Sniping

Inside Blue Sky Residential District, on the rooftop of a 21-story apartment building.

All six members of Fire Hammer Squad were watching carefully through binoculars, and they had been doing so for over two hours.

Luo Zhe held binoculars in his left hand and took a small sip of water from his canteen with his right. Then he lowered the binoculars, screwed the lid back onto the canteen, and put it in his backpack. After stretching a little, he picked up the binoculars again and continued scanning below.

"Captain, are we just going to sit here waiting?" Luo Feng asked. This dull search was clearly a far cry from the fierce fighting he'd imagined.

Luo Zhe turned to look at Gao Feng, too. Spending so long looking through binoculars had clearly started to get on his nerves as well.

"What do you know?" Gao Feng lowered his binoculars and smiled as he explained to Luo Zhe and the others. "This 21-story apartment building is one of the tallest around here. From the rooftop, with binoculars, we can see four or five li in every direction. The whole county-level city isn't that big. Sure, buildings get in the way, so we can't scan as efficiently as we'd like, but even so, this is already extremely efficient. We can rest while we search for monsters. It's the best approach."

"Captain, we've got something!" Zhang Ke, who had his back to Gao Feng and the others, suddenly cried out, pointing down in a certain direction.

Whoosh!

The others immediately rushed over, each raising their binoculars to study the streets below. Following Zhang Ke's pointing finger, Luo Zhe looked through his binoculars and spotted scattered One-Horned Wild Boars and Iron-Haired Wild Boars on several streets in the northwest. There were hundreds of them in all, and more boar-type monsters were entering their field of view.

On one of the streets, a strange, entirely red monster was lumbering along like a tank, surrounded by a crowd of boar-type monsters.

"Is that a Bloodthirsty Tank?" Luo Zhe asked uncertainly. He'd looked at some monster encyclopedias, but there were far too many kinds of monsters, and he'd only memorized some of the more common ones.

The Bloodthirsty Tank ranked second among boar-type monsters, so Luo Zhe had made an extra effort to remember some of its distinguishing features.

Despite its name, the Bloodthirsty Tank was a boar-type monster. Its body was covered in thick scales, giving it astonishing defenses. At first glance, it looked like an armored tank, and its defense and charging power were every bit as formidable as those of a real tank.

"It's definitely a Bloodthirsty Tank!" Wei Tie heard Luo Zhe muttering and confirmed it.

His experience showed. He recognized the monster at a glance. "Looks like we've spotted a big one."

"Captain, judging by the color of its scales, it should be at Junior Beast General Level, and it's close to Intermediate Beast General Level," Zhang Ke added. Finding such a valuable target on their first day in 0201 County City was a great start!

"Yeah, Bloodthirsty Tanks fetch a high price," Gao Feng said with a grin. "Even at Junior Beast General Level, one can be worth as much as some monsters at Intermediate Beast General Level. This one's close to that level, so it's a big catch! Everyone, stay sharp."

"Chen."

"Chen Gu."

The calls from several squad members finally roused Chen Gu. He opened his eyes and got to his feet with a smile. "What's up, guys? Found a Beast General-level monster?"

"You bet. We found a big one." Zhang Ke grinned and handed him the binoculars. "Take a look."

Chen Gu took the binoculars and hurried over. He followed Zhang Ke's pointing finger and studied the scene below, then exclaimed, "Damn, it's the Bloodthirsty Tank, second in rank among the boar-type monsters! That thing's got incredible defenses. I brought armor-piercing rounds, but ordinary bullets probably wouldn't even pierce its scales. Looks like I'll have to use my baby."

"Go on, bullets don't cost that much," Gao Feng urged.

Under the curious gazes of Luo Zhe and Luo Feng, Chen Gu hurried over to the metal case, took out three bullets with blood-red casings, and loaded them into his sniper rifle.

Luo Feng leaned close to Luo Zhe and asked quietly, "Brother Zhe, do you know what those are?"

Luo Zhe shook his head. He didn't know much about firearms, only a little about famous ones like the Desert Eagle and the Barrett.

Pfft!

Chen Gu lay prone at the edge of the rooftop and set up the silver-gray heavy sniper rifle. Sunlight glinted off its barrel. He held out a hand to gauge the direction and wind speed, carefully assessed the conditions, then adjusted the optical sight. The six members of Fire Hammer Squad beside him didn't dare make a sound.

Suddenly—

Bang! A deep, powerful report rang out.

In almost an instant, the bullet had crossed the distance and struck. The alloy armor-piercing round was tremendously powerful, and after leaving the barrel it traveled several times faster than sound. Because it was moving so far beyond the speed of sound, the sonic boom followed the bullet, reaching the Beast General-level monster's ears only afterward.

The Bloodthirsty Tank lumbered down the street, surrounded by a crowd of monsters, looking every bit the king of the road!

Pfft!

Suddenly, sparks flew from the scales behind its ear, where its neck met the upright ear, and a hole burst open as the bullet punched straight through.

"Roooar—" The Bloodthirsty Tank cried out in pain and rage, staggering two steps to one side. Once it regained its footing, it let out furious, anguished roars. The many boar-type monsters that had been milling around immediately swarmed toward it. Blood seeped from behind its ear as it continued to bellow in fury, but it had no way of telling where the shot had come from.

On the rooftop, Chen Gu lifted his head slightly and moved his eye away from the scope. "Lucky shot. I hit a vital spot. The Bloodthirsty Tank's tough enough to stay alive for now, but it'll be down within five minutes." At long range, the first shot was the most effective, because a Beast General-level monster was completely unprepared for it.

But if the first shot failed to hit a vital spot, things would get troublesome.

Beast General-level monsters had powerful defenses. If a bullet could pierce through them at all, that was already good, so bullets were generally designed for penetration—the armor-piercing kind, not explosive rounds with greater destructive power. After all, if a bullet couldn't even penetrate, how could it do any damage?

"Nice shooting." Zhang Ke gave him a thumbs-up with a grin.

"The Bloodthirsty Tank has the hardest skull of all. If you shoot its scales with an armor-piercing round, even if the bullet gets through, it won't do much damage," Gao Feng said with a smile. "Chen Gu, that was one hell of a shot." Without Chen Gu's successful first shot, killing a Bloodthirsty Tank protected by hundreds of monsters would have been far too difficult!

"Don't butter me up."

Chen Gu smiled. "Now you'd better figure out how to get your hands on that Bloodthirsty Tank's corpse. There are hundreds of monsters around it. And if we're too slow... some other warrior squad might swoop in and take it."

"Don't jinx it. There are probably only two or three warrior squads in this whole county-level city," Gao Feng said with a smile. "All right, pack up. We're heading down to claim the corpse."

"Got it!" all six replied in unison.