60 Control Center

"Watch out!"

Chen Xu heard Yang Jinxia's warning and raised his guard immediately. He was pushed violently from the back and stumbled a few steps forward. He felt a gust of wind whoosh behind his head and understood immediately that they were under attack.

He turned around and saw a gigantic black monster holding Yang Jinxia's hands in its two talons.

Almost instinctively, without having any time to aim, he drew his pistol and pulled the trigger.

Bang!

The gigantic monster struggled for a moment before falling to the ground, bringing Yang Jinxia to the ground along with it.

Damn it!

He saw that her left arm with dripping with fresh blood, and anger shaded his face. He walked up to the creature that was still convulsing and shot a few more bullets into its body.

He could now tell that the body of this gigantic monster resembled that of a giant eagle. It was gray all over with a huge body. Its wingspan was over 2 meters long.

He wasn't as angry at the monster's sudden attack as he was annoyed by his own complacency. How could he not have anticipated that threats could come from above too?

If it hadn't been for Yang Jinxia who warned him and pushed him away in time, he would have been the one injured now.

He unzipped his backpack, took out the first-aid kit, and helped her tend to the wound.

There were four bloody puncture wounds on her left forearm. The wound was deep, and blood oozed out in a steady flow.

Chen Xu took out a small bottle of alcohol, and unscrewed the cap. He said, "Brace yourself," and poured the alcohol over her wound.

He glanced at her face and saw that her lips were pursed tightly and her nostrils flared. It was obvious that she was in a lot of pain. However, her eyes never stopped scanning the surroundings behind him.

Even at such a time, she didn't neglect to keep a watchful eye out for threats!

His hand holding the bottle of alcohol trembled imperceptibly. Just what sort of life experiences would result in such a pretty lady developing such a sense of vigilance?

He quietly took out a few pieces of hemostatic tape and carefully pasted them over her wounds.

He had never used hemostatic tape before. This product was probably exclusively created for the dream world, just like his exoskeleton robotic arm.

After scrutinizing the wounds and pasting the tape over it, the bleeding stopped immediately. It was very effective.

"This tape can't be left on for too long. It has to be peeled off after half an hour," he said. After a second thought, he added, "Remember to remind me if it slips my mind later."

"Alright."

Yang Jinxia didn't say anything unnecessary. She rose, picked up the stick that she had dropped, and resumed her position behind him.

When Chen Xu saw her actions, his jaw dropped slightly. But he didn't say a word in the end and continued to move forward.

…

This road was very wide and would probably have easily accommodated four cars driving side by side.

The road was lined on both sides with buildings that looked like warehouses, and some of them had their front entrances wide open. They could see that the insides were a mess and that the damages were very severe. Some withered plants could be seen on the ground.

Based on the information on the map that they had just obtained, this was a designated planting area.

In other words, these buildings were greenhouses.

Chen Xu squinted his eyes and looked into the distance. He saw that the line of greenhouses extended to the end of the road. There were at least a few hundred of them. He made a visual estimate—each building had an area of at least a thousand square meters.

From the looks of it, this settlement was much bigger than he had imagined it to be.

Among the greenhouses, some had their doors tightly shut. They had not sustained any damage and made up about one-third of the buildings.

"I wonder what is planted inside. As long as one greenhouse has grain in it, that will be enough to last the both of us for half a year. He had to resist the urge to open one of the greenhouses.

Their priority at the moment was to destroy all the monsters in the settlement.

Bang!

Through the crosshair of his gun, Chen Xu saw the green ape in the greenhouse keel over before he lowered his gun and muttered to himself, "Number five."

Upon entering the settlement, he had kept his pistol, and relied solely on the rifle. The damage from the rifle was greater, and it was easier to aim.

Adding the five small ones at the entrance to the count, he had already killed 10 monsters in total. He had fired a total of 10 times. Every bullet he shot had been fatal. The farthest target had been 50 to 60 meters away and had received a headshot.

"Since when did I possess such outstanding marksmanship?"

Even he found it hard to believe.

In the first dream, he had practiced for a few months, and his standard had been rudimentary at best. He had been able to hit a fixed target. He had also been able to hit a target within a distance of 10 meters. However, Chen Xu knew his hit rate was greatly reduced once the distance extended beyond 20 meters, not to mention if it was a moving target!

It seemed that overnight, the rookie had suddenly become an expert.

He thought about it and could only come to one conclusion—the talent that he had obtained after the last dream had been responsible for this. However, he was still very surprised, "Would a talent in throwing precision have such an exaggerated effect in the improvement of his marksmanship?"

At that moment, he also realized that there was a lot more that he could explore with that talent.

For the past month, while he had been busy with work, he had spent his free time throwing all kinds of things. However, he hadn't really worked to unearth the potential of his new talent.

Although talent was called "throwing precision", it did not mean that the talent was limited to the act of throwing.

He felt like knocking himself on the head at that moment. How had this not occurred to him earlier?

This had been a shortcoming in his mindset; he had subconsciously treated the talents he had gained in the dream as a game reward.

In games, when a player chose a certain talent, it could only be utilized within the perimeters of that particular skill.

But reality and the game world was different. This wasn't a case where if you had the skill of throwing precision, you'd be able to hit a target the size of a table-tennis ball from over 10 meters away, but you wouldn't even be able to hit your shoe when shooting with a gun.

Upon further consideration, he concluded that there were two prerequisites when it came to achieving the skill of throwing precision.

The first was an accurate estimate. It was important to be able to tell the distance of the target, the size, and how much strength was needed, all in one glance.

The other was an extremely precise control of strength.

It stood to reason that he now possessed these two skills as well.

A gun had comparatively fewer factors to consider, and difficulty wise, wasn't that much different from throwing.

He had practiced marksmanship before, now with the addition of his skill in precision, he had become a legendary shooter overnight.

Upon figuring this out, he suddenly felt as if his horizons had widened. He couldn't wait to put his theory to the test.

"This isn't the right time yet."

He took a deep breath and forcibly suppressed his impulse. It was of utmost importance that he neutralized all the threats in the settlement first.

As he was engrossed in his thoughts, his step subconsciously quickened.

He had discovered the reason for the vast improvement of his marksmanship and had gained a boost in confidence. As long as the green ape monsters didn't draw close, and that he encountered would no longer incite fear.

As for the gray eagle species, as long as he was prepared beforehand, they didn't pose much of a threat either. The entire sky was visible at a glance, and that gave him more than enough opportunity to spot the monster ahead of any attack.

The pair walked for another ten minutes and killed off another four green apes along the way. The entrance of the control center finally came into view.

At the same time, two extraordinarily humongous green apes also came into view.

Chen Xu stopped in his tracks and did a visual estimate. He couldn't help sucking in his breath as he remarked, "King Kong?"