Despair was a cold stone in his chest. The numbers were a death sentence. [Shots Fired: 99] [Shots Missed: 10]. He had exhausted his entire margin of error. The next shot that failed to connect would be his last.
He had landed 89 hits. Eagle's HP was at a mere 11/100. He was so close to victory he could taste it, a final, mocking cruelty. But he had also reached his absolute limit. His mind was frayed, his body trembled with exhaustion, and the ghost-like sniper across from him showed no signs of faltering.
Eagle understood the math perfectly. He had forced Shen Liang to burn through 99 shots, 10 of them wasted, to get this close. Now, he simply had to evade one last, desperate attack.
Shen Liang had one bullet left in his current pistol. One chance. His mana pool was still deep, but it was irrelevant. [MP: 45/550]. The number was a taunt. He had all the energy in the world and no room left to use it.
The sniper became a phantom again, a blur of gray weaving through the terrain Shen Liang himself had shattered. There were no more tricks, no more environmental advantages Shen Liang hadn't already tried and failed to use.
This was it. Pure, undiluted skill against skill. And Shen Liang was outmatched.
He fired his 100th shot. A clean, well-aimed blast that Eagle sidestepped with an infuriating, economical grace.
[Shots Fired: 100]
[Shots Missed: 11]
A cold, system notification appeared, stark and final.
[Trial Failure Imminent: Exceeded Miss Threshold.]
[Finalizing Results...]
No. The word was a silent scream in Shen Liang's soul. Not like this. He couldn't fail like this. He had one shot left. Just one. But the system had already ruled. He had lost.
In that absolute nadir of hope, as the system's judgment loomed, a final, insane thought erupted. The system was finalizing results. It was processing. For a nanosecond, it was in a state of transition.
What are the rules of a transition state?
With a roar of defiance, ignoring the failure message, Shen Liang drew his second pistol. He wasn't supposed to. The trial was over. But his finger squeezed the trigger anyway, a final, futile act of rebellion.
The 101st mana bolt, an illegal shot fired after failure, streaked across the arena.
It was a wild, hopeless shot. Eagle, believing himself victorious, had already relaxed his stance, his rifle lowering a fraction of an inch. He didn't even try to dodge. The bolt took him directly in the chest.
The system chime, which had begun to sound the note of failure, glitched. It stuttered, then shifted pitch.
The [Trial Failure] message dissolved into static.
A new message burned into existence, its text flickering erratically as if the system itself was confused.
[...Condition Override...]
[...All Hit Conditions Met...]
[Trial Complete.]
[Victory: Shen Liang.]
Silence.
Shen Liang stood, panting, his illegal pistol still smoking in his hand. He had fired 101 times. He had missed 11 times. By every rule, he had lost.
But he had also landed 90 hits. The 90th hit, the one that should never have counted, the one fired after the bell, was the one that reduced Eagle's HP from 10 to 9.
He had won by breaking the game. He had fired the one hundred and first bullet.