69: The Silent Bear Trap

"They're halfway up the cliff, Boss." Reno's voice was tight with tension, his knuckles turning white from the grip. "My god... I wouldn't have believed this equipment could hide people so effectively if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes."

On the main screen of the command room, the image of the pitch-black cliff was covered by an eerie, shifting green grid. Three blurry human silhouettes moved slowly within the grid, like Ghosts in the water. This was the footage sent back by the "Geological Resonance" detector that Lao Mo had cobbled together—crude, yet lethally effective.

"Giant Star Mining's elite unit, the 'Ghosts'." Chen Feng leaned back in the Commander's seat, his tone as calm as if he were critiquing a game of chess. "Born for infiltration and surgical strikes. If it weren't for Lao Mo, we'd be flying blind right now."

"They're moving too fast, Boss! We can't wait any longer!" Reno stared at the screen, his heart pounding. "With one word from me, Turrets 3 and 4 on the north side can turn that cliff face to dust in three seconds!"

"And then what?" Chen Feng countered. "Then Xing Zhan will know we have anti-stealth capabilities and precise fire coverage. What will he do then?"

Reno froze, answering subconsciously, "He... he'll retreat, reassess, and then use even greater firepower to wipe our entire base off the map."

"Exactly." Chen Feng nodded. "So, we can't open fire. What I want isn't to scare him away, but to break his claws, make him hurt, and make him afraid."

He watched the three shadows on the screen, who had already reached the top of the cliff and were cautiously making their way toward an abandoned ventilation duct entrance, a cold smile playing at the corners of his mouth.

"Let them in. Isn't our 'bear trap' prepared specifically for them?"

"But A Yong... he's alone..." Reno was still worried. "The opposition has three people, and they're all elites!"

"That's why we need a surprise." Chen Feng's gaze didn't leave the screen. "Lao Mo, get ready to activate your 'Lullaby'."

"Copy that, Boss." Lao Mo's raspy voice came through the communicator with a hint of excited trembling. "I guarantee they'll have a good night's sleep."

The entrance to the ventilation duct was deathly silent.

The captain of the "Ghost" squad made a hand gesture, and two team members immediately fanned out in a combat formation, scouting the surroundings. Everything was going incredibly smoothly—no alarms, no patrols, not even a decent sensor.

"It's too quiet," the deputy whispered over the squad channel. "Captain, it's a trap."

"Shut up. Our mission is reconnaissance," the captain replied coldly, though a trace of unease rose in his heart as well. He reconfirmed the scan results on his wrist terminal; it was completely blank.

"Prepare to enter," he ordered.

Just as he stepped one foot into the shadow of the ventilation duct, Chen Feng in the command room whispered a single word.

"Do it."

"Vrrr—"

A silent soundwave instantly rippled out with the ventilation duct as its center! It couldn't be heard, but it was like a heavy sledgehammer slamming deep into the brains of the three "Ghost" members.

"Ugh!"

The trio's Optical Camouflage instantly failed under the violent fluctuations of the power supply, and their figures stumbled into view. Intense dizziness and nausea made them unable to even hold their guns steady as their vision spun.

"It's... a trap..." the captain roared, trying to struggle.

But it was too late.

A dark shadow pounced from the shadows beside the duct like a phantom!

"A Yong!" Reno cried out in the command room.

On the screen, the man they had pulled back from the brink of death was now like a true beast. His enhanced body exploded with incredible speed, and before the first enemy could react, a knife-hand strike had already accurately chopped into the back of his neck.

"Crack!" The sound of bone breaking was clearly audible.

The second team member barely managed to raise his gun, only for A Yong to close the distance with an incredible sidestep. A massive fist, carrying the sound of whistling wind, slammed directly into his chest plate. With a dull thud, the man flew out like a tattered sack, hitting the rock wall and falling silent.

All of this happened in the blink of an eye.

"Monster!" The squad captain was a battle-hardened elite after all. He forced himself to bite his tongue through the intense pain, using the sting to stay conscious. He didn't counterattack; instead, he immediately pressed a red emergency button on his wrist!

A high-frequency signal instantly shot into the sky.

"A signal!" In Xing Zhan's mobile command vehicle, the adjutant cried out.

Xing Zhan stood up abruptly, staring fixedly at the red signal point that had just lit up on the screen.

But the signal lasted for less than a second before cutting off abruptly. Immediately following that, the green dots representing the life signs of the three squad members all vanished, turning into a glaring gray.

"No—!" Xing Zhan's adjutant let out a cry of disbelief.

Xing Zhan's face turned ashen for the first time.

In front of the ventilation duct, A Yong expressionlessly snapped the captain's neck. He glanced at the extinguished signal device on the man's wrist, then picked up the captain's corpse and tossed it off the side of the cliff like a piece of trash.

The body traced an arc in the air and slammed heavily into the pile of rocks at the base of the cliff, landing perfectly in an open area without any cover.

"Nicely done, A Yong," Chen Feng's voice sounded in A Yong's earpiece. "Come back. The second half of the show is about to begin."

In the command room, Reno was trembling with excitement. "We won... we won! Boss, we completely wiped out one of their ace squads!"

"No." Chen Feng shook his head, his gaze still cold. "This was just the appetizer."

He watched the commotion in Xing Zhan's camp caused by the loss of contact with the squad and slowly issued a new command.

"All defense turrets, end silence."

"Target: enemy camp."

"Perform a... saturated fire coverage," Chen Feng's voice was devoid of emotion. "Stop as soon as it's done. Let them see our teeth."

"Yes, sir!" Reno roared with all his might.

The next second, the deathly silent Mining Area No. 7 base was like a sleeping steel beast awakening. Dozens of hidden turrets rose, their barrels glowing with the light of destruction as they aimed at Xing Zhan's camp.

Amidst deafening roars, artillery fire poured down like rain, blowing the outer defenses of Xing Zhan's camp into a sea of flames.

The firing lasted for only thirty seconds before falling silent again.

Xing Zhan stood outside his command vehicle, letting the blast waves from the explosions ruffle his clothes. He looked at the casualty reports of his subordinates and then at the unrecognizable corpse at the base of the cliff transmitted back by a drone.

For the first time, the bloodthirsty Commander lost that smile of playing with his prey.

He knew the testing was over.

Next, it would be war.