Top Warzone Analyst Chapter 170

The moment Jiang Linxia set off, Cheng Feng’s attitude immediately shifted, turning somewhat ingratiating as she tried to coax him. “Brother Jiang, to be honest, you’re the most talented infantry in my book. Guerrilla op is such a high-skill combat method – most people can’t pull it off. It has to be you.”

Jiang Linxia didn’t respond. First, because Cheng Feng’s words sounded far from sincere; second, because joking around during a mission would undermine his professionalism.

Twenty people sneaking around the fringes of a two-thousand-man camp – he needed to stay alert when it came to such suicidal moves.

Cheng Feng was still painting unrealistic promises. “When you all return in glory, everyone will line up to welcome you.”

Only Yan Shen chimed in with a hint of morbid playfulness. “You’re underestimating Jiang Linxia and the brothers. Do we look like the kind of people who care about saving face?”

Jiang Linxia curled his lip in disdain, signaled to the team members behind him, and carefully moved forward along the winding downhill mountain path.

The vegetation was lush. From a high vantage point, one could see the green curves of the mountain undulating as they stretched downward, eventually connecting to the flat ground a kilometer away.

A bit further out lay the main camp of the White Team.

Neat and disciplined troops lined up from the slope of the mountain all the way to the main road, with narrow gaps left between them to delineate their respective positions.

Since the group was small and everyone was a veteran who had coordinated in multiple exercises, their movements remained highly concealed. They had covered half the distance without being detected by the White Team, successfully infiltrating sniper range.

Jiang Linxia crouched low behind a bush, raised his hand, and pressed down, signaling everyone to find their positions and prepare for a surprise attack.

A range of 1.5 to 2 kilometers was acceptable. Any farther and the accuracy of the firearms would be compromised. Any closer and there wouldn’t be suitable terrain for concealment.

“Locate the First Military units, but don’t engage them,” Jiang Linxia whispered into the squad channel. “The biggest cluster of people should be the troops under Tao Rui – that guy is especially cunning! He keeps the benefits for himself and leaves the casualties to others!”

That was pure slander. Among the three White Team military universities, the First Military’s overall combat strength was indeed higher, and Tao Rui did tend to take on more responsibility.

One of the brothers behind him, lowering his voice in a strained tone, asked nervously, “We’re still so far away – do we really need to talk like this?”

“Yes, we do!” Jiang Linxia observed for a moment through his scope, then turned back and said, “We’ll hit the leftmost formation. Spread out!”

If they didn’t dare speak loudly, they moved even more cautiously. The twenty of them groped their way in all directions, each finding a suitable spot for cover.

Jiang Linxia rested his rifle behind a moss-covered rock. Without needing to give a signal, he found his angle and fired the first shot.

A faint muzzle flash flickered at the barrel, and an invisible bullet tore through the air. A moment later, not far away, a candidate who appeared to be idling on standby crumpled to the ground.

Perhaps because they had just endured three hours of fierce combat, the White Team hadn’t expected any enemy force to dare take the initiative to leave the city and come provoke them right under their noses, so their formation was somewhat lax.

When they detected the ambush, there was a brief flurry of commotion in the crowd. A clearing quickly opened up around the “corpse,” but the troops didn’t fully disperse. Soldiers in the front ranks immediately raised ballistic shields, while those in the rear methodically scanned the mountain for snipers.

Right after that, Jiang Linxia’s teammates fired one after another.

The lingering echoes of the gunshots seemed to ripple through the silent mountain forest.

Perhaps the distance was a bit too great – Jiang Linxia stared through his scope and noted that the elimination rate wasn’t very high. About seven or eight went down in this wave. Subtracting the heavily wounded, the optimistic kill count was around five.

One of the team members reloaded and muttered, “The wind seems a bit strong. Maybe we should move a little closer – I’m worried about bullet drift.”

Jiang Linxia was about to ask who was moving around and causing the rustling leaves, frowning as he pulled his eyes away from the scope – only to realize the noise was coming from the foot of the mountain not far away.

It wasn’t the sound of wind pressing against leaves either. After they stopped firing, the opposite side also came to a halt.

All twenty of them tensed up.

Launching a sneak attack from inside the city to the outside was convenient enough, since the White Team was the attacking force and their encampment along the road made retreat difficult.

But infiltrating from outside the city to launch a surprise attack inside was much more likely to be countered.

To run into each other on this middle stretch of road – both sides were clearly guerrilla units.

In the blink of an eye, from behind the cover of grass and leaves, both sides almost simultaneously hurled a grenade toward the other’s hiding area.

At the same time, a group of young men in military uniforms sprang out from their respective ambush points.

Leaves rustled down through the forest, and amid the flying dust, blurry dark figures darted past like ghosts.

Both sides were dashing around frantically, not letting up as they kept reaching into their pouches to toss more grenades. Even in the chaos, their urgent shouts remained clearly audible.

“Left side, left side!”

“There’s a ditch on the right – watch out, comrades!”

“Charge, brothers! Let’s take them down with us!”

“Daring to sneak-attack us White Team – we’ll make sure they never make it back! Go!”

The relentless “tat-tat-tat” of gunfire filled the air. The battle on the field was fierce – it wouldn’t do justice to the spectacle without at least a hundred casualties.

Only when their grenades were nearly exhausted did everyone finally settle down.

The wait for the smoke and dust to clear felt endless.

As the flying debris settled and visibility grew clearer, the two team leaders peeked out – and what a sight it was: both sides had already retreated in a desperate scramble, leaving a gap of a full three to four hundred meters between them. The muddy ground was pockmarked with craters, trees lay toppled, yet not a single person was in sight.

Jiang Linxia cursed under his breath, “Damn it.”

You call that charging – and you ran backward several hundred paces?

As we all know, when the cowardly sneaky playstyle is on your own side, it’s called “tactics.” When it’s on the enemy’s side, it’s called “shameless.”

Both sides immediately shouted in unison with contempt, “Shameless!”

Jiang Linxia, in particular, after cursing loudly, even spat on the ground for good measure.

The young man on the opposite side sneered, “Don’t you be so shameless! Get a grip on your situation.”

Jiang Linxia yelled back, “If you’ve got the guts, come out and face me in a gunfight.”

The young man across the way craned his neck and retorted, “Do I look crazy enough to trade shots with some sneaky little thief like you?”

The two exchanged a few rounds of insults, then suddenly their voices dropped.

The change was too obvious because it happened in perfect sync.

Both sides felt a jolt in their hearts, silently thinking, This is bad.

The other side’s reinforcements had arrived.

This time, Jiang Linxia didn’t retreat any further, because the comrades coming to join them had already collided head-on with the enemy’s reinforcements.

Another fierce exchange of shouts and assaults ensued.

Cheng Feng had been listening the whole time – she was the one who had drawn up the support route for the squad. Several of the team leaders and deputy commanders, having nothing better to do, also used their permissions to jump into Jiang Linxia’s squad channel.

Everyone could roughly imagine what was happening on the front lines. They’d held back from speaking earlier, afraid of interfering. But now they simply couldn’t hold it in anymore. Xin Kuang remarked with a sigh, “A worthy opponent meets a worthy match, a fine general encounters a worthy rival.”

These two were a perfect pair. Anyone else would’ve been unable to counter the other’s moves.

Cheng Feng was also pleasantly surprised. She hadn’t expected that after Yu Sihe, there would be yet another kindred spirit of the sneaky playstyle.

Shen Dan said with great distress, “This is exactly how social morals get corrupted!”

Cheng Feng asked, “Jiang Linxia, how’s it going?”

There was a brief pause on Jiang Linxia’s end, then he replied with a hint of delight in his voice. “We’ve got more people!”

And it wasn’t just more people – they also had more equipment.

Cheng Feng had let them bring all the demolition weapons from her reserve stash for self-preservation. The White Team had only sent out fifty or sixty people to scout or reconnoiter, so the baseline difference in resources was already significant.

On top of that, Tong Xun had heard the commotion outside the city and, seeing that even the modest UFU contingent had mobilized, came out to join in on the excitement.

Over a hundred people quickly surrounded the White Team from three sides. Jiang Linxia let out a savage laugh.

As for the White Team trying to send reinforcements back – it wasn’t that simple. Climbing up the mountain was slower, especially since there was a stretch of several dozen meters of steep cliff below; they’d either have to take a detour or scale the rock face.

By the time their second wave of support arrived, Jiang Linxia and his men had already sounded the retreat.

Jiang Linxia reported with great satisfaction, “It’s done! About thirty-plus kills! This round was a massive win!”

“Awesome!”

“Brother Jiang, you’re amazing!”

Everyone applauded in unison.

Jiang Linxia paused briefly, then lowered his voice slightly and added, “We lost eight people.”

“They’re enjoying the good life off the field right now,” Cheng Feng said. “The results are substantial. Well done.”

UFU was at a disadvantage and could only scrape together points bit by bit. This kind of guerrilla op – trading one for many – was currently the most effective way to gain points, and it was extremely important for UFU.

Cheng Feng made up her mind and finalized the decision. “We’ll focus exclusively on guerrilla op. Even with all that commotion, Tao Rui hasn’t shown much reaction – they definitely won’t escalate the battle further. Xin Kuang, have your team come relieve the first squad. Xiang Yunjian, you take the upper route.”

Chen Huayue was shocked. “You’re sending Xiang Yunjian?”

Yan Shen also looked uneasy. “With two major teams sent out, we’ll only have 300 people left.”

Xiang Yunjian had already responded decisively, “Fine. Use the infantries sparingly – I’ll try to bring them back.”

He took off his hat and ran a hand through his hair.

He’d been on standby for half a day without any chance to get into action – he was practically growing moss.

Xiang Yunjian reached out and grabbed the collar of the brother next to him, who was nearly dozing off, startling him awake. With his powerful arm, he hauled the guy along as he headed toward the upper route.

The rest of the group quickly grabbed their guns and followed, moving at a brisk, light-footed trot.

The subsequent guerrilla ambushes were nowhere near as smooth as the opening engagement.

After taking the hit, the White Team adapted promptly. They specially assigned a row of personnel to sweep for snipers on the mountain. If the movement was even slightly too loud, they’d open fire and eliminate the target before the ambushers could make their move.

They also stopped sending small teams up the mountain for reconnaissance. This slowed everyone’s progress considerably.

If it weren’t for Xiang Yunjian leading the charge, this guerrilla campaign might have yielded very little gain – or even ended up costing more than it was worth.

He was bold enough to press right up to the edge of the line, using the powerful impact of sniper fire at close range to directly breach the enemy’s defenses, while the comrades behind him seized opportunities to coordinate and secure kills.

Even so, they could only roughly maintain a one-for-two exchange ratio.

Jiang Linxia said with regret, “We’ve killed more people ambushing the main force in the mountains than we did guerrilla-fighting on the hills.”

He commented on himself, “Lush mountains and clear waters are worth their weight in gold and silver.”

Chen Huayue laughed and cursed, “Get out of here with that.”

Near the end of the second three-hour stretch, Xiang Yunjian and Jiang Linxia pulled back.

They waited patiently for half an hour, but there was still no movement on Tao Rui’s side.

By now, the sky was growing dark. Cheng Feng guessed that Tao Rui had likely sent his teammates to sleep – conserving energy during the first half of the night and not planning to launch an attack.

Keeping everyone on edge like this wasn’t sustainable either, so she rotated a batch of people down the mountain while another batch took turns logging off to rest.

Tong Xun and Kang Zhenxue, seeing that UFU’s numbers had been significantly reduced, began to voice their concerns. They dropped subtle hints several times, saying that the middle route couldn’t be lost.

When the six hours were up, Cheng Feng pulled all the guerrilla forces back.

UFU’s total headcount now stood at only 392. During those six hours of guerrilla op, they had eliminated roughly over two hundred enemies.

The descending darkness seemed to weigh heavily on everyone’s spirits. The city was lit only by the dim yellow glow of streetlights, and the faces of those sitting beneath the light were cast in deep shadow.

“So few people…” Shen Dan let out a long sigh. “It feels a bit lonely.”

With fewer than four hundred people to defend a single street, no matter how they lined up, there would be gaps.

Chen Huayue, on the other hand, was rather philosophical about it. He had already made up his mind to have UMU and the Second Military send reinforcements. After all, the middle route had been breached by them – if they didn’t help, they’d all lose the greater battle together.

“I wonder how our current points ranking is looking.”

The overall data could be viewed from outside the arena.

Tao Rui had given advance notice that they would not actively attack the city for the next 6 to 9 hours, so Mr. Luo and the host had gone back to rest first, leaving only the livestream administrator on duty.

Upon hearing this, the administrator pulled up the data table and placed it in the lower-right corner of the screen.

At that moment, the Red Team’s standings were as follows:

• United FederationUniversity: 392 survivors, 659 kills.
• United Military University: 687 survivors, 314 kills.
• Second Military University: 611 survivors, 236 kills.

The White Team’s total survivors numbered 1,791, with a total of 1,310 kills.

Among them, Tao Rui’s First Military had 685 survivors and 579 kills.

Aside from Tao Rui’s First Military, the other military universities had similar results -except for UFU, which unexpectedly rose to third place.

UFU’s points were entirely carried by their kill count. However, their dismal survivor numbers exposed a fatal flaw in sustainability. This guerrilla campaign felt more like a desperate struggle before their demise.

That was precisely why Tao Rui had allowed it – to further deplete UFU’s combat strength. It was a price he was willing to pay.

Cheng Feng didn’t know the exact numbers. In order to compete for the MVP, she could only make conservative estimates.

She said, “Our kill count should be around 550 by now. Once Tao Rui finishes gathering supplies, he’ll probably focus his fire on the middle route first. If we don’t survive, even a thousand kills would be pointless.”

Once the team’s numbers dropped below a hundred, the kill weight would decrease infinitely.

As she spoke, Cheng Feng fell silent, slowly turned her head, and glanced at the NPC behind her, her eyes flickering slightly.

“Oh my.” The NPC widened his eyes, wearing a smug, petty expression. His tone rose and fell in a particularly sarcastic manner, and he called out again, “Oh my!”

Those two short syllables carried a wealth of emotion. Loosely translated, they meant something like: Look who’s in trouble now?

Mr. Luo and the host had just returned to the commentary booth. After turning on the audio equipment, they said, without context, “This is going to be tough.”