Chapter 2: S-Grade Talent

“Player Feng Zhi Luoye has successfully completed an E-Rank hunting mission, obtaining 15,830 experience and 800 credits. Return mission deposit of 1,000 credits. Congratulations. Your hunter level has increased, and you have obtained authorization to accept D-Rank hunting missions!”

Silvermoon City spanned over 100,000 square meters. Inside the Hunters Guild, which was over 100 stories tall, Feng Luo handed over his hunter card to the beautiful NPC that checked and accepted missions.

“Congratulations,” said the female voice in the system. “Your level has been increased to Level 39!”

With a flash of white light, Feng Luo’s level finally reached 39, which meant he was hot on the tail of the mainstream players.

In War, increasing one’s level was not easy. The game’s server had started half a year ago, but until now, according to the rumors, the highest-level player was only at Level 49, with no one even reaching the level cap of 50 for the current version. Normally, any player above Level 40 would be counted among the mainstream players—especially for the Sniper profession, which did not have any crowd damage abilities and hence, leveled slowly.

Of course, the main reason Feng Luo’s level was so far behind the rest was that prior to now, he had focused on other matters. It was only during the past month that he had begun to put all his energy into leveling.

As for methods of leveling, it would have been very unwise for a Sniper to hunt monsters, like other professions. That was because even the most common armor-piercing bullets cost three credits per round, and other special bullets with attack bonuses were even pricier. The expenditures from killing monsters were something that normal players could not afford. Moreover, for a profession that only possessed single-unit attack abilities, the Sniper’s leveling efficiency could not be compared to the Manipulators, Machine Gunners, and other professions with crowd controlling or crowd damage skills. As such, Feng Luo had chosen to join the Hunters Guild to complete wanted missions from the system.

For this sort of hunting mission, every time he killed a red-name player on the wanted list, he would be able to obtain the 20 percent experience dropped by his target. And for the low-level Feng Luo, this would increase his experience by around 40 percent. In one short month, he had already gained seven levels and 60 percent experience by completing wanted missions—a leveling speed that was considered lightning fast.

It might even be said that these sorts of wanted missions had been specially created for Snipers. That was because only Snipers like Feng Luo were able to take players’ heads from 1,000 meters away, scoring a fatal headshot on a target with just one shot!

And then, before the target’s teammates could react, Feng Luo would escape with ease.

******

Wind Mark Gun Shop was located South of Silvermoon City. It was a small-scale player shop that covered an area of just over 40 square meters. The shop mainly sold guns and ammunition, and due to its diminutive size, the majority of the 500,000 players in Silvermoon City had never visited this tiny shop. As a result, the business had always been so-so.

The moment Feng Luo entered the shop, two beautiful female NPC shop assistants with near-perfect body and face ratios, clothed in Western cowboy attire, immediately bowed to him and said with sweet voices, “Boss!”

It was true; this gun shop was Feng Luo’s asset in War, and this was what he had been busy with throughout the past six months since starting the game.

War was a science-fiction online game that was highly realistic, so players did not have to limit themselves to battles and hunting monsters. In this game, players could do many things. They could open and manage a business, explore ancient ruins, conduct science and research development, start a company, establish a corporation, construct a floating city… Official data even revealed that in the future, they would open up maps in space, allowing players to carry out extraterrestrial immigration.

The potential of the game was undeniably huge. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have been so popular. It occupied 80 percent of the entire market share of virtual reality games, and it had a staggering number of users.

“Where is Old John?” asked Feng Luo, looking around in the shop.

The two beautiful assistants were mid-rank sales NPCs he employed using credits. Their intelligence levels were decent, and apart from being able to sell items and serving as eye candy, they served fine for simple exchanges. As for Old John, he was an NPC employee of the shop. To be accurate, he was a Caucasian bum of an NPC who was a Gun Mechanic. Mechanics were a type of “Life Profession” within the game whose main abilities were to create, repair, modify, and maintain all kinds of guns and accessories.

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“Master John went to the bar!”

In War, the intelligence level of mid-high-rank NPCs was very high. In fact, they were not all that inferior to human beings, and moreover, they had their own hobbies, traits, and ways of life. Old John was a Gun Mechanic Feng Luo had saved during one of his previous missions. After that, Old John had just stayed with him and was reluctant to leave. He loved drinking large quantities of vodka, but he always got drunk after just a sip. As a result, the total amount of time in the day in which he was sober did not exceed two hours. When he was sober, he would make some items and create a few guns for sale, but his creations were never anything but very common items; there was not a lot of profit even when they sold. They were just enough to cover the costs of his food and drinking. Sometimes, Feng Luo even had to lose a bit of money to cover for him.

In spite of this, Feng Luo had no intentions of chasing him away because he surmised that there was a hidden quest concealed somewhere within Old John. He just hadn’t yet discovered the method to trigger it.

Hidden quests were something that one could only dream of. They could not be found by intentionally looking for them!

Feng Luo entered the gun shop. The interior was several times larger than the storefront outside, and it was decorated with all kinds of mechanical workshop areas. From his spacial backpack, he took out the case containing the disassembled M110.

Feng Luo opened the case with great familiarity. With an oily rag and maintenance tools in his hands, he wiped and cleaned every single part of the M110 in detail.

Most equipment in War required maintenance, especially equipment with exceptionally high-performance requirements like sniper rifles. These needed daily maintenance. Otherwise, their attributes would deteriorate. The M110 in Feng Luo hands, in particular, was his pride and joy. Naturally, he needed to be serious about its maintenance.

Feng Luo trained in two Life Professions: “Gun Manufacturer” and “Ammunition Manufacturer.” A portion of the goods sold in the gun shop was manufactured by him.

In War, Life Professions were no less important than Combat Professions. That was because all equipment and support items—such as guns, medicines, defense equipment, and even military vehicles like tanks, armored helicopters, submarines, missiles, etc.—could all be manufactured through Life Professions. As such, Life Profession players could arguably wield more influence on the game than Combat Profession players. Many of their products could help other players, or, perhaps, an entire force of other players, to significantly improve their strength!

Of course, in light of this, it was not easy to become a top Life Profession player. The Life Profession in War was not like other games where players only needed to click a few buttons and wait offline while equipment was manufactured. War’s system required players to control the machines personally or to operate them manually. Some equipment even needed players to design, test, and modify them in person.

All Life Professions had high requirements when it came to knowledge and experience related to the profession itself (which could be learned in the game). This affected the “realism” factor of War. Of course, compared to the complex manufacturing processes of military products in reality, equipment and items in the game were far less complicated to build.

The manufacturing processes were not only simplified, but many of the steps could be completed with the aid of artificial intelligence. Even so, training in a Life Profession required a great deal of time, which was why Feng Luo’s level was lagging so far behind the pack. After all, he trained in two Life Professions at the same time!

But now, both of his Life Profession proficiency levels had already reached the cap of the current game version: the “Expert” level. Wind Mark Gun Shop’s business was also finally in full swing. This had made it possible for him to find time to increase his level. And besides, considering the “Talent Rating” attribute of his character, if he were to have trained solely in Life Professions, it would have been considered a reckless waste of a God-given gift!

Talent Rating was a specialty of War. After one month of game time, every account would receive a systematic rating for the talent of their character. According to power and rarity, Talent Rating was divided into a range of five grades comprised of S, A, B, C, and D. The majority of players received D-Grade Talent Ratings. Only around one-tenth of all players received Talent Ratings above C-Grade.

As for the highest grade, S-Grade, every time its details were exposed, it invited the admiration and jealousy of countless players. And the talent for Feng Luo’s account was…

Lethal (Talent)

Final damage of normal attacks reduced to 75 percent, final damage of weak-point attacks increased by 50 percent, final damage of lethal attacks increased by 100 percent

Talent Rating: S

It was a top-class Talent Rating best suited for a Sniper!