Ultimately, I never saw the labyrinth’s entrance. I figured going there would be a waste of time, as other adventurers would likely be there hunting glass wolves. I exited the forest and returned to the highway, heading toward Balga.
“Today’s hunt taught me that elimination quests take too long searching for targets.”
Were this a game, I could have simply circled a small map to hunt the target enemies. This was reality, though, so hunting prey required specialized knowledge. I didn’t know how to actually hunt animals living in the forest—or rather, living beings in the natural world. For glass wolves, I needed to research their ecology, range, and behavior patterns.
“Being an adventurer is a challenging profession. It’s not enough to just defeat glass wolves. And what about the labyrinth?” I muttered aloud to myself as I walked. “There, knowledge of specific hunting methods for the ecology or natural environment wouldn’t apply. I might need to learn labyrinth-specific knowledge.”
I continued along the highway, pondering my future quests and whether they would be elimination quests. I faintly heard glass wolves running alongside a carriage.
I looked toward the source of the sound and saw a carriage approaching from the royal capital, almost five hundred and fifty yards away. The sound of the glass wolves was further behind.
“Is that traveling carriage under attack?”
It seemed my first quest wasn’t quite over yet.
“Hey! You! The adventurer over there! Run!” The driver shouted at me as the carriage approached. He was a chubby, older man with five glass wolves chasing his carriage. One of them had footsteps that sounded different—it hit the ground with a particularly powerful thud.
“Keep moving!” I shouted back. I aimed the MP5A4 and knelt to observe the rear of the carriage. There, I saw a creature larger than the glass wolves. Was it a higher-ranked species?
“Be careful! It’s a dire glass wolf!” the carriage driver shouted as he passed me by.
A dire glass wolf? So it really was a higher-ranked species. Its body was bigger than a regular glass wolf at six and a half feet long. I switched the safety to three-round burst and fired at the leading glass wolf.
“Yelp!”
It gave a dog-like cry I didn’t expect to come from something as huge as the glass wolf. It rolled over and stopped moving. The dire glass wolf howled at seeing its fallen kin. This caused the other four wolves to forget chasing the carriage and change their focus to me. They spread out from the highway to start encircling me.
My gun primarily offered linear attacks on single targets. I would clearly be at a disadvantage if I was surrounded. I darted to the right toward the glass wolves and evaded their enclosure. They regrouped and followed suit after me.
While running, I aimed the crosshair at the nearest glass wolf. I fired from the hip in a style known as Hip Fire, releasing the trigger once, then again. The first shot missed entirely. After a slight adjustment, the second shot landed and tumbled a wolf. Even so, the glass wolves were faster than me.
Although my powered suit enhanced my leg strength beyond the standards of this world, it couldn’t make me outrun wolf-like creatures. The dire glass wolf maintained its distance and observed the hunt. It was the remaining three wolves who closed in ready to leap and bite.
Glancing back at the three wolves behind me, I utilized the powered suit’s capabilities for high-mobility maneuvers and quickly stepped to the left. I then used the step’s momentum to jump forward and turn back. Airborne, I switched the safety to full auto, aimed the crosshair at the approaching glass wolves, and shot.
The continuous gunfire roared while the bullets transformed from points to lines and engulfed two glass wolves at once. Right when I landed, I bounced forward to the right and jumped again. I turned my gaze left to encircle the remaining glass wolf with the crosshair. I pulled the trigger decisively.
“I might just pull this off after all,” I muttered. All this action confirmed that I could rely on the jump technique I used in the VMB game and use it in this reality. This jump, known in various FPS titles as an Accelerated Jump or Circle Jump, was most effectively executed as a Strafe Jump. What I just replicated here could be called a Strafe Jump. It utilized viewpoint movement and game mechanics to accelerate movement speed, allowing for faster and longer jumps. This high-mobility move was a step in VMB’s evolution beyond mere shootouts. It created close-range firefights where bullets were dodged, evaded, and sometimes jumped over to engage the enemy.
With the five glass wolves defeated, I reloaded the gun while keeping an eye on the dire glass wolf. The discarded magazine turned into particles of light before hitting the ground. With its five companions dead, the dire glass wolf glared at me with wide-open eyes. It bared its large fangs, and its fur bristled.
I knew I should attack first while there was distance, so I took a standing shooting stance, aimed down the sights, and fired about five rounds in full auto. The beast leapt sideways, evading the shots.
Right, higher-ranked species can dodge attacks...
Shooting from the front at long range should be avoided. I needed to disrupt its stance or exploit an opening. As I stepped forward to advance, the dire glass wolf opened its large mouth wider and aimed a roar-like attack at me.
“Oh, no!”
Its mouth glowed faintly green and unleashed a magic-infused roar toward me.
Vooooooon.
I dove sideways and rolled away just in time to avoid the attack. Upon regaining my stance, I saw the dire glass wolf charge at me. I returned to a crouch, but the beast closed in, its right claw ready to strike.
“Whoa!”
I swung my left arm and held the MP5A4’s grip to deflect the dire glass wolf’s advance. I simultaneously pressed the button at the base of my glove’s index finger. This activated another VMB element that extended beyond long-range shootouts: the Circle Barrier Shield.
This shield had a diameter equal to the length of both arms, elbow to elbow when fists are pressed together. It was an energy-consuming round barrier shield capable of blocking all attacks within VMB’s game environment. Continuous deployment quickly depleted its energy, and it required either a cooldown period for energy recovery, or using a bunch of Crystal Points to replenish it. That’s why it was common in VMB to deploy the shield in small increments. This would block unavoidable shots, while using jump techniques to dodge and prevent hits.
The dire glass wolf was confused by what happened. Its right claw was deflected by the faintly glowing, translucent circular shield that appeared on the outside of my left arm. In VMB’s PvE mode, deflecting close-range attacks with CBS and shooting when the opponent’s stance was disrupted was a standard counteraction. I couldn’t miss the opening this standard action created.
“Too easy!”