Chapter Ninety-Two: S-Class Difficulty Instance

The player who spoke up to persuade One-Eyed Seven had a resolute expression, a square-jawed face, and a buzzcut. In the game, his name was Falcon, which was also his squad code in real life. According to General Gu Ping'an's instructions, Falcon and the other special forces members entered the game and cut off their braids, then spread out like a net across various special maps in Huaxia.

The general's plan was that if each special forces soldier controlled a bandit stronghold, they could gather when needed and fundamentally change the storyline of the Huaxia region. As the game progressed, Falcon realized it wasn't that simple. In reality, he was a king among soldiers, but that didn't help much in the game. As a sniper, he was always accurate in real life, but in the game, his shooting attribute was low, and every time he aimed, his movements felt awkward, which made him uncomfortable.

Most of the bandit strongholds in the game were instance maps. If players didn't conquer these maps, they'd persist, and once one was taken, the system would generate a new one. Falcon had infiltrated One-Eyed Seven's stronghold for a week; his mission was to gain control over the bandits and ensure the stronghold wasn't conquered.

Falcon didn't have the same strength as in reality, so he could only hide in the stronghold and wait for his chance. If the stronghold was breached, the mountain would disappear, and he'd have to start over by contacting new NPCs.

Over twenty teams of players had taken on the Toad Rock instance task. Because Toad Rock's terrain was treacherous, Falcon and his partner didn't participate in the defense—NPCs had already easily repelled multiple player attacks.

The two sentry posts built on the rocks were Toad Rock's natural gateways. This time, the sentries were taken out, and when Falcon heard One-Eyed Seven was considering abandoning the posts, he couldn't help but speak up. He firmly believed some players had a shooting attribute of 100. Upon entering the game, he had allocated all his free attribute points to shooting, but even so, he only had 38 points.

Falcon was level 12, and his shooting should have only been 32 points; the extra 6 points were entirely accumulated with bullets. He was the best sniper in reality, and his captain had made a special exception to allocate funds for him to practice marksmanship in the game, so he felt his shooting attribute was top-tier.

Falcon was convinced that the players attacking from below who managed to shoot a sentry from a hundred meters away couldn't possibly have done it due to skill—it had to be coincidence. He offered his suggestion, but before One-Eyed Seven could respond, Monkey Three jumped out, face flushed with excitement, and said, "You outsiders talk big since you won't die permanently, but Pillar's already been killed. Are we supposed to climb back up the sentry post to be sitting ducks for those outsiders below?"

One-Eyed Seven nodded in agreement. "That's right, I can't let my brothers take risks. The sentry post is useless now, everyone retreat to the stronghold and defend. I refuse to believe that a mere six outsiders can withstand my cavalry."

The section near the peak of Toad Rock was relatively flat, and the road widened considerably, with a slope perfect for cavalry charges. An A-level instance wasn't easy to complete—even if players seized the sentry post, as they neared the summit, the bandits would charge on horseback, and even with a shooting attribute of 100, it would be hard to resist.

Falcon felt abandoning the sentry post was a pity, but with One-Eyed Seven unwilling to listen, he had no choice—even if he resorted to dirty tricks and killed One-Eyed Seven, the bandits wouldn't follow his lead. After One-Eyed Seven led his men away from the post, Falcon climbed onto the giant rock and looked down; the players below were preparing to ascend.

Chen Hao had planned to shamelessly keep shooting from 120 meters away, hoping to get lucky and kill four or five bandits, making them too afraid to man the sentry post again. Who could have predicted his luck would surge and he'd take down an NPC with a single shot, causing the bandit NPCs to think he was an infallible sharpshooter and refuse to send anyone else up.

Rain Butterfly had drawn the "Hawkeye" special skill, granting her much better vision than other players. She saw the bandit NPCs withdrawing. She put down her Mauser G98 rifle, her face full of excitement. "Brother Chen, those bandit NPCs are retreating up the mountain!"

As the seven were celebrating, they suddenly saw someone climb onto the sentry post. The distance was too great to see if the person was wearing novice clothes, so they assumed it was an NPC. Liu Zixuan wondered aloud, "Most of the bandits have retreated, why would they send just one person up the post?"

Chen Hao raised his Kuali rifle. "Doesn't matter why they did it. As long as there's someone up there, we can't climb the mountain. Let's take him out first."

Liu Zixuan and Rain Butterfly also raised their rifles and aimed; three standard rifles fired simultaneously, but none hit the mark. A smile appeared on Falcon's face—just as he predicted, the players below had poor marksmanship. Still, he appreciated their strategy of using range to target sentries.

Falcon took a standard Kuali rifle from his ammo pouch, aimed at the central figure—Chen Hao—and pulled the trigger. Although his shooting attribute was higher than the trio's, the distance was too great, and the hit rate was still low, so he missed as well.

A look of surprise crossed Chen Hao's face. How could the enemy in the level-10+ instance sentry post have a standard rifle? Just as he was puzzled, he received a system notification: "Player Chen Baxian, because your A-level Toad Rock special map mission has player participation, a two-way instance task has been generated. Task difficulty has been upgraded to S. Please be cautious."

Liu Zixuan and the other six received the same notification. The fishing bystander exclaimed, "Damn, there are S-level instance missions? I've never heard of that!"

Rain Butterfly, too, was shocked. "The official settings only have ABC three levels of instances! How could an S-level appear?"

Chen Hao shook his head. "It's true that A is normally the highest difficulty, but if other players join the opposing camp and attack us during an instance, the difficulty mutates to S-level. The task just got harder, but if we complete it, the rewards will be much richer. Everyone needs to be careful."

"Player Falcon, you have triggered the reverse instance task 'Defend Toad Rock'. Task completion condition: Protect Toad Rock from being conquered by players. Task reward: Unknown."

After receiving the system notice, Falcon grew more serious. The rewards for completing such a task should be quite good. Alone at the sentry post, he was at a disadvantage against three shooters, and his ammo was low, so he climbed down from the post and headed for the summit. Before he reached the stronghold, a burly man over two meters tall came toward him and asked, "Falcon, what did you just do? What's this reverse instance task about?"

The man's name was Optimus Prime. In real life, he was Falcon's comrade, and in the game, his partner. When Optimus Prime entered the game, he drew the special skill "Super Strength," which enhanced close combat, so he followed the melee route in-game.

Falcon recounted how he triggered the task, and Optimus Prime grinned. "Interesting. A bunch of kids want to take Toad Rock, but can't even handle the NPCs. Let's hope this batch doesn't disappoint us."

Falcon shook his head. "We still need to be careful. The game isn't like reality—if we both get killed and fail to hold the stronghold, those guys will laugh at us for sure."

Optimus Prime chuckled. "These bandit NPCs have sturdy houses! If those players charge up, you lure them inside and I'll take care of them. In melee, they can't possibly be my match."