Chapter 9: Halftime

Kamiyu had never tried sniping on a constantly shaking platform before.

The roof of the train car she was lying on kept swaying, and her target, Mohawk, was sprinting at high speed. Shooting at a moving target from an unstable platform—could she even hit him?

She didn’t know, but she believed in her own skills and in her character’s ability. 【Hold Breath】 could increase her Accuracy Rate by 10%.

Don’t underestimate that 10%. If her base accuracy was 50%, adding 10% would make it 60%. From a probability standpoint, that was a significant boost in hit rate.

Moreover, if she was truly unlucky and missed, she wouldn’t hesitate to activate her next skill, 【Headshot Strike】.

It was an all-or-nothing gamble—either Mohawk died, or she would face Death.

Kamiyu had already locked onto Mohawk. By abandoning his “immortal” Terminator form, he was essentially courting his own demise.

Without hesitation, she pulled the Trigger.

Boom!

The muzzle brake of the Anti-Materiel Sniper Rifle erupted with flames, and the 14.5mm high-velocity Armor-Piercing Round shot toward Mohawk’s head at supersonic speed.

Mohawk’s Executioner class passive instantly set off alarm bells in his mind.

Before he could even react, his head was blown off.

Thud, thud-thud-thud, thud-thud. The sound of rolling echoed.

The headless body crashed onto the tracks at high speed, Mohawk’s form continuously scraping, colliding, and twisting against the rails.

That’s just how unreasonable a Signature Sniper could be—instantly obliterating the opponent.

Kamiyu didn’t let her guard down. She maintained her aiming posture, ready to prevent any counterattack.

She also pulled up the game’s Interface Panel and noticed the player count was still 11/12. The opponent wasn’t dead yet.

After a while, the number still hadn’t decreased, and she didn’t receive the reward of 1 Enhancement Point for killing an enemy.

This proved Mohawk was still alive.

“No way… His entire head is gone, and he’s still not dead? Is this for real? How can he not die no matter what? He’s even more disgusting than a cockroach.”

She let out a deep sigh.

Since the opponent wasn’t dead, she had to ride to the terminal station, putting as much distance between them as possible.

Kamiyu reloaded her Ammunition and continued lying on the roof, keeping watch toward the rear of the train.

Back on Mohawk’s side, a corpse riddled with open fractures lay on the tracks, only to be crushed into pieces by the next passing train.

However, Mohawk wasn’t dead yet, still clinging to his last breath.

The Executioner class passive was just too overpowered—every kill granted an extra Life.

Unfortunately, after Kamiyu had painstakingly reduced him to just 2 Lives, another subway train crushed him, costing him another Life, leaving him with only 1 Life remaining.

Sadly, the Curfew had already begun, and subway operations had ceased. No more trains would run over Mohawk’s corpse to completely end his Life.

He was left clinging to survival.

The shattered pieces of Mohawk’s body began to coalesce back into a single form.

Revealing stark white bones, Mohawk now looked like a malevolent ghost, snarling ferociously, “I’m going to kill you.”

Back on Kamiyu’s side.

The train had already stopped at the terminal station.

Over three hours had passed. Kamiyu packed away all her equipment, pretending to be a Normal civilian as she blended into the dispersing crowd.

She followed the large Troops heading toward the surface.

“Three hours in and it’s already reached this point. It seems this game will end very quickly.” Kamiyu browsed news on her phone while walking.

A 12 PM curfew, prohibiting ordinary people from going out, with Armed Police Units entering the city for counter-terrorism.

On Douyin, Kamiyu saw armored vehicles, tanks, drones, and helicopters circling in the sky.

She speculated, “Has someone been captured already? If no one had been caught, the city’s authorities wouldn’t have escalated military presence this quickly.”

Kamiyu thought to herself, the commander of the Armed Police Unit was quite clever. Issuing a curfew order so abruptly and swiftly clearly wasn’t to protect ordinary people—it was to force us game players out into the open.

The commander must have known that game players had to fight each other until only one remained within 72 hours. With the curfew, ordinary people would stay indoors.

Anyone still walking the streets at this moment was highly likely to be a game player. Moreover, since players had to fight each other, they would inevitably cause disturbances.

This would allow the Armed Police Unit to quickly capture them.

“This is bad. The survival space for game players is shrinking. Besides facing life-or-death duels with other players, we also have to deal with the Armed Police Unit.” Kamiyu pressed her lips together tightly.

She didn’t consider herself a good person, but she didn’t want to kill innocents indiscriminately.

However, if anyone stood in her way, she wouldn’t hesitate to shoot. As for where to aim, she was confident she wouldn’t miss.

She had to take responsibility for her own life.

Now, she needed to find a new hiding spot and search for food supplies. She planned to return to her sniper roots, hunkering down completely, sitting securely at the highest point like an angler waiting for fish, ready to shoot wherever targets emerged.

This curfew order from the Armed Police commander might actually be more advantageous for Kamiyu’s sniper playstyle.

Because she could also quickly locate other players and eliminate them from a distance using her sniper rifle and skills.

On the other side, at the Command and Communications Battalion of the Armed Police Tactical Battalion.

A bearded officer wearing a green beret, with a golden star on his shoulder insignia, sat upright at the command console, intently watching high-definition footage transmitted by drones and spy satellites.

“Reporting, Officer. Our special operations squad has captured a terrorist who claims to be a ‘Black Sphere Player,'” a soldier reported.

“Bring him in,” Senior Colonel Hu said solemnly.

Shortly after, a young man, bound tightly, was brought into the command camp, with dozens of guns aimed at him.

This person was one of Huang Kun’s underlings, named Zhang Wei.

“Let me go. I’m here to cooperate with you. Treat me nicely, or I’ll activate my skill and instantly kill all of you,” Zhang Wei arrogantly lifted his head and declared.

“Reporting, Officer. Here is the report on this individual.”

Senior Colonel Hu carefully read the report in his hands. Zhang Wei, a local of Dragon Roar City, 20 years old, a third-year student in the Esports Department of Longming Vocational Technical College.

The report detailed everything about Zhang Wei from yesterday all the way back to his kindergarten days.

Senior Colonel Hu’s expression remained unchanged as he pondered. There was no doubt this person was a native of Dragon Roar City. How could he be connected to the mysterious Black Sphere?

Could it be that the influence of the Black Sphere was beginning to “spill over”?

It turned out the military and higher-ups had long been aware of the Black Sphere’s existence and had established a rapid response force specifically to deal with the Black Sphere Game.

The high command has issued a strict order to the Army: all unstable factors must be completely eliminated.

“I’m warning you seriously once again—release me immediately, or I’ll use a single Skill to reduce you all to ashes,” Zhang Wei said arrogantly.

Senior Colonel Hu replied expressionlessly, “We can cooperate with you, but first, tell us the information about the participants in this game.”

“You know about the Black Sphere Game too?” Zhang Wei widened his eyes in surprise.