51: Chapter 42 Minerva Nas 51: Chapter 42 Minerva Nas Although the competition stage was bright and glamorous, the daily training of professional players was quite monotonous.

Among these, the training camp for “laying the foundation” was the most so, essentially turning a person into a “fighting machine.”

In the early days of establishing the esports circle, the prerequisites for joining an active team were: a reaction speed within 0.2 seconds, a positioning error within 3 centimeters, and an attack landing error within 1.5 centimeters.

In other words, if a wooden dummy was generated by a program in front of you with a red dot at the chest’s heart position, you had to unsheathe your sword within 0.2 seconds and precisely stab the red dot at the heart location, with an error not exceeding 1.5 centimeters.

To reach this standard, at least tens of thousands of hours of practice time were needed.

The process was not at all fun but torturous.

Thus, the difference between esports players and professional gamers is that the former do not just play games.

They work.

“I can’t do it anymore!” Medea said as she fell to the ground after being knocked down by another of Aske’s Lion’s Fangs.

She threw her longsword aside and collapsed on the floor, wailing, “I really have no energy left…

I can’t fight anymore…”

With a clang, Aske’s longsword struck the ground in front of her, “If this were a real battlefield…”

“Then I would be dead!

Dead!” Medea wailed in despair, “Okay if I die?

Even if I’m dead, I don’t have the energy to move anymore!

Are you even human, battering me for half an hour, how can my body take it!”

“Don’t talk dirty.” Aske’s expression darkened, “It’s just a few sparring sessions, right?

And I’ve been hitting you with the flat of the blade…”

“It’s not a few, it’s hundreds, brother!” Medea cried with tears streaming down her face, “Your sword is thick and hard, and it has beaten my frail body black and blue!

I feel like I’m going to die!”

“I said, no dirty jokes!” Aske, seeing the strange looks from the girls around, could only cough awkwardly.

“Let’s do this, I’ll go out and see if there’s anyone suitable we can recruit, meantime take care of everyone’s training for me, the Tactical Eight Forms, everyone practices each form 1000 times, no one gets left out.”

“Can I use Mind Power?” Medea asked.

“Fine,” Aske pondered for a moment, “but don’t overdo it.”

“Okay.” Medea nodded and activated a group Mind Suggestion.

Immediately, the surrounding girls felt a surge of motivation, as if they had boundless energy.

“Hey hey, Medea, are you using Mind Suggestion?” Nora was the first to sense something was off.

She originally disliked all this fighting and killing, but now she suddenly found herself filled with the desire to practice swordsmanship.

“Lend me the book, I’ll be back in a moment,” Aske told her.

“Okay.” Nora took out “Absurd Dreams” from her bag and handed it back to Aske.

Aske unfolded his Spirituality and reached for the door, quickly returning to the Real Plane.

Leaving his ancestral home, he stood on the stone steps outside, pondering his next move.

There were two positions left to recruit for: one was a long-range gunman, and the other was an Arcane Mage.

Relatively speaking, the team currently had a greater need for a long-range gunman, because Arcane Mages were used to deal with creatures with high physical defense, which after all, were in the minority; Medea, with her Flame I Ability, could also temporarily fill in as a mage.

Aske’s weapon of choice was a handgun, only useful at close range as a stopgap gunman; at longer distances, the handgun’s accuracy was insufficient.

In modern-day Constantinople, there were four quests featuring potentially recruitable NPC gunmen: three male NPCs and one female NPC.

If judging from the perspectives of malleability and future potential, this sole female NPC gunman actually turned out to be the best—during the initial public testing phase, players had treated her like a field boss and killed her.

After the Seljuk Empire conquered Constantinople, she was resurrected by some Undead Wizard.

Reborn as a Banshee, she renamed herself “Minerva,” a name belonging to the war goddess of Ancient Solomon who punished evildoers.

However, the players affectionately dubbed her “Minerva Nas,” in homage to Sylvanas from the famous last-century game “World of Warcraft.”

In reality, Minerva Nas was far more formidable than Queen Sylvanas because, after all, a queen could only use a bow and arrow, and thus couldn’t possibly have an exaggerated rate of fire.

Minerva Nas wielded an automatic rifle…

In the official Version 1, when the Seljuk folk besieged Sirius Province, Minerva Nas alone killed more than 3000 players in the Kisnos battle.

According to the players who participated in the war, Minerva Nas’s arrival was marked by the relentless rattle of gunfire, followed by players falling like dominoes.

All the players she shot had been hit in the head, the bullets piercing the skulls without leaving a second hole.

Another person might have preferred to recruit one of the other male NPC gunmen, to balance the gender ratio within the team…

But then again, Aske had no bias against women, everything was determined by ability.

He would find this Minerva Nas.

He remembered from his past life that Minerva Nas’s task appeared the day after the two princes ascended the throne, which was today.

So, relying on his memories of past forum battle reports, Aske took the subway to the Golden Gate station and got off.

Walking a few hundred meters in the direction of Seventh Mountain, he saw that the road leading uphill was now cordoned off by the Constantinople Police Department.

Three officers stood in front of the barricade, warily observing the passersby.

“Hey!

You there, you can’t go any further!” Noticing Aske’s approach, a police officer immediately warned.

“What’s happened, officer?” Aske asked casually.

“Nothing serious.” Another officer said, “An underage girl shot and killed a noble, and now she’s running wild in the mountains.

Our colleagues are inside chasing her, and if someone carelessly enters…

they won’t be too happy.”

“Killed a noble?” Aske raised his eyebrows, “I imagine the victim’s family would be willing to pay a large sum of money.”

“That they would,” the officer laughed, “50 pounds, the bounty offered by the noble’s father, so many mercenaries have already gone in too.”

“Aren’t you stopping them?” Aske asked.

“Stopping them?

Of course.” The officer sighed, “But Seventh Mountain is so big, we can’t possibly surround the whole mountain with a blockade.

Now, if you’re not planning to breach our defense line, you can turn around and go back.”

Aske turned and took a different direction into the mountain.

As the officer had just mentioned, they could only blockade the main roads, and if a player wanted to sneak into the bushes, they definitely couldn’t stop them.

Passing through the dense underbrush, Aske soon found a small path.

After trekking for about half an hour, he finally found a torn ribbon on the bushes at the edge of a knoll.

In a past life, a player who came here had raised a dog in the game.

Using the dog’s keen sense of smell, that player was the first to locate Minerva Nas who had fled into the mountains, and, unsurprisingly, was shot dead on the spot.

Even as a living underage girl, Minerva Nas still demonstrated an extremely high shooting talent, according to that player, who said he was shot in the head on the spot, not even having time to take a screenshot.

However, Minerva Nas was unaware of the player’s respawn function, making this act of silencing utterly meaningless, and soon her coordinates were released on the forum, and in the end, she was piled to death by the players who rushed over after hearing the news.

Aske continued forward, took a wrong turn twice along the way, but luckily recognized and looped back each time.

Between a few trees, he found the bodies of three police officers, still holding their service firearms they hadn’t managed to shoot, with full magazines.

All shot between the brows, dead with a single blow.

This accuracy…

Aske clicked his tongue in wonder, it was hard to imagine such a shot could be made by a level 0 girl with no extraordinary abilities.

If the game system had NPC skill levels, Minerva’s spear technique would certainly be maxed out without a doubt.

Not far from the bodies, he saw several small footprints, clearly left by the little girl.

Obviously, Minerva Nas did not know how to erase her tracks at that time, so Aske followed the traces onward again.

After a ten-minute walk, he found two more dead mercenaries, still with bullets through their brows, killed with a single shot.

In the following exploration, the succession of bodies was almost like road signs, marking the boss’s location for Aske every so often.

By the time he counted the twenty-seventh body, he knew the other party’s bullets were running low.

After all, the girl was still naive, not thinking to collect bullets from the bodies.

How long could one magazine last?

Coming to a mountain stream, Aske saw the upstream water stained red, as if someone was washing a wound not far away.

He drew his longsword, rounded the corner, and suddenly swung his sword upward with great speed.

With a “ding,” he deflected the bullet aimed straight at his brow.

Aske charged forward at full speed, only to see a petite figure seated by the brook, hands steady on a handgun as she aimed in his direction, her calm eyes focused and devoid of any stray thoughts.

Another gunshot rang out, Aske lifted his longsword, and once again he sliced the bullet heading toward him in two.

Now at level 2, his physical power could completely keep up with the speed of handgun bullets.

A third gunshot sounded, and Aske performed an Eagle Cut, once again cleanly bisecting the bullet.

Despite missing three shots in a row, the young girl showed no signs of impatience or fear, but calmly reversed the gun barrel and shoved it into her own mouth.

The next second, the handgun was knocked flying by the longsword, spinning as it fell into the creek in the distance.

Aske’s longsword pressed against the girl’s delicate throat, and she was forced to tilt her head back, her gaze still devoid of emotion, merely staring at Aske with composure.

“You’re that eager to die?” Aske asked indifferently.

The girl stared at him, her numb expression finally showing a hint of movement, “Don’t want to die…

but what can I do about it?”

“You could become a mercenary with me,” Aske sheathed his longsword.

“With your marksmanship, you’d have a promising future.”

The girl remained silent for a while before saying, “I killed a noble.”

“What’s your name?” Aske asked.

“Miel.”

“Listen, Miel,” Aske said, “I have a safe place, very secure, where no one can find you, be it the police or the hounds of the nobles.

There, you won’t have to worry about the threat of death.

All you need to do is join my team, serve me, and you’ll be sheltered there.”

He took out a contract from his bag and handed it to her, “Sign it.”

The girl took the contract, her eyebrows imperceptibly furrowing—Aske had knocked her handgun away with his longsword, the force of the blow breaking the bones in her fingers.

Despite the piercing pain in her index finger, she still endured the agony, reading it page by page.

A born cool-headed shooter, Aske thought as he observed her every move.

Names ending in “-el” are a typical naming trait of half-elves.

Just from her appearance, one could tell that Miel had half-elf blood in her.

Her hair was a light shade of pink, her pupils a vibrant emerald green, her features delicate and beautiful, the tips of her ears sharp, and her skin so smooth that pores and fuzz were nearly invisible, traits not typical of pure humans.

However, due to beatings and prolonged fleeing in the mountains, her current state was pitiable to the extreme.

Her hair was a mess, her cheeks filthy, a bruise under her right eye from being hit, the left corner of her mouth streaked with blood and swollen, her clothes torn by tiny twigs in countless places, pieces of fabric clinging close to wounds, stained with filthy blood, mud, and dust, continuing on like this without getting an infection seemed almost impossible.

Having signed the contract and pressed her thumbprint, Aske rolled up the contract with his left hand and grabbed Miel’s arm with his right, extending his Spirituality to reach “Absurd Dream” tucked at his waist, and the two vanished from the spot rapidly.

It took the police forty minutes to arrive at the scene, only to find a small pool of blood on the stones by the creek.