By the time the Hunter finished reloading her revolver, the remaining two Shadow Guards had reached the Shield Hero's side, entering the effective range of his ability.
"A pointless struggle," the Hunter remarked, raising her weapon. The two Shadow Guards beside the Shield Hero reacted as ordinary people would under attack, leaning back slightly and shielding their foreheads with their hands.
This moment highlights a fundamental human instinct: when gazing up at a vast, cloudless blue sky, even a tiny black speck—like a distant bird—will instantly capture the eye.
As previously mentioned, the Hunter's Ability required a "target" to activate when firing. In this scenario, the boundless blue sky clearly wasn't a suitable target. This meant the Hunter faced a choice: either fire an empty shot into the sky, wasting her Ability, or lock onto that tiny speck and pull the trigger.
Therefore, a Hunter who frequently used the Certain Hit Ability possessed an instinct far superior to ordinary people—a natural drive to spot and focus on small moving objects.
Just as the Hunter was about to pull the trigger, the two figures beside the Shield Hero simultaneously raised their hands, palms facing her. The gesture itself wasn't unusual, but what was strange was that one palm was empty, while the other seemed to bear a pattern etched into it—though from the Hunter's distance, it appeared as nothing more than a dark speck.
Bang!
Squish!
At the instant the gunshot rang out, the Shadow Guard beside the Shield Hero, who had been shielding his head, had his skull explode like a watermelon. Simultaneously, a massive, gaping wound tore through the Hunter's waist, nearly severing her in two.
For the first time, horror flooded the Hunter's face. As her body slowly toppled, she suddenly remembered the exquisitely detailed map the Sakura Nation "bodyguard" had given her when he guided her to this location.
In that instant, she understood everything.
Just before firing, she had instinctively locked onto that dark speck—but it wasn't a speck at all, it was a pattern. And there were four "absolutely identical" patterns on the map she carried.
What happens when a Certain Hit ability targets multiple marks?
With the Hunter Ability's absolute priority, every shot was guaranteed to hit its target.
The moment the bullet left the chamber, it teleported directly into the Shadow Guard's palm, obliterating his hands and head. However, the Shield Hero stood in the way, preventing the bullet from passing through the barrier normally. It teleported a second time, striking the Hunter's pocket.
The immense destructive force nearly tore her in half.
This series of seemingly coincidental events had been meticulously planned. Each of the five Shadow Guards from the Sakura Nation had a similar pattern tattooed on their palm. Their strategy was simple: if the surprise attack succeeded, excellent. If not, at least one of them had to reach the Shield Hero's rear.
The designated Shadow Guard revealed his marked palm the instant the Hunter fired. They had even anticipated the possibility of multiple guards escaping. In such cases, only one guard would expose his palm, while the other would feign fear, stacking his hands to deliberately conceal his own markings. After all, two guards displaying identical black spots would have been too obvious, arousing the Hunter's suspicion.
Normally, someone with a Certain Hit Ability would always aim for headshots. It's like playing a shooter game with aimbot—why would you bother locking onto the body?
Even so, the five Shadow Guards had prepared for the possibility of a heart shot. Their uniforms featured golden stripes across the chest, seemingly decorative at first glance. In reality, these stripes were composed of countless microscopic patterns, barely visible to the naked eye, identical to the patterns adorning the corners of the map.
The most crucial element of this scheme, of course, was the Shield Hero's "cheat." If a normal bullet, after killing a Shadow Guard, suddenly reversed course, the Hunter would undoubtedly notice. She could then use her Self-Acceleration to discard the map and evade the attack. To successfully assassinate her, the bullet had to be transformed into a teleportation projectile.
That's why, when the Shadow Guards witnessed the Shield Hero being shot in the head moments earlier, they nearly panicked. Fortunately, the Shield Hero's sheer resilience had kept him alive.
-
Flashback to a secret meeting in the Sakura Nation:
"The Hunter's ability is too formidable. If she discovers our treachery, she could turn all of us into corpses within five minutes."
"So, we have to eliminate her in one swift strike?"
"But how? Her power is considerable. Even with a surprise attack, victory isn't assured."
"Perhaps... we can use her own ability against her? Even she can't evade her own Certain Hit, right?"
The perspective shifts back to the present. The last surviving Shadow Guard burst into laughter. "Haha! We did it! We actually pulled it off!"
The success rate of this entire plan had never been guaranteed; in reality, it was likely only fifty percent, perhaps even lower.
But... from the very beginning, the Sakura Nation had been gambling. They had exhausted every possible effort, and now, all that remained was to entrust their fate to chance.
Pop!
However, the moment the Shadow Guard's words faded, his head exploded like a watermelon. The Hunter lay on the ground, her head tilted as she surveyed the remaining enemies on the battlefield, steadily squeezing the trigger.
The Shield Hero and the few Hero Party Members who had barely survived the initial onslaught were gone. After the Hunter emptied her magazine, the battlefield was eerily devoid of living souls.
"Cough... cough..." Blood trickled from the Hunter's lips. "This time... I was too careless."
She carried healing items, such as medical sprays that could quickly staunch bleeding, but they were useless against a wound that had nearly severed her torso.
Feeling her life force rapidly draining away, she mustered her last strength to open her revolver, load the final bullet, and raise the barrel toward the sky.
"Sakura Nation, if you want war, then bring it on!"
"I'll fire the first shot of this conflict!"
Bang!
Ten seconds later, Firefly descended rapidly, hovering seven or eight meters above the battlefield. She surveyed the scene, her expression utterly bewildered.
Her reaction could be summed up in a single word: Huh?
The entire battle, from the Hunter's initial attack on the Rock Turtle to its conclusion, had lasted less than two minutes!
Even before the demonic beasts swarming the Rock Turtle could arrive—they were still en route—Firefly blinked and found everyone below her dead. Not a single survivor remained.
Nevertheless, Firefly quickly grasped the situation.
For reasons unknown, the Sakura Nation had launched an assassination plot against White Eagle. It seemed likely that the Dimensional Rift itself was a product of their machinations.
"Lure everyone into familiar territory, then use a prearranged plan to pick them off one by one..." Firefly muttered to herself.
She didn't know how many of the White Eagle Eight were attending the Sakura Nation conference, but she suspected Mad Lion would be their next target.
Adhering to her philosophy of "I don't know what tricks they're playing, but opposing them is the only way," Firefly immediately sprang into action.
Before leaving, however, she needed to deal with the Rock Turtle, one of the Four Heavenly Kings, which had just arrived on the battlefield.
A crimson firestorm erupted, reaching for the heavens. In stark contrast to Hunter's struggles, Firefly excelled at battling massive opponents like this.
Firefly opened with a direct hit from her Supernova Overload, but the Rock Turtle proved tougher than she'd anticipated. She finished it off with a Knight's Kick.
In short, the entire battle was unremarkable. Afterward, Firefly transformed into a red meteor and soared toward the Capital.
She didn't know Mad Lion's exact location, but it wasn't hard to guess. Firefly knew he was hunting the Four Heavenly Kings to the north, and given his straightforward nature, he would likely charge straight ahead. So, she flew northward from the Capital, confident she'd soon find traces of his passage.
It didn't take long for Firefly to reach the Capital. But the sight that greeted her made her eyes widen in disbelief.
Today marked only the third day since entering the Dimensional Rift, yet in just three days, the entire Capital had been transformed into a hellish landscape.
From her aerial vantage point, Firefly had a clearer view: countless buildings engulfed in flames, streets littered with corpses, and the river that once flowed through the heart of the city, now a crimson stream—a river of blood.
The most striking sight in this hellish landscape was a colossal white skeleton, towering twenty to thirty meters tall. It was completely encased in cracked, ancient samurai armor, giving it a weathered appearance. The skeleton held its right arm outstretched, with a man perched in its palm.
The moment Firefly saw the skeleton, she recalled the Dimensional Rift that had recently occurred in the Dragon Nation, where a Sakura Nation citizen had summoned a skeletal arm. She was certain this was the same entity; the only difference was that only the arm had been summoned at the school, while this was the creature's complete form.
The skeleton strolled leisurely through the Capital as if taking a walk. Whether it was her imagination or not, Firefly thought she saw countless translucent wisps drifting skyward, converging around the skeleton, and then vanishing.
Conversely, the massive cracks in the skeleton's ancient armor were slowly fading.
"Is this thing growing stronger by draining the lives of the city's civilians?" Firefly frowned deeply. She plummeted rapidly, activating her Secondary Combustion State mid-descent. Within seconds, she landed on the skeleton's head, blocking its path.
Perched on the skeleton's hand was none other than Director Fujiwara of the Sakura Nation. He stared in astonishment at the suddenly materialized silver mecha, then quickly regained his composure, feigning surprise. "You're... SAM?! What are you doing here?"
Firefly ignored his question, retorting in a cold, mechanical voice, "Did you do this to the city? Is this all your doing?"
To her surprise, Fujiwara answered instantly, "Of course not! I have nothing to do with this."
And Fujiwara was telling the truth. The current state of the Capital was genuinely not his doing.
The root of the problem lay with the 1.5 million civilians who had been dragged into the Dimensional Rift. After the initial excitement of "transmigrating to another world," their enthusiasm quickly turned to despair as they realized they had no way to feed themselves. Before the first day even ended, they were already worrying about how to find food.
Some Sakura Nation citizens tried to obtain quests from the local NPCs, but the vast majority were rejected. After all, these were ordinary civilians—where would they get "quests"?
Others directly begged the NPCs for food, but nearly all of these attempts failed. The historical setting implied that commoners were far from wealthy; they struggled to feed themselves, so why would they give food to strangers?
Of course, there were scattered attempts to find other solutions, but nearly all ended in failure. The vast majority of Sakura Nation citizens went to bed hungry on their first day.
By the second day, hunger had driven some to madness.
Just as treasure chests in NPCs' homes exist for the Hero to open, weren't the city's NPCs supposed to serve the Players? All these Players wanted was a meal—how dare the NPCs refuse?
Violence erupted. Some Sakura Nation citizens looted the locals' belongings, while others seized their homes. A few "Players" even murdered several "NPCs."
The massive influx of people had long since crippled the city's security system. With no Guards to maintain order or intervene, other Sakura Nation citizens saw that killing NPCs went unpunished and eagerly joined in.
The chaos erupted in an instant. Three days later, Firefly witnessed the scene before her: tens of thousands of people dying in gruesome ways, their blood staining the rivers crimson.
To put it in perspective, imagine dropping just 100,000 Players into Los Santos from [ Grand Theft Auto V ]. How long would it take for that city to descend into ruins?
At its core, the people of Sakura Nation simply didn't see these NPCs as human beings.
After patiently explaining everything to Firefly, Fujiwara casually remarked, "As for me, I just came out for a stroll after this tragedy. It would be a waste to let all those souls go unused, wouldn't it? Might as well put them to good use."
His tone was flippant, utterly devoid of remorse. It was as if someone had let their dog off-leash, the dog had mauled a passerby to death, and the owner, instead of feeling guilt, had dragged the corpse home to cook and eat.
Fujiwara shrugged. "After all, this is just a Dimensional Rift. Does any of this truly matter? Speaking of which, SAM, you seem awfully keen on resolving these rifts. Perhaps we could strike a deal... if..."
Before he could finish, a swift kick sent him flying.
BHF-Heavenly Fire!