Sitting in a wooden chair with a broken backrest, Cheng Tian cleaned the bloodstains and chunks of flesh off his shields by stuffing them into his Inventory, a satisfied expression appearing on his face.
However, this seemingly germophobic weapon-inspection habit had little practical meaning, because his suit was covered in blood that had begun to turn sticky and stiff, while his face and hands were somewhat dirty as well.
Aside from Cheng Tian himself, there was no one else left standing—or alive—in this tavern, which was such a complete mess that there was barely anywhere to step.
With 24 points in Strength Attribute and the improved defensive performance brought by equipping two shields at once, Cheng Tian had once again blocked an entire bar full of gang lackeys with almost no injuries, nearly wiping them out. The reason it was only nearly was that the bartender who had taken his money for the map had already slipped into the Secret Passage through the storeroom.
Cheng Tian's recklessness depended on the terrain and the situation. He would never risk charging into an underground passage where the route ahead was completely unknown.
Though he was currently covered in blood and filthy enough to need a scouring pad, it was all someone else's blood.
Among armor of the same type, the Giant's Head was the textbook example of being mediocre at everything. Its defensive performance was extremely low, but under the effects of the Captain America template, its defensive performance had returned to normal levels.
At the same time, Cheng Tian had equipped Captain America's Shield in his main hand.
[Captain America's Shield: Shield, Template Armament. Equipment Requirement: Captain America template/Strength 15. Defensive Performance 25, Shield Bash Damage 1-1. Durability -/-.] An accidental product forged from raw Edman Metal, indestructible and possessing extremely strong kinetic absorption, resistance to extreme temperatures, radiation, and other external damage. The shield could completely negate all frontal ranged attack damage whose scale did not exceed the shield's surface area, then ricochet the negated attack away. The shield could absorb physical and energy impacts from outside to the greatest extent possible while maintaining its own properties unchanged.]
Because Captain America's Shield was a Template Armament that could stack enchantments with equipment of the same type, its Shield Bash damage had been heavily nerfed, much like the whip from the previous template. Its attributes also could not fully reproduce the original setting, since its source material was merely an NES game with limited capabilities.
Unlike its attack power, though, the shield's defensive performance had not been weakened in the slightest, fully reflecting the features of the original game.
Captain America's Shield and the Captain America template loaded by Cheng Tian had both originated from the NES version of Captain's Orders. In truth, that translated name had been the result of a domestic distributor's random translation back then. Like "Operation Wolf" for "Chi Color Fortress" and "Green Beret" for "Green Army," they were all mistranslations that had nonetheless become permanently engraved in a generation's memories.
Therefore, the proper translated title of Captain's Orders should have been Captain America and the Avengers.
Even more interestingly, among the identically titled ports released on numerous platforms, the NES version was the only one whose gameplay had undergone drastic changes.
In the original arcade version, players could control as many as four characters: Captain America, Hawkeye, Iron Man, and Vision. Its gameplay also leaned more toward a beat 'em up.
Once it reached the NES, however, it directly became an action platformer similar to Shin Demon Resurrection, featuring exploration, puzzle-solving, and a large map where stages could be selected repeatedly.
At the same time, in order to save cartridge space, the number of playable characters was cut down to just Captain America and Hawkeye. The game even created a "reasonable" original plotline for the removed Iron Man and Vision, simply writing both of them out through the story.
However, the radically altered NES version also gave Captain America and Hawkeye stronger character capabilities than the original version, and those enhanced capabilities were reflected in the template Cheng Tian had currently loaded.
In the game, as long as the shield faced the enemy head-on, every ranged attack that struck it could be ricocheted away.
When Cheng Tian had blocked the doorway to prevent gang members from escaping, he had been shot at by half the enemies. Clearly, this gang had a high rate of gun ownership.
But Cheng Tian, this Scallop Warrior, possessed not only Captain America's Shield but also a Giant Shield. With both shields raised in front of him, he was practically a wall. The gang members soon discovered that their barrage not only failed to break through Cheng Tian's defenses, but Captain America's Shield's highly random ricochet mechanic had also caused more than a dozen instances of friendly-fire damage. One after another, they bled and wailed in pain.
But once they stopped focusing their fire, it was Cheng Tian's turn to act.
Captain America's Shield and the Giant's Head began ricocheting through the crowd in alternation.
Though the former's Shield Bash damage was relatively weak, its impact momentum was abundant. Combined with the fact that its thrower was Cheng Tian, who had 24 points of Strength, even if it had not been Captain America's Shield with its excellent Kinetic Arc, a thrown pen would have been enough to pierce an ordinary person's palm at medium range.
Though the Giant's Head's throwing speed and accuracy were far inferior to Captain America's Shield, tossing that thing was like throwing a Bust Sketch. Tell me, would you dodge it or not?~
It was worth mentioning that under the effects of the Captain America template, the shields behaved somewhat differently in Cheng Tian's hands.
Normally, a shield was just a shield. Its primary function and role were that of defensive equipment, so choosing to throw it was equivalent to temporarily giving up ownership of it. The shield's bonuses would disappear the moment it left the thrower's hand, and there was no such thing as Soul Binding. Theoretically, if another player picked it up, it became theirs.
But although Cheng Tian had clearly thrown his shields, their corresponding bonuses remained on him. Moreover, he could distinctly feel that some kind of connection between himself and the shields still remained.
All he needed to do next was perform the arm-shaking motion used to exert force in Spring Fist within a certain distance, and whether it was Captain America's Shield or the Ogre Head, it would automatically return to the arm corresponding to its Equipment Slot.
Clearly, this was the description in "Shield Master"—"your connection and coordination with shields will become closer"—taking effect.
With this marvelous Man-Shield Unity and the special shields in his hands, Cheng Tian could even perform some extremely peculiar maneuvers...
This passive extermination of the tavern lackeys had brought some gains. Nearly twenty lackeys had contributed three Black Iron Treasure Chests, and the Drop Rate was clearly higher than that of zombies.
The first chest had contained a Windproof Lighter and a bundle of three cigars that could slightly accelerate MP Recovery. The second and third chests had respectively contained a Moth Gang Fighter File and a Moth Gang Gunner File.
And at the instant those two paper items entered his hands, Cheng Tian's Bounty Mission progress unexpectedly advanced by half!
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