Gamers Are Fierce-Chapter 799 - 797 Curtain Call
The FPU's two severed halves, propelled by the leftover momentum of the long spear, flipped in the air like willow leaves.
The green data stream flowing within the cross-section of the broken bodies turned from green to blue, and then rapidly changed to a deep purple. The two pieces of the corpse rapidly expanded, like air-filled balloons.
Then, BOOM!!
The two halves of the body suddenly burst, and the misty purple smoke spread and expanded in the air, enveloping Li Ang.
The FPU's skill named "Surprise from Arcasia" allowed the user to create a chain reaction in their body upon death, which would explode after a brief delay. The blast damage depended on the remaining energy in the remains.
Intense pain swept over the neural network; the agony felt by the dying clone clearly transmitted to every body. If the FPU hadn't already ingested pills to suppress pain, they would have likely fainted from the pain by now.
Did it work?
The FPU had cunningly used a trick earlier, deliberately creating a clone with more energy and placing it at the forefront of the Clone Array. This way, when the opponent tried to kill the clone, there was a high chance they would be caught in the initial blast. With some luck, it could incapacitate the opponent in one hit...
But there were no hit or kill notifications.
As this thought flashed through FPU's mind, thoughts enhanced by the "Misaka Network·Fake" immediately issued an emergency command.
The clones closest to the purple smoke scattered and retreated outward, while those furthest from the smoke discarded their useless firearms and took out various weapons supplied by Prometheus Laboratory, opening fire on the purple smoke.
"Nightingale·Extreme Cold," a submachine gun-like weapon that could fire a series of ice protons, slowing the body and mind of those hit; "Thunderbolt Purple Lightning," resembling a semi-automatic pistol, capable of dealing high damage to various types of energy shields; "Jealous Slugger," akin to a shotgun, capable of firing a highly powerful single slug, with double damage if it hit the head; ...
These weapons, either extraordinary items from killing field games or crafted by the Prometheus Laboratory using the technology of killing field games, were of at least "Rare" quality or above. And not subject to the restrictions of the battle royale game itself, they could unleash their full power. The bullets fired shattered Xing Hechou's summoned frying pan walls from all angles, piercing through the purple smoke. Their momentum undiminished, they claimed the lives of several distant Light Giants and Prometheus employees.
"Clean Hit!"
"Clean Hit!"
"Clean Hit!"
Three System notification sounds echoed in the sky. Giant blue translucent letters magically appeared, informing FPU that he had just scored three hits.
Only three hits.
WHEW!
The purple smoke churned. A dark green beam shot forth swiftly, silently piercing through the head of an FPU clone.
The Energy Shield carried by that clone flickered symbolically with a white light, only to be shattered by the effect of the Disintegration Technique, allowing green disintegrating cracks to spread and engulf the body in a short time.
The passive skill "Surprise from Arcasia" triggered automatically; the body rapidly expanded and burst, creating a smaller purple smoke cloud than before.
"Laser weapon?" Inside the command center, Graham clenched his teeth. He had known that each player who made it into the top 500 would have at least one or two secret trump cards not exposed in the previous matches.
"Judging from the damage effect, it's more like the disintegration spell from D&D, Dungeons & Dragons, belonging to the transformation school." A strategist standing beside Graham whispered, "The effect causes living beings or inanimate objects to crumble and disintegrate on their own. The FPU's carried Energy Shield, after being shared amongst the clones, can't withstand a single hit from the Disintegration Technique—it's instant death upon impact. It just got countered."
"Damn it...." Graham's eye muscles twitched. From what he could see so far, the Realms Corridor seemed to use the traits of the field itself to slightly balance the advantages and disadvantages between the competitors, offering the underdog some potential, exploitable advantages. But there is a limit to this balance—the Realms Corridor, no matter how biased, can't possibly give Lv5 or Lv10 players the "advantage" to defeat Michael in a one-on-one situation. At most, it only raises a 0.01% chance of victory to 0.05%.
And this "advantage" is also dynamic and can be used by both sides—Li Rising, who seems to have no alliance with any force, has the support of the Special Affairs Bureau, which cancels out Prometheus' advantage in this aspect.
"HUFF..." Graham exhaled sharply and immediately calmed his emotions. He picked up the walkie-talkie and said to the FPU in the game, "High-level disintegration spells must be quite costly and not have short cooldown times, and perhaps there's also a limit on the number of uses. They definitely can't be used as indiscriminately as a machine gun. Li Rising's action of using the Disintegration Technique to eliminate clones just proves that he's unable to accurately pinpoint the location of your true body..."
SWISH—
Before he finished speaking, a whooshing sound came from the smoke again. A long spear made of mud with densely arranged barbs at the end streaked across the sky, piercing through the chest of a clone. With relentless force, the barbs at the tail end dragged the broken body and firmly nailed the clone to the wall of a high-rise building in Lion City.
BOOM!
The self-destruct ability automatically triggered, and amidst the purple smoke, a large amount of steel and concrete shattered and burst open.
Graham's pupils suddenly contracted, and he shouted into the walkie-talkie, "Watch out!"
It was too late. The moment he shouted, Li Ang's figure suddenly appeared in the smoke, stepping on invisible stairs and rushing to the front of a certain clone.
Li Ang's white lab coat, after being ravaged by the bullet storm, had become tattered, revealing the red Mirage Dragon Red Mane Coat underneath. One of the dragon horns on the Dragon Head Mask had also been broken off. It had turned into a battle-damaged version of the skin.
"To dare to harm the noble body of a Celestial Dragon," Li Ang gripped the clone's neck, slowly applying pressure, his voice low, hoarse, and cold as ice. "Your Uncle here is really getting angry now..."
The clone's neck was crushed. Right before it could explode, Li Ang kicked it away, striking a distant wall and kicking up a large amount of dust and debris. The firearms in the clone's hands were also snatched away by Li Ang and broken with ease—Prometheus' weapons all came with special verification devices, unusable by anyone outside of the company staff.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Bullets rained down from all directions. Li Ang, stepping on invisible stairs, lowered his body, skimming past the rain of bullets.
Real bullets on his path were deflected with his Tyrant Halberd, while energy bullets were dodged by employing the Rubber Man Cheats, evading by the narrowest margins. Those that could not be avoided were resisted with the Mirage Dragon Red Mane Coat.
Using the Cloud Ascending Ladder, he maneuvered through the sky while taking out a sack filled with mud, creating numerous long spears with Alchemy. Each throw, powered by Divine Power, was capable of tearing through shields and taking the lives of clones.
FPU tried to scatter and pull away, but the Misaka Network·Fake had hidden limitations—if the clones were separated by a certain distance, their thought speed would decrease rather than increase. The maximum distance was— "700 meters."
Li Ang said calmly, "That's the farthest your two clones can be apart. Despite your efforts to hide this, like a school of fish storming around me, constantly changing your overall formation, from a higher perspective, it's still too obvious..."
A higher perspective? What does that mean?
FPU instinctively controlled his five clones to look up at the sky, only to see hundreds of tiny black dots slowly appearing in the far sky, rapidly expanding as time passed. That was... FPU's pupils suddenly narrowed, and the array of clones circling like a school of fish paused for a split second.
That was a scout soldier insect released by Li Ang, which had now shed its avian disguise and fully exposed its true form—a purple-red creature with a segmented body, a sting-like tail, and constantly flapping wing membranes.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The flying soldier insects' stinger tails conducted a volley, launching bullets of various shapes and functions. For instance, elongated chitinous spikes, acidic vesicles, high-temperature flames produced by flammable liquids, dust resembling Moth Scale Powder, and even shuttle-shaped, semi-transparent larvae—that upon hitting their target, rapidly hatched into mantis-like parasites which burrowed deep into muscles, swiftly cutting through the host's internal organs. Catching them unprepared with a calculated volley, over ten of FPU's clones were dead.
The successive explosions created smoke that obscured the skies above Lion City.
Living weapons! Xing Hechou was profoundly shaken on the ground. He had witnessed the bug nest creatures released by Li Rising during the Shengnan King's Dream, but at that time, the bug nest creatures only served for scouting and communication purposes. Yet now they could actually engage in combat and achieve certain results. These... were they Demon Pets, Elves, Contract Beasts, or Biological Weapons cultivated by Li Rising himself...?
The same question also arose in the minds of the staff at the Prometheus Laboratory command center. They had never seen Li Ang use this tactic and instinctively thought of the other two competitors known for their biological weapons: Gen-Sys Biotech Company and the Demon Scientist Alliance.
"Go check it out," Graham said with a grim expression, instructing his subordinate, "See if the other two have been researching similar products." The subordinate nodded quietly and left the command center.
"The defensive abilities of different clones differ." Li Ang, stepping on invisible stairs, slowly ascended. A faint light reflected from the monocle beneath his Dragon Head Mask as he silently observed the remaining FPU Clone Array. "The total energy of the clones has an upper limit, but you can freely allocate the energy each clone possesses? That is to say, the higher the energy level of a clone, the more likely it is your main body..."
The monocle, reflecting a faint light, swept over FPU's various clones, causing a sudden jolt of alarm in FPU's mind—an unsettling feeling that all his secrets had been laid bare.
No, stay calm! This Li Rising definitely can't directly find my main body; he's just bluffing. Otherwise, he would have charged straight for me by now.
FPU took a deep breath. With a thought, the clones acted in unison. A portion fired at the insect units patrolling the sky, while another portion put away their ranged weapons, drew out chainsaw swords, halberds, and other close-combat weapons, and dove towards Li Ang.
The multitude of soldier insects in the sky, nimble and agile, kept a deliberate distance. Using the data previously obtained by Li Ang on FPU's firearms projectile speed and trajectory, they quickly made evasive maneuvers to minimize casualties.
Having the scout soldier insects face the FPU Clone Array in an undisturbed environment would surely result in the latter's victory. But with Li Ang, a formidable enemy, steadily eliminating clones, FPU simply couldn't spare the effort to fully defeat the scout soldier insects.
The only way forward was to abandon the original strategy of continuously draining the enemy through ranged attacks and to use the numerical advantage of proximity to eliminate the enemy first.
Li Rising was alone, yet FPU still had thirty clones left—hitting a clone didn't count as a successful strike and wouldn't score points, while FPU only needed to hit Li Rising seven more times to win.
Now is the time!
Eleven clones with various melee weapons quickly closed in. One of them, wielding a golden single-handed shortsword, stealthily fired a bullet from fifty meters away.
[Name: Flint Museum Special Gun-Sword]
[Type: Weapon]
[Quality: Excellent]
[Attack Power: High]
[Special Effect: Gunshot Target. Fires a high-speed bullet that automatically vanishes upon hitting a solid target. For the following ten seconds, all of the user's Flying Props will target the bullet's point of contact. The effect cannot be canceled midway.]
[Consumption: 200 Spirit Energy Value]
[Cooldown: 30 minutes]
[Equipment Requirement: Fire heavy-caliber bullets of at least 12.7mm in diameter at oneself a thousand times without defending against them during the process.]
[Note: The Flint Library prohibits loud noises, random running, bringing in food, cutting in line, and seat-grabbing. Please keep cell phones on silent and voluntarily install silencers on firearms.]
In the sword body of this gun-sword, there was a narrow sword slot connecting to the hilt, which concealed a finely crafted golden gun barrel. With a pull of the trigger at the handle, supersonic bullets nearly reaching a kilometer per second could be fired from the barrel.
At such a close range, the opponent had no time to dodge, not to mention that FPU still had a follow-up move.
[Skill Name: Reuben Kogel's Farewell]
[Type: Shooting]
[Quality: Excellent]
[Special Effect: One Shot, One Kill. Within three seconds, freely control the flight direction of a single bullet.]
[Consumption: 200 Spirit Power Value]
[Cooldown: 30 minutes]
[Note: Wit, courage, composure, calmness, and perseverance are qualities that represent a cowboy far more than lassos and long boots.]
BANG.
With the Computing Power enhanced by "Misaka Network·Fake," FPU was able to perfectly adjust the bullet's trajectory, making it spin in flight, avoiding the swipe of the Tyrant Halberd, and striking a corner of the Mirage Dragon Red Mane Coat.
[Clean Hit!]
A System notification sounded in the high skies, and the emotion called "Euphoria" simultaneously surged in the hearts of both FPU and all the Prometheus Laboratory staff in front of the big screen.
Success!
In the high skies, the bullets fired by FPU's numerous clones at the swarm of insects unexpectedly changed direction, flipping their tips to rain down on Li Ang below like a rapid downpour.
The clones using ranged weapons to intercept the swarm and the ones diving with melee weapons were all just feints deliberately executed by FPU. The combined use of "Misaka Network·Fake," "Reuben Kogel's Farewell," and "Flint Museum Special Gun-Sword" was FPU's real killing move.
Li Ang looked upward. The Bug Nest Soldier Wasp sensed the threat to its creator, attempting to dive down and intercept the metallic torrent comprised of countless bullets. The Light Giants fighting with Prometheus personnel on the ground also sensed something was amiss. Some transformed into Rubber Men, bouncing up from the ground; others called down scrapped vehicles, trying to use the abandoned cars to block the bullets for Li Ang.
But all this was too slow...
The cone-shaped bullet storm left all resistance behind, raining down upon Li Ang from above.
[Clean Hit!]
Suddenly, the System's notification tone echoed in the high sky, and a giant, red semi-transparent script materialized. Blue text signaled points for FPU, while red text only appeared when Li Ang successfully hit his opponent.
What?! Everyone watching this match at that moment was shocked. Li Ang and the strange creatures in the sky had made no moves. From where was FPU hurt?
"Wait a minute..." In a location in the Mortal Realm, Sunset Gold Smelter, sitting in front of a computer watching this match, suddenly realized something, a red light flickering in his left eye. "So, it was poison gas..."
