Hunting (Part 2)

After defeating this opponent, Reno collected the spoils as usual and indeed found four war axe missiles. Excluding those fired by Reno himself, he still gained two. Other than that, there were some ammunition and a portion of food.

Unfortunately, due to energy depletion, Reno couldn't absorb any energy from his opponent.

Considering his own consumption, this battle was basically about gaining ammunition and losing energy. Although overall he still made a profit, it was much less than before.

Reno didn't mind too much; having a profit was already good enough. Later on, it would mostly be situations of loss, and he might cry then.

It was better to seize more points now while he could.

Seeing that there was no one around, Reno had returned to the hilltop to continue hunting lizard-snakes. As for the mech, there would naturally be people sent by the organizers to take it away. After confirming withdrawal, all mechs and their pilots had to stay in place and could not move, otherwise, it would be considered as interfering with the competition and would be severely punished.

Gunshots rang out again on the hilltop, one after another, hunting lizard-snakes and attracting new contestants.

Soon, new contestants arrived.

However, this time, they were obviously luckier than the previous one and did not find any resource points.

As he swung his energy sword and aggressively charged forth, he was met with a large positron cannon.

At that moment, the only thought filling the mind of the loser was: How is this possible? How can this be? He must be cheating!

This was also one of the rare periods of benign development and rapid growth for Reno.

Guarding this hunting ground, he relentlessly hunted lizard-snakes, sniped opponents, relied on powerful firepower to defeat them one by one, and collected spoils.

Of course, not everyone would choose to come and pick a fight with Reno right away—some really just came to kill lizard-snakes.

For these contestants, Reno didn't mind much; just set boundaries and ask others to leave.

Anyway, he had already secured this good spot.

Most people chose to leave.

There were also a few who wanted to seize territory, and Reno didn't back down.

He was like a little lion, firmly defending his territory, knocking down every covetous person eyeing him or his territory.

Six hours later, Reno had killed seventy-two lizard-snakes and defeated seven contestants, plus the two from earlier, totaling a score of 23.4. Reno didn't know how this score ranked among all the contestants, but he was confident it wouldn't be bad.

At the same time, he had eight more portions of food, and a foodie had already eaten all his food for the day.

But there was no obvious increase in ammunition. The war axe missiles had decreased from a peak of twelve to six now, the 9mm bullets were empty, half a box of 20mm high-explosive shells remained, and there were several extra boxes of 12mm and 18mm bullets. Additionally, he also acquired some thrown high-explosive grenades.

Energy was plummeting straight down, from a peak of 62% energy value to only 28% now.

Although this "only" was still much higher than most contestants now, Reno still felt the huge demand for energy.

He had to go find a merchant to buy some things.

Buying things from a merchant was actually a kind of gambling; you had to ensure that your investment would bring you more benefits. If this goal wasn't achieved, such as spending twenty points of resources but only earning fifteen points, then it would be not worth it. Worse yet, you might encounter an opponent who had also strengthened themselves like him, and end up losing in the end, which would mean losing everything. Instead of that, it was better not to buy anything; even if you were defeated and forced to withdraw, at least you could keep four points, or sixteen points if it was the third day, which meant you might have to defeat sixteen opponents to earn them.

Despite all these risks, Reno still decided to continue unlocking. Because he couldn't understand, if he could do it, others might be able to do it too. As time went on, more and more contestants would gain points, and inevitably, a group of powerful characters would emerge after unlocking. To maintain his previous lead, the best way was to unlock again.

It was an endless cycle; even if he gained an advantage in firepower equipment again through this method, Reno would lose valuable points, which might not be cost-effective. But Reno still decided to do so. The reason he chose this way was simple: because he thought of Dandy Bagge.

Dandy Bagge said that a true warrior was not afraid of battle. If it were him here, perhaps he wouldn't even consider the significance of points; rankings were worthless to him, only eternal warfare!

Reno couldn't achieve that level of madness, but he at least understood what true fighting spirit meant.

It wasn't about not retreating, but at least for now, it wasn't his time to retreat yet!

There were still three hours until sunset, and Reno planned to wait until the last hour to find Abyss, so he could earn more points. But Reno's luck seemed to have run out, as the next opponents turned out to be a duo.

After a day of struggle and fighting, contestants began to transition from solo fights to forming alliances.

This was not an easy task; building trust needed to be tested. But undeniable, once this combination was completed, competitiveness would undoubtedly skyrocket.

So when Reno saw two mechs sneaking closer to him through the signal receiver in the jungle, he knew trouble was brewing. Without hesitation, he retreated and left from the other side. Dealing with two opponents at once was too difficult, and importantly, even if he won, it would come at a significant cost. In the current situation, those who didn't understand the cost would inevitably not last until the end.

However, leaving also meant giving up this advantageous terrain.

Although most of the lizard-snakes in the area had already been killed, Reno still felt a pang of heartache and reluctance. He actually wanted to find an ally, but alliances required timing and were hard to force. Most allies were formed under the premise of evenly matched strength and mutual respect, and Reno didn't want to be evenly matched with anyone. As long as he still wanted to maintain a strong and overwhelming firepower advantage, it would be difficult to find allies.

After leaving the small hill, Reno moved towards the distance. Losing his own hunting ground meant he could only go to someone else's hunting ground. Interestingly, most of these people were those who had previously given up competing with him, and now Reno was turning the tables on them.

However, this was reality, survival, the law of the jungle.

At that moment, Reno seemed to understand a little.

He arrived at a hunting ground where someone was stationed, completely ignoring the contestant in the distance, and set up his gun here to start searching for the presence of lizard-snakes.

A group of lizard-snakes wandered over, with two gunshots, one lizard-snake fell to the ground, while another reared its head and hissed.

The angry swarm of lizard-snakes searched for their targets, and gunfire from afar rang out one after another, quickly wiping out the swarm of lizard-snakes as if it were a competition.

Even from a distance, Reno could feel the opponent's anger.

However, the opponent did not attack but silently endured, perhaps realizing that confronting Reno wouldn't benefit him. However, with Reno "stealing monsters," his efficiency in hunting lizard-snakes clearly decreased. He even lost more than half of what he could have killed. Because Reno was using 20mm armor-piercing shells, which had much greater power. This meant that every time a group of lizard-snakes appeared, Reno would kill several more than him.

Seeing fewer and fewer lizard-snakes that could be found, the opponent finally became angry. He broke his strategy of not taking the initiative to attack for the first two days and began to maneuver towards Reno's position. Using the terrain for cover, he approached closer and closer, until finally, Reno's mech appeared in his field of vision.

He aimed his gun at Reno, but then hesitated. Although this distance could hit the target, without powerful weapons, it lacked the decisive effect. So he cautiously moved forward, step by step, approaching the target.

The target never turned around, which made him bolder and more presumptuous. Seeing that Reno was completely exposed within range, he aimed his gun again.

Just as he was about to shoot, he heard a strange sound. The contestant instantly realized what it was, his face turned pale: "Oh God!"

Then the explosion of four spider mines completely engulfed him.

But just before he fell, he also threw several high-explosive grenades towards Reno.