Chapter 502: New Skill

He's coming for Ying Duo!

Luo Jinyou reacted instantly, stepping in front of Ying Duo, who showed no courtesy as the cannon barrel simply appeared on his shoulder, light and nimble.

"This won't do; using a cannon is a bit too overpowered, right?"

The burly man scratched his head at the sight, although he'd been given a preventive shot before coming, knowing this person's specialty was using cannons.

But for a mortal to go up against such a huge cannon is utterly bullying.

Moreover, they're currently in a residential area—if that cannon fires, how many would have to die with it?

"So, large rune weapons are prohibited in this battle."

A child's voice suddenly rang in Ying Duo's ear; the next second, the prominent rune circuit on his cannon barrel dimmed instantly, and the energy inside him could no longer be fed into the barrel.

Ying Duo stared, obviously not expecting such a sudden change; while he was dazed, the burly man had already charged at him.

A piece of jade larger than a human head, glowing with a cyan light, blocked between Ying Duo and the burly man.

The burly man's fist struck the jade, emitting a dull thud; the jade's surface only showed a few cracks.

Ying Duo immediately stowed the cannon barrel, scanning his game backpack to find that only cannon-type equipment had been forcibly sealed, rendering it unusable.

He simply pulled out a shotgun, aimed its muzzle at the burly man's face, and pulled the trigger.

The shot fired from the barrel, iron sand spraying out in a fan from the muzzle, covering the burly man's entire upper body.

The burly man didn't dodge; a thin layer of energy surrounded him, like a soft, thin jelly, absorbing all damage.

The level displayed on his head was especially conspicuous in the current environment: Lv. 42.

Han Huan really went all out to kill him—a Special Ability Practitioner of equilibrium law, and an NPC over level forty.

But if that's all there is, they're just here to feed him experience.

Ying Duo put away the shotgun and swapped in a lightweight carbine suited for close-quarters combat.

His muzzle aimed at a black shadow behind the burly man, that shadow moving toward Luo Jinyou's direction at a speed almost too fast to see.

That woman lunged at Luo Jinyou from the side, wielding two very short knives whose blades were coated with something that gave off a dark green gleam in the light.

Ying Duo pulled the trigger; the woman sidestepped, the bullet whizzing past her ear without affecting her speed.

Luo Jinyou swept his left hand at his side, and a jade wall larger than his body rose from beneath his feet; the woman's knives struck the wall, leaving two deep gouges.

These guns are still not as handy as the cannon barrel.

Mainly because Ying Duo never pursued top-tier stats for these firearms; he initially just wanted them usable, crafting them after familiarizing himself with their use at the training ground.

The damage was still respectable, but not top-tier; against a bunch of enemies generally over level forty, it was clearly insufficient.

Where did the Field Operations Department get so many level‑forty NPCs?

We need to find a way to break free from the aberrant arts zone that sealed his equipment.

A silver‑white thread appeared on Ying Duo's hand, with a tiny metal ball tied to each end.

He wrapped the thread twice around his fingers, then flung it toward the burly man; the metal ball dragged the line out, looping around the man's ankle twice before tightening.

The burly man glanced at the thread on his ankle, about to pull it off, when the metal ball exploded in a blinding flash of white light.

Ying Duo seized the moment, grabbed Luo Jinyou, and jumped straight down through the breach beside them.

Last time in Tianmian City, Luo Jinyou had been unconscious; this time he got to experience firsthand what it's like to be—

youjump! Ijump!

To those attackers, it looked a bit like a suicide jump; Yang Yixie's floor isn't low, and jumping down like that—even with an energy shield—would surely cause injury.

But Ying Duo chose to use a glider.

Fortunately, the makeshift glider he'd hastily thrown together earlier went unused, and he'd kept it stashed at the bottom of his game backpack under the pretense of being prepared for emergencies.

Pulling it out now was just right.

But it could only support a steady landing; relying on it to fly away like some phantom thief was impossible.

They landed safely, but Ying Duo's equipment seal remained unbroken.

From this, it seems Yang Yixie's recent decision was a misstep.

The enemies below hadn't dwindled; if anything, they were more numerous, though their levels were generally in the low thirties. Seeing Yang Yixie and Luo Jinyou land safely, they resolved to crush the medicine hidden between their teeth.

The next second, the uniform twenty‑ to thirty‑level crowd surged up to level forty.

He said, "Why does the Field Operations Department suddenly have so many 'experts'? It seems they're ready to trade lives for his."

And among the trained personnel who had instantly formed an attack formation, a retreating figure in the distance stood out conspicuously.

A child was being half‑dragged, half‑pulled away by several men in black suits; Ying Duo could see the child's profile through his scope.

A faint reddish streak lingered on his nose bridge, likely from a recent nosebleed; his eyes were half‑open, half‑closed, pupils somewhat unfocused, as if he'd been forcibly yanked from a deep dream and not yet fully awake.

It seems the aberrant arts that sealed his equipment were the child's doing.

But a child isn't suited to develop his own aberrant arts so early, and moreover he forcibly sealed Ying Duo's equipment across multiple levels.

He fired a shot at the child, but someone intercepted it midway.

The Field Operations Department's people are always well‑trained and coordinated; with Luo Jinyou and Ying Duo surrounded, they instantly became turtles in a jar.

Moreover, almost all of their damage was aimed at Ying Duo; if not for Luo Jinyou's timely protection, Ying Duo's body would already be riddled with who‑knows‑how‑many holes.

This is just killing the squishies first on the battlefield.

Moreover, they clearly understood the strengths and weaknesses of both sides, not hoping to finish them quickly but instead aiming for a war of attrition.

Yang Yixie didn't believe their sudden level surge could be sustained for long, but these people stubbornly held out, gradually dragging him toward death.

Luo Jinyou also realized that prolonging the fight disadvantaged them, so he actively sought to create an opportunity for Ying Duo, the cost being a stab that hollowed out his lower abdomen.

That person apparently didn't want his life; though he could have struck a vital spot, he ended up veering off at the last moment.

Taking advantage of the opening, Ying Duo employed some body techniques he'd been hastily trained in by Fang Zhiyan, dodging an attack from someone nearby and sweeping them to the ground with a whip kick.

The sniper rifle's muzzle pressed directly against his forehead.

"Bang——!"

A gunshot.

【Your proficiency with your own Aberrant Arts has already reached a certain level, under balanced oppression you have comprehended the skill: Domain Lv. 0】