Volume 1: The Beginning Chapter 32: Cunning

  "Yao Jia, how dare you blame us? We just showed mercy earlier, otherwise your head would have had a few more holes by now." Someone sneered and shouted back from not far away from the armored vehicle.

  Xia Wenjie immediately stuck to the ground, looking out through the gap under the armored vehicle. He couldn't see the opponent, but he could see that they were using a temporarily built wooden wall as cover. After taking a look, he turned his head and said in a low voice to everyone: "Behind the wooden wall."

  "How many people?"

  "I can't see clearly."

  Yao Jia said: "Judging from the voice, it should be Mou Fangchun of the 13th group. There are three people in the 13th group."

  "Six against three, nothing to be afraid of." Xu Jiehui cocked his gun.

  "What I'm afraid of is that more and more people are gathering here, we must hurry up and get rid of them." Zhang Shao Yang said: "Xiao Jia, think of a way to attract their firepower, Lao Shao, Lao Xu, you two come with me under the armored vehicle, find an opportunity to shoot, one person at a time, try to kill with one shot, quick battle and quick decision."

  Yao Jia swallowed her saliva, you say it's easy to attract firepower? What can you use to attract it with, just your own flesh and blood? At such a close distance, being hit by an airburst shell doesn't feel good.

  He was hesitating, when Xia Wenjie suddenly said: "Let me." As he spoke, he pulled Yao Jia back a bit and came to the edge of the armored vehicle, shouting loudly outside: "Are you brothers from the 13th group?"

  "Who are you?"

  Xia Wenjie.

  "Oh, it's Wenjie! What, are you guys surrendering to us now?"

  Xia Wenjie nodded to Shao Bing, Zhang Zhao Yang and Xu Jiehui, the three of them understood, and they quickly crawled to the ground, carefully making their way to the bottom of the armored vehicle. Xia Wenjie continued in a calm tone: "We don't want to surrender, I think our two teams can cooperate."

  "Cooperation? What does it mean?"

  "You don't know yet, do you? The first, fifth, sixth, eighth and sixteenth groups have joined forces. They plan to take out the other groups first, then fight each other. If we keep killing each other, the ones who will be laughing in the end won't be us, nor will it be you, but those five groups that are waiting to reap the benefits."

  "Unbelievable, are they so despicable? Doesn't this count as a foul?"

  "This isn't being despicable, it's tactics. We're joining forces now, and it benefits everyone. You can't possibly think that just the three of you can take on their eleven, right?"

  The outside fell silent, and apparently the people of the Thirteenth Group were also discussing among themselves at this time.

  "To show my sincerity, I'm coming out now. Please don't shoot." As he spoke, Xia Wenjie slung the 95-style rifle over his shoulder and slowly emerged from behind the armored vehicle.

  This time, the people outside didn't shoot again. Xia Wenjie took a glance and saw that the three small heads hiding behind the wooden wall were indeed the three members of the 13th group.

  "Wenjie, you're not fooling us, are you? Did those few groups really join forces?" Seeing Xia Wenjie walk out with such sincerity, they couldn't keep showing hostility either, and they also stood up from behind the wooden wall, simultaneously lowering their gun muzzles.

  Xia Wenjie nodded and said: "What I said is true. If nothing unexpected happens, they must be rushing over here now."

  "Then we'd better avoid it for now." Mu Ou Chun from the 13th group looked back at Xia Wen Jie and smiled, asking: "Where's Yao Jia? Is he too scared to come out?"

  "Just been shot at by you guys, I reckon you're still shaken. " Xia Wenjie smiled and turned back to shout: "Old Yao, come out quickly, the 13th squad has agreed to cooperate with us, we're all on the same side now."

  As he spoke, Yao Jia and Tang Xin also walked out from behind the armored vehicle. Seeing only the three of them, Mou Fengchun was taken aback and asked in confusion: "The other three people in your group..."

  Before he could finish speaking, suddenly, three gunshots were heard almost simultaneously from under the armored vehicle. Looking at Mu Ou Chun and his two companions, they all had bullets in their steel helmets. The three of them retreated a step back due to the impact of the blank cartridge, looking at each other with faces full of incredulity and eyes still filled with confusion.

  Soon, Shao Bing, Zhang Zhao Yang and Xu Jie Hui crawled out from under the armored vehicle. Zhang Zhao Yang smiled and waved at them, saying: "Sorry, three brothers, you are all killed in action now."

  "You... you..." Mu Xiangchun came back to his senses and also understood what was going on. He turned his head, gritted his teeth and glared at Xia Wenjie.

  Xia Wenjie shrugged, walked up to the three of them, took away the guns they were carrying, and said with a smile: "A good general never despises deceitful tactics, don't blame me for this."

  The three of them looked at each other, and finally shook their heads in dismay. They couldn't blame themselves for being too careless, but rather that Xia Wenjie had been too kind and harmless, making it impossible for them to be on guard against him.

  Mou Fengchun was the first to tear off the armband on his arm, and the other two also reluctantly tore off their armbands, indicating that they had already fallen.

  "Lead the way." Xia Wenjie nodded at the three of them.

  Not to mention Mu Ou Chun's three people being stunned, even Tang Xin and others didn't understand his meaning, looking at him in confusion.

  "Lead the way? Lead what way?"

  Xia Wenjie said matter-of-factly: "Of course he's walking in front, leading the way for us."

  "Wenjie, are you asking us to help you step on a landmine?" Mu Ou Chun doubted whether his ears had misheard.

  "What's wrong with that?"

  "We're already dead men, can't you even let us be in peace?"

  "I was worried he'd run away halfway with a live person." Xia Wenjie said calmly.

  Mou Ou Chun nodded, he finally understood now. Before, he always thought the worst of the eleventh group was Yao Jia, but in fact Yao Jia was just bad-mouthed. If you say who is the most sinister, black-hearted to the core, it turns out to be Xia Wenjie, who appears kind and innocent on the surface.

  "Just step on landmines, I hope you can also eliminate other small groups, so our 13th group will still be in the top five." Mu Ou Chun muttered to himself, patted the shoulders of his two companions and walked forward with his head down.

  Tang Xian, Shao Bing and others quickly followed up. As they passed by Xia Wenjie's side, each of them gave him a thumbs up.

  The three "dead" men from the 13th group walked ahead, with the six from the 11th group following at a distance.

  They soon entered the 19th district. As they were walking forward, four people suddenly stood up from behind a barricade in front of them and opened continuous fire on the three people walking ahead.

  Due to the distance, the shockwave wasn't that painful when it hit him. Mu Fengchun covered his face with one hand and shouted with a twisted mouth: "Stop shooting, stop shooting! Can't you see? The sleeve insignia are gone, we're dead men!"

  The sentence was more effective than anything else, and the opposite side immediately stopped firing. Then, four men stood up from behind the cover, one by one, smiling at them.

  "Hey, are you guys from Squad 13? Are you all dead? Who did it? Tell us, we'll help you avenge..."

  Before he could finish speaking, a bullet flew in from behind the three 'dead men' and hit him right in the center of his helmet.

  Bang! His helmet was hit with a big white spot, and the other three people didn't have time to react. With several gunshots, they were also hit one by one.

  Accurate marksmanship left them no room for evasion, almost every shot was a hit.

  "Haha……" Seeing the opponent being hit by the blank bomb and covered in white spots, Mu Ou Chun and his two companions showed no sympathy, but instead burst out laughing and said: "This is what you call brothers in misfortune! Finally someone to keep us company!"

  "Who is it? Who in the hell is hiding behind 'dead men' and shooting?"

  "It's group eleven."

  "Damn it." One of them took off the steel helmet on his head and slammed it to the ground. "Don't you have any shame, being beaten to death by others and still helping them clear landmines?"

  "Right, anyway we're all dead, might as well drag a few down with us. This time it's just your second group's bad luck."

  Xia Wenjie and others took advantage of the thirteen members who were killed to open the way for them, and successfully killed four members of the second group. When they wanted to take away the four 'dead' members of the second group again, a dissatisfied roar came from the broadcast: "All 'killed' students immediately leave the field, those who stay in the field will be eliminated, and will be eliminated immediately."

  Yan Duo's words made the seven students from groups two and thirteen retreat obediently, and before leaving, they also cheered on Xia Wenjie and others, wishing them to smoothly take down the other small groups.

  There were no more dead men in front clearing mines, and when they moved forward again, they became extremely cautious. The group of six people was divided into three parts: front, middle and back.

  Shao Bing walked in front and led the way, Tang Xin followed closely behind, Xia Wenjie and Yao Jia were in the middle, Zhang Zhao Yang and Xu Jie Hui brought up the rear.

  As they cautiously entered the ninth district, Shao Bing, who was walking in front, suddenly stopped and raised his fist, signaling to his companions behind him to halt their advance.

  The crowd reacted quickly, and as his fist rose, people scattered at the same time, crouched down, and aimed their guns around.

  "Lao Shao, what's wrong?" After looking around for a while without finding anything unusual, Tang Xiang asked in a low voice, puzzled.

  "Something is off here."

  "What's wrong?"

  "I don't know, it just feels wrong, like there's an ambush." Shao Bing made a covert gesture and then hid behind a bunker, shouting loudly: "Which team is hiding in front?"

  "...". No one responded, the scene was quiet and still. Yao Jia in the middle asked Xia Wenjie: "Wenjie, what is Old Shao up to?"

  Xia Wenjie shook his head. In fact, he didn't find anything unusual either, but he believed in Shao Bing's intuition. "Let's wait and see, it's always better to be careful."

  "I'm afraid Old Shao will shout loudly and attract other groups." Yao Jia said with a worried tone.