Chapter 44 The Bait

Zoro’s instincts told him that Feng Bujue’s move was extraordinary. Therefore, Zoro had activated Armament Haki in advance, covering his entire upper body with a layer of lead-gray, invisible armor, just in case.

‘Two-Sword Style. Rhinoceros Return…’ Zoro retreated half a step, looked up at the sky, and raised the two swords in his hands in the shape of rhinoceros horns, ready to meet the attack.

Unexpectedly, something surprising happened.

Feng Bujue, who had been rushing towards Zoro like a missile, suddenly used [Moon Step] just as he was about to clash with his opponent, darting sideways and flashing behind Zoro.

“What’s going on…” Zoro thought. “His stance just now clearly indicated he was about to unleash something… and there wasn’t a trace of fear or hesitation in his eyes… why did he avoid it?” He paused slightly. “Could it be that he has some kind of precognitive ability, able to know the outcome of the exchange in advance…”

Zoro was half right. One of the reasons Feng Bujue gave up on the exchange at the last moment was indeed because he was not optimistic about the outcome of the clash. According to Soul Sense calculations, even in the Spirit Consciousness Gathering Technique state, he would at best achieve an effect of injuring the enemy one thousand while losing eight hundred himself.

And the other reason that made Feng Bujue decide to dodge was… in this tense battle, in these short dozens of seconds, he had already thought of a plan.

“Heh… hehe… hahahaha…” Feng Bujue suddenly laughed, a very punchable expression on his face, indicating that he was very pleased with the method he had come up with.

“Hey, what’s wrong with you, kid? Has your brain been damaged by excessive blood flow?” Zoro was also baffled by him.

Feng Bujue ignored him and silently dispelled the Spirit Consciousness Gathering Technique, and the red light around his body immediately dissipated.

Zoro turned around, raised his right arm, and pointed at Feng Bujue with the tip of his sword. “Or have you seen the light and decided to admit defeat and face death?”

“No, I’m going to run away.” Feng Bujue said. “That’s why I came behind you.”

“Planning to abandon your companions? Hmph…” Zoro snorted coldly. “I thought you were a man with a bit of backbone.” A fierce glint flashed in his eyes.

“No, I’ll be right back.” Feng Bujue said, taking out the [Anti-Gravity Catapult] from his bag. “But you won’t be coming back.”

“Ha? What are you going to do with that strange device in your hand?” As soon as Zoro said this, he heard a “splat” sound, and the next second, he had a face full of rotten eggs…

[Rotten Egg “Bomb”] itself was not an item, but a one-time skill that could only be activated through a shooting weapon. Of course, when this skill was activated, an egg would be generated out of thin air.

This skill, which only consumed 1 Stamina and did almost no damage, had only one effect: “Generates a huge amount of aggro, attracting the target to attack you.”

“What is this… it stinks!” Zoro wiped his face with his arm, shook his head, and glared at Feng Bujue. “What did you suddenly throw at me, kid!”

“Hmm… able to predict Death Poker in time, but unable to avoid this kind of attack…” Feng Bujue muttered. “Is it because I used the catapult, a special means of launching… or is it that the ammunition generated by this skill is simply unavoidable…”

“Ah… it really stinks! You… you’re dead!” An unnamed fire shot straight to the top of his head. Zoro stepped forward and shot up, attacking Jue-ge fiercely.

“Never mind, as long as it works.” Feng Bujue turned around and ran.

Jue-ge knew his maximum running speed very precisely. Now, even without Spirit Consciousness Gathering Technique, he was already very fast. If he had this speed back on Hunter Island, he wouldn’t have been chased so embarrassingly by Ford.

“If it’s just a running race, my Stamina is still very plentiful, and I won’t be caught up in a short time.” Feng Bujue thought. “Zoro’s ranged attacks are, after all, just sword qi, not homing missiles. As long as I keep my distance, keep moving, and don’t stop to tangle with him, it’s not too difficult to avoid those attacks. The rest is…”

“Don’t run! You bastard!” Zoro roared from behind. “How dare you throw eggs at me! Do you still want to see the sun tomorrow?”

“Hahahaha…” Feng Bujue was worried that the skill’s taunting effect wasn’t safe enough, so to further enrage his opponent, he let out an extremely arrogant laugh while running away, and turned his head to shout, “Not eggs! Rotten eggs!”

“Kid! You stop right there!” Zoro was already furious, veins popping on his forehead.

“Ha! Have you ever seen anyone in this world who stops when someone shouts ‘stop’ while running away?” Feng Bujue continued to retort. “Also, you kid, watch your wording. You, a guy who’s supposed to be only twenty-one years old, keep calling me ‘kid’ so smoothly! Your father, I’m at least twenty-four years old this year! Do you think you’re a one hundred and fifty-year-old girl like Rukia?”

“Ha? You know quite a lot… looks like you’ve already heard the call of the Soul Society, huh? Then I, this great lord, will send you across the Sanzu River!”

Watching the two of them, one running and one chasing, gradually move away from this place, Kenshin still stood silently in place, arms crossed, eyes closed, and resting.

On the other hand, Sougo, who was lying on the ground, lifted his eye mask, squinted his eyes, and said weakly to Kenshin in the distance, “Himura-san, Zoro-san probably won’t be coming back, will he?”

“Ah… that Mad Fellow should take Zoro to a slightly farther place, then ‘casually take a couple of turns’ to shake him off, and then come back.” Kenshin said, sighing helplessly.

“What if that Feng Bujue gets rid of Zoro-san and then abandons his companions and runs away on his own?” Sougo said again. “Or, he runs back to call for reinforcements first, and then…”

“Reinforcements…” Kenshin suddenly interrupted Sougo and slowly opened his eyes. “…have already arrived.”

“Oh?” Sougo was stunned for a moment, then he understood what Kenshin meant.

“Tch… how unpleasant.” Sougo supported himself with one hand, flipped over, and stood up. “When did Himura-san notice?”

“I noticed it from the beginning.” Kenshin replied calmly.

“So that’s why you’ve been standing there, biding your time?” Sougo asked.

Kenshin smiled slightly. “I just wasn’t clear about what those guys wanted to do, so before they showed themselves, I decided to wait and see, to prevent them from suddenly attacking.”

“Did you hear that? The Classics.” Sougo raised his voice slightly and drawled. “You’ve been discovered~”

Seconds later, above the shelves behind Kenshin, four powerful figures suddenly jumped out and fell from the sky…

…………

Speaking of two separate things, on the side of Xiao Tan and the others, the battle was also exceptionally fierce.

Gourry’s swordsmanship was superb, and his combat experience could be called shocking. Whether it was bandits, mages, knights, magic swordsmen, demons, ogres, or even dragons, he had encountered all kinds of opponents of various types and sizes. So, facing the attacks of two Transformers and one player, he could rely entirely on the power of the Sword of Light to fight with ease.

Jazz and Nightbeat, on the other hand, were suffering unspeakable hardships. Although these two Transformers both had shooting weapons, they could only rely on their size and strength advantages to carry out close-quarters suppression at the moment. They were both very clear that as long as there was an opening, Gourry could unleash a beam cannon like a giant wave with a flick of the Sword of Light in his hand. In order not to give him time and space to prepare his moves, they had to launch attacks continuously.

As for Xiao Tan, he was even more depressed. At the beginning of the battle, he had also taken out the [Winchester Shotgun] and tried to shoot Gourry at a medium-short distance. However, because Gourry’s movements were extremely fast, and Xiao Tan’s Shooting specialization was only E-level to this day… this led to a situation where several consecutive shots all missed. Not only did he not graze the opponent with a single bullet, but a few shrapnel accidentally injured his companions. Fortunately, Jazz and Nightbeat had high defense and large sizes, and they didn’t care about this level of damage.

Seeing that he was only getting in the way more and more, Xiao Tan gave up using firearms and simply went head-to-head with the opponent using the [Energy-Storing Trilateral Military Dagger].

Don’t underestimate Xiao Tan like that, his Fighting specialization reached C-level earlier than Jue-ge.

Unlike Feng Bujue, Wang Tanzhi’s gaming experience was obviously closer to that of a normal person… according to a more ordinary and common gaming process, a player could definitely reach E-level in their main specialization at level 10; they could reach D-level at level 20; and when they reached level 30, they should naturally have a C-level level.

If they were experts or professional players, the speed of specialization breakthroughs would often be a bit ahead, reaching the average level a few levels earlier. There were also a very few gifted guys who could achieve a level that exceeded the entire rank. For example, that Zhao Yingwang, who had a B-level Summoning specialization at level 30, and that Si Yu, who reached D-level Fighting specialization at just over level 10…

Of course, even top experts, apart from [Universal], would at most have three proficient specializations, one main and two semi-main. Casual players usually had two, one main and the other passable. Guys like Feng Bujue were not rare, they simply didn’t exist… there was only him.

Xiao Tan was a very typical casual player, and his strength was actually considered relatively strong. Having two C-level specializations as soon as he reached level 30 also meant that he was ahead of most players of this level.

Since this was a script generated based on the players’ overall strength, and Gourry wasn’t some final Boss, there was no reason why a mid-level martial player like Xiao Tan would have no way to deal with this enemy.

Having figured this out, Xiao Tan also discarded his extra thoughts and cooperated with Jazz and Nightbeat, using his most proficient specialization to deal with the opponent.

Being able to fight against the highly skilled swordsman Gourry was undoubtedly an improvement for Xiao Tan. Since entering Thriller Paradise, although he had fought players less often, he had experienced battles like this much more often than Feng Bujue.

To truly feel the power transmitted from the weapons, to observe every movement of the opponent with all his attention, to exchange blows and react to each other in an engagement where he could be killed at any time… the Fighting specialization was gradually improved in countless such battles. The only difference was that each person’s comprehension was different. Perhaps what a genius learned from one battle, a mortal would have to experience ten battles to understand, that was the factor of talent.

“Phew… luckily I got the military dagger from Jue-ge. If I had used my Damascus short sword to clash with this Sword of Light, I guess that store-bought item would have been destroyed…” After a moment of entanglement, Xiao Tan didn’t feel much advantage in being three against one. As long as his attention was slightly distracted, he would be in a dangerous situation. If it weren’t for Jazz and Nightbeat helping, Gourry would probably be able to beat Xiao Tan into oblivion with an ordinary iron sword.

Just like that, the two of them and the two machines fought fiercely, almost without time to pay attention to other things. When Xiao Tan finally noticed that Jue-ge and Zoro on the other side had disappeared, it was just as Sougo and Kenshin finished their conversation.

At this moment, Jazz and Nightbeat’s attacks suddenly stopped. They all turned their heads and looked at the shadows jumping down from the air.

Gourry’s reaction was half a beat slower. It wasn’t until the opponent in front of him stopped moving that he was stunned. “Eh? What’s wrong?” He tilted his head, poked his head out, and looked out from the sides of the two Transformers.

He saw four burly figures standing in a row, lined up in a row. They wore four-colored eye masks; held double knives, iron forks, nunchaku, and long sticks in their hands respectively; and had huge oval turtle shells on their backs.

They were…