CH 4

Gun King was the most popular shooter game at the moment. The number of players in the world had exceeded one billion people and there was a separate server in each region. There were a huge number of maps in the games such as jungles, deserts, snowy mountains, cities, islands… the scene effects were very realistic and allowed players to experience a thrilling and experience an apocalyptic world in an immersive manner.

As a shooting game with an apocalyptic background, Gun King had a very rich PVE story mission as well as a fair PVP competitive system i.e. the ‘mercenary points ranking system.’

In the Mercenary Arena or ‘Qualifying Tournament’, the initial points of players entering the tournament were all 0 points.

0-500 points were ‘trainee mercenaries’, 500-1000 points were ‘junior mercenaries’, 1000-1500 points were ‘elite mercenaries, 1500-2000 points were ‘expert mercenaries’ and 2000-2500 points were ‘master mercenaries.’

Those with over 2500 points could be promoted to ‘legendary mercenary’ and receive a golden badge. This was equivalent to the ‘strongest king’ rank in other games.

In addition, there was an honorary rank called ‘Gun King.’

The title of Gun King was limited to the top 100 of each season for each regional server. For example, there were tens of millions of people in the qualifying tournament in the China region. It could be imagined how difficult it was to rank in the top 100 in the country.

Jiang Shaoyu’s side account hadn’t been used to play in the arena, nor had it added any friends.

The five year old national server account was logged in and a lot of system information popped up in the upper right corner. They were all notifications of various activities. Jiang Shaoyu deleted all the system information with one click. Then he clicked into the mailbox and sure enough, he saw the return gift.

[AWM-Ice Flame] x 30 days.

[AK-47-Ice Flame] × 30 days.

[Titan Twin Stars-Ice Flame] x 30 days.

[Poisonous Bee Dagger] x 30 days.

[Ranking Protection Card] x 5 pieces.

The rewards given by the system for returning to this account were quite rich. The weapons were all the Ice Flame skin series and could be used for 30 days. It was also worried that he would lose his mentality and give up this account again if he lost in the qualifying tournament so it gave him five Ranking Protection cards. Once the protection card was activated, he wouldn’t lose points if he lost a game.

Jiang Shaoyu closed his mailbox and opened his firearms arsenal.

A variety of firearms was densely displayed in front of him and the duration was all permanent.

In the past, Casually was an account specially used for researching firearms so he bought all the weapons in the mall. Shooting games had to be very careful about the data of a weapon. Data such as balance, rate of fire, recoil and damage had to be carefully adjusted. If a weapon was too strong and broke the balance, the players would scold them to death.

This meant the officials only produced one new weapon every year and they usually produced weapon skins.

The skin didn’t affect the data but the operating feel and special effects were different. Players who liked a certain weapon would naturally collect skins and the officials earned a lot of money because of this.

Jiang Shaoyu’s gaze swept over his firearms arsenal before he finally settled on a sniper rifle.

[MSG – Aurora]

Magazine Capacity: 10/20

Description: MSG is the world’s most sophisticated semi-automatic sniper rifle. The improved body is lighter and once the scope is opened, it could shoot quickly and continuously. This makes it suitable for mobile combat.

Note: The Aurora skin. The exclusive champion skin of ACE – Wing, the MVP of the Chinese Professional League in the S3 Season.

How to be obtained: S3 season limited purchase. There is currently no way to get it.]

This was Jiang Shaoyu’s championship-limited skin specially created for him after he won the MVP of the domestic league that year. Once sold, it was directly sold out and the sales exceeded 100 million yuan. Jiang Shaoyu also got a bonus of tens of millions.

The design of this skin was very distinctive. The bright body of the gun was engraved with neat white lines that gave off a technological feeling. The special effect when a headshot was hit was like a white aurora instantly penetrating the head, sharp and cool.

Compared to the gaudy gun skins, Jiang Shaoyu liked the simple and neat appearance of this gun as well as the light and smooth feel.

He tapped the mouse with his right hand and pressed the ‘Select primary weapon’ button.

The system prompted him: [Confirm the selection of MSG-Aurora as your primary weapon. Yes/No.]

Jiang Shaoyu pressed ‘Yes.’

The system: [Please select a secondary weapon.]

Jiang Shaoyu picked a pistol and the Poisonous Bee Dagger that the system had just given him.

In Gun King, each player could bring three weapons into the competition.

They were the primary, secondary and melee weapons.

The primary and secondary weapons were various firearms such as a sniper rifle, assault rifle, submachine gun, pistol, etc. They could be switched at any time according to the player’s own preferences and the combination was very flexible. Melee weapons were usually cold weapons such as daggers, bayonets, hammers, axes, etc. They were usually used for close combat and stealth assassination.

In addition, there were projectiles such as grenades, flash bombs, smoke bombs and tear gas bombs; medical supplies such as bandages and first aid kits; defensive items such as metal shields, bulletproof light panels, etc.

Everyone had their own habits regarding the specific equipment to bring.

Jiang Shaoyu had thoroughly researched the weapon system of Gun King and he was very familiar with the weapon data and usage skills. This was also the key to his ability to lead ACE to win the championship.

After choosing the weapons, Jiang Shaoyu returned to the lobby and clicked into the qualifying room.

[Welcome to the Mercenary Arena.]

[It is detected that you haven’t participated in a competitive tournament last season. Please play a fixed stage competition first.]

The fixed stage game of Gun King was human versus machine mode. Players had to play against a computer AI and the system would allocate tiers according to the player’s performance. Jiang Shaoyu entered the fixed stage competition and won five games in a row.

[Congratulations, Mercenary! You have performed well in the fixed stage competition and you will enter the 1500 points ‘Expert Mercenary’ stage of the new season. Please continue to work hard and I look forward to you creating a new legend!]

The 1500 expert rating was equivalent to the diamond rating in other games and it was already the highest rating the system could give. Next, he would have to go to the arena himself if he wanted to level up.

Jiang Shaoyu started the ‘Blood Battle Mode’ ranking and quickly matched with teammates.

One player ‘Classmate  Doudou’ had a puppy avatar. The moment he came in, he opened his microphone. His voice was clear and he sounded quite young. “I can fill any position. Bigshots, choose first!”

Gun King’s competitive mode had five positions: Assaulter, charger, scout, medic and sniper.

Assaulters and chargers were usually responsible for opening the way ahead. The two people covered each other and advanced together. The two people moving in the front would definitely face the enemy’s heavy firepower and required extremely fast response capabilities.

The scout was a free person who roamed flexibly through the entire field. They were responsible for lurking and observing the movements of the enemy. Once a teammate died, they could fill the position at any time. Sometimes, it was also necessary to cooperate with the tactics of their teammates and go around to explode the enemy’s rear.

The medics could save their dying teammates and also help resist damage and block damage for their teammates. The position was usually a bit vague but a good medic could give their teammates two lives.

The sniper was the only long-range position and needed to occupy a high terrain as quickly as possible, setting up their gun, defending their position and covering their teammates. No matter whether it was offensive or defensive, the position of sniper was crucial. The attack range of melee firearms was limited. Only the sniper rifle had a range of over 1,000 meters and could instantly kill enemies at ultra-long distances, posing a huge threat.

The professional league had strict tactical systems and position arrangements. Meanwhile, players in the 1500 segment in online games didn’t have a strong sense of cooperation and weren’t so particular about choosing positions.

Jiang Shaoyu locked onto the sniper position.

The 1st player chose sniper, the 2nd and 3rd players chose assaulter and the 4th player chose charger.

This was a lineup of five full-outputs with violent single-type damage. This was common in low-end games. It was impossible to arrange sophisticated tactics without a scout or medic but at the 1500 segment, they could choose anything they wanted.

The map was loading.

The random map had a three star difficulty: Factory Ruins.

The apocalypse came and the zombie wave broke out, causing this factory to long be abandoned. There were messy boxes of varying heights everywhere. The ground was covered with dried blood and rotting human corpses were piled up in the corners.

In the Blood Battle Mode of the qualifying match, the two sides were divided into the ‘lurkers’ of the red side and the ‘guardians’ of the blue side. The rules were simple. Kill all five people on the opposite side to win a round. It was the best of five so they had to win three rounds.

The rhythm of a shooting game was very fast. Those who knew how to play could slowly fight guerrilla warfare while those who couldn’t play often gave their heads away in a few minutes to end the battle.

The game started.

Jiang Shaoyu was randomly assigned to the ‘lurker’ red side.

His teammates rushed out.

Jiang Shaoyu moved last. He quickly moved between obstacles and quickly climbed to a high point on this map. He set up the sniper rifle, narrowed his eyes and stared at the passage in the distance.

The ‘Classmate Doudou’ teammate was a talker. He said into his microphone, “Brothers, rush! I’m going to rush point A. You go and hold point B…”

Before he could finish speaking, a clear and pleasant gunshot was suddenly heard in his ears.

Bang—

[System: ‘Casually’ used the MSG-Aurora to kill ‘Five Consecutive Kneeling in Qualifiers’ with a headshot!]

Doudou’s voice froze for a moment before he hurriedly shouted, “Nice! Brother is awesome!”

Before he could finish speaking, there were continuous gunshots from next to him. He had met the assaulter on the other team. Classmate Doudou frantically pressed on the mouse and keyboard and the submachine gun in his hand violently swept out a row of flames.

The other person really fell to the ground.

However, the system prompt told him that it wasn’t a head that he took?

[System: ‘Casually’ used the MSG-Aurora to kill ‘I am the Biggest Hidden Bomb’ with a headshot!]

On the opposite side, someone suddenly emerged from the flank and fired two shots, killing Doudou who was still full of health.

The other three players on their side also mixed in with the enemy team. There were chaotic gunshots and explosions and system messages kept appearing on the screen.

In the blink of an eye, the players of his team were dead.

Jiang Shaoyu glanced at where his teammates had died and immediately switched to a dagger. He quickly joined off from this high height and continuously moved toward the side.

—The bread was coming over.

He was now 1 against 3.

The opposing sniper hadn’t been disposed of.

His teammates in this round were like the gourd brothers saving their grandfather. They gave away their heads one after another. (Gourd brothers = from the popular Chinese animation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calabash_Brothers)

Four of them died within half a minute.

Jiang Shaoyu’s slender fingers tapped quickly on the keyboard.

If someone had a god’s perspective at this time, they would see that the thin young man moved quickly between the undulating boxes in the ruins of the factory like a nimble fish moving through the sea. Even his afterimage couldn’t be captured.

Suddenly, he stopped behind a bunker. He moved back his sniper rifle and listened carefully.

There were very light footsteps around him.

Two people.

On the opposite voice channel, the captain in charge of commanding wondered, “F*k, what about the sniper?”

His teammate replied, “He was here just now.”

The moment these words emerged, a clear gunshot came from the side of the two men.

Bang, bang!

[System: ‘Casually’ used the MSG-Aurora to kill ‘I am the ‘Brother Rui’ with a headshot!]

[System: ‘Casually’ used the MSG-Aurora to kill ‘I am the ‘Dragon War Eight Wastelands’ with a headshot!]

He fired two shots in a row, clean and neat.

The brilliant white aurora instantly pierced the forehead and killed them with one blow.

The two people who were killed couldn’t even find the location of this ‘Casually’ person!

A chill went down Brother Rui’s back.

Casually killed people in seconds. This name contained a lot of sarcasm!

The guardian side had one teammate left.

Brother Rui gritted his teeth and ordered, “Kill the sniper!”

His teammate shouted excitedly, “He is behind that box at 10 o’clock. I’ll kill him once he emerges!”

The surroundings were quiet enough to hear a needle falling.

Jiang Shaoyu waited for two seconds before suddenly ducking out from behind the box and moving to the right. The sniper on the other side shot at him. Jiang Shaoyu rolled on the spot, opened the scope, raised his head and decisively pulled the trigger.

Gunshots rang out one after the other.

[System: ‘Casually’ used the MSG-Aurora to kill ‘I am the ‘Happy Respectu’ with a headshot!]

The first round was over.

The lurkers won.

The enemy team: “……”

Classmate Doudou was stunned for a moment before he started shouting, “F*k! Oh god, 666! Great god! The great good is so handsome! One person killed five! Kakaka kill!”

Jiang Shaoyu frowned at the noise.

Classmate, your voice output is much better than your marksmanship. Is this killing the opponent with your voice?