Chapter 33 "Hey... Old man, what are you doin'..." Xiao Tan, having been snatched into the sky, only managed to say half a sentence before he looked up... and discovered that the black-robed elder had transformed into a giant black-feathered raven, and the hand grabbing him had turned into a huge bird claw.

"Don't be afraid, young man," the elder's voice resonated from the raven's chest. "Don't move, I'm just taking you somewhere. I won't hurt you."

"Uh... to be honest, old man," Xiao Tan hesitated, "before finding bread for you, I still have some unfinished business..."

"As long as you're willing to help me with my affairs... I'll help you with yours," the elder replied.

"Hahahaha..." Feng Bujue, following Xiao Tan from the spectator's perspective, burst out laughing. "To propose such a deal, this is a sure win."

Jue-Ge's thinking was clear. The moment the NPC spoke, he had already calculated the odds... Whatever the elder asked Xiao Tan to do, it would be part of the plot. If he succeeded, great, there would be extra rewards to be had; if he failed... as long as he didn't die, there would be no loss. And the thing Xiao Tan needed the elder to help him with was naturally to deal with the Corn Cob team... If he could handle it, great, the enemy would be wiped out by the NPC; if he couldn't... anyway, there was no loss on Hell Frontline's side. As long as the enemy team suffered some damage, that would be a win.

"Um... alright then..." Xiao Tan replied, "By the way, old man, I haven't asked what to call you yet?"

"Call me?" The other party's tone seemed to carry a hint of doubt. "Oh..." Perhaps it had been too long since he'd been asked that question, he seemed to think for a moment before remembering his name, "Tuparethor."

...

Meanwhile, in another part of the ruins.

"Strange..." Hua Jian muttered, looking at the statue in front of her. "Nothing special seems to be happening..."

"Yeah..." Ruoyu said, "Maybe we're overthinking it."

They had spent ten minutes carefully examining the statue from top to bottom. Ruoyu even jumped onto the statue's head and looked around, but to no avail.

"Could it be... that this statue is actually something like a sundial?" Hua Jian's imagination was quite strong.

"But there aren't any markings on the ground or anything..." Ruoyu replied, "Even if you could explain it as... the markings on the ground are no longer visible due to the age..." She paused, "I don't think that 'king' would use his own statue as a sundial pointer..."

"Hehe..." Hua Jian laughed, she also thought that this reasoning was quite flawed, "Maybe only Feng Bujue would do that."

"Hmph..." Ruoyu also chuckled lightly, "If Bujue were the king... he wouldn't just use his statue as a sundial pointer, he would use his various facial expression reliefs to make all the markings..."

"Hahaha..." Hua Jian laughed, "Ruoyu, your taunting skills have improved recently."

"Yeah..." Ruoyu shrugged helplessly, "Although I don't want to admit it... it's probably influenced by someone..."

"Eh~" Hua Jian continued, "Do you think... he might be watching us right now?"

"It doesn't matter if he hears us," Ruoyu said calmly, "He's not the type to get angry after being ridiculed, mocked, or teased..." As she said this, she unconsciously glanced behind her, "He's the type to wait for an opportunity to return the favor tenfold..."

"Tch... acting like you know me so well..." At this moment, Feng Bujue really was behind Ruoyu, but it was impossible for Ruoyu to sense his existence, so that glance just now should have been instinct...

"In any case, since there's nothing here, let's continue along the main road," Ruoyu turned her head after a few seconds, and pointed back to the route they had taken earlier.

Although the land of the White Kingdom had become a barren wasteland, the original layout of the roads could be roughly guessed based on the location of the architectural ruins.

"Okay, let's go." Hua Jian nodded, and the two turned back.

And just as they turned to leave, neither of them, including Feng Bujue, who was in the spectator's perspective, noticed... that the eyes of the tilted statue behind them... twitched.

...

Looking at the other side...

"Hmph... found them..." Xiao Ling only spent ten minutes catching up with the Corn Cob team, and locked three enemy team members within her line of sight without them noticing her.

"Only three people..." She thought as she quietly followed them, "The fourth person is either scouting ahead, or lying in ambush near these three as a hidden protector..."

Thinking of this, her concentration increased a bit, and the speed of her vision and thinking accelerated again.

"At this distance... I can already use [Holy Arbitration]..." Xiao Ling thought after chasing closer for several dozen meters, "But after firing, my position will be exposed..." She hesitated for a few seconds, "Hmm... but no matter how I look at it... it's more cost-effective to fire, there's no reason to give up this opportunity to heavily damage the enemy first..."

Having made up her mind, she took out her perfect quality sniper rifle, Yao Tao Ban Tu Chuan Fang Xun (Peach Blossoms Half Open, Spreading Fragrant News), from her bag and accelerated forward.

"Ho~ This is a rhythm of using a sniper to stealthily attack..." At this time, Feng Bujue, who had just turned his gaze from another place, happened to see Xiao Ling take out her gun, and he muttered with great interest, "Let me see... um... there are three people on the other side, their specializations, skills, and equipment are all unknown... and after hearing the gunshot, the fourth person will probably arrive in a short time as well." He thought for a moment, then continued, "To be cautious, she'll have to move her position immediately after firing the first shot. If it were me... I'd also throw a signal flare to the side before moving; anyway, I'm not afraid of being seen by the other side at this moment, it might even be able to confuse them and create some psychological pressure."

Jue-Ge's analysis was very reliable, and coincided with Xiao Ling's strategy. However, as the person involved, the deductions Xiao Ling was making at this moment were even more far-reaching than Jue-Ge's... In the seconds before taking out her gun, she had already fully considered the "moving position" afterwards.

According to her estimate, the worst result of this sneak attack was that the enemy team would be seriously injured, while she herself would be in a situation of being hunted down by multiple people.

In this situation, there were two possible developments: First, the enemy chased very closely, not only quickly closing the distance, but also launching effective attacks, successfully dragging her into an encirclement.

In this case, Xiao Ling would give up on running, and use her title ability at the right time.

[Name: Rampaging Fortress]

[Special Ability Type: Active]

[Consumption: 30% of Stamina Limit, 70% of Spirit Energy Limit, at least four shooting weapons and a total of 400 rounds of ammunition (any type) must exist within a radius of two meters]

[Effect: Uses psychokinesis to drive all shooting weapons in the area to launch non-stop indiscriminate attacks on the surroundings]

[Note: Cooldown time is three hours, duration is thirty seconds.

When activated, all usable (meeting the caster's equipment conditions), unowned (not bound to other players, NPCs, or monsters), and owned by the caster (whether inside or outside the bag) shooting weapons within a radius of two meters centered on the caster... will all be absorbed by this skill, and will unfold in a ring around the caster's body, firing at high speed in a revolving shooting format.

The caster cannot end the effect of Rampaging Fortress early. Even if the ammunition runs out, the firing will not stop, but the damage of "overloaded" ammunition will be reduced to 30% of normal damage.

During the Rampaging Fortress, all non-physical damage received by the caster is increased by 20%; damage from the physical level is reduced by 50%, and there is a chance that it will be directly blocked by the weapons surrounding her body. After the skill ends, the weapons owned by the caster will return to their original equipped positions, and the remaining weapons will fly outward at their corresponding rate of fire, creating a final wave of diffusive impact.]

This title ability was really not easy to coordinate with teammates, because this move could really accidentally injure or even kill teammates... But when trapped in an encirclement, this move was a heaven-defying life-saving skill.

Of course, the specific power still depended on how many guns Xiao Ling had around her at the time. For example, in this script, there was no such thing as a "gun shop," so when Xiao Ling activated her title ability, she could only offer her own weapons.

And the shooting weapons on her body totaled eight... They were: Shi Yue (Moon Slayer), Yu Xing (Meteor), (spiritual energy weapons), FN57 (a type of high-performance semi-automatic pistol), MP5 (submachine gun, made in Germany, fast rate of fire, high accuracy), KRISS Super V (which submachine gun has the lowest recoil? Look for the Americans across the ocean), Ultimax 100 (a light machine gun that you can carry away if you say so), Yao Tao Ban Tu Chuan Fang Xun (Peach Blossoms Half Open, Spreading Fragrant News), and the Incineration Propulsion Cannon.

Basically speaking... if it was in the real world, a place with a relatively high population density... she could kill a platoon of people with this skill once. But in the game world, the killing power of this move would have to be questioned, because she had not yet encountered a suitable opportunity to activate this skill.

The above was the response to the first situation.

Let's talk about the second one—that is, the enemy was not chasing very closely, but Xiao Ling could not get rid of the other party.

In this case, she could fight and retreat, controlling the rhythm. As long as she chose a good escape route, and released a signal flare again after a period of time, she could quickly welcome the support of her teammates, and take the opportunity to launch a counterattack.

The above two were still changes derived from the "worst result," as for the relatively "good" results... such as the other party directly being blown off one head with one shot, two heads being blown off in a panic, or even being gradually consumed and wiped out during the pursuit... were all possible.

Therefore, Xiao Ling's sneak attack was imperative, this kind of deal with an excellent risk-reward ratio was definitely not a loss.

"Six hundred meters... is enough, getting any closer risks being discovered." After another minute, Xiao Ling had approached to an ideal distance (after her reconnaissance specialization increased, her sense of distance became exceptionally keen, even for targets far away, she could judge the exact distance with her naked eye), "Even the leader's zero-time difference calculation may not be able to avoid a sniper within six hundred meters..."

When Xiao Ling was sniping Feng Bujue in Wushuang Plains, she didn't dare to get this close. At that time, she specifically chose to launch a surprise attack from more than a kilometer away. Thinking about it now... that distance was actually not far enough, because Feng Bujue's advance speed was really terrifying; if she could have been further away, Xiao Ling might have been able to buy more time and opportunities.

"Hopefully I can kill one person..." Xiao Ling muttered as she found a broken wall of a building and quickly set up her sniper rifle.

Selecting a target, aiming, activating the skill, pulling the trigger... the whole process was completed in one go, a deadly attack brought out by instinctive and skilled movements...

Bang—

The moment the gunshot sounded, the head of Wei Wu Ba Qi (Powerful, Domineering) exploded like a watermelon.

Just as Xiao Ling had predicted and hoped... this long-range sneak attack directly completed a kill. The other party didn't even have a chance to fight back, and became a broken corpse, disappearing into white light in a matter of seconds.

"Flash!" After all, Xiao Xue Gou (Elementary School Dog) was a professional. Before Brother Wei's corpse had completely fallen, he already understood what had happened; the instant he leaped sideways, he turned his head and roared, giving his teammates a brief and clear instruction.

It was thanks to the "flash" that he shouted out in time that Lonely Bro picked up his life...

Perhaps out of an instinctive reaction to "obey the captain's orders," in this critical and astonishing change, Lonely Bro did what Dog Bro said in the first instance. Although he didn't know where to flash, it was always right to curl up and roll on the ground... unless facing an attack from the ground, this was an almost omnipotent dodging method.

So, before the sound of the first shot had completely dissipated, Dog Bro and Lonely Bro had flashed behind two pieces of cover in different ways.

"Tch..." Xiao Ling saw the reaction of the two people through the scope, curled her lips, and muttered, "Since that's the case... let's take what we can get."

She put the sniper rifle back into her bag, turned and ran, and in the process, she casually took out a [Spiritual Vision Signal Flare], pressed the switch, and threw it towards the sky directly above.

Chiu—Pa!

The signal flare accelerated upwards after leaving her hand, and suddenly exploded when it reached a height of about two hundred meters, blooming in mid-air into a dazzling, flower-shaped pattern like fireworks.

Only people with a Spiritualism specialization of D or above could see this pattern. Even if ordinary people heard the sound nearby, they could not see this spectacle in the sky.

The four players of Hell Frontline could naturally all see this signal, and the remaining three members of the Corn Cob team could also see it...

"Dog Bro! What's going on?" The series of astonishing changes that followed in a matter of seconds made Lonely Bro appear somewhat flustered. He lowered his voice and spoke to Elementary School Dog, who was squatting six or seven meters away, behind another piece of cover.

"Don't panic." Elementary School Dog's psychological quality was not bad. If he couldn't withstand this little storm, there would be no need for him to lead a team. "We should have been ambushed by the enemy team's shooting specialization player."

"Then what do we do now?" Lonely Bro asked again.

"Hmm... judging from the gunshot and the blood that Wei Wu sprayed out, the person who launched the attack is in that direction..." Elementary School Dog carefully used his hand to point out the approximate direction for his teammates, "What the other party put into the sky just now was a signal flare. I've seen people use it in other scripts before. If nothing else... this is to notify their teammates to come." He paused, then continued, "If the other party has the advantage in numbers, there's no need to do this... so I infer that there's only one enemy, at most no more than two... right now we'll split up to the left and right, and approach at high speed... then..."

"Wait... wait..." Lonely Bro interrupted the captain, "Judging by the gunshot, the other party is at least four or five hundred meters away from us... Without cover, the two of us are likely to be half-dead by this shooting specialization guy on this stretch of road."

"Heh..." Elementary School Dog replied with a wry smile, "Combat is a matter of life and death... it's too naive to want to win without taking any risks, right?" As he spoke, he took out a shield-shaped piece of armor from his bag, "If we switch places and think about it... isn't the other party also taking a huge risk, launching a surprise attack on us when they are outnumbered?"

"I understand..." Lonely Bro's expression turned stern, "I'm prepared! Let's go!"

"Okay... you go that way, I'll go this way..." Elementary School Dog gestured a few times with his hand before taking the lead to rush out.

Dog Bro was also a professional player, with a wealth of combat experience. According to his experience... at this distance, after a shooting player succeeds with one shot, they will mostly stay in place and continue to aim, waiting for the remaining targets to enter their line of sight again before taking a second round. A small number of people... will choose to immediately change positions after succeeding with one shot, with ensuring their own safety and concealment as the top priority.

But in either case, there was no doubt that... as long as the target was still within the range of damage, the shooting specialization player would not actively close the distance with the target. In other words... no matter whether the other party was aiming in place or moving around, their range of activity could never invade the trajectory of the previous shot.

Xiao Ling... did indeed conform to this situation.

After releasing the signal flare, she ran while turning her head to peek, but after waiting for nearly thirty seconds, she didn't see anyone come out, and the distance between her and the other party had already reached eight hundred meters.

"These two guys... could it be that they were frightened by that shot and simply didn't intend to chase?" This thought quickly appeared in Xiao Ling's mind, of course, this was also one of the situations she had deduced in advance, and she also had corresponding countermeasures for the enemy's reaction...