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"Even if that team of players sprayed bullets, they could still chip away a lot of Reis's health," Vinny muttered to himself, as if trying to convince himself. "Half health — Reis only has half health at most now!"
Although Blake didn't release detailed Longbow Valley boss mechanics like he did for Zero Dam this time, Vinny had Saeed's experience as a reference.
He quickly analyzed Reis's characteristics to deduce his weaknesses.
In the promotional video, he was holding a shotgun — a great close-range weapon in both games and reality.
Generally speaking, a shotgun's close-range damage is extremely explosive, but at a distance, the pellets spread widely and the power drops sharply.
"Thinking about it that way, Reis's shotgun will most likely scatter at long range, so I just need to chip away at him from a distance."
"My current weapon is the Bizon. Although the damage is a bit low, it's easier to control the recoil, and the rate of fire is decent. I might still be able to take down Reis..."
Vinny's eyes lit up. He believed he had found Reis's weakness.
His mind was made up!
He no longer hesitated. After pulling out his Bizon submachine gun, he quietly moved to the railing at the second-floor stairwell and cautiously peeked down to observe.
Vinny scanned the first floor. Reis was leading his Ahsarah Guard soldiers up the stairs, seemingly intending to patrol the upper floor.
"Good opportunity!"
He immediately began to analyze.
If Reis had stayed in the lobby downstairs, it would have been difficult for him to deal with — jumping down to confront Reis would likely result in being instantly killed by a shotgun blast.
But with Reis coming up to the second floor, the situation was completely different. After all, he now had the geographical advantage, and dealing with Reis ascending the stairs would be much simpler.
If Reis walked straight up instead of zigzagging, he would definitely run into Vinny's headshot line, and he would have to take a full clip of bullets.
Even if Vinny couldn't hit every shot, the Bizon's recoil was inherently low, so hitting half of the ten shots wouldn't be a problem.
As for the two shield soldiers and two rifle-wielding soldiers next to Reis?
Vinny didn't think much of them, treating them as ordinary Ahsarah Guard Shield Soldiers and regular grunts.
He had tested their damage before. While not low, their threat was certainly not as great as Reis's. He could just take down Reis first, then mop up the rest.
As he thought of this, Reis himself had just reached the corner of the stairs, his body fully exposed in Vinny's line of sight.
"It's time!" Vinny's heart pounded.
He took a deep breath, leaned out sharply, and the muzzle of the Bizon submachine gun spat out a dense stream of fire!
"Da-da-da-da-da—!"
The Bizon's advantage was its low recoil plus medium-high rate of fire. Although the damage was low, as long as enough bullets hit, the drawback of low damage would be partially compensated!
Vinny held down the muzzle, aiming to spray as many bullets as possible at Reis's head.
Although the distance wasn't too close, most of the bullets still hit the target.
Continuous bursts of blood bloomed on Reis's head!
"Fool, you've stirred up big trouble!"
Reis's furious roar came, clearly stunned by the sudden attack — but this also completely enraged him.
Vinny was overjoyed and immediately retreated behind cover to reload.
Reis, having endured two rounds of attacks one after another, definitely couldn't withstand his second spray. As long as he reloaded, he would most likely be able to finish him off.
"BANG—!"
A deafening gunshot rang out — the sound of a shotgun, completely different from assault rifles and light machine guns!
However, although Reis's attack was powerful, the damage wasn't particularly astonishing!
It was the damage Vinny had anticipated — at a distance, the shotgun's power was indeed dispersed, only taking about 35% of his health.
35% health from one shot is terrifying for regular NPCs, but for a boss, this damage was slightly insufficient.
"Indeed! Long-range damage is terrible!" Vinny's confidence grew. "If it were Saeed, I would have been instantly killed. Luckily, Reis has a shotgun, and its long-range damage is poor."
At long range, Reis would definitely be crushed by Saeed. As for who was stronger at close range?
He didn't like to court death. What he needed to do now was defeat Reis, not feed him kills.
"Click."
A crisp sound rang out, indicating that the bullets were almost reloaded.
The moment the bullets were reloaded, Vinny raised his gun and fired again.
"Da-da-da-da-da—!"
Even if not all the bullets hit his head this time, the damage from the previous team of players, combined with his first burst, and now this second sustained attack—
[Defeated — Abyss Shark · Reis]
The moment the system prompt appeared, Vinny also heard Reis's dying roar and the sound of him pulling the trigger.
"BANG—!"
Another shotgun blast!
Vinny was prepared. The moment the defeat prompt popped up, he jetted into an adjacent room.
Most of the pellets grazed the doorframe, with only a small portion hitting Vinny inside the room.
His health plummeted again.
"Hiss... that was close!" Vinny looked at his remaining 30% health and said with lingering fear. "I almost got a one-for-one trade at the last second."
He quickly pulled out a field medkit and began to heal, while suppressing his breathing and staying alert for any movement outside the door.
He hadn't forgotten that Reis's four bodyguards were still outside. His current health was too low — he couldn't afford any mistakes.
A few seconds later, his health recovered to a safe level.
Vinny didn't continue using firearms but instead switched to his tactical knife.
He had long found that shooting the small observation window on shield soldiers was too inefficient. It was better to rush up and knife their heads, which would take two hits to resolve.
He listened intently. The footsteps outside the door were somewhat chaotic, but they seemed to have dispersed?
This was good news — he could take them down one by one.
Vinny suddenly rushed out of the room and indeed saw a shield soldier not far away.
He lunged forward without hesitation and struck the head area above the shield with a knife!
"Pfft!" The first strike hit.
"Pfft!" The second strike hit again!
However, the shield soldier did not fall as he had expected.
Vinny's heart sank, and he swung a third strike!
"Pfft!"
The shield soldier finally fell, but Vinny's heart sank to rock bottom.
"No — a regular shield soldier dies with two headshots at most! This one took three?!" A terrifying thought instantly flashed through his mind. "Saeed didn't have bodyguards, but Reis..."
He suddenly remembered the Longbow Valley promotional video:
"Reis in the promotional video had a bodyguard team, so these aren't just miscellaneous soldiers!"
"I'm finished!" Vinny immediately felt a sense of dread and turned to run.
But it was too late!
"BANG!" A dull thud came.
He turned his head and saw a heavy "shield" smash hard into his leg.
It was another Reis's Guard — Shieldbearer!
The blow was powerful and heavy. Vinny's health bar instantly dropped by 70%, even more painful than Reis's hits.
However, the attack was not over!
The moment his leg was shattered, another Guard — Assault Soldier had rushed to his side, and a cold bayonet plunged viciously into his abdomen.
"Ugh ah!" Vyron, controlled by Vinny, let out a cry of pain, and his health bar was completely emptied!
[Evacuation Failed]
The screen instantly turned gray.
Vinny looked helplessly at his fallen character and the last desperate knife swing he made before dying.
"This... the AI difficulty in this game is a bit outrageous..." he muttered to himself, feeling a bit aggrieved.
"Never mind. A full set of gear is only tens of thousands. Selling the four small purples in the safe will earn it back, so this round isn't a loss."
"At least I've figured out that Reis's bodyguards are not to be trifled with, and the shotgun boss is dangerous up close but can be kited from a distance."
"Next time... next time I need to be more prepared."
He clicked ready, regrouped, and began the journey of his next round.