Special Bullet

In a bar in the slums, Shen Yi and Hong Lang were drinking heavily among a few others.

For adventurers, participating in a mission was always a narrow escape from death.

After ten days of intense stress, it was a time for complete relaxation, and everyone was heartily laughing and enjoying themselves.

Even a girl like Wen Rou was laughing loudly with everyone else, drinking beer heartily.

"Here's to you, brother!" Hong Lang bit off the bottle cap with his teeth, swallowing the glass fragments, and shouted to Shen Yi, "This mission has been the biggest haul since I came to this damned place. Thanks to you, I earned over 6,000 bloody points. Damn, that's exhilarating!"

Shen Yi clinked his bottle with Hong Lang's, "I heard you got gutted by an aircraft cannon, crying for your mom and dad in pain. I bet you weren't grateful to me then."

Hong Lang got flustered and stood up slamming the table, "Nonsense! When have I ever cried out like that? Who's spreading these rumors?"

The others tried to hide their laughter.

An adventurer at a nearby table asked Hong Lang, "Brother Hong, sounds like you made a good haul this time. Got any info?"

"The Market Garden Operation," Hong Lang replied, "the battle for the Arnhem Bridge, interested?"

Dozens of adventurers in the bar looked at each other.

One of them asked, "50 bloody points?"

"150 bloody points," Hong Lang said coldly.

"Damn, aren't you ripping us off?" another adventurer exclaimed.

Hong Lang chuckled, "Including optional mission completion methods and storyline missions, take it or leave it."

Hearing this, the adventurers in the bar started whispering among themselves.

Wen Rou, curious, quietly asked Shen Yi, "What are they doing?"

Shen Yi smiled lightly, "Selling information. I didn't expect these guys to be so clever with money-making schemes."

The bar was a place for adventurers to drink and share their experiences.

Although missions in the Bloody City were numerous and complex, they were not endless. It was common for adventurers to encounter the same mission worlds and tasks. In such cases, having prior knowledge about how others completed the tasks could be a huge advantage.

However, this information wasn't free. Anyone who wanted to hear it had to sign an agreement, pay in bloody points, and promise not to divulge the information to anyone else before experiencing the mission themselves. This had become an unwritten rule in the Bloody City. Even so, one would only get a general idea, with details about hidden missions, storyline tasks, and special ways of completion generally omitted, unless, of course, extra was paid.

This was why Hong Lang returned 50 bloody points to Shen Yi after hearing how he completed the novice mission.

Information was always valuable.

The usual rate for a mission briefing was 50 bloody points. Hong Lang's price of 150 bloody points was due to the large scale and difficulty of their recent mission.

After some discussion, six adventurers chose to pay the bloody points.

Hong Lang began to recount their mission experiences to the adventurers. Everyone was shocked upon hearing about Shen Yi's actions and looked at him with newfound respect. The Bloody City respected strength above all, and although Shen Yi was a newcomer, his demonstrated capabilities had earned everyone's respect.

After the six adventurers left, Hong Lang grinned widely, "Time to split the money, 100 each."

"What about the extra 200 bloody points?" Wen Rou asked.

"They'll go to Brother Shen," Hong Lang said, "any objections?"

No one objected.

Shen Yi said indifferently, "No need. Let's use these bloody points to cover our drinks for the next month. If we can sell more information about the Market Garden Operation, we might even buy some in return."

Everyone agreed.

Just then, an adventurer stumbled into the bar.

As soon as he entered, he burst into tears.

"That's Xiao Chuan, one of the adventurers from our plane, also involved in the Market Garden Operation," Wen Rou blurted out.

Shen Yi's interest was piqued.

He immediately said, "Hong Lang, go see what happened."

Hong Lang nodded and approached.

Hong Lang, well-connected in the eastern district and acquainted with many adventurers, including Xiao Chuan, patted his back and whispered to him. Xiao Chuan sobbed and whispered something in response.

After a while, Hong Lang returned, took a big gulp of his drink, and said gloomily, "Xiao Chuan chose the forest area mission. Only ten people survived the southern breakout after the air drop. They took a detour to avoid the main German forces and got surrounded in a small town. They struggled to break out, and in the end, only he survived. His brother died protecting him in that fight... He came back after completing the main mission."

Indeed, everyone sighed simultaneously.

Due to Shen Yi's influence in rallying all the adventurers on the plane to capture the bridge, it led to a significant imbalance in strength between the northern and southern lines. Their decision to take a detour placed enormous pressure on the adventurers in the south, making their mission much more difficult. As a result, while the north easily completed their main mission, the south faced a deadly struggle.

Shen Yi paused for a moment before sighing helplessly, "It was my fault."

Hong Lang shrugged, "Don't talk nonsense. That's how this world is. We can only do our best for ourselves. Not harming others is already living up to our conscience."

Shen Yi looked at Xiao Chuan, who was still unable to escape the shadow of death, and walked over to him with a bottle of alcohol.

Placing the bottle in front of Xiao Chuan, Shen Yi called out to the bartender, "Put this man's drinks on my tab!"

Then, patting Xiao Chuan on the shoulder, he said, "This is a bloody world. Here, you can shed blood, but not tears. You can be knocked down, but not scared away. It's natural to grieve for loved ones, but you need to learn to control it. You don't have the time or the luxury to indulge in pain... Take care of yourself."

Saying this, Shen Yi left the bar alone.

Since there were no houses in the slum area, most people used simple tents.

Back in his tent, Shen Yi opened the blue box he had received from the German major general—just as he had told Xiao Chuan, there was no time to waste in this world. Excitement and sadness must be controlled; freedom and happiness were luxuries here.

Upon opening the box, Shen Yi received a prompt:

"Obtained one piece of Heroic Ornament, high-quality regular equipment. Increases strength by 5 points and will by 3 points when worn. Comes with the skill: Courage Buff. Activates the skill to increase will by 10 points for ten minutes, provides special damage resistance based on priority, effect priority 26, no mental power consumption, skill cooldown half an hour. Wearing requirements: 10 points in strength, 10 points in will. Bloody point value 1500."

Compared to the Wolf Fang Ring he obtained earlier, this Heroic Ornament was clearly a notch higher. Although it was a non-graded item, its effect value was high, much to Shen Yi's satisfaction.

In addition to the ornament, there was another item in the box.

"Obtained two boxes of special bullets."

Shen Yi's eyes lit up.

Having experienced the Van Helsing mission, he had already realized the power of special bullets. Without them, he wouldn't have passed the first stage of the Van Helsing mission. He was curious about what kind of special bullets these were.

Looking at them, Shen Yi saw the prompt.

"No-grade Medical Bullet, one box. Hits the target and recovers 3 points of health per second for 10 seconds, effective against all types of damage, uninterrupted by break effects, bullet effects can stack once, can be combined with skill-based healing, limited to a single bullet. Priority 13, magazine capacity 100."

(Special Bullet Effects can stack once: Meaning two Medical Bullets can work together, but more than two is ineffective. When combined with healing arts, only the effect of one Medical Bullet is applied.)

"Smoke Bullet, one box. Creates a large smoke cloud when hitting the ground, blocking the target's vision. Covering distance 9*9, duration 20-60 seconds. Bloody point value 1.5 per bullet. Magazine capacity 100, no grade restriction, can be used in any firearm."

Shen Yi stared at these rewards, suddenly feeling an urge to burst into laughter.

For him, the surprise brought by these rewards was even greater than the so-called highest award. The appearance of the Medical Bullet resolved his regret of not being able to use medical arts at a distance and eliminated worries about cooldown times. As for the Smoke Bullet, it gave him an added ability to escape.

Although these items were not high in bloody point value, Shen Yi keenly sensed that the real value of these special bullets far exceeded their city-assigned value. A box of Medical Bullets, valued at 150 bloody points, had a total healing capacity of 3000 points, equivalent to the healing power of 15 medium recovery potions. Even though it was not an instant recovery and required a firearm to use, its immense value was undeniable. No wonder these special bullets weren't sold in shops; if they were, they would probably sell like crazy. However, this also led Shen Yi to an important conclusion: the bloody point evaluation of many equipments and skills can only serve as a reference and may not be accurate.

As for why the special bullets were so powerful, Shen Yi couldn't understand.

Nevertheless, having obtained two boxes of special bullets, Shen Yi felt a surge of excitement, and the helplessness and frustration brought by the Feather Dragon Snake Skill were swept away.