Fatal Shot

Town of Exiles, Mission Center.

At that moment, the normally quiet mission center was filled with people. Multiple players queued up while waiting to claim their temporary certificate of conscription, and even more players were yelling.

“Level-43 Heavy Armor Warrior looking for a party! I have an Excellent Grade D+ grade shield and advanced skill level for Heavy Armor Defense!”

“Level-44 Fire Manipulator party leader looking for members! Requirement: Level 40 and above with at least two pieces of Fine-grade equipment.”

“Level-45 Scout with Expert-level Detection skill, looking for reliable teammates…”

It was an unbelievably lively scene. Only heads could be seen moving. The players filled the mission center as well as the road in front of the entrance. Because most of the players had red names, a horde of bright red IDs floated overtop of every head. For a short moment, Feng Luo had the illusion that it was a 2D online game back on Earth.

Since the system announced the rule that players were prohibited from fighting each other while the mission was in progress, Feng Luo could enter the Town of Exiles without worrying. One could even say that this story had come just at the right time.

“Completed ‘Clear Red Name’ Mission. Removed five PK value. Obtained 1,200 experience. Obtained the Eye of the Thunder gun barrel blueprint (Usage Count 0/20). Returned mission deposit of 2,000 credits.”

After receiving the mission card from Feng Luo and confirming that the mission was successfully completed, the soldier wearing the military uniform of the Federation guard who sat behind the window of a temporarily opened booth handed a chip containing detailed information about the Eye of the Thunder gun barrel to Feng Luo. In truth, “blueprint” was just what players were used to calling these. Actually, this chip had the complete manufacturing process for the Eye of the Thunder gun barrel.

On top of the blueprint, there was also a usage count, bearing a mark of “0/20.” This was a mark that all blueprints in War had. It signified the number of times the blueprint could be used.

It would have been a mistake to believe that by acquiring the blueprint, a player could manufacture a Rare-grade piece of equipment like the Eye of the Thunder gun barrel as many times as they desired. Considering how selfish the system was, there was no way it would give such a treat to the players. Every equipment blueprint would automatically be deleted from the players’ terminal after reaching the maximum usage count. Which meant that the maximum number of equipment pieces that a player could produce was the same as the usage count of the blueprint. Plus, one had to also deduct the number of failed attempts. As such, the value of an equipment’s blueprint was highly correlated with the usage count.

However, there was one exception in the event of an extremely unique situation! If the player could produce a piece of equipment that the system evaluated as “Perfect” within the maximum usage count, then the player would acquire authorization to use the equipment blueprint permanently.

The only caveat was that creating a piece of equipment with the Perfect rating was more difficult than one could imagine. It was practically impossible to achieve it, unless one tried dozens or perhaps even hundreds of times.

As a result, the main sources of high-end equipment were still missions and boss monsters. Equipment that could be mass-produced by life profession players would always be slightly outdated. Of course, if a player had both good luck and excellent skills, and they successfully produced a piece of Perfect equipment within the blueprint usage restriction, then there would be no doubt that the player had struck gold!

“I still want to take on the conscription mission!” Feng Luo told the soldier after he inserted the chip into his personal terminal and read the blueprint information within it.

“Deduct 500 credits for deposit,” said the soldier. “This is your temporary certificate of conscription. You can use this to head toward the resources center and receive some combat rations!” The soldier passed a new card to him and added sternly, “Please bear in mind that once you’ve accepted the mission, you will be seen as a normal soldier. If you disobey orders during the mission, any member of the guards will have the authority to kill you on the spot!”

The soldiers would say this to every player. However, most players would not pay much attention to the warning.

A message notification appeared in Feng Luo’s lower-left field of vision.

Accept temporary conscription mission. The medal point counting system in the Town of Exiles 1022 has been activated. Current medal point: 0.

After that, Feng Luo walked out of the mission hall filled with players. He then followed the prompts on the roadside signs and ran toward the resource center to receive a combat ration designated for Snipers.

60 E-Grade armor-piercing bullets that increase attack by 5%!

Five packs of C-grade recovery potions. Recovers 50 HP every second within 20 seconds of use.

Five packs of E-grade Stamina recovery potions. Increases Stamina recovery rate by 70% after use. Lasts for three minutes!

The three types of items received were relatively common. Their total value was around 700 credits. However, truth be told, this was considered a decent income for normal players.

Of course, if players wanted to hide and avoid combat after claiming their rations, it was impossible. There was no way the system would allow such gaps for players to take advantage of. For everyone who received rations, if their medal point did not reach 100 points by the end of the mission, 700 credits would be deducted from their account as punishment. Moreover, the 500-credit deposit would also not be refunded! As a result, once they had accepted the mission, they would give their all and fight!

Outside the resource center, there were also many players screaming at the tops of their lungs, hoping to find someone to party up with them.

For a mission with a war storyline, getting teammates who cooperated together would certainly be safer than going solo.

Times like these displayed the difficulties of joining a party for the various professions. The most welcomed profession was the Doctor. After all, a healing profession would be extremely important in almost every situation. However, there probably weren’t many Doctors in the Town of Exiles because—as a profession that was severely lacking in attack methods and could only use negative potions to attack their opponents—it was quite difficult for a Doctor to kill someone and earn a red name. Even if there were a few red-named Doctors, they were probably players who chose to remain in the Town of Exiles for the long term, much like Yellow-tooth. These players would already have fixed teams, and normal players would not dare to join them.

After the Doctor, the most welcome professions were, naturally, those that possessed powerful crowd-damage abilities such as the Machine Gunners and Energy Manipulators. This was a mission to defend against a siege, after all, so these two professions had an absolute advantage in this regard. Next in line after them were professions that fulfilled special roles like the Heavy Armor Warriors and the Scouts. Most teams and parties would consider having one or two of each.

As for the Snipers and Light Armor Warriors, the two professions that were often enemies became fellow sufferers in this instance. No one wanted to party up with them!

Although the Sniper had amazing long-range damage dealing ability, in a battle like this, they would not be able to earn medal points as fast as Machine Gunners, who could take out more than a dozen enemies with one box of bullets. As for the Light Armor Warriors, they would not have many opportunities to display their usefulness until the defense of the city was breached.

It was important to note that after players partied up, medal points would be distributed according to certain ratios. As a result, the two soy sauce professions were naturally given the cold shoulder.

However, Feng Luo never did want to join a party. As a Sniper, he had long ago gotten used to working alone. For him, unless he could find a teammate who would have his back completely, then working alone was perhaps the best partner a Sniper could ask for!

After exiting the resource center, Feng Luo quickly moved up to the rooftop of a building. However, by the time he reached the rooftop, he discovered that the rooftop he had identified earlier already had two or three snipers hiding there. They already occupied the best geographical location. Clearly, more than a few people had had the same thought!

As he disliked having someone else being beside him when he sniped, Feng Luo gave up on that location. After trying three other buildings, he finally found a sniping spot on top of an old abandoned building that was over a dozen stories tall. Although the location was not ideal, it was near the periphery of town, and the field of view was decent. He set up the M110, and he could see a Tiger CV Robot outside town.

The rebel army had already surrounded the Town of Exiles an hour before. However, they had not yet attacked. This was probably the system intentionally allowing the players some time to make their preparations to fight in a storyline mission that could possibly drag on for a very long time. After all, the players still had to deal with many trivial matters in the real world in advance.

The sun gradually sank. Another half an hour passed. By the time the sky was dyed with the dull red of dusk…

Boom!

A small missile was fired out of the launcher on one of the Tiger robots. It flew across thousands of kilometers, accompanied by yellow and orange flames, and collided with the defensive constructs outside the Town of Exiles. Shattered pieces of stones flew everywhere as smoke rose into the air!

The defense of the Town of Exiles had officially begun!