Chapter Twenty-Nine: Surrounded

As always, the journey is what matters; as long as the process is thrilling, the outcome—whatever it may be—will have been worth it.

Gao Yi used to be the core of his original team, so his former teammates still defer to his leadership. This facilitates unified coordination and allows everyone’s strengths to be put to the best use, thanks to their deep mutual understanding.

Their addition has certainly made our group less monotonous. What was once a team of two men and eight women has become five men and ten women. Though women still outnumber men by a large margin, the disparity no longer stands out as starkly as before. Like red blossoms set off by green leaves, too many flowers with barely any greenery would only look plain; in that case, no one would care whether the flowers themselves were beautiful.

Because Gao Yi’s group lacked camouflage suits, I had the men gather together and the women do the same, everyone huddling close to form a single mass. In this way, we could all hide under the cover of the camouflage suits.

Clustering together like this offered better concealment from enemy eyes, though it also heightened the risk: if one of us was discovered, the rest would likely be dragged down as well. It was just as when we’d previously stumbled upon that patch of grass—inside, an entire group was hiding. They fired at us but missed, and we wiped them out with a hail of bullets in return.

That lesson still lingers. Yet as with all things, advantages come with disadvantages—it’s all in how you play your hand.

I’ve already told my teammates: when you spot an enemy, don’t try to save bullets. Giving the opposition even a moment to react is an act of disloyalty to your comrades. Fortunately, my teammates took this advice to heart, remembering what happened before and vowing to put it into practice.

Lost in thought, I suddenly noticed a faint disturbance ahead. I peered more closely—damn, it was a person.

Someone, draped in a grass mat, was crawling our way. The mat was probably too large, scraping against the ground and producing a faint rustling. He’d unwittingly given away his position. Still, I didn’t open fire immediately. I kept him in my sights and watched his rear, wary that this might be a ruse—a disposable player sent to draw our fire, so their team could pinpoint our hiding place and open up on us.

Bang!

But even though I hesitated, my teammate wasted no time and fired as soon as they spotted the intruder.

Inwardly, I could only hope my fears wouldn’t come true.

But as the saying goes, ill fortune is always more effective than good luck, and Murphy’s Law rears its head: no matter how slim the odds, if something can go wrong, it will.

The moment my teammate shot and took down that person, I saw movement in the grass not far off. No need for further speculation—we’d been exposed.

“Spread out! Find cover!” I shouted, then fired a burst toward the spot where I’d seen movement.

Instantly, two plumes of smoke rose from that direction.

There was no way only three people would dare ambush us—there had to be more, hidden elsewhere.

The sight of smoke where I’d fired, along with the sound of my voice, made everything clear to everyone—we were surrounded.

Gunfire erupted, and one of my teammates was eliminated.

When he took down our comrade, I pinpointed his location, fired off a few rounds, and eliminated him as well.

Meanwhile, gunfire broke out in several other spots.

They had the advantage of concealment; we were exposed. Now wasn’t the time for regret.

“Enemies at three o’clock, nine o’clock, and eight o’clock!” I called out. There was no way I alone could turn the tide; I had to put my trust in my teammates.

Though everyone was momentarily caught off guard, they quickly found cover and returned fire toward the patches of grass I’d indicated.

A barrage of bullets pinned down the hidden enemies, keeping their heads down.

Only then did I finally breathe a sigh of relief.

We’d lost one man and one woman, but at least the situation was back under control.

Enemies in plain sight are far less dangerous than those lurking in the shadows. If three more people were hiding in those patches, they’d make a seven-person squad; if six, then a team of ten. The most troubling part was that we couldn’t be sure there weren’t others lying in wait elsewhere.

“You cover those three points—keep your heads down. I’ll check for other hidden threats.”

We’d been careless this time, never expecting anyone would crawl so stealthily toward us. In truth, my two easy victories had dulled my caution. Though I kept saying we must treat every opponent seriously, inwardly I’d already started underestimating them. This ambush was well deserved, though it pained me to lose two teammates for nothing.

To avoid falling into another trap, I began searching for any place someone might be hiding. But with so many trees and thickets, it was impossible to check them all.

Suddenly, inspiration struck. Why bother guessing every possible hiding place? Their formation would reveal the likely spots.

First, if there were more enemies, their positions would have to cover all teammates and keep us in sight. That narrowed the number of likely locations considerably.

Factoring in the need for cover, I counted five or six possible places.

There wasn’t time to analyze which ones were truly occupied—every one deserved a volley.

“Six o’clock and ten o’clock—those bushes. Four o’clock and nine o’clock—those haystacks. Shiba, Xinru, each of you take someone and lay down suppressing fire on those points.”

I told them my guesses for four likely positions; the rest I targeted myself.

After a few shots, one of the haystacks started to smoke. Just as I suspected, these enemies hadn’t put all their eggs in one basket; they’d spread out, and that made things much harder for us.