Chapter 170 Ambush and Counter-ambush

Qui Bu Di Tou and Mo Gan Hui Shou spun around, each tossing a grenade towards the spot where Ling Fengwu had fallen, according to their memory. The dropped socks should be there, and the unexpected intruder must be picking them up from that location.

"Boom, boom!" The grenades had barely left their hands when they were shot out of the air. A Mechanic lowered their smoking automatic pistol, quickly scooping up a handful of socks from the ground.

Qui Bu Di Tou and Mo Gan Hui Shou were shocked. The distance between them was short, very short, and yet this person managed to shoot down both of their grenades.

Even though the automatic pistol had the fastest reload speed among guns, shooting twice to detonate two grenades in such a short time was something an average person couldn't achieve. Qui Bu Di Tou and Mo Gan Hui Shou were both Gunners, and they weren't confident they could pull that off, but this person casually picked up socks after blowing up the grenades, appearing confident.

Mechanic!

The mechanical toolbox slung across the character's waist revealed their class. Qui Bu Di Tou and Mo Gan Hui Shou immediately thought of the same name: Xiao Shiqin.

Such skillful operation, if performed by a god-level player like him, wouldn't be surprising. However, the name above this Mechanic's head clearly showed that it wasn't Xiao Shiqin.

Then they saw the Brawler beside him, Yu Lai Le. Qui Bu Di Tou and Mo Gan Hui Shou suddenly remembered who these two were.

They were another two-person team, just like them. Qui Bu Di Tou and Mo Gan Hui Shou hadn't taken this team seriously. However, as two-person teams with no achievements, they were listed together by default on the rankings. So, when they checked the rankings before, they had a slight impression of the two characters' names, and now they recognized them.

From the moment Qui Bu Di Tou and Mo Gan Hui Shou were surprised by the grenades being detonated, to the moment they recognized the two players, only a short moment passed, but they had already experienced their extraordinary hand speed. Ling Fengwu's dropped socks were all picked up in such a short time.

There were quite a few socks, and the series of system messages couldn't be read clearly at a glance.

The two who picked up the socks turned and left. Qui Bu Di Tou and Mo Gan Hui Shou weren't willing to let them go, and bullets flew towards them.

"Ah yo! So powerful!" One of the two shouted, as they dodged and ran. Qui Bu Di Tou and Mo Gan Hui Shou checked the rankings to see how many socks these two had grabbed.

Eight pairs!

Sun Xiang's Ling Fengwu had half of Team Excellent Era's socks on him, only to be ambushed by Qui Bu Di Tou and Mo Gan Hui Shou. He was still fuming at the respawn point. But a series of system messages showed that the people who picked up his socks weren't the two Gunners.

"They're with them!" Sun Xiang angrily explained to his teammates. If losing socks was painful, then appearing incompetent in front of his teammates because of it was a hundred times more painful.

"First, those two Gunners challenged me head-on, then the other two ambushed from the shadows to trip me up," Sun Xiang said through gritted teeth.

"How despicable," the other Excellent Era players echoed, though only they knew if they meant it.

Xiao Shiqin didn't comment. He looked at the names of the two players in the system announcement and checked the team on the rankings before giving his opinion, "I think there might be someone else lying in wait!"

"Someone else lying in wait?"

"Look," Xiao Shiqin patiently explained to Sun Xiang. "All eight pairs of dropped socks were picked up by these two. Even if there was an agreement between the two sides, they probably turned on each other at that moment."

"How despicable indeed!" Sun Xiang exclaimed.

"Since they're with the same group, it'll be easier to take them back," Xiao Shiqin said. "Do you remember the coordinates of the battle just now?"

"Mmm, I remember." Sun Xiang was skilled, after all.

"Let's go." Xiao Shiqin called everyone together. Knowing the starting coordinates, they could estimate the area these two could move in within that time frame. Xiao Shiqin spread everyone out to search for Ye Xiu and Baozi's characters. As for Sun Xiang's Ling Fengwu, after counting down the necessary 20 seconds for respawn, he also rushed towards that area with gritted teeth.

In that area, a battle was raging between two Gunner classes, filled with the smell of gunpowder. Under the pursuit of Qui Bu Di Tou and Mo Gan Hui Shou, Ye Xiu and Baozi couldn't completely shake them off, so they had to turn and fight back. The Mechanic class was somewhat similar to the Summoner class, but not entirely. It had the restraining power of a Summoner, controlling the battle from a distance, but also had great freedom. After all, many of the mechanical tools it used were to enhance itself, not entirely dependent on summoned beasts to fight like a Summoner. The Mechanic was a class with many playstyles, with skills like Mechanical Fist and Drill Arm Strike, capable of impressive performance in close combat.

However, Ye Xiu's Lord Grim didn't intend to practice martial arts with the two Gunners. He used the orthodox Mechanic playstyle, using various remote-controlled mechanical tools to control and attack his opponents, while frequently using skills like Mechanical Wings and Rocket Propeller to make his movements more unpredictable.

Before long, Qui Bu Di Tou and Mo Gan Hui Shou recognized the seriousness of the situation. This duo had strength comparable to theirs. And after their fierce battle with Sun Xiang's Ling Fengwu, they hadn't had time to recover. Facing two strong enemies in this state, even a draw would be a loss for them. Moreover, they couldn't suppress the other side's Mechanic at all, and were instead annoyed by his Mechanical Drop combined with the Mechanical Tracker. What's more, the Brawler on the other side was no pushover either. Bricks, Molotov cocktails, poison needles, all sorts of Brawler's underhanded tricks appeared unexpectedly, making them hard to defend against.

"Retreat!" The two exchanged a quick word and made a decision. Unlike most players, they didn't think of fighting to the death because there was no loss upon death. But for ambitious people, being sent to the respawn point and waiting to respawn was already fatal. Now, a target with eight pairs of socks was within sight. Being sent back to the respawn point once meant having to search again, which wouldn't be easy.

They couldn't break through, so they would retreat. The two felt it would be easy enough, since they didn't have any socks on them. Their opponents wouldn't risk fighting them to the death while carrying eight pairs of socks.

The two immediately relaxed their attacks, intentionally leaving an opening. To retreat, there was no need for them to flee in a panic. Their opponents should be the ones who didn't want to fight them at this time, so leaving a space for them to retreat on their own would be enough.

Who knew that as soon as the opening appeared, instead of retreating, the opponent treated it as a weakness for a strong attack.

"They're crazy!!"

The two were surprised by the opponent's abnormal behavior. Unfortunately, the opening didn't leave them any room to remedy the situation. Being caught like this by their opponents immediately turned into a match point.

"Hehe, with the previous example, I think it's safer to send you to the respawn point." Ye Xiu said, as the Mechanic Lord Grim, under the cover of Mechanical Drop and Mechanical Tracker, went all out in the attack. This was the Mechanic's most crazy offensive playstyle, no longer playing the restraining style like a Summoner, but turning himself into a weapon and throwing himself into battle with other tools.

Drill Arm Strike!

Lord Grim waved his left hand, holding a tool from his mechanical toolbox on his arm. The drill bit at the front started to spin rapidly, and the character slid forward quickly.

With attacks from all three directions, plus Baozi's Yu Lai Le also attacking from the flank, Qui Bu Di Tou and Mo Gan Hui Shou were overwhelmed. One was bombarded by the Mechanical Drop, while the other was grabbed by Baozi with a Throat Lock, and then hit by Lord Grim with a Mechanical Fist, causing her to spit out blood. Then she was directly hit by Yu Lai Le's Brawler level 75 ultimate skill, Street Storm. The other one, Qui Bu Di Tou, tried to save her, almost getting caught in the attack herself. In a dilemma, she could only fight desperately.

Qui Bu Di Tou rushed in close, shooting and using Gunner's martial arts skills at the same time.

"Gun-fu! Not bad!" Ye Xiu praised in surprise. Gun-fu wasn't a skill name, but a Gunner's operating technique, referring to the close-quarters combat where the Gunner didn't just rely on simple martial arts skills, but also incorporated their shooting skills.

This style of play didn't sound complicated, but the truth was that a Gunner who could truly integrate gun skills and martial arts in close combat and deal powerful damage would definitely be at the professional level. Ordinary players who tried this style of play would only slightly increase their output by a few percentage points.

As soon as Qui Bu Di Tou's gun-fu came out, Ye Xiu saw that her skill level was quite impressive. This girl definitely had professional potential.

"But still a little short!"

The Mechanic Lord Grim suddenly ejected his Mechanical Wings and flew high, but before Qui Bu Di Tou could counterattack, he had already fallen back down, using this rising and falling motion to escape the attack and disrupt Qui Bu Di Tou's rhythm. This wasn't a serious disruption, but it was enough for Ye Xiu. As Lord Grim landed, he used a grenade for cover, and a Mechanical Tracker was secretly dropped on the ground.

Mechanical Tracker didn't do much damage, but it had a short cooldown. Mechanics would constantly release one, two, or even three Mechanical Trackers during combat. But Qui Bu Di Tou was now ignoring everything and shooting at Lord Grim.

Explosions, gunfire...

The two characters were fighting to the death without giving way. But Ye Xiu had taken the initiative to attack by disrupting Qui Bu Di Tou's rhythm, and his Lord Grim had more health. How could he lose at this point?

Qui Bu Di Tou and Mo Gan Hui Shou finally fell, falling in frustration and resentment, especially when they heard the other side say with relief as they killed them, "Now I can rest easy..."