Chapter 4: Understanding Skills

In the three-bedroom flat of around one hundred and thirty square meters which wasn't too large, Song Jian finished searching in just a few minutes, looking through all possible places to stash supplies.

Song Jian took all the items he found to the living room, the same room where he first found the gun.

"Three bottles of mineral water, two packets of compressed dry food, a gun magazine extension, nine bullets, a bottle of Baijiu preferred for its white attributes, a sip of which can boost energy recovery by 50%..." As Song Jian looked at these items on the coffee table, he fell into deep thought, wondering what kind of game this was.

"Congratulations, you have collected all initial resources, mission complete!" a robotic voice echoed in Song Jian's ear.

"Final mission for beginners: Kill the mutant spider to complete the entire tutorial!"

"As I thought, I do have to kill that spider. I knew it, this plot is so predictable!" Song Jian grumbled while stuffing all the items he found into the storage bar.

He first mounted the gun magazine extension onto one of the slots of the P18C pistol. The pistol could accommodate three additional devices in total. Apart from the magazine extension, there should be a scope and a silencer that could be mounted, but at the moment, Song Jian had only found the magazine extension. After loading the nine bullets he found, Song Jian took a deep breath and gripped the one weapon he possessed.

"If you are confident in your abilities, you can increase the game difficulty, the current game difficulty is "Easy", do you want to increase the difficulty to "Normal"?" the robotic voice suddenly suggested.

"Game difficulty, increase game difficulty?" Song Jian faltered for a moment, then he snorted and muttered to himself, "Do you think I'm an idiot? Why would I make this harder for myself?"

Clutching the weighty firearm, Song Jian headed towards the bedroom.

Just as he stepped into the bedroom, the system's voice sounded, "Player did not make a decision within the stipulated time, system defaulting option, difficulty level of this instance will be increased to "Normal".

Song Jian shuddered and quickly replied, "I was wrong, really, I was wrong! This game design is really amazing, the graphics are first-rate, the plot is also first-rate, even the system prompts are so user-friendly. I really like this game a lot. Would it be possible to…"

"Difficulty level increase will commence in ten seconds, ten, nine, eight…"

"Friendly reminder: It is recommended to complete the tutorial before increasing the difficulty. Otherwise, the player's chance of dying will increase by 35%, five, four,..."

After hearing the cold, impersonal voice of the system, Song Jian darted into the bedroom, holding the gun with both hands, and pulled the trigger at the face-sized mutant spider.

Bang~

Severe pain shot through Song Jian's wrist. The firing recoil of the pistol was larger than he expected and beyond the control of someone whose strength attribute was only a four. The bullet went directly into the body of the mutant spider and exploded a light green fluid due to his close proximity. Even though the strength attribute did have a significant influence on accuracy, missing at such a short distance was almost impossible.

The mutant spider, seemingly having just woken up, had a yellow bar above its head which instantly turned blood red, radiating a faint light.

Squeak~

With a shrill cry, the mutant spider looked at Song Jian. A pair of compound eyes flashed a strange light as it spewed a putrid liquid from its mouth.

"Damn, shouldn't spiders be spewing silk instead of saliva?" Song Jian was taken aback. He quickly leapt aside to evade, and the nasty liquid hit the wall behind Song Jian, immediately letting out a sizzling sound.

When he turned around, the necrotic black area on the wall that was hit by the puss kept crumbling, soon resulting in a deep, fist-sized pit.

"This is so toxic!" Song Jian was incredibly shaken. If a rank one monster is already this insane, the higher level monsters must be able to kill him in one strike.

"Game difficulty enhancement is complete. Current difficulty level is Normal. All monsters will initiate attacks and players will receive a slight increase in the odds of obtaining treasure. The difficulty level will revert after the tutorial is completed. Have fun playing!" the system announcement sounded. From outside the window, suddenly came the sounds of mournful wolf-like howling, seeming as though all the monsters had suddenly gone berserk.

Song Jian's mouth was bitter, but he wasn't able to pay attention to it. First, he needed to kill the mutant spider at present.

Bang, Bang, Bang~

With thirteen bullets remaining in his gun, Song Jian rapidly pulled the trigger, thereby firing off four bullets almost simultaneously from his gun barrel.

Fortunately, the distance was close. Not one of the bullets missed, all of them hitting the body of the mutant spider.

After firing those four bullets, Song Jian felt as if his right arm was about to break from the pain. His hand holding the gun trembled violently, feeling like his heart was about to burst out of his chest the next moment.

A mournful cry came out from the mutant spider as it fell from the spider webs, twitched a few times, and then no longer moved.

Song Jian flopped down on the floor, trembling slightly, as he threw the gun to one side somewhat in disbelief of what just happened.

"I...I actually fired a gun!" Song Jian said to himself. Up until just now, Song Jian had only seen firearms in games and movies. He had never even held one, let alone fired one.

Right at this moment, a blinking red dot appeared before Song Jian's eyes. When he focused on it, a semi-transparent screen appeared before him, detailing the battle statistics like a waterfall.

"Begin battle replay"

"Your normal shot dealt 19 physical damage to the mutant spider, gaining 100% threat. The mutant spider is now targeting you!"

"Mutant spider deployed its skill [Venom Spray] on you. Your nimble dodge resulted in no damage!"

"Your normal shot dealt 16 physical damage to the mutant spider, gaining 100% threat. The mutant spider is now targeting you!"

"Your normal shot dealt 11 physical damage to the mutant spider, gaining 100% threat. The mutant spider is now targeting you!"

"Your normal shot dealt 13 physical damage to the mutant spider, triggering a weak effect, gaining 100% threat. The mutant spider is now targeting you!"

"Your normal shot dealt 45 physical damage to the mutant spider (resulting in a critical strike due to the weak effect), reducing the mutant spider's health to zero!"

"The mutant spider is dead!"

System: You have killed the mutant spider, gaining 100 Experience Points and advancing to lvl 1.

System: You have dealt effective damage to the mutant spider three times or more, learning skill: [Firearms (handgun) (basic)].

System: You have completed the tutorial, and may now leave the safe house and explore the city. Enjoy the game!

...