Liu Haoming glanced over at Li Xi's computer screen, curious what she was playing.
The girl was seated directly in front of him. He looked up and saw a modern warfare scene on her display — Li Xi had one hand on the keyboard and the other on the mouse, playing with intense focus. The view was first-person. She brought her character's scope onto a large black bear in the distance and pulled the trigger without hesitation.
A status bar immediately appeared on the game interface.
"So it's a wasteland survival game, just as I thought."
Liu Haoming thought. To each their own — he had no interest in that kind of game. After a couple of glances, he turned back to his own screen.
One patch, one god — but every patch, you can play Garen. This ranked match, he was going legendary!
***
Jianglin Fortress.
Li Xi stared, bewildered, at the status panel she'd pulled up on her iris display:
【Player: Li Xi
Level: Lv. 2 (400/100)
Stamina: 4+
Agility: 5+
Strength: 3+
Intelligence: 9+
Available Skill Points: 1
Gold Coins: 3】
Li Xi tentatively tapped the 【+】 next to the 9. Her Intelligence instantly jumped to 10, and her available skill points dropped to zero.
Her mind went suddenly, remarkably clear, her thoughts sharper and faster than before. Even her aim seemed to have improved a notch.
Her scope quickly locked onto a canine monster. Bang — headshot.
【Monster killed. Earned 2 gold coins, 300 EXP.】
【Player leveled up to Lv. 3. Earned 1 skill point.】
Li Xi dumped her skill point into Intelligence again. With 11 points, her reaction speed far surpassed any ordinary person's. The instant a monster's silhouette appeared in her scope, it dropped into a pool of blood — always a headshot.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
...
"If only this weren't a virtual world — if I were really standing on the walls of Jianglin Fortress, fighting back the Beast Tide!" Li Xi felt a pang of regret.
Tonight, Jianglin Fortress was under assault from the Beast Tide. As a non-combatant, all Li Xi could do was flee in panic with her family. In truth, she desperately wanted to contribute to the defense of her home.
"He brought me into this virtual world — was it to make up for the regret in my heart? But what's the point? It's all fake. The monsters I'm sniping are just computer-generated imitations. Even if I killed a thousand or ten thousand, it wouldn't help the real Jianglin Fortress one bit," Li Xi thought bitterly.
Though the scene before her was indistinguishable from reality, Li Xi knew full well this was VR technology — an illusion. In the real world, killing monsters couldn't possibly earn you gold coins and EXP, and leveling up to boost your Intelligence was out of the question. Only a virtual world could be this absurd — more surreal than a dream.
Thoughts were thoughts, but Li Xi's trigger finger never stopped. In just a short while, she had sniped dozens of monsters. Her character level had risen to Lv. 8, and her gold coins had reached 65.
Since she couldn't participate in the real defense of Jianglin Fortress, venting her frustrations in this virtual world would have to do. This must be what they meant by dying without regrets! The girl threw herself into the slaughter with fierce enthusiasm.
"My arms are so sore, I can barely hold the gun up anymore."
Li Xi frowned. She hadn't expected the VR experience to be this realistic — even the fatigue felt identical to the real thing, as if she'd actually been holding a rifle for ages. Both arms ached and throbbed.
So the next time she leveled up, Li Xi put her skill point into Stamina. The exhaustion eased considerably.
【Monster killed. Earned 4 gold coins, 500 EXP.】
【Equipment obtained: Blaze Rounds x10. Equip?】
After sniping a fire-breathing monster bird, the game suddenly notified her of a new equipment drop — Blaze Rounds. Li Xi blinked in surprise, then selected 【Yes】.
She fired the next shot, and something she never expected happened. The ordinary sniper round exploded on impact.
BOOM!
A deafening blast. The ground outside the fortress blew open into a massive crater with a five-meter radius. Roaring flames splashed in every direction, engulfing six monsters whole.
【Six monsters killed. Earned 19 gold coins, 2,000 EXP.】
【Player leveled up to Lv. 10. Earned 1 skill point.】
"Is this the power of Blaze Rounds?" Li Xi was stunned. She put her skill point into Stamina and fired another shot into a dense cluster of monsters.
BOOM!
【Ten monsters killed. Earned 30 gold coins, 3,100 EXP.】
"What's going on over there?!"
Chen Lei, the Supreme Commander of Jianglin Fortress, noticed the unusual disturbance on the battlefield.
Earlier, Li Xi had been picking off monsters one at a time, and no one had noticed — with tens of thousands of soldiers on the walls pouring fire down at the horde below, there was no way to tell which kill belonged to whom. But Blaze Rounds were a different story entirely. Destructive force like that — wasn't that a missile?
Large-scale weapons of mass destruction were strictly limited in number and kept under Chen Lei's personal control. He hadn't ordered any missile launches.
Had reinforcements from Sector Two arrived?!
Chen Lei quickly scanned the area but saw no sign of incoming reinforcements.
"This is amazing! With Blaze Rounds, my kill efficiency has gone through the roof!"
Li Xi was thrilled. Even though she knew it was a virtual world, the unmistakable rush of gaming achievement surged through her. She fired another Blaze Round into a dense pack of monsters.
BOOM!
Another terrifying explosion. Over a dozen monsters perished in the inferno.
Beside Li Xi, the male soldier who'd grabbed her collar and screamed at her earlier was now completely dazed.
He was the closest person to her — close enough to see clearly that the muzzle flash erupting from her rifle was abnormally thick and bright, nothing a Type 97 sniper rifle should produce. And wherever her barrel pointed, a violent explosion followed an instant later.
The soldier's hands trembled on his machine gun. He desperately wanted to ask Li Xi one question: What the goddamn hell kind of gun are you using?!
Before long, all ten Blaze Rounds were spent. The muzzle flash from Li Xi's rifle returned to normal, and the soldier's stunned expression gradually settled.
"My kill rate is slow again..."
Li Xi frowned. After experiencing the thrill of obliterating over a dozen monsters with a single shot, she could no longer stomach the inefficiency of one bullet, one kill.
Just then, she noticed a minimized shop tab next to the status panel at the edge of her vision.
She opened it without thinking.
【Blaze Rounds: 1 round / 20 gold coins】
【Cryo Rounds: 1 round / 100 gold coins】
【Blue-Fire Gatling: 1 volley / 1,000 gold coins】
【Rocket Missile Launcher: 1 shot / 10,000 gold coins】
【Laser Cannon: 1 shot / 100,000 gold coins】
【Intercontinental Cruise Missile: 1 shot / 1,000,000 gold coins】
【Atomic Bomb: 1 unit / 100,000,000 gold coins】
...
Staring at the dazzling array of items in the shop, Li Xi hesitated for only a moment before spending 800 gold coins on 8 Cryo Rounds.
Load. Aim. Fire!