Fatal Shot

“What’s wrong?” Feng Luo was stopped in his tracks due to 24K’s disturbance.

Feng Luo clicked on the pet space bracer. After a flash of white light, 24K, whose feathers shone like gold under the sunlight, appeared after exiting the pet space. The little guy flapped its wings and charged toward the safe with its wings flailing everywhere.

The only thing was that its wings had always been decorations, so it could not fly very far. As such, halfway through its flight, it curved downward and fell toward the sandy ground.

“Don’t be hasty!” Feng Luo had sharp eyes and nimble hands, so he caught 24K and called out to 24K through the mental link.

“Ahh! Brother, this... It’s a pet, no?!” said the Merchant. “Brother, you’re indeed a top player. To even have a pet already. Moreover, this pet of yours... Yes, it’s certainly very magnificent!”

The stubble-bearded Merchant’s smile returned to his face after he saw Feng Luo stop in his footsteps. His smile became ever brighter, especially after seeing 24K charging toward his stall. He initially wanted to say a few words of praise, but upon seeing the fist-sized 24K—which clearly looked like it lacked combat strength—the words that were on the tip of his tongue changed into a few adjectives.

“Yes!” Feng Luo answered nonchalantly. In fact, he was asking 24K what it had seen through the mental link.

The only thing was, 24K could not express itself clearly. It took a long time before letting Feng Luo know that there was an item extremely important to it inside that safe.

“An extremely important item?”

Damn.

Feng Luo knew that he was probably going to get slaughtered. Clearly, 24K’s earlier behavior had already let the stubble-bearded Merchant notice the reason why Feng Luo had stopped moving, so no matter what he bought, Feng Luo guessed that the guy was going to name a ruthless price. Whatever 24K wanted, Feng Luo had to buy; it was no longer possible for it to be cheap. In fact, it was very likely that he was going to get a really bad deal.

The lame tactic often employed in novels, where one pretended to ask for the price of one item before buying another cheap item—while asking the boss to include an expensive, valuable item to accompany the purchase—would not work in this situation. The sharpness and wit of Merchant players who spent their time in flea markets in the game could not be compared to the NPCs who had been dumbed down. It was extremely difficult to trick them! So Feng Luo did not bother to pretend and pointed straight at a transparent metal box on the side of the first row within the safe.

“That’s an energy core crystal, right?” he said.

From the transparent box, one could see an almost transparent thumb-sized core crystal emanating fire energy within, its light illuminating the entire safe in a warm fiery color.

“Yes! It’s a core crystal. The core crystal dropped by a Level 39 Commander Grade Fire Ant. Moreover, it’s system evaluation is of the Excellent grade!” The stubble-bearded Merchant had a bright smile as he looked at 24K, who was staring wide-eyed at the safe. He was very happy.

“All right, bring it over and let me see it!” Feng Luo actually did not even know what 24K wanted. He only let the boss bring the most probable item over. After all, 24K had the “Devour” talent, so it liked energy core crystals and normal crystals a lot.

Feng Luo had prepared to test it out first, but a woman wearing a combat uniform suddenly extended her hand from the side and grabbed the box the stubble-bearded Merchant player was handing over to Feng Luo.

“Wait a minute!”

“Boss, I’ll take this core crystal!”

Feng Luo frowned and turned his head. “Huh?”

A 16 to 17-year old female Scout player with short hair dyed red stood beside him. She wore thick makeup, wore big silver earrings and a camouflage combat uniform, and was chewing something in her mouth. She opened the box while staring at Feng Luo with a mocking expression.

Around five to six meters behind her, two female players and three male players, a total of five players, smiled while watching Feng Luo and the girl with the dyed hair.

Is this what is meant when people say “enemies are bound to meet on a narrow road”?

It was not a coincidence. This was a typical case.

This group of people was the small party he’d encountered earlier. They had overtaken Feng Luo and were then overtaken by him shortly after—just before Feng Luo had given them the middle finger.

Six people. Three men and three women. All of them looked young. Probably not older than 16 or 17 years old. To be precise, they must have been teenage boys and girls players. If this were on Earth, they would be students at their age. However, although they looked like students, apart from one girl who did not speak, the other five had good equipment on them. One might have even said that their equipment looked stronger than most working people.

In fact, one would have been able to tell from their transport. The cheapest energy SUV, the lowest spec E-01, cost 50,000 credits, and the one they drove was the full-spec Type C-10 that cost 200,000 credits. So these people were clearly the sons and daughters of the wealthy. Or at the very least, rich in-game.

That is, apart from the one Fire Manipulator who did not speak and did not point or make gestures at Feng Luo. Her equipment seemed relatively normal. Most were Normal-grade, with a couple of Fine-grade in between. Compared to her friends, the gap was clear. However, she seemed a little more mature than her friends.

“We’ll take this. Boss, name a price!” The short-haired girl glared at Feng Luo, closed the box lid, and spoke to the stubble-bearded Merchant.

The Merchant walked one round between Feng Luo and the girl. Then he rolled his eyes before naming a price. “The price of this core crystal is... 30,000 credits!”

The thickly drawn eyebrows of the short, red-haired female Scout straightened like a sword as she exclaimed, “What? 30,000 credits! Why don’t you rob us instead!?”

Core crystals were definitely priced high, but core crystals of Level 40 and below Commander-grade monsters were only several thousand to 10,000 or 20,000 credits. 30,000 credits was definitely too much.

“30,000 credits, huh? It’s a bit high, but it’s just an energy core crystal. Feng Luo said while calming 24K down through the mental link. “It has always been for the rich, if you don’t have the money, you should put it down.” At the same time, he narrowed his eyes and looked sideways at the short-haired girl while smirking, provoking her.

“You! Who says I don’t have money! 30,000 credits. I’m taking it!” The short-haired girl bit her lip and almost cursed aloud.

Her equipment was good. At the very least, it was a lot better than that of ordinary players. Naturally, she could still produce 30,000 credits.

Of course, the same guidelines still applied. It depended on the party in question.

With Feng Luo’s observation skills, he could tell from a glance that the five had mostly Excellent equipment, with a small number of Fine-grade pieces of equipment mixed in. With that level of equipment, an entire full-body set would cost at least a few hundred thousand credits. It was pretty good.

However, compared to Feng Luo’s equipment, they still had some ways to go, especially the two Rare weapons that Feng Luo did not even bother to take out. The 16 to 17-year old Light Armor Warrior standing opposite him was looking from left to right, holding a Level-45 Excellent-grade “Silver Will” alloy sword and wearing a Fine-grade light armor to make himself look good while breaking the bank.

Of course, for young boys and girls who did not have much experience, it was not easy for them to recognize the fact that Feng Luo had so many rare pieces of equipment on him. After all, War had too many types of weapons and armor. It was impossible for normal players to differentiate between them all.

However, after speaking, the short-haired girl returned Feng Luo’s glance with a provoking expression, clearly feeling that she had “won.”

But little girl, your competitor hasn’t spoken yet... Feng Luo thought.

With a smug expression, he said, “35,000 credits. I saw this item first. Same words, if you don’t have the money, put it down!”

“You... Who says I don’t have money! I bid 40,000!” The short-haired girl was clearly triggered. Her eyebrows rose even more.

“45,000!” Feng Luo raised another 5,000 credits without hesitation.

“I...” The short-haired girl was just about to increase the price without thinking but suddenly stopped. Then her pupils lost focus.

Hmm? Is she using her party channel...?

Players could use the party channel to transform audio into text that appeared in the target person’s channel. That way, the conversation would be harder for other players to detect.

Of course, that depended on the individual. For a sniper who had such sharp observational skills, how could he miss a detail like this?

Feng Luo moved his body sideways slightly, and the five people behind the short-haired girl were within his vision. As expected, four of them were chatting quietly. Only the Manipulator girl did not participate.

Feng Luo’s auditory senses were decent, but in a noisy market like this, he couldn’t hear what they were talking about. But just because he couldn’t hear it did not mean he could not “see” it.

Huh. Learning a traditional skill is useful everywhere!

After a five to six-second pause, the short-haired girl finally spoke. Her tone seemed to be more comfortable.

“50,000!”

By now, the stubble-bearded Merchant was on cloud nine. It’s true! Only when people become hot-headed will I make money!

In a short amount of time, his energy core crystal, which he’d bought for 15,000 credits, was now at three times that price.

“55,000!” Feng Luo also showed a triggered expression as he called a price without hesitation.

He had already “read” the plan of the group of boys and girls, which was to raise the price of the core crystal as much as possible until a certain point, at which point they would give up. Then they would laugh at Feng Luo for buying it at such a high price.

One could not ignore the fact that this “plan” was... Yup—it was extremely unoriginal!

The short-haired girl hesitated for a moment. Clearly, she was reading the messages in her party channel. “60,000!” she said.

And after receiving the message, she immediately looked annoyed and angry before calling another price while trying to provoke Feng Luo with her expression.

Feng Luo looked at their lips. It seemed like the leader, a handsome and tall Machine Gunner, was already talking through the party channel. He was telling her to stop increasing the price after 60,000 credits. Otherwise, Feng Luo might stop bidding.

“60,000, huh...?”

Feng Luo intentionally hesitated for two seconds. In an instant, everyone tightened their stomachs. The short-haired girl in front of him in the thick makeup stared at him nervously.

“I call...”

As Feng Luo prepared to continue raising the price, a few of them relaxed. After all, although the five of them came from well-to-do families, they were still students. So how could they have that much money?

Moreover, to purchase an energy core crystal worth 15,000 credits for 60,000 credits was a massive loss!

Feng Luo shook his head and changed his tone halfway through his sentence. “Forget it. If it’s 60,000, I don’t want it anymore!”

“F*ck!” In an instance, the six boys and girls were stunned. All of them wore weak expressions.

They had never imagined that Feng Luo—who’d had an extremely aggressive expression when raising the price—would give up so quickly, blocking them at the crucial moment of their plan!

“Young ones, to compete against Brother Feng...” Feng Luo’s face became calm again, but underneath his calm demeanor was a cruel laugh.