Chapter 847: Chapter 847
With Dantai’s original intention, capturing the pier was meant to be an easy operation, so he planned to select a few slightly weaker Conquerors, such as Jing Xiang and Chen Hong. However, they didn’t want to separate from Tang Zheng.
Tang Zheng didn’t need that many people, and he had to prepare for the worst. If Dantai’s squad encountered a full-force attack from the German team, they definitely wouldn’t withstand it. He originally wanted to keep Yu Manli and Ruan Feifei behind, but they hesitated and didn’t want to agree.
"Ruan Feifei will go to the pier, that’s settled." Tang Zheng waved his hand, interrupting the hostess’s rebuttal. He wanted to leave a mass attack specialist for Dantai. After Chu Baichuan’s death, a powerful DPS had become even more precious, and Li Xinlan’s Ice Age was actually more suited for defense.
After the two groups split up and began their separate operations, Tang Zheng glanced over his squad and couldn’t help but sigh. There was a definite imbalance of yin over yang; not that he looked down on women, but they really weren’t cut out for combat. ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ NoveI(F)ire.net
"Men are naturally born for war, while women should just stay behind their husbands and bear children." Sha Ou was definitely a chauvinist and, noticing this issue, casually remarked as such, only to earn the disdain of the ladies.
"Heh, just kidding, don’t mind me." Seeing several harsh glares, Sha Ou scratched his head. If he got on the wrong side of these people, he would definitely be the one to suffer.
"Whew." Sha Ou exhaled and wiped off the cold sweat on his forehead, moving closer to Lin Weiguo, "Brother Lin, do you feel, um, particularly pressured in this team?"
"You mean I seem to have very little status, right?" Lin Weiguo turned to look at the entire squad and shook his head, "They do respect me, but my abilities are somewhat poor. Apart from acting as a meat shield, I can’t really contribute much else."
"Everyone has things they’re sensitive about. Brother Lin, tell me about them so I don’t offend them inadvertently," Sha Ou was indirectly asking for information about the entire squad. In order to survive, he first had to foster good relationships and avoid offending anyone.
"No need, everyone is very friendly." There were no selfish people in the team, and this made the Old Soldier quite proud.
Tang Zheng stood at the front of the group, glancing at the map and then at the surrounding environment. Suddenly, a fist-sized patterned spider plopped onto his arm and immediately opened its mouthparts, jabbing its proboscis toward his skin.
Tang Zheng swatted it away, and then screams from Sister Hong came from behind him. A thick, brightly colored caterpillar had landed on her head and was quickly burrowing toward her collar.
"Help me." As the caterpillar moved, it left behind a lot of slimy secretion. The slippery feeling made Sister Hong shiver with disgust, and its hard bristles, which carried toxin, caused itching upon contact with her skin. Sister Hong slapped it fiercely a few times, killing it, then looked at her palm to see it covered with a disgusting liquid.
Gu Xueqi rushed to Sister Hong’s side, took out a bottle of insect repellent spray, and sprayed it on the stung area. The white liquid felt cool on the skin and provided Sister Hong with some relief.
"The insects here seem to be full of aggression and not afraid of people at all!" Li Xinlan looked up. The rainforest was too thick, sunlight could hardly penetrate the branches and leaves, and other than the humidity, it was stiflingly hot. The ground was even worse; fallen branches and leaves mixed with rainwater stuck to their feet like a swamp, each step taking considerable effort.
"We’ve applied insect repellent, and if it doesn’t work, we’ll just have to bear it." Lu Fan took out a straight knife, pinned a caterpillar to a tree trunk, and scraped his feet against it; he had picked up too much soil, which was unbearably heavy.
"Everyone has a helmet, right?" Tang Zheng took out a helmet and fastened it onto his head.
Gu Xueqi came prepared with a replica military helmet she bought from Taobao. Of course, the school beauty’s money came from Tang Zheng’s support. Before leaving the Trojan Room, faced with a huge sum of a million, the proud Gu Xueqi refused to take any of it. However, persuaded by Qin Yan, she accepted it, knowing that to survive in the Trojan Horse Game, she needed to prepare many things, and her current financial situation definitely wouldn’t cut it.
"Heh, I’ve got one too, an American military helmet." Sha Ou scratched his scalp, quite proud. After receiving the million from Tang Zheng, he didn’t spend it on luxuries but instead bought plenty of necessities. If he hadn’t already had firearms, he would have even considered getting some Type 54 handguns from the Black Market.
The two relatively new members had just put on their helmets when they were scoffed at by Lu Fan.
"These replicas can’t even stop crossbow arrows, let alone shrapnel. Here, wear this, real military gear, custom-made." Lu Fan tossed over two helmets. There were few protective headgear options in the Trojan Room, so they had to manage on their own.
Sha Ou, the middle-aged man, was struck dumb. Little Lolita was dressed in a child-sized jungle camouflage outfit with a steel helmet on her head, a rifle in her hands, following the team without falling behind. The sweat on her face was due to the humidity and heat, not fatigue. In contrast, it was Sister Hong, an adult, who appeared the most tired in the whole team.
"Uncle, riding the giant spider is okay, right?" After the initial excitement of trekking through the jungle, Lu Fan didn’t want to walk anymore. With Tang Zheng’s permission, she summoned the giant spider, hopped on, and sat cross-legged, then pulled out a box of mineral water and distributed it to everyone.
Everyone was already used to Lu Fan being a portable storage unit.
After gulping down mineral water and washing her hands, Lu Fan took out a can of fruit, popped it open with the straight knife, and scooped with a spoon to begin enjoying it.
"Mmm, delicious!" Little Lolita relished the peach flesh, beaming with joy, "It would be perfect if it could be chilled."
Just a few minutes into the little girl’s picnic, it was interrupted; ten thousand man-eating bees, each the size of basketballs, went hunting and immediately swooped down on Tang Zheng’s party like bombers.
Lacking mobility in the jungle, Tang Zheng’s team could not shake off the man-eating bees; they had no choice but to take a stand, and soon gunshots rang out.
The leader-level man-eating bees evidently possessed intelligence, for upon encountering resistance, they immediately scattered and surrounded the team from all sides, attacking like a tidal wave.
"Form pairs with the person nearest to you and each defend one side; Li Xinlan and Sister Hong stay in the middle to defend the sky and provide support as needed," Tang Zheng quickly responded, issuing combat orders. Everyone reacted swiftly except for Sister Hong and Jing Xiang.
Lu Fan threw a few hand grenades, overturning several swarms. Within less than a minute, the vegetation around the squad was devastated, and shattered bee corpses littered the ground, covered in sticky fluids that emitted an awful stench.
"It would be great if Ruan Feifei were here. A single lightning strike would electrocute many of them," lamented Yu Manli, who had not yet managed to get her hands on a Thunderstorm rifle and was struggling with her undamaged Howling Reaper against these insects.
"You should be grateful she’s not here. If Dantai’s team encountered these hornets, they’d definitely lose members," remarked Lu Fan as he operated the Pepper Grinder. After firing for a while, disdaining its low firepower, he waved his hand, releasing the Scavenger Mech, leaped on, and its 30mm caliber machine guns began to roar.
Bullets entered the corpses of the man-eating bees, tearing them to pieces; due to their penetrative power, a single bullet often pierced through several hornets.
"They’ve broken through." Gu Xueqi’s side was thinly defended, allowing the man-eating bees to get too close. Waving her hand, several Phoenixes shot out, colliding with them and exploding into a shower of sparks, causing the scorched hornets to fall.
Sha Ou also couldn’t hold them off any longer and began using telekinesis to fling the approaching hornets away.
Lin Weiguo and Ai Yixin released their respective Scavengers, and Yu Manli, not wanting to waste bullets, persisted; after all, with Lu Fan by her side, she benefited from his actions.
"Sister Xin Lan, use your ability," urged Tang Zheng as the defense line seemed on the verge of breaking—a reminder of the disadvantage of having subpar firearms, with firepower too weak to handle such concentrated attacks.
The humidity in the jungle was high, perfect for the matron to exert her strength. Centered around her, the temperature rapidly dropped, and the ground, leaves, and tree trunks began to freeze over, forming an ice layer. The bodies and wings of the man-eating bees also became encased in ice, affecting their flight.
Team Conquerors took the opportunity to increase their firepower. In a short time, the ground around them was covered with a layer of corpses over a meter high, making for an extremely horrifying sight.
The man-eating bees were about to retreat, but then the leader, hiding in the back, emitted a sharp sonic wave. The bees, as if invigorated, swelled in size when hit by the wave, their wings beating more powerfully as they launched a kamikaze attack.
Switching to the East Sea Road First Bow, Tang Zheng aimed at the leader and unleashed a barrage, clearing out an area with his speckled arrows. The very next moment, a group of man-eating bees spontaneously took up the role of meat shields, positioning themselves in front of the leader.
"Stubborn foe." Tang Zheng tossed the First Bow to Jing Xiang beside him and pulled out his Gauss sniper rifle, fitted it with a cannon beam magazine, cocked the lever, and aimed at the leader bee with a red triangle on its head.
A blue light beam shot out, piercing through the swarm of man-eating bees. All that were hit were vaporised by the high temperature, and the remaining shattered corpses were scorched. However, the leader suddenly beat its wings and dodged.
More man-eating bees began to converge in front of it. Tang Zheng ejected the spent round and reloaded as his right eye peered through the scope, locking onto the erratically flying leader.
The cannon beam struck true, vaporizing the lead man-eating bee, leaving no residue. With the loss of their leader, the swarm descended into chaos; some continued the attack, while others began to flee.
Two minutes later, the squad had cleared them all out.
"Move quickly, and stay alert," Sister Hong called out, relief flooding her as the crisis subsided, tempting her to sit down and rest. Tang Zheng promptly stopped her—gunshots could attract enemies, and their best course was to leave quickly.
The team moved on, marching swiftly for half an hour until they reached the asphalt road that led to the center of the island.
Tang Zheng deployed the BMP-3 Infantry Armored Car, encouraging everyone to board and conserve energy. But after traveling just ten kilometers, sparse gunshots were heard from within the dense forest.
"The gunshots are irregular, chaotic—it must be newcomers," surmised Lin Weiguo after a few seconds of listening. "Seems like they’re engaged in combat?"
"A mosquito is small, but it’s still flesh." Yu Manli did not mind cutting down a few German newcomers; after all, they were points to be earned.
PS, My broken computer is driving me insane with its lag! It takes ages just to open a WORD document and type something out. (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, please cast your recommendation and monthly votes on Qidian [qidian.com]. Your support is my greatest motivation.)