Under the effect of [Assembly Magic], Xiao Ling's several gun-type equipment were instantly disassembled and reassembled into a single entity.

The appearance of this thing… well, let's just say it looked like an exaggerated engine that would only appear in cartoons. Its shape exuded a punk style, and at one end of this "engine" was a section of gun barrel-like component extending out, as if to clarify that it was actually a weapon.

Rather than calling it an "assembly gun," it was more like an "ultra-heavy, ultra-complex hand cannon." When held in a player's hand, it looked like a giant chainsaw from a distance.

"Hoo…" After assembling this hand cannon, Xiao Ling took a deep breath before bending over to pick it up; after all, she wasn't a melee specialization player, and her strength was a little lacking, so it was impossible to casually pick up such a large creation with ease.

While she was doing all this, Beimonstein wasn't idle either; this fellow, seeing that the shooting interval he had calculated had arrived, but the fourth shot was nowhere to be seen, knew that—after seeing his "spiritualized" form, the opponent had immediately changed their attack method.

Therefore, Beimonstein also took action, immediately accelerating and running away in a different direction from Jietun.

Beimonstein's thinking was this: no matter what weapon the opponent switched to, the farther he ran, the lower the power and hit rate of the gun would be, that was certain; furthermore, fused with the [Air Element], his blood limit and physical defense had greatly increased. Even if a sniper attack with even greater penetrating power than before came, he was confident that he wouldn't be killed in one shot… If all went well, he could successfully cover Jietun's escape and then escape the enemy's range from another direction, thus dragging the battle into a war of attrition.

Of course, that was just his idea…

Xiao Ling didn't care about any of that. There was something in this world with a longer range than a gun called a cannon, and the shells fired from it moved in a parabolic trajectory. Even if you ran out of the line of sight of the shooter, you could still be hit.

Bang—

About ten seconds after Beimonstein started running, the sound of a cannon rang out.

The fact that Xiao Ling could aim for so long meant that the distance between the two was indeed a bit far, and it also meant that Beimonstein's movement speed wasn't low, but… since Xiao Ling had fired the cannon, it meant that she was confident in her actions.

A scorching white energy bullet flew out of the muzzle, cutting through the sky and leaving a hazy trail in the sky, heading straight for the target's location.

Beimonstein's senses also became very strong after the spiritualization (that's why he was able to catch Xiao Tan's hidden weapon before). While running, he quickly felt the energy approaching from behind.

At that moment, he didn't need to look back to confirm, and immediately took a step sideways, suddenly flashing more than five meters to his left.

Beimonstein's response was indeed brilliant. No matter what… that cannonball needed a few seconds to fly over. Even the top gunners, after calculating the lead and firing, were aiming at "the target moving in a uniform straight line a few seconds ago." As long as the target being attacked made a change of direction during the process of the cannonball "already fired but not yet landed," then no matter how accurate the aim was before, it would be meaningless.

However, what Beimonstein never expected was that the real purpose of that energy bullet was…

Buzz—

When the cannonball was about thirty meters above the ground, accompanied by a whirring sound, the scorching white light suddenly exploded and turned into… Xiao Ling.

"What!" Beimonstein, who was retreating while waiting for the cannonball to land, turned his head to look at the sky at this moment, and was obviously startled when he saw the figure of his opponent.

Several seconds later, Beimonstein belatedly realized—what the opponent had fired was not a "destruction bullet," but a "teleportation bullet"!

This method of allowing a player to instantly move to the location of the cannonball was naturally a skill. However, since this was a skill that Xiao Ling had only mastered in the last month, it was impossible to know that she had this trick up her sleeve just by watching the S2 videos.

"Hehe…" Looking at the horrified expression on the other's face, Xiao Ling, who suddenly appeared in mid-air, knew that half of her surprise attack had already succeeded, and a smile couldn't help but appear on the corner of her mouth.

In the next second, she activated [Assembly Magic] again, re-decomposing the hand cannon in her hand into four or five guns, and then grabbed two of them, raised her hand, and fired.

Bang, bang, bang…

Rat-tat-tat-tat…

Two different gunshots rang out at the same time. Before those bullet casings hit the ground, Beimonstein, who was still moving, had already been hit by more than a dozen bullets, and every single one… was an expensive special bullet.

But! Beimonstein was, after all, a player with a hidden score of seventy or eighty and a level of nearly sixty, and he had already transformed to strengthen his defense, so Xiao Ling's tactic of suppressing Blade in S2 was no longer enough to kill Beimonstein in one shot.

"He's quite durable…" Xiao Ling thought to herself.

At this time, she had not yet landed. Due to inertia, she and the guns that had just been disassembled were now moving along the trajectory of the "teleportation bullet" from before, roughly in a downward sloping trend.

Seeing that the mid-range sweep was generally effective, Xiao Ling temporarily changed her tactics in mid-air… She unhesitatingly threw away the submachine gun and pistol in her hands, accurately grabbed the other two guns that were tumbling and falling beside her, and then fired a [Blast Shot] towards her upper left.

The purpose of her using this skill was, of course, not to shoot birds in the sky, but to use the reaction force of this move to change her falling trajectory and carry out a burst-type push.

Sure enough, the gun fired, a shadow moved, and the dazzling fire rapidly pushed Xiao Ling in mid-air towards Beimonstein's location.

"What is she doing?" Seeing this, Beimonstein was also a little unconvinced. "A shooting specialization guy actually dares to come and fight me in close combat… Humph… Don't think that I will show mercy just because you are a beautiful woman."

Thinking of this, he took a stance and prepared to meet the attack.

Unexpectedly… Xiao Ling's rushing speed was much faster than he had imagined. The petite figure was as swift as a bullet, arriving in an instant. Beimonstein's defensive action had not been fully completed, and the opponent's move [Gun-Fu XIV – Kick] had already been thrust over.

When Beimonstein was stomped on the face by Xiao Ling and fell to the ground with his feet in the air, the thought that flashed through his mind was this: "Ah… now that I think about it, I am not a melee specialization player myself, I just got a little carried away after casting a spirit-type transformation skill…"

Bang, bang, bang…

Before his exclamation ended, Xiao Ling had already stepped on his head and used two different models of shotguns in her hands to fire a few direct shots at his body; the bullets that were originally supposed to spread out hit Beimonstein's stomach firmly and without missing a single one at this distance.

Thus, about two seconds later, Captain Jietun, who was in another location, learned through the system notification that his teammate had been killed…

"Damn it… it still doesn't work."

When he had just turned around to run, Jietun had thought that Beimonstein would be instantly killed. To his surprise, he ran for a while and still didn't hear the news of his teammate's death, which rekindled a glimmer of hope in him.

Unfortunately, in less than a minute, he finally heard the prompt that his teammate had been killed.

Whoosh—

Just as Jietun was frustrated by the notification sound, suddenly, a swift sound of wind breaking came from behind him.

If Xiao Ling's method of movement was like an exploding bullet, then Xiao Tan was a silent arrow… and one with never-decreasing kinetic energy.

Hearing the sound, Jietun knew that someone had launched an attack from behind him, and immediately spun around, reaching out to meet it.

From the ID of the two characters [Jietun], it could be seen that this was a veteran player from the closed beta. As the captain of a team, his strength was undoubtedly beyond doubt; such a character with S-level melee specialization and A-level spirit art specialization would definitely not be weak in close combat.

In addition, like Xiao Tan's [Touch of Altair], Jietun also used "composite equipment" equipped on both hands as his main weapon. However, what Jietun used was not an assassin's hidden blade and hidden arrow, but a pair of asymmetrical gloves, named—[Grasps of Liesith].

In the normal state, the left-hand part of this equipment was a black fingerless glove that was slightly larger than an ordinary glove, while the right-hand part was more like a black armor "arm sleeve" that covered the elbow; once he entered the battle state, the left-hand part remained unchanged, but the right-hand part would mutate and swell together with the arm. At that time, his right forearm would become as thick as Hulk's arm, and the black armor wrapped around it would also swell. The "fist" at the very front would also turn into a crimson iron fist.

Right now, Jietun was using this instantly thickened right hand to block Xiao Tan's attack.

As a result… only a "clang" was heard.

As a few sparks burst out, the two passed each other. A second later, Xiao Tan appeared about ten meters away from Jietun, confronting the other party.

"As expected of a captain-level…" Xiao Tan looked down at his wrist, moved it twice, and said, "You numbed my whole hand."

"You flatter me~" Jietun also glanced at the white mark on his arm armor and replied, "For an assassin… your attack power is also quite good, as expected of the Hell Front…"

Swish—

Before he could finish speaking, Xiao Tan raised his hand and flung a hidden arrow over.

"Hey, hey…" Jietun was different from Beimonstein. Even without any enhancement, he could block this kind of attack. "Why are you in such a hurry, I haven't finished speaking yet." As he spoke, he had already calmly grabbed the flying hidden arrow with his left hand and broke it in his hand.

"There's no need to drag out this kind of battle for too long, right." Xiao Tan responded, "According to my observation, it can be settled in less than three seconds."

"Huh?" Jietun's expression changed slightly. "What are you talking about? What did you observe? And… what are you going to settle in less than three seconds? My life? There should be a limit to how much you underestimate people… With my close combat ability, even if your captain, Feng Bujue, comes, it's impossible for me to…"

Hiss—

His words were interrupted again.

The sound of blood spurting out of his throat was very pleasant, like the sound of wind blowing through wheat.

At this moment, Jietun looked forward blankly, not knowing when… Xiao Tan had disappeared from his sight. What frightened him even more was… he didn't even know when his throat had been pierced.

"The blow when chasing you from behind roughly tested your reaction speed and defense ability…" At this time, Xiao Tan's voice slowly sounded from behind Jietun, "Firing a hidden arrow from the front was to verify whether you have the kind of defensive means that would 'react automatically'." He paused, "That's 'observation'."

As he spoke, Jietun hurriedly covered his throat with his left hand, dispelled the transformation of his right hand, and rummaged in his knapsack in a panic.

"And the conclusion of the observation is…" Xiao Tan didn't care about him, and continued unhurriedly, "If I fight you at a normal speed, I definitely won't be able to win quickly; not only won't I be able to win quickly… considering that you are likely a melee specialization player, engaging in a continuous close combat with you will also bring certain risks.

"Fortunately, you don't seem to have the kind of defensive skills or equipment that would 'take effect passively', because… even if you personally see 'only an ordinary hidden arrow flying towards you' from the front… you still have to intercept it with your own hands.

"After knowing this, I have an 80% chance… that I can instantly kill you."

While Xiao Tan was saying this, Jietun had already dealt with his wound urgently and was supporting his body, re-summoning the giant fist of his right arm, seemingly wanting to make a last-ditch effort.

At this moment, he really couldn't speak anymore, his left hand was still covering his throat.

"Hmm… Although it's a bit cruel to say this…" Xiao Tan looked at the other party and pursed his lips, "But your forcibly continuing your life like this… will at most force me to repeat what happened in those three seconds just now."

Before he could finish his sentence, from Jietun's perspective, his opponent's figure disappeared from his sight once again.

The most desperate thing was… at the same moment, on the side of Jietun's neck, the place he wasn't covering with his hand, there was another hole poked out by a hidden blade.

"This is too outrageous…" This was the last thought in Jietun's mind before turning into white light.

Not to mention him, even the research teams of those studios felt confused when watching the video after the match. From the third-party perspective, they could only see the scene of Xiao Tan suddenly disappearing and appearing, and no matter how many times they slowed it down, they couldn't see the frame of him taking action to stab someone.

Of course, everyone in the Hell Front knew very well that Xiao Tan had relied on his title skill [Flash Time] to defeat his opponent just now.

And other than the people from Hell Front, only a very few people saw what Wang Tan Zhi had done in the battle with Jietun after the fact; those who saw the truth naturally also deduced that… a certain skill or equipment on Xiao Tan's body could already use one of the four strongest abilities in Thriller Paradise—the ability of time.

These are things for later, let's talk about what's in front of us.

Up until Jietun was killed, the second match of the first round of S3—the mid-tier match—also came to an end.

Although Jietun and Beimonstein's performance of countering each other's moves was also remarkable, the difference in strength between the two sides was still a bit large; in the end, the Hell Front once again won with zero casualties, easily gaining a 2:0 lead, and bringing the competition to match point during the "Deputy General Match."