Chapter 706: Shoot the Horse First!
While the mood in Mu Zi's [1] group almost sank to the bottom, the enemy camp players who were chasing them, in contrast, were full of excitement.
The leaders in the two high-end SUVs were outshouting their commands to their squads.
"Go, go, go! Brothers from the Wolf Squad, push more! Their attacks have already weakened. They are definitely running out of ammo and MP."
"Light Armor Warriors, move in from the side and flank them. Brothers from the Golden Scorpion, do not let those bastards from the Wolf Squad get the kills. There are only eight of them left."
They began their chase from the base of the Freedom Flag faction in the Death Forest. They pursued their enemy for over a hundred kilometers, and finally caught up with the dozen or so players from the Federation camp, who were working on a mission in the depths of the Death Desert.
The journey from the NPC's base took them half a night. The mission, which took them over a hundred kilometers across the desert, was finally coming to an end, and they were about to enjoy the spoils.
"These people must be in despair. They probably thought that leading us this way would make us encounter some high level, powerful monsters, so that they could take the chance to escape. They never would have thought they would be so unlucky that we did not encounter even one Commander Grade or higher monster!"
"Not even one high-level monster; even after over a hundred kilometers. The probability of this is lower than winning the lottery, and they are so unlucky it happened to them. By now, they are probably thinking death would be a better result," the leader of the Wolf Squad mercenary group proudly exclaimed. As he spoke, he was stationed behind a machine gun, firing at Mu Zi's group [2], who were so suppressed that they could not even raise their heads.
"Moreover, they also helped us find such a nice-looking ruin site. A ruin like this on a map may be as yet unexplored. By the time we kill them, we will certainly have to explore it slowly."
"But, before that, we will have to find a way to deal with these guys from Golden Scorpion."
A cruel smile crossed the Wolf Squad leader's face.
The faction that they joined did not have many people, and they took in only some small adventurer's squad. These squads had to work together for a lot of the missions and no foul play among the squads was allowed.
The Golden Scorpion and Wolf Squad mercenary groups had a long history of rivalry. Even though they would work together on a mission, they would most often engage in brutal fights once the seized items were disbursed. Now, there was another up for grabs: the ruin.
I will have to gain the upper hand by making the first move, thought Machine Gunner. He pressed harder on the trigger of his machine gun. The six-barrelled machine gun fired at maximum speed.
However, just as he pressed down hard on the trigger…
Boom!
He suddenly felt something hit the helmet he was wearing. His forehead felt as though it had been struck with a large and heavy hammer.
After that, the sounds of the machine gun firing, after the Crazy Roar mode was activated, suddenly stopped!
What is happening?
That was the last thought of the scheming Machine Gunner.
What is happening?
The other players from the Wolf Squad mercenary group were so stunned that they had forgotten to continue to attack.
The reason was simple: the Machine Gunner, who had been shooting arrogantly with the six-barrelled machine gun on top of the Warrior bulletproof vehicle, and also known as the leader of the Wolf Squad, fell to the ground from the roof of the SUV. His face was expressionless.
The white light of death engulfed his full Rare Grade combat gear. Around him, multiple crystals emanating white glows, potions, magazines, and various other items fell on the ground.
However, it was not the white light of death nor the glow of the fallen items that shocked the people around him. Instead, it was a striking, red five-digit damage number that hung in the air: -12,035!
A five-digit damage number! This was one digit more than the usual damage number that appeared. It also attracted ten times more attention.
"The boss has been killed!"
The Wolf Squad players reacted only after a full second had elapsed.
Bang!
-10,132!
As surprised shouts filled the air, the energy shield of the Earth Manipulator, the leader of the Golden Scorpion who was in the other vehicle, also shattered after sustaining many attacks by Mu Zi's group [3].
Immediately after that, he was thrown out of the SUV and fell on the ground.
As his body flew through the air, a bowl-sized hole appeared on his chest, and the white light of death flashed in front of the others.
"There's a Sniper!"
The only difference between the deaths of the two leaders was that Earth Manipulator reacted and learned which profession combatant was responsible for the attacks.
"F*ck!"
"There's a Sniper!"
"The boss was killed in one shot!"
"Hurry up and find him!"
The leaders of the two squads were killed within a second.
The players from Wolf Squad and Golden Scorpion finally regained their senses. In an instant, some of them began to dodge and hide wherever they could.
The rest of the players chose, however, not dodge or hide. Instead, they quickly looked towards the opposite direction of where Earth Manipulator fell to try to find the Sniper who had killed the leaders of their squads.
Bang!
And amid the chaotic scene, a third bullet came before another full second elapsed.
This time, the sniper-bullet struck the energy shield of a Fire Manipulator.
-2,560!
The sniper-bullet, which could instantly kill an Earth Manipulator, easily shattered the hastily-cast fire energy shield that covered the Fire Manipulator. However, it was not enough to kill the player in one shot.
The Fire Manipulator was one of the players who took evasive action. Moreover, his luck was a lot better than Mu Zi group's [4]. The reason was that he almost tripped when he tried to dodge. In the end, the sniper-bullet, which had a high chance of striking his heart even as he was trying to get cover, only managed to hit his right chest. The shot hit his lung and dealt a Weak Point Damage. However, since it had reached the single body-part damage limit, the shot was not able to kill him unlike the previous two shots.
This was not much of a problem, though.
Even though the player was not killed in one shot, the impact of the sniper-bullet significantly changed his evasive path.
Immediately after that, a fourth sniper-bullet hit his fully-exposed head.
-13,435!
Another red Fatal Damage of over 10,000.
After the system update, which showed that the damage number of the last hit exceeded the remaining HP of the target, the true might of the sniper-bullet was on full display.
"Hurry! Hide!"
"F*ck! This Sniper can one-shot people. Cannon Glasses, don't stand in the same spot!"
Four bullets, three kills!
The players from the two mercenary squads were finally feeling the full extent of their opponent's attack. It was all very shocking and frightening.
The opponent did make the two Doctor players on the two teams his first target, which a Sniper typically would do.
After all, there was no need for this. Since he could take out most of the players with one shot, there was no need to worry about leaving the Doctor players alive.
Instead, killing the manipulators and machine gunners, the combatants who had long-range attack options, was his priority.
On realizing this, the cannon glass players of the two mercenary squads, who had been unleashing attacks, gave up on the idea of counter-attacking. Each of them quickly ran to take cover behind the SUV or the building.
"Scout! Scout!"
"What are you guys doing? Hurry up and find him!"
Someone was shouting instructions while others watched the corpses of two of their teammates, who had been sniper-shot and killed in the midst of all the running and hiding.
Endnote
[1-4] Note: The author continued to use Mu Zi throughout the entire chapter, but it doesn't make any sense. It should be Dan Hen's group.