"Disassemble complete, would you like to extract at once?"
Wasn't that obvious?
Arthur's face darkened as he muttered. "Extract!"
And just like that, he found himself holding nine books and surrounded by a white light.
"Seriously, are you messing with me? Do you expect me to toil on the battlefield, then go to college, pursue a master's degree, fall in love, marry Ms. Perfect, become a CEO, and reach the pinnacle of life?" He grumbled, but his extensive experience from reading novels told him that these books were not meant for reading.
The soldiers around him continued to hold their ground. In reality, only a few minutes had passed since this all began.
Taking advantage of the lack of attention from others, Arthur concealed several of the books behind his back. He picked one out without giving much thought to its correctness, or whether the action seemed ridiculous, and with a touch, the book transformed into a white light, directly entering Arthur's mind.
Various techniques for using rifles, insights, all of it appeared in his mind.
"Just as I thought!" Arthur nearly jumped for joy but, considering the bullets above his head, he was afraid of becoming a target. So, he gave up on that tempting idea.
Instead, he continued to touch the books one by one.
After touching all Six Rifle Shooting Experience books and three Rifle Close-Combat Experience books, Arthur felt like he might already be a master marksman.
As for the final burst of white light, after slapping it, it immediately dissolved into tiny specks of light, enveloping Arthur.
He felt a peculiar sensation, a slight tingling, swelling, and numbness in his muscles and bones throughout his body.
This sensation was fleeting, and when it subsided, Arthur felt as if he was brimming with newfound strength.
"This is definitely a 'Golden Finger'!"
Though he didn't understand the principle behind it, nor the reason why a mere broken rifle, when disassembled, yielded something as enigmatic as 'Battle Soul,' Arthur felt invincible at this moment.
Ready to stand up and face the enemy head-on, he reached for his gun, only to find it gone. "My gun… Disassembled!"
He had answered his own question and, lowering his head, realized that the disassembly had been very thorough; not even a trace was left behind.
Crouching and scurrying like a hungry dog, he reached for the nearest weapon.
Upon inspection, it had bullets inside, and the safety was already off.
"Would you like to Disassemble the M1 Garand rifle?"
"No!" Disassembling it again? Would he go fight the enemy empty-handed?
Without a second thought, Arthur lifted his head, glanced at the enemy, and pulled the trigger.
The gunshot rang out, and he didn't have time to check the result. The next moment, he recoiled.
"Did I kill him?" Arthur swallowed nervously, not daring to confirm.
To be honest, he felt a bit jittery.
Less than ten minutes ago, Arthur had been an otaku holed up at home, watching movies and playing games. The next moment, he was thrown into this fiery battlefield.
Even with a "Golden Finger" and an abundance of firearm knowledge in his head, how did that change the fact that he was still an ordinary person at heart?
Killing people? That's illegal!
The sight of death all around and the feeling of being pushed to the brink of desperation compelled him to pull the trigger.
After that shot, he didn't know if he had killed the enemy, but Arthur felt that this single shot had shattered his entire worldview and values in an instant.
After this surge of fear passed, Arthur gritted his teeth and stood up once more.
Rifle in hand, he aimed at the distant enemy and pulled the trigger.
Bang!
This time, Arthur didn't lower his head. He watched as the bullet struck the enemy directly in the face.
The splatter of blood, the final moments of the enemy, made Arthur's whole body tremble.
He didn't know if he was excited or scared.
He repeatedly raised his weapon, firing, with most shots hitting their mark. However, the chances of hitting the head weren't particularly high; often they struck the enemy's body or missed entirely.
The battlefield was a place that could drive people insane, especially for a newbie.
The conflict between values, the horrifying visuals, the unleashing of one's animal instincts after killing someone, and more, could all lead to a person's mind overheating.
Arthur felt a bit crazy at this moment.
It was only when he heard a clicking sound from his weapon that he realized it was empty.
At the same time, a feeling of heart-pounding fear suddenly crept into his mind.
Almost instinctively, he rolled, narrowly evading a bullet that was fired at him.
"Is it coming for me?" Arthur's heart skipped a beat as he hid in the trench, not daring to lift his head.
Snipers were on the battlefield. They wielded weapons not of human make; these were the scythes of death, recklessly harvesting lives.
'Was the bullet fired at him a sniper's shot?'
Arthur was ignorant on this matter, but it was clear that someone seemed to have their sights set on him.
He utilized some tips he had learned from movies. There was a corpse to his left, and he carefully removed the steel helmet from it.
With one hand, he held it and cautiously raised it above the trench, without exposing the entire helmet.
Bang!
A loud sound and Arthur felt the helmet fly out of his hand.
"I'm really being targeted!" Arthur was certain that someone was keeping an eye on him. If he raised his head, this person would blow his brains out.
"What should I do?" Arthur took a deep breath as he thought of this.
From the recent combat, it was clear that even after 'reading' those nine books, his marksmanship was, at best, average. He was far from reaching the level of a sharpshooter, so the enemy wasn't completely fixated on him.
But what if his enemy lost their mind?
"In that case…"
Arthur took a deep breath, looked at the rifle in his hand, and said, "Well then… Disassemble!"
The gears started to grind again!
After about thirty seconds, the Disassembly machine made a deflating sound.
"Announcement!"
"Equipment Disassembly successful!"
"Beginner Rifle Shooting Experience * 7"
"Beginner Rifle Close-Combat Experience * 5"
"Damaged Battle Soul"
"Disassemble Experience +1"
"Disassembly complete, would you like to extract at once?"
"Extract!"
With red eyes, Arthur crawled forward, scavenging weapons from fallen comrades, while grinding his teeth.
"I'll improve my shooting skills… Damn it, even without a sniper rifle, I'll still blow you away!"
(End of this chapter)
Arthur crawled on the ground, grinding his teeth, preparing to collect weapons. After Disassembling them into skill books, he aimed to improve his marksmanship and take down that darn sniper.
However, as soon as he said "Extract," twelve more books and a Battle Soul appeared beside him.
Right at this moment, he was crawling behind a soldier who noticed the sudden change and swiftly turned to look…
The moment the opponent turned, it seemed to slow down tremendously.
Arthur's forehead was sweating profusely. How could he explain these twelve books to the soldier?
"Hey, buddy, even in the midst of a war, we can't forget to study. After all, knowledge is the ladder to human progress!"
This guy must be crazy, right?
Knowledge might be a ladder to human progress, but wasn't it more crucial to open fire a couple more times rather than flaunting twelve books on the battlefield?
Moreover, there was no way to explain the Battle Soul. Should he tell the soldier that it was a new type of smoke grenade he had been researching lately?
But then what if the guy asks him to demonstrate?
There's a saying that goes, necessity is the mother of invention. At this moment, Arthur was forced to use his wits, or you could say, he was a cornered dog.
He quickly thought up an order in his mind, "Collect!"
If you could extract, could you also collect?
In an instant, Arthur was completely at a loss, so he could only take a gamble.
The twelve books and the Battle Soul instantly vanished, and the soldier stared at Arthur in the next second.
Arthur, with his heart still racing, put on a friendly yet awkward smile when he faced the soldier.
The soldier, in a daze, looked at Arthur. At this moment, Arthur was crawling and actually quite far from the soldier.
But the soldier, who wouldn't have noticed otherwise, suddenly covered his buttocks subconsciously.
Then, his expression began to turn despairing.
"Don't be hopeless!" Arthur felt like he was the one who should be in despair. What had this guy been through to give him such a hopeless look?
The next moment, a bullet suddenly pierced through the soldier's forehead.
The soldier's lifeless body fell in front of Arthur, with the expression of despair still visible. Yet, no one knew that his despair wasn't solely due to death.
Arthur had no idea what to say in this situation. Was this his fault?
Of course, he couldn't bear this responsibility. It was all the fault of the system. Or no, it was the fault of war!
Arthur took a deep breath, closed the soldier's eyes, and reminded himself: this is war!
Nothing was more straightforward, more conducive to personal growth, than the scenes before him.
The sight of blood, exposed before everyone. People who were lively and energetic just moments ago had turned into lifeless corpses in the blink of an eye. All that remained was the expression of despair on their faces…
Thinking up to this point, Arthur quickly stopped. He was finding it difficult to confront the concept of despair.
Then, he took the soldier's gun.
…
…
Due to the blind extraction earlier, Arthur became extremely cautious in the journey of collecting weapons afterward.
To avoid drawing attention to himself, he had to be cautious of the comrades around him who might appear and disappear at any moment.
Moreover, in order to survive, he had to pay attention to bullets, shells, and shrapnel flying from the opposite side…
Multi-tasking didn't even begin to describe it.
Most of the time, Arthur was Disassembling one weapon while covertly extracting and slapping one book at a time.
Time passed with every ticking second. While the enemy had launched a surprise attack, the soldiers on their side displayed remarkable resilience.
The battlefield remained chaotic, filled with all sorts of sounds, but what was needed most was ammunition and the occasional medical personnel call.
Arthur mingled with the crowd, keeping a low profile. He picked up a gun, disassembled it, and continued. His actions were swift, and hardly anyone noticed him.
Then, he discreetly touched or more precisely slapped more books.
Feeling that he was constantly becoming stronger, Arthur was content. He felt like he now had a glimmer of hope to survive.
As long as he kept disassembling weapons, he believed he could endure even a world war. That's right, just enduring it… At least, that was what Arthur thought at the moment.
However, soon enough, the first dose of reality came crashing in.
[Announcement!]
[Equipment disassembled successfully!]
[Beginner Rifle Shooting Experience *10]
[Damaged Battle Soul]
[Disassemble experience +1]
[Disassembler experience is full. It is now upgrading! The Disassemble function is not available during the upgrade process. The Extract function can be used normally.]
[Disassembler upgrading…]
[Equipment disassembled successfully. Would you like to extract at once?]
Arthur was struck dumb by this unexpected turn of events. This thing… could actually be upgraded?
To be honest, he hadn't had the time to thoroughly study his Disassembler. Bullets were flying everywhere, and the roaring of fighter planes overhead made him tense, fearing the battlefield would be razed at any moment.
Under these circumstances, Arthur hadn't been in the mood to explore other functions of his golden finger besides Disassemble.
Now he felt powerless. However, as he looked at nearly a hundred skill books in the Disassembler's space, Arthur breathed a sigh of relief.
For now… this should be sufficient.
And then… the second dose of reality arrived. Just as Arthur felt that his marksmanship was getting better, a prompt slapped him in the face once again.
[Beginner Rifle Shooting Skill upgrade!]
[All Beginner Rifle Shooting Experience is being combined into Intermediate Rifle Shooting Experience!]
At the same time, the more than fifty remaining skill books were reduced to… thirty-two? However, thirty of them were all Beginner Rifle Close-Combat Experience!
In other words… he only had two Intermediate Rifle Shooting Experience books left.
And he had no idea when the Disassembler's upgrade would be complete!
Historical experience and the lessons from novels told us that system upgrades… there wasn't a single one that was completed in a second!
"Am I going to die!?" Arthur's eyes were filled with confusion.
Then, he made up his mind, red-eyed, to find that sniper who had been targeting him before and take revenge!
As they say, even when a person dies, they'll go down fighting, and "undying" will last for countless years!
At this moment, Arthur had given up on everything. Since he had crossed over, there was no intention of returning alive.
So what if it was a battlefield? Even if he went crazy, he would still take them down in a pool of blood!
But just as he was about to go berserk, a soldier rushed up to him and said, "You, come with me!"
Arthur was baffled, wondering who this guy was. He wasn't in a good mood and was ready to kick him, but he heard the soldier say, "We need to leave this area!"
Without any hesitation, Arthur followed the soldier. He had no intention of going crazy or seeking revenge anymore. Who wanted to die?
After passing through the trenches not far from their location, they found two men and a woman waiting there.
A man with the rank of a Sergeant said to Arthur, "We're about to carry out a mission that requires a Sharpshooter. I've been observing you for a long time, and you're the person we need. We're leaving now, and you'll get the mission details on the way!"
Arthur didn't ask any questions. As long as he could leave this place, any mission was fine!
The group moved out in a circular formation, departing from the main battlefield. It was hard to spot any signs of the enemy here.
The Sergeant then explained the objective of this Mission, "We're about to execute a Decapitation Strike! Special Agent Carter will lead us directly into the enemy's rear. We're going to turn the tide and send the enemy, who launched this surprise attack, home in defeat! Soldiers, we don't have much time. Based on the situation of both sides, our position is expected to collapse entirely by midnight tonight. Victory or defeat lies with us!!!"
Arthur was flabbergasted. What happened to the saying that there's always a way out?
All he wanted to ask now was whether it was too late to leave. He still had some scores to settle!
...
You may also Like
Paragraph comment
Paragraph comment feature is now on the Web! Move mouse over any paragraph and click the icon to add your comment.
Also, you can always turn it off/on in Settings.
GOT IT