Chương 21: Gods Eye

[POV Vincent] Everything was going as planned. Given the responsibility of watching out for that loot thief, the vice captain of the Heavenly Fleet, Vincent, was ecstatic. For once, he wouldn't have to operate those heavy machine guns for hours on end. He'd had a private chat with the vice captain of the Green Ghost Fleet, Irfan, and that guy too was being worked to the bone like him. Otherwise, he wouldn't have minded just switching sides and joining them instead.

But alas, every boss was the same, regardless of the organization. The wind picked up, ruffling his hair. He kept a calm and keen eye over all the positioned snipers stationed around the backside of the fleet. The perpetrator couldn't possibly come from the front, after all, considering the enormous zombie tide their fleet captain had summoned with that Sonic Emitter he'd found, getting anywhere near them from the front would be impossible.

The issue was, despite their recruitment notice posted in the public chat, they hadn't been able to get their hands on many professional snipers. Of the four deployed here, only two were actual professionals who'd served in the military back on Earth. After keeping watch for a while, Vincent leaned his back against the tree trunk and stretched his legs out along the branch he was sitting on. The tree was thick, its branches broad enough for him to rest easily.

He was no sniper—having wielded that death machine of a Gatling gun with infinite bullets and durability, he was about as far from being a sniper as one could get. He'd been stationed here mainly because of his ocular ability. [Unique Skill: Gods Eye] This nifty little skill let him see things exceptionally well. A little too well—for instance, if he wished, he could easily see through the blood mist from which hordes of zombies emerged almost endlessly.

Though he preferred not to, since it tended to give him nasty headaches. The captain had stationed him up here mainly to keep watch for that thief, and to keep an eye on the snipers themselves. Despite being contract-bound, his captain was a paranoid prick. He didn't trust these guys, fearing they might just shoot him dead. Which, in hindsight, wasn't an unreasonable fear.

This place was insane—people were dying by the thousands, and unlike the Green Ghost Fleet, this captain let his members join the regional chats freely and even gave them access to the Survivors Counting panel. Naturally, that also meant they could very well start losing their minds. Of their crewmates, three had already gone insane.

Watching corpses walk around 24/7, fighting, keeping vigilance nonstop, plus witnessing thousands of deaths on the very first night—it tended to do unspeakable things to gentler hearts. They'd had to put them down, since carrying crazies around was a huge liability. For that very reason, the captain had already posted a recruitment notice for anyone with a psychiatrist skill. He wanted his strongest crewmates to go through an hour-long session with one, daily. Again, as mentioned, the guy was extremely paranoid.

Vincent closed his eyes and activated his [God's Eye], but not before glancing over at the sniper to his far right—the one whose vision he wanted to tap into. As the ability took hold, he gained access to what the sniper was seeing. The man's scope was trained on the woods behind them. Just to test his attentiveness, Vincent conjured an illusion of a square in the crosshairs. The sniper hesitated for a second, but like any man handed a hammer, he eventually struck the nail the moment he spotted it.

He shot the squirrel dead without missing a beat, while Vincent conjured up blood and gore to keep the illusion convincing. The ocular ability was insanely versatile, it not only allowed him to tap into another's vision, but also conjure up illusions or just straight up blind them if he so felt like it. He was basically omnipotent when it came to manipulating vision. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Satisfied with his shot, the sniper returned to his usual watch, while Vincent repeated the process with the rest of the snipers, one by one. Just as he finished, he spotted someone walking toward the cliff that overlooked their fleet's battlefield. The sniper who'd caught sight of the probable perpetrator didn't fire immediately, choosing instead to keep watching. Vincent stayed silent too. The figure wore a long robe, face and body fully covered.

Just to make sure it wasn't some decoy sent to distract them, Vincent peered into its vision. Normally, he wouldn't be able to tap into the sight of something dead. But contrary to his expectations, he could actually see through this new figure's eyes. The person walked slowly, almost tentatively, toward the cliff and gazed down at the battlefield below. Vincent immediately tensed. The likely perpetrator extended both hands outward, palms angled toward the zombie horde.

Vincent promptly pulled up the customized regional chat. Sure enough, his teammates were already complaining about the halving. The snipers glanced toward him. He gave a single nod. All four snipers locked onto the target simultaneously and fired. The bullets struck uniformly at the figure's feet, piercing knees and ankles. Blood sprayed out, and the person collapsed forward. A smile spread across Vincent's face. He rechecked the chat.

"The halving of loot has stopped!" he shouted, no longer bothering to stay hidden. He quickly signaled for the snipers to retrieve the criminal while he climbed down. On the frontlines, the second zombie wave had already arrived. This time, the wolves had doubled in size, and he noticed a sharp increase in their ferocity. Even the Sprinters had begun arriving, slamming into the frontlines like living missiles. The four snipers approached him.

He instructed them to bring the collapsed figure to the fleet's medical area.

"Criminal or not, he has a seriously useful ability. Make sure he doesn't die—bring him over quickly." With that, he turned and headed for the frontlines. They'd need him to handle the zombie horde. After all, he was the only one authorized to operate that infinite-bullet death machine.

"So much for resting toni—?!" A sharp sting made him freeze in place. Gritting his teeth, Vincent reached a hand toward his back, where the stinging sensation originated. There was a syringe lodged there. Realization struck him at the same moment his body began rapidly losing strength. His knees buckled before he could even turn around. He slammed face-first into the dirt. His consciousness fading fast, he tried to summon the last of his mental strength to open the chat.

But before he could type a call for help to the captain, his face met the ground. …. [POV Nyx] Nyx retracted the muzzle of the tranquilizer gun and stowed it back in his inventory. In front of him lay the four snipers who'd come to collect the decoy he'd sent—Julius's homunculus.

"Phew, that's all done." It had cost him a pretty penny to get Julius to send one of his already limited crew of homunculi this far, knowing full well it wouldn't be coming back. Nyx had to agree to a ten percent discount on the blackmail money he was about to collect from him. He'd also had to contact a seller on the exchange to buy this specialized enchanted tranquilizer gun. Yes, enchanted—such magical buffs had already become fairly common.

Though most people only used them on cold weapons, or occasionally bullets, if they were rich enough to afford it. Because enchanting bullets was expensive. He'd been watching the whole shitshow from afar while Julius controlled the homunculus from miles away. It still astonished him how far his range of control extended. But what surprised him even more was the vice captain's reaction.

"Odd. Seemed like he was watching this decoy just as closely as the snipers were." He said, stepping closer to the captain to check for valuables.

"You lot are lucky I'm not bloodthirsty, or you'd be dead right now." After searching for a while, he didn't find much—even the snipers had already stashed their rifles back in their inventories before climbing down the tree. Still, he made sure to snag the Glocks they were carrying.

"And now, onto the fun part." He slowly dragged their bodies to a secluded spot, then stripped their clothes off one by one. Once they were all undressed, he pulled out a small camera he'd bought specifically for this occasion. He snapped a few photos of the five of them tangled together in an embrace, then redressed them.

"These'll come in handy later." He shivered slightly. He wasn't going to lie—seeing dudes on dudes was weird. Definitely a first for him.

"And hopefully the last too." After that, he ducked behind the nearest bush at the cliff's edge and activated his unique skill, Usurper.

"Now, just wait and watch," he said, as the sound of gold pouring into his inventory began ringing in a steady flurry.