Chapter Thirty-Nine: Unlocking the Hand Cannon

Haha, not bad at all, another passive skill gained.

“He must be an idiot, getting a free skill point and being so pleased with himself.”

“If you got a free skill point, you’d laugh even harder.”

Zhang Shan didn’t bother to explain, simply displaying the skill description.

Rebirth (Passive): Level 1 (Talent-acquired, cannot be upgraded); after death, resurrect in a healthy state after ten seconds; skill cooldown is twenty-four hours.

“My goodness, what luck is this? He actually acquired a monster’s passive skill.”

“Six-Bar must be using cheats. Otherwise, why does he always get these lucky breaks?”

“This passive is incredible. Two lives—no one can instantly kill him now.”

“Yeah, why does a player have such overpowered skills? It totally breaks the game balance.”

“That’s because you don’t have it. If you did, you wouldn’t think so.”

Everyone was jealous in their own way, but Zhang Shan wasn’t surprised. He understood—the Passive King talent really was too powerful, and only getting stronger. He was absolutely delighted.

Once again, he appeared in the system announcement, and Zhang Shan had become a hot topic in the New World.

The world channel was ablaze with chatter.

“This big shot must be in cahoots with New World. All the good things happen to him. Another free skill point.”

“Dude, you’re missing the point. The point is, today is Saturday—tonight at eight, there’s a monster siege!”

“Damn, that’s right! I’m only level thirteen, with trash equipment. What good will I be during the siege?”

“You’ll be fine. You can kill the big boss, the Demon General.”

“Wait, what level is the Demon General? Can we even take it down?”

“Will NPCs help during the monster siege? There’s an army in the city, and the Lord too. They should be strong; maybe players won’t even need to fight, and the NPCs will handle it.”

“You’re thinking too much. If NPCs did everything, what would players do? Might as well just watch the CG animation.”

“Seriously, there’s no point in arguing. Before the event starts, the official site will definitely release an update or announcement. Otherwise, how would anyone know how the siege event works?”

“True. Mostly, we’re just nervous because of New World. The event should have an announcement—let’s keep an eye on the official site.”

Zhang Shan wasn’t concerned about tonight’s monster siege. When it was time to know, he’d find out naturally.

He was more interested in the changes to his artifact’s attributes after unsealing it.

Arug’s Long-Barrel Hand Cannon had its equipment level sealed by Master Lu. It unseals once every ten levels, and now that he was level twenty, it had been unsealed once.

He checked for changes.

Arug’s Long-Barrel Hand Cannon (Artifact): Physical Attack 2000-2000, Agility +200, Equipment Level (Sealed), currently level twenty. Artifact equipment gradually unseals as the player levels up, once every ten levels. Durability: never wears out. Bound to player Six-Bar Bodhisattva, cannot be dropped.

Effect 1: Power Assault—increases physical attack by ten percent.

Effect 2: Hot-Blooded—increases attack speed by ten percent.

Effect 3: Holy Strike—chance to trigger Holy Strike when attacking, ignores target’s defense and deals ten times damage; trigger chance one percent.

Effect 4: Suppression—applies suppression to targets equipped with less than artifact quality, reducing their defense by fifty percent.

The effects hadn’t changed, but attack increased by 1,000 and agility by 100—doubling the stats. Very powerful.

He wondered whether each unseal would double the attributes, or if each time it simply added 1,000 attack and 100 agility. He’d know once he unsealed it again at level thirty.

Thinking about levels gave Zhang Shan a headache. After reaching level twenty, it took much more experience to level up. To reach level twenty-one, he needed one million experience.

That was a bit insane—even if Zhang Shan grinded fast, a million experience would take nearly ten hours, let alone for others.

Other players with weaker equipment might only earn a bit over ten thousand experience per hour. How long would it take to level up?

Having unsealed his weapon once, and now equipped the Sacrificial Cloak, he had become a boss-level character with high HP and attack.

Plus, he had two lives—who could kill him?

He checked his stats.

Character: Six-Bar Bodhisattva

Class: Hunter

Title: Nemesis of the Demon Clan

Merit: 1,400 (Corporal)

Level: 20

Health: 16,800

Mana: 520

Physical Attack: 2,969–2,986

Magic Attack: 40–40

Strength: 40

Agility: 388

Intelligence: 40

Defense: 102

Luck: 9 (randomly generated between 1–10; hidden attribute, never changes)

Talent: Passive King (chance to randomly gain a monster’s passive skill upon killing it; chance is one in a million)

Skill 1: Headshot (Passive)

Skill 2: Heavy Strike (Passive)

Skill 3: Taming

Skill 4: Power Granting (Passive)

Skill 5: Eagle Eye (Passive)

Skill 6: Rebirth (Passive)

Equipment: Arug’s Hand Cannon, Midas Touch, Temple Ring, Sacrificial Cloak, Elf Leather Boots, Fine Iron Necklace, Fine Iron Ring, Fine Iron Ring, Leather Armor, Leather Cap, Leather Bracers, Leather Bracers.

His HP had reached 16,800, thanks entirely to the cloak—his own base HP at level twenty was a fraction of that. Without equipment, he would be pitiful.

His attack, too—nearly three thousand. Without an artifact weapon, other weapons wouldn’t get him over one thousand total attack.

Equipment was truly essential.

As for skills, Zhang Shan now had six—almost certainly the most of any player in the game. Of his six skills, only Taming wasn’t passive. Passive King was a fitting title.

Hehe.

No, he couldn’t be too proud. He needed to keep a low profile; after all, they hadn’t cleared the dungeon yet.

“Boss, let’s get to it. Let’s quickly deal with the last two guards, then topple the priest and clear the stage,” Zhang Shan said.

“Alright, Six-Bar will handle one, Fire Cannon will lure the other, Secretary will support, everyone else join in and finish quickly.”

“The pressure’s huge. Six-Bar makes it look easy, but it’s actually tricky. It’s like walking a tightrope; one misstep and you’re done,” Storm Fire Cannon complained.

“If the boss tells you to go, just do it. Cut the crap.”

Zhang Shan ignored them. With over forty people, surely they could handle a guard or two. Even if one or two fell, the others could easily finish the job.

Using their usual strategy, they easily took down the third guard, while the others handled the remaining one.

They actually ran into a bit of trouble while luring the guards—Storm Fire Cannon got killed, couldn’t outrun the guard and was caught.

The guard struck him once, landed a critical, and instantly killed him. He was still lying on the ground.

“How embarrassing, haha.”

“Look at Six-Bar, he’s done it so many times without mishap. You did it once and ended up flat on your back.”

“One word: amateur. Compared to Six-Bar kiting the big boss, luring guards is child’s play. To die here? Amateur.”

Everyone mercilessly mocked Storm Fire Cannon, but it was all in good fun. The guild members were familiar with each other, so joking was no big deal.

Actually, luring guards was difficult—their movement speed was much faster than players’, so timing was everything.

Otherwise, you’d end up on the ground.

“Alright, enough. Don’t revive him yet—resurrection skill cooldown is too long. Save it for the priest fight,” Storm World said.

Storm Fire Cannon lay on the ground...