"Hey, are you completely ignoring us?" One of the knife-wielding men beside Ruben noticed Ryan, who was focused on sorting through the spoils, and immediately shouted angrily.
Ruben's expression darkened even further. Upon noticing Candy's corpse lying on the ground, his already grim face seemed like it could almost drip with water.
"Hey, this should have been our loot, Ryan. You've ruined our plans twice now." Ruben said, his voice filled with menace, gripping the crossbow even tighter.
"Oh, really? Ruined your plans twice? I take great pride in that." Ryan finally straightened up at this point, calmly regarding the group before him.
His eyes seemed to suggest that he didn't regard these uninvited guests at all.
This attitude left Ruben and the others somewhat stunned.
"What's going on? This guy is a bit too calm, isn't he?" Ruben's face showed confusion, he had already aimed his crossbow directly at Ryan's head.
All he needed to do was twitch a finger to take Ryan's life, and he simply couldn't believe that the other party could be so composed in this situation.
They had dealt with people before, and without exception, those guys were scared to the point of wetting their pants before they died.
"Is it really necessary for you to pull out that crossbow? It's just embarrassing." Ryan said, shaking his head in disdain.
He could tell at a glance that Ruben's crossbow was of poor quality and showed signs of multiple uses. Not to mention that this crossbow was completely outclassed by Leo's compound bow, even Ruben's archery skills lagged behind Leo's.
However, looking at Ryan shaking his head, Ruben let out a cold laugh. "Ha ha, are you scared stiff? Jealous of my great weapon? Let me tell you, I painstakingly acquired the blueprints for this crossbow and then crafted it myself."
One of the lackeys chimed in, "That's right! Ruben's crossbow is probably owned by no more than ten players out of a thousand."
Hearing this, Ryan was somewhat surprised. It made sense—blueprints were hard to come by, and weapon blueprints were even rarer. Those who obtained them usually kept them hidden away. Most players were still struggling to meet their basic needs and didn't have any impressive weapons.
Most players were still using hunting knives, and if it weren't for Ryan's promotion, they might not even be able to afford those!
So, the crossbow indeed counted as a rare high-end item. It was no wonder that Ruben and his crew were so proud of it. Moreover, it was obvious that only Ruben in this group had a crossbow.
"In front of this crossbow, you have no ability to resist. Alright, I don't want to waste my breath with you!" Ruben placed his hand on the crossbow, ready to fire. He aimed at Ryan's head. "Since you've taken so much from us, now it's time for you to give it all back!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Ruben suddenly released the shot, the arrow flying toward Ryan's head at an astonishing speed. But in the next moment, an incredible scene unfolded once again.
The arrow, fast as lightning, seemed to slow down several times in Ryan's eyes, and his body felt much more agile. Although he couldn't afford to be careless about the incoming arrow.
Dodging it was not difficult at all—almost as easy as catching a baseball.
"Whoosh!" Ryan leaped aside, easily avoiding the arrow with apparent ease.
"What!?" Ruben and the others widened their eyes, their eyelids twitching violently.
"How could he dodge at such a distance? Honestly, I didn't even see the kid's movement just now. Did any of you catch it?" Ruben furrowed his brow tightly.
However, the people around him also shook their heads, it was simply too fast, too quick for their eyes to catch.
They found Ryan to be extremely strange, almost inhuman, and even questioned if with his reflexes, he could dodge bullets. This was completely beyond their expectations.
In fact, it wasn't just them, even Ryan himself was a bit surprised.
"My body is already beyond the ordinary." he thought. "But I'll get the hang of it soon." A smirk crept onto his lips, and then he decisively spoke, "Alright, I've had enough fun, let's finish this quickly."
With that, he pulled out the makeshift shotgun he had temporarily stashed away in his backpack.
He then aimed the shotgun at Ruben's head.
"Click." The sound of the chamber being readied echoed.
The moment Ryan drew the shotgun, the air seemed to fall into a deadly silence. Ruben and the others immediately widened their eyes, collectively gasping in shock.
Even the air felt momentarily stagnant!
"A gun! This is impossible! How do you have a gun!?" Ruben was completely stunned.
Ryan remained silent, his only response was the crisp, decisive sound of gunfire.
"Bang!" Flames erupted from the muzzle as a man next to Ruben, holding a wooden stick, was instantly shot in the chest, collapsing backward, dead!
"What, brother!?" The others immediately panicked, their faces stripped of the arrogance they once had.
In front of a gun, all lives are equal!
In reality, Ryan's makeshift shotgun had poor performance in every aspect, almost a relic from World War I, but its only advantage was its immense power.
Moreover, facing Ruben and his group, who were still using crossbows, it was definitely a dimensional strike!
"Bang!" The gun fired again, killing a man wearing sunglasses next to Ruben, and then another shot took out a guy wielding a machete.
Soon, among the fierce group that had come here, only the last one, Ruben, was still alive.
Ruben stood in the midst of his brothers' corpses, feeling his legs tremble. His grip on the crossbow was weak, and he couldn't even aim at Ryan anymore.
He was actually trying to fight an opponent with a gun using just a crossbow, at that moment, Ruben felt like a ridiculous clown.
Ryan looked at his trembling and panicked demeanor, a cold smile spreading across his face. "What's the matter? Mr. Assassin, weren't you sent by your boss to kill me? Is this all the professionalism you have?"
Ruben swallowed hard, gritting his teeth as he tried to fire the crossbow again. But just as he made a move, "Bang!" Ryan shattered one of his hands.
"Ah!" Ruben let out a sharp scream, dropping to one knee, his crossbow clattering to the ground.
Ryan walked over, slamming the butt of the gun down to knock him to the floor, and coldly asked, "Where's your boss? How many of you are there? Why did you organize as soon as the game started? Speak up!"
Feeling the cold muzzle against him, Ruben trembled all over, but he gritted his teeth, refusing to easily betray his organization.
"Bang!" Ryan showed no mercy, shattering one of his feet. Accompanied by a wretched howl, bones and blood splattered into the air.
Ryan aimed the gun at Ruben's head. "Speak fast, my patience is limited. Next time, it'll be your head that blows up!"
Faced with such a threat, Ruben finally opened his mouth. He stammered, "I'll tell you! Our boss is called Black Snake, and there are more than twenty people in our organization. Actually, we were already a gang before we entered this game."
Ruben clutched his injured foot while continuing to grit his teeth, saying, "Since we were a gang, we stuck together after entering the game, which allowed us to quickly gain an advantage in both resources and power. When we discovered snow blindness, we planned to make a fortune selling goggles, but your appearance angered our boss..."
Ryan narrowed his eyes. "So your boss sent you bunch of worthless fools to kill me? I'll ask you again, where is your boss right now? And where's your truck?"
Since these guys came with the intention of ambushing him, they definitely wouldn't have driven the truck right up, that would have made too much noise.
Ryan figured they must have parked the truck not far away, likely with accomplices watching it. Thinking about the fact that their organization had over twenty people made Ryan a bit uneasy.
Why were there only five of them in front of him now?
Suddenly, an alarm went off in Ryan's mind. "Wait a minute, where are Leo and Buddy? I sent them to observe the situation nearby, they couldn't have missed the fight happening here!"