Chapter 50 Irreconcilable Enemy
"Besides, tonight, the victorious side sleeps in the barracks. The losing side sleeps in the latrine."
"Boom!"
The minds of every soldier rang with a deafening hum!
The relaxed and joyful gaming mindset from just a moment ago vanished instantly into thin air!
Lick bones?!
Sleep in the latrine?!
Was this something a fucking human being could come up with?!
The eyes of every single soldier turned red in an instant!
They looked toward the opposite side!
Those were no longer comrades-in-arms! They were no longer brothers!
They were enemies!
Mortal enemies who shared an irreconcilable hatred, who were about to snatch their meat, seize their beds, force them to lick bones, and sleep in the latrine!
A towering aura of killing intent surged explosively from both ends of the parade ground!
The two teams—fifteen hundred against fifteen hundred—stood separated by a distance of two hundred paces, glaring at each other from afar!
The air itself seemed to have been ignited!
On the viewing platform,
Qin Cang and Zhang Wei were left utterly dumbfounded.
Their mouths hung open, incapable of uttering a single syllable.
Could they... really play it like this?
Using the simplest rewards and punishments, the most primal desires, to stimulate the soldiers' fiercest fighting will and... hatred in the shortest possible time!
This was no longer drilling soldiers!
This was raising venomous insects!
Putting three thousand of the most toxic Gu worms into a single jar, forcing them to tear at each other and devour one another!
What kind of terrifying existence would the final survivor turn out to be?!
"Instructor Wang," Xiao Zhan said indifferently, "you may begin."
Wang Ba walked to the center of the viewing platform, took a deep breath, abruptly raised his hand, and then brought it down heavily!
"Engagement, begin!"
As Wang Ba's hand—weighing as much as a thousand pounds—fell, the entire parade ground seemed as though a silent bomb had been dropped upon it!
Dead silence!
An eerie, profound silence!
The mountain-shaking charge they had anticipated did not happen!
The rain of gunfire and crossfire they had expected did not occur either!
At the exact moment the order was given, the two murderous teams at either end of the parade ground simultaneously made the exact same movement!
"Hit the dirt!"
"Find cover!"
Someone roared within the ranks.
"Swish, swish, swish—"
Three thousand men dropped low instantly, like wheat mown down by a scythe!
Almost instinctively, they utilized every single usable object on the parade ground!
Empty wooden crates used for stacking weapons!
Wooden racks that served as instruments of torture!
Even the corpses of prisoners piled up yesterday that hadn't yet been cleared away, which had served as targets!
The previous second, they were a torrent about to collide head-on.
The next second, they transformed into venomous snakes lurking in the shadows!
On the viewing platform, Qin Cang and Zhang Wei were once again left utterly speechless by the scene before their eyes!
This...
Were these still those rebellious troops from the capital garrison who only knew how to bunch up and charge blindly?
When did they learn this near-instinctive battlefield awareness possessed only by veteran soldiers hardened by a hundred battles?!
"It seems they didn't let my words go in one ear and out the other." A satisfied curve touched the corner of Xiao Zhan's mouth.
Use your brain!
Those two words had been carved into the bones of all three thousand men through fear and blood!
Charge blindly?
Within the firing range of the "Ghost's Fang," a frontal charge was sheer suicide—even if what they held in their hands were only paintballs!
The parade ground fell into an eerie standoff.
In the air, there was only the sound of the wind and the suppressed, heavy breathing of the soldiers.
Everyone stared fixedly at the opposite side.
They were waiting.
Waiting for some impatient fool to stick their head out first!
Time ticked away, second by second.
Sweat trickled down the temples of the soldiers.
The fear of licking bones and sleeping in the latrine hung over everyone's head like the Sword of Damocles!
Finally, someone couldn't hold back any longer!
In the western team, a soldier hiding behind a wooden crate cautiously poked out half his head, trying to observe the situation on the opposing side.
He was fast, but someone was even faster!
"Bang!"
Almost the exact moment he poked his head out, a muffled gunshot echoed from the eastern position!
A blue paintball, cleaving through the air with a sharp whistle, struck the soldier's helmet with absolute precision!
"Thwack!"
The blue paint pouch burst upon impact!
Thick blue paint smeared all over the soldier's face!
He froze completely.
He touched the sticky liquid on his face, then looked toward the distant enemy who was slowly lowering his firearm.
Was he... "dead"?
Just like that... in a single instant?
"Those who are killed, crawl out your damn selves! Lie down in the middle!" Wang Ba's voice, devoid of the slightest trace of emotion, resounded across the entire field!
The face of the soldier who had been "headshot" instantly turned the color of a pig's liver!
Eliminated first, right in front of three thousand men!
Utter and absolute humiliation!
In a daze, he discarded the pneumatic rifle in his hand, staggered like the living dead toward the center of the parade ground, and lay down stiffly.
He had become the first "corpse."
This gunshot acted like a fuse,
completely igniting everyone's nerves!
"Damn it! Open fire! Suppressive fire!"
"The right flank! Behind those wooden racks on the right! Blast them!"
"Bang! Bang, bang, bang! Bang, bang!"
A dense volley of gunfire erupted instantly!
Colorful paintballs traced rainbow-colored trajectories of death across the air!
"Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!"
The sound of paint pouches bursting echoed one after another!
Brilliant "blooms of blood" continuously blossomed across the bodies of various soldiers!
"Crap! I'm hit!" A soldier's shoulder was struck by yellow paint.
"My back! Who the fuck hit me in the back?" Another soldier felt a chill on his spine.
One "corpse" after another began to continuously emerge from the positions on both sides, lying flat on the ground.
The battle instantly escalated to white-hot intensity!
This was no game!
This was war!
Everyone's eyes had turned red with bloodlust!
No longer acting as isolated individuals, they began spontaneously forming small squads!
Groups of three to five covered one another, advancing and retreating with alternate fire!
"Three o'clock direction! Behind that wooden stump! Two men!"
"Provide suppressive fire to draw their attention! I'll flank them!"
"Fire!"
"Bang, bang, bang!"
Several pneumatic rifles fired simultaneously, a dense cluster of paintballs instantly peppering that wooden stump into a multicolored mess!
And the two suppressed soldiers could only shrink tightly behind it, utterly unable to raise their heads!
Right at that moment, a figure darted out swiftly from the flank like a cheetah!
Running at full speed, he squeezed the trigger!
"Bang! Bang!"
Two precise shots!
On the backs of the two soldiers behind the wooden stump, a red and a green mark instantly appeared!
"Nice shot!"
The small-scale victory elicited an excited low growl from this three-man squad!
However, before they even had time to rejoice,
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
On the opposite side, enemies who had long been lying in ambush seized the moment of their exposure and unleashed a hail of gunfire!
The soldier who had just achieved merit instantly sprouted several "holes" across his body!
"Dammit! It's an ambush!"
The remaining two tumbled and scrambled back behind cover, their complexions turning unsightly to the extreme!
The battle situation became gridlocked and brutal!
No one was safe!
Every single corner could conceal a fatal threat!
The brains of the soldiers were spinning at lightning speed!