More, Even Bigger and Stronger Firepower! (3)
Of course, that burst of joy didn't last long. If I only had the warhead, all I could do was something lame like "Take a taste of my spicy punch from these delicate hands, you bastard!!!" followed by a jab, then yelling "Allahu Akbar" and blowing myself up with the enemy like some Islamic suicide bomber. Nothing else.
So, shaking my head, I decided this wouldn't do. If there's a warhead, there has to be a launch tube somewhere. I'd find it and make use of it.
But the warhead itself was something even a wristless goblin—Gobkun—had barely found through sheer luck while praying, I mean searching. And the problem was, Gobkun couldn't explain where he'd found it to me, or even remember.
"Agh, fuck, it has to be around here somewhere?"
"Keruk, keruk."
Me and my expedition team of Gobkun set off once more to scour the entire first floor for the launch tube body that would give me serious power.
And after about three hours? Probably way longer, I guessed, right around when my stomach started growling and I thought about just heading back...
◈ Can be combined with or separated from warhead
"Oh! Ooooh? Ooooh! Woo yeah!"
"Keurk!"
Finally, I found it—the thing that shook a man's heart and elevated me from Allah's suicide bomber to Allah's holy warrior.
It was tossed carelessly on the ground, half-buried under leaves, rusted but intact. I absorbed the launcher quick, then pulled it back out, combined it with the pre-absorbed warhead, and grinned like I'd forged a modern-era death spear.
And naturally, when you get a new weapon, you gotta inaugurate it properly.
Unlike machine guns that could generate 50 rounds per minute thanks to the Infinite Magazine, this didn't qualify as a "magazine" item. Or maybe because it was just B-rank crap, the anti-tank warhead was outside the service range. Either way, it showed zero effect.
So instead of blasting Gobkun and bailing, I decided to test on a nearby rock to see if the warhead regenerated.
Sure, finding a suitable rock took another 10 minutes because the first floor was far from a "pile of rocks" terrain, a minor time sink.
Anyway, after wandering around, I found a decent boulder. I swapped Vladimir in my mounted weapon slot for the RPG, pulled out the warhead and launcher from my body, assembled them, and fired.
To be safe, I kept a good distance with Gobkun. About three seconds after launch...
-Shoooooo... KABOOOOM!
"Ooooh fuuuck!"
"Keurk!"
As expected—no, even better than I'd imagined. The warhead smashed into the boulder, exploding spectacularly, scattering debris everywhere and turning the rocky bastard into a fine end for a stone life.
Me and Gobkun both cheered at getting our hands on a badass fireball (or whatever).
Plus, about 30 seconds after the direct hit and boom, I felt it regenerating inside me. Mission accomplished—I nodded in satisfaction.
Well... separately, my brain noted that since the warhead and launcher were acquired separately, they'd generate separately too. In combat, I'd have to spawn them one by one, mount, and fire like an idiot.
But that gloom lasted a second. Seeing "Can be combined with or separated from warhead" in the equipment window, I shoved the launcher back in...
◈ Can be combined with or separated from warhead
Current Status: Warhead Detached
Current Status: Warhead Mounted
"Ah, like this?"
Fiddling with the status window, I learned I could pull it out pre-combined. Bonus: spawn the barrel from my front and exhaust from my back, fire forward (warhead flies) while the backblast handles rear threats(?). Wild discovery.
"You sneaky bastard. From now on, you're Allabong."
RPG-45 Anti-Whatever was too much of a tongue-twister, so I nicknamed it after the famous "Allabong," treating it like a precious Wilson.
But amid all this happy chatter, a sudden doubt hit me.
What was it? Same as when I first found the warhead: with this explosive power, would I be fine?
Of course, as plainly stated in my trait, my gear couldn't hurt me...
But my worry? Rockets are bigger and slower than bullets. A top-tier monster could snatch it mid-flight, maybe even hurl it back. Or grab my launcher and fire it at me.
Even if I made it, what if someone else held and fired it? The question looped in my head.
Pondering solutions...
"Hmm... Oh right, you're here."
"Kieek?"
"Gob, I got a mission for you. Take this, go over there, and shoot me."
"Keurk?!"
Dead now or later, same ugly death. I handed the loaded Allabong to wristless Gobkun and ordered him to fire at me.
Predictably, passing him a rock-smashing weapon and saying "shoot me" made even that goblin go "What the fuck is this guy?" in panic.
But goblins being goblins—eternal #1 for backstabs on hunters and civilians, top 5 human-killers yearly—he flashed his rotten grin, strolled to the spot happily.
"Kieeeek!"
Like telling me to die, he shrieked in gleeful madness, pulling the trigger with his stump bone.
Good news: Anything I generate registers as "with me" no questions asked?
Gobkun's Allabong warhead hit me dead-on, massive explosion... but contrary to my expectations of recoil or blast damage, my body took zero effect.
Smoke cleared, I was just a bit sooty, coughing from the fumes. Clothes intact, perfectly fine.
"...".
"Cough cough, damn throat's sore."
"Keruk."
"Huh? Oh."
Our Gobkun, rotten grin gone, scampered over with big doe eyes, handed back the launcher, switching to full "Spare me pls" mode.
Of course, I'm no saint to spare a backstabber. Plus, killing him was required to exit floor 1.
Stomach growling anyway, I absorbed the launcher, then bashed his skull with Wilson, ending today's Tower run.