Ricochet. That’s how Jack called the weird phenomena that screwed me over. My bullet literally bounced off Jack’s body. To make things worse, it decided it’ll be funny to fly all the way back to me. Beautiful.

How exactly did that ricochet thing work? Jack shot himself before the rebounce happened. Then, he was wrapped in light which repelled my beam. Is that all it took?

I pointed the gun at my arm.

BAM

“Ugh.” My arm went limp. No light came forth to cover my body. Weird.

Losing an arm didn’t result in immediate elimination, I had experienced this many times on the battlefield. Hitting limbs paralyzed them, but it didn’t make the player lose consciousness. Only shots to the torso and head were fatal.

“Maybe the same applies to ricochet?” I pointed the gun at my stomach. Maybe the defensive light won’t show itself until I shoot myself in a critical area. It was in line with how Jack did it, as he shot his side.

BAM

The beam struck my stomach. The usual numbness... didn’t follow. Instead, white aura spread across my body and enveloped me. It was exactly what happened to Jack. No idea how I hadn’t seen this phenomena until now.

“Huh?” The aura vanished. It barely lasted a second. My body started turning limp, as if it finally registered that it was hit by a bullet.

“Hmm.” I couldn't wrap my head around it. Jack didn’t collapse after performing this ricochet thing. He kept standing there, laughing his ass off at my expense. I was definitely doing something wrong.

In the next cycle, I decided to discuss ricochet with Ben. He was like a sage in this place, so he surely knew something about it. As he spent all his time sitting at the shore, it was easy to find him.

“Ricochet? Of course I know it.” Ben nodded while stroking his chin.

“Seriously?” I grumbled. “Geez, doc. Couldn’t you mention it last time we talked? I got royally screwed by some bastard thanks to it.”

“Hmm. Don’t believe our conversation ever touched on such subjects. Not to mention, I assumed it was common knowledge.”

“Grr, guess that’s fair.” I was still a tad irritated, but Ben was right. We had never touched topics related to combat in our previous conversation. Well, now I gonna interrogate this sage all about it!

Ben explained how ricochet worked. Turned out I wasn’t doing anything wrong. Performing a ricochet indeed started with shooting oneself in a fatal area, either the head or the torso. The white aura which coated my body had the power to repel incoming bullets.

However, there was a catch. The barrier only last for a short time. If no enemy bullets were repelled during that period, the barrier will vanish and my own shot will eliminate me. That’s exactly what happened when I experimented on my own.

If the barrier repels at least one bullet during its lifetime, then I won’t suffer any consequences once it vanishes. The barrier’s duration also slightly extended each time it repelled a bullet.

I tested all these rules with Ben. He volunteered to shoot me while my barrier was up, so I could get a better feel for how ricochet worked. What a great guy, sacrificing himself for my sake! His death won’t be in vain!

Actually, Ben’s sacrifice was rather anticlimactic. He gathered wet sand from the shore and erected a wall of sand in front of him. Even something as fragile as that easily withstood the force of the white beams. The same rule applied to the ricochet beam as well. In other words, he hadn’t been hit even once throughout the experiments.

“So, does this gun have any other hidden functions?” I asked.

“Hrm. Not that I know of.” Ben stroke his chin. “I’ve also entertained such thoughts a long time ago, but never discovered anything new.”

“I see.” That’s a shame. I hoped to add more tools to my arsenal. “Anyway, thanks for the help.”

“No problem. As you know, I’m not a busy person, haha.”

“Heh, that’s true.”

Now that I understood how ricochet worked, it was time to test it out at the battlefield. It didn’t take long to discover that ricochet’s usefulness was very limited. The short lifespan of the barrier required minute timing. I had to shoot myself right when somebody else was shooting me.

My battle strategy involved sneaking up to people and staying behind cover, hence there weren’t many opportunities to anticipate shots. Most of the time, I was eliminated via the element of surprise. This explained why I hadn’t encountered ricochet until I fought Jack: the targets I focused on were the same sneaky players as me, who benefitted little from ricochet.

The ones who could derive the most benefit from ricochet were the lunatics who operated in the open. By playing recklessly, they attracted attention and made themselves into targets. This guaranteed they were frequently shot and had many opportunities to ricochet shots. I may had misjudged these players. Perhaps they weren’t madmen after all.

I decided to give a try to this primitive playstyle. Granted, I had no idea what exactly it entailed, so I started by doing what seemed right.

“Uoaaaaaah!” I shouted at the tops of my lungs as I ran around flapping my arms, trying to draw attention.

BAM BAM BAM

... and I was immediately eliminated. Damn. The strategy was harder than I expected!

Over the course of twenty cycles, I got a better hang of it. Instead of randomly running around, I learned how to pick smarter routes. The trick was deciding whose attention I wanted to draw and ensuring I stayed only within their shooting range.

To take advantage of ricochet, it was necessary to anticipate shots. Doing so was impossible when surrounded by enemies from all sides. Therefore, I selectively picked who I planned to bait and steered clear from everybody else.

Was this strategy better than my previous one? A difficult question. My ratio of success and failure was akin to a roulette. Most of the time I failed miserably and got eliminated early on. But, a few other times I hit jackpot and came closer to winning than ever before. There were way too many factors involved, which made this strategy unstable.

All in all, it didn’t suit me. It demanded paying attention to everything around me, which wasn’t my forte. I was much better at tunneling specific targets while ignoring everybody else.

Nonetheless, I now had another trusty weapon at my disposal. The new tactics I learned will serve me well in open areas, which were a disaster for me in the past. Especially, I was now much better prepared to confront Jack. It was time to hunt him once more.