Book 4: The Return of the King


    Chapter 27


    The large screen displayed a row of words: Counter Terrorist


    Night Battle.


    The mission rule were as follows:


    1. The first team to find and wipe out 100 NPC combatants


    patrolling in the city will win.


    2. The first team to destroy all five opponents will win.


    Slide whistled.  He concluded while chewing a gum.  “Good mission.


    Buff beat K&K on this mission type.  European team then screwed


    Buff on the same mission. Then finally, K&K used double snipers


    to crush the European team.”


    Bug:  “Well, what a story of love and hatred.”


    Inin:  “It sounded rather pitiful.”


    Following grinned.  “How apropos. Tonight, let’s say farewell to


    these old soldiers with this mission.”


    All:  “Stop talking nonsense.  If we don’t win this simple mission


    within 15 minutes, we won’t be able to look at anyone in the eyes.”


    The image on screen changed.


    Nice…...a tropical forest……


    It seemed to be fate that their map was the complete opposite of


    the desert map when K&K played the European team.


    The desert was flat with very little cover while a forest was full of


    obstacles.  It was very easy to hide.


    “This mission relies more on strategy.”  Ai Qing said, “First, they


    need to contain the enemy.  Second, they need to destroy 100 NPCs.


    Both goals are equally important.  K&K’s captain overlooked the first


    point and lost to Buff the first time they played this mission.  He just


    wanted to finish the battle ASAP, but he ignored the enemy.”


    Xiao Mai recollected,  “The second time Dt played against the Europeans.


    He used double snipers to contain the five opponents.  The other three


    teammates successfully destroyed 100 NPCs.”


    “That’s right.  That’s what he’s best at, he has a talent for tactics.”


    Ai Qing spoke the last sentence a little bit lightly.


    Actually, she was thinking.


    In the players rest area, Grunt forcefully bumped Dt’s shoulder the next


    second after he heard Ai Qing speak.


    As the two commentators conversed, Slide only spoke briefly in the


    headset.  “Old rule. Two and three in parallel.”


    He was paired up with Inin, keeping the strongest players in reserve.


    The other three would operate independently.


    Five people in darkness formed a straight line.  They jumped over


    river, rock, and gully. They didn’t need to speak and moved southwest


    in the darkness.


    “44, 67.”  Following suddenly yelled.  “Damn. I got shot.”


    In the next second, incendiary and smoke grenades were thrown at


    those coordinates.


    Their goal was to immediately confuse the enemy, so that Following


    could have a chance to escape.


    Shortly after, Following forward somersaulted next to Slide’s side, covered


    in blood.  Fortunately his teammates rescued him in time, but he still lost


    40% of his health. “Five there.”


    Slide’s eyes brightened up.


    “Mortar.”  He spoke only one word before he jumped into the smoke.


    Inin didn’t even think about it.  He tossed out two more grenades.


    All and Bug jumped into the smoke the next.


    The last one was Following.


    They all switched to pistols before they disappeared in the smoke.


    Within seconds, there was only smoke, nothing else, visible on the screen.


    On the big screen, the sky filled with smoke.


    “Zero Visibility Combat.”  Ai Qing spoke three words. “What Slide is doing


    now is reducing everyone’s visibility to zero.  Nothing is visible. They plan


    to fully rely on their life detector and headphones to fight.”


    The sound of opening the scope of a sniper was very crisp.


    The sound of changing clips lingered.


    The sound of someone switching between knife and gun was short and low.


    Walking, jumping, somersaulting, crouching, and going prone.


    …...etc, etc.


    Every action had its own particular sound.  Many of these sounds could


    pass farther than five meters away.


    In other words, before you could even see the enemy on the life detector,


    the sound they made would already exposed their position.  And the


    weapon the enemy was going to switch to was also exposed.


    Even how they were moving was telegraphed.


    Xiao Mai was speechless.  “A pure melee. The life detector doesn’t


    It was too easy to kill an ally by mistake in this layers of smoke.


    Ai Qing grinned slightly.  “It won’t happen.”


    Xiao Mai’s head snapped to Ai Qing.  “Does SP have special training


    for this?”


    “That’s right.”  Ai Qing didn’t intend to be coy about it.


    Any special tactic could only be used once.  Therefore, after the


    competition tonight, this tactic would be obsolete.  Under the effects of


    smoke and incendiary grenades, this was a fight using only sound.


    She knew it very well.  The following would be a game of pure strangulation.


    The sudden encounter, followed by immediate smoke, and switch to melee


    was so fast that it made it impossible for Buff to react in time.  She could


    imagine the confusion inside Buff’s team channel. They had to constantly


    report each one’s coordinates. It would be total chaos.


    Zero visibility combat was a battle of skills and mental fortitude.


    This smoke wouldn’t disperse until the match was over.


    Ai Qing’s ears seemed to hear what Slide liked to say the most:


    Brothers, let’s start killing.