Chapter 67: Where’s the Chance to Win?
“There was a black shadow that went around from that side just now. It’s probably chasing us,” Wei Jiahui said, both excited and nervous. She turned to look at her companions and whispered, “It should be just one person.”
Everyone understood what Wei Jiahui meant. At the same time, Jin Hongjie turned to look at Zhou Wanfeng and scratched her head. Her personality was rather straightforward, and she couldn’t hold back her words. “Um, I’m a bit direct, but I still want to say something. Although we are a team, a collective, this is also an opportunity for each of us to test our own abilities. We all know that Zhou Wanfeng is very formidable. With her around, everyone feels at ease. If we’re in danger, she’ll also help us. But what about ourselves? So many of us… I also want to have a go with the people over there,” she said, looking around and chuckling.
Jin Hongjie’s words resonated with many.
“Wanfeng, you hide yourself well. You are the last hope of our squad. Survive to the end. We also want to test our own abilities and have a good time. Even if we’re ‘killed in action,’ it’s definitely not because of you. It’s our own choice,” Xia Mengmeng, who usually liked to follow Zhou Wanfeng, said with a very decisive attitude.
Zhou Wanfeng was as strong as a safety barrier. It was very safe to hide behind her, but in that case, they would become a burden.
Seeing their firm opinions, Zhou Wanfeng made a gesture and turned to the other side, about five or six meters away. She almost blended in with the surrounding environment.
“Come on, sisters! No one is allowed to cry if they’re ‘killed in action’ first! Just remember, Zhou Wanfeng will definitely help us to the end! Our own honor, we’ll fight for it ourselves!”
A group of people were lying on the ground, whispering as if they were discussing a brilliant plan. In the blink of an eye, the team had split into three. Two people were in the front, and the others were scattered around.
Zhou Wanfeng knew that there were two black shadows in front, so she went around from the side, scouting and warning as she went.
From time to time, she would stop in the shade of a rock for about a minute and imitate the bird call from before. “Chirp, chirp, chirp.”
The only response was the sound of the branches swaying. She would then continue to walk forward.
Occasionally, in an open area, the view would be a little better.
Zhou Wanfeng would not go too far. Basically, she was near the team. She had just leaned against the root of a tree. This tree was not having an easy time growing. There were rocks below, and it was holding onto the rocks and taking root in the mud. Half of its roots were protruding. Zhou Wanfeng was pressed against the bottom, half-squatting. From a distance, she was completely blended in.
She felt that there were many things she didn’t understand about this combat exercise. If the target was this small mountain, it was a little too big.
One truck had brought four squads, less than fifty people.
It could only be said that the number of people lurking in the dark was definitely lower than this number. And if she were the enemy, and she knew that there were two entrances, she would definitely ambush at the entrance.
First, the cadets were concentrated at that time. Their minds were excited, but it was also a time when they were prone to carelessness.
Second, the few black shadows just now, although they were cooperating, they were also acting alone. She had vaguely heard them say that this was the first checkpoint.
Zhou Wanfeng’s eyes were downcast. While she was on guard against her surroundings, her brain was rapidly analyzing the current situation.
Based on the information she already knew, she had roughly analyzed a few situations. Now that she was at this position, it was probably the first checkpoint, or the newcomer area. There were not many enemies ambushing here.
The difficult part should be later. The person she had “killed” just now was not from the new recruit training base. In that case, he had been borrowed from somewhere else by the new recruit company.
There should also be a time limit for this assessment. She had to tell Liu Shupei and the others. They couldn’t stay here and waste time.
Just as Zhou Wanfeng was about to turn back to find Liu Shupei, she suddenly heard, “Chirp, chirp, chirp.”
She looked in the direction of the sound. In the distance, there was a similar bird call in response.
Zhou Wanfeng moved like a cat.
She roughly guessed that this response was probably in preparation for an ambush on Liu Shupei and the others.
Far, far away from Zhou Wanfeng, Liu Shupei, and the others, the cadets who had successfully passed the first checkpoint had basically lost more than half of their numbers.
The trees here were denser, and there were more large rocks for cover.
The cadets were secretly glad. In the same geographical environment, the enemy should be the same as them.
But in the end, it was the cadets who were fleeing in a sorry state in the forest.
“Hey, let the people at the first checkpoint let more cadets in! It’s more fun with more people! With so few people, it’s not enough to play with!”
“Do you know who’s in charge of the first checkpoint? They’re too strict! At least let people come here to play!”
“I know Old Sha is at the first checkpoint. You know his personality, right? He’ll never go easy on them! It’s best if they’re all wiped out at his place! He’ll be so proud!”
“Then he probably went to the first checkpoint himself. He has a bit of a beef with Qin Zhe from the new recruit training base. I heard that Qin Zhe was borrowing people this time, and he took the initiative to participate, just to smear Qin Zhe’s face.”
“Let’s go! There’s movement over there! These cadets’ stamina is quite good! They must have run a lot!”
“Let’s finish it quickly! The next wave is probably coming soon!”
Sha Shaoxing sat cross-legged at the first entrance, a dry blade of grass in his mouth, listening to the chirping of crickets and katydids. He was only wearing a vest, and when the wind blew, it was a little cold.
He looked up again and saw a black shadow walk out of the forest.
The shadow got closer and closer. He also saw the person sitting on the ground. When he was still some distance away, the black shadow that had come out bent down, took off his shoe, and threw it at the person who was sitting. One was not enough, so he took off the other and threw it.
“Hey, hey! What are you doing? You’re already dead! Why are you taking it out on me?” Sha Shaoxing dodged left and right, accurately avoiding it, a hint of laughter in his voice. “It’s Old Zhao, right? I could tell from your temper.”
As he got closer, the person who had come was also wearing a vest. He picked up the shoes on the ground and sat down next to Sha Shaoxing, panting roughly. He suddenly sat up, opened his mouth wide, and let out a loud, silent scream.
“I died a wrongful death!” Zhao Gang said, thinking of his frustration. He reached out and pulled at the withered grass on the ground, and after pulling all the surrounding area bald, he finally took a breath. He turned to look at the leisurely Sha Shaoxing, and even in the darkness, you could see the look in his eyes that wanted to eat someone. It wasn’t until a few seconds later that he gritted his teeth and said his second sentence, “I thought you were behind me.”
Sha Shaoxing could almost imagine Gangzi’s frustrated face. He tried his best not to laugh and asked seriously, “You were also taken out by her?” he said, and even leaned closer to take a look, and even wiped his face with his hand.
Sure enough, his fingers were sticky. It was the “death” marker.
“Don’t be angry, don’t be angry! It’s not a loss to die at her hands! She’s very agile! I fought with her for a long time and didn’t lose!”
“I wouldn’t be so frustrated if I had even fought a single move! She came up from behind me! I ‘died’ because of you!” Was this a backstab?
Sha Shaoxing patted his back to soothe him. “I understand, I understand! I’m also frustrated! To say that I was killed by a new recruit cadet, who knows how others will ridicule me later.”
Zhao Gang took a breath. “You lost?”
“I didn’t lose! Although she’s also quite formidable, if we had continued to fight, I would have definitely won!” Sha Shaoxing was confident in this.
Zhao Gang scoffed. “If you didn’t lose, how could you have been stripped of your clothes and be here?”
This made Sha Shaoxing stand up in a huff. “This cadet is not old, but she’s very cunning! She was holding a handful of dry soil in her hand! As we were fighting, she took advantage of my inattention and threw it in my eyes! From such a short distance, my eyes were not completely blinded, but my mouth was full of it!” The moment he said it, he felt a taste of mud in his mouth. He couldn’t help but spit a couple of times and even used his finger to dig at his tongue.
“From what you’re saying, this doesn’t sound like something a cadet would do. A bunch of bookish cadets, they would disdain to use such dirty tricks,” Zhao Gang said. His frustration had passed, and he was now analyzing it.
“Who cares? I think this cadet is very interesting! She’s very bold! You say her methods are sneaky? Aren’t Old Duan and the others in charge of the second checkpoint even more sneaky? It’s practically bullying! A group of little chicks have entered an eagle’s territory! They don’t even know how they died! It’s not as interesting as our side!” Sha Shaoxing said, lying on his back and looking up at the few scattered stars. He suddenly remembered, “Damn it! You and I are gone from our side! Does Brother Deng know you’re gone?”
“I don’t know. He went over first, and I went over later. I heard the voices of that group of cadets, and I was about to go over to support them. The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind. I just fell for her trick. Brother Deng is probably wondering why I haven’t gone over yet.”
Hearing this, Sha Shaoxing couldn’t lie down anymore. He sat up and muttered, “We’re finished, we’re finished! You’ve also been stripped of your clothes! Brother Deng doesn’t know! He’ll mistake her for someone else later! That treacherous and black-hearted cadet even knows our previous secret signal! If Brother Deng doesn’t know, he’ll fall right into the trap! The three of us will be wiped out! The number of people at the first checkpoint will be halved!”
“You just wait and see! Old Duan will be muttering in a while! Why are there suddenly so many people on his side? He’ll definitely resent us for not putting in any effort! If there are too few people, it’s not enough to play with! If there are too many, he’ll say we’re useless! That’s just how he is! You can’t please him no matter what you do!”
While Zhao Gang and Sha Shaoxing were worrying about Brother Deng’s situation, the sound of a truck came from a distance, and the headlights shone over.
“Get up, get up! Go and hide to the side!” The two of them quickly got up and went to a shady spot to hide, too embarrassed to be seen.
The truck stopped, and a new batch of cadets got off.
By the time the new batch of cadets had gone in,
the person in the ghillie suit in the driver’s seat jumped down and walked up to the two of them, sizing them up. “Killed in action?” The red paint on his face was very obvious.
“Yeah,” Zhao Gang said, turning his back, completely embarrassed. Sha Shaoxing was thick-skinned and admitted it openly, then tilted his head back and pretended to be calm. “It’s fine. There’s still one person holding on inside.”
The ghillie suit turned and looked back, pointing a finger. “Isn’t he over there?”
Zhao Gang and Sha Shaoxing quickly stood up and looked back. What was that person over there by the rock, if not a person?
“Brother Deng?” a small, puzzled voice called out.
All they heard was the black shadow move. “Yes,” a response came.
“Damn it,” Sha Shaoxing said, sitting down. They had been wiped out.
The black shadow moved over. It was no one else but Brother Deng. He had originally been a little embarrassed, but seeing that the two of them were in the same state as him, he didn’t feel embarrassed anymore.
“Hehehehe, well, there’s a pretty formidable one among this group of cadets,” he said. He had been ambushed.
The female cadets’ nerves were still in a state of extreme excitement. They had just taken out one together, and the feeling of excitement was still lingering in their hearts.
Jin Hongjie had already put on her new gear. She was tall enough, and it didn’t look out of place on her at all. She even imitated Zhou Wanfeng and smeared a handful of dirt on her face. If she didn’t speak, even her own mother wouldn’t be able to recognize her.
“Don’t waste time here. This is just the first, easy checkpoint. The real difficult part is ahead.”
There were originally three sets, but no one could wear the other one. They could barely wear it, but it was restrictive and a hindrance.
Zhou Wanfeng was not alone. She and Jin Hongjie were hiding in the dark, some distance from Liu Shupei and the others.
Basically, the two of them were on lookout and reconnaissance, leading the way.
By the time they saw a piece of white paper on a large, flat rock, announcing that they had left the first checkpoint and had officially entered the range of the second checkpoint,
everyone had unconsciously raised their guard. Zhou Wanfeng had said that the second checkpoint was the most crucial, a key fire zone for the enemy, with many enemies. They would probably not be fighting alone. With many people, they would coordinate, with a pincer attack from the front, back, left, and right.
Zhou Wanfeng and Jin Hongjie were a few meters apart. It would be too obvious if the two of them were huddled together.
Suddenly, the sound of a dry branch being stepped on came. Jin Hongjie looked up slightly. In the distance, a sneaky figure, who looked like a lone male cadet, was walking around, looking.
She watched as he got closer and closer to Zhou Wanfeng’s vicinity.
Jin Hongjie was lucky enough to witness a rare scene of a top predator in action.
All she saw was Zhou Wanfeng, as fast as a cheetah, charge out from her ambush spot. Her movements were simple and fast. The moment the male cadet turned to look back, she charged out.
She covered his mouth, twisted him, and pinned him to the ground.
“Don’t talk. I’m also a cadet.”
After the initial shock, the male cadet was about to fight back fiercely when he heard the voice. He was taken aback, then nodded in cooperation.
“Zhou… Zhou Wanfeng, I know you. We came in the same truck,” he said. In three months, who hadn’t heard of Zhou Wanfeng’s name? She was a good cadet that their own squad leader often mentioned, one of the outstanding cadets.
Zhou Wanfeng made a shushing gesture and told him to follow her behind a rock.
“Do you know what the situation is here?” Zhou Wanfeng needed to gather intelligence, which would be convenient for her to analyze.
The male cadet’s squad had come in from the second entrance. Fortunately, they had lost a few cadets at the first checkpoint. “I think the second checkpoint is much more difficult than the first. There are people everywhere here.”
“People everywhere?” Zhou Wanfeng subconsciously frowned.
The other side could not possibly have more people than them.
“Yes. There were eight of us when we got here. We were very careful at the beginning, but those black shadows are elusive. They would always find us a short while after we had hidden. It’s useless to hide,” the male cadet said simply and directly what he had experienced. Even as he spoke, he was constantly looking around.
“Remember, don’t let them get close. You have to fight them. They seem to have something. They’ll smear it on your face or your chest, and that probably means you’re ‘killed in action.’ On the other hand, the rules are the same for us. I think this is now a practical combat fight, but the other side’s skills are much higher than ours…”
Before the male cadet could finish, Zhou Wanfeng’s gaze suddenly sharpened. She lowered her head. “Don’t talk,” she said. There was movement outside.
Jin Hongjie also heard it. She was pressed firmly against the ground, not daring to move.
She vaguely heard, “Over there… there are two… there’s a team of ten behind them, all hidden… yes, alright. Let’s get the big group first.”
She could clearly hear footsteps rushing towards Liu Shupei and the others.
More and more doubts flashed through Zhou Wanfeng’s mind. Jin Hongjie had already stood up and was about to go back. She signaled for the male cadet to leave quickly. She stood up, then put her hands to her mouth and shouted in a deep voice, “Liu Shupei, we’ve been discovered! Get up and scatter!”
Zhou Wanfeng’s sudden shout broke the silence of the forest.
All they heard was someone running in the forest, and a sentence, “Well, I’ll be. So fierce, to just shout like that. So tough?”
When Zhou Wanfeng stood up, she saw the two black shadows that had been turning to leave, now turning and running quickly towards them.
Jin Hongjie had been halfway turned around. When she heard Zhou Wanfeng’s shout, she quickly turned back.
“Zhou Wanfeng, you didn’t even say a word before you shouted! You scared me!” Jin Hongjie’s heart was about to jump out of her chest. She shouted as she ran.
“There’s a problem with them,” Zhou Wanfeng said, and she and Jin Hongjie ran in the other direction, with their backs to the male cadet.
“What problem?” Jin Hongjie turned around and saw the two black shadows split into two. When she turned back, she saw Zhou Wanfeng jump up, grab a branch the thickness of a child’s wrist, and with her body weight, she pulled it down.
Crack.
The whole branch broke off.
She broke off the end and stripped off the small branches.
All Jin Hongjie saw was that in just a few seconds, Zhou Wanfeng had a weapon in her hand.
In an instant, she understood what Zhou Wanfeng meant. It was two against one. They had the advantage.
She immediately learned from her and broke off a branch to use as a weapon.
Zhou Wanfeng charged straight at them. Jin Hongjie was about to join the fight when she suddenly sensed movement behind her. All she saw was someone charging at her from behind. Fortunately, she reacted quickly and dodged.
Zhou Wanfeng sensed that there was an extra person on the other side, and her heart was filled with even more doubts.
The other side was bare-handed. Zhou Wanfeng had a wooden stick in her hand. An inch longer, an inch stronger. She temporarily had the upper hand.
“Yo, with your gear, it looks like you’ve taken out one of our people. Not bad.”
Zhou Wanfeng said nothing. She fought and retreated, slowly pulling away.
Jin Hongjie was panting. She hadn’t learned any stick fighting techniques. She was just swinging and hitting wildly, just to keep the other person from getting close.
“How did you determine our numbers? Normally, you shouldn’t be so accurate,” Zhou Wanfeng asked coldly.
Her voice was not at all flustered. On closer inspection, you would find that her hand movements were not wasted. She was protecting herself well and also preventing the other person from getting close.
The other person was closing in, step by step, and did not explain.
“And you seemed to be communicating with someone just now. A companion from a distance?” Zhou Wanfeng asked with a puzzled expression, at the same time, her mind was calmly analyzing the situation.
“Little cadet, first of all, you deserve some praise. To be able to calmly discover and analyze the problem at a time like this. And your skills seem to be not bad, at least much stronger than the one behind you. And you even took out our teammate at the first checkpoint. Just for that, I can guarantee that you will definitely get a high score in this assessment.”
“No, if this is an assessment, your ability to predict the future seems a little unfair to us. To choose such a night to assess us, our vision is limited. I thought it would be the same for both sides. But now it seems not. I’m very sure that you and your companion came from the other side before, but you can accurately see our hiding spot and the number of people behind us. But your information is probably not synchronized. There’s a delay, right?”
“What do you mean?”
“The place we were lying just now, to be precise, there were three people, not two. But you could accurately say the number of people behind us. The time the third person came over is the delay in your information. You should have a command center, or a temporary control center. You can see where the cadets are hiding, but we can’t see you. Then it can only be imaging photography… no, not at this time. The technology that can be used now is probably only infrared searchlights?” Zhou Wanfeng’s pupils suddenly constricted, and all the doubts in her mind were instantly explained.
Gao Chunjie’s footsteps faltered. His face, which was smeared with dark grease, instantly tensed. He suddenly asked seriously, “What’s your name?”
Zhou Wanfeng did not answer, her brow furrowed, the sharpness in her eyes unable to be hidden. Her voice was cold and hard. “If you have infrared searchlights, then you should also have something like a wireless communication walkie-talkie on you. The rear control center, or the command center, will capture the images, and through the rear, they will connect with you and tell you the approximate location. It’s just that there’s a little time difference in between.”
This was the reason why the male cadet had said that they couldn’t hide no matter how they tried.
“Zhou Wanfeng,” Jin Hongjie was forced closer to Zhou Wanfeng, panting heavily.
A wave of anger welled up in Zhou Wanfeng’s heart, for the cadets who were seriously participating in this exercise. But they didn’t know that their careful hiding was actually all under the other person’s nose.
The gap between the two sides was too big. The other side had brought high-tech to the battlefield, but the cadets were bare-handed, ready to fight with their full passion. But when they got here, they found that all they could do was to flee in a sorry state, over and over again. But they found that no matter how they fled, they could not escape the other side’s encirclement.
They were small and weak.
At the same time, Zhou Wanfeng also understood that at the end of the three-month new recruit training period, there was no real combat exercise, no real combat assessment.
“Such a painstaking effort. This is the most unforgettable and the most exciting night training that has been left for us after three months of hard training. Is this some kind of farewell party?” Zhou Wanfeng couldn’t describe the complicated feeling in her heart.
It was just that, after three months of hard training, they all felt that they were a little like soldiers. They had participated with full confidence, but in the end, they were hit with a stick. “Go back and study hard.”
In the future, if there was a war, high-tech would have to be the main thing. The era of fighting with your feet, with your hands, with weapons you found on the spot, and with a large number of people was over.
Gao Chunjie had thought that the unveiling would be at least tomorrow. He hadn’t expected that there would be such a smart person among Qin Zhe’s cadets. So smart that it was a little scary. He had always felt that soldiers who had studied were always bookish, or not decisive enough.
In fact, apart from some veterans, there were also new recruits who had just enlisted not long ago here tonight.
“Jin Hongjie, are you afraid of being ‘killed in action’?” Zhou Wanfeng had her back to her, and she could clearly hear her heavy panting.
“Afraid of what? If what you said just now is true, then Liu Shupei and the others have probably all been ‘killed in action’,” she said. The three words “unfair” could not be said. Although she felt a little frustrated, she couldn’t open her mouth.
In the future, if there was a war, the enemy would be technology, weapons, everything, and they would crush us in every aspect. At that time, should we also open our mouths and say it’s unfair?
Jin Hongjie just felt that it was a closed loop. She also understood the real purpose of this assessment, which was to make every cadet remember this feeling of frustration. If we don’t develop in the future, our soldiers on the battlefield will feel the same way they do now.
Apart from risking their lives, where’s the chance to win?