Chapter 147 Dark Sport

The gymnasium was dark. Feng Bujue and Xiao Tan took out their flashlights, while the two GMs put on night-vision goggles.

Pan and Hua stated frankly that their equipment was pre-set. This included their weapons, metal boots, unseen armor, and the newly unveiled night-vision goggles... In any case, the GMs' gear was generally capable of handling any scenario at their level. Their equipment had no prerequisites, was extremely powerful, and was bound to them. Their six specializations were all D-ranked. Since D-ranked skills only had a 60% chance of success, they didn't equip any active skills, opting instead for passive skills that enhanced their abilities.

The four of them tracked the coordinate of the Derivate, visible in the GM menu, to a huge basketball court in the center of the gymnasium. It was still dark inside.

They entered through an entrance in the stands. When they pushed open the activity door of the passage, the vast dark space swallowed the light from their flashlights. Feng Bujue and Xiao Tan's flashlights couldn't illuminate very far (like the opposite stands), and Pan Feng and Hua Xiong's night-vision goggles weren't much better. Distant areas were still dark. In a place like this, a monster roughly the size of a human could easily hide behind a row of seats.

"I was wondering... is it any use talking to them?" Xiao Tan asked softly, his hand holding the kitchen knife trembling slightly, his palm already full of sweat.

Before the other three could answer, a sudden muffled thud came from behind. The source of the sound was Dr. Ashford's mutated form, which had pounced. Its target was Xiao Tan.

This script's Boss was lurking in the upper rows of the stands above the entrance, a blind spot as soon as the four entered. Both its hiding place and attack method were beyond the capabilities of ordinary monsters.

The Derivate knew the players' real-time coordinates. Ashford himself could also deduce which entrance the players had used based on their scent. That was why it had ambushed them in such a strategic position, prioritizing the weakest player. This was probably a built-in selection mechanism of script Bosses.

The attack was extremely sudden, and the monster had pounced silently. Besides the sound of it launching from the stands and the whooshing sound of it slicing through the air, there was no other noise. Not even the GMs could react in time, let alone an ordinary player like Wang Tanzhi.

Fortunately, the area was quiet and open. The sound of it leaping reached Xiao Tan's ears a fraction of a second before Ashford reached him. He managed to turn around before he was slapped into vomiting blood. Of course, he only had about a second to react.

In that second, Xiao Tan didn't have many options. If he did nothing, or did something wrong, his survival points would plummet.

He wouldn't necessarily die, because he had put on the black steel helmet from his bag when they were setting up the bombs outside. His head was protected by armor, so his head wouldn't be torn to shreds by claws. However... whether it was the helmet or his body that was attacked, being ambushed by a script Boss like this would definitely cost him three-quarters of his health. It was also hard to say if there would be any dizziness or bleeding.

There was no way Xiao Tan could avoid the attack with his speed. He couldn't expect Feng Bujue's Winchester to fire in time or a GM's weapon to strike through the air. He could only rely on himself.

In that split second, Wang Tanzhi's fear value actually decreased instead of increasing, dropping to zero.

His eyes changed in that instant, becoming like those of a surgeon at the operating table, calm, resolute, and focused. The mutated creature seemed to be the one lying on the operating table, anesthetized and powerless to stop what was about to happen.

Some people who seemed gentle usually, could reveal a cold and cruel side in a crisis.

Wang Tanzhi's hand holding the knife became steady, precise, and strong. In the dim light, a cold gleam flashed as the blade traced an arc, touching the mutated creature's claws.

The result of this collision would undoubtedly be Xiao Tan's knife being knocked away, and his hand likely being cut or broken.

But the transmission of force takes time, no matter how short.

The instant the blade touched the mutated creature's skin, before the full force of the impact could take effect, Xiao Tan's figure blurred and disappeared. At the same time, he reappeared more than ten meters away, unharmed. However, because the stands were slanted, he appeared in mid-air, five or six meters above the seats below. The fall and roll cost him 27% of his survival points.

Even Feng Bujue was stunned. He hadn't expected Xiao Tan to react so calmly and make such a desperate move in a crisis. Pan Feng and Hua Xiong were even more shocked, but they reacted quickly. As soon as Xiao Tan disappeared, they charged forward and struck the mutated creature with an ax and a spear while it was off balance from missing its attack.

After several seconds, Hua Xiong belatedly realized, "That kid used [Tuidun Kuai Zhan], right? Heh..." He couldn't help but laugh.

Pan Feng said, "Ah... I didn't react in time either. That's the only skill he has, and it's from his title."

"I'll deal with this Boss, you guys have other things to handle," Feng Bujue suddenly said.

Bang! The Winchester fired again.

Feng Bujue was aiming in the direction that Pan and Hua were facing away from.

Just now, in the darkness, a silent, sharp shadow had leaped from the large screen hanging high in the center of the basketball court. It glided through the air, covering a considerable distance as it swooped down on Pan Feng and Hua Xiong.

If Ashford's sneak attack was sudden, this attack was completely within Feng Bujue's expectations.

His judgment of the Derivate's AI was quite accurate. Since it could set up such a trap, it must have a backup plan. The Derivate's target was definitely not the players. It wanted to kill the GMs. The players posed little threat, but if one of Pan Feng and Hua Xiong were killed, the Derivate's chances of winning would greatly increase.

Therefore, whether the mutated creature's attack succeeded or not was unimportant. What mattered was attracting the attention of the two GMs. While they were focused on fighting the mutated creature, the Derivate would definitely approach from another direction in an unexpected way.

The choice of a specific environment, the mutated creature's position, the direction it stood after attacking... all the preparations were in service of this sneak attack. Even if the mutated creature was killed, it wouldn't matter to the Derivate, as long as the sneak attack succeeded. Because once the Boss died, the two players would be forced to leave the script in at most three minutes. By that time, Pan Feng and Hua Xiong, already badly injured, would be in a very passive situation. The Derivate only needed to use its speed advantage to prolong the battle until the blood wolf zombies outside broke through the barricade or found another entrance and flooded in. Then, the two GMs would be doomed.

If only Pan and Hua had come, the Derivate's plan might have succeeded. Unfortunately, it had encountered Feng Bujue.

The gunshot knocked the Derivate, which was already less than five meters away, out of the air.

[Eyes of Hatred] had already been fixed on the unusual shadow in the darkness. Even though the flashlight's beam couldn't reach very far, Feng Bujue had still noticed its presence as it moved through the air. He calmly gave Pan Feng and Hua Xiong a verbal warning and waited for the Derivate to enter his confident firing range before pulling the trigger.

Although the Derivate was agile, it couldn't freely change direction in the air. Once Feng Bujue had grasped its trajectory, it was essentially flying into the muzzle of his ready gun.

The Winchester's massive impact made the Derivate feel as if it had crashed into a wall while swinging on a swing. With the gunshot, it suddenly stopped gliding and fell straight down. But the monster was indeed powerful. Even though it was covered in blood, it stubbornly grabbed the railing at the edge of the stands.

Feng Bujue spent two seconds ejecting the spent shell, reloading, and aiming. Another shot shattered the monster's hand holding the railing.

"Don't delay, the Derivate is your primary target. I can handle the mutated creature," Feng Bujue calmly reloaded his bullets and reminded them again.

The two GMs had just figured out what was going on. Hua Xiong, the faster of the two, sheathed his spear, turned, and leaped, supporting himself with one hand on the railing as he jumped down to the lower level of the stands and attacked the Derivate.

It was very dark on the lower level, but Hua Xiong had night-vision goggles, which didn't affect his combat effectiveness. From Xiao Tan's perspective, who was also on the lower level, he couldn't see the battle. He could only see sparks flashing in the darkness and hear the constant clashing of metal, which meant that the Derivate had already revealed its "claws."

"It's hard for me to fire while you're entangled with it here," Feng Bujue said to Pan Feng. "I told you, I can hold off the mutated creature by myself."

"Nonsense! Even if you can deal with it, I've already drawn its aggro. If I withdraw now, it'll follow me down!" Pan Feng replied while fighting.

"That's easy," Feng Bujue suddenly put away his gun, took out his pipe wrench, and charged forward in a seemingly suicidal move.

Feng Bujue closed in on the mutated creature, blocking it from Pan Feng, and tripped the monster with his leg without even using his weapon...

Pan Feng thought that Feng Bujue had finally gone insane, but in the next second, the mutated creature let out a painful wail and then fell to the ground in a very strange position...