The First Round Ends

2024-07-25

Chapter 385 (4200) First Round Ends

The Earth Barrier flickered intermittently, but apart from the sniper a few hundred meters away, there were no enemies to be seen.

Where did the attack come from?

Luo Jun looked around. There were no enemies in the courtyard of the Ancient Temple, or at least he could not detect anything unusual with his senses. However, the barrier was indeed under attack, and the degree of attack was very intense.

"It feels like some kind of Resonance Device..." Old Man Yang Wenyue said, "This kind of energy barrier seems impenetrable, but it actually relies mainly on energy fluctuations to isolate attacks. If there is a special device that resonates with the frequency of the barrier, it can cause great damage to energy-based barriers!"

"Resonance Device..." Luo Jun had never heard of this method before. "How far away can it be activated?"

"Not too far," Yang Wenyue said. "As far as I know, it has to be at an extremely close distance. In most cases, to achieve the best resonance effect, the device even has to be installed directly on the barrier."

Extremely close distance...

Luo Jun looked around, then suddenly looked down at the ground.

Could it be that...

He raised his fist and slammed it into the ground, causing the ground to crack open and revealing the long-abandoned sewers!

Luo Jun jumped down and crouched down to walk along the sewer for a while. Soon he saw a yellow barrier that was constantly flashing. There was a strange instrument installed on it. The vibration and flashing were radiating outward from the instrument.

Found it!

The Earth Barrier, normally, should be a sphere centered on the mechanism. However, in most cases, the Earth Barrier is installed on the ground, so it appears to be a hemisphere. But in reality, there is also a lower half of the barrier beneath the ground, which, although it does not cut into the ground, provides the same protective effect.

This feature also prevents anyone from digging tunnels to enter the barrier.

Now that the barrier has been weakened by the Resonance Device and there are no enemies nearby, the only explanation is that someone has installed the device underground in an unseen place... With Luo Jun and Wang Yifan's Perception Ability, if they were digging a tunnel, it would definitely attract attention. The only way to install the Resonance Device silently is to use an existing tunnel.

Although it was abandoned, it was still a town, and there must have been a well-connected underground drainage system. If that's the case, the other party may have made contact with the underground Earth Barrier through the sewers!

Luo Jun raised his hand and shattered the Resonance Device outside the barrier, immediately stopping the flickering and vibration.

Luo Jun had just breathed a sigh of relief when he suddenly noticed the barrier flicker violently, and then... it disappeared!

What... Luo Jun was surprised for a moment, then immediately realized that although the Resonance Device had been removed, the barrier had been weakened too much, and the last bit of energy had been Violence destroyed by the enemy projection!

Thinking of this, he immediately leaped upwards, bursting through the ground and bursting out, just in time to witness the chaotic scene.

An enemy projection, shattered by the combined fire of the crowd, was flying backward, its mangled limbs flying away. At the same time, amidst the chaos, Li Xiuzhen clasped her hands together, and a circle of Flying Sword floated behind her, piercing towards a corner of the void. The tip of the foremost Flying Sword suddenly gushed blood, and then a semi-transparent phantom appeared.

However, even with the Flying Sword in its body, the projection refused to give up. With its last strength, it threw its curved blade, which flew towards Zhu Xixi, who was closest to it. Zhu Xixi had already sensed the Killing Intent. With a flick of her hands, she controlled the flying blade to deflect it back, slicing off the projection's head in a flash.

The moment the barrier shattered, two projections were destroyed by the crowd, but the third projection was still aiming from the rooftop hundreds of meters away!

"Watch out for snipers!" Luo Jun looked warily in the direction of the sniper, but Zhang Lao San's laughter came from the side. "Don't worry, Teacher Xu has already set up a barrier, the sniping won't work."

Upon closer inspection, Luo Jun indeed saw a transparent Water Curtain outside the courtyard wall. Because it was almost completely still, it resembled a large piece of glass and was difficult to spot without close inspection.

"A bullet flying at high speed encounters extremely strong resistance when it enters water, and my Water Curtain is exactly the nemesis of a sniper." Xu Li was also very confident in her abilities.

"Something's not right..." Luo Jun frowned. "The sniper isn't in the same spot anymore! He's trying to bypass the Water Curtain!"

Upon hearing this, Wang Yifan also looked in the direction of the sniper. "Indeed!" While admiring Luo Jun's perception, he immediately looked around. "Strange, I can't sense his presence anywhere..."

Just then, a burst of Blood Flower suddenly erupted in the void, and a mangled corpse, now only half-dead, flew out and crashed to the ground. Then, a loud gunshot rang out.

The sniper opened fire!

But everyone is here, so who died?

Just as everyone was stunned, Zhao Xiaoyu's body flickered a few times and then disappeared completely...

Luo Jun and Wang Yifan immediately looked in the direction from which the gunshot came and found that the sniper had not moved and had reappeared on the same rooftop. However, the Water Curtain separating the sniper and the Ancient Temple remained calm, without any signs of damage...

Luo Jun frowned, lifted his leg and leaped high into the air, rushing across the Water Curtain. The sniper immediately adjusted his gun, aimed at the leaping Luo Jun, and fired a shot!

Bang!

The bullet struck the Gathering Origin Protective Qi and was easily deflected. Luo Jun, still in mid-air, had already summoned the Longitudinal and Horizontal Giant Cannon, which he carried on his shoulder and aimed at the sniper from his high vantage point.

"You like shooting so much? Come snipe me from mid!"

"Boom boom boom boom boom boom boom..."

Under the relentless bombardment of the Longitudinal and Horizontal Giant Cannon, not only was the sniper destroyed, but the house where he was setting up his gun, along with half a block of buildings, was razed to the ground, leaving only a desolate crater in the ground...

With that, the projections of the three Attacker were destroyed, and everyone could relax for the time being.

However, the results are not optimistic. At most, they could lose ten people, but this is only the first round, and two of them have already died.

As for whether there would be any casualties on the other side, to be honest, considering Yu Shan's appearance, no one had much hope.

With less than five minutes left in the first round, everyone began to review the round.

First, there was the sneak attack on the statue. If I'm not mistaken, as one of the Side Mission, the statue should only have the characteristic of resisting spiritual energy, otherwise the difficulty would be a bit too much. The ability to stealthily assassinate is almost certainly the opponent's ability, and according to Grandma Li's identification, the one who was killed by everyone's concentrated fire was Feng Tianci's projection.

If Liu Yufeng's death could be attributed to the opponent's skillful maneuvering, then Zhao Xiaoyu's later death at the hands of a sniper was a complete and utter defeat...

She had already activated her Invisibility Technique beforehand and even created an Illusion Dummy to confuse her opponent, yet she was still shot in the real body and Sudden Death instantly... What's even stranger is, how did this guy do it? He suddenly disappeared without a trace, then suddenly reappeared, and then, through Xu Li's Water Curtain, directly Sniper Shot Zhao Xiaoyu... "His bullets can curve." Ma Lei looked at the direction the body fell. "Judging from the splash pattern, the bullet didn't come straight from the sniper's direction; it must have curved, bypassing the Water Curtain barrier. Either it's a weapon's built-in special effect, or he's a master of Manipulation School."

"I'm thinking of someone..." Old Man Yang Wenyue said, "[The Savage Wilderness] once had a very famous sniper, known for his ability to make bullets curve. About seven or eight years ago, he disappeared in the wilderness. This kind of thing is very common in [The Savage Wilderness]. Everyone thought he died inside the belly of some monster... Now it seems, maybe he became Polluter."

"Polluter from the [Savage Wilderness]?" Grandma Li frowned slightly. "Then he should have obvious mutation characteristics..." As she spoke, she looked at Wang Yifan and Luo Jun, as only these two had seen the sniper's appearance.

Wang Yifan shook his head. "Although that guy was wearing a lot of clothes, judging from his exposed face, he should look like an ordinary person."

"No..." Luo Jun suddenly retorted, "When I bombarded him, I vaguely saw a piece of skin fly up... At the time, I thought it was shattered tissue... Now that I think about it, it could have been a mask or something similar used for disguise."

"That makes it even more likely." Zheng Yunshan looked at Yang Wenyue: "Uncle, what's that sniper's name, and what are his abilities?"

"I don't know his name, I only know his nickname is Death Gun. We went on a mission together once. The ability of the bullets to curve must be a weapon special effect. As for himself, he has both Spell Faction and Illusion Faction abilities."

"Dual Spell Faction and Illusion Faction?" Wang Yifan frowned and said, "I see, that's why he can disappear repeatedly!"

As the only one with Insight Faction, Wang Yifan never let his guard down. He was certain that the sniper was not on the house before the barrier was disturbed.

The most reasonable guess is that the guy fired a shot while in Stealth Status, using five times the damage to try and break the shield... Now that I think about it, he probably didn't use the assassination ability assigned to him in the mission, but instead used his invisibility ability to confuse the opponents, making Team One think that he had already used the assassination ability, so that he could take someone down with the assassination ability when everyone was off guard!

With the Resonance Device in place, there's no need to waste the precious opportunity of five times the damage to break the shield. And under this rule, as a projection, there's no need to consider personal safety or other factors; getting kills should be the primary objective!

From this perspective, the projection's behavior is somewhat similar to that of a robot. Although it lacks emotions, it possesses sufficient intelligence, at least knowing how to combine illusion and reality to confuse its opponents.

An opponent who knows no fear but is intelligent enough is more terrifying than True Person!

As for the Last One projection, the one killed by Grandma Li and Zhu Xixi, its identity cannot be confirmed for the time being because it did not exhibit any special abilities and no one recognized it.

But everyone was very curious about how Grandma Li managed to find the projection while she was in Stealth Status.

"Perfect invisibility, perfect silence, masking odors and heat radiation... the only thing it doesn't shield is Tactile Sense," Grandma Li explained, then raised her hand and scattered small Flying Insects.

"This is..." Zhu Xixi caught one, and upon closer inspection, she realized it wasn't an insect, but a simple Flying Machine consisting only of wings and a main body, about the size of a mosquito.

Zhu Xixi's eyes lit up. "I know! Grandmother, you set up these little Flying Insects around the area so they could hit the hidden target and pinpoint its location!"

Grandma Li smiled and nodded, "Due to my limited talent, I am not good at Genesis Art... I can only focus on studying Creation Art. This little mechanism is an enlarged version for your convenience. The ones I actually sent out to scout are ten times smaller than this. Now, the courtyard of this Ancient Temple is full of these little Flying Insects. I can detect anyone who gets close."

"Looking at it this way, it was my barrier that limited your abilities, sir." Luo Jun suddenly realized that he had covered everyone up, preventing Grandma Li's Flying Insects from escaping. Therefore, she was only able to sense the hidden enemy after the barrier was broken.

"I only came up with this idea on the spur of the moment. I tried it a few times while I was inside the barrier before I made this little thing..." Grandma Li said with a smile, "Your barrier is a very useful defensive measure. Next time I use it, please allow me to scatter more insects out."

As the first round of time limits ended, everyone was teleported back to the station.

When Xu Shan saw that two people were missing when they returned, he couldn't help but ask. After learning that Liu Yufeng and Zhao Xiaoyu had died at the hands of the projection, he smiled and comforted them, "Everyone... did their best... the opponent was too cunning... there was nothing we could do..."

"At least we've obtained information on two of our opponents..." Zheng Yunshan sighed. "By the way, you can see the situation on both sides from here. Have they suffered any losses?"

Xu Shan said embarrassedly, "I... my projections were useless... I didn't kill a single one, and they were Counter-kill..."

This was expected by everyone, since he was the only one left, and they hadn't really been counting on him anyway.

"Tch, what a piece of trash!" Zhang Lao San scoffed. Xu Shan's face twitched slightly, but he still managed a forced smile and said, "Third Brother is right, I am indeed useless..."

"Let's say less..." Yang Wenyue advised, "The enemy's strength is somewhat beyond our expectations, and we mustn't let ourselves fight amongst ourselves. The most urgent task is to determine the personnel for this round of Attacker."

"The defenders definitely need to have Night's involvement; that barrier is incredibly useful!" Zhang Lao San suggested.

"What if the other side brings out a resonator again?" Zhu Xixi asked.

"Not everyone can have a resonator," Zhang Lao San said, pursing his lips.

"Wait a minute..." Wang Yifan frowned. "What if the person who had the Resonator in the last round lent their Noble Phantasm to the Attacker in this round? Even if we can't find out from the information board whether there's a barrier here, the Resonator is still a very advantageous Noble Phantasm for Attacker!"

"You can do that?" This was a thought that no one had considered. Xu Li nodded and said, "If that's the case, we can also swap Noble Phantasms, concentrating powerful offensive Noble Phantasms on the Attacker and defensive Noble Phantasms on the defender. Let's give it a try!"

The group immediately tried, only to receive a message stating that the treasure could not be traded during this mission...

"Looks like it won't work..." Xu Li, somewhat disappointed, but Zhu Xixi comforted her, "But this also confirms that the other party cannot trade resonators. It seems that the barrier of night won't be so easy to break."

At this moment, Luo Jun shook his head. "I can't use my barrier this round. There's a one-hour Cooldown Time, so I'll have to wait for the next round."

That makes sense; it would be abnormal for such a powerful Noble Phantasm to have no cooldown.

"It's alright, we can use it every other match..." Zheng Yunshan glanced at Luo Jun, then had a sudden inspiration. "Since we can't use the barrier this round, why don't we leave Ye to be the Attacker ..."

(End of this chapter)