The White Team had timed their withdrawal perfectly.
The Second military’s infantry had just finished collecting ammunition from the supply depot and were about to assemble their squads to distribute it, when White Team’s remaining forces had already regrouped. They formed a loose, straggling dragon of a column and made a dash for the exit.
The UFU crew moved even faster. The moment the artillery fire ceased, they swung their gun barrels around – having already circled behind White Team in advance to cover their retreat. At the same time, they grinned and waved casually at the Second Military troops, seeing off White Team with the same brisk efficiency as if they were seeing off a visiting deity.
Those two completely different faces – one moment welcoming, the next dismissing -made Kang Zhenxue grind his teeth in fury.
Shameless bastards!
Tao Rui’s main force had barely shown their faces outside the city – they hadn’t even had a chance to flex their muscles or hurl a single insult – when their battered comrades, who had been trapped in enemy territory and thoroughly thrashed, came stumbling out.
Though they’d all been in communication over the radio, actually seeing their own brothers face-to-face left both sides awash with a jumble of emotions – bitter and sweet, relief and anguish all at once.
It was like families separated by mountains and rivers finally reuniting.
The bedraggled brothers, having shed helmets and cast aside armor, gazed at their fully armed teammates not far off, eyes glistening. A wail of “Guys! You have no idea how hard we’ve had it!” was just about to burst from their lips – when Xin Kuang’s loudspeaker, deliberately cranked to maximum volume right beside them, shattered the mood they’d been building:
“Everyone out? Good. Move it – we’re pulling back to defend.”
The young men, eardrums rattled, turned back with weary faces to glare at him.
The only problem was, they had to tilt their heads way up just to see the top of his heavy mech, which made for a rather undignified posture. The more they looked at that ugly, arrogant piece of machinery standing right in front of them, the more irritated they became. They flooded the comms channel complaining to Tao Rui, while simultaneously pointing at Xin Kuang and cursing him out from afar.
Though he’d brought his soldiers out without casualties, and overall the operation’s results were fairly satisfactory, Tao Rui’s expression showed no trace of ease.
His face cold, he offered a few terse words of reassurance to his men, then took the lead in pulling back and gave the order. “Let’s go. This is still UFU’s turf.”
Even with that fresh batch of supplies, their stockpiles were still far from plentiful.
Having learned his lesson the hard way this time, Tao Rui decided that until he’d built up enough reserves, he would hold off on making any moves against the Red side.
Besides – those people from UFU… there was something seriously off about them.
The UFU crew was riding the lingering afterglow of that spring breeze, taking stock of their results from the confrontation.
Their current survivor count stood at 513 – barely half their original numbers.
However, roughly 350 of those losses had occurred during the earlier isolated phase. In the battle at the Second Military’s camp, though they’d lost over a hundred more, the gains had been substantial.
Based on everyone’s reports, Cheng Feng could roughly estimate that their pickings on the upper route had been thanks to the selfless contributions of their Second Military comrades – their hundred-plus sacrifices had yielded over twice that number in kills.
UFU’s kill count had now climbed past four hundred, vastly making up for their early-game disadvantage. The candidates, who had been down in the dumps for so long, finally let out a collective sigh of relief.
Not bad – there’s still hope of snatching MVP!
Once the relief set in, a swell of pride began to sprout and twist upward like bamboo shoots after rain.
This was a comeback of unprecedented proportions – pulled off against the joint forces of five schools! If such a perilous, large-scale scheme couldn’t crush them, who among all the players in this grand battlefield could possibly stand above them now?
“Hahaha!”
Laughter of all tones echoed through the comms channel, layering on top of one another, gradually turning just a little bit sinister.
Chen Huayue called for everyone to quiet down, announcing that Cheng Feng was about to speak.
Out of respect for their commander-in-chief, the channel quickly fell silent.
Cheng Feng’s speech was quintessentially her. “Comrades, you’ve worked hard!”
No one had expected her to come up with any profound victory speech on short notice anyway. Jiang Linxia led the applause, cheering loudly. “Hear, hear!”
“All thanks to our commander’s leadership!”
“Much obliged to the Second Military and UMU for setting it up for us! Truly, we’re all brothers in the same trench!”
“How can a data analyst be this formidable? Cheng Feng, are you some kind of tapeworm in Tao Rui’s gut?”
The last remark was deliberately shouted at maximum volume toward their allies, and wave after wave, the atmosphere surged to a fever pitch.
Shen Dan and Chen Huayue finally finished tallying the remaining supplies for each unit and distributed the newly acquired equipment according to need.
Though the warehouse-keeper NPC had been absolutely livid with them, they had to admit – the guy was fair enough in practice. Their headcount had been cut in half, but the supplies they received had only decreased by a third compared to before, meaning each soldier’s allotment had actually gone up.
By contrast, UMU had two hundred more people than they did, yet their actual supplies were roughly on par with theirs.
That final wave of fishing in troubled waters – the allies hadn’t participated with much enthusiasm, so they’d managed to save a little nest egg. The worst off were, without a doubt, the Second Military – they were completely drained dry. Even after receiving their new allotment, their days remained just as miserable.
Kang Zhenxue brought a couple of his men over to wheedle and plead with the NPC, but before they’d even gotten three sentences out, two soldiers at the gate grabbed him by the arms and unceremoniously chucked him out.
The upright-looking NPC stood with his arms crossed at the iron gate, voicing his complaints in a roundabout, pointed manner. “Students these days – absolutely shameless!”
Chen Huayue finally had a moment to spare. He massaged his knuckles, then got up and paced a couple rounds to loosen his joints. Tapping his chin, he asked, “Cheng Feng, what do you think Tao Rui’s next move will be?”
“He won’t fight,” Cheng Feng said. “For the next three hours or so, he probably won’t commit his main force to any large-scale action.”
They’d lost nearly a thousand men in three hours – the pace of the match was too fast. Tao Rui’s original plan definitely hadn’t accounted for things spiraling to this extent.
The Red side was in a similar boat. Both UMU and the Second Military had been scared straight by poverty. Right now, every school’s top priority was undoubtedly stockpiling ammunition. Even if UFUwas raring to go, the others wouldn’t be keen to cooperate for the time being.
“There won’t be any large-scale clashes, but small-scale harassment can continue,” Cheng Feng said. “We shouldn’t just sit around waiting either. We can run guerrilla operations on the outskirts – take advantage of the terrain and the enemy’s low morale. Maybe we can snag a few more kills.”
Xiang Yunjian asked, “You mean we take the initiative? Go outside the city?”
“Of course!” Cheng Feng’s tone was calm, but her fighting spirit burned bright. “Let them see what UFU’s violence really looks like!”
Cheng Feng still held to her original view – no matter how many kills they made up, UFU’s situation was far from optimistic.
They had too few people. That meant they couldn’t afford to play it overly safe. If the White side concentrated fire on them again, their position would only become even more dire.
Only by breaking through the status quo could they find a way out of adversity.
“Violence?” Jiang Linxia cupped a hand to his ear. “We’ve got barely five hundred people, and you call that violence?”
He said with profound gravity, “Fengfeng, do you know why the great leader proposed encircling the cities from the countryside? Because we didn’t have enough people to be violent!”
Cheng Feng tempted him. “You need to believe in yourself as a sufficiently excellent infantry.”
Jiang Linxia’s expression turned frosty. “The last person who told me that wanted me dead.”
“Mmm…” Cheng Feng clicked her tongue.
Damn. All the infantries these days have been wised up. The ones before them have burned the bridges for those who come after.
“I meant relative violence,” Cheng Feng said, her mind racing as she quickly pivoted. “Let me rephrase – courage, that’s the word, not violence. Courage.”
At that, nobody responded. The command channel fell into a collective silence from a dozen or so people.
It was exactly that kind of quiet in a classroom right before the teacher calls on someone for a question – whoever speaks up first is the one who gets the short end of the stick.
“Everyone fought aggressively before – this is a rare opportunity!” Cheng Feng said with great generosity. “I’d like to award this opportunity to Xin Kuang!”
Xin Kuang had long since prepared his excuse. “Send Yan Shen instead. My squad is needed for the military motorcycles and armored vehicles. There’s no better driver than me.”
Cheng Feng called out, “Yan Shen.”
Yan Shen spoke up slowly, in a slightly exaggerated tone. “You want to send your precious snipers out to fight guerrilla skirmishes?”
Cheng Feng said, “Xiang Yunjian can’t go, can he?”
Xiang Yunjian led the most elite squad of infantries UFU had – it would be a waste to send them on guerrilla ops.
Zhong Yijie was even less reliable. He wasn’t suited for this kind of delicate work.
The remaining squads had already been broken up and reorganized – they were gone. So now there were only these five hundred-man teams.
Which meant fate had chosen Jiang Linxia.
“Jiang Linxia…”
Cheng Feng had barely gotten two words out when Jiang Linxia exploded and cut her off: “I’m not some junior – why do I have to be at the bottom of the food chain? We’re all brothers in the same dorm, and you lot have the nerve to pawn this off on me?”
He rattled off at machine-gun speed, “If you’ve got the guts, send the finance guy instead – then I’d at least have some respect for your spine. Is it just that you’re afraid he’ll cut off your allowance?”
Xin Kuang let out a low, ambiguous chuckle.
Cheng Feng hesitated – shamelessly. After all, her red-envelope privileges had only just been restored not long ago.
Jiang Linxia was furious at her lack of ambition. “Don’t you have any backbone at all? You’d make way more money just streaming than this!”
Cheng Feng mumbled, “That’s different.” Jiang Linxia was losing it: “How is it different?!”
Cheng Feng said seriously, “While increasing income, you also have to cut expenses.”
Xin Kuang said with great emotion, “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a kid who gets it like this.”
Surrounded by a bunch of spendthrifts, Cheng Feng was the only one who could carry on his legacy.
Jiang Linxia howled. “What kind of family education is this?!”
Shen Dan rested his chin on his hand, watching the spectacle unfold, and let out a bored yawn.
“How about we vote on it?” Cheng Feng clasped her hands together, raised her eyebrows slightly, and said with sincere uprightness, “I’m a democratic person.”
Jiang Linxia sneered. And then even the one person who might have spoken up for him turned traitor – Xiang Yunjian betrayed him without a shred of loyalty. “Do you need my vote? I’ll delegate it to Cheng Feng.”
“A plague on this house…” Jiang Linxia sighed and decided not to humiliate himself any further. He called his squad members and moved toward the bottom lane.
The terrain outside the city in the bottom lane was undeveloped mountain forest, with a few isolated houses perched on the higher slopes.
Jiang Linxia took 60 people, split them into three smaller teams, and chose two deputy leaders. The remaining members stood by on the sideline, ready as replacements.
With so few people, it would be easier to make a run for it if something unexpected happened.
