Chapter 381: A Test
Translator: AbyssrulerEditor: Lucas
This was to test their endurance and sneaking abilities, and their abilities in utilizing the environment to hide themselves.
After the Solar System team had gone a distance from the base, Lear signaled everyone to stop. "From here on, we'll split up. Everyone has to take individual action and choose the best course of action. However, remember this: this chance did not come by easily. Do not drag each other down, especially you, Zhang Shan!"
Lear did not give him any face, and Zhang Shan's expression darkened. However, everyone else was also silent. They had no advantages in this round, and were also missing a person. Additionally, it was Wang Zheng, which was not any good news for them.
Lear did not mention Luo Fei and Taros, as they had collapsed in the abnormal gravity field, but Zhang Shan had fallen behind due to his weaker physical strength. Even if the others had high capabilities, no one was here to babysit another person in the IG competition.
Other than Zhang Shan's ability to launch a surprise attack, there was no other use for it, and it would only drag the team down.
For him, who had changed his major midway, his fundamentals could not be compared to the rest.
"Lear, don't go too far!" Zhang Runan couldn't help but state.
Zhang Shan stopped Zhang Runan and remained silent. It was true that he was a burden on the team.
Lear coldly eyed Zhang Shan. Just after running a short while, he had already begun to hobble along, as he had still not fully recovered yet.
"Let's set off for the glory of the Solar System! This is also for the dignity of our fellow soldiers. I hope that you will give it your all this time, even if it's your life!"
After speaking, Lear was the first to rush out, ignoring everyone else. For this type of hide and seek, the less people around, the better.
Zhang Shan ran without stopping. While running and wondering, his right leg was hurting badly, but he was unable to bother with it. This was not his specialty, and he was afraid that he did not have the experience that the others had in this type of environment. His Ability X was also not useable, but he had to think of a solution. Even if was not for himself, he could not shame Wang Zheng, and he could be useful!
The countdown had ended ten minutes ago. The army that would be searching for them should have left at this point in time, and they were not using their legs to search. The time limit of six hours may sound long, but they were all trying to extend their distance on foot. The fighter jets and mecha would quickly catch up.
Zhang Shan hadn't stopped for the six hours, but he was still considered to be the slowest amongst the group. After all, this was not a race. Of course, some, such as Taros, did think that using this time to run as far as possible was the best solution. His Ability X was based on speed, and he was filled with confidence. Unfortunately, Taros was, in fact, the first to be captured.
The military did not give these players an unlimited area. At the periphery, a 50 meter high electromagnetic network had encircled and caught them.
Taros had rushed forward too quickly and landed within the nets, while the dozens of people that were hiding in the darkness disappeared into the jungle.
He had thought that he was the fastest, but in reality there were countless individuals that were faster than him.
Many generals saw the name of the captured team members on the screen, and they all smiled. Although there was a monster there, the overall strength of the Solar System team was too weak. Such an idiotic person, no one knew how this person had trained. They had originally lacked a member, now they had lost another one. The chances of the Solar System team progressing were slim.
Taros had made a crucial mistake. He was originally a very delicate person, with complicated inner thoughts. However, the rapid events that had occurred had disrupted his mentality. In particular, he always felt that he was strong and excellent, and always wanted to prove himself, but his attention had been spent on the wrong areas.
On the other hand, Zhang Shan had already stopped and forced himself to calm down. This option to continuously run would not work. Originally, his speed was not stellar. He would be caught if he continued on. Where should he hide then?
In all four directions were the calls and screeches of the Zerg. Now it was almost dusk, and as the light dimmed, the Zerg would gradually become more active.
Zhang Shan had to slow down, every step he took was very cautious. Once he died, the implant under his skin would activate and record down the current time. There was no need for the army to do it.
Death was not the scary part. It was that he would have died without doing anything meaningful.
The area in front of his eyes suddenly cleared up, and he saw a large canyon with its rocks exposed directly ahead. Several corrosion worms were doing some unintelligible things outside, and more than a dozen bone spur and sickle zergs were patrolling the area.
Through the narrow canyon path, he could see a cave. The nest!
Avoiding the Zerg's activity radius, Zhang Shan carefully climbed up the face of the canyon. His plan was to climb over both peaks of the canyon and find a cave where he could hide in. Although he would certainly be found by the military, in order to catch him, they would have to pass by the bugs' nest. In this early stage, the military should only be spreading out a large net. When it came to such barren areas, they would not be paying them too much attention. This way, he had the confidence to buy a little more time.
Both his legs were trembling. Although the injury had been healed, the strength that was lost would not recover soon, and he was unable to drag his legs any further...
Once he thought about Lear, Zhang Shan's mind immediately cleared up. Damn, that a*shole, there must be a way!
However, just after climbing out five meters, Zhang Shan's hand shook and almost missed the ledge. Right in front of him was a giant bug attached to the wall! Its six compound eyes were unblinking and staring in his direction.
Zhang Shan did not move a single inch. A wall spider zergling had a unique ability from birth. They were able to imitate spiders and could move about freely on the canyon wall.
The wall spider zergling was also motionless, only persistently staring at Zhang Shan, just like a cat watching a mouse, not dealing the killing blow until the very last moment.
Zhang Shan looked desperate, his plan having failed completely. With his current situation, he would have to escape even if he met with a single sickle zergling on the ground, not to mention the rock wall. At this time, he could only escape with his Ability X of warping. Perhaps he would be met with the pursuit of a hundred zerglings. Once he was discovered by a single zergling and was not able to kill it fast enough, there would be countless zerglings chasing him for the kill.
This damned wall spider zergling still remained motionless, just like a patient hunter, not acting until the last moment.
Zhang Shan gritted his teeth. He planned to release his grip and jump down, and subsequently use his Ability X to escape.
Suddenly, a small detail made Zhang Shan's originally loose hand grab back onto the rock face.
The wall spider zergling did not move because of Zhang Shan's movements, but there was a rustling sound around it... That was the sound of a large number of bugs coming close, and Zhang Shan's hair rose up...
Deep in the night.
The search operations of the 7th and 9th divisions of Aslan did not slow down. On the contrary, as more and more IG players were captured, the soldiers of the two squadrons were even more excited.
"Carl, how many have you caught on your side?"
"Two hundred exactly. This group of rabbits are just looking down on my troops. What about you?"
"Hah, your seventh division really can't make it. We're close to three hundred of them. Some of those idiots were even hidden near the base. They have no intelligence at all. So these are the guys who claim to be the elites in the Milky Way? I should really adjust my expectations."
"My apologies, we've just gotten another batch of a hundred. Don't tell me that your 19th division is sending them in one by one?"
The instructors of the two divisions were smiling, but everyone could tell that the tension between the two was a little fierce.
After hanging up the Skylink call, both instructors immediately shouted at the soldiers under them, "Pass down the order to every soldier. If we lose, the whole division will not be eating meat for a month! And no vacations for three months!"
The order was rapidly transmitted to the Skylinks of all the soldiers.
"Hmph! Speed up! Don't dream of resting, you know how I'll be like without a month of meat! If you don't wish to see such a situation, then move faster!"
"I was still wishing for a vacation to meet my wife and kids. If anyone makes me miss the chance to see my newborn son, I will send them to guard the border for three years!"
The heads of each brigade also began to shout commands quickly.
In the air, drone after drone was sweeping across the area, their searchlights plowing through the fields and closely scanning one zone after the other. The network of drones was accompanied by a signal receiving vehicle equipped with a towering antenna. It was receiving the video feeds of each drone, and each vehicle was equipped with five signal analysts that were analyzing the environment with the help of an intelligent AI system.
"D5 Zone, coordinates X59, Y49, found a suspicious entity."
An analyst made a statement, and from the video footage, it could be seen that the radiant heat emitted by a rock was abnormally fluctuating.
With this discovery, over the D5 area, the five unmanned drones flew past the area once again, setting down a tight layer of surveillance.
Within a minute, a team from the 7th Division had rushed to the scene and surrounded the area completely.
The rock moved, the soil was pushed aside, and a dirt-covered Aroto raised his hands, smiling in frustration. Although he was the main strength of Aslan, his forte lay in assault and offense. He had already tried his best. "I surrender, we're on the same side."
The soldiers simply smiled and lifted their stun guns in unison.
Aroto was shocked for a moment. "Don't shoot me, let me take a bath..."
Boom, psst...
An arc from the stun guns was emitted, and the powerful electric energy instantly knocked Aroto down to the ground.
"There are only enemies here, let's go."
The same thing happened in this area. No more rookies were caught, but people from Aslan, Arbiter, Manalasuo Republic, and even Atlantis had been caught.
Atlantis' capture was more difficult, as their unique runes were not only able to avoid the various reconnaissance scans of the drones, but also able to distort the air and form visual obstacles. However, the obstacles were not really invisible after all. With Aslan dispatching two video analysts that were familiar with the abilities of the Atlanteans, two Atlantean players were smoothly captured.
The 20,000 strong marine division had been completely dispersed. In addition to the unmanned drones, there was a large number of banshees, and the ground-based mech units were constantly expanding the reconnaissance area. Under the encirclement of superior strength and technology, each individual seemed to be insignificant. Even if one was a War God, here they were only a speck of dust in comparison to this army.
Hidden near a bugs' nest?
That's smart, but did you think the soldiers of Aslan were idiots? Every time they swept near a bugs' nest, they simply had to fire into the area, causing the al the bugs to be aggravated. You could imagine the outcome of those who were hiding nearby...
G7 Zone, bugs' nest area.
A team of a hundred marines were searching the edges of the nest.
"Reporting, scan of G7 zone complete. No targets found."
"Fire the shockwave."
"Captain, this is a large nest. Should we inform the heavy assault group?"
"Mm, report it as per normal. Fire it in five minutes, we'll rest for a while."
Haha, captain, these kids are really stupid. I heard that there were more than a dozen hiding near a nest, and they were almost eaten by the bugs."
"Who asked them to be that naive, choosing such a place to hide?"