Chapter 26 - Hunting Records
A gunshot rang out, and the two of them immediately dove in opposite directions to avoid the bullet!
However, a bang suddenly sounded in the air, and the hunter's bullet exploded into buckshot. Ash and Sonya were unavoidably grazed by the pellets!
Ash thought it would be painful, but as the bullets passed through his body, he only felt like he had lost something. His senses were like he had just finished running 400 meters and was exhausted.
He suddenly remembered that he was currently in a consciousness state and not a real physical body. Getting hit by bullets only caused him to lose soul energy.
In contrast to the enlightened Ash, Sonya, who had taken virtual world enhancement classes, had anticipated this.
After dodging, she immediately charged at the hunter while raising her wooden sword high and slashing down at the hunter from afar. The sword gathered faint white light, transforming into a crescent wave that rushed towards the hunter as it swung!
"Vibration Sword!"
This was the Vlozrada family's secret inherited spirit - the Vibration Sword! A relatively rare ranged attack spirit in the sword art system that could derive powerful attacks like 'Rippling Slash' and 'Silver Wheel Explosion'!
"Three thousand skills, a gun in hand, speed is key, unbreakable and unstoppable!"
The hunter chanted as he dodged and the barrel of his long gun shone with light. Unbelievably, it fired another bullet even though it looked like an ancient flintlock rifle!
But Ash and Sonya, who were prepared this time, were naturally no longer flustered. Not to mention Ash dodging with a lazy roll, Sonya directly drew her sword in a flash step, lunged forward, and unleashed a spinning vibration slash!
Clang!
Not only was the bullet directly deflected, but the hunter several steps away was also severely slashed by the spinning vibration slash, even breaking the barrel of his long gun!
Without another word, Ash rushed up and bear hugged the hunter. Sonya, who had recovered from the flash step, hurried over in three quick steps and raised her wooden sword to slash down fiercely!
Without a sound, the hunter dissipated into a swirl of mist under the crushing blow of the wooden sword. A leather-bound notebook fell onto the rocky ground.
"Hey, hey, hey, you almost blew my head off!"
Ash looked at the sword embedded in the rock and stroked his head apprehensively.
"But I didn't, did I?" Sonya's tone was full of regret as she bent down to pick up the leather notebook and flipped through a couple pages before shaking her head and handing it to Ash.
Ash took it and saw that it was a...hunting record, so to speak.
The first page contained information about a rat - its weight, size, fur color, cause of death, and even a photo of the rat nailed to a wall by an arrow.
The second page was about a spider, the third about a rabbit, the fourth about a badger... By the tenth page, there were finally some differences, not just because the prey was a ferocious carnivore - a wolf - but also because the record keeper had learned a new skill: he had trapped and killed the wolf.
By the twenty-third page, the creature documented in the notebook was an armored beastman soldier wielding a long gun.
The next twenty pages were all beastman soldiers shot dead, but what caught Ash's attention more was that the notebook's owner seemed to have abandoned his previous archery skills and started using the long guns brought by the beastman soldiers, combining them with traps in the jungle he could navigate blindfolded, to single-handedly confront an entire beastman troop.
There were no details written about the notebook owner, but Ash could vaguely make out a story: A boy born in a hunting family, living in a jungle village, inheriting his forefathers' hunting skills. Suddenly, invading beastman troops destroyed everything. The archery they took pride in could not penetrate beastman armor, yet the beastmen's firearms easily shattered their bodies.
The boy abandoned the bow, learned gunnery at an astonishing speed, and like the grim reaper, hunted beastman soldiers in this jungle where he could walk blindfolded, avenging his villagers.
From the expressions on the beastmen's faces when they died, the boy's terror could be seen: The ones who died earliest had calm expressions, probably ambushed while pissing or shitting. The later ones had increasingly frightened looks - clearly they were fleeing. The very last ones had even discarded their weapons and hidden in bushes, faces full of piety, as if begging the god of death to overlook them.
After the beastman troops were annihilated, the notebook owner seemed to go through a period of confusion. His prey included animals, humans, beastmen, goblins, tycoons, bandits, prostitutes, and commoners.
After over a hundred pages, his hunting targets suddenly became fixed: beastmen.
There were a full three hundred pages of records about different beastmen he had hunted.
Although it was never stated outright, Ash could guess a thing or two from the beastmen's causes of death:
Firstly, the beastmen were all killed by the notebook owner with a 'Devotee Model 5 Standard Rifle'.
Secondly, the beastmen had more than one bullet hole in them.
Therefore, Ash deduced that the notebook owner had probably joined the army and killed beastmen in the war.
And he didn't just kill soldiers. There were also children, women, elders, and even his own comrades... No matter who the other party was, he never changed weapons, always ending their lives with a single bullet.
After that, the notebook owner seemed to have made his fortune and settled down, evidenced not just by his prey changing to herbivores like rabbits and deer, but also by the people dying at his hands no longer being soldiers and bandits, but maids, servants, and slaves.
It's worth noting that the servants seemed to die at a fairly frequent rate.
He probably had an estate, with many servants waiting on him. But due to the aftereffects of war, he kept his gun on him at all times. If he ever grew suspicious, he would shoot the servants without hesitation...
Suddenly, an old woman appeared in the hunting records.
Ash guessed she was probably the notebook owner's wife, because the look in her eyes was not shock, fear, or confusion, but compassion.
Compassion for the notebook owner.
When Ash turned to the last page, he was certain the dead person listed was the notebook owner:
Cabin Storley
Human Male 56 years old
Weight: 72 kg
Height: 1.76 meters
Features: Brown skin, hairy, foxy smell
Cause of death: Killed by arrow
The photo showed a weary but well-dressed old man who had already raised his gun at his enemy, but he would never get to pull the trigger, because an arrow had pierced his eye and gone through his head.
Ash didn't know who had killed him with the bow and arrow - maybe an old enemy, maybe the old woman's son, or maybe a burglar. Nor did he know why the battle-hardened veteran had been slower than the arrow this time, whether due to a sluggish body or underestimating the bow.
In any case, Cabin Storley's hunting records ended here. Perhaps his name would appear in someone else's records.
Flipping to the end, Ash found an iron medal tucked inside. He couldn't read the words on the medal, but since it was iron, it probably wasn't valuable - most likely Cabin's first medal in life.
Maybe this medal represented the golden moments in Cabin's life.
Ash picked up the medal and felt a warm current flow into his hand. A message then popped up in the light curtain:
Rapid Fire
One Wing Spirit
Limitation: Requires ranged shooting tool
Basic Effect: Allows a second shot immediately after firing once.
Passive Effect: Increases accuracy of ranged shots.
"Sometimes those few lost seconds can never be chased down in a lifetime."
At the same time, a message automatically popped up in the game:
"Currency exchange detected. Convert to points?"