Hunting Log

With the crack of a gun, both of them dove in opposite directions to dodge the bullet! Yet a sudden boom rang out midair as the bullet fired by the hunter burst into buckshot, unavoidably grazing both Yaxiu and Sonia! Yaxiu had expected it to hurt, but as the pellets passed through his body, he only felt as though he had lost something, leaving him as exhausted as if he had just sprinted four hundred meters. He suddenly remembered that he was currently in a state of consciousness, not a true physical body; being hit by bullets merely depleted his soul energy. Compared to Yaxiu and his sudden realization, Sonia, having attended Void Realm prep classes, had anticipated this all along. Having executed a Foresight Slash to evade, she immediately charged at the hunter, raising her wooden sword high and slashing down from a distance. A hazy white light gathered along the blade, turning with her swing into a crescent wave that surged toward the hunter! "Wave Sword!" This was the Voslodar clan's secret sorcery spirit—Wave Sword! A relatively rare ranged-attack sorcery spirit within the swordsmanship faction, capable of deriving powerful offensive miracles like "Ripping Wave Slash" and "Silver Wheel Burst"! "Among three thousand arts, with a gun in hand, none can outspeed it, none can withstand it!" The hunter chanted as he dodged, the barrel of his long gun shimmering with faint light as it actually fired another bullet! It clearly looked like an antique flintlock! But having prepared themselves, Yaxiu and Sonia were no longer flustered. Setting aside Yaxiu dodging with a clumsy roll across the ground, Sonia sheathed her sword into an iai stance, stepped forward, and unleashed a Whirling Wave Slash! Clang! Not only was the bullet batted away, but the hunter several paces away was also viciously slashed by the Whirling Wave Slash, the barrel of his long gun severed cleanly in two! No words were needed. Yaxiu charged right in and pinned the hunter in a bear hug, while Sonia, recovering from the stiffness of her iai strike, closed the distance in swift strides, raised her wooden sword, and struck down ruthlessly! Without a sound, under the heavy blow of the wooden sword, the hunter dissolved directly into a plume of dense mist, leaving a leather-bound notebook to drop onto the rocky ground. "Hey, hey, hey! You almost took my head off!" Yaxiu looked at the wooden sword embedded in the rock, touching his head with lingering fear. "Well, 'almost' means I didn't, doesn't it?" Sonia said, her tone dripping with regret. She bent down, picked up the leather notebook, flipped through a couple of pages, shook her head, and handed it to Yaxiu. Yaxiu took it and looked through it, finding it to be... how should he put it, a hunting log? The first page held the profile of a rat, detailing its weight, size, pelt color, and cause of death, accompanied even by a photograph of the rat pinned to a wall by an arrow. The second page was a spider, the third a rabbit, the fourth a roe deer... By the tenth page, there was finally a slight change, not just because the prey this time was a ferocious carnivore—a wild wolf—but because the notebook's owner had learned a new skill: he had trapped and killed the wolf using a snare. On page twenty-three, the subject recorded in the notebook was an orc soldier clad head to toe in iron armor and clutching a long gun. The next twenty pages were all orc soldiers shot to death. What caught Yaxiu's attention even more, however, was that the notebook's owner seemed to have abandoned his past archery skills, using the long guns brought by the orc soldiers alongside forest traps to single-handedly take on an entire orc unit. The notebook contained no personal details about its owner, but Yaxiu could faintly piece together a story: a boy born into a hunter's family, living in a forest village, inheriting his forebears' hunting skills, only for a sudden orc invasion to destroy everything they had. The archery they took pride in couldn't pierce the orcs' armor, while the orcs' firearms easily shattered their bodies. The boy cast aside his bow and arrow, mastered marksmanship at astonishing speed, and in this forest where he could navigate with his eyes closed, hunted orc soldiers like a grim reaper to avenge his fellow villagers. The orcs' expressions prior to death laid bare how terrifying the boy was: the first few to die looked calm, likely sniped in the head while relieving themselves; those who died later bore increasingly terrified expressions, clearly on the run; and the last orc had even discarded his weapon to hide in a bush, his face pious, as if praying the reaper would overlook him. After the orc soldiers were wiped out, the notebook's owner seemed to have gone through a period of aimlessness. The targets recorded in the notebook included animals, humans, orcs, goblins, wealthy magnates, bandits, prostitutes, and ordinary folks. Past page one hundred, the notebook owner's quarry suddenly became consistent: orcs. A full three hundred pages of records, every one of them detailing a different orc hunted down by the notebook's owner. Although nothing of the sort was written, Yaxiu could deduce a thing or two from the causes of death: First, every orc had been killed by the notebook's owner using an "Adorer Type-5 Standard Rifle"; Second, there was more than one bullet hole in each orc's body. Therefore, Yaxiu inferred that the notebook's owner had likely enlisted in the military and slain orcs on the battlefield. And he hadn't killed only soldiers—there were children, women, the elderly, and even his own comrades-in-arms... Whoever the target was, he never changed his weapon, always ending their life with a single bullet. Further on, the notebook's owner seemed to have prospered and settled down, evident not only because his quarry reverted to herbivores like rabbits and deer, but even more so because the people dying by his hand were no longer soldiers or bandits, but maids, servants, and slaves. Notably, the servants died with disturbing regularity. He probably owned an estate with numerous servants tending to him, but traumatized by the war, he kept a gun on him at all times, gunning down servants without hesitation the moment suspicion took hold... Suddenly, an elderly woman appeared in the hunting log. Yaxiu guessed she was likely the notebook owner's wife, because what showed in her eyes was not panic, nor terror, nor bewilderment, but pity. Pity for the notebook's owner. When Yaxiu turned to the final page, he was certain that the deceased listed in the profile was the notebook's owner himself: [Carbine Stoli] [Human · Male · 56 years old] [Weight: 72 kg] [Height: 1.76 m] [Distinguishing Features: Brown skin, thick hair, body odor.] [Cause of Death: Killed by arrow.] The photograph showed a well-dressed, weathered old man. He had already raised his pistol toward the enemy, but he would never have the chance to pull the trigger, because an arrow had pierced his eye and penetrated his skull. Yaxiu did not know who had killed him with an arrow. Perhaps an old enemy, perhaps the elderly woman's son, or perhaps a thief breaking in to rob him; nor did Yaxiu know why this battle-hardened veteran had ended up slower than an arrow this time. Was his body growing sluggish, or had he simply underestimated the bow? At any rate, Carbine Stoli's hunting log ended here. Perhaps his name would one day appear in someone else's hunting log. Flipping to the very back, Yaxiu found an iron medal tucked inside. Yaxiu did not recognize the inscription on it, but since it was made of iron, its monetary value certainly wasn't high—it was probably the first medal Carbine had ever received in his life. Perhaps this medal represented the finest hour of Carbine's life. Yaxiu picked up the medal and felt a warm current flow into his hand. Immediately following that, a message popped up on the light screen: [Rapid Fire] [One-Winged Sorcery Spirit] [Requirement: Must possess a ranged shooting implement] [Base Effect: After making a shot, immediately make a second shot.] [Passive Effect: Increases ranged shooting accuracy.] ["Sometimes the few seconds lost can never be made up in a lifetime."] At the same time, a notification popped up automatically in the game: [Rechargeable currency detected. Convert to points?]