Fatal Shot

“Well, Old John is no average Joe, but this is unbelievable! Did he make an Eye of the Thunder before? Or is he really a Master Gun Mechanic just like the two NPCs said he was?”

Feng Luo held the ammo magazine in his hands and observed its flawless workmanship. He was both amazed and surprised. Previously, John had seemed like a complete drunk and a useless Gun Mechanic. He spent most of his time drinking and being a drunk. Sometimes, when he was sober, he would build some guns to pay Feng Luo to partially reimburse his living expenses here. But the quality of those guns was rough and inconsistent.

Still, Feng Luo had watched him carefully and had realized that old John was very skillful at fixing guns. He could talk about the manufacturing of guns in detail, and sometimes, something remarkable would slip out of his mouth. So Feng Luo secretly regarded him as a gun expert. He thought John might have a secret mission, so he had allowed him to freeload in his shop for almost two months.

Unexpectedly, all of a sudden, John had constructed a Perfect Rare-grade gun component. His skills were even better than those of a professional.

What is all this? Is this a sign that John’s mission starting soon? Isn’t that too good to be true?

Feng Luo had a mild headache. After all, he was going to leave Silvermoon City tonight to investigate the Umbrella Company with the people from Lu Conglomerate. Immediately after that, the Resident Evil story mission would start soon. But Old John had to create problems out of the blue.

After considering for a while, Feng Luo shook his head.

Never mind. Let’s finish the case of the Umbrella Company first. It’s okay to put John aside first. If anything major happens, he will come looking for me anyway.

And compared to John, another NPC linked with the Umbrella Company would not be inferior to a potential Master Gun Mechanic.

Feng Luo shifted his vision to a workbench beside him. A rectangular black parcel was on the bench.

Lan had told him about the arrival of the parcel. In fact, he had already known the contents because when it passed through the terminal scanner, a rare mononym appeared on the sender column: “Lin.”

Feng Luo removed the wrapper, and a silver box about a foot long revealed itself. He keyed in the passwords given by Lin through the communicator, and the box opened up slowly with a soft click. When the box opened, a system notification flashed by.

You have activated the mission: Lin’s Interest (3). Mission’s requirement: Get five different sets of T-virus entity samples and send them to Lin. Mission Reward: Lin’s trust!

In the box, a row of five three-hole injectors and another row of five glass blood collection test tubes were neatly arranged. Among them, the test tubes with injection needles contained a spiraling light green solution. The solution’s attribute popped up in detail when Feng Luo observed it.

Anti Evolution Virus Serum (primary)

This special serum resists most deep infections caused by a primary Evolution Virus and clears all mutation conditions caused by the Evolution Viruses in the human body.

Yes, Lin had sent Feng Luo these five anti-Evolution Virus serums in the parcel. It was one of the major preparations for his mission.

After he had learned the mission was happening at Umbrella Company’s base, he had been worried that he might be infected by the T-virus. Hence, he had consulted Lin—whose NPC approval rating of Feng Luo was “Good”—through the communicator.

Lin was very interested in this mission. When she heard Feng Luo describe the characteristics of T-virus, she concluded that this T-virus might be a mutation of the Evolution Virus.

The Evolution Virus was an invention comparable to biochips. This virus was limited for use in the military. After the Great Destruction, many biology research institutes had found them in certain relics and had carried out a series of researches on it.

This T-virus was similar to the “ancient virus” from the game Resident Evil. Since they had known the situation back in Silver Leaf Island, Lin and Aike had carried out the same research on the Evolution Viruses, and they knew more about the Umbrella Company. So when she promised to send five anti-virus serums to Feng Luo, she had also requested that Feng Luo get some samples of the T-virus. After Feng Luo had promised her, the system had given Feng Luo a mission that he needed to finish to obtain Lin’s “trust.”

This kind of reward was weird. Lin’s approval and Lin’s trust… What was this? In fact, this was the standard for judging relationships between NPCs and players in War.

War was not just a game of fighting and leveling up or a platform for players to interact with each other. In fact, because NPCs had a high degree of freedom and variable personalities in War, the players could get closer and become friends with NPCs—and, under certain conditions, help them. One example was the Guard Sergeant NPC who had helped Feng Luo before, or Lin, who had provided Feng Luo the anti-virus serum by herself.

If players gained the support of a highly capable NPC or one with a special status, it was more useful than getting special equipment. Therefore, some players used various methods to befriend these NPC and thus utilize their capabilities to gain benefits. For example, the famous intelligence organization “Hunter’s Dogs” was said to be equivalent to the FBI. They could get a lot of confidential information.

Today, after Feng Luo had received the hunting mission, he had rushed to the destination immediately, but the players from Roaring Dragon Mercenary Group had already been lying in wait there.

When this incident happened, Feng Luo pondered a few possibilities. The major problem might have been the Hunter’s Guild. Hence, Feng Luo had requested that the Hunter’s Guild carry out an internal investigation to find out the cause for the failure of his mission.

It was a paid service. But if the investigation agreed with his claims, all the payment would be returned, and the Hunter’s Guild also would also compensate the player. Compensation was not important to Feng Luo. He just needed NPCs to help him get rid of another NPC. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

Also worth mentioning: The four stages of approval in War between players and NPCs were Good, Trustful, Friendly, and Close. According to rumors, there was a fifth stage, but Feng Luo had never heard about it.

It was not easy to get through the first four stages. Feng Luo was well-acquainted with the two employees from Feng Zhi Dan Heng Ammunition Store and Old John. They had been spending time together for months, yet he had only been able to reach “Trustful” with the two employees and to get on “Good” terms with Old John. From this, he knew that his relationship with Lin would be upgraded to Trustful once he completed the mission.

Lin was 17 years old, but she already had two Master Life Profession qualifications. One was the Professional-level Life Profession: “Prodigy Girl.” As the game progressed, she would definitely reach another higher level.

She was a candidate with very high potential. Although Feng Luo did not like to manage his relationships with NPCs, he knew that it was important to build good relationships with them. Therefore, he was so occupied with this mission that he decided he could only ignore Old John temporarily.

After putting the silver box containing the anti-virus serums into his backpack, Feng Luo started to make other preparations for the mission. He inspected and maintained his gun, then stocked up on special ammunition, blood tonics, endurance tonics, and a set of backup equipment.

It was about 3:00 p.m. when he got everything ready. Feng Luo was ready to go to Storm City and meet the Lu Conglomerate before going to the Umbrella Company’s secret base.