Fatal Shot

Chapter 164: Stats of the Pet Badge

Storm City South. Withered Desert

Coordinates: 2349, −5198

Feng Luo sped across the desert road covered in yellow sand on his SCV-Type One Energy Motorcycle, leaving a trail of yellow dust on either side of the road. The temperature reached as high as 40 degrees Celsius. Although the sun above was already a little westward, it still burned and emitted searing heat, shining upon Feng Luo, who was riding alone on his energy motorbike. It created a nostalgic scene.

The Withered Desert was not a leveling area for players around Storm City. This was due to the special habits of the creatures that lived there. During the day, most of them hid under the sand, and they only came out at dusk or even after it got dark. Moreover, the monsters did not have high levels, but there were many types of monsters that lived in groups. The danger level was far higher than in normal leveling zones.

For example, the Level-30 Desert Ant, Level-35 Desert Scorpion, Level-38 Desert Tarantula, etc… Once a person was surrounded from beneath the sand in secret, it was already too late to escape!

As Feng Luo rode his energy motorbike, he turned on the smart steering system to ride on at a moderate speed. In his mind, he kept thinking about what Mu Wu had just told him.

On the point of joining a guild, his subjective opinion was that he wasn’t really against it. A lot of missions were much easier when done in a group compared to doing it solo.

For example, at the very beginning, in the Town of Exiles, if someone had been there to work with him during the “Eye of the Thunder Blueprint” mission that he’d received for clearing his red name, it would have been incredibly easy for him to kill a Captain of the rebel army. Or perhaps the mission on Silver Leaf Island. If it hadn’t been for Red Queen’s small party, it would have been extremely difficult for him to get into the military base and obtain the chip materials alone.

Then there was Lin’s mission. Getting the last two rare materials that were obtainable only in the Withered Desert would have been easier if he were with a small party, as it would definitely be much safer to enter a danger zone like this with so many groups monsters. That was especially true if the small party had a Fire Manipulator. When facing low-level monsters like these that worked together, the effects of Fire Manipulators were incredibly amazing!

However, regarding the possibility of being the frontman of the guild mentioned by Mu Wu, Feng Luo was not that interested.

Although Feng Luo had to admit that he had thought about making a name for himself in War and to make himself known to other players so that he would feel pride and satisfaction, he did not want to become a person or a player who was “groomed” or “created”! To act like a “superstar player” and have his words and actions monitored by many people, as well as working hard every day to ensure that he maintained his competitive strength—Feng Luo did not want that!

A game was still a game, after all. The focus was supposed to be to “have fun.” Doing all that would be far too tiring!

Otherwise, he would have directly exposed his identity as “The First Pet Owner of War.” With that, his objective of wanting to become famous would have been reached straightaway. It would definitely not have been any less than the first person to reach Level 50, a Machine Gunner called Death Roar.

If he were to even expose the grade and stats of 24K—who was holding tightly onto the chest area of his combat uniform with its six claws and was enjoying being blown by the desert wind—it would definitely cause an uproar in War. By then, even if he wanted to, it would be impossible for him to maintain a low profile anymore.

It was important to note that although the game had been updated more than 20 days ago, the number of pets in War was still very low. Most players could not even complete pet missions. Even if they did, they only obtained the “Beginner Pet Biochip.”

For top players, they definitely could not accept the idea of having the most common pet, so the price of pet biochips of intermediate levels and above were pushed sky high, to the point where they were a lot more expensive than Rare equipment and even Rare skill chips. Pet biochips even became publicity stunts for some auctions, which then attracted a large number of players to participate!

As such, for a Boss-level pet, once it was exposed, it would be impossible to maintain a low profile even if one wanted to. Moreover, Feng Luo also had a piece of equipment that could prove the identity of 24K as “The First Pet of War,” which was the Pet Badge of Honor that the system awarded him after the update.

Feng Luo had initially thought that the reward was just a sign of gratitude. After all, from the word “Honor,” one could that it should probably be something like a normal certificate. What he did not expect was that the stats of the badge would actually be quite decent.

Pet Badge of Honor

Grade: Unique

Single Stat: Directly revives dead pet and reduces death penalty by half (Cooldown: 15 days)

Evaluation: The Badge of Honor that represents the first pet in War

In War, pets dying would not only result in a loss of levels but would also reduce loyalty, with a single death costing up to 10 loyalty points. Moreover, they could only be revived after three whole days, and revival cost several information points as well.

This undoubtedly stopped players from considering using their pets as fodder, since experience was one thing, while the loyalty points of pets increased very slowly. Over the past few days, Feng Luo had fed all kinds of crystals to 24K. He’d even let it have a taste of a diamond crystal. The result had been eight loyalty points. This implied just how heavy a 10 loyalty point penalty was.

And the fewer loyalty points, the less obedient the pet would be. When one’s loyalty points hit zero, the pet would betray its master and escape or will not be able to be revived. Also, players could not exchange pets to increase loyalty points, since the loyalty points of the new pet directly inherited the loyalty points of the original pet. This meant that when the loyalty points of a pet reached zero, the player could never have a pet ever again!

In light of such severe punishment, the Pet Badge of Honor’s stat was very valuable. Whether it was loyalty points or an experience penalty, the penalty received upon death was halved, and it could also directly revive the pet.

The point about immediate revival was particularly important. Feng Luo thought only for a while before realizing its full potential.

Apart from that, the badge did not have any combat attributes, so it was not in conflict with the badge he was currently wearing. There was no problem of choosing either one, which was as great as it could get!

As Feng Luo rode on the self-steering vehicle, he zoned out. At that moment, the light rumbling of an energy vehicle came from behind. A six-seater yellow middle-energy SUV drove slowly past him.

As the energy SUV overtook Feng Luo, Feng Luo saw that three men and three women were inside it. Among the three female players, two had ice cream cones in their hands as they laughed and pointed at him. The red-haired Scout female player even gestured a “Low” to him using her mouth. Clearly, she felt that compared to them—eating ice cream inside their energy SUV with air conditioning—Feng Luo, who was under the sun and eating sand, was in a sorry state.

Moreover, as the energy SUV overtook Feng Luo and was in front of his bike, it sent yellow sand flying and accelerated, “feeding” Feng Luo a crazy amount of sand!

“F*ck!” cursed Feng Luo. “Don’t you lot know that motorbikes are the true love of men? Bullet! Initiate combat mode!”

With the entire unique helmet over his head, Feng Luo looked at them with contempt before using the voice command control system he had set up to switch from autopilot to manual drive. Then he used both of his hands to turn the energy valve, maximizing the energy output of the SVC-Type One.

The top speed of the SVC-Type One Energy Motorcycle known as “Land Bullet” was 300 kilometers per hour. It was no joke. It immediately accelerated toward the energy SUV with gusts of wind and sand following close behind.

Within a few seconds, Feng Luo had already succeeded in overtaking it. At the same time, he intentionally swayed his bike from left to right in front of the energy SUV. He even let go with his right hand and showed his middle finger behind his back.

Upon seeing his outrageous behavior, two of the three female players eating ice cream inside the energy SUV immediately slammed their hands against the back of the seat in front of them. Through the virtual screen on the motorcycle, Feng Luo could see them screaming at the male driver, who was only around 16 or 17 years old, to accelerate and catch up to Feng Luo.

However, the unmodified energy SUV’s maximum speed was set at 220 kilometers per hour, so how could it catch up to Feng Luo’s Land Bullet? It could only gaze ahead and eat sand as Feng Luo flew far off.

After ten minutes, with a trail of sand and dust behind him, Feng Luo stopped the Land Bullet at a rundown supply market built at the end of the road. This place was the last supply point after entering the Withered Desert. A lot of unique and rare materials that were unique to the Withered Desert were sold in stalls here.

Desert Flea Market! This was the name of this supply point.