Chapter 133: Magnetic Weapon, Solo-killing King-level Giant Beast (II)
Chapter 133: Magnetic Weapon, Solo-killing King-level Giant Beast (II)
The five consecutive shots were fired so rapidly that their explosions blurred together into one continuous sound. The powerful reactive force stirred up a strong wind, blowing her hair around.
At the same time, over a thousand meters away, a thick cement wall, covered in a layer of mutated beast scales, was shrouded in smoke from the shots.
When the smoke cleared, Chen Chu could clearly see five fist-sized holes pierced all the way through the scales, straight into the cement.
Such terrifying penetrating power. Even a Fourth Heavenly Realm cultivator’s true power might not be able to withstand it, let alone a level 4 mutated beast, no matter how thick their skin was.
On top of that, there was the initial velocity, nearly four times the speed of sound. Even if Chen Chu could sense danger in advance, there was still a risk of getting hit by this if he was even a fraction of a second too slow.
This was the power of modern weapons. Ordinary cultivators wouldn’t be able to withstand a single shot even after years of practice.
Noticing Chen Chu's surprise, the girl pursed her lips and chuckled, her crescent-shaped eyes showing a faint sense of pride, like a little girl showing off her toy to a friend.
"That was an armor-piercing bullet aimed for penetration. Next up is the high-explosive incendiary bullet for firepower suppression."
As she spoke, Luo Fei pressed ten thicker and longer bullets into the magazine that had been prepared on the platform, clicking it shut. Then, she aimed the sniper rifle slightly and looked through the scope.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!!
A hillside over a kilometer away instantly erupted, the raging explosion almost engulfing a radius of dozens of meters, with soil and flames flying everywhere.
After burning for ten minutes, the flames slowly died out, revealing ten large pits nearly 3 meters in diameter on the hillside.
Even though it was just a sniper explosive, its power was clearly comparable to that of artillery shells. Then again, with a caliber of 28 mm, there was hardly any difference from artillery.
This instantaneous firepower was enough to provide a strong suppression against enemies and support to teammates, especially with sufficient ammunition.
After firing ten consecutive high-explosive shells, Luo Fei had only been pushed back a meter, sliding along the ground. She had had to use some of her true power to keep herself steady, but both the rifle and she herself were still in good condition, able to provide continuous suppression.
"How's that?" The girl looked at Chen Chu.
Chen Chu nodded. "The single-target attack power is very strong, and the firepower is formidable, but your close quarter combat skills are still too weak. If a Phantom Leopard manages to sneak within a hundred meters of you, you might not even be able to run away."
The Phantom Leopard was an extremely agile type of mutated beast. Although it was only at level 3, its innate ability gave it an explosive speed that could reach almost supersonic levels.
While her true power was pure, it lacked strength, so she would have a hard time defending against close-range attacks, whether from mutated beasts or agile cultivators.
Compared to the overbearing and condensed true power of Chen Chu and his companions, even in the Third Heavenly Realm, the true power Luo Fei had cultivated through her special art was as loose as cotton. This kind of true power generally amplified all aspects of the body by about twice, making it the weakest type among low-level arts.
Luo Fei sighed. "There's nothing I can do about that right now. This is how my art is before reaching the Fourth Heavenly Realm."
Chen Chu was puzzled. "Are you saying that your close combat capability will greatly improve after breaking through to the Fourth Heavenly Realm?"
"Of course." Luo Fei raised her chin. "Before reaching the Fourth Heavenly Realm, my biggest weakness is that the sniper rifle isn't flexible enough, and handgun types are easily avoided at close range by people knocking the barrel away.
"On top of that, even if a normal handgun had its power increased to the limit, it still wouldn’t pose any threat to cultivators or mutated beasts above the Fourth Heavenly Realm. That’s why I got injured back in Kyria.
"But once I break through to the Fourth Heavenly Realm and can start upgrading my firearms into transcendent weapons, it will be different. Transcendent firearms can be inscribed with runes and powered by crystal energy, and can unleash kinetic energy dozens or even hundreds of times greater than that of granular gunpowder.
"At the same time, I can refine bone bullets. Not only do they have stronger penetration against transcendent energy, but I can use my true power to make them change direction by sixty degrees after being fired.
"With that and a transcendent handgun, even if I'm approached by enemies, I'll be formidable at close-quarter-combat."
"...When you put it like that, I can't help but feel that your cultivation path is much simpler than ours. You just need to enhance your firearms."
She stuck out her tongue. "Of course, it's not that simple. I still need to cultivate, and in the future, my combat power will be closely tied to the transcendent firearms I craft and any technological advancements.
“This path is the integration of science and martial arts. The core is to treat firearms as lifebound treasures and focus on strengthening technological weapons, and the cultivator's true power needs to be intangible and possess all-encompassing characteristics without any attributes, so the restrictions are significant.
“Currently, the strongest cultivator of this art is a peak Ninth Heavenly Realm expert who single-handedly killed three king-level colossal beasts. But due to the limitations of technology, he’s been stuck at this realm for many years, so the art has its pros and cons.
“However, the authorities have been researching powerful weapons that combine transcendent abilities and technology. Energy weapons have already surpassed the realm of nuclear ones.
“In this particular arms race, the West Meng Empire is in the lead. Orthodox true martial arts are still the mainstream in East Xia, though that also means we have the most high-end practitioners.
“Alright, let me show you the ace up my sleeve that my aunt had prepared for me."
With that, Luo Fei picked up an energy crystal on the platform and clicked it onto the rifle, then replaced the original barrel with a thicker black one before inserting a black object into the magazine.
"This is the latest weapon my aunt has developed, a small magnetic energy weapon.
"It’s powered using crystal energy, rather than electromagnetic, and you activate it by channeling your true power through special runes. It can instantly unleash a muzzle velocity of 3500 meters per second.
"The bullets it uses are tungsten armor-piercing bullets, which are coated with a sub-film that reduces resistance to transcendent energy. These can achieve terrifying penetration at ten times the speed of sound."
As she talked, the crystal on the rifle lit up. Its energy was drawn out in large quantities and directed into the rifle, activating all of the runes.
Buzz!
As it was charging, the rifle emitted a buzzing noise, and an astonishingly dangerous aura permeated from the blackened muzzle.
Zoom!
There was a small sound, and even with Chen Chu's terrifying eyesight, he only saw the flash of an afterimage. A black dot appeared on a small hill over 1500 meters away. With that single shot, the soil on the small hill had been directly pierced through, leaving a hole the size of a human head about twenty meters deep.
Although it didn’t look like much at first, the terrifying penetration power displayed made Chen Chu feel that, even if he were wearing battle armor with Durability +10, not even he would be able to withstand it. He would be torn apart by a single shot.
"According to my aunt, even an ordinary level 5 mutated beast could be killed with this shot," Luo Fei said as she put down the rifle.
"However, the weakness is also very obvious: it has too long a wind-up time, and the dangerous aura it emits is too strong, making it easy for cultivators and mutated beasts to perceive it. It can only be used to shoot fixed targets... and it’s also pouring money down the drain."
When she said that, Chen Chu looked back down to the crystal on the rifle’s barrel and noticed that its energy had been completely depleted, meaning that the shot just now had cost 15 contribution points.
He didn’t know the value of the bullet, but it undoubtedly added a huge amount on top. Chen Chu couldn't help but nod in amazement. "It costs a lot of money, but the power is huge."
Next, she introduced Chen Chu to some other bullet effects and even let him try shooting himself.
However, after firing roughly ten shots, he stopped playing. It was too expensive; according to Luo Fei, a single live Black Bone Armor-piercing Bullet cost a thousand yuan, equivalent to 1 contribution point according to current conversion rates.
It wasn't until then that Chen Chu realized how much of a spendthrift Luo Fei actually was. According to her, at her aunt’s request, she had to train for an hour every day, shooting over a hundred training bullets of armor-piercing, incendiary, and high-explosive type.
Even though her marksmanship was perfect within a kilometer, she still had to train every day to maintain her feel for the gun. Training bullets were cheaper, but she was still spending the equivalent of tens of thousands of yuan every day.
While she felt that this behavior was wasteful, she also knew that it was necessary. Everything was for the pursuit of the instinct her aunt mentioned, so that when she reached her peak in cultivation, she could absolutely hit any target.
An instinct similar to Chen Chu's intuition, but different. It was all quite complex.