Volume 1: The First Step Chapter 31: Game

  Led by Yan Duo, the instructors were also conducting in-depth research on each trainee, including their personality, habits, and characteristics.

  If students are compared to animals, then Shao Bing is a wolf. He can be a lone wolf or blend into the pack, a born professional soldier.

  Yao Jia is a fox, sinister and cunning, with many tricks up her sleeve; Tang Xin is a peacock, good at using her appearance to deceive people.

  Xia Wenjie was like a venomous snake, a cobra, with a slender and weak body, but possessing deadly venom that could take lives.

  After the confrontation match, the instructors also made a summary. For Xia Wenjie, the summary was that if he really encountered an enemy like him on the battlefield, there would be no need to consider capturing prisoners or gathering intelligence from the enemy. The only thing to do would be to pick up your knife and stab him to death, without giving him any chance.

  He who lives with red dye will be stained red; he who lives with black ink will be stained black.

  Now, the people around Xia Wenjie are all elites, each of whom is a top-notch talent. Confronting them would force him to adapt to the crowd around him and improve his abilities, even if he didn't want to make progress. Moreover, he was a competitive person who didn't want to fall behind others.

  Because of his poor foundation, he has to pay more than double or even multiple times the effort to keep up with others.

  This period of time was the most difficult in Xia Wanjie's life, as if he had been wound up tightly and couldn't stop moving. When others were training, he was training; when others were resting, he was often still training.

  Strength doesn't just fall from the sky, it requires effort to achieve bit by bit. As Yan said, if you want to gain a certain level of improvement, you must first prepare to put in that much sweat.

  Xia Wenjie persisted and afterwards thought about it, even he himself felt unbelievable, how his past self had such strong perseverance and determination.

  On the last day of special training, Yan Duo didn't let up on the trainees either. Under the guise of letting them relax and have fun with an interesting survival game, it was actually a game of mutual slaughter.

  All trainees are scattered throughout the training camp, they can use firearms, they can use daggers, and they can also fight with their bare hands. As long as you can 'kill' other trainees, no matter what weapons or methods you use, it is acceptable.

  The last five survivors will be the ultimate winners, with each winner earning 100 points for their group.

  Now, the scores of the seventh and eleventh groups are only 101 and 102 respectively. Suddenly increasing by 100 points is equivalent to completely changing the fate of a group.

  It seems that the rules of this game are very beneficial to small groups with fewer members, after all, more people means greater strength. However, this is not necessarily true. Members of smaller groups are not fools and will not use eggs to knock against rocks or fight a battle they are sure to lose. They spontaneously form teams, make prior agreements, and first work together to eliminate the group with the most members before competing against each other.

  The seventh and eleventh groups, which originally had the largest number of people and the highest scores, became the targets of public criticism and were hunted down by other groups.

  In this survival game, there is no limit to time and space, the entire training camp is a battlefield. In order to increase the confrontational effect, many large obstacles are set up on the square, even tanks and armored vehicles appear magically in the center of the square.

  After the game started, the 16 teams were scattered in different areas. Xia Wenjie's team, the eleventh team, was assigned to area twenty-one.

  Whether it was their good fortune or misfortune, this place happened to be the very center of the square, and enemies could appear from all sides at any moment.

  Xia Wenjie and six others huddled between two armored vehicles, Yao Jia beckoned to everyone to come closer, and said in a low voice: "Just now he overheard that the first, fifth, sixth, eighth and sixteenth groups have decided to temporarily merge together, planning to take us down and the seventh group first, then take down other groups, finally each group will leave one person behind, and all five groups can add 100 points."

  Tang Xian furrowed her brow and muttered, "The first, fifth, sixth, eighth, and sixteenth groups are the ones with the fewest members."

  "So it's actually scary, I thought they had fewer people left and would be the first to sacrifice, but as a result, they merged together and became the strongest instead."

  "First group has two people left, fifth group has three people, sixth group has our two old friends, eighth and sixteenth groups also have two people each, adding up to eleven people."

  Xia Wenjie's eyes rolled around and he suddenly said: "Since they can unite together, we can also find people to unite."

  "Who is it?" everyone asked in unison.

  "Who is our bosom friend?" Xia Wenjie asked with a smile.

  "Group Seven?"

  "That's right! Our interests are the same as those of the seventh group, we all want to keep the victory fruit that is ahead in ranking, and our two groups are also the most suitable for cooperation."

  "En." Everyone nodded in agreement, thinking that Xia Wenjie's words made sense. Shao Bing said: "But we don't even know which district the seventh group is assigned to, how can we find them?"

  Xia Wenjie rubbed his chin and muttered: "Then let's wait."

  "What's going on? What are you waiting for?" Tang Xiang asked in confusion.

  "Wait for the gunfire! Wherever the gunfire is most intense, that's where the Seventh Squad might be."

  "I'm afraid that instead of waiting for the seventh squad to engage with others, we've actually been discovered by the enemy first." Yao Jia took out a map and spread it on the ground, pointing at a spot on it as she said: "Our 21st district is located in the very center of the entire training camp, with roads leading in all directions. No matter which squad it is, they'll be able to discover us as soon as they pass by."

  Xia Wenjie smiled and said: "I think it's safest right in the center."

  "What? Why are you saying this?" Yao Jia's face showed a 'are you crazy' expression.

  "If the area we are in now is here..." Xiatian pointed to a corner of the map and said, "To move to the opposite corner, through the central region, walking in a straight line would be the closest, but would you walk that way?"

  Yao Jia looked at the map seriously, hesitated for a moment, shook her head slowly and said: "It shouldn't be, that's too dangerous."

  "Yes, the central area is too dangerous. If you enter it rashly, you may be attacked from all sides, so no matter which group moves, they will try to avoid walking through this central area."

  "Wen Jie's words meant that the most dangerous place is actually the safest?" Tang Xin's eyes lit up, and she suddenly realized.

  "The most dangerous place is usually still the most dangerous place, but sometimes it can indeed become the safest place, like now." Xia Wenjie said with a smile.

  "Alright." Shao Bing nodded seriously and said: "I think we'll do as Wen Jie suggested, we'll wait here, but we also need to prepare our defenses first."

  "Yes! I'm not afraid of ten thousand, just afraid of one in ten thousand. What if some foolhardy youngster suddenly rushes in and catches us off guard, that would be disastrous." Tang Xin said with a shrug.

  Under Xia Wanjie's suggestion, the eleventh group, which was divided into the most dangerous area, did not move easily, but stayed in place and waited quietly for the exchange of fire from other groups.

  The area where the first gunshot was heard is located on their left side. According to the map, that side should belong to District 20, District 11 and District 28.

  The gunfire didn't last too long, only six shots were fired before it stopped. Yao Jia hastily turned her head to look at the others and asked in a low voice, "Could it be that the Seventh Squad has clashed with another squad..."

  Shao Bing raised his hand, signaling him not to speak, and waited for a while longer. Since no more gunshots were heard, he shook his head and said, "It's not the Seventh Unit."

  "How to say?"

  "The marksmanship of the seven groups is generally average, and to eliminate another group, six bullets may not be enough. And for the other group to eliminate the seventh group, it's absolutely impossible to solve within six bullets." Shao Bing analyzed calmly.

  Yao Jia nodded and didn't ask anymore, continuing to wait.

  For more than ten minutes afterwards, sporadic gunfire was heard around them, some shots were fired only once or twice, and others rang out for over a dozen times, but there was no intense exchange of fire.

  They wanted to continue waiting, but apparently 'someone' didn't want them to have it too easy. The loudspeakers scattered throughout the training camp suddenly emitted a piercing squeal, followed by Yan's sinister laughter echoing from within the speakers.

  "Attention, attention, all students please note that we are now revealing two pieces of information. The seventh group has currently moved to the ninth district, and the eleventh group is currently hiding in the twenty-first district. Students who want to surpass these two groups in points can now go and step on their heads to bravely take first place, haha..."

  Damn it! Hearing Yan Duo's broadcast, Xia Wenjie secretly cursed in his heart and immediately changed from a half-squat to crawling on the ground. While observing the surroundings with tension, he shouted softly to the crowd: "We can't stay here anymore, we have to move immediately."

  "Which way to go?"

  "Bottom right corner, go to District 9."

  "Alright." Yao Jia responded with a single word, and was the first to crawl out from between the two armored vehicles.

  He had just exposed his head, and a row of bullets swept across from the side. Although they were blank shells, the force was not small, and when they hit the armored vehicle's iron plate, they still made a loud cracking sound. If the distance is within five meters and directly hits the human body's vital parts, the blank shell can also achieve the effect of one shot to kill.

  Yao Jia rushed out quickly and retreated even faster, only to roll back in a hurry, holding her head and rushing back.

  He first touched his face and body to confirm that he hadn't been hit, then he shouted angrily: "Are you crazy? Are you playing for real? You're shooting at such a close distance, do you really want to take someone's life?"