Chapter 48: The First Gun with Skin

The bundles rewarded from the CF Mall were peculiar. Xing Xiaolong could not only see them, but also touch them with his hands—they were undeniably real objects. Yet, until he brought them out from the CF Mall, no one else could see them. It was as if they didn’t even exist in this world!

It reminded him of the dimensional system in World of Warcraft, where the CF Mall and the main world existed on entirely separate planes, utterly isolated from each other. The only bridge between these two planes was Xing Xiaolong himself.

Though these bundles were tangible, each came with a “unreal” detail: above every bundle floated a line of text in Chinese, naming its contents. This had all the hallmarks of a mall interface!

There was a random weapon bundle, a random dagger bundle, a special training CF point reward bundle, a random ornament bundle, a random item bundle, and so on—a total of fifteen bundles. In addition, a white card hovered in the air—the Lucky Revolver Lottery Card. It indicated that the feature had not yet been activated and could not be used. Though Xing Xiaolong was curious about its purpose, he decided not to dwell on it for now.

Everything in this house comprised the rewards Xing Xiaolong had received since activating the CF Mall: the novice starter pack plus the rewards from completing two rounds of special training missions.

Familiar with the CF Mall items, Xing Xiaolong knew that many of the firearms and tools were far superior to their real-world counterparts. For instance, the formidable Blue Fire Gatling, the Barrett sniper rifle, the one-hit-kill Nepalese knife, and various weapon skins that enhanced damage and range.

If only he could acquire such treasures... With these weapons stashed in the CF Mall, they wouldn’t burden him physically, yet he could produce them at will, as if performing magic—carrying a mobile armory with him wherever he went.

If he ever had to fight an enemy, this would be an overwhelming advantage—almost too exhilarating and powerful to believe.

He was filled with anticipation, nervousness, and excitement, his hands trembling as he reached for the metal zipper on the first bundle.

“Ziiip—”

The zipper slid open, revealing the first item: a golden card!

It read:

[Special Training Mission Reward CF Point Card. Granted only upon completing Special Forces Training missions. To use, crush the card. Grants a total of 50,000 CF points for this training, which can be spent on anything in the CF Mall.]

“No wonder I didn’t see any ‘evil’ recharge option. Turns out CF points can only be obtained by entering the training ground and completing special missions. This complicates things,” Xing Xiaolong mused.

He’d assumed the CF Mall would be like other games, where cash rules all, but it turned out to be the opposite—a grind-heavy system.

This left him somewhat at a loss. The downside of pay-to-win is the expense, but the upside is the freedom to do as you please as long as you have money—it’s convenient and effortless.

Want something? Just pay for it. If Xing Xiaolong could find a way to make a fortune, he could buy any superhuman potion, stat-boosting gem, or powerful, outrageous weapon in the CF Mall—whatever he desired, with no need to hold back.

But now, CF points could only be earned through the Special Forces Training Ground.

That was a real headache.

Many things in the CF Mall required points. If he remembered correctly, even guns would wear out—unprecedented—and would cost points to repair. Once he ran out of CF points, Xing Xiaolong would have only two options left: either grind out tasks in the training ground, facing unknown dangers for more CF points, or treat the CF Mall as mere decoration, staring longingly at what he could no longer use, as if he’d lost his golden finger.

“Forget it, don’t overthink it. I’ll use it while I can. If it ever stops working, I’ll just let it go,” Xing Xiaolong told himself. He figured that as a security guard or bodyguard for the wealthy, he might not even need these things; after all, murder is illegal, and carrying weapons could only bring him trouble.

So, he didn’t dwell on it.

Of course, this was only Xing Xiaolong’s thinking for now—an ordinary retired soldier who had yet to stumble into the special profession that would completely change his fate and forge his legendary path.

With the experience of opening the first bundle, Xing Xiaolong’s emotions calmed considerably. Afraid of being seen standing there too long, he crushed the CF point card, collecting 50,000 points, then quickly sorted the rest of the bundles by name and opened them all at once—fourteen in a row.

The thrill of opening them in rapid succession was immense!

Unfortunately, while the rush was real, the first random dagger bundle was underwhelming. Xing Xiaolong wasn’t exactly disappointed—after all, these were freebies—but the results were far below his expectations.

Neither of the two random dagger bundles yielded the Nepalese knife he most wanted; instead, both produced the same jungle knife. The folding knife’s compact design was decent, but out of two bundles, getting two identical items—what luck was that?

Xing Xiaolong frowned deeply, but, following the on-screen prompts, he took the two identical knives from the bundle, held them in his palms, and released them.

With a whoosh, the two knives vanished from the white reward house, reappearing in the armory.

“Buddha, please bless me, let there be something good,” he prayed, palms together, as he opened the four most important random weapon bundles one by one.

He drew out a COP357 four-barrel pocket pistol, a Desert Eagle +1, a Desert Eagle—Guardian +1, and a small double-barreled shotgun +1.

“Four random weapon bundles, not a single long gun—flawlessly missing every one. Am I absurdly lucky or just cursed?” Xing Xiaolong nearly spat blood.

Four short guns in a row—he was now a certified pistol specialist.

Fortunately, two of them were decent: both Desert Eagles, legendary for close-range headshots, and one even came with a Guardian skin, said to grant a slight boost in penetration power.

A slight boost was better than an ordinary pistol—that was his sole consolation.

Perhaps the misfortune of the weapon and dagger bundles had exhausted his bad luck, for the remaining eight bundles produced much higher quality items—one after another, real treasures!

His luck had finally turned.