Since they are still being mindful of boundaries, Zhou Ziwei doesn't want to go too far.
Upon discovering the ambush behind the door, Zhou Ziwei did not pause at all, continuing to walk towards the slightly ajar electronic door at a leisurely pace.
With a creak, Zhou Ziwei gently pulled open the slightly ajar electronic door with one hand, while his other hand slowly drew two circles in front of him. At the same time, without stopping, he stepped directly inside...
"Whoosh, whoosh—" The moment Zhou Ziwei entered the room, two cold lights pierced towards his ribs almost simultaneously. However, as soon as the daggers in the hands of the two men in black pierced within half a foot of Zhou Ziwei's body, they immediately felt as if the blade had pierced a block of butter. They could no longer control the trajectory of the daggers, which involuntarily slid to the side. Their bodies followed the movement of their hands and uncontrollably took two steps forward, as if they were being pulled by a force. No matter how much they struggled, they could not break free from the restraint of this force.
"Ah—ah—"
Two cries of pain rang out almost simultaneously, followed by two men in black, each wielding a dagger, plunging it viciously into the other's stomach. Then, their foreheads collided in mid-air, causing them to sway as if drunk, before collapsing to the ground without any doubt.
Zhou Ziwei then squatted down and casually patted the two men, quickly finding two electronic keys on one man's neck and the other's belt. He put them in his pocket before looking up and carefully examining the so-called staircase.
Damn it... is this even a staircase?
Seeing the staircase in front of him, Zhou Ziwei felt an urge to curse loudly.
Zhou Ziwei had climbed countless staircases in his two lifetimes, but he had never seen such an extremely ornate staircase before.
Generally speaking, stairs are used to facilitate going up and down. Apart from the steps, the most that might be done is to decorate the handrail.
But this staircase... in Zhou Ziwei's eyes, this staircase was even more complicated than an overpass on a highway. The bottom of the staircase was about fifteen meters wide, but after six or seven steps, the fifteen-meter-wide staircase began to branch into five paths. Every day, the staircase was like a coiled dragon, extending upwards in circles. However, the five paths intersected more than once, and many obstacles of different shapes were built on each path, making this so-called staircase look like a maze.
Zhou Ziwei then understood why the time limit for the first level was set at fifteen minutes. Even if the five guardians were scarecrows and wouldn't fight back, they would still keep him searching for a while if they were hidden in this maze-like staircase.
Fortunately, Zhou Ziwei possessed the ability to see through objects, so he was least afraid of playing hide-and-seek. Although the staircase was extremely complex to construct, its vertical height was only seven or eight meters, which was completely within the range of Zhou Ziwei's soul power. There was no need to worry about the remaining three people hiding and not being able to find him.
Zhou Ziwei could have released the ladybug to scout for him, but looking at how spotless the building was, if a ladybug suddenly flew out, it would probably cause a lot of trouble. Therefore, since he could handle it with his soul power, Zhou Ziwei didn't want to expose the ladybug.
Simply by scanning the entire stairwell with his soul power, Zhou Ziwei easily pinpointed the hiding places of the other three people. He then leisurely ascended the stairs, stopping abruptly at the fork between the two staircases. He gently tapped twice on the low stone wall separating the two staircases and said, "Be out! Your heart's pounding, you must be really nervous. It's okay...as long as you hand over that electronic key, I won't make things difficult for you..."
Before Zhou Ziwei could finish speaking, the seemingly stone-carved low wall suddenly exploded into countless foam fragments with a loud "boom," and then a figure dressed entirely in black jumped out from inside, fiercely stabbing Zhou Ziwei in the chest with a knife.
Zhou Ziwei casually raised his hand and made a few strokes in the air. The menacing man in black was instantly turned into a spinning top, spinning around in place. The dagger in his right hand, in its rapid rotation, involuntarily pierced his own left shoulder.
Only after the man in black had spun around a dozen times following Zhou Ziwei's hand and completely lost control of himself did Zhou Ziwei suddenly fling his hand away. The man in black was thrown to the side and crashed headfirst into the stair railing with a thud, immediately losing consciousness.
"I told you not to resist! Sigh... You insisted on making things difficult for yourself... You can't blame me for this, can you?"
As Zhou Ziwei spoke, he pulled a small electronic key from the unfortunate man's shoe, then looked up at the staircase ahead and said, "Hey, you dangling behind the stairs... are you tired? If you are, let's talk..."
With a "thud," before Zhou Ziwei could even approach, the man in black hiding behind the stairs tossed out the electronic key...
In the end, Zhou Ziwei completed the first challenge in less than five minutes. Then came the second, third, and fourth challenges... The difficulty of these challenges increased layer by layer. However, for Zhou Ziwei, who possessed X-ray vision and Niu-style Tai Chi, what troubled him the most was not the increasingly skilled and numerous guardians, nor the increasingly well-hidden challengers, but rather... climbing stairs!
Wu Di, you spendthrift! Why did you build such a long staircase? It's only five floors, how come it's more tiring than running up fifteen floors!
Volume 1, Rebirth of a Prodigy, Chapter 129: The Gun King
"beep--"
When the electronic door on the fifth-floor stairwell opened, Zhou Ziwei thought the boring puzzle game was finally over. As usual, he scanned the area behind the door with his soul power. Finding nothing amiss, Zhou Ziwei opened the slightly ajar electronic door and strode out.
After that, there was no longer an endless, bizarre staircase behind the door, but a long corridor.
Presumably, at the end of that corridor, we should be able to meet Wu Di, this local tyrant of the Yunnan border!
Zhou Ziwei stood there, panting heavily for a while, supporting his aching and numb legs, before slowly walking deeper into the corridor.
However, just as Zhou Ziwei had taken six or seven steps, a soft "click" sound came from behind him, and the electronic door that had been open closed automatically after Zhou Ziwei had walked away.
Zhou Ziwei frowned slightly, and immediately had a bad feeling. He guessed that the other party's methods would definitely not stop there. There would probably be even more troublesome difficulties waiting for him. Otherwise, the other party would not have bothered to cut off his retreat!
It seems that this Mr. Wu is still unwilling to admit defeat easily!
This situation was entirely within Zhou Ziwei's expectations. After all, Wu Di was a powerful local tyrant with money and manpower under his command. He was used to being high and mighty, so how could he possibly be intimidated by a powerless young outsider like himself? If Zhou Ziwei were to immediately see Wu Di bowing and scraping and admitting defeat after passing through that bizarre obstacle course, willingly agreeing to any conditions, then there would be something fishy going on!
So, even though he knew that even more difficult obstacles awaited him, Zhou Ziwei was not discouraged at all. Instead, he became even more cautious. He doubled the reaction speed of his vision, hearing, and legs before carefully walking step by step toward the end of the corridor.
"Congratulations, Mr. Zhou, on successfully passing the level... But I must tell you... the real game has only just begun!"
A sharp, strangely accented voice suddenly came from underground. Then, the ground more than ten meters away in the corridor suddenly cracked open, and a middle-aged man with a dark complexion, thin body, and who looked like skin and bones sat on a rattan chair, along with a wooden table in front of him, and rose up.
On that wooden table were two Browning pistols that looked exactly alike.
Are we finally going to use firearms?
Zhou Ziwei's eyebrows twitched slightly, and his eyes quickly darkened.
"You don't need to look at me like that..."
The dark-skinned, thin man let out a string of unpleasant laughs, smirking as he said, "Let me make it clear beforehand, I'm not Wu Di's subordinate, I'm here to discuss business with him. I just happened to witness your challenge... hehe... I have to admit you're indeed very strong. This is the most difficult challenge in this club, and although you weren't the first to succeed, you finished in the shortest time... hehe... But that's not the key factor that attracted me. The key factor is that I heard from Wu Di... your marksmanship is also excellent, you've even performed some high-difficulty flick shots..."
"Tsk tsk tsk... Slingshot technique... I can do that too, but I can't accurately control the bullet's landing point at all. At most, I can only guarantee the general area where the bullet will land. So... I'm skeptical of Wu Di's words and intend to verify them with you here... Oh... Let me introduce myself first. My name is Hu Taiqi, and I'm known as the Gun King in Vietnam! If you can truly surpass me in marksmanship, then... from today onwards, the Gun King is you. But if you lose... hehe... you should understand that there's no possibility of a draw in a marksmanship contest. In the end, only the winner lives, and the loser—dies!"
So you're Vietnamese!
Zhou Ziwei nodded, thinking to himself that it was no wonder the man's accent sounded strange, like a hen with its neck being stepped on.
"So... did you decide to come here and compete with me in marksmanship on your own initiative, or was it at Wu Di's behest?"
Hu Taiqi rolled his eyes dismissively and said, "Do you think Wu Di has the ability to command me?"
"Oh... so you're the one who wanted to compete with me!"
Upon hearing this, Zhou Ziwei nodded again. Hu Taiqi's words were unlikely to be a lie. Whether Hu Taiqi was actually sent by Wu Di was also very important to Zhou Ziwei, as it would determine Zhou Ziwei's attitude towards Wu Di.
"Alright! So how do you want to compete?"
"It's very simple..."
Hu Taiqi picked up the two guns on the table, slowly turned the muzzles to the left wall, and then gently pulled the trigger. With two "bangs," each left a deep bullet hole in the wall.
Hu Taiqi shrugged, raised the two guns to indicate that they were both in good condition, and then carefully disassembled them, placing them in two piles at opposite ends of the table. He then said, "Let's follow the old rules. We'll compete on the speed of assembling the guns and the speed of our reaction. The person who assembles the guns faster will have the chance to fire first, while the person who assembles them slower, if they can dodge the opponent's shots and manage to assemble their gun while dodging bullets... then they might still have a chance to turn the tables! How about that... this rule is fair, isn't it?"
Zhou Ziwei sneered and said, "The rules are fair, but... if you were willing to swap the positions of those two piles of zeros... it would be even fairer!"
Hu Taiqi's expression changed slightly upon hearing this. He said, "Switch positions? Why? You just saw it yourself. These two guns are exactly the same, without any difference whatsoever, and both are fully functional. Do you really think that I, the King of Guns, would give you a broken gun that won't fire?"
"Of course the gun can fire..."
Zhou Ziwei snorted and said, "However, among the pile of parts here, there are two components that are probably not from the original Browning factory. Although these two parts can be used normally when installed on the gun, they will inevitably be a little more difficult to assemble because the machining is a bit rough... Heh... Normally, a little extra time wouldn't matter, but now you want me to compete with you in assembling this gun. Isn't that just trying to use this tiny difference to kill me?"
Zhou Ziwei paused here, his face full of disdain, and said, "Does a despicable person like you deserve to be called the King of Guns?"
"I……"
Hu Taiqi's dark face flushed slightly. He never imagined that Zhou Ziwei would discover the tiny, insignificant trick he had played on the gun.
You should know that although those two small parts were made by him and were slightly rougher than the original retail parts, the difference was only a little bit. Apart from affecting the speed of loading the gun, they would not have any impact on the use or appearance of the gun. So how could Zhou Ziwei, who was so far away, distinguish the difference that was almost visible to the naked eye?
Under Zhou Ziwei's cold mockery and accusations, Hu Taiqi's face turned red and then pale. He then snorted and pretended to be angry as he swapped the two piles of parts in front of him. He gritted his teeth and said, "Alright... now I'll give you the pile of parts you think are good, as you asked. If you lose again, you won't have anything to say, right?"
"Very well... since you insist on gambling your life with me, then I'll grant your wish!"
As Zhou Ziwei spoke, he raised his head to look at the miniature camera hidden in the corner of the wall, a faint smile appearing on his lips. He then slowly walked to the long table where gun parts were displayed.
Hu Taiqi pretended to be calm and said, "OK... Next, I'll start counting from one to three. When I say three, we'll both start assembling our pistols at the same time... If you don't have any other questions, then let's begin!"
“Very good…I have no problems for now…You can begin!” Zhou Ziwei paused here, his ears twitched almost imperceptibly, and then he raised his head, staring at a certain spot on both sides of the corridor a dozen meters behind Hu Taiqi, his eyes flashing with anger.
Sensing Zhou Ziwei's unusual behavior, Hu Taiqi was once again taken aback. He dared not give Zhou Ziwei any more chance to back out, and hurriedly counted down, "One, two, three... Begin!"
Hu Taiqi said he recited three numbers, but the speed at which he recited them was incredibly fast. He didn't even take half a second to go from one to three. Then, before he could even finish saying the word "three," he had already started bending down. By the time he said "start," he had already picked up a part in each hand and immediately began to assemble it at lightning speed...
Although Hu Taiqi's attempt to steal a chicken backfired, as he ended up with the two specially made parts that were originally intended for Zhou Ziwei, he had always used this trick to scheme against people, so he had naturally considered the possibility that if he encountered a suspicious person, they might insist on swapping the two guns to assemble the weapon.
So I've put in a lot of effort to practice assembling a pistol using these two rough parts.
As the saying goes, practice makes perfect. After Hu Taiqi practiced at least ten thousand times, he can now assemble the parts with these two rough parts at a speed that is not as fast as assembling them with the original parts. However, the difference is negligible, and it will only cause him a delay of 0.3 to 0.5 seconds at most.
Since Hu Taiqi dared to call himself the "King of Guns" in Vietnam, his expertise in firearms must have been extraordinary and not something that could be achieved by mere boasting. Therefore, he had reason to believe that even if his loading speed was 0.5 seconds slower than usual, he would still be much faster than the Chinese man opposite him.
Moreover... Hu Taiqi never fights a battle he's not confident of winning, and he never truly gambles his life on others. Before the competition even officially begins, he has already prepared all sorts of escape routes for himself. In short, it can be said that anyone who dares to challenge his dignity as the King of Guns will inevitably face death... Only when others die will he, the King of Guns, remain forever undefeated!
This time, however, when Hu Taiqi sensed Zhou Ziwei's keen eyesight and hearing, he finally had a bad feeling. His usual strong confidence seemed to have become less reliable, so he started to cheat when he was counting.
He just wanted to make up for the 0.3 to 0.5 points of time he lost on the parts of this gun. If the two of them started on the same footing, Hu Taiqi didn't believe that Zhou Ziwei could really outrun him, the Vietnamese gun king...
However... just as Hu Taiqi had reassembled three of the disassembled parts on the table at an almost insane speed, far exceeding his usual pace, he suddenly stopped after glancing at the opposite side out of the corner of his eye.
Because he knew he didn't need to continue the competition, because he knew that no matter how much he cheated or tried his best, he would never be faster than his opponent!
All he saw was a blur of fingers... He only saw Zhou Ziwei's hand below the elbow become a blur as he moved rapidly. Then, the parts on the table seemed to be blown away by a whirlwind and disappeared in less than two seconds. Finally, when the blur created by Zhou Ziwei disappeared, a complete pistol appeared in Zhou Ziwei's hand.
"No—this is impossible—absolutely impossible!"
Hu Taiqi was completely shocked. After a long while, he let out a howl that sounded like a wolf. It was a feeling of despair that began to collapse from the depths of his soul.
He has always been proud of his title as Vietnam's number one gun king. He even feels that he is not far behind the world's number one gun king. He believes that if he puts in more effort and gets into the swing of things, he can defeat the world's number one gun king and become the only true gun king in the world.
But when he saw with his own eyes that someone could completely reassemble a complex Browning pistol from its disassembled state in just a little over two seconds, definitely no more than three seconds, he was completely devastated.
Previously, Hu Taiqi's fastest time to assemble this Browning pistol was nine and a half seconds. This speed was naturally the best in Vietnam, and probably no one in Southeast Asia could surpass him. However... if his time was compared with Zhou Ziwei's time of less than three seconds, it would be a disgrace. It was like the gap between a child and an adult that could never be crossed.
Anyway, Hu Taiqi knew that no matter how hard he practiced for eight lifetimes, it was unlikely that he could surpass Zhou Ziwei's achievement!
Hu Taiqi simply couldn't believe it. How could there be such speed in the world? It shattered his confidence! But the facts were right in front of him. Zhou Ziwei had assembled the gun right in front of him, and he really had no reason to doubt it.
Zhou Ziwei's hands gripped the gun handle tightly, trembling slightly and rapidly for a moment to a degree that was difficult for others to detect, before gradually stabilizing.
In fact, although several of the remnant souls inherited by Zhou Ziwei were skilled with firearms in their previous lives, their skill level was not yet high enough to surpass that of the Vietnamese gun king.
In order to have a deterrent effect, Zhou Ziwei simply increased the reaction speed and sensitivity of his hands by five times.
As a result, Zhou Ziwei's speed in assembling firearms naturally reached an outrageous level. However, because his hands were so highly sensitive, his tactile senses were also amplified to an extreme degree. Every time his fingers came into contact with the hard firearm parts, he would experience a pain that seemed to penetrate to the bone.
Fortunately, he assembled the pistol in just over two seconds. He gritted his teeth and endured the pain for a moment. Afterward, he immediately reduced the sensitivity of his hand, and the pain naturally disappeared quickly.
"You lost..."
When Zhou Ziwei pointed the dark muzzle of the gun at Hu Taiqi's forehead, Hu Taiqi was still in a state of extreme shock, but he quickly sensed the danger emanating from the gun and came to his senses.
"That's right...you are very strong!"
Hu Taiqi let out a sinister laugh in his shrill voice, his eyes flashing with a chilling glint. He sneered, "If it's just a contest of marksmanship... then I admit I've lost. But... if we're talking about gambling with our lives... then we're just at a draw..."
Hu Taiqi coughed lightly and said smugly, "Look at what's that on the wall ten meters behind me?"
As soon as Hu Taiqi finished speaking, two black gun barrels slowly emerged from the two walls.
Those were the barrels of two AK-series automatic rifles, their long barrels gently swaying back and forth in the narrow gaps in the wall, completely sealing off every corner of the corridor.
This was a move that Hu Taiqi had already planned. The two men were Hu Taiqi's trusted assistants. Every time Hu Taiqi was "competing" with others in marksmanship, they were his hidden tools to save his life.