Fatal Shot

“Ruins Area NC-5504. A midsize city ruin measuring about 250 square kilometers. It is divided into four different regions: North, South, East, and West.”

The next morning, convoys of energy SUVs rolled through the yellow sands as they drove toward Ruins Area NC-5504 in the morning sun. In the backseat of one of the cars, in the middle of the center row, Mu Wu’s personal terminal projected a detailed three-dimensional map of the ruins while he explained the details of the clearance mission to Feng Luo.

“All the monsters in Ruins Area are at least Level 20, and it increases as we move toward the center. According to the monster grade, areas from the outside toward the center can be segmented into a Level 20 Area, a Level 30 Area, a Level 40 Area, and possibly a Level 50 Area in the core.”

“Possibly?” Feng Luo asked.

“Yes. It is possible because a few of our scouting players got instant-killed when they snuck into the Level 40 Area. They were targeted by a Quasi-Boss monster. Hence, the information collected was incomplete. However, before they were killed, they saw what appeared to be a holy shrine building in the Level 40 Area. They realized it was saturated with monsters around it, so that must be the core.”

“A holy shrine? There are shrines in the game?”

Feng Luo was curious. A shrine? But isn’t this a sci-fi game?

“Who knows? Maybe the NPCs are superstitious,” Mu Wu answered.

Feng Luo nodded. He recalled the mission on Silver Leaf Island. The NPC sailors there believed in Poseidon and demons, too. It seemed like the advancement of technology did not diminish the people’s belief in deities. As long as there were questions that science could not explain, theology would thrive.

“It is impossible to clear a total of 250 square kilometers in one day without the help of 10,000 people or more,” said Mu Wu. “Luckily, the criteria of the city-building mission is not that demanding. We just have to clear out all the monsters within 100 square kilometers around the core area. ” He enlarged the 3D map and marked a circle on it. “Besides the 1,000 combat players from our company, we hired another 500 elite players from both the Roaring Dragon Mercenary Group and the Veterans Tribe. There will be more than 3,000 people in this mission, including the participating supporting staff.”

More than 3,000 people!

The number was insignificant compared to the 500,000 players from Silvermoon City. However, it was certainly not small for a single mission. The key point was that two-thirds of the 3,000 players belonged to the elite group. Their combat power was comparable to 10,000 normal players.

The basic requirement to participate in this mission was to be Level 40 or above. Feng Luo had just met the bare minimum criteria. Furthermore, he had no clue that if the mission was accomplished, the prize set by the employer was 3,000 credits per person.

The compensation for death, causing a player to drop a level, was between 7,000 and 10,000 credits. Any finishing blow to Commander-level monsters would be rewarded with an extra 50,000 credits or more. Moreover, any loot from monsters would not be collected by the company, except for those from the Boss.

To sum it all up, this was essentially a paid grinding trip, so all the players were pretty hyped up and would certainly fight harder.

“It would be difficult to command a group of 3,000 people, so the final decision was to divide all of them into four groups to clear out monsters in the East, West, South, and North regions,” said Mu Wu. “As for us, we are assigned to the Southern Region!”

Mu Wu stretched his hand and enlarged a segment on the 3D map. Clearly, the southern region was the smallest of the four regions. It was only one-third the size of the largest area, the northern region.

“The Roaring Dragon Mercenary Group and the Veterans Tribe do not get along with each other, so the company assigned them to be in charge of the eastern and western areas, respectively,” said Mu Wu. “The largest area, the northern region, will be taken care of by the over 1,000 combat players from the company headquarters. Lastly, the over 300 people from our club will be fully in charge of the southern region.”

The “club” Mu Wu referred to was Nightless City’s club within the game: the Nightless Club.

Even though Nightless Club was just an entertainment club, it had more than 400 staff members, and all of them had joined the game upon Mu Wu’s request. Besides, Mu Wu took full advantage of his connections in the real-world nightclub. He had invited many loyal customers to join the Nightless Club in-game. There were over 1,300 members, and more than 700 of them could fight.

Furthermore, those who frequented the nightclub were not those of low levels. Out of the 700 people, most of them had high-ranking equipment. They were as well-equipped as the elites from the Roaring Dragon Mercenary Group. Hence, Mu Wu didn’t think it would even be a challenge to be responsible for clearing the entire southern region, even if there were only 300 of them.

Feng Luo looked at Mu Wu and said indifferently, “That means I won’t be doing much, right?”

He was supposed to be involved in the final phase of the building mission rather than this clearance mission, so he did not want to get too involved in this. The only reason he was participating was because he was highly interested in the beetles from the ruins.

The ruins were located south of Silvermoon City, and 100 kilometers west of the ruins was Town of Exiles 1022… Which means it was highly probable that the Level-45 beetles controlled by rebel army had come from these ruins. That was the reason Feng Luo had joined the team.

“What? Not doing much? No!” Mu Wu laughed as he closed the map. “You gotta give your full 100 percent! Contribution charting services will be provided in this kind of large-scale mission. All contributions by every player will be calculated and displayed on a scoreboard. Our boss has also promised that 100,000 credits will be rewarded to the top 100, whereas 5,000,000 credits for top ten and 20,000,000 credits for number one! It isn’t a lot of money, but it will be nice if you can buy everyone a meal with the number-one prize.”

Feng Luo rolled his eyes at Mu Wu. “Do you seriously think that what you just said is even possible? I might stand a chance if I were a Machine Gunner or a Manipulator. Snipers are almost definitely in the bottom percentages. Hmm… I might score even worse than a Doctor!”

Feng Luo knew that a Sniper’s advantage was in one-on-one fighting and in landing attacks against a Boss’s weakness. The Sniper was among the least efficient class for grinding in War. While Doctors handled medicine and did not fight monsters, they could still contribute by providing treatment. Hence, their degree of contribution was about the same as other occupations.

“What’s more, the most effective grinding tool in War, mechas, will appear in this mission. I think Mechanists will get to grind more than Manipulators and Machine Gunners!”

Feng Luo was almost certain that he would see player-controlled mechas in this mission. It was known that mechas required great energy to operate but were ideal against groups of monsters. A battle against Normal-grade monsters could even become a massacre. And be it the Roaring Dragon Mercenary Group or the Veterans Tribe, all the big forces would train a few Mechanists to be used in a mission like this.

“The mechas will not be listed on the scoreboard,” Mu Wu said with a smile. “Otherwise, other occupations would not be able to outrank them. Besides, in the data, the system will use a conversion standard based on profession to assign contribution points, or else it will be too unfair for Snipers and Heavy Armor Warriors. So you don’t have to worry.” His expression changed to a more serious face. “Feng, take it as a personal favor to me. If it’s possible, take chances to perform throughout the mission. ”

Feng Luo stared into Mu Wu’s eyes and fell silent. He was still not wearing his glasses, and his eyes were brilliant. Feng Luo could tell that Mu Wu was serious about this.

“All right!” he said. “But I’m only a Sniper. I might not be that helpful, so I can’t guarantee any results. The main reason is that my level is quite low, and I don’t have good gear.”

Feng Luo nodded but was actually feeling uncertain. Even though his basic stats were comparable to those of Level-50 players, his gear was at Level 40—inferior to Level-50 gear.

“No worries,” said Mu Wu. “I have prepared a secret weapon for you!”

Mu Wu smiled and passed him a box with something inside.