Fatal Shot
chapter-60

Neutron Star had clearly gained the upper hand in the battle on the deck. Although the pirate with the scarred face was gigantic and looked savage, he was forced to retreat at every turn.

"Walijigu!"

However, the pirates would certainly not let their leader fight alone. A Level-38 black pirate who crawled up screamed in some language that Feng Luo did not understand while firing a string of bullets at Neutron Star with his AK-47.

Whoosh!

−1201

However, just as he pressed the trigger, an ice arrow hit the back of his palm, making him release the pressure on the trigger due to the pain, and the AK-47 that had just fired seven to eight bullets stopped firing.

Bang!

−1899

Immediately after that, an armor-piercing bullet came from somewhere on the left of the deck and punctured the black pirate's throat. After the red lethal damage appeared, all that was left was a corpse.

This shot was not from Feng Luo; his position did not allow him to hit the pirate's throat. The person who had fired the shot was naturally Black Panther.

Black Panther hid in a very concealed location on the deck, shooting after every few seconds with every shot killing a pirate.

As for Glazed Ice, after she helped Neutron Star, she quickly released a skill that created a whirlpool in the sea, capsizing a hovercraft the pirates were using to try to sneak in from the side of the ship. It resulted in one pirate who had not yet climbed onto the ship falling into the sea before getting killed by another two of her skills.

White Crescent, who carried the combat medical kit on her back quickly rushed behind Neutron Star and accurately threw a healing pack over to recover Neutron Star's HP—which had already dropped to two-thirds—back to almost full.

As for the scarred Pirate Boss at the end of his rope, a head-sized fireball came from afar and hit his head, taking out the rest of his remaining HP.

When every player on the ship joined in the battle, the result was decisive. Three NPC crew members on the ship died while another six were injured, and among them, two were heavily injured. A total of ten still had some combat strength. Meanwhile, the 20 pirates were all killed.

However, their troubles were not over. To be precise, they had just begun!

Red Queen looked toward the sea behind the ship. Her expression was as cold as ever, but the slight frown showed her true emotions. It was because, in a position around three kilometers behind the ship, with the help of half a sun just rising up from the sea, one could see a ship that was twice as big as the Hui Yi Hao. It seemed like it was a modified military vessel that had become the pirates' ship, and it was closing in rapidly.

Gray Water had many pirates. They occupied some of the islands deep in the ocean and robbed commercial and passenger ships while also doing the sort of things that the rebel army did, such as kidnapping players or NPCs as hostages so that they could blackmail money from the Federal Government.

The Federal Government's army had sent out fleets of aircraft carriers several times to try to destroy them, but every time, they failed to thoroughly eliminate them. The number of pirates in Gray Water was never reduced, mainly because the Federal Government did not have absolute control over the entire planet.

Although the Federal Government had been established for over 30 years, all kinds of separatist, non-governmental armed forces still controlled over 40 percent of the territories. It was also the reason why the rebel army had dared to directly attack a town belonging to the Federal Government.

Many of the pirates of Gray Water were supported by non-governmental armed forces. Some of them were even part of these illegal forces. So even if the Federal Government wanted to annihilate them, it was impossible to do so.

Of course, all of the above consisted of background information easily found on the official website of the game company. In reality, there was a more logical explanation, which was that the game company had intentionally designed it to be that way.

There were still many islands and sea regions that were not yet explored in the Gray Water, and the monsters within those areas would often drop rare and unique materials and items. If one were to find a location like that, the haul would definitely be substantial. So, to increase the difficulty, the system specifically set up the pirate threshold.

As the saying went, the greater the reward, the greater the risk.

"Cruise at maximum speed. Can we shake them?" asked Big Pineapple as he used the military binoculars he had used the day before to watch the pirate ship from behind.

The NPC Chief Officer with a mutton chop beard, whose arm was bandaged due to a gunshot wound, shook his head. "No. The pirate ships all have specially modified power systems. Their estimated speed is already almost 40 knots while our ship can only reach 35 knots at most. It's impossible for us to shake them."

A knot was a measurement unit used to measure cruising speed. One knot was equivalent to 1.85 kilometers per hour.

"Then aren't we finished?" asked Big Pineapple as he put down his arms and looked at Red Queen.

The distance was still pretty far—even using the binoculars did not show it clearly. But judging by the size of the pirate ship alone, one could tell that it must have held at least 70 to 80 people. It was possible that there might be over 100 people. After all, the pirates definitely had supply points in close proximity, so they did not need to travel far. As such, the ship did not need to hold too many food stores or provisions, which also meant more space for people.

From the look of things, even if they had already taken care of 20 pirates, and even if the average level of the pirates was only Level 35, dealing with over 100 of them was not going to be easy.

More annoying was that the one pursuing them was a military vessel modified into a pirate ship. The heavy weapons on the ship would outnumber those on their cruise ship. No matter how strong the seven of them were as individuals, facing a huge number of heavy weapons would still put them at a disadvantage.

Heavy weapons were what players called weapons that could not be disassembled and put into their backpacks and had to be set on a stand to be used, such as the six-barreled electromagnetic railgun fixed on the energy military vehicle Feng Luo had encountered previously, the small energy cannon, the small missile launcher on the Tiger Mecha, etc. Similarly, the 40mm close-in cannons on the weaponized cruise ship belonged to the same category of weapon.

These weapons were often incredibly powerful. They had a frightening range of destructive power. Considering the current strength of the players, it was practically impossible to face them head-on.

Facing the six-barreled electromagnetic railgun on the energy military vehicle used by the rebel army before, normal Level 40 players only needed to be hit five to six times before their HP was depleted; moreover, it had automatic ammo reload feature. As long as there were enough bullets, it was a powerful killing machine.

However, the power of heavy weapons would be restrained when used by players. When PKing with other players and fighting against monsters above the Commander rank, the damage would be reduced so that professions like Mechanist did not reach an overpowered level.

However, the ones controlling these heavy weapons right now were the pirates, so they could realize the full power of the heavy weapons. As such, when pitted against this pirate ship, the players really did not have much hope of winning.

"No, we still have a chance!" Red Queen said in a low voice. "I learned about it on the forum before. Although the pirates we're facing on the sea are also humanoid monsters, they are not fearless like the rebel army. Normally, once their battle strength reduces by 75 percent, they'll choose to flee."

"75 percent. That's still pretty much impossible!" Big Pineapple frowned.

75 percent, excluding the previous 20, would mean that the players still needed to kill at least 40 to 50 more. However, in a situation where the opponent had quite a few heavy weapons, no matter how many they killed, they would be pretty ravaged at the end, and they would no longer be able to complete the mission.

"No, we can fight," Red Queen said cooly. "It's because there's a hidden feature, which is that every time an Elite Pirate Boss is killed, the percentage goes down by five. If we can kill the Pirate Captain, we could even lower it by 50 percent! If it were any other profession, it would be impossible, but with a Sniper who specifically targets their Elite… if we're lucky, we might not need to face off against their Heavy Weapons!"

When she said this, Red Queen glanced at Feng Luo and Black Panther.

"Is this why you hired Snipers?" Feng Luo asked.

"Part of it!" Red Queen answered.

"Sh*t! What are they trying to do?" Big Pineapple, who was using the binoculars to observe the pirate ship exclaimed before Feng Luo could continue his questions.

Feng Luo raised his sniper rifle and zoomed in to the maximum magnification of the scope. He saw three assault boats dropped to the waters from the two sides of the pirate ship. After that, they quickly steered toward them.

"They're probably going to head toward our front and our sides to block us and seal off our escape routes!" Neutron Star surmised.

"To use assault boats to disrupt a cruise ship. The weight isn't even in the same class. No way they can succeed." Glazed Ice had voiced a rare opinion.

"Oh, God! Don't let the assault boats near us, no matter what!" the injured mutton-chopped Chief Officer NPC suddenly roared. "Otherwise, there's no way we can escape!"

"Why?" Red Queen asked.

"The assault boats of these pirates are modified. They have torpedos equipped on them. They can fire a type of micro-torpedo, and they only need to be within 250 meters to fire. The torpedoes aren't powerful, but if our hull is hit and water floods into the cabin, the ship's speed will significantly decrease!"