Chapter 206 - Ready
Chapter 206: Ready (Part one)
Hu Bing came over and glared at Xu Cheng, and he interrogated with an accusing tone, “Did you do that on purpose?”
Xu Cheng: “What do you mean?”
Hu Bing: “Don’t look for trouble. Do you want to attract more hate so people get us out first? It’s going to be so easy for those high-ranking military regions to take care of us first.”
“If you don’t have the confidence, why bother coming to this competition? If you want a good score, you must step over these people. We can lose the competition, but we must keep our dignity,” Xu Cheng said.
Hu Bing snorted, “You are getting eliminated first anyways so you are obviously not scared. Let me tell you, don’t drag our leg. Hide when we are hiding, and work together when necessary. If you are on fire, don’t bring it to us.”
Xu Cheng replied, “Don’t worry, I will go solo in the beginning and won’t get in your way.”
After he said that, he walked away.
The head instructor also couldn’t do much about this Hu Bing and only shook his head.
Then, Hu Bing and the head instructor went to draw lots. The captain and the head instructor of each military region would go and participate in a draw. In this big jungle there were the north, south, west, east, and center regions, and where each team would start off at would be selected at random. Normally, the team would hate to get the center region because they could easily get besieged and it’s too tough to defend. The weaker teams would always pray to get some of the side areas that have its back against giant cliffs or something which would be easier to defend. As for the stronger teams, they didn’t really care. Even if they got the center, they would move their way out and kill any team that dares to cross their path.
Hu Bing came to the drawing lot with the head instructor, and so did pairs from other military regions. The 8th MR’s head instructor that once tried to recruit Xu Cheng saw that Instructor Yan didn’t come with Xu Cheng but rather a rookie, so he asked in confusion, “What are you doing? Xu Cheng’s not the captain?”
Hu Bing definitely didn’t like hearing that. He immediately responded, neither haughty nor humble, “I’m the captain of the 5th MR, Hu Bing.”
The 8th MR’s head instructor wasn’t convinced by Hu Bing’s abilities at all and he turned to look at Instructor Yan. “I know now, you guys are playing tricks, aren’t you?”
Instructor Yan didn’t know whether he should laugh or cry.
Hu Bing became slightly angered. “Sir, let me repeat myself. I’m the main force!”
The 8th MR’s head instructor had the “I already saw through your tricks” face as he laughed and said, “It must be a trick. You want others to focus on him, but your secret weapon is Xu Cheng, right?”
Hu Bing’s voice picked up a notch. “Let me repeat-”
The 8th MR’s head instructor nodded. “Alright, alright, I won’t tell anyone else. I know it’s tough being a low-tier team, I can understand that you are trying to play some little tricks.”
Hu Bing secretly swore: Understand my facking azz you little piece of sh-
The 8th MR’s head instructor had already left.
Head Instructor Yan told Hu Bing to go up and draw, and Hu Bing just casually picked out a piece of paper from the box. He opened it, and Instructor Yan’s eyelids directly jumped as Hu Bing took in a deep cold air.
Center region!
They were done. They were already a weak team, and now at the chaotic battlefield that was the center region, they would probably get eliminated first.
The people of the other military regions saw Instructor Yan and Hu Bing’s faces and they laughed, “You hit the jackpot? Well, you guys are free points anyways, it doesn’t really matter which region you feed to.”
The guy that talked then took a look at Hu Bing and asked in surprise, “Wasn’t Xu Cheng always the captain for the 5th MR? What a rare occasion, there’s even a rookie stronger than Xu Cheng? Oh well, we will see each other on the battlefield. I’m very curious how strong someone has to be to be able to replace Xu Cheng.”
Chapter 206: Ready (Part two)
After returning to their hotel room, Instructor Yan and Hu Bing were both silent with stern looks on their faces. The other members all gathered over and asked, “What is it? What area did we get?”
Hu Bing sighed. “Center.”
The faces of the other 14 soldiers immediately became a bit awkward.
“What should we do? We are basically surrounded and can very easily be eliminated first,” someone voiced their concern.
Xu Cheng sat on his bed by the window and said, “Just start preparing the game plan, there’s no point complaining now. We only have one night to prepare, and tomorrow’s the competition.”
The team looked at each other, and finally they began forming their tactics with the help of the head instructor. Xu Cheng was just on his bed with his eyes closed and didn’t participate, since he knew he wasn’t welcomed anyways.
Hu Bing was quite selfish, and the entire game plan revolved around him. Now that he knew he was surrounded, the strategy he adopted was to have everyone protect him and help him break out of the siege so he could get out and hide. He didn’t care if his teammates would be sacrificed for him, and his goal was to get out of the siege and survive long enough to get into the top-300 list.
– At night –
At the monitoring and control center, almost all of the highest ranking military officials came, attracted by this annual special force competition. Even some high-level politicians came to check it out as well, hoping to headhunt a few talents.
The military commanders of all participating military regions came as well, and they each had a tablet with all the participants’ information on it.
The 29th MR”s commander saw the soldier profiles and said, “Holy crap, is the 6th MR giving everyone else no way out? All 15 of them are in the top 50 for estimated combat strength, how come you guys have so many beasts in-store every year?”
The commander of the 6th MR that got first place last year was very proud. He laughed and replied, “I have no other option, we are top 3 every year, it’s a lot of pressure on me too because I’m scared that you guys would laugh at me if we fail one year, so we must be fully prepared.”
Although he said it nonchalantly, the other military regions were all super envious.
It was especially true for the 5th MR’s commander. Taking a look at the estimated ranking, none of his guys even squeezed into the top 100. The other military regions couldn’t help but joke with him, “Old Xie, didn’t your region have 3 guys that got into top-100 two years ago? What happened this year?”
The 5th MR’s commander pouted and glared back at his old friend. “What’s with this question out of the blue? Don’t just worry about me, don’t your guys have the same destiny as ours, becoming free points for the other teams?”
That old man laughed and replied, “That’s not certain yet, we have a secret weapon this year, just wait and see.”
“Old Xie, isn’t the head of the Three Swordsmen, Xu Cheng, still here? How come he’s not in this ranking? Didn’t I remember that he was at the 25th place last year?”
The 5th MR commander bitterly smiled. “Don’t mention it. He got into an accident and his power isn’t as great as before anymore. This year, I’m just here to check out talents from other military regions and see if I can dig a few up and recruit them to my region.”
The other commanders all laughed. This b@stard sure was shameless, his team couldn’t win but he was here to headhunt for other people’s talents.
On the second day, every team had off-road vehicles over to pick them up. Everyone was asked to wear headsets that cover up their ears and eyes, and then they were transported to their targeted destination.
At the same time, all the cameras in the jungle were on standby, even drones were deployed to assist with recording to get the best angle of view for those higher-ups to spectate the battle.
Every head instructor would also be brought to the viewing area, and they all had their notebooks with them to record mistakes that their guys made at the competition.