Chapter 173: This Brat Won’t Get Any Advantage (Part one)
On the defending side, Hu Bing’s hiding spot was very risky. He was lying in ambush in a disguised spot outside of the defense zone. In his words, he was planning to shut the gate once the enemies are in. When Xu Cheng and his team passed by him and engaged with the defending side, he would appear from behind Xu Cheng’s team and claim their heads.
This was a strategy he arbitrarily decided, and the other members didn’t really agree with it. After all, their entire game plan was to play around him. So if he was exposed or got eliminated first, it would be a real uphill battle for the rest of the team against the team of veterans. In fact, they knew Hu Bing was just trying to show off, but they couldn’t refute. He often did this before and there had been successful occasions, so they didn’t show their disagreement too directly.
Seeing Hu Bing’s situation,the analysts at the monitoring center said, “He’s being too reckless. He’s simply putting himself in the forefront and lacks sense in the grand scheme of things.”
The head instructor crossed his arms, looked at the surveillance footage, narrowed his eyes, and said, “He wants to capture Xu Cheng. He knows the veterans would probably play around Xu Cheng on the offense and Xu Cheng, the brain of the team whose combat strength just declined, should be in the rear of the formation. It would be hard to penetrate the formation to get Xu Cheng, so he thought he might as well hide outside of the defense zone so when the veteran team goes in, he would be in close proximity with Xu Cheng. This brat just really wants Xu Cheng to see how powerful he is.”
Switching the screen to Xu Cheng’s side, the analyst said, “This brat should still be respectful towards veterans.”
“No.” The head instructor said, “I don’t think he could get any advantage going up against Xu Cheng. After the trip to C City, I felt like Xu Cheng underwent a transformation. I don’t know exactly what’s different about him now, but I can feel that his style is much different than before.”
Analyst: “Head Instructor, what do you want to say?”
Head Instructor: “I feel that Xu Cheng being able to maintain this kind of calm and unrelenting attitude only means that everything is under his control. Do you see how he led the veterans through the path without too much worry? That means he already predicted where the defending team would be hiding in ambush. If it was someone else, they would be extremely cautious right after setting foot into the forest, but he isn’t. They are moving through the forest very quickly.”
Analyst: “It might be because he’s previously familiar with the forest. After all, he stayed in the 5th Military Region for 4 years before, so he knows all about this terrain.”
The head instructor smiled in response. “Do you still remember the map of the mines deployed by the defending team?”
The analysts immediately played the footage from before and then noted down the formation of the mines that were deployed. Then, they realized that Hu Bing’s team’s mine deployment was very tactical, and it was the classic pyramid layout.
There would be one mine in the front, and then two placed 5 meters away, and then three placed 7 meters away, like a triangular pyramid, with the sharpest part pointing outward and the widest area towards the defending side. This kind of layout meant the soldiers couldn’t dodge the mines if they were to walk in a straight line, and they had to go zig-zag into the mine zone, or else they would for sure detonate one.
After seeing this layout, the analyst immediately asked the technician, “Did the attacking side cross this area yet?”
Technician: “They already did.”
Analyst: “No casualties at all?”
Technician: “None of the mines were detonated, so no one’s out so far.”
The analysts were all shocked. At this moment, the head instructor spoke, “Xu Cheng perfectly led the team across the minefield.”
The analysts immediately said, “Hurry and switch to the attacking side’s cameras to check the playback!”
Chapter 173: This Brat Won’t Get Any Advantage (Part two)
The technician was in a difficult spot. “It will take some time… Earlier, the head instructor said to just play the defense side’s cameras, so the footage on the attacking side was being rendered on lower priority.”
On the defense side, the hidden sentry hiding at the top of a tree noticed Xu Cheng’s team’s arrival. He quietly whispered into his headset, “Target acquired.”
Hu Bing: “Which direction?”
Hidden Sentry: “Ahead.”
Hu Bing paused for a moment. “Isn’t that the minefield? Count their team, how many did they lose?”
The hidden sentry counted with his telescope, and after being silent for a brief moment, he said, “Zero.”
Hu Bing: “That’s impossible! They just passed the minefield, and every 5 or so meters, they would for sure step on a mine if they walked in a straight line! It’s impossible that they didn’t lose a single guy! Absolutely impossible! Count again.”
The sentry counted again, and he muttered as he bitterly smiled, “There are indeed 15 of them, no casualties, they are still- “
Before he could finish, the sentry heard a “pa” sound. There was a color spot on his helmet! His communication device was turned off and he lost contact with the team.
“Hello? What did you say? Hello? Li Yang, do you copy?” The hidden sentry lost contact before he could finish his sentence, Hu Bing knew it meant he was taken out.
“Fack! Everyone, be on the alert. Li Yang’s already out, there are still 15 people on the offense!” Hu Bing gritted his teeth as he reminded the other members.
On the offensive side, a veteran sniper wiped the sweat off his forehead after he took out the hidden sentry. Thank god the shot landed, or it would have alerted the enemy and impacted their operation.
Xu Cheng gave him a big thumbs up. “Old Wang, I got nothing to say, your shooting skill is still as sharp as always.”
Old Wang let out a breath of relief. “Thank God I dripped a few eye drops in my eyes before coming in and my eyes didn’t fack me up at the crucial moment.”
Wei Yuan: “Xu Cheng, how did you know there was a hidden sentry there? Holy crap, you were actually right!”
Xu Cheng: “Look at the sky, what time is it right now?”
Liao Shuhang: “It’s almost 5 o’clock in the afternoon.”
Xu Cheng nodded and said, “The sun at five is at a pretty low angle. Look at the other trees, usually the density of the leaves on trees follow a pattern, and that allows the trees to glimmer a bit once the sun rays shines into the tree. However, the tree over there had significantly less shining spots reflecting back the sun, which meant that there was most likely someone hiding in there.”
Wei Yuan stuck up his thumb. “What a pro! But just now, why did you get us to follow you and walk forward in the weird zig-zag pattern?”
Xu Cheng: “If I’m not wrong, that was the minefield just now, and Wu Bing had a pretty clever deployment of mines. With your big hearts and clumsy movements, it would be surprising if you guys didn’t step on one.”
