Chapter 102: Meteorologist
As soon as Zhou Ning stood up, a revolver appeared in his hand. Locking onto a position on the distant wall using Observation Haki, he pulled the trigger.
"Bang!" A sharp, brief gunshot rang out. The next moment, ripples appeared in the empty space on the wall, and a figure dressed in an elegant tailcoat suddenly appeared. He agilely rolled to the side, scattering some powder into the air and snapping his fingers. "Hurricane!"
"Woooo!"
Following the utterance of a short, obscure incantation in ancient Falric, a visible hurricane surged forth. Zhou Ning's hat was instantly swept off his head and sent flying skyward. Before he could react, his feet suddenly lost support—like a small boat in a violent storm, his body was hurled uncontrollably into the air.
"Meteorologist?"
His hair whipped wildly in the sudden gale, eyes struggling to stay open. Although he'd lost the initiative, he didn't panic. He aimed at the ground and fired.
Using the forced displacement from the airborne shot, Zhou Ning momentarily escaped the hurricane's range and quickly adjusted his posture mid-air.
The man in the tailcoat remained unfazed. At some point, he had already raised both arms, now holding a pitch-black scroll.
"Wind Blades!"
As the ancient Falric chant echoed and the scroll ignited, countless azure wind blades shot out, flying rapidly toward Zhou Ning.
"–32, –27, –31, –23..."
Zhou Ning didn't hesitate. A golden-red combat suit instantly covered his body, and wings unfurled from his back. Gliding as he took four or five hits from the wind blades head-on, his health bar plummeted by more than half. Then the combat suit vanished again. With his coat fluttering, he endured the pain, took aim, and executed a mid-air shot. A fiery red bullet spiraled toward his opponent.
Crack!
The figure of the tailcoat man shattered into pieces.
Combat data instantly popped up:
[Your Aerial Shot hit ???. You dealt 34 damage. 95 points were absorbed by Substitution Technique.]
[Based on your level, you can access the following information:]
————
Name: ???
Total Level: 44
Class: Meteorologist/Assassin
Attributes: Strength ??, Agility 72, Stamina ??, Willpower ??, Spirit ??, Charisma 56
HP: ?
Status: Healthy
[Remaining information unknown]
Skills: Weather Transformation (Expert), Marksmanship Mastery (Expert), Occultism (Advanced), [Remaining unknown]
————
Zhou Ning smirked bitterly. Another high-level professional in the 40s—what did he do to deserve this?
His bullet had barely made a dent in the guy's HP. The enemy's figure reformed not far away, and he immediately began chanting again.
"Downpour!"
A yellowish powder scattered through the air, and as if summoned, torrential rain instantly poured down in Zhou Ning's field of vision, the storm laced with howling winds blasting in all directions.
Zhou Ning shook the water from his hair and landed using his momentum, gritting his teeth as he lunged forward. In his heart, he recited: Knowledge is power.
As the clan motto rang in his mind, Zhou Ning's black eyes turned profound, crackling with lightning. At that moment, a vivid image flashed in his mind—he saw the tailcoat man changing the weather again, summoning a lightning orb. And beside him, a rogue was hidden, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. If the enemy completed the weather combo, his situation would be dire.
Boosted Observation Haki was indeed reliable. Zhou Ning took a deep breath and accelerated.
In his skill bar, the icon for [Swift Pursuit] lit up.
His sudden burst of speed startled the tailcoat man. As Zhou Ning had predicted, moments later, the enemy pulled out another packet of powder and chanted once more in ancient Falric:
"Lightning!"
At the same time, a terrifying aura erupted from Zhou Ning, visible to the naked eye. A shockwave of colorless Conqueror's Haki radiated from him as the center, scattering even the bean-sized raindrops in the air, creating a massive rainless vacuum.
–115!
The nearly expert-level Conqueror's Haki caused the tailcoat man to freeze momentarily. Seizing the moment, Zhou Ning unleashed his full firepower, aiming to deliver overwhelming, lethal damage. With his clan motto amplifying his strength, his Haki had begun to exhibit elemental infusion. What followed was a devastating triple strike—Ripple Shot, Fatal Countershot, and Ricochet Shot—infused with both Armament and Conqueror's Haki. The sheer firepower drained over half of his Focus Gauge and drove the enemy's HP straight into the danger zone.
Less than a second later, the tailcoat man snapped out of the daze, his face twisting from the pain. Feeling his life rapidly slipping away, he panicked and shouted, "Get out here! You want to just watch me die!?"
At that moment, Zhou Ning had another vision—a dark iron dagger emerging from the void, aiming straight for the tailcoat man's back.
Zhou Ning narrowed his eyes and aimed directly at the man's chest. Activating [Evasive Shot], he leapt back and fired four consecutive rounds, completely wiping out the enemy's remaining health.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
[You have killed ??? (Lv44). You gained 22,000 EXP.]
[You defeated an opponent 10 levels higher—bonus EXP +300%. Total: 66,000 EXP.]
Zhou Ning's final Evasive Shot had been perfectly timed. While dodging backward, it looked almost like a dance—just in time to evade the iron-black dagger silently emerging from the shadows.
Only one bullet remained, and his Focus Gauge was nearly depleted. But Zhou Ning's eyes remained cold and steady. He fired that final round toward where the dagger had emerged. A burst of blood blossomed in the empty air, revealing a shadowy figure—only for it to quickly vanish again, aura fading into the distance.
He ran.
Zhou Ning gave a wry smile and shook his head. He glanced around—someone had already called the police. Ian was leading several Sunwatcher patrolmen in his direction. Overhead, the storm raged on, still fueled by the meteorologist's powers.
His hat was gone—just bought it. The sleeves of his 8-Vecktas coat were damaged, and the whole thing was now covered in dust.
Annoying, but not the biggest problem.
The biggest problem was the corpse on the ground.
The tailcoat man's body lay there riddled with bullet wounds. There was no denying it—he'd been gunned down.
"Mr. Sturwell?" Ian first noticed the body and the unusual weather, then turned to Zhou Ning.
"What happened here?"
"You know my alchemy lab's just down that alley. I was on my way back when I was attacked by two people. He was one of them. The other, probably a rogue, escaped just now," Zhou Ning replied honestly.
While the Sunwatcher patrol combed the scene and gathered evidence, Ian examined the body and pulled a face. "Personally, I believe you. But you'll still need to come back with us to the station, make a statement, and wait for the autopsy results. Standard procedure."
Zhou Ning nodded in resignation.
He hadn't expected to end up in the station himself one day.
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