Chapter 23

Amidst the smoke and darkness that enveloped the corridor, Ye Yun, hiding in the dark kitchen, took deep breaths to ease the suffocating feeling after his narrow escape. The layer where he was still echoed with gunshots and even explosions. Ye Yun curled up, trying to blend into the shadows. His fists were clenched tightly, and his body trembled uncontrollably. He... had wanted to protect Xu Yanan and help her survive, but he never expected that he would end up personally sending her to her death.

Before the system announced the final battle rules, he was still thinking about how to deal with Vulture, planning to find a safe corner with the three of them and either eliminate the others or escape with Xu Yanan. However, after the system announced the rules, he had no other choice!

Once the five-minute time limit passed, if Vulture could teleport away, it would be fine, but his walkie-talkie was already smashed. To survive on the 43rd floor, which was about to erupt in battle, Vulture's only option was to summon a teammate. Each teammate could summon one person, so in just a few minutes, Vulture could gather at least seven or eight T-camp players around him!

Clearly, players who could participate in the 'major event' were extremely strong in terms of rank, skills, attributes, and equipment. With these seven or eight people, Vulture could at least survive the attacks of dozens of non-player enemies. At the same time, Ye Yun and Xu Yanan would surely die!

Ye Yun had no choice. His only way to save himself was to kill Vulture before he could summon anyone. This would give Ye Yun a chance to teleport away, and no matter where he was sent, he would at least be away from the most intense fighting on the 43rd floor.

But there was another problem... From Vulture's injuries and the fact that only Metal Storm was the killing machine in the hall, Ye Yun was 80% sure that Vulture had been hit directly by Metal Storm, which explained the even distribution of his wounds. However, being hit directly by Metal Storm should have turned anyone into minced meat. The fact that Vulture survived indicated that he had at least one survival skill that allowed him to withstand the bullets.

Even with severe injuries, Ye Yun had no confidence in killing Vulture in 30 seconds in close combat. Therefore, Ye Yun chose the most cruel method for both himself and Xu Yanan!

Dressing Xu Yanan was just an excuse to get his uniform with the Yōu emblem closer to Vulture for easy access. Using her body as a silencer also helped to mask the coldness and sound of the gun.

The gun barrel was separated from Vulture only by the thin layer of Xu Yanan's back. When the first bullet hit Vulture, no matter how strong he was, he would lose his guard in the moment of relief from near death. Then the second, third...

Even though he had taken a few minutes to calm himself, Ye Yun's heart still trembled. Despite his efforts to suppress his emotions, using a living person as a 'prop' and trading someone else's life for his own still caused him great pain.

No matter how reckless Xu Yanan was, she had never harmed him and even expressed genuine affection in the end. Yet, her fate was such a cruel betrayal.

As a person with normal values, how could Ye Yun not feel regret?

Boom!

A violent explosion shook the entire building. Ye Yun's heart leaped. He was acutely aware that this was not the time for self-pity.

Recalling the 'ding' sound in his mind when Vulture died and the quick action of pulling the grayish-green ring from Vulture's hand and storing it in his game emblem storage, Ye Yun immediately called the system to check.

"You have killed a player from the same camp, Vulture!"

"Vulture's camp is Lawful Evil (LE). You have not yet chosen the Evil path, so you can receive full rewards!"

"The system has determined that your current alignment is Chaotic Evil - Neutral (CE~CN)."

Ye Yun's heart sank. He hadn't expected that killing a player from the same camp would shift his alignment towards Chaotic Evil (CE) instead of Neutral Evil (NE) as he had anticipated.

Taking out Vulture's game emblem, Ye Yun emptied its contents.

"Mobile arsenal..."

Ye Yun was astonished by the array of weapons that almost filled the small space, making it hard to move.

Vulture's game emblem contained no fewer than ten types of weapons, and the additional equipment was countless!

The weapons included:

- Steyr SPP Pistol ×2 (German/Austrian, 9mm caliber, 30-round magazine, capable of burst fire and modification), with 9 magazines;

- Star M40 Fiestar Pistol ×2 (Spanish, 11.43mm caliber, 6-round magazine), with 4 magazines;

- Uzi MI ×2 (Israeli, 8.89mm caliber, 9-round magazine), with 13 magazines;

- AK12 Assault Rifle ×1 (Russian, 7.62mm caliber, 60-round magazine), with 7 magazines;

- SG550 Assault Rifle ×1 (Swiss, 5.56mm caliber, 30-round magazine), with 6 magazines;

- Steyr AUG Assault Rifle ×1 (Austrian, 5.56mm caliber, 42-round magazine), with 3 magazines;

- Tavor Assault Rifle ×1 (Israeli, 5.56mm caliber, 30-round magazine), with 7 magazines;

- M40A1 Sniper Rifle ×1 (American, 7.62mm caliber, 5-round magazine), with 2 magazines;

- M60E1 General Purpose Machine Gun ×1 (American, 7.62mm caliber), with 2 standard ammunition boxes;

- Gatling M197 Machine Gun ×1 (American, 20mm caliber, damaged), with 5 standard ammunition boxes;

- Neostead Shotgun ×1 (South African, 13-round magazine), with 4 magazines;

Additional equipment: BCB Polar Gloves ×1, BCB Goggles ×1, Mad Dog Advanced Tactical Knife ×1, Rambo No.1 Combat Knife ×1, various scopes ×3, Shadow 3-DAY Tactical Backpack ×1, 450+ meters of paracord, some cash, and some food.

Notably, Ye Yun noticed that some of the weapons and items were emitting a faint glow. Upon closer inspection, he couldn't help but smile bitterly.

These glowing items were mostly system-issued, and the weapons were either enhanced or enchanted.

Among the enhanced and enchanted weapons were four:

- Uzi MI (+5) ×2:

- Enhancement +1: +1 magazine capacity;

- Enhancement +2: +2 magazine capacity;

- Enhancement +3: -0.5Kg weight reduction;

- Enhancement +4: +0.15mm automatic caliber increase;

- Enhancement +5: -1 recoil;

- Enchantment (Basic Shatter): Causes shattering wounds;

- Tavor Assault Rifle (+7):

- Enhancement +1: +3 magazine capacity;

- Enhancement +2: +5 magazine capacity;

- Enhancement +3: -0.5Kg weight reduction;

- Enhancement +4: +0.08mm automatic caliber increase;

- Enhancement +5: -1 recoil;

- Enhancement +6: +10 magazine capacity;

- Enhancement +7: +1 scope precision;

- Neostead Shotgun (+2):

- Enhancement +1: +1 magazine capacity;

- Enhancement +2: +2 magazine capacity;

- Enchantment (Basic Burst): Causes flame explosion;

The system-issued items included: 3 Hemostatic Sprays, 4 Military Healing Bandages, 2 Antidote Serums, 9 High-Composite Protein Pills, and 17 Compressed Water Pills.

Enhanced and enchanted weapons clearly provided significant boosts, such as increased magazine capacity, which made it difficult to calculate an opponent's remaining ammunition at Vulture's level.

Ye Yun's current rank didn't qualify him to access the enhancement and enchantment system, but he could guess that such upgrades were likely expensive. Vulture's targeted enhancements were evident: the Uzi MI was enhanced to +5, reducing recoil; the Tavor was enhanced to +7, improving scope precision (though the scope's utility was limited due to range and recoil); and the Neostead was only enhanced to +2, simply for the extra 3 rounds.

However, what puzzled Ye Yun was the Uzi MI's Basic Shatter enchantment. The Uzi MI was already deadly with regular bullets, causing severe wounds. Why add a 'shatter effect'?

After a few seconds of thought, Ye Yun was taken aback.

Vulture was a smart person and wouldn't waste effort. The reason for the enchantment was clear... once a player's physical attributes were enhanced to a certain level, even the Uzi MI's bullets couldn't cause fatal injuries!

"What rank has Vulture reached?"

With this in mind, Ye Yun finally opened the treasure chest from Vulture's death.

The chest could offer three options: skills, remaining attribute points, or game points and merit points. Ye Yun made his choice immediately.

"From Vulture's injuries, he must have been hit directly by Metal Storm. No matter how enhanced, a human can't withstand Metal Storm's assault. So, I guess he had a defensive item or skill purchased from the system. But I didn't find any defensive items in his game emblem... even the damaged Gatling M197 appeared, so the defensive item shouldn't have disappeared. Therefore, the defense against Metal Storm must be..."

"Choose to draw Vulture's skill!"

"Ding! Congratulations, player, you have drawn the skill [Standing Defense]."

With a light chime, a plain parchment appeared in Ye Yun's hand.

[Standing Defense]: Activate by standing on one leg, arms crossed over the chest and head. Reduces 99% of damage to the upper thigh of the standing leg. Cooldown: 1 minute.

So that's it!

No wonder Vulture lost one leg and had scattered wounds. This seemingly simple skill defended 99% of the damage, combined with Vulture's tough physique, which is why he only suffered severe injuries from Metal Storm.

Rubbing his hands, the parchment vanished into Ye Yun's body. After digesting all of Vulture's 'gifts,' he finally converted Vulture's game emblem into his own merit points.

"Congratulations, player Ye Yun, for killing a player five ranks higher than you. Due to it not being an independent kill and the target being in [Severe Injury] status, the merit points are reduced. Your rank has been promoted from [Corporal (1/5)] to [Sergeant (2/10)]."

"Congratulations, player Ye Yun, for being promoted to [Sergeant (2/10)]. Your storage space has expanded by 1×1×1 meter."

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