Chapter 47: Terrorist Attack
The next few hours passed without incident. The anticipated attack never came, but XB remained diligently focused on his patrol. His dedication was truly remarkable.
At the registration office near the school gate, a long queue of new students had formed and were signing up in an orderly fashion.
It wasn't until 9:20 in the morning—the time of Sir Archibald's birthday celebration—that the scene truly came alive.
A stage had been erected at the main entrance of Wake Forest University, right next to the registration point. Freshmen, whether they had already registered or not, and even casual passersby, had a clear view of the performance.
By this point, Zhou Ning was fully prepared.
If I were the one planning to throw an alchemical bomb, he thought, this is the exact moment I would choose.
The first event on stage was the Warrior Department's "Hot-Blooded Dodgeball." Zhou Ning guessed this was the segment most likely to erupt into chaos. The rules were simple: each side took turns using warrior skills to throw the ball, scoring points for hitting an opponent. Despite the simple rules, both teams were using martial arts and fighting spirit, and the hits were real, making for an impressive spectacle.
To his surprise, Zhou Ning spotted Sherlock and Polly in the lineup, both wearing short-sleeved jerseys. He had no idea how they had managed to get on the team, but in their uniforms, they looked just like Li Tie. Zhou Ning's only regret was that he didn't have a camera to capture Sherlock's heroic, jersey-clad appearance.
Although the match was intense, it concluded without any accidents. Afterward, Sherlock changed his clothes, a grim expression on his face. He exchanged a few words with Ian and the others before walking over to Zhou Ning.
"How is it?" Zhou Ning asked.
"Nothing yet," Sherlock replied. "But we've deployed numerous detectors on-site. They'll emit a loud buzz if any major alchemical reactions occur."
Zhou Ning nodded in understanding. The technology in this world wasn't primitive; he guessed the devices were similar to the heat sensors and overheat switches in gas lamps.
After their brief exchange, Sherlock hurried off.
The next two performances were uninspired. It wasn't until the fourth act that things became interesting again, enough to capture even Zhou Ning's attention.
The performer was Elvis Bart, a lecturer from the Department of Magic. With his brown hair and handsome, youthful looks, he was said to be incredibly popular with the female students.
He was performing a magic trick called "Mirror Image."
"There are ten items in this mirror," Elvis Bart announced with a graceful smile.
Zhou Ning remembered a magic trick with the same name from his past life. The principle involved placing identical objects in front of and behind a mirror, using the visual distortion from the reflection to mislead the audience. He initially assumed Elvis was using the same method but soon realized this was not the case.
Elvis's hands moved with incredible speed as he began pulling objects from the mirror's surface: a monocle, a matchbox, a hat, a pipe, a cane, a bow tie, a shirt, a staff, and a black tuxedo. The audience gasped and applauded with each item.
"And now for the tenth item," Elvis said. He reached deep into the mirror and, after a moment of struggle, pulled out the front half of a creature over ten meters long, its massive mouthparts and claws thrashing wildly. The other half was still inside the mirror.
"A Bloodsucking Worm!"
A commotion erupted in the crowd. This was a massive beast native to the northern wilderness. An adult could grow to be twenty meters long, fed on human blood, and was terrifyingly lethal.
"Apologies, I grabbed the wrong one." Elvis shrugged with a smile, tossed the worm back into the mirror, and reached inside again. This time, everyone noticed that as he tried to pull his hand out, a black shadow within the mirror seemed to be fighting him.
Another round of applause broke out, as everyone assumed this was part of the act. A moment later, Elvis won the struggle. He pulled a flaming black sphere out of the mirror, weighed it in his hand, and then hurled it toward the crowd.
A deafening buzz suddenly shrieked across the venue.
The sudden alarm caused a panic. The attack had been so abrupt—Elvis had thrown the sphere almost the instant he pulled it from the mirror—that even Ian, who was closest to the stage, had no time to do more than reach for his gun. Those in the audience who sensed the danger began to fall back in a panic, their shouts and screams creating a terrible cacophony.
With a sharp crack, a bullet struck the black sphere with pinpoint accuracy just before it hit the ground. A huge fireball with a radius of three or four meters instantly exploded in the air.
Ian breathed a sigh of relief and quickly looked for the shooter. He saw Zhou Ning, the muzzle of his gun still smoking. He was calmly aiming at Elvis and pulling the trigger again and again.
Crack!
Elvis's figure shattered like glass, only to reform instantly ten meters away.
Ian finally reacted, drawing his own weapon and firing a steady shot at Elvis.
But Elvis didn't even glance at him. A turquoise ice armor silently formed over his body, and the bullets failed to even scratch it. A transparent spiritual flame flared to life on his arm, coalescing into another black fireball, which he launched directly at Zhou Ning.
On his skill bar, [Gun Fighting · Deadly Rhythm] lit up.
Keenly aware of the danger, Zhou Ning had already leaped to the side, bending and tucking into a roll.
BOOM!
The black fireball slammed into the ground, blasting a deep crater that continued to burn fiercely.
Just as Zhou Ning was about to complete his roll, the sense of crisis in his mind screamed a frantic warning. His talent for extreme calmness kept his mind perfectly clear. A shotgun appeared in his hand, and he fired it at the ground beneath him.
Amidst a spray of dirt and mud, the massive recoil launched Zhou Ning back into the air.
A prompt appeared on his panel:
[Through fierce combat, you have learned a new skill: Flying Gun.]
[Flying Gun: A technique that uses a firearm's recoil to launch oneself. Control of the weapon is required to master flight distance and height.]
Whoosh! A strong gust of wind cleared the dust from the ground, revealing where a well-hidden lightning spell had just struck the spot he'd been moments before.
Seeing his sure-kill shot miss, Elvis shook his head in regret.
"Hurricane!"
At that moment, Sherlock rushed in from the side, chanting an incantation without hesitation. A cloud of powder drifted toward Elvis.
WHOOSH! A hurricane erupted from the flat ground. Caught in the gale, Elvis stumbled backward. Zhou Ning, still airborne, saw his chance, aimed for Elvis's projected landing spot, and pulled the trigger.
A bullet wrapped in a black, flaming film shot from the muzzle.
[Your Ripple Shot has hit Elvis Bart. Your Armament Haki has weakened his defense. You dealt 329 points of true damage!]
Following the panel's prompt, Elvis's body froze in mid-air. The layer of ice armor shattered, and blood sprayed from his body. He stared at Zhou Ning in astonishment before his figure vanished in a flash, reappearing more than ten meters away. He didn't stop, clutching his wound as he fled.
The entire exchange had taken less than thirty seconds.
Zhou Ning adjusted his body in the air and landed smoothly, quite surprised by the information on his panel. It was his first time using Armament Haki and Ripple Shot together, and he hadn't expected the effect to be so potent.
About ten meters away, two rapid alarms beeped in succession.
Sherlock and Polly were already rushing toward the commotion, where gunfire had begun to erupt among the tables and chairs. A table was knocked over, and a rope strung with festive ribbons came crashing down. On the ground, a man clutched a gunshot wound in his chest, groaning in pain. Zhou Ning saw Leonardo there as well, his sword drawn, charging a man dressed as a student who was holding an alchemical bomb. Leonardo's blade moved so fast it was a blur, creating a circle of silver light, and then a severed arm flew into the air.
He really is the child of destiny, Zhou Ning couldn't help but admire.
He had just breathed a sigh of relief when, less than three seconds later, an even more frantic beeping sounded from behind him. Zhou Ning whipped his head around just in time to hear a crash. Two wildebeests with blood-red eyes, driven by a coachman, smashed through the school wall, pulling a heavy public carriage at full speed toward the crowd.
It was obvious the alchemical bomb was inside the carriage.
XB was the closest and couldn't dodge in time. He was hit like he'd been struck by a dump truck, sent flying high into the air before crashing to the ground. His head lolled to the side, and he was dead.
"Stop!"
"Stop them!"
Several day guards, including Ian and Cherry, tried to stop the carriage, but it only seemed to accelerate. They fired at the coachman, but as the bullets entered his body, his thin frame began to swell rapidly, transforming almost instantly into a huge, twisted monster.
Its body was a sickly dark green, its face swollen and distorted, only vaguely resembling the man it had once been.
"For the true god Naiadla!" the coachman roared, his eyes glowing an unnatural red as he shouted incoherently.
Zhou Ning was speechless. He recognized the coachman and had a good idea of what had happened.
This is an undead puppet, a masterpiece of the Curse Cult that appears mid-game. Its weak spot is its head. It's slow and not too difficult to deal with.
They had just been talking yesterday. The driver had complained to him about how hard the work was but said it was worth it for his family. He'd expressed his hope that after a few more months of work, he could afford to rent a slightly larger room so his two sons could have a chance to go to school.
Tsk. This is annoying.
Zhou Ning's pupils narrowed. He sprinted forward, raised his gun, and fired at the coachman.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Mozambique Shot! Ripple Shot! Ripple Shot!
Under Zhou Ning's precise control, three flaming bullets, each swathed with Armament Haki, flew in a perfectly straight line and pierced the coachman's head. A bloody hole appeared on his forehead, and a long streak of vaporized blood hissed into the air as his head slumped forward.
[You hit Jim's vitals, dealing 469 + 532 + 623 damage. Target is deceased!]
At that moment, the newly resurrected XB happened to witness this scene. He drew a sharp breath, completely stunned. A monster that huge, killed with a single volley? Just how powerful is this NPC?
The buzzing from the carriage grew louder. Zhou Ning exhaled, stepped forward, and spun the revolver's cylinder. A spent shell casing fell to the ground with a soft tink. He aimed at one of the charging wildebeests and pulled the trigger again.
Blood splattered as the wildebeest let out a long, shrill cry and collapsed. The massive weight of the falling animal lifted the carriage wheels off the ground, causing the whole vehicle to begin to tip.
Zhou Ning rushed forward, used the tilting wheels as a springboard to climb onto the roof, and blasted it open with his shotgun. He then fired two shots down into the carriage.
With the two gunshots, the buzzing that had filled the venue stopped abruptly.
Watching this series of swift, agile movements, Ian, Cherry, XB, and everyone watching the live broadcast were left stunned. Ian's eyes were filled with awe. XB's hands were shaking. It was just so damn cool. Although they had seen him in action on TV before, this was the first time they had witnessed Zhou Ning fight up close. His utter calm and the effortless grace of his fighting style left them mesmerized.
Someone had already uploaded the live broadcast footage to the forums.
By this time, the battle on the other side of the square had also ended, and a new prompt appeared on Zhou Ning's panel:
[B-level mission [Conspiracy] has been completed. Claim rewards? Yes/No]
Zhou Ning frowned and selected "No."
I clearly completed the mission, so why is it still ranked B? Could it be...
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