Zhang XiaoBai pulled up the zipper of his jacket and said to the group: “Then what else is there to say? Go, let’s go out and hunt.” Then he stood up with his guns on his shoulder and led the way out.
The others were all looking excited, in a seriousness, hiding away was a strategic necessity, yet back in their minds, they still wanted it to go out and take on someone head-on.
When they got out of the slope, Zhong Xu climbed to the highest peak of the slope then stretched his neck to survey around, then jumped down from the slope and said: “The two teams are going in different directions.” He pointed in two directions: “First Company are heading there, Second Company are over there.” Then he looked at Gu Ning subconsciously for her suggestion.
Gu Ning pondered for a moment then replied: “Let’s take out the second company first.”
There were three reasons.
First of all, the Second Company had Zhai Jun and Gu Ning felt a little threatened so it would be best to take him out first. Secondly, the Second Company had a greater intention to join forces than the First Company, so they had to be eliminated first. Thirdly, it was purely because Gu Ning did not like the Second Company after several competitions training.
Thus, when choosing between the First Company and Second Company, Gu Ning of course chose to take out Second Company.
Zhang XiaoBai was the first to embrace Gu Ning’s idea: “Hey, that’s what I thought so too.”
The others didn’t speak up but it was clear that their thoughts were the same as Gu Ning.
Without any objection, a group of five men began to rush forward in the direction of where the Second Company was located.
The mountain was not high, plus the area was enclosed by the net which was probably around five kilometres in circumference. Also, they had to keep in mind their speed while being concealed. Gu Ning imitated their arching movements while running quickly, always keeping her speed in their mid-section, while her whole body senses had expanded to the surroundings to detect any movement around them instantly.
According to Zhong Xu’s arrangement, Zhong Xu took the lead, followed closely by Zou Ming, and behind Gu Ning was Zhang XiaoBai and Zhao Jie at the end. No matter what, Gu Ning was in the middle position which was the safest position in the team.
Zhang XiaoBai and Zhao Jie watched Gu Ning in front of them arching very professionally while dashing, always following closely being Zou Ming, with light and steady footsteps, without the slightest strained feeling. The front foot landed while the back foot was already lifted, so agile and light that Gu Ning didn’t even break the dead branch when she stepped on it.
Zhang XiaoBai couldn’t help but swallow a mouthful of saliva, always feeling that Gu Ning wasn’t as simple as the background check by the Company Commander’s investigation.
“There are people!” Suddenly Gu Ning called out softly, and although Gu Ning’s voice was very small, the soldiers who were highly concentrated immediately reacted and stopped to find cover.
Several people quickly found a thick pile of thorn bushes and bent down to hide.
After such a long run, the physical exertion was enormous, and their chests rose and fell slightly, slowing down their breathing as much as possible.
After waiting for some time, there was no movement.
“No……”Zhang XiaoBai’s voice ended abruptly after he spat out the first word when Gu Ning reached out and covered his mouth, making a silent gesture with her other hand, then gesturing for him to look to his right.
It wasn’t long before the grass to the right-shifted and then several green figures burst out of it.
It was the men of the Second Company.
However, before the soldiers of the Third Company could rejoice, the smile froze on their faces, only to see that the men of the Second Company came out from the left and then the men of the First Company burst out from the right. Apparently, they hadn’t fought against each other and had already joined forces to finish off the Third Company first. The soldiers of the Third Company looked at each other, their faces were all a little solemn.
Zhang Wu of First Company rested his gun on the ground for a moment before saying: “I wonder where the gang from the Third Company has gone in hiding, these people must be rabbits.”
Zhao Liang of the Second Company snorted: “Those few from the Third Company must have played the game of letting us sniping of each other and then they’ll come out and clean up the mess when we’re almost done. Now they must have found a hole somewhere to hide.”
The Third Company hiding in the thorny bushes on the side of the road were all snappy when they heard their chatting.
Zhai Jun stood up high and glanced around before squatting down and said: “Even if they’re hiding in a hole, we’ll have to dig them out and root them off. Let’s go and keep looking.”
Then they all got up again and went in the direction from which the Third Company had come from.
Five minutes later, after making sure that they were far away from the soldiers then they dared to breathe freely while keeping their voices low: “Gu Ning, what next?”
Gu Ning frowned, she didn’t expect them to move so fast, she planned to break them up one by one, yet now they would have to fight head-on with all of them. Gu Ning glanced at the four soldiers and spoke: “Our Third Company Commander was right, if we can’t even deal with them, then we shouldn’t be in the Five Stars Brigade.” Gu Ning stoop up after saying it, she glanced down at the few of them from above with a cold smile: “Let’s go.”
The rest of them looked at each other, then together they stood up and followed Gu Ning in the direction of the First and Second Companies.
As they had to search along the way, the First and Second Companies were slightly slow, they didn’t let go of any possible hiding place, giving them a feeling of searching for ghosts in the middle of the mountains. They slowed down their speed due to searching whereas Gu Ning’s group was running at full throttle. Within ten minutes, Gu Ning’s and the rest had already spotted them.
They quickly concealed themselves.
The soldiers subconsciously turned their gazes to Gu Ning, waiting for her next instruction, having completely forgotten their worries about Gu Ning’s lack of actual combat practices before entering the mountain.
Gu Ning peered over the grass at the soldiers of the First and Second Companies who were impatiently searching for their trail in front of them. Her mind turned rapidly, suddenly, her gaze fell on Zhao Jie, who instantly felt a flinch as Gu Ning gestured for them to gather closer, lowering her voice to an extremely low level while rambling for a while. Several of their expression changed slightly.
Zhao Jie took the initiative and said: “I’ll go, as I said before entering the mountain, there are five of us in total, so one of us has to sacrifice, might as well let me sacrifice in a meaningful way.” After saying this, he looked at Gu Ning and continued: “Gu Ning, I’m counting on you for the three of them.”
Gu Ning solemnly nodded: “We will win.”
Before the other three could comment, Zhao Jie slipped away from the back of the grass field as Gu Ning had planned.
The search continued for the First and Second Companies, and a soldier from the Second Company casually waved a pile of grass open with the gun in his hand and said irritably: “The guys from the Third Company couldn’t have dug a rabbit hole to hide in, could they? We’ve almost turned the whole place around haven’t even seen a single shadow of them.”
Gong MengLong, the leader of the First Company, raised his hand to check his wristwatch then replied: “It’s already been an hour. The time limit is three hours, so maybe the men from the Third Company are just trying to force us to fight off each other and then waited till the last minute before showing up to clean up the mess.”
Zhai Jun’s expression was also very grave, he was temporarily transferred from the military academy to here because he was squeezed out of the military academy’s quota. He had to use his connections to be urgently transferred to the army to fight for this one slot. Originally he thought that he could stand a chance, but he didn’t expect that the Five Stars Brigade to make such a limitation. Moreover, out of nowhere came a Gu Ning, if he didn’t even meet the threshold of the Five Stars Brigade test, he would be so unwilling.
If the Third Company never came out, then there was a good chance that something like what Gong MengLong had stated would really happen. They had long guessed that the Third Company would have such a plan, but they didn’t expect them to hide so well, and they had never seen any of them since they had gone their separate ways into the mountains.
Just as Zhai Jun was in a very gloomy mood, suddenly, his glance caught a glimpse of the tufts of grass at his back, which moved slightly. The movement was so small that it could have been a gust of wind blowing by, but right now there was no wind —— Zhai Jun’s gaze met Gong MengLong’s in the mid-air and it was clear that the other had caught the movement as well. The two looked at each other and exchanged a silent message with their eyes before reaching a consensus that there was someone there! Anyone sneaking around at this time of the day would be no one other than the men of the Third Company.
The two of them shifted their eyes away but their side-gazes were already locked at the spot. Sure enough, it seemed to confirm that it was safe and the man hiding in the grass started to move in very small movements. Zhai Jun and Gong MengLong looked at each other, both were very sure that the other man was thinking the same as themselves, that they could not alert the hidden man. They were very sure that this man should be the one the Third Company had sent over to scout their movements, then he would surely go back to join the remaining four men now. Thinking that they had already wasted an hour, if they didn’t seize this opportunity, with the fleeing skills of the gang from the Third Company, they reckoned that they might not be able to find them even after another two hours of searching.
Gong MengLong didn’t hesitate, passed his gun back to his confused teammate, then hugged a nearby tree and started to climb up. His movements were very agile, it seems like he had been specially trained and climbed four or five meters at one go, then he hugged the trunk tightly and locked his gaze on the figure that was moving very carefully and stealthily through the grass.
Only when the figure disappeared behind an uneven slope a few dozen metres away then did he giggle and slide down from the tree, saying to the remaining soldiers, who were confused and had no idea what Gong MengLong was doing; “We’ve found their rabbit hole. Let’s go! Let’s root them out of their rabbit hole!”
The soldiers who had been in a state of irritation, immediately felt his spirits lift.
Gong MengLong led the way, moving with great care, their heads covered with rings of grass woven on the road, even their black special guns were tied with grass, so that if one didn’t look closely, it would be difficult to even see these green moving objects passing through the dense grass.
They were very confident of their concealment skills and Zhai Jun felt vaguely excited. Imagining the faces of the men from the Third Company, surrounded by them, especially that Gu Ning, who always looked so confident and so sure of herself which made him feel a great sense of anticipation.
Although they were very careful not to alert the “rabbits” by making too much noise, they were still very fast because of their training. When they saw the arching slope not far away, Gong MengLong signaled them to a halt and prepared to make a gesture to spread out and surround them.
However, just when he had raised his hand, he heard a biu sound, and almost instantly the tensed nerves in Gong MengLong’s head snapped —— before he could make a move to dodge, a chocking puff of smoke rose, while the little red light on the front of his chest flickering.
Those soldiers following Gong MengLong were dumbfounded as they watched the smoke rise from the special clothes on Gong MengLong’s body.
Zhai Jun reacted almost instantly and shouted: “There’s an ambush! Take cover!” At the same time, he found the nearest tree, and with a leap, he pounced behind it.
The soldiers reacted and sought cover, however, this instant reaction was not as quick as Gu Ning’s, she barely needed to aim and in just a few seconds, smoke kept rising from the running soldiers, and the smoke rising meant the man had been eliminated from the game.
When Gong MengLong saw that four of his teammate, including himself, had died at once, but he couldn’t even see where his opponent was, he couldn’t help and cursed: “F*ck! We’ve been f*cking tricked!”
Zhai Jun’s back was pressed tightly against the tree, feeling the cold chill on his back, his back was full of cold sweat, and his heart was thumping rapidly. When the smoke came out of the soldier next to him just now, he almost thought it was coming out from himself and he almost die of fright. He had guessed that the shot had been aimed at him, but he didn’t expect the solder to rush out at once and block his back, so he luckily escaped.
He looked at the clearing where Gong MengLong and three soldiers from the First Company and three soldiers from the Second Company were standing there with smoke emitting from their clothes, apparently, they were eliminated from this competition.
Now there were just two of them left from the Second Company and one from the First Company.
The soldier of the First Company was a relatively short and thin soldier named Chen Gen, who was silent and didn’t speak on the way. He was hiding behind a tree with his gun, perfectly concealing his figure.
Zhai Jun gave him a look, he had seen his training results during the training exercise and could only describe them as very mediocre. He had always wondered how the First Company Commander had selected him but now he had proven himself by being the only “survivor” of his company.
Zhai Jun exchanged glances with the other man of the Second Company, who was obviously also terrified because it had all happened too quickly and they were still absorbed in the fact that they were going to surround the Third Company yet they were slapped by reality. Moreover, they were directly ambushed by the Third Company, scrapping half of their numbers in one go. It seemed that the man was simply a bait placed by Third Company. When did those simple-minded men of the Third Company become so cunning?
The scene went into a stalemate.
After putting down a few men, the Third Company who had lost sight of their targets fell silent.
The men who were already in a state of death all sat together in a huddle, allowing the smoke to rise from their bodies with an inexplicable sense of sadness and desolation. The smoke caused by several people gathered together was very large and soon filled up in a small area on the side, the vision began to become blurred. Zhai Jun’s heart moved and suddenly thought of a plan, turning back to the two others including the survivor of the first company, Chen Gen, and gesturing a few hand signals. At the same time, he exchanged glances with the soldier from the Second Company who had been eliminated, and as soon as the smoke was cleared, the soldier dashed out in a very fast motion towards another direction.
Zhang XiaoBai was hiding behind a mountain rock and asked Gu Ning in a low voice what to do now if they hid and refused to come out.
Suddenly, he heard Gu Ning let out a low bellow: “Coming.”
Zhang XiaoBai emerged with his head halfway out to take a peek, but there was smoke everywhere in front of him, so he couldn’t see where the people were.
Just then Gu Ning had relied on her extremely keen hearing to fire two shots into the smoke.
“Crap!” Only Zou Ming’s voice could be heard shouting over there, and then a puff of smoke could be seen floating up.
“I’m dead too!” Following closely behind was Zhao Jie’s helpless voice.
Two people were instantly eliminated from the Third Company at once, Gu Ning couldn’t help but feel her heart tighten, while she vaguely felt something was off in her mind.
Her ears suddenly caught the sound of an extremely subtle footstep approaching Zhang XiaoBai’s side. She had the ominous feeling and was about to expose her figure to rescue Zhang XiaoBai, but Zhong Xu was even quicker than her and rushed over to block Zhang XiaoBai at once. He smiled at Gu Ning and the next second, the smoke rose from his clothes.
Gu Ning was a bit overwhelmed at the time, hiding behind a rock and looking at Zhong Xu and Zhang XiaoBai in a daze.
Her side was actually eliminated from Zou Ming, Zhao Jie, and Zhong Xu, three in a row within such a short period.
The man in the smoke coughed dryly and came out of the smoke, Gong MengLong coughed a few times, then nodded and said: “Okay, you all could come out now, there are exactly four of you still alive, so there won’t be the need to fight anymore.”
Zhang XiaoBai glanced at Gu Ning, who gave him a nod then they both strolled out together.
Zhai Jun and Chen Gen also strolled out.
There were exactly four people left, and although the dozen or so who were eliminated were feeling a little bit depressed, they were still able to accept the result.
Gong MengLong spoke up: “Congratulation to the four of you.”
Both Zhai Jun and Chen Gen had been congratulated by their own company, while Gu Ning and Zhang XiaoBai had also been congratulated by them. Now that the rivalry between them had been lifted, they naturally didn’t begrudge their friendliness.
Zhai Jun stared at Gu Ning seriously before saying: “Gu Ning, you’re really something. I hope we can work together amicably when we face the Five Stars Brigade.” This was like showing Gu Ning a peace treaty. Gu Ning’s performance for today had been proved that she was more than just a good target shooter. However, in response to Zhai Jun’s act of goodwill, Gu Ning only nodded absentmindedly, reacting very coldly.
This was supposed to be the end of the matter, and then it was time for them to go down the mountain together.
However, Gu Ning suddenly frowned: “Something’s not right.”
Her gaze was a little cold and Zhang XiaoBai froze and asked: “What’s wrong? It’s exactly four slots.”
Gu Ning’s cold gaze swept over the faces of every man in the First and Second Companies then coldly questioned: “The ones I shot just now were two out of the three of you, why are there still two of you left alive?”
She was distracted just now because she had been feeling something was off due to the projection of the number of people who had died, and now the results were shown.
This cold and aggressive questioning caused Zhai Jun, who had already relaxed, instantly stiffen imperceptibly and Chen Gen took a step back and subconsciously glanced at Zhai Jun expressionlessly.
A short, breathless silence followed the soldiers’ overwhelming astonishment.
Even those who were slow to think quickly caught on to the meaning of Gu Ning’s question.
The already relaxed atmosphere on the field was instantly tensed by Gu Ning’s cold questioning.
Zhang XiaoBai pulled up the zipper of his jacket and said to the group: “Then what else is there to say? Go, let’s go out and hunt.” Then he stood up with his guns on his shoulder and led the way out.
The others were all looking excited, in a seriousness, hiding away was a strategic necessity, yet back in their minds, they still wanted it to go out and take on someone head-on.
When they got out of the slope, Zhong Xu climbed to the highest peak of the slope then stretched his neck to survey around, then jumped down from the slope and said: “The two teams are going in different directions.” He pointed in two directions: “First Company are heading there, Second Company are over there.” Then he looked at Gu Ning subconsciously for her suggestion.
Gu Ning pondered for a moment then replied: “Let’s take out the second company first.”
There were three reasons.
First of all, the Second Company had Zhai Jun and Gu Ning felt a little threatened so it would be best to take him out first. Secondly, the Second Company had a greater intention to join forces than the First Company, so they had to be eliminated first. Thirdly, it was purely because Gu Ning did not like the Second Company after several competitions training.
Thus, when choosing between the First Company and Second Company, Gu Ning of course chose to take out Second Company.
Zhang XiaoBai was the first to embrace Gu Ning’s idea: “Hey, that’s what I thought so too.”
The others didn’t speak up but it was clear that their thoughts were the same as Gu Ning.
Without any objection, a group of five men began to rush forward in the direction of where the Second Company was located.
The mountain was not high, plus the area was enclosed by the net which was probably around five kilometres in circumference. Also, they had to keep in mind their speed while being concealed. Gu Ning imitated their arching movements while running quickly, always keeping her speed in their mid-section, while her whole body senses had expanded to the surroundings to detect any movement around them instantly.
According to Zhong Xu’s arrangement, Zhong Xu took the lead, followed closely by Zou Ming, and behind Gu Ning was Zhang XiaoBai and Zhao Jie at the end. No matter what, Gu Ning was in the middle position which was the safest position in the team.
Zhang XiaoBai and Zhao Jie watched Gu Ning in front of them arching very professionally while dashing, always following closely being Zou Ming, with light and steady footsteps, without the slightest strained feeling. The front foot landed while the back foot was already lifted, so agile and light that Gu Ning didn’t even break the dead branch when she stepped on it.
Zhang XiaoBai couldn’t help but swallow a mouthful of saliva, always feeling that Gu Ning wasn’t as simple as the background check by the Company Commander’s investigation.
“There are people!” Suddenly Gu Ning called out softly, and although Gu Ning’s voice was very small, the soldiers who were highly concentrated immediately reacted and stopped to find cover.
Several people quickly found a thick pile of thorn bushes and bent down to hide.
After such a long run, the physical exertion was enormous, and their chests rose and fell slightly, slowing down their breathing as much as possible.
After waiting for some time, there was no movement.
“No……”Zhang XiaoBai’s voice ended abruptly after he spat out the first word when Gu Ning reached out and covered his mouth, making a silent gesture with her other hand, then gesturing for him to look to his right.
It wasn’t long before the grass to the right-shifted and then several green figures burst out of it.
It was the men of the Second Company.
However, before the soldiers of the Third Company could rejoice, the smile froze on their faces, only to see that the men of the Second Company came out from the left and then the men of the First Company burst out from the right. Apparently, they hadn’t fought against each other and had already joined forces to finish off the Third Company first. The soldiers of the Third Company looked at each other, their faces were all a little solemn.
Zhang Wu of First Company rested his gun on the ground for a moment before saying: “I wonder where the gang from the Third Company has gone in hiding, these people must be rabbits.”
Zhao Liang of the Second Company snorted: “Those few from the Third Company must have played the game of letting us sniping of each other and then they’ll come out and clean up the mess when we’re almost done. Now they must have found a hole somewhere to hide.”
The Third Company hiding in the thorny bushes on the side of the road were all snappy when they heard their chatting.
Zhai Jun stood up high and glanced around before squatting down and said: “Even if they’re hiding in a hole, we’ll have to dig them out and root them off. Let’s go and keep looking.”
Then they all got up again and went in the direction from which the Third Company had come from.
Five minutes later, after making sure that they were far away from the soldiers then they dared to breathe freely while keeping their voices low: “Gu Ning, what next?”
Gu Ning frowned, she didn’t expect them to move so fast, she planned to break them up one by one, yet now they would have to fight head-on with all of them. Gu Ning glanced at the four soldiers and spoke: “Our Third Company Commander was right, if we can’t even deal with them, then we shouldn’t be in the Five Stars Brigade.” Gu Ning stoop up after saying it, she glanced down at the few of them from above with a cold smile: “Let’s go.”
The rest of them looked at each other, then together they stood up and followed Gu Ning in the direction of the First and Second Companies.
As they had to search along the way, the First and Second Companies were slightly slow, they didn’t let go of any possible hiding place, giving them a feeling of searching for ghosts in the middle of the mountains. They slowed down their speed due to searching whereas Gu Ning’s group was running at full throttle. Within ten minutes, Gu Ning’s and the rest had already spotted them.
They quickly concealed themselves.
The soldiers subconsciously turned their gazes to Gu Ning, waiting for her next instruction, having completely forgotten their worries about Gu Ning’s lack of actual combat practices before entering the mountain.
Gu Ning peered over the grass at the soldiers of the First and Second Companies who were impatiently searching for their trail in front of them. Her mind turned rapidly, suddenly, her gaze fell on Zhao Jie, who instantly felt a flinch as Gu Ning gestured for them to gather closer, lowering her voice to an extremely low level while rambling for a while. Several of their expression changed slightly.
Zhao Jie took the initiative and said: “I’ll go, as I said before entering the mountain, there are five of us in total, so one of us has to sacrifice, might as well let me sacrifice in a meaningful way.” After saying this, he looked at Gu Ning and continued: “Gu Ning, I’m counting on you for the three of them.”
Gu Ning solemnly nodded: “We will win.”
Before the other three could comment, Zhao Jie slipped away from the back of the grass field as Gu Ning had planned.
The search continued for the First and Second Companies, and a soldier from the Second Company casually waved a pile of grass open with the gun in his hand and said irritably: “The guys from the Third Company couldn’t have dug a rabbit hole to hide in, could they? We’ve almost turned the whole place around haven’t even seen a single shadow of them.”
Gong MengLong, the leader of the First Company, raised his hand to check his wristwatch then replied: “It’s already been an hour. The time limit is three hours, so maybe the men from the Third Company are just trying to force us to fight off each other and then waited till the last minute before showing up to clean up the mess.”
Zhai Jun’s expression was also very grave, he was temporarily transferred from the military academy to here because he was squeezed out of the military academy’s quota. He had to use his connections to be urgently transferred to the army to fight for this one slot. Originally he thought that he could stand a chance, but he didn’t expect that the Five Stars Brigade to make such a limitation. Moreover, out of nowhere came a Gu Ning, if he didn’t even meet the threshold of the Five Stars Brigade test, he would be so unwilling.
If the Third Company never came out, then there was a good chance that something like what Gong MengLong had stated would really happen. They had long guessed that the Third Company would have such a plan, but they didn’t expect them to hide so well, and they had never seen any of them since they had gone their separate ways into the mountains.
Just as Zhai Jun was in a very gloomy mood, suddenly, his glance caught a glimpse of the tufts of grass at his back, which moved slightly. The movement was so small that it could have been a gust of wind blowing by, but right now there was no wind —— Zhai Jun’s gaze met Gong MengLong’s in the mid-air and it was clear that the other had caught the movement as well. The two looked at each other and exchanged a silent message with their eyes before reaching a consensus that there was someone there! Anyone sneaking around at this time of the day would be no one other than the men of the Third Company.
The two of them shifted their eyes away but their side-gazes were already locked at the spot. Sure enough, it seemed to confirm that it was safe and the man hiding in the grass started to move in very small movements. Zhai Jun and Gong MengLong looked at each other, both were very sure that the other man was thinking the same as themselves, that they could not alert the hidden man. They were very sure that this man should be the one the Third Company had sent over to scout their movements, then he would surely go back to join the remaining four men now. Thinking that they had already wasted an hour, if they didn’t seize this opportunity, with the fleeing skills of the gang from the Third Company, they reckoned that they might not be able to find them even after another two hours of searching.
Gong MengLong didn’t hesitate, passed his gun back to his confused teammate, then hugged a nearby tree and started to climb up. His movements were very agile, it seems like he had been specially trained and climbed four or five meters at one go, then he hugged the trunk tightly and locked his gaze on the figure that was moving very carefully and stealthily through the grass.
Only when the figure disappeared behind an uneven slope a few dozen metres away then did he giggle and slide down from the tree, saying to the remaining soldiers, who were confused and had no idea what Gong MengLong was doing; “We’ve found their rabbit hole. Let’s go! Let’s root them out of their rabbit hole!”
The soldiers who had been in a state of irritation, immediately felt his spirits lift.
Gong MengLong led the way, moving with great care, their heads covered with rings of grass woven on the road, even their black special guns were tied with grass, so that if one didn’t look closely, it would be difficult to even see these green moving objects passing through the dense grass.
They were very confident of their concealment skills and Zhai Jun felt vaguely excited. Imagining the faces of the men from the Third Company, surrounded by them, especially that Gu Ning, who always looked so confident and so sure of herself which made him feel a great sense of anticipation.
Although they were very careful not to alert the “rabbits” by making too much noise, they were still very fast because of their training. When they saw the arching slope not far away, Gong MengLong signaled them to a halt and prepared to make a gesture to spread out and surround them.
However, just when he had raised his hand, he heard a biu sound, and almost instantly the tensed nerves in Gong MengLong’s head snapped —— before he could make a move to dodge, a chocking puff of smoke rose, while the little red light on the front of his chest flickering.
Those soldiers following Gong MengLong were dumbfounded as they watched the smoke rise from the special clothes on Gong MengLong’s body.
Zhai Jun reacted almost instantly and shouted: “There’s an ambush! Take cover!” At the same time, he found the nearest tree, and with a leap, he pounced behind it.
The soldiers reacted and sought cover, however, this instant reaction was not as quick as Gu Ning’s, she barely needed to aim and in just a few seconds, smoke kept rising from the running soldiers, and the smoke rising meant the man had been eliminated from the game.
When Gong MengLong saw that four of his teammate, including himself, had died at once, but he couldn’t even see where his opponent was, he couldn’t help and cursed: “F*ck! We’ve been f*cking tricked!”
Zhai Jun’s back was pressed tightly against the tree, feeling the cold chill on his back, his back was full of cold sweat, and his heart was thumping rapidly. When the smoke came out of the soldier next to him just now, he almost thought it was coming out from himself and he almost die of fright. He had guessed that the shot had been aimed at him, but he didn’t expect the solder to rush out at once and block his back, so he luckily escaped.
He looked at the clearing where Gong MengLong and three soldiers from the First Company and three soldiers from the Second Company were standing there with smoke emitting from their clothes, apparently, they were eliminated from this competition.
Now there were just two of them left from the Second Company and one from the First Company.
The soldier of the First Company was a relatively short and thin soldier named Chen Gen, who was silent and didn’t speak on the way. He was hiding behind a tree with his gun, perfectly concealing his figure.
Zhai Jun gave him a look, he had seen his training results during the training exercise and could only describe them as very mediocre. He had always wondered how the First Company Commander had selected him but now he had proven himself by being the only “survivor” of his company.
Zhai Jun exchanged glances with the other man of the Second Company, who was obviously also terrified because it had all happened too quickly and they were still absorbed in the fact that they were going to surround the Third Company yet they were slapped by reality. Moreover, they were directly ambushed by the Third Company, scrapping half of their numbers in one go. It seemed that the man was simply a bait placed by Third Company. When did those simple-minded men of the Third Company become so cunning?
The scene went into a stalemate.
After putting down a few men, the Third Company who had lost sight of their targets fell silent.
The men who were already in a state of death all sat together in a huddle, allowing the smoke to rise from their bodies with an inexplicable sense of sadness and desolation. The smoke caused by several people gathered together was very large and soon filled up in a small area on the side, the vision began to become blurred. Zhai Jun’s heart moved and suddenly thought of a plan, turning back to the two others including the survivor of the first company, Chen Gen, and gesturing a few hand signals. At the same time, he exchanged glances with the soldier from the Second Company who had been eliminated, and as soon as the smoke was cleared, the soldier dashed out in a very fast motion towards another direction.
Zhang XiaoBai was hiding behind a mountain rock and asked Gu Ning in a low voice what to do now if they hid and refused to come out.
Suddenly, he heard Gu Ning let out a low bellow: “Coming.”
Zhang XiaoBai emerged with his head halfway out to take a peek, but there was smoke everywhere in front of him, so he couldn’t see where the people were.
Just then Gu Ning had relied on her extremely keen hearing to fire two shots into the smoke.
“Crap!” Only Zou Ming’s voice could be heard shouting over there, and then a puff of smoke could be seen floating up.
“I’m dead too!” Following closely behind was Zhao Jie’s helpless voice.
Two people were instantly eliminated from the Third Company at once, Gu Ning couldn’t help but feel her heart tighten, while she vaguely felt something was off in her mind.
Her ears suddenly caught the sound of an extremely subtle footstep approaching Zhang XiaoBai’s side. She had the ominous feeling and was about to expose her figure to rescue Zhang XiaoBai, but Zhong Xu was even quicker than her and rushed over to block Zhang XiaoBai at once. He smiled at Gu Ning and the next second, the smoke rose from his clothes.
Gu Ning was a bit overwhelmed at the time, hiding behind a rock and looking at Zhong Xu and Zhang XiaoBai in a daze.
Her side was actually eliminated from Zou Ming, Zhao Jie, and Zhong Xu, three in a row within such a short period.
The man in the smoke coughed dryly and came out of the smoke, Gong MengLong coughed a few times, then nodded and said: “Okay, you all could come out now, there are exactly four of you still alive, so there won’t be the need to fight anymore.”
Zhang XiaoBai glanced at Gu Ning, who gave him a nod then they both strolled out together.
Zhai Jun and Chen Gen also strolled out.
There were exactly four people left, and although the dozen or so who were eliminated were feeling a little bit depressed, they were still able to accept the result.
Gong MengLong spoke up: “Congratulation to the four of you.”
Both Zhai Jun and Chen Gen had been congratulated by their own company, while Gu Ning and Zhang XiaoBai had also been congratulated by them. Now that the rivalry between them had been lifted, they naturally didn’t begrudge their friendliness.
Zhai Jun stared at Gu Ning seriously before saying: “Gu Ning, you’re really something. I hope we can work together amicably when we face the Five Stars Brigade.” This was like showing Gu Ning a peace treaty. Gu Ning’s performance for today had been proved that she was more than just a good target shooter. However, in response to Zhai Jun’s act of goodwill, Gu Ning only nodded absentmindedly, reacting very coldly.
This was supposed to be the end of the matter, and then it was time for them to go down the mountain together.
However, Gu Ning suddenly frowned: “Something’s not right.”
Her gaze was a little cold and Zhang XiaoBai froze and asked: “What’s wrong? It’s exactly four slots.”
Gu Ning’s cold gaze swept over the faces of every man in the First and Second Companies then coldly questioned: “The ones I shot just now were two out of the three of you, why are there still two of you left alive?”
She was distracted just now because she had been feeling something was off due to the projection of the number of people who had died, and now the results were shown.
This cold and aggressive questioning caused Zhai Jun, who had already relaxed, instantly stiffen imperceptibly and Chen Gen took a step back and subconsciously glanced at Zhai Jun expressionlessly.
A short, breathless silence followed the soldiers’ overwhelming astonishment.
Even those who were slow to think quickly caught on to the meaning of Gu Ning’s question.
The already relaxed atmosphere on the field was instantly tensed by Gu Ning’s cold questioning.
