Gunshots

"Ah, Mom and Dad probably never imagined I'd be doing long-range shooting."

Tao Yu slid down from the tree. Looking at the fire that had been extinguished by the giant python's thrashing, as well as the scattered debris nearby, he had no choice but to compose himself and start searching for any useful items that remained.

It was not that his parents had neglected the quality of the firearms. Rather, in an environment focused primarily on survival, situations requiring precision shots from such a distance rarely arose. When facing a threat at long range, the first choice was usually to evade, not fire a gun and make a commotion.

This AK-like rifle was powerful and had a low malfunction rate. Although it might not be as effective as a shotgun at close range, in Tao Yu's hands, with his firearms training, it was still quite good.

Even he had not expected to end up perched on a branch, taking precision shots...

Fortunately, the canteen had been left over the fire to roast. The metal canteen was a little deformed, but it was still usable.

Other than the canteen, everything he had left was the equipment on his body.

There was the cowhide armor his mother had personally made, which offered a certain degree of protection. Attached to it were a holster holding a small-caliber pistol and two fully loaded thirty-round magazines.

On the outside of his thigh hung a multipurpose dagger with a fire starter, along with the N-hand Assault Rifle with its erratic ballistics and two fragmentation grenades.

After looking around, Tao Yu no longer had to worry too much about ambushes with his current Dynamic Vision and reflexes.

For protection, the places where the World Will sent people on Awakening Day were usually relatively "low-risk" areas.

According to the experiences of his parents, Third Brother, his sister-in-law, and Uncle Hu, weapons were usually not even needed during Awakening Day. The main concerns were the environment and survival.

Dangers beyond the environment could come from wild beasts—jackals, wolves, tigers, leopards, bears—as well as venomous insects and snakes.

That giant python theoretically counted as a wild beast, but it had already exceeded the usual limits somewhat.

"I hope there isn't anything even more outrageous."

Tao Yu's eyes flickered. If this really was a world fragment from that movie he remembered, then those giant pythons could definitely be considered Wish Power Creatures!

Though they were flesh-and-blood creatures and likely did not possess much stored Wish Power, even ten or twenty points would be a pretty good haul for Tao Yu right now.

The one thousand units of Wish Power he had started with had been gifts from his parents. It had taken the two of them at least three or four months of wages, without spending anything, to save that much.

Although their jobs carried relatively low risks, they were still seasoned veterans who had been at this for decades. Yet the two of them combined only barely earned ten units of Wish Power a day.

Tao Yu would not look down on what that giant python carried just because he had spent a thousand units of Wish Power so freely at the start.

In a standard novice adjustment period like Awakening Day, getting any Wish Power income at all was already good enough.

And if this was the world fragment he suspected, those giant pythons might also be connected to another Wish Power item—the Blood Orchid!

Wish Power items could not only be absorbed directly as Wish Power; they might also have all sorts of functions of their own. The Blood Orchid looked pretty good. Maybe he could even eat it directly.

First, it was clear that he could not make it to the company's gathering point. Not just for the next half month—he might have to play wilderness survival in this rainforest for quite some time afterward!

These enormous, swift-reacting giant pythons, far stronger than ordinary snakes, were certainly more dangerous than normal beasts, but they would also bring corresponding benefits.

He had fired three shots from the tree earlier. Including the spare magazine, he had eighty-seven rifle rounds remaining, as well as seventeen small-caliber pistol rounds.

Perhaps he could try to turn those bullets into corresponding gains before he ran out of ammunition.

"I wonder where those two Floating City people are. They probably aren't in the rainforest, and they're likely far from that place with a radio they mentioned. I should still focus on gathering resources and improving myself."

Turning his potential into actual strength as soon as possible was the top priority.

When he returned, he would still be staying in the Outer City. Within the control of that damned company, only strength gave a person the right to speak!

Lowering his head to look at the bloody trail left by the wounded giant python and the direction in which it extended, Tao Yu took a deep breath and began moving that way.

"Big snake, here I come! If you eat my bullets, you'd better pay me back double!"

An hour later, Tao Yu looked up at the fading light filtering through the leaves and could not help frowning.

Although his enhanced vision meant he was not affected much, the rainforest would obviously become more dangerous at night.

His earlier practice of the Basic Breathing Technique—Revised, along with the scattered bits of time afterward, had dragged on until evening.

"It can still run so well after being shot."

After all, this was the rainforest. Tao Yu could not simply sprint along recklessly; he had been following the snake's blood trail the entire way.

Even for a giant python, gunshot wounds were not so easy to heal. Tao Yu had stayed close behind partly to see whether the thing would bleed out and drop dead along the way. Having pursued it this far, he did not want to give up easily.

Looking at a thick drop of blood on the fallen leaves ahead, as well as the snake trail the creature had carved along the way, Tao Yu looked around.

The darkening rainforest was filled with occasional rustles and strange sounds, and as the light faded, the surroundings grew increasingly eerie.

"I'll chase it for another half hour. If I still haven't caught up, I'll have to make a fire and rest."

Although Tao Yu's vision was extremely strong and he was not afraid of being unable to see, he had no intention of being overconfident.

He walked over to a nearby tree trunk and casually cut into the bark with his bayonet. Then, using his bare hands, he tore off a piece of already-loose bark and found several plump white grubs inside, which he casually stuffed into his already bulging pocket.

That was the good thing about the rainforest—there was food everywhere. These were all high-quality protein. Once he made a fire, he could roast them a little and eat them.

He could eat them raw too, but his body was not capable of resisting disease yet. If he gave himself diarrhea, he would be in deep trouble.

Diarrhea would not affect his ability to fight, and he could recover through eating, but it would still waste energy and time. There was no need to take that risk.

But at that moment, a faint burst of gunfire drifted over, making Tao Yu pause in surprise.

He then realized that he might have run into others from the same batch. Although their shared teleportation had failed to anchor them together, they probably had not been scattered too far apart.

There was also a small chance that he had encountered people native to this world fragment, but that was unlikely in a rainforest. Entry into these world fragments was highly random; it would not conveniently place them right when the plot was unfolding.

After considering it, Tao Yu slowly felt his way toward the gunfire. He would first see what kind of people they were, then decide how to respond accordingly.

No matter what, in an environment like the rainforest, having people who could temporarily team up and take turns keeping watch so everyone could rest properly was not a bad thing.

That mental exhaustion was not something that could be solved simply by recovering or not recovering.

Still, just as Uncle Hu had advised, if he encountered those people from the Inner City or that pair of twins, he would need to think things through more carefully.

Mm~

Actually, the situation had already diverged greatly from his original expectations.

If it was that pair of twins, they were trying to establish a new gathering point and were precisely in need of manpower right now.

If he truly could not avoid them, he could say his Dynamic Vision was at MAX. There was a high chance they would at least temporarily recruit him as someone useful.

Useful people would be exploited. The greater one's value, the greater one's bargaining power.

The best choice was to adjust his plans on the fly according to the circumstances.

The matter of divinity definitely had to stay buried in his gut, and he certainly would not mention Bullet Time either.

But Dynamic Vision was not something that could not be revealed. Even at MAX, it was highly likely to be inferior to the talents inherited by those twins.

Still, based on the information he had heard in the earlier broadcast, they were most likely not in the jungle, so it probably was not them...