The third barrier shrinkage ended quickly, and the fourth was about to begin.
Liu Wu Dai drove the vehicle while conversing with Li Ang.
According to the mission briefing, after killing an enemy player, a player could obtain 300 Experience Points and 1,000 Game Coins, and loot a random item (a skill, piece of equipment, or prop) from the opponent.
Experience Points and Game Coins would be issued after the mission ended, but items were settled immediately—this malicious mechanism practically encouraged players to kill each other, fueling further conflict with the spoils of war.
"The third-party player, Martin, who was captured by Zhi Jue, gave me a protective prop." Liu Wu Dai held the steering wheel with her left hand. With her right, she took out a Western-style, palm-sized, golden, circular copper mirror from her pocket. She showed it to Li Ang and explained, "This item's Special Effect automatically detects Flying Props headed toward the player. It generates a transparent circular barrier, two meters in diameter, in front of the player, temporarily blocking incoming Flying Props like Arcane Magic missiles, arrow volleys, machine gun fire, and artillery bombardments. However, it has a damage threshold. Once the shield value exceeds this limit, or after being activated for more than three minutes, it will automatically shut down. The shield value takes a long time to recharge."
This Excellent quality item, called the Faceless Mirror Shield, was probably one of Martin's most valuable possessions. Its Special Effect was quite good; it could be triggered actively or used passively, requiring no conscious effort to activate during intense combat.
Liu Wu Dai explained the prop's Special Effect to Li Ang, primarily for better coordination in the upcoming mission.
She wasn't afraid of Li Ang attempting to snatch it; during regular missions, a player's equipment and props were protected by the System. Even if thrown on the ground, others could not directly loot them.
Moreover, they had completed several missions together, fostering a degree of mutual understanding, so they didn't need to be overly cautious with each other.
Li Ang thought for a moment, then said to Liu Wu Dai, "The one Zhi Jue provided is... well, I guess you could call it a summoning-type skill. It can grant temporary life to inanimate objects—for example, tables, chairs, benches, weapons like knives, spears, halberds, and swords, or even things inside cars and houses."
[Skill Scroll Name: Necromancy Technique (Basic)]
[Attribute: Learnable, disappears after one use]
[Type: Spiritual Energy]
[Quality: Rare]
[Special Effect: By touching, grants non-living objects self-awareness, low-level intelligence, and a certain degree of freedom to move. Maintained for up to ten minutes.]
[Consumption: 200 Spirit Power Value, 100 Sanity Value. After activation, consumes 20 Spirit Power Value and 10 Sanity Value per second.]
[Cooldown: None. Can be used four times every twenty-four hours.]
[Learning Conditions: Intelligence Attribute ≥ 10, Perception Attribute ≥ 11]
[Note: Objects given life do not harbor any special feelings towards the user. Whether consulting them or issuing simple instructions, the user must negotiate directly with the object.]
[Note: The animated object's size cannot be too large or too small. The extent of an object's damage will affect the integrity of its self-awareness and low-level intelligence.]
[Note: After using Necromancy Technique (Basic) 100 times, players can pay 2,000 Game Coins to upgrade the skill to the Excellent quality Necromancy Technique (Intermediate).]
[Note: Necromancers discovered that Spells used to animate corpses also work on other "dead" things—for example, a depleted battery, a scrapped car, an old electrical appliance, or even a dead friendship or a failed romance.]
Even among all the special items Li Ang had encountered (Skill Scrolls regularly appeared on store shelves, and skill-related equipment was auctioned on the forums), this skill was one of the most unique.
Although Necromancy Technique wasn't particularly useful in direct combat, its ability to grant temporary life to inanimate objects was practically a divine power in other areas.
For example, in a detective-style scenario mission, like a locked-room murder mystery, other players would have to rack their brains collecting evidence and deducing the truth. In contrast, a player who had learned Necromancy Technique could simply make the victim's corpse speak and directly identify the murderer.
Or, if faced with a Mechanical device that had malfunctioned for unknown reasons, a player could use Necromancy Technique to make the device itself explain what was wrong with it.
Furthermore, an otaku could animate their figurines, making their 2D waifus move, or take it a step further by granting self-awareness to cars, rifles, or ships, turning them into sentient war-machine girls...
Crucially, this skill had growth potential. After 100 uses, it could be upgraded to Excellent quality. If all four daily uses were expended, the upgrade could be achieved in just 25 days.
Of course, the learning conditions for Necromancy Technique (Basic) were equally strict, demanding high Intelligence and Perception Attributes. Perhaps that was why Zhi Jue had kept the scroll in his inventory instead of learning it directly.
Earlier on the rooftop, Li Ang had quickly scanned the Skill Scroll. He allocated his reserved free attribute points to his Perception Attribute, meeting the learning requirements, and immediately added the skill to his skill bar.
Before stowing Zhi Jue's remains in his inventory, he even tried using the skill on the corpse, attempting to animate it. Unfortunately, perhaps because Zhi Jue's body was too fragmented (his head was gone), the skill activation failed.
"Is that so..."
Liu Wu Dai was somewhat curious but didn't press further. After all, it was his skill, and it didn't seem particularly useful in a deathmatch mission anyway.
Having obtained the skill, I have to test it, Li Ang thought. It would be bad if I needed it later and messed up due to lack of experience.
He reached out and touched a dashboard ornament in the mini sedan. It was a plastic, cartoon-style white rabbit in a crouching pose, looking charmingly naive. Connected to its base by a metal spring, it bobbed back and forth as the car moved.
As Li Ang activated Necromancy Technique, his Spirit Power Value and Sanity Value rapidly drained. The plastic rabbit, as if suddenly jolted awake, snapped open its slit-like eyes. It looked around in bewilderment, its four legs twitching instinctively.
Due to the metal spring, no matter how it thrashed, it couldn't detach from its base. It could only emit sharp SQUEALS, somewhat resembling a mule or donkey, from its spot. It looked... surprisingly cute.
Li Ang tried to calm the rabbit, but with a Charm Value of only four, he couldn't pacify it. Instead, he only managed to frighten the plastic rabbit into excreting a pile of round, smooth, odorless, white plastic pellets.
Did I just scare the "poop" out of it?