[Warning, violator, you have killed a survivor. Commencing elimination...]
[X-class talent detected. Elimination failed...]
Qi Suian ignored the warning, his expression turning grim.
'She got that lucky? I only killed one of them.' Qi Suian had come here to kill the two Lucky Sister Flowers. As for the reincarnator's three Holy Widows, he'd already sent them on their way long ago. 'Gone in a flash' wasn't just an expression.
However, that last overloaded Plasma Bomb had only hit the younger of the two sisters. The older one had actually managed to escape with her life.
She clearly hadn't sensed it in advance, and the blast radius of an overloaded Plasma Cannon was nothing to sneeze at. The only way she could have survived was through sheer luck.
"How long on the cooldown?" Qi Suian asked.
After killing the younger sister, Qi Suian could feel that he had gained something intangible, but it was only half of the whole, so it couldn't take full effect.
He guessed it was because the protagonist halo had been split between the two sisters. Since Qi Suian had only killed one, his Celestial Fate: Profound hadn't received its complete enhancement.
[One minute required. Close-quarters combat is not recommended. Prioritize stealth and tracking. Attack after the cooldown is complete.]
[Enemy is armed with a weapon capable of piercing your armor. Based on available data, it is preliminarily identified as a Clock 17 model pistol.]
'As expected, a protagonist halo really is something else. Even without a reincarnator's foreknowledge, this level of luck is not to be underestimated.'
The Tai Sui God's armor value was nowhere near high enough to block a pistol round.
Its low initial armor rating was something Qi Suian had always criticized about this SSS-rank armor.
It went without saying that a single point of armor couldn't stop a bullet, so taking a direct hit would be a huge problem.
Even ten years from now, firearms would still hold a dominant position among survivor groups. They were convenient, long-ranged, and powerful, and the skills required were less difficult to master than various Extraordinary abilities. Naturally, they were favored by survivors.
Of course, this was true for low-to-mid-tier survivors. The top-tier ones were a different story entirely.
"Do you think she's spotted us?" Qi Suian suddenly asked.
[Based on data projections, the probability of the enemy having detected...]
The AI hadn't even finished speaking when a loud BANG echoed out.
A bullet grazed past the Tai Sui God, leaving a score mark on the armor. At the same time, nanite repair bots swarmed to the location and began fixing the damage.
"Your data is indeed accurate, but it didn't account for the luck factor."
'Good thing her protagonist halo isn't as strong as mine.'
The enemy's protagonist halo was only at half strength, which was why the bullet had only grazed Qi Suian's Tai Sui Divine Armor instead of scoring a direct hit.
It was as if her attack came, but Qi Suian's luck allowed him to dodge it.
This was only natural. After all, Qi Suian's Celestial Fate: Profound was at Enhancement +1; how could she possibly compare?
[Predicting luck-based factors creates excessive computational load. The Tai Sui God's systems are insufficient to support the calculations.]
The AI's response was basically saying it wasn't its fault; the Tai Sui God simply wasn't powerful enough to handle it.
"It's fine. My luck is good, too. Forget the cooldown and fire now. Use overload mode, and don't worry about it blowing up!" Qi Suian said without a moment's hesitation.
At a time like this, with the enemy's protagonist halo kicking in, if he didn't act immediately... with over thirty seconds still on the clock, who knew what kind of accident might happen.
This was already a case of two rookies pecking at each other; losing the initiative would make things even more troublesome.
The AI didn't issue a warning. Instead, it unhesitatingly complied with Qi Suian's command.
Its previous misjudgment, combined with Qi Suian's successful prediction, led the AI's logic processors to accept Qi Suian's theory about luck.
Naturally, it was time to act decisively.
Arcs of electricity already crackled around the still-hot Plasma Cannon. As it was forced into overload once more, the effect became even more terrifying, and it began to produce a strange noise.
If it exploded, the Tai Sui God's armor would definitely be unable to withstand the plasma shockwave from the cannon's rupture.
At that point, the AI unhesitatingly launched the Plasma Bomb while simultaneously using energy from the Supernova Strong Nuclear Reactor to perform a secondary cooling procedure, preventing damage to the Plasma Cannon.
"NO!!!"
A sharp female voice shrieked. She had clearly seen the Plasma Cannon powering up, but just because she saw it didn't mean she could dodge it.
She could only watch helplessly as the enormous Plasma Bomb swallowed her whole, leaving her utterly and completely dead.
[Warning...]
The Apocalypse Game's "Warning" and "Elimination" prompts appeared right on cue, but they had no effect on Qi Suian.
With the death of the Lucky Sister Flowers, that intangible feeling was finally made whole.
Qi Suian opened his status panel and saw that his Celestial Fate: Profound had indeed been upgraded to Enhancement +2.
[Enhancement +2: Strong Luck]
He wasn't yet sure how to utilize the reincarnator's super adaptability, but for Qi Suian, this Strong Luck was like adding wings to a tiger.
'It seems their protagonist halo was primarily focused on luck.'
'There really are different types of protagonist halos, each with its own specialization.'
Thinking about it, the three protagonists were all different: the reincarnator's foreknowledge, the Lucky Sister Flowers' luck, and Qi Suian's own virus.
Of course, they all shared a baseline of impressive fortune, along with effects like turning misfortune into blessings, but the strength of these effects varied depending on their halo's specialization.
For example, if Qi Suian were to compete with the Lucky Sister Flowers in terms of pure luck, he would have surely lost if not for the fact that his protagonist halo was native to this world and thus received its blessing.
Furthermore, their protagonist halo had been split in two, which had tragically weakened it. If it had been concentrated in a single person, killing them wouldn't have been so easy.
"I just wonder if there are any other protagonists in this Apocalypse Game." Qi Suian's eyes narrowed. By killing a protagonist and plundering their halo, he could gain extra enhancements for his own.
Every enhancement was a powerful boost for Qi Suian, especially since they were passive effects that would remain active and stay with him for life.
How could a protagonist halo ever become obsolete?
Once a talent reached S-class or higher, there was basically no chance of it ever being outclassed.
"Time to loot the corpse... well, hopefully something was left behind." Qi Suian glanced at the devastation nearby. The Lucky Sister Flowers, just like that Mutated Zombie from before, had been completely obliterated, not even bones remaining.
Besides, since he had killed a survivor as a "violator," the Apocalypse Game definitely wouldn't drop any items.
That's right, if a survivor killed another survivor, there was a chance for items to drop from their body. However, because the drop rates in the Apocalypse Game were so low, most survivors didn't have anything good on them anyway.