Powerful Talent

"Careful, snakes are coming. More than one."

"What?!"

Zhang Wei immediately sprang to his feet in terror, gripping the steel pipe in his hand. Brother Tao had made killing the Giant Snake look easy before, but that had only been one snake!

Each Giant Snake had an enormous head and tremendous vitality. Even if every shot hit the head, it usually took at least a dozen rounds to finish one off.

Human attention was limited. It was easy to focus on one thing and neglect another. If several appeared at once, these Giant Snakes, each capable of killing with a single strike, would make the danger and difficulty skyrocket!

Sweat appeared on Zhang Wei's hand gripping the steel pipe, mixing with the bloody fluid from the snake carcass they had been cutting open. The pipe felt slippery in his grasp.

As the commotion grew louder, Tao Yu quickly glanced back at the snake corpse on the ground and cursed inwardly. Was this one female? Why had it attracted so many?

This was getting troublesome...

Tao Yu could fight these Giant Snakes entirely because of the advantage of firearms, but his own defense was equally incapable of withstanding their attacks!

Even with One Proof, Eternal Proof, which allowed him to unleash enough strength even after being bitten to pieces, it could not change the fact that he would still be killed instantly.

Looking at the willpower that had returned to one hundred units, Tao Yu hesitated for a moment and chose not to immediately deify any combat skill.

His shooting accuracy was temporarily sufficient, while unarmed combat, blades, and swords were all constrained by his physical attributes. He might as well save all one hundred points for staying alive.

If he really got swallowed by a snake, he could recover and cut his way out of its belly again!

Adjusting himself through the Breathing Technique, his blood and qi surged through his body as Tao Yu constantly scanned his surroundings, ready to take one out first at any moment.

Rustle, rustle~

The sound of branches moving drew closer, along with the sound of fallen leaves being swept aside. Some were in the trees, while others were coming from the ground.

Tao Yu could even occasionally catch sight of green bodies flashing past, but he did not fire.

He had tested it before. Gunshot wounds to the body had limited effect on creatures this huge. Besides, one magazine only held thirty rounds. With multiple snakes, he also had to consider reload time and ammunition expenditure!

"They're here!"

The first Giant Snake's head finally emerged, slowly extending from behind a massive tree.

Tao Yu gave it no chance to react and opened fire first!

The difficulty of dealing with them one by one versus dealing with them simultaneously was on an entirely different level. He had to eliminate one first!

But just as blood sprayed from the head of the Giant Snake Tao Yu was shooting and its body twisted, a Giant Snake burst through the dense branches overhead behind him, opening its jaws as it lunged down at Tao Yu!

The spring-like body unleashed speed and power far beyond what it displayed while slithering.

Although Zhang Wei screamed threateningly from the side and waved his steel pipe, it was completely useless. These Giant Snakes seemed quite intelligent and knew who posed the greater threat!

At the same time, a third Giant Snake appeared from the side, rapidly coiling its body to prepare for an explosive strike!

Tao Yu had never placed his hopes on Zhang Wei drawing their attention. While calmly finishing off the first snake, the pumping of his heart seemed to slow abruptly.

He could clearly feel blood pumping out of the ventricles. Every breath seemed to stir the rolling blood and qi, and the surrounding scene suddenly slowed down.

Bullets shot from the barrel carved twisted trails through the air as they drilled into the giant snake's head ahead.

The sound of wind and crushing pressure from the snake lunging behind him made him twist and tear the ligaments in his legs before he barely managed to dodge sideways. At the same time, with one hand, he hooked out the pin of a fragmentation grenade and casually tossed it to the side without even looking back.

He let the Giant Snake's head brush past his body and swallow the grenade. Blood and qi compressed his muscles as he expanded his leg muscles at all costs, drawing his ligaments taut like bowstrings. He rolled across the ground and instantly opened up the distance.

Ignoring the ligament and tendon damage in his feet and fingers entirely, he raised his gun in this world where every breath felt like a slideshow, aimed at the last Giant Snake, and pulled the trigger.

Rat-a-tat-tat~

The third Giant Snake, which had just compressed itself without yet launching, was pinned down by precise shots to the head and began thrashing wildly.

The second Giant Snake, which had lunged down from above, also slammed its head heavily into the ground and failed to recover immediately.

Once the magazine had been emptied and the third Giant Snake killed, the head of the second Giant Snake, which had just recovered and raised itself again, exploded with a boom~, flesh and blood flying everywhere!

Without paying attention to the results, Tao Yu changed magazines while maintaining a high state of alert.

The blood-and-qi burst from the modified Basic Breathing Technique, combined with the extra stamina consumption and physical strain from focusing through Bullet Time, left his entire body feeling as though it were being torn apart.

The ligaments in his ankles and knees, along with the tendons in his fingers, felt as though they had snapped.

Yet the more intense the pain became, the clearer Tao Yu's mind was. His movements did not pause in the slightest.

Aside from the forced weakening of physical damage, Tao Yu could still unleash attacks close to his peak with little impairment!

"One Proof, Eternal Proof comes with an enhanced version of Combat Continuance, I guess..."

Feeling the tearing pain throughout his body and the strength he could still maintain, Tao Yu found himself somewhat unable to complain.

Only after using Bullet Time's powerful dynamic perception to confirm there was no danger nearby did he finally relax slightly.

That had been the first time he had used Bullet Time's active effect in actual combat. The result was far better than the small test he had done the previous night while eating Serpent Meat to replenish himself.

The explosive force created by forcibly tearing his muscles and combining it with the blood and qi from the Breathing Technique allowed him to retain a certain degree of mobility even in that slowed visual state. Tossing the grenade and rolling to shoot had looked ordinary, but everything had been fully under his control.

He had had ample time to think through his options.

Otherwise, facing multiple attacks at once, he might really have had to rely on willpower recovery inside a snake's stomach and wait for a chance to cut himself out.

The effect was significant, but the side effects were equally obvious. The ligaments in his ankles and the cruciate ligaments in his knees had likely torn, while the tendons in his fingers were damaged. It was already physically affecting his ability to perform.

Furthermore, the explosive strength gained from Bullet Time's increased stamina consumption left his entire body sore. By his rough estimate, that brief burst had reduced his stamina to around thirty percent.

He could not pull off another burst of the same intensity.

In just a few seconds, he had nearly drained himself dry.

The consumption of this kind of instantaneous burst was truly terrifying. Even someone with excellent stamina would be panting after two hundred-meter sprints.

His talent could indeed ensure that he performed nearly at his peak as long as he had stamina, but if his stamina ran out, he would probably collapse on the spot.

But since the crisis was over, Tao Yu had no intention of using willpower to recover. It would be a waste not to eat all this Serpent Meat...

"Brother Tao, you're awesome! I thought I was going to die just now! Brother Tao, you're awesome!"

Zhang Wei grilled Serpent Meat and handed it to Tao Yu, while his mouth poured out an endless stream of praise.

His strength was what it was. To him, the earlier attack by the group of snakes had happened in an instant. All he could see was Tao Yu effortlessly scoring three kills. As for how fast Tao Yu's speed and reactions had been at the time, they looked no different from before to him.

He knew the trouble of facing enemies from multiple directions, but Tao Yu had already hunted several Giant Snakes before. Shooting two to death and blowing one up with a grenade seemed reasonable enough.

At any rate, he had survived!

Tao Yu ate the freshly grilled Serpent Meat while glancing at Zhang Wei. Once he felt that his ligaments had reconnected and would no longer physically affect him, he stood up and said,

"Let's go. We don't want to draw out a few more."

"Okay."

Hearing that more snakes might appear, Zhang Wei shrank his neck.

"But you're still too weak right now. Even with Endurance (D+), you can't make use of it at all."

Hearing Tao Yu say that, Zhang Wei could only smile awkwardly, unsure how to respond.

"When we have time on the road, I'll teach you the principles of the Basic Breathing Technique. It'll be more useful to me if you get stronger too."

But Tao Yu's seemingly casual words immediately lit up Zhang Wei's eyes, and he became extremely excited.

"The Basic Breathing Technique? Thank you, Brother Tao! Thank you! I'll definitely study hard and make myself more useful!"

No wonder Brother Tao did not look particularly muscular, yet had such good physical attributes. So it was the Basic Breathing Technique. The willpower his family had funded must have all gone toward accelerating that Breathing Technique.

That was probably how he had handled the attack from three snakes earlier. Even his current recovery speed was likely due to his proficiency with the Basic Breathing Technique...

Tao Yu glanced at the excited Zhang Wei but said nothing more.

Something that cost him nothing could motivate the other party and resolve some potential hidden dangers. It was worth it.

As for whether Zhang Wei could learn it, that had nothing to do with him. If he really did learn it, it would indeed benefit Tao Yu. Either way, it was a profit...