9: Chapter 9: The latecomer arrives first, gunfire seizes the initiative!

Zhao Hu charged ahead, crashing through the brush like a bull in heat, making the bushes rustle loudly as if he were afraid the enemy wouldn't notice him.

Li Lang followed behind him, jumping around, pointing to the left and saying, "There might be an ambush here," and then pointing to the right, saying, "We should flank them from that side."

Liu Wei and Sun Zhengyi trailed at the very back.

One walked along, gasping for breath.

The other, hampered by the dim light in the forest, stumbled along, nearly falling several times.

Military orders? Cooperation? They didn't exist.

This was just a makeshift, ragtag group, each acting on their own, a chaotic mess.

"I say, can we take a break first?"

Fatty Liu Wei finally couldn't hold on any longer, plopped down on the ground, and panted heavily.

"I can't run anymore; if we keep running, it'll be the death of me."

"Rest, my ass!"

Zhao Hu, in front, roared impatiently. "Hurry up and keep up! Don't drag us down!"

"What are you yelling for!"

Li Lang wouldn't have it, putting his hands on his hips to argue with Zhao Hu. "I told you, we can't walk in a straight line; we need tactics! What's the difference between charging blindly like this and just handing them our heads?"

"You don't know shit about tactics!"

Zhao Hu turned around, his chest muscles bulging. "War is about fighting! Why are you dilly-dallying, are you a woman?"

"You're the woman! Your whole family is women!"

Seeing that the two were about to start a fight, Qin Feng remained silent.

He did not participate in the argument, instead calmly observing his surroundings.

His gaze swept over every tree, every bush, and even the soil on the ground.

His experience as a Soldier King from his past life allowed him to interpret a vast amount of information from the most subtle traces.

Wind direction, southeast wind, a light breeze.

Humidity, around seventy percent.

Thirty meters to the front left, there are fresh trampling marks, not left by us.

The high ground on the right has a wide field of view; it is an excellent sniping point.

His brain, like a supercomputer, rapidly analyzed the battlefield environment, constructing a three-dimensional tactical map.

Meanwhile, his teammates were still arguing endlessly over the profound philosophical question of who was the idiot.

Just then, "Whoosh—"

A sharp sound of something piercing the air broke the argument.

A red laser shot flew past Fatty Liu Wei's ear, hitting the tree trunk behind him with a "hiss," and a wisp of blue smoke rose.

Liu Wei's body froze.

He slowly looked down and saw that one of the green lights representing his life points on his sensor vest had gone out.

"Ah—!" A scream like a slaughtered pig echoed through the entire forest.

"Enemy attack! There are enemies!"

Li Lang let out a strange cry, clutched his head, and rolled on the ground, his posture extremely pathetic.

Zhao Hu reacted the fastest; almost the instant the gunshot rang out, he raised his gun and began firing wildly in the direction the bullet came from.

"Rat-tat-tat-tat!" The laser beams shot wildly into the depths of the jungle, but other than knocking down a few leaves, they had no effect.

Instead, his indiscriminate firing completely exposed everyone's position.

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!" Dense laser shots rained in from all directions, pinning them down in a small hollow.

Red beams crisscrossed above their heads and around them, and the air was filled with the burnt smell of lasers scorching the air.

The Seventh Squad was instantly plunged into a desperate situation.

"Damn it! Damn it! Stop shooting! I surrender!"

Fatty Liu Wei clutched his head, cowering behind a tree, his body shaking like a sieve.

"It's all your fault! Li Lang! You jinx!"

Zhao Hu hid behind a rock, roaring in frustration. "If you hadn't insisted on coming this way, how would we have been surrounded!"

"My fault? It was clearly you charging blindly that exposed our position!"

Li Lang retorted, refusing to be outdone. "If I were in command, I would have taken you all to the high ground long ago!"

"Ah! My glasses!"

In the chaos, Sun Zhengyi let out a desperate cry.

When he had dived to the ground just now, his glasses had flown off somewhere.

Now, all he could see before him were blurred patches of color.

It was over. Completely over.

The members began to despair, blaming each other.

Various complaints rose and fell amidst the hail of gunfire, like a comical yet tragic farce.

The enemy's encirclement was tightening bit by bit.

Footsteps came from all directions, steady and powerful.

That was the rhythm unique to veteran soldiers.

They could clearly feel the shadow of death completely enveloping them.

At the critical moment, an ice-cold voice pierced through all the noise and gunfire.

"Shut the hell up, all of you!"

It was Qin Feng. He hadn't fired a shot, nor had he hidden; he was simply half-crouched behind a bush, his body's silhouette perfectly blended with the shadows.

His voice was not loud, but it carried an unquestionable authority that instantly silenced the arguing Zhao Hu and Li Lang.

"If you don't want to die, listen to my commands."

Qin Feng's eyes swept over everyone, his gaze so sharp that no one dared to look him in the eye.

Just then, a red laser beam precisely locked onto Liu Wei's massive, conspicuous frame.

Liu Wei's pupils constricted sharply; he could even see the cruel sneer on the face of that veteran sniper.

Death was so close.

In a flash of lightning, Qin Feng moved.

His body sprang up without any warning, the laser rifle in his hand seemingly becoming an extension of his arm.

There was no aiming process. Raise the gun, fire.

"Bang!" The movement was extremely fast.

A bullet struck first by shooting last, accurately firing toward the direction of the sniper.

Almost at the same time, the sniper also pulled the trigger.

Two laser beams crossed each other in the air.

"Whoosh—" The deadly red beam grazed past Liu Wei's scalp, blasting a small, charred crater into the soil behind him.

Liu Wei was scared out of his wits, and his crotch felt warm.

On the other side, a muffled grunt came from the depths of the jungle, followed by the sound of a heavy object hitting the ground.

On the sensor vest of that veteran sniper, the red light representing death lit up.

One shot. Just one shot. An experienced veteran soldier had been counter-killed.

The entire battlefield fell into an eerie one-second silence.

The few members of the squad all looked at Qin Feng with eyes like they were seeing a ghost.

Their brains had completely crashed. Suffocated! Rigid! Petrified!

What just happened? How... how did he do it?

"Zhao Hu!" Qin Feng's voice rang out again, cold and decisive.

"Three o'clock direction, that half-man-high rock, do you see it?"

"Give me suppressive fire! Fire in three seconds!"

Zhao Hu trembled all over, responding almost instinctively: "Yes!"

"Li Lang!" "Ah? Here!"

"Aren't you talkative? Go to the eleven o'clock direction, to that densest bush, and make some noise for me!"

"Do whatever you want, scream, curse, just make them think our main force is over there!"

Li Lang opened his mouth, wanting to say something.

But under Qin Feng's murderous gaze, he swallowed his words and scrambled over, rolling and crawling.

"Fatty!" "I'm here!" Liu Wei answered with a sobbing tone.

"Stay behind me, do your job as a meat shield, and don't move around!"

"...Okay."

"Sun Zhengyi, where are your glasses?" "I... I don't know..."

Qin Feng stopped wasting words and yanked him to his side.

"Listen to my orders; without my order, no one is allowed to fire a single shot!"

After giving the order, his entire aura sank.

He was like a leopard lurking in the darkness, beginning to bare its fangs and claws.