Chapter 50: Sneak Attack and Invasion
Upon hearing Chen Yikai’s words, both Wang Ji and Cao Muhua were a little surprised. The difficulty of this contest was not something ordinary people could handle: moving targets with obstacles, and they had to shoot at the circular markers on the targets’ bodies.
“Excuse me, Commander Chen, I have a question. I only have nineteen people here, will that be alright?” Wang Ji glanced at his own men and smiled.
Chen Yikai hadn’t expected Wang Ji to bring only nineteen people, but he replied, “No problem. The number must not exceed twenty, and you must not leave the shooting platform’s range.”
Cao Muhua smiled and said, “Captain Wang, you’re truly confident. Are you planning to go easy on us? I’ll gladly accept, then.”
With those words, he led his team to the right shooting platform, where twenty old-model Type 56 semi-automatic rifles and two binoculars were already laid out.
Wang Ji also arranged his men at the shooting platform. Seeing the equipment, he smiled, “Commander Chen, you’re making things much harder for us.”
Chen Yikai merely smiled and walked over to the arbitration table, sitting down beside Liu Tao and Lin Hanya.
At that moment, Lin Hanya, who had learned that Wang Ji was willing to cooperate, gave him a subtle smile.
Wang Ji, unsure of the reason, looked at this research enthusiast and returned the smile.
Bang!
A signal flare rose in the distance, and faint sounds of beasts running echoed from the other side of the village.
Yan Song, leading his nineteen men, quickly assigned observers and shooters. He himself took up a semi-automatic rifle and aimed toward a building a hundred meters away.
A hundred beasts, driven forward by soldiers from the other side, soon entered the field of vision of both teams.
The first shot came from Cao Muhua’s side, hitting a red marker squarely. The beast fell and struggled briefly before dying.
The observer immediately marked a point on Cao Muhua’s scoreboard.
Bang!
No sooner had the score been recorded than Yan Song’s shot struck a green marker, evening the score.
These two shots acted as signals; soon, the scores on both sides began to chase each other in a fierce competition.
In the distant industrial village, the duty fell to Li Chengming’s reconnaissance platoon, squad one. Six men split into three groups. One guarded the gate’s machine gun, while the other two groups patrolled the perimeter wall with the militia.
After two reconnaissance soldiers rounded the west section of the wall, two agile figures slowly emerged from the grass.
They wore masks covering their heads, leaving only their eyes visible, dressed in camouflage and armed with silenced weapons and sharp knives.
Once the patrol moved away, one made a hand gesture.
The other masked man raised a pistol, aiming at the wall’s surveillance camera from the grass.
A muffled shot sounded, and the camera’s power cable snapped instantly.
“We have only ten minutes. Hurry!”
The two masked men quickly crossed the road, scaled the wall at the militia’s blind spot, and entered the industrial zone.
They avoided the road’s surveillance expertly and approached the heavily guarded weapons factory.
Exchanging a glance, they quickly disguised themselves and strolled toward the militia guards.
“Halt! What are you doing here?”
The two kept their heads down and said nothing, continuing forward.
The guard sensed something wrong and reached for his walkie-talkie to sound the alarm.
One intruder suddenly lunged, throwing a knife straight into the guard’s chest, then raised a silenced pistol.
The two guards fell, killed in an instant.
The masked men replaced their head coverings, swiftly dealt with the bodies, and entered the weapons factory.
—
The facility was filled with advanced equipment. The two exchanged glances; one took out a miniature camera and began snapping photos, while the other searched for useful materials.
Curious, one approached the soldier production line’s control panel and tapped it a few times.
Suddenly, an ear-piercing alarm blared from the machine, warning of insufficient operator privileges.
The two were startled and, using hand signals, prepared to retreat the way they’d come.
Liang Jingyang, who had arrived early to arrange work in the industrial zone, was in a nearby warehouse assigning personnel and training. He heard the alarm from inside the factory.
“Damn! Who’s still inside?”
He rushed over with workers, only to find two masked men pointing guns at them.
Liang Jingyang instinctively rolled to the side, feeling a burning pain in his arm. Behind him, two workers fell clutching their chests, blood pouring out.
The rest were terrified by the sudden attack and scattered in all directions.
“Sound the alarm! The weapons factory is under attack!” Liang Jingyang, enduring the pain, grabbed his walkie-talkie and shouted.
The reconnaissance soldiers on duty were shocked and sent some men to the factory, while the militia surrounded the industrial zone.
Sergeant Yu Cong cursed as he led his men at top speed toward the factory, his heart burning with anxiety. If the factory’s systems were damaged, the consequences would be unimaginable.
Soon, the masked men appeared in their sights, and gunfire erupted the moment they met.
The industrial zone’s emergency broadcast sounded, and workers in other areas began evacuating as instructed.
Trapped, the two masked men saw escape was impossible. The one who triggered the alarm gritted his teeth, took out a vial, and injected its contents.
“Go! Take the documents!” A wild aura surged from him; in seconds, he transformed from a normal man into a raging monster over two meters tall.
Howling, the beast charged at Yu Cong and his men, ignoring the hail of bullets. In his mutated form, he seemed to withstand greater damage, and Yu Bo’s weapons couldn’t seriously injure him for the moment.
“Call for reinforcements from the military! Bring the machine gun from the gate!” Yu Bo directed his people to evade the monster’s assault, shouting into his walkie-talkie.
Gunfire raged across the industrial zone. Amid the chaos, the other masked man used his companion’s cover to escape through a weakly defended section of the wall.
Seeing his comrade escape, the transformed masked man faced the machine gun’s suppressive fire, his expression resolute as he launched a suicidal attack against the guards.
When the exhausted Haozi arrived from the barracks with fifty men, he found only the aftermath of a brutal battle.
“Old Liang! How is it?”
Liang Jingyang, his arm hastily bandaged, replied gravely, “The weapons factory was infiltrated, but the equipment was unharmed. However, five workers and three guards are dead, and more than a dozen others are injured.”
Haozi’s smile was subtle, but anyone who knew him could sense the fury beneath his calm expression.
“Did you catch anyone?”
Liang Jingyang led Haozi to the battered corpse of the monster.
“One escaped. This one stayed behind and was killed. Nothing on him identifies his affiliation. Oh, I’ve had the surveillance footage retrieved.”
Liang Jingyang produced a tablet for Haozi to view; it showed the guards being killed in seconds.
“Professional. This is beyond the capability of any ordinary faction in the base. We must report this to the captain immediately. Will you do it, or shall I?” Haozi’s lips were pressed tight, his face expressionless.
Liang Jingyang smiled bitterly, opened the tablet’s communications directory, and began packaging the data and writing the report.
“I’ll handle it.”
Haozi nodded and ordered his subordinates, “Inform Li Chengming to strengthen the defenses and patrols around the administration building, industrial zone, and barracks.”
With Wang Ji absent, Haozi, his most trusted aide, commanded great respect, and the independent company’s combat forces mobilized rapidly.
Meanwhile, the masked man who had narrowly evaded the independent company’s search sneaked into Cao Muhua’s mansion, hiding in the shadows to recover his breath.
—
The shooting contest was still in full swing, and after an initial surge of points, the scores were locked at 37 to 37.
All beasts within sight had been killed. Some, terrified, hid behind buildings and refused to move, causing the scores to stall.
“Captain! Three o’clock, behind the low wall!”
The observer suddenly spotted a beast and signaled to Yan Song’s team.
Yan Song focused and aimed; after a few seconds, he finally saw the creature.
It nervously rubbed against the low wall, unwilling to show itself.
After a few quiet minutes, it hesitantly poked its head out, cautiously scanning the surroundings. Apparently finding no danger nearby, it slowly emerged.
“Green, green! Green!” Yan Song silently prayed, hoping the beast would reveal a green marker first.
“Indeed!” Yan Song was delighted to see the flash of green, and his finger tightened on the trigger.
Bang—the shot landed beside the beast, startling it into a leap and causing it to vanish into the building.
Yan Song angrily raised his head, assuming a teammate had missed the shot and scared the beast away.
His comrades all wore innocent expressions, until one soldier pointed at Cao Muhua’s shooting platform.
There, Yu Cong provocatively raised his rifle, while an observer beside him sported a smug grin, binoculars trained on Yan Song’s team.
“Hmph! Resorting to such petty tactics. If that’s how it is, don’t blame us!” Yan Song cursed silently, adjusted his mindset, and assigned a few men to monitor Yu Cong’s team and engage in disruptive fire.
However, Yu Cong’s sudden interference had thrown Yan Song’s team off balance, and by the time they regained composure, they were already trailing by a point.
The provoked independent company soldiers gritted their teeth, relentlessly searching for new targets and ways to hinder the opposition. The contest entered a fever pitch.
“Haha, it seems our Second Company soldiers are superior after all,” Cao Muhua gestured to Yu Cong, then boasted to Wang Ji.
Wang Ji, seeing Yu Cong’s antics, remained unmoved. In his eyes, a true soldier should complete his mission under any challenge.
“Commander Cao, there are still thirty minutes left in the contest. Aren’t you worried?” Wang Ji smiled lightly.
Cao Muhua scoffed and, with the help of his soldiers, began sipping his wine.
“Hold steady! Not much time left. We can’t lose. Stay calm and shoot!” Yan Song encouraged his team in a low voice.
Minute by minute, time passed. Suddenly, Wang Ji’s tablet vibrated in his pocket.
He took it out and, upon reading the message, a cold, murderous aura emanated from him.
Chen Yikai was the first to notice Wang Ji’s abnormality and asked, “Captain Wang? What’s wrong?”
Wang Ji took a deep breath and glanced at Cao Muhua, who was drinking nearby, then calmly put away the tablet.
“It’s nothing.”
The signal flare announcing the end of the contest sounded.
At the same time, Yan Song’s joyful shout rang out: “Hit!”
Everyone looked at the scoreboard: 43 to 44, the independent company trailing by one point.
Yet the observer hesitated, not daring to confirm the independent company’s disputed final point, and anxiously looked to Chen Yikai, seated in the center.