Fatal Shot
Chapter 63: Pirates (Part 5)

After learning Maximum Shooting, Feng Luo checked his skills interface. Including the Level-40 skill he had just learned, he currently had nine skills. However, among these skills, only two were active skills. The rest of them were passive skills.

In War, players could learn a skill every five levels, but that was after they reached Level 10. This was because players could only change their profession after Level 10, so they couldn't learn any skills between Level 1 to Level 9. When they changed their profession at Level 10, they would straightaway receive two fixed profession Specialized Skills and be allowed one selection of a Specialized Skill.

The two fixed Specialized Skills for Snipers were General Gunner Proficiency and Sniper Proficiency.

General Gunner Proficiency included: Medium damage increase when using all kinds of guns; transforms agility stat into medium damage increase; increase basic movement speed, and etc.

As for Sniper Proficiency, it included: Large damage increase when using sniper rifles; large increase in visual perception; long-range ballistic correction, etc.

As for the third selected Specialized Skill, Feng Luo had chosen Close-Quarters Short Weapon Proficiency. This skill increased the damage and destruction dealt when using daggers and stiletto-type weapons in combat.

This was the direction most snipers would choose, which was to strengthen their close-quarter combat ability in moderation to avoid being helpless when closed in on by monsters.

After the profession change, players would be able to start learning a new general or profession-specific skill every five levels from Level 15. Which meant that players would have six more skills by the time they reached Level 40.

Feng Luo's six skills were the following.

Level 15 Skill: Vehicle Driving Proficiency (General). Improves the main capability of the driven vehicle to a certain degree. Familiarity (Advanced Level 49%).

Level 20 Skill: Rapid Shooting. Reduces the time gap between shooting by 35%. Damage dealt by bullets reduced by 25%. Skill duration: 45 seconds. Familiarity (Intermediate 41%).

Level 25 Skill: Quick Sneak. Increases movement speed by 30%. Also reduces footstep sounds, weakens movement trails, and decreases the probability of being discovered by monsters. Skill duration: One minute. Familiarity (Advanced 92%).

Level 30 Skill: Death Sense (Rare). Allows the user to perceive the direction of a deadly attack. Unable to level up.

Level 35 Skill: Ambush. When the user remains stationary, there is a certain probability of avoiding the effects of detection skills; reduces the probability of being discovered by monsters. Familiarity (Intermediate 33%).

Plus, the newly acquired Level-40 skill Maximum Shooting (Rare), which weakened the half-range reduction effect when firing bullets and was unable to be leveled up. Six skills. Two among them were Rare skills, and the other four were Normal skills purchased from the store.

Something that needed to be pointed out was that actually in War, Rare skills were not necessarily more powerful than Normal skills; their value was derived more from their unique functions.

For example, Death Sense's function was to avoid deadly attacks, and the increased bullet damage after Maximum Shooting weakened the effects of half-range reduction. Compared to that, the Sniper's Level-30 Normal skill Precise Shot and Level-40 Normal skill Penetrating Shot were not in any way inferior, especially when both these skills were combined together. It would be enough to make an average Sniper look like a master on the first shot. For players who liked the Sniper profession but only had average skills, this was extremely beneficial.

Moreover, neither Death Sense nor Maximum Shooting could not be leveled up. This meant that by the later stages of the game, it was highly likely that the effects of these Rare skills would be weaker than the effects of the maximum level of Normal skills. This was also why someone with the financial resources to easily purchase a Rare skill chip, like Red Queen, would still learn a Normal Level-40 skill such as Meteor Rain.

Of course, for most players, they were definitely more willing to learn a Rare skill. After all, skills that one had while others did not—no matter what its effects were and no matter whether it suited one's own combat style—were enough to satisfy one's vanity. It was enough to make average players pursue them like a flock of ducks. If that hadn't been the case, the price of Rare skill chips would never have been pushed so high.

However, for Feng Luo, he had not gotten this skill to feed his ego. It was because neither Precise Shot nor Penetrating Shot was very useful to him. By comparison, Death Sense and Maximum Shooting powered him up a lot more.

After learning Maximum Shooting, Feng Luo had nothing to do at the moment. The six-barreled electromagnetic railgun at the rear of the ship was not yet fixed, so they needed to continue running away for a while before they could initiate their attack. After all, although the decision was to have him and Black Panther capitalize on their long-range advantage to diminish the pirates' strength—or perhaps even reduce their strength by 75 percent to force the pirates to flee—they still needed to take into consideration a backup plan, which included the likelihood that they would be engaged in a battle between Heavy Weapons.

Although the cruise ship's heavy firepower was far inferior to that of their opponent, having something was better than having nothing.

After approximately five minutes, the six-barreled electromagnetic railgun was finally fixed by the middle-aged NPC mechanic, while the pirate ship behind them had closed in to reach a location that was only around 1.4 kilometers away from them.

At that time, the sun seemed to have already risen from the sea, and at this distance, it was possible to see the situation on the pirate ship. However, since the deck of the pirate ship was higher than they were, Feng Luo and Big Pineapple changed their location to the second level of the sightseeing platform before observing them through the sniping scope again.

The number of people on the pirate ship was as high as their prediction. One glance showed at least 50, and if they were to include the pirates who were in the cabin as well as those who had already been eliminated, the total number of pirates was certainly around 100. Many of those on deck were either shirtless or wore jackets. Each and every one of them held blades, AK rifles, and other weapons as they shouted with expressions filled with greed.

And at the bow of the ship, a one-eyed pirate wearing a combat uniform and a gray army hat was holding a monocular to observe their side.

Within the field of view of the Eye of the Thunder Sniping Scope, a row of data suddenly appeared that stunned Feng Luo.

"Huh? What's this?"

One-Eyed Dragon (Level 49 Elite). Head of the Black Fire pirate ship. Estimated HP: 5,000. Federation C-Grade Wanted Criminal. Bounty: 10,000 credits. Medal Points: Four!

Feng Luo quickly figured it out. Since the data on the Eye of the Thunder was connected to his personal terminal, and because the Federal Government would send the wanted criminal list to all players, the Eye of the Thunder's automatic identification function provided him with the information.

"A C-grade wanted criminal? 10,000 credits. Not bad!"

Feng Luo was also a bounty hunter, so he was, of course, no stranger to bounties from the Federation. However, compared to when players were wanted, this reward was much higher. A price of 10,000 credits was the equivalent of an Excellent-grade piece of equipment with average stats. Moreover, there was the even rarer medal point reward.

Is the pirate captain the only one with a bounty? Or…?

As Feng Luo thought of this, he immediately scanned through the group of pirates with his scope, looking carefully.

Scarface (Level 45 Elite). The Third Head of the Black Fire pirate ship. Heavy Armor Warrior. Estimated HP: 9,000. Federation E-Grade Wanted Criminal. Bounty: 3,000 credits. Medal Points: One!

Feng Luo understood why these pirates were "Wanted Criminals."

On the surface, the reason was, of course, because of the Federal Government's mission to get rid of villains and criminals and to take a "zero tolerance" approach when dealing with the sinful pirates who forcibly occupied the Gray Water. However, the truth was that these bounties were probably the reward for killing the huge pirate squad.

Normally, when players encountered pirates who owned a ship, even if they were strong enough and force the pirates to flee after reducing their strength by 75 percent, due to the speed of the pirate ship, it was impossible to pick up the items dropped by the pirates. So, the system had set up a "compensation" plan. Every pirate head would have a decent bounty reward. Killing each would net the player a certain amount of credits and medal points. This way, the players would not have done all that work for nothing.

Feng Luo scanned through the pirates thoroughly and discovered that, apart from the "Head" and the "Third Head," there were two other Elite Pirates. They were a Pirate Manipulator Captain (Level 44) and a Pirate Warrior Captain (Level 43). Their wanted grades were F-grade, and their bounties were 1,000 credits. They did not provide medal point rewards. However, judging by the names of the pirates, there must have been a "Second Head" around, although Feng Luo could not find him. Perhaps he was in the cabin.