Cheng Feng felt deeply regretful. If they refused to use a strategy adapted to local conditions like this, then what could the commander possibly do?
After all, a commander was just a person without any real authority.
The students guarding the flag circled around the pigpen and found nothing useful. Listening to the scouts they had sent out reporting enemy movements, they realized death was closing in. In their anxiety, they could not help reconsidering the terrible idea Cheng Feng had suggested.
When people were driven into a corner, they really could do anything.
Several of the young men edged toward the pigsty in small steps, leaning against the fence as they carefully observed the pigs constantly jostling inside.
Within the simulation system’s view, these large creatures were not actual pigs, but medium-sized robots that emitted pig noises.
Clinging to the last shred of conscience they had, one student asked weakly, “Is there really no other way?”
“Just hold on a bit longer,” Chen Huayue said tactfully. “We’ll do our best.”
The phrase “do our best” carried very little confidence and was hardly convincing.
What came next was an outrageously unreasonable demand. “At the very least, hold out until we can come reinforce you. You can manage that much, right?”
The youths wanted to hurl the word “fuck off” straight at his face.
Under a bizarre ruleset like this, who would dare make that kind of promise?
The scout screamed, “They’re only one kilometer away in a straight line! Even with all the obstacles, at most it’s still only two kilometers! What do we do?!”
The others were equally at a loss. Instinctively, they edged even closer to the fence gate. At this distance, they no longer minded the foul stench from before and instead kept glancing toward the lock with increasing frequency.
“Tell me, do you think they gave the pigs this kind of appearance to keep the model style consistent, or to give us a hint?”
“Shut up! That kind of thinking will destroy military-civilian relations. Can you handle the instructors’ fury?”
“What if we released ten of them… no, five? Just enough to throw off their rhythm.”
“What are you all doing?”
A rough voice suddenly came from the doorway. The unfamiliar yet booming tone startled the already guilty group so badly that they all shuddered.
The youths all whipped their heads around, nearly thinking the enemy had slipped past the scouts and attacked their rear directly. But after looking carefully, they realized it was a middle-aged man wearing a hat, his face blurred by the system, marked as a red-level danger target.
The man switched on the room lights, walked in leaning on a wooden stick, casually took off his work cap and hung it on a rack, then repeated in a thick accent, “What’re you lot crowding around there for?”
The students froze for a moment before remembering that he was probably a local villager.
“Is that damn automatic system’s pipeline clogged again?” Seeing no one answer, the middle-aged man grew annoyed on his own and walked closer while cursing under his breath, tapping his stick as he went. “I’m filing a complaint! It’s just one lousy pipe, but the renovations alone cost me over a hundred thousand, and it breaks down every other day. Is it even worth that much? They have to compensate me!”
As he approached, the students consciously cleared a path for him.
The man knocked on the feeding trough with his stick and craned his neck to inspect the inside. Finding nothing wrong, he turned back suspiciously and asked, “Isn’t it working just fine?”
Cheng Feng saw a glimmer of hope and began chanting repeatedly over the public channel like a monk reciting sutras. “Borrow the pigs! Borrow the pigs!”
Influenced by her, one of the youths forced himself to ask, “Excuse me… could we borrow your pigs for a bit?”
The middle-aged man replied, “Borrow? You mean the kind with money?”
The young man’s face turned bitter. Pressing his palms together pleadingly, he begged, “We’re taking an exam – a competition – and we don’t have enough people left. The enemy’s about to arrive, so we want to drive your pigs out to disrupt them a little. Once it’s over, we’ll definitely round them back up for you, okay? I swear we absolutely won’t hurt them!”
The middle-aged man hesitated for a moment, looking troubled. “Isn’t that cheating? Your instructors will get mad.”
The young man immediately straightened up and patted his chest, speaking with perfect righteousness. “A people’s war naturally requires the people’s participation! How can this possibly count as cheating?!”
The others nearby quickly chimed in, “Exactly, exactly! This is called making full use of available resources. It’s one of the things we’re being tested on too!”
“Please take pity on us. Losing would be miserable.”
Unable to withstand everyone’s pleading, the middle-aged man finally waved his hand helplessly after a long pause. “Alright, alright. But if anything goes wrong, you’re responsible for it.”
The crowd was instantly overjoyed. They had never expected their desperate counterattack to take such a devilish turn. The young man leading the group grabbed a bamboo switch from nearby and signaled for his companions to unlock the pigpen gate.
To ensure safety – and also make catching them afterward easier – they deliberately chose a litter of smaller juvenile pigs.
But these pigs had been pampered their whole lives. Even when the gate opened, they refused to move, huddling inside and refusing to come out.
The young man tiptoed inside and awkwardly tried prodding them with the bamboo switch. All it accomplished was making the pigs squeal and grunt in panic as they scrambled from one corner to another. After struggling for quite a while, he still made no progress.
The scout shouted anxiously, “They’re close, brothers! We can already see the pigpen gate! Why aren’t you out yet?!”
The middle-aged uncle could no longer bear to watch. Pushing several people aside, he said, “Oh, move, move, let me do it. What are you people even doing? You can’t even herd a pig.”
Taking the bamboo switch, he made a series of strange noises with his mouth and efficiently drove the pigs right out of the pen.
…
A group of instructors turned their heads and collectively fixed the colleague beside them with condemning stares.
What kind of person did it take to teach an entire class full of such outrageous prodigies?
That brat was probably no saint himself.
“How is this my fault?” Mr. Zhou said innocently. “I also think they’ve gone too far! Besides, I only taught them for a month!”
“I saw how pleased you looked just now,” the guy beside him accused, pointing at him angrily. “And isn’t this against the rules?!”
Mr. Zhou gave an irritating shrug and calmly offered three reasons. “Nobody ever said it wasn’t allowed. The villagers agreed voluntarily. And on a battlefield, all kinds of unexpected variables can appear. At least this one had some logical basis.”
The other man grabbed Mr. Zhou by the collar, dragging him close with a cold sneer as he repeated, “Pigs showing up in a Red vs. White camp assessment counts as ‘logical basis’ to you?!”
Mr. Zhou pointed to the left. “Ask Mr. Xue. Right?”
Mr. Xue lifted one leg and pretended not to hear them, staring intently at the projection with complete concentration.
…
The Second Military commander led his team straight toward the entrance of the breeding farm. Along the way, they encountered no obstacles at all – so smoothly that they repeatedly checked their route, even suspecting the simulation system had a connection error.
When they were just two hundred meters away, everyone still stopped.
Within their precise detection range, the first ones to come out and engage were not red-team soldiers, but a group of squat, red-and-black robots.
Those knee-high “robots” ran toward them in a crooked, unsteady manner, followed by a non-participant marked with a warning icon.
The Second Military commander said in confusion, “What the hell is that?”
The others raised their rifles but were unsure themselves.
“Could it be a supply drop they activated?”
“There are way too many of them. That can’t be it.”
“Why do I hear pig noises? Damn, the simulation is so realistic.”
“This doesn’t feel like an illusion.”
One student tried firing.
Whether it was because the “robots” were too sturdy for the weapons to affect them, or because these things sprinting wildly were actually a bug outside the evaluation system, after a burst of gunfire, nothing changed in the simulated world.
Only when the pig squeals grew clearer – and a familiar stench was carried over by the wind – did the students suddenly come to their senses and shout, “It’s not a simulation, they’re real pigs! Shit, run!”
But a group of piglets was already snorting and charging straight toward them.
The Second Military commander recalled the instructors’ warning before the match began and broke out in a cold sweat. He repeatedly shouted, “Don’t fire! Dodge! Everyone get out of the way!”
Having encountered so many strangers and heard such loud shouting, the piglets were clearly frightened and began scattering in all directions.
Humans and pigs were now chaotically running all over the map. The middle-aged man couldn’t control them and hurriedly shouted, “You’ve scared the pigs! Stop them! Don’t let them get lost!”
The Second Military students could only let out confused cries, running around like headless flies across the field. Meanwhile, members of the red team guarding the flag took advantage of the chaos to rush out and fire wildly.
The Second Military members, now being chased by pigs while also having to catch piglets, were completely stunned. Many of them suddenly received attack notifications, and their mentality collapsed on the spot.
“How shameless can you be?! This is fucking cheating!”
“Are we even supposed to catch the pigs or not?!”
“Catch what? You think we brought pigs out for a midnight stroll? Whoever released them should catch them!”
“Uncle, whose side are you on?! We’re taking an exam and you’re deliberately messing things up!”
Some students hadn’t even finished speaking when they were eliminated. Just as they were jumping in anger and trying to complain to the instructors, a command came through their headsets, “Hurry up, hurry up – first get all the pigs back!”
“On what grounds?!” everyone gritted their teeth in frustration, feeling their chests stuffed with a basket of curses, but still had no choice but to take off their helmets and drive the out-of-control pigs back.
While both sides were locked in a tug-of-war of arguments and chaos, Cheng Feng’s reinforcements successfully arrived on the battlefield.
The Second Military commander had brought a total of twenty-three people for the ambush. Facing attacks from both front and rear, they held out for less than fifteen minutes before being completely wiped out in this incoherent skirmish, not even catching a glimpse of the battle flag.
Current numbers on the field:
Red side: 51 people; White side: 26 people.
After this battle, the white team’s initial advantage in resources was quickly neutralized. With their combat strength dropping sharply, they even began to show a clear disadvantage.
The red team was overjoyed. A group of them surrounded Cheng Feng, showering her with praise for her quick thinking and adaptability, then escorted her into the pigpen. Under the admiring gazes of the others, they carefully counted the exact number of pigs.
Mr. Zhou, on the other hand, was not happy at all. Over twenty “wrongfully killed souls” were loudly protesting in his communication channel – the scene was so intense it was almost deafening.
However, there really was no rule against this. Since no genius like Cheng Feng had ever appeared in previous years, the base had no immediate solution.
If pigs counted as hidden combat power of the breeding farm, then what did the base have? Mr. Zhou discussed it with his colleagues, and in order to maintain fairness, they reluctantly said, “If members of the White Team come to ask instructors for help, we can also enter the battle! The only condition is that no one is allowed to give any hints!”
After saying this, a sense of humiliation rose within him.
What kind of world was this? Instructors had actually been reduced to competing with pigs.
