking Brother Jue's attack, "This half-baked ranged skill of yours is less powerful than a normal shot from me!"

The time it took him to say these words was more than 2.6 seconds; by the time he finished speaking, the distance between him and Brother Jue was only thirty meters or so, and he had already completed the action of raising his gun and aiming, locking onto Brother Jue standing on the roof.

Bang—

Then, Doomsday Assault confidently fired...

The gunshot of the Critical Shotgun sounded relatively crisp, like a so-called "bird gun," but the power was not lacking, and it was more than enough to compare with a "cannon."

Along with the gunshot, a lead bullet flew towards Feng Bujue's torso at a very high speed, and Brother Jue also knew... it was time to act!

"Ah—" In the next second, Feng Bujue screamed, performing an incredibly exaggerated twisting somersault in the air, falling from the roof.

His acting was quite exaggerated, and even many viewers could see that it was fake... Doomsday Assault saw at a glance that Brother Jue hadn't been hit at all, but had merely been grazed and deliberately feigned a fall.

"Tch... what kind of conspiracy is this bastard up to again..." At this moment, some unpleasant memories emerged in Doomsday Assault's mind, "Maybe there are two grenades waiting for me on the spot where I land when I jump into the yard..." But then he thought, "But... I have no reason not to go in... Is it just because the opponent is Feng Bujue... that I don't even dare to cross a wall?"