The birth of a famed gun

Akihiko Kayaba uploaded the final hotfix. Two minutes later, the polling self-check mechanism had run through every module without finding any abnormalities.

No cheers erupted in the room. The only two developers, who also served as designers, merely sighed at the same time.

"The data density far exceeded our expectations. We actually finished ahead of schedule..."

Things were not as easy as Wang Shui's remark made them sound.

As the two continually iterated on important industrial-era disciplines such as mathematics, the humanities, philosophy, physics, metallurgy and chemical engineering, mechanical manufacturing, small-scale engineered production lines, and materials science, their workload kept increasing as they looked up more reference material.

In the end, Wang Shui produced over three hundred thousand characters of assorted historical texts and several thousand pages of incomplete research manuscripts, entered a total of 43,391 new items and over twenty thousand environmental props, and helped Kayaba refine the update to the real-time combat calculation module.

Akihiko Kayaba's work was no easier. He added a new weapon category, [Firearms], and a new enhancement mechanic, [Sword Skills Blade Bullet], along with new resistance and debuff mechanics. Adjusting this new content practically meant overhauling the entire world engine, and he could only update it bit by bit through hotfixes.

It was February 21, 2023. Wang Shui had been out of his role as a player for nearly three months, while the assault team had activated the twelfth floor's teleport gate and begun efficiently searching for high-value quests.

Over roughly three months, the two-man development team had released six minor updates, all announced to the players through small pop-up windows. Tonight, this expansion would receive its final version. Its name remained unchanged, but the crafting system would get a major update.

The [Handicraft] skill would reopen with a large number of recipes and added guidance, encouraging crafter players to explore heavy machinery. The [Sword Skills Blade Bullet] system was also complete, and the factories producing blade bullets had been put in place. Every major town above the tenth floor would directly sell [Blank Sword Skill Blade Bullets] below that floor's tier.

However, the Sword Skills update could not be synchronized with the highly intelligent Sword Skills instructor NPCs. Players would need to explore blade-bullet-related Sword Skills themselves. The good news was that relevant information had been made public starting on the fifth floor, and players had discovered quite a few Sword Skills using the small quantities of blade bullets available on lower floors.

After that brief remark, Wang Shui looked at his boss, who was still examining information in the test environment.

"Boss, after working nonstop for so long, aren't you considering a break?"

Hearing Wang Shui's words, Kayaba fell silent for a few seconds before asking in return:

"Do you want to leave this world and take a break outside? I've already restored your device's settings. If necessary, I can have my student release you, and I'll destroy your NerveGear to prevent anyone outside from using it to get in. Of course, you won't be able to return either... Are you ready to face reality? Given your current physical condition, moving you probably won't be easy. You'll need to prepare what to say to the government and the media in advance."

To be honest, Wang Shui had no intention of leaving the game world. In reality, he could not study without sleep or rest. Besides, even if he did leave this world, he would not choose to remove his headset early-he trusted neither Akihiko Kayaba nor himself.

Wang Shui could not be sure whether the simple tool he had made was still working properly. Taking off the headset early would undoubtedly be a gamble, and he hated matters of chance more than anything. Thus, he planned to package up [The World Seed] ahead of time once the game's progression reached its middle-to-late stages, then try to leave this world directly through the big boss behind the Dream System.

But Akihiko Kayaba's words reminded him of something.

"No, I mean, facing all this data and monitoring every day is just too boring. Boss, don't you want to observe and experience your own world up close?"

While verbally nudging his boss toward getting hooked on the game, Wang Shui also diverted some attention to opening his character panel-meaning his Dream System panel as an Awakened.

The original panel contained very little information,

so the changes looked quite obvious. His [Physique] attribute, grayed out in the game world, had dropped from a high human value of 1.12-the average of the portion above the mean within racial attribute fluctuations, defaulting to 1, representing a healthy individual who exercised a little-to 0.72.

That meant his physical condition in reality was deteriorating rapidly. Kayaba's words had reminded Wang Shui that he had not checked his panel for several days.

His [Coordination] attribute had fallen even more sharply, from 1.77 to 0.81, more than halving. His coordination and reflexes had clearly deteriorated.

But Wang Shui was not particularly worried. These basic attributes were still easy to train. Before reaching the "human" limit of 5, the lower an attribute was, the more noticeable the effects of training.

In contrast, the other three attributes had risen rather than fallen. [Perception] had increased from 0.82 to 1.67. Wang Shui's observational ability and sensitivity to his surroundings had improved greatly, though he himself did not feel much difference.

His [Mind] attribute, representing the soul, mental power, will, and concentration, had risen from 1.22 to 2.61. But even that was not the most astonishing change. [Thinking], representing thought and learning ability, computation, and analysis, had increased from 1.88 to 3.99. That was no longer a low attribute.

Had he not occasionally opened the panel to check recently, Wang Shui would hardly have believed this rate of improvement. Sure enough, spending his whole life holed up in a repair shop would never have given him such an opportunity.

The strength of a character's attributes directly determined an Awakened's upper and lower limits. No matter how powerful their talents and skills, without attributes as their foundation and amplification, they would ultimately be castles in the air, flowers in a mirror and the moon on water.

The increases in those last three attributes counted as recognition of Wang Shui's focused study during this time. But what excited him most, to the point that he was still getting a little carried away, was his newly acquired skill, [Comprehensive Computing (Basic)].

Ah! Nearly nine months had passed since the awakening instance where he had last acquired [Forging] and [Mechanical Engineering].

During that time, the Awakened from Wang Shui's cohort, provided they had not died, had probably all become mainstays of [Iron Edge City]. And Wang Shui had finally obtained his third skill.

When he saw those few extra words several days ago, Wang Shui had nearly burst into tears. Nine months! Do you know how I got through these nine months?!

Feeling that he could now die without regrets, Wang Shui had considered ending the mission immediately. But he could not bear to. He was still far behind in his studies. Even the natural sciences accumulated by an ordinary modern world were difficult for him to master in a short time, despite his having selected only a small amount of knowledge that interested him.

Besides, Wang Shui also hoped to master some combat-related skills, which was why he was sounding out Akihiko Kayaba and trying to get his boss to play the game with him. His main concern was that spending time on the game might displease his boss, which could in turn affect his learning cutting-edge knowledge from Kayaba.

So first, he had to drag him into it!

Akihiko Kayaba, who had remained silent, fell into serious thought before voicing his concern to Wang Shui:

"Just... as ordinary players? We've already gone over the early game content many times and tested it for a long time... If we start from scratch, catching up to the twelfth floor will certainly take quite a while."

Wang Shui forced himself not to look contemptuous. Oh, come on. Just say you want to cheat. You're good at the game anyway. What's wrong with giving yourself some basic equipment to catch up to the front lines?

At a time like this, a mature employee needed to offer his boss a graceful way forward.

"Right, we wouldn't just be playing to relax and experience the game. We'd also be experiencing the new systems' effects in real time, and the best place for that is obviously the front lines. Hmm... How about this? The seven or eight highest-level players on the front lines are around level 35, so create a level 35 account, boss. Set its attributes to the training cap for that level, and adjust its skill proficiency to the frontline average, which is around 600. As for weapons and equipment, just get a set of twelfth-floor specialties. They won't cost much anyway. Oh, right, max out their enhancement too. Gathering low-level materials is a hassle, and even buying them directly would waste quite a bit of time."

"Ah, hmm... Yes, is that so? Then I'll need to give the character's design some thought."

Wang Shui had persuaded Akihiko Kayaba with great difficulty.

"Not only that, I suggest you leave death mode off, boss. Sure, the game could keep running if you died, but if any major changes came up later, I couldn't handle them alone. I suggest linking your administrator privileges to your character account, then disabling most of those privileges while the character is active, keeping only the immortality trait. Oh, right, I reset the immortality trait that locked HP at half health. Now it only locks your last point of HP. Your body will display the same effects as death, and then you'll be teleported into this room. That way, the players won't catch on, and you can make a new character to return afterward."

Wang Shui's thoughtfulness left Kayaba feeling thoroughly pleased, but he merely nodded reservedly and asked casually:

"What about you?"

"I'll just add the immortality trait too, and get a better weapon at most. Quite a few players are friends of mine. I want to experience the joy of having friends carry me through leveling. Oh, right, even after returning to the game, I'll keep studying. I hope you'll continue helping me with my questions, boss."

"Of course."

For a moment, the little room filled with the harmonious atmosphere of an agreement reached. After checking that [Autonomous Intelligence]'s automated management was working normally in the test environment, Akihiko Kayaba began creating his [Heathcliff].

Wang Shui merely glanced at his boss's knight-style character. Tsk, so that's the sort of thing he likes. Though Wang Shui was timid in reality, he preferred agile, proactive damage dealers in games. It was just that the death game had made him much more cautious before.

Rather than remain there and add to his boss's embarrassment, Wang Shui quickly left. His view shifted between the virtual and the real, and he arrived in [Zumfut], the third floor's main city.

Although the assault team had already reached the twelfth floor, the gap between players was actually growing wider and wider. Plenty of players now remained on each floor to accumulate resources. Even in the first floor's beginner village, there were players who had only just set out on their adventures.

Of course, this sense of bustle also came from the contrast with Wang Shui's long stay in that little room. He soon adjusted his mood and walked toward the icy-blue figure who seemed to have been waiting a long time, sending a long-overdue party invitation as he did.

Shino, now level 32, looked impassively at the mere level 16 Wang Shui, all but writing her contempt across her face.

"Have you finished dealing with everything?"

"Of course. Everything's done. Starting today, it's your turn to repay me. Come on, let's quickly run through the elf quest first, then take me grinding, and treat me to dinner tonight. Oh, right, you need to pay me back!"

Wang Shui walked past Shino, patted her shoulder, and motioned for her to hurry and follow.

"You still need to struggle through leveling? Didn't your boss give you any compensation? Like an account boosted straight to max level?"

"What good would such a boring request do? This is just a game world. Are you still not confident about clearing all one hundred floors?"

Shino had no answer to Wang Shui's question. The players' progression was going exceptionally smoothly now, and very quickly too. No one in the frontline assault team had died for a long time. Everyone was confident about fully clearing this world.

"So what did you ask for? If you can't say, forget I asked."

"Of course I can say. I didn't ask for anything, just for the boss to show mercy and spare my life. Ah, enjoy the game. The next chance to experience such a realistic FullDive game will have to wait until next time. Oh, looks like you're enjoying how strong you are in the game."

As he spoke, Wang Shui gestured with his eyes toward Shino's waist, where an exquisite silver revolver rested. Bullets secured in clips also hung from her belt.

"Hmph."

Shino expressed her pride with that nasal sound. "This dropped from the ninth-floor boss. I was the only one in the assault team who had learned the [Firearms] skill then, so I bought this [Mithril Whisper] for a very low price. Even up through the twelfth floor, no better firearm has appeared."

Shino's happiness was plain to see. Even without Wang Shui's help, she had become a core player in the frontline assault team on her own. No, wait-the large stockpile of supplies Wang Shui had left behind had still been quite important.

"Ah, if I'd known you already had a beloved gun, I wouldn't have sneaked this thing out."

Feigning disappointment, Wang Shui took out an entirely matte-black revolver. Unlike [Mithril Whisper], with its delicate, elegant elven style, the black handgun he displayed had a more real-world science-fiction appeal.

The gun's body was angular, and even its cylinder had the unusual shape of an octagonal prism. Its barrel was enclosed in a broad, inexplicably square module, and its hammer was covered and concealed as well. The whole gun had a sleek yet solid technological look.

Shino unceremoniously snatched it away:

"Girls won't like you if you're this snide even when giving presents."

"I don't think you understand girls. At least, not as well as I do." Wang Shui curled his lips dismissively.

Shino paid no attention to his words. The black handgun's stats had already captivated her:

[Famed Gun: Blackwater]

[Range: long]

[Weapon type: firearm]

[Attack: 200-400 (without ammunition stat bonuses)]

[Ammo capacity: 8]

[Durability: 3000]

[Weight: 50]

[Equipment requirements: none]

[Enhancement limit: 50]

[Trait 1: famed gun: failed enhancements only reduce the enhancement level, without consuming enhancement attempts or causing damage.]

[Trait 2: Limit Burst: grants the special Sword Skill "Limit Burst." When activated, holding down the trigger immediately fires all remaining bullets.]

[Trait 3: Blackwater: after manual activation, the next bullet gains bonus damage based on the "Strength" and "Agility" attributes, and inflicts level 7 "Knockback" and "Knockdown."]

[Description: painstakingly crafted by the legendary ancient craftsman "Heavenly Book," this gun and another famed gun capable of firing only two shots were hailed together as the pinnacle of ancient firearms technology. Unfortunately, records of the two-shot famed gun can no longer be found, and the existence of Famed Gun: Blackwater has also been called into question.]

"When did you become a legendary ancient craftsman?"

"Hey, hey, isn't your focus a little strange?! I poured my heart and soul into making that weapon, and all you care about is the description! Apologize and thank me right now!"

Shino merely smiled with her lips pressed together and said nothing more. She simply unequipped her shortsword and changed her main-hand weapon to [Famed Gun: Blackwater].

"I've wanted to try dual-wielding guns for ages, but I never had a suitable frontliner. Besides, the ammunition costs for two guns would exceed the monster drops. Today's the perfect chance to try!"

"You're supposed to be helping me level, but you're making me take the front line too..." Wang Shui protested quietly.

"They're only third-floor monsters. Don't worry, I won't let them get near you!"

As she spoke, Shino stopped, lowered her stance slightly, and swiftly drew the black and silver guns with both hands. The two revolvers spun rapidly in her hands before she smoothly and precisely slipped them back into their holsters. She looked both cute and cool.

Her liveliness and confidence had gradually developed in the game.

Wang Shui merely smiled in relief, letting go of the little lingering reluctance in his heart.