Chapter 22: Narrowing the Battlefield

The remaining three boys finally snapped out of their daze and hurriedly crawled behind the trees for cover.

Bang! I fired a shot and hit one of them squarely.

But before I could aim again, the other two had already taken shelter behind the trees, making them impossible targets.

“Listen up, you in front! You’re surrounded. You have two choices: one, lay down your weapons and surrender. Once the bullets are removed, we’ll return your guns and let you move on to the next round. Two, leave now, and we won’t pursue you.”

“Of course, you can choose to fight us. We have ten people and we’re not worried about a shootout.”

The speaker was Huang Xinru, the team’s most cheerful and responsible girl. She was perfect for the job of persuading surrender.

We weren’t truly trying to get them to surrender, though we didn’t mind letting them keep those two guns. In fact, their leaving was the best outcome; once they were gone, we could pick up the guns ourselves. Five guns in total—that was enough.

“Your teammates have already been eliminated. I think surviving to the end, carrying their hopes, is the wise choice. Shots have already been fired—if you don’t hurry and retreat now, those fearless ‘dead’ will soon arrive with their armies. We have numbers and firepower, we can withdraw, but you might not be so lucky. Our ambush was only for more bullets; it doesn’t affect us much either way.”

Huang Xinru played her strengths, persuading the ones hiding behind the trees.

“Wen, Hu, you two should go. Survive to the end,” urged the leader, who sat smoking on the ground.

“Yes, go. If you catch them off guard later, that’s better than being wiped out now.”

“Hurry up!”

“Go!”

They thought we were a team of ten. Given their own teammates’ poor aim, it wasn’t a matter of two against ten—even two against two wouldn’t guarantee victory.

Rather than being wiped out here, it was better to live and fight another day.

The two didn’t linger or argue. “Take care, everyone. We’ll definitely survive to the end. Hu, let’s go.” Wen said, then slowly retreated, using another tree for cover before sprinting away.

The other followed, dodging in a serpentine fashion.

I knew I could have stopped them, but I didn’t really need their two guns, so I let them go.

Once they were out of sight, we hurried forward to strip the guns.

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“Is it you?” The group immediately recognized me—it was they who had let me go earlier.

“Do you always lie like this?” one of the eliminated boys asked.

“I didn’t lie,” I replied, pointing to my teammates. “These are my teammates. I promised not to bring other teams or reveal your location, but my teammates already knew where you were. We didn’t tell anyone else there was a big target here.”

Seeing my earnest assurance, their faces flushed in frustration.

“Liar!” The eliminated girls gritted their teeth. If they hadn’t been eliminated, I felt they might have lunged at me.

“This is called strategic deception. Whether it’s a game or not, we should approach it seriously. We took it seriously, so we survived. You weren’t careful enough, so you were eliminated.” I continued to spout blatant lies without blinking.

“You only have five guns?” One boy suddenly asked as if discovering something new.

“Yes. Earlier, the Gunless Alliance surrounded us, so to save ammo we left them five empty guns.”

For the ‘dead’, I didn’t mind saying a bit more.

But we couldn’t stay and chat.

“Goodbye. We need to move.” After collecting the guns, I quickly led my teammates away.

“Goodbye, you sly fox. Mind leaving your name?”

“Yan Ruyu.”

“You’re Yan Ruyu, the Gun God?” So many stared at me, I felt a bit embarrassed. “Gun God is too much. I just shoot a bit more accurately than you. I’m Yan Ruyu. Farewell.”

Gunfire here would surely attract more people, especially now, with less than three hours left.

Sure enough, chaotic voices echoed from the left front, signaling a large group. The ten of us quickly hid below the slope, and only after they left did we exhale in relief.

“We’ll head in the direction they came from.” I’d read Thirty-Six Stratagems, and this fit the ‘noise east, attack west’ tactic. Heading their way meant we wouldn’t encounter any gunless people—they’d already been rounded up.

They knew they were at a disadvantage, facing elimination. Only by gathering their numbers could they hope to take a bite out of the armed teams. Gathering together was inevitable.

That’s why I was confident there’d be no stragglers on this route.

Only fifteen minutes remained before their elimination. They would soon go wild. Those with guns were hiding—not because they feared the scattered mob, but because spending bullets on them wasn’t worth it. The final battle among three hundred would be the flashiest, fiercest, and most anticipated showdown.

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Just like the group we’d spotted earlier, they were hiding out, waiting to outlast this awkward phase.

Those without guns were just dead weight; shooting them could practice aim, but it wasted bullets for little gain.

This tense waiting was always hard to endure. At last, when a huge firework exploded overhead, I checked the time: the third hour was over.

“At last, the hunt begins,” I said, a bit excited.

With the rifle ammo plus what I had before, I now had seventy-six bullets.

With my marksmanship, as long as I saw the enemy, my chances of eliminating them were high.

What worried me now was the possibility of people hiding in obscure corners, making it impossible to know how long the outcome would take.

“Attention below: everyone advance toward the helicopter’s flight direction. Anyone not within the perimeter of the eight helicopters in one hour will be eliminated.”

“Repeating: attention below! Everyone move toward the helicopters. Anyone not within the range of the eight helicopters in one hour will be eliminated.”

“Repeating…”

Hearing the broadcast from above made me smile. Of course, the Chief Instructor wouldn’t overlook this problem.

Now, everyone would be forced to gather in one small area. The process of moving toward it, or the battles inside, would determine who made it to the final hundred.

“Let’s move, keep hidden.” With most of the crowd eliminated, the three hundred left in this vast mountain weren’t many.

“Alright!” Everyone’s eyes shone with hope—that hunger for victory.

“Keep an eye on the time. At fifty minutes, it’ll be most dangerous. We can’t enter too early, but must leave ourselves enough time to get in. If we’re blocked at the entrance, that’d be trouble.” I thought it through: most people trying to survive would play it safe, waiting for others to be eliminated before taking an easy win. Of course, a few teams might charge ahead—but this real battle was no game. Once it ended, there was no restarting.

That’s why I expected the real fight to erupt around forty to fifty minutes.

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