Invincible through Touching Corpses-Chapter 79 - 78: The Final Ranking
As Lin Xinghai closed his eyes to rest, the area instantly fell silent. No one dared to disturb him.
After all, this was the critical moment that would determine whether or not he could enter the top three on the shooting leaderboard.
If their interruption caused Lin Xinghai to underperform, no one dared to face the wrath of a Divine Sharpshooter.
So, everyone could only stand aside and wait quietly. Of course, there was an exception. Zhang Meiling was currently busy massaging Lin Xinghai’s arm.
The others watched with envy. If Lin Xinghai managed to achieve a good score, the favor she was earning could be a minor one—or it could be a major one. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮
But they could only be envious. In this apocalyptic world, who would even bother to learn such a skill?
Ten minutes passed quickly. Though it wasn’t long, it was enough for Lin Xinghai’s taut nerves to relax.
He moved his arm and found that Zhang Meiling’s massage technique was quite good; the slight soreness he had felt was completely gone.
He nodded at Zhang Meiling, then picked up his Tearing Rifle. Listening to the countdown, he gradually entered his shooting state.
Watching from the side, Zhang Meiling saw Lin Xinghai’s nod. If not for the tense atmosphere, she almost would have screamed with excitement.
’I knew it,’ she thought. ’My efforts to curry favor really paid off.’
Perhaps this small favor today could help her solve a big problem in the future.
Listening to the countdown, Lin Xinghai also glanced at the newly refreshed progress bar for Level 5 on the light screen.
Third place was at 21%, and second place was at 38%. As for first place, just as Zhuang Qiao had said, it was at 76% on the progress bar.
"Looks like there’s a pretty big gap between second and third place and first place," Lin Xinghai couldn’t help but mutter.
"...3, 2, 1, begin!"
As the system countdown was about to end, Lin Xinghai went ahead and released his Perception Power.
SWISH!
Before the iron ball even flew out of the firing port, Lin Xinghai had already vaguely perceived it.
’The size hasn’t changed! But the Speed has increased.’ Lin Xinghai made the judgment almost instantly.
With the help of his Perception Power, he no longer had to worry about being caught off guard. Even if the difficulty increased, he would know what to expect.
BANG!
The bullet accurately struck the iron ball.
But this was just the beginning. The second and third iron balls immediately flew out from the other firing ports.
Overall, there were no new tricks compared to Level 4.
The only change was that the Speed at which the iron balls were fired was constantly increasing.
This increase in Speed had happened in every previous level and was nothing special compared to the other changes.
However, in the context of Level 5, it was completely different.
The Speed was increasing from the foundation of Level 4, where the iron balls only took 0.5 seconds to travel from the firing port to the ground.
That Speed was already pushing the limits.
Now, to increase the Speed on top of that limit...
Lin Xinghai’s expression grew more and more solemn. He realized that when the time from the firing port to the ground shortened to just 0.4 seconds, he was gradually unable to keep up.
Yet the Speed of the iron balls continued to increase. When it reached 0.3 seconds, beads of sweat had already formed on Lin Xinghai’s forehead.
He had been going all out from the very beginning, so at first, he had always aimed to hit the iron balls the moment they left the firing port.
But as the Speed of the iron balls increased, the point where he hit them was slowly getting lower.
By only the 15th iron ball, he could barely manage to hit it just before it struck the ground.
Lin Xinghai knew very well that this wasn’t an issue with his technique. Rather, his body’s reaction Speed couldn’t keep up with the Speed of his thoughts.
There were only two ways to solve this problem. First, he could use the system to forcibly increase his strength. If his Genetic Optimization Level went up, his physical attributes would naturally improve as well.
He wouldn’t even need to raise it by much. Just increasing his Genetic Optimization Level to 40% would be enough to solve the current problem.
’But the system explicitly warned that a forced increase could leave behind hidden dangers. And even if there were no hidden dangers, if my Perception Power stopped increasing after the forced enhancement, that would be a huge loss for me!’
This thought merely flickered through his mind before he immediately dismissed it.
The second method was even simpler and came with no hidden dangers: wielding two guns, just as he had when dealing with the Blood Demon.
With the aid of his Perception Power, even if dual-wielding lowered his accuracy, he should still be able to hit these iron balls.
But it was definitely too late to grab another gun now. His only option would be to request a new attempt from the beginning.
However, after some thought, Lin Xinghai rejected that idea as well.
It wasn’t that he found it troublesome.
If he were to sweep the leaderboard and become the First Divine Sharpshooter of the entire Star Shield Shelter, he would be put under a spotlight, attracting everyone’s attention.
At that point, anyone with a bit of pull would be able to find out that he had only entered the Star Shield Shelter three days ago, and he wasn’t even one of the Optimized back then.
So how did he go from a complete rookie to the First Divine Sharpshooter in just three days?
Although he had already concocted a cover story, he couldn’t just treat everyone like an idiot.
Perhaps a squad leader like Fang Tianhe wouldn’t dig too deep, but there would always be someone who wanted to. Some might even let their imaginations run wild.
Therefore, he didn’t plan on sweeping the leaderboard just yet. Taking second place, at least, wouldn’t cause such a sensation.
This way, the time it would take for the news to brew and spread throughout the Mercenary Guild would also be extended. An extension of even one or two days would be enough for his strength to improve significantly.
Thinking of this, his mindset relaxed considerably. He then decided to use a makeshift solution he had thought of earlier.
Lin Xinghai had a very clear understanding of the situation. He knew he would reach his limit after hitting just two more iron balls.
So, after firing two more shots, he unhesitatingly gave up on the next iron ball that flew out.
He used that brief 0.3 seconds to readjust, re-aiming his muzzle at the firing port above and waiting for the next iron ball to appear.
The crowd, watching nervously from the side, felt their hearts tighten when they saw Lin Xinghai suddenly miss an iron ball.
On the light screen nearby, the first mistake was instantly displayed.
But the consecutive mistakes they were worried about did not happen.
Lin Xinghai seamlessly transitioned to the next iron ball.
Moreover, his progress quickly surpassed 21%, and his temporary ranking on the light screen changed to 3rd place. He had broken into the top three.
Everyone’s hearts were pounding, but they all subconsciously held their breath, as if afraid that even the sound of their breathing would disturb Lin Xinghai.
Next, when the progress bar reached 35%, Lin Xinghai made another mistake.
This time, everyone could see that Lin Xinghai had intentionally given up on that iron ball to readjust.
This was undoubtedly an excellent strategy. After this second adjustment, he successfully surpassed the 2nd place score and began his charge toward the first-place throne.
However, at this moment, Lin Xinghai had truly reached his limit, and the difficulty of Level 5 was still increasing.
In the end, his run concluded with his third mistake. With one of those misses being a strategic pause to readjust, his score was finalized at 67% for Level 5, making him the second-ranked Divine Sharpshooter on the leaderboard.
