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Chapter 14: Chain Arrow Technique
The ghoul twisted violently on the ground, spasming with its limbs stretched out like a cross, its mouth foaming, emitting a sound halfway between a scream and a croak.
"Chain effect confirmed," Liu Guanan muttered, lowering his bow.
He had just tested a new status arrow effect: Chain Arrow—a skill that could cause an additional nearby target to suffer a secondary status effect upon a successful hit.
The first ghoul was twitching like a frog being electrocuted. About three meters away, another ghoul that had just noticed the noise suddenly went rigid and collapsed, convulsing violently.
"Not bad." Liu Guanan approached cautiously and delivered precise finishing shots to both corpses.
He pulled the arrow out from the first corpse and quickly inspected the status panel.
Chain Arrow: When this arrow hits a target and triggers a special effect (e.g., Paralysis, Burning, etc.), it has a 30% chance to inflict the same effect on a secondary enemy within a 3-meter radius.
"It's basically a spread effect," he thought. "But does it work with all status types, or only some?"
This needed further testing. However, in swarm battles, such a passive effect could greatly improve crowd control.
He collected the loot dropped by the ghouls—two iron nails, a cracked skull fragment, and a Lesser Corpse Crystal.
"Meh. Still junk," he sighed. "But every little bit counts."
The city remained shrouded in the soft gray haze of early dawn. Liu Guanan returned to the alley where he had hidden his supplies, taking a moment to drink water and clean his gear. The Chain Arrow Technique was promising, but he needed more reliable materials if he wanted to make enough arrows to use it consistently.
By midday, Liu Guanan had moved to a different part of the abandoned district. The goal today was to continue testing the chain effect in real combat scenarios.
He climbed to the rooftop of a three-story building, then spotted a small group of ghouls feeding on a corpse below.
"Perfect."
Drawing a Chain Arrow, he steadied his breath and released.
Thwip—
The arrow struck the lead ghoul in the spine, triggering a Paralysis Effect. Sparks of violet lightning surged across the ghoul's body. A second later, the ghoul next to it jerked backward as if yanked by an invisible rope—then dropped to the ground, twitching.
"Gotcha."
Liu Guanan quickly looted the area, keeping track of which targets triggered the chain effect and which didn't.
Out of seven arrows fired that day, three triggered chain reactions.
"Roughly a 42% chance. Better than expected for an unrefined skill."
He updated his notes in the system's [Crafting Log] and [Status Tracker], trying to determine if environmental factors or enemy types affected the proc rate.
So far, it seemed random—though he suspected that creatures with lower resistance to the original status effect were more likely to spread the chain.
By sunset, Liu Guanan had exhausted most of his materials. He crouched behind a collapsed wall, watching as a dozen ghouls shambled past. His last arrow was not a Chain Arrow but a basic one—he had to be careful now.
After they passed, he retrieved a partially broken arrow from a corpse and examined it.
"Need better materials. Maybe visit that woodcrafter Black Ox mentioned," he mused. "Or get access to mid-tier monster drops."
The Chain Arrow Technique had proved useful—but to turn it into a core part of his strategy, he needed consistency. Materials, enhancements, and maybe even dedicated gear.
Liu Guanan returned to his temporary shelter with a tired but satisfied smile. The day's experiments had been fruitful.
Tomorrow, it was time to hunt not just for survival—but for optimization.