Fatal Shot

Two minutes later, taking care to not be seen along the way, Feng Luo and Mu Zi—who were following the headquarters squad with the help of a recon meter—heard a gunshot in front of them and knew that the other party had found the target.

Sure enough, when they quickly dove into the nearby ruins of a building surrounded by grass and trees, they looked in the direction of the gunshot through the cover of the grass. They saw ten members of the headquarters squad, who were about 200 meters away in an open space near the Level 40 area, surrounding a red monster about three meters long.

This was a monster that looked like a giant ant instead of a beetle. It had numerous wounds and bullet holes across the surface of its body, and one of its legs was even broken. It was apparent that it had been through more than a single skirmish. However, it was now protected by a layer of a burning Flame Shield. Although it seemed dim, the shield had helped it withstand most of the attacks from the ten ranged attackers.

Mutant Fire Ant (Level 39, Commander). Species Number: HYD-94844, HP: 24203/55000, Skills: Flame Shield, Flame Jet, Violent Impact.

Mu Zi used Detection to quickly get information on the injured Commander-class monster. Unlike the Eye of the Thunder’s scope, which could only roughly estimate the monster’s HP, a Scout’s Detection could accurately view the remaining HP of a monster.

This was undoubtedly the key to Feng Luo’s plan to steal the kill. After all, this was different from the last time, when the rebel captain was killed in the Town of Exiles. The captain had been a Manipulator but also a human Elite, so he’d had less HP, and the timing had been easier to master.

But this Mutant Fire Ant was a Commander, and its HP was over 50,000. Although only half of its HP remained due to its injuries, it was still far from the last hit. Therefore, they had to know the exact amount of HP and attack at the right time.

He would only have a chance of taking two shots at most, because no matter how successful a KS (kill steal) was, the squad players would surely react, and there was an 80 percent chance that they would catch up to them.

Feng Luo hid in the grass and held his M110 up, finger on the trigger and barrel aimed, fully focused on the Commander that was gradually being forced into a corner.

The injured Fire Ant Commander failed several times to escape to the Level 30 Area and was being pressured by the players. As for the Level 40 area, which was right behind it, it seemed like a certain fear was preventing it from retreating there. As a result, after a dozen seconds or so, it was finally pushed to the dead-end corner of a building by the ten-man squad just as its flame shield was completely broken.

Mu Zi, who was also carefully concealed, took the telescope and kept quietly reporting reconnaissance information to Feng Luo.

“HP: 19,250. 35 percent!”

Ratatatat!

At this time, a machine gun started firing. Young Master Lin had found the opportunity to set up his machine gun and started up his Rare-grade, Level-45, six-barreled machine gun, the Destructive Thundersnake, to shoot at the Fire Ant Commander forced into the corner.

Through the six-barrels that rotated at high speed, bullets rushed out in a quick, concentrated fashion, producing orange flames from the muzzle that faintly resembled six thundersnakes.

The other squad members, on the other hand, had ceased their high-impact attacks and were ready to give the kill to Young Master Lin.

“HP: 18,844. 33.5 percent! Wow, that’s quick! 30.1 percent… 23.4 percent!”

The Fire Ant Commander’s body, which was more than three meters long, was beaten back and forth by the impacts of machine gun bullets, and Mu Zi’s could not keep up with reporting the HP drop. After fewer than two seconds, a fifth of the Fire Ant Commander’s HP remained, and the explosive damage from the Rare-grade Level-45 machine gun was obvious.

However, the Level-39 Fire Ant Commander, which was already in a desperate situation, seemed to have its instincts aroused by the danger around it. Instead of retreating or escaping, it suddenly turned around and opened its mouth, spewing a red ball of fire the size of a human brain in the direction of Young Master Lin.

“Be careful!”

Seeing this, the Heavy Armor Warrior standing in front of Young Master Lin immediately held up an alloy shield and rushed forward quickly to block the fireball.

Boom!

−1400

The fireball struck the alloy shield and turned into a huge flame against it, causing more than 1,000 damage to the Heavy Armor Warrior.

Considering the numbers, if the ball of fire had not been blocked, even with Young Master Lin’s best equipment, he probably would have been left with just a shred of HP or even be insta-killed. After all, the monster was a Commander; even though the Fire Ant was only a Level-39 Commander, it could kill more than 40 “paper-class” players in seconds.

While the fireball was blocked with the help of the shield, the tall alloy shield also blocked Young Master Lin’s line of sight, making it impossible for him to continue shooting.

After ejecting the fireball, the Fire Ant Commander stopped retreating. Using its five remaining legs, it rushed straight at Young Master Lin.

The distance between the two was quite short—just a little over a dozen meters—so before the other players who had stopped using high-damage skills could respond, the Fire Ant Commander had rushed to the front of the machine gun formation like a caged animal.

The Heavy Armor Warrior, with slight panic on his face, rushed to activate his Level-40 skill Immovable Mountain, trying to use his shield to stop the Fire Ant Commander in its tracks. However, the Fire Ant Commander jumped directly over his head at the crucial moment and continued its rush toward Young Master Lin, fully intending to drag him down to hell with it.

Watching a huge, black, three-meter shadow baring fangs and leaping out from behind the shield, Young Master Lin turned pale for a moment, threw his machine gun, and ran away in a panic.

The Machine Gunner’s melee attack was the weakest of all conventional professions. Faced with this monster with insta-kill capabilities, most players would choose to flee immediately. After all, leveling up was a chore.

But, after landing, the Fire Ant Commander did not stop. Rather, it immediately pursued Young Master Lin, with a new ball of fire brewing in its mouth. Fortunately, at this time, an Earth Manipulator in the team responded, releasing an Earth Wall to fend off the Fire Ant Commander at the dangerous moment. Young Master Lin fled awkwardly in trepidation.

Holding the telescope, Mu Zi watched with an expression of great pleasure at Young Master Lin’s misfortune. “This fellow is a dimwit,” he said. “He actually thinks that a Commander is an easy target!”

The most suitable distance for a Machine Gunner to attack was 50 meters away, because at that distance, even if the target moved away, they would not need to angle the muzzle too much to follow it. Then they could rely on the impact of the bullets to prevent the enemy from closing in.

If the parties were too close, and the opponent moved horizontally, the Machine Gunner would need to drastically adjust their muzzle angle. And it was not difficult to turn the muzzle when the bullets were firing so quickly. So to deal with a Machine Gunner, the best choice was to either use a Sniper beyond their firing range or to send a Light Armor Warrior to approach him.

Young Master Lin relied too much on his own high-quality equipment, so he had snobbishly fired upon the monster at a close range of a dozen meters. He had not considered the possibility of being overpowered by the monster.

Although the Fire Ant Commander was stopped, the original machine gun position had been destroyed. The Destructive Thundersnake, worth a million credits, was knocked over by the Fire Ant Commander and was trampled left and right across the ground. That was not to say that it was completely wrecked, but using it now was out of the question.

Because the machine gun had been “seized” by the enemy, the team had to abandon its original intention of giving the kill to Young Master Lin. They all began attacking the Fire Ant Commander.

“HP: 11,052. 20.1 percent…” Mu Zi hurried on with the report. “HP: 7,011…”

And at the moment he said 7,000 points—

Bang!

Feng Luo pulled the trigger of M110 in his hand and the C-class special armor-piercing round he had gotten from the Town of Exiles mission—which had no special color—burst out of the muzzle and flew toward the Ant Commander dangling from the edge of death.

“Go!”

After the shot was fired, Feng Luo did not stay to see the result but immediately picked up the M110, turned, and left. Real men never looked back!

Of course, the fact was that Feng Luo was absolutely confident that he would not fail to hit such a large monster at a distance of less than 100 meters. However, if it failed, there will be no way out. They had to withdraw immediately because there wouldn’t be a chance at a second shot.

Bang!

The sound of the bullet breaking the shell and entering the flesh echoed through the area.

−5430

A red damage value appeared over the head of the Fire Ant Commander, clearing all of the less than 10 percent health remaining. It was the final blow!

You killed the Mutant Fire Ant (Level 39, Commander)

Kill Contribution: 12.8%

XP Gained: 556 points

Your ranking in the city-building cleanup task points has been updated. Current Rank: 39th!