Surrounded by Easy Prey?

Morale? Despair? Fear? These emotions could strike anyone. Anyone, that is, except players! They might not be disciplined soldiers, but they were born combatants. The threat of death meant nothing to them. Gunfire, far from striking terror into their hearts, only stoked their hunger for battle, EXP, and loot. Casting off the veneer of civilized beings, at this moment, they were a genuine calamity. Just like the undead who feared no death! Marauders? Fuck 'em up! The server had been open for so long, and finally they got an exciting event! "Free fire! Repeat, weapons free!" "All squads, take note! You are facing the most heinous scoundrels on this wasteland! The rules and decorum of civilized folk do not apply to them! Show no mercy! Use every tactic at your disposal and hit them hard!" "Beat them until they're on their knees begging for mercy!" For this battle, Chu Guang had mobilized thirty-four reservists. This was practically everyone currently near the base! Fifteen revolver rifles armed thirty people. Organized in pairs, each team shared one rifle and fifteen rounds of 7mm ammunition; the partner carried a bow or throwing weapons on standby, providing support from behind. If a teammate went down, the backup would step up. If the ammo ran dry, they would engage in hand-to-hand combat! The thirty players split into fifteen squads, dispersing and charging out in two waves through the east and west gates before fanning out to outflank toward the north gate. Without radios for command, they agreed on whistle signals. The remaining four players with the highest current contribution points were led personally by Chu Guang. Armed with the newly purchased 7mm and 9mm bolt-action rifles, each also carrying fifteen rounds, they flanked from the west gate around to the marauders' flank and rear. When the whistle blew, gunfire blended into a continuous roar across the woods. All anyone could hear was bullets whistling through the air and explosives going off with loud thuds; shouted words were drowned out completely. Not that it mattered! To players unaffected by morale, the more chaotic the battle, the more excited they became, and the more advantageous it was for them. A little over thirty people actually mustered the momentum of sixty, completely encircling the mere ten marauders. If not for having to keep the respawn cooldown in mind—since only death penalties were waived for the event—they probably would have drawn their javelins, axes, and little stools to charge in already. "Spread out your lines of fire! Spread out! Don't just stand still and shoot—push from south to north! It's noon, so they're looking into the glare! We have the advantage!" "Flank left, pop smoke on the right—they'll think they're completely encircled!" "Aren't you yelling too loud? What if they hear you?" "Hear what? They can't understand us anyway!" "Holy crap, that makes total sense!" "Damn, this is way more thrilling than Squad!" "Fuck, I think I got hit... Huh? It really doesn't hurt at all?" The marauders outside the north gate were completely baffled. They were hardly regular troops to begin with—just ragtag raiders accustomed to preying on soft targets who crumbled at the slightest squeeze. When had they ever encountered hard nuts who only fought more ferociously the harder they were hit? "How many of them are there?!" "I don't know! Damn it, is this really a survivor settlement of just thirty people?! How come it feels like... more than thirty are surrounding us right now?!" "Fuck, why do they feel even more like bandits than we do?!" They had only managed to fall back fifty meters. Having barely scattered, the marauders were pinned ruthlessly to the dirt, hugging cover and not daring to move an inch, only able to fire back blindly. Bullets grazed their scalps, accompanied by flashes of explosives and thick smoke, with the occasional arrow, stone, or javelin piercing the haze. The air was thick with the acrid stench of sulfur. They couldn't even tell which direction the bullets were coming from; all they knew was that gunfire crackled and people swarmed from every direction. "Enemies on both flanks! Damn it! They're trying to encircle us!" "What the hell?! These cowards dare to encircle *us*?!" "Fuck, how did they even have the guts to come out from behind their wall?!" Badger, the decurion, was completely dazed. They were clearly the ones who came to raid, so how the hell had they ended up surrounded? He had led raids against at least five to ten survivor settlements, ranging from a few households to nearly a hundred, but he had never seen anything this stubborn and absurd. Good grief. Was every single resident a soldier here?! Badger could sense that the enemy's marksmanship was terrible and their gear was inferior to his own, yet his side's momentum was getting thoroughly suppressed. An ominous foreboding grew stronger, and the thought of retreat began to take root in his mind. But these people clearly had no intention of letting them leave. The gunfire was noticeably shifting toward their flank and rear, drawing steadily closer. If they didn't find a way to break out, they would soon face an encirclement from three sides. Realizing this, Badger's vicious nature flared up. Eyes bloodshot, he gritted his teeth and fixed a bayonet to his pipe rifle. "Fuck it! We go down fighting!" Just as the thought crossed his mind, however, a bizarre figure suddenly emerged from behind a piece of cover not far away. The figure carried an odd-looking contraption made of a wooden barrel and an iron pipe, resembling... an oversized watering can? Setting the contraption on the ground, the man deployed the wooden bipod at the muzzle end, aimed the nozzle straight at them, and babbled something in gibberish accompanied by an almost maniacal laugh. Naturally, Badger couldn't understand a word. The nearby players, however, heard him loud and clear and deliberately steered clear of this madman. "Hahahahaha! Feel my burning passion!" A long jet of flame spewed from the pipe, raining down into the center of the marauders' position. Although this fiery shower didn't touch a single person, it ignited the dead branches and dry leaves around them, creating a sea of fire that cut the battlefield in two. Plumes of smoke billowed upward. The ground was scorched scalding hot! Smoke choked the air everywhere, blinding the marauders and making it nearly impossible for them to aim. Brother Mosquito had only managed to unleash a single burst of flames before dropping his "Hellfire 0.2" and sprinting away for dear life. He had no choice but to run. Firing this thing was great fun, but the muzzle pressure had been insufficient, causing the fire to burn backward along the fuel line and ignite the weapon itself. Before Brother Mosquito could make it very far, his Hellfire 0.2 blew up with a loud bang. Fortunately, the nearby players had scattered ahead of time, so none of their own took any damage. Even though it had only managed a single burst, the weapon had clearly achieved its purpose. The blazing fire roaring across the battlefield and the scorching air became the final straw that broke the marauders' morale. A sharp whistle pierced the air once more—the signal to charge. Having formed their encirclement, the players were nearly out of ammunition, and amid the smoke and flames, bloodlust took over. Upon hearing the whistle, they all charged out from cover howling like they were pumped full of stimulants, brandishing javelins, axes, and even bricks as they launched an assault under the cover of smoke and battle cries. When had the surrounded marauders ever witnessed such madness? It had always been them charging others; when had anyone ever charged them like this? Their morale completely shattered. The ragtag band began to crumble from the outer edge, degenerating into a panicked rout. Of the three hounds, Scavenger bit one to death, another was scared off by the giant green lizard, and the third was cut down by crossfire as it fled. Watching his companions fall one after another, Badger was overcome with despair. Trembling, he dropped his weapon, dropped to his knees, and threw up his hands. "Stop! I'm begging you!" "We surrender!" ... In principle, marauders rarely surrendered; after all, they never treated captives kindly, and no one ever showed them mercy either. Yet the blue coats these people wore gave Badger a sliver of hope. If one could live, who would choose death? Besides, they were hardly men of strong conviction. The fight was over in less than fifteen minutes. Hearing gunfire near the base, nearby players had steadily rushed over to reinforce them, tacitly joining in the encirclement of the marauders. As a result, Chu Guang's force actually grew as the battle progressed, surging from the original thirty-four to forty-five, with their spirits soaring even higher. Once the battle ended, Chu Guang led the players in extinguishing the flames in the forest, cleaned up the battlefield, and took tally of casualties. He had already braced himself to dip into his stockpile of active substances, but the players' performance exceeded his expectations. Although seven were wounded, not a single one had died. The most seriously injured was a Constitution-type who had taken a bullet to the thigh during the charge. Fortunately, the bullet passed clean through, hitting neither artery nor bone. With high pain suppressed by the system limits, by the time the player realized he was hit, the bleeding had already stopped, saving them even the trouble of applying bandages. As for the marauders, they suffered a grim fate. Out of ten, five were killed on the spot, two bled to death from critical wounds, and the remaining three were taken captive with minor injuries. The only drawback was the expenditure of over two hundred rounds of ammunition, completely burning through an entire shipment from the trade, which gave Chu Guang a sharp pang of distress. These players really hadn't spared him a single bullet, eager to dump every round they were handed. Especially since the revolver rifle was semi-automatic and had a decent rate of fire; pull the trigger a few times in succession, and the cylinder was empty before they even realized it. There were only ten enemies in total, for heaven's sake! Was it that hard to acquire a target before firing? What made Chu Guang most speechless was that out of the seven dead marauders, four had been bludgeoned or pierced by javelins, arrows, and axes; only three had actually died of gunshot wounds. And one of those three was a kill Chu Guang had scored himself. *I need to find a chance to make these players practice their shooting!* No, better yet, make them buy the guns themselves and source their own ammunition! Fighting this way was certainly ferocious, certainly badass, but a single skirmish had eaten through nearly half of the outpost's ammunition stockpile. With the shelter's current logistics, it was simply unsustainable. Fortunately, the spoils from this battle were considerable, offering Chu Guang some comfort. A total of ten firearms, nearly eighty rounds of assorted calibers, an unthrown Molotov cocktail, and two grimy syringes. "What's this?" Chu Guang glanced at the captive squatting with his hands behind his head and pointed at the syringes in his hand. The captive looked up, then quickly ducked his head in fear. "Stimulants..." "Are they any good?" "Uh, fairly decent, I guess." No matter how good they were, Chu Guang wouldn't dare test them on himself. For now, he tossed them into the pile of loot; maybe some player would take an interest and buy them for research. Next, Chu Guang instructed a few nearby players to tie the three wounded captives' hands and feet and lash them to wooden posts outside the north gate. The outpost didn't have a prison yet, so keeping them under watch like this was the only temporary option. To be honest, Chu Guang hadn't decided what to do with these three prisoners. He had heard that some survivor settlements hanged captives outright, others sold them to slave traders or mines, and some more gruesome ones harvested their organs to sell individually. After all, bionic organs were generally costly and beyond an ordinary person's budget; in comparison, tissues harvested from slaves or clones were much more economical. Chu Guang, however, could never bring himself to do something so inhumane. Besides, he didn't have the medical facilities for that kind of surgery anyway. Around this time, Fang Chang walked over from nearby with a bow slung across his back. When the battle broke out earlier, the Cow and Horse Squad had been hunting in the nearby ruins of the city. By the time they heard the gunfire and rushed back, the fight was basically over. It was fair to say they had missed out on the action entirely. "Respected Administrator, the marauders to the north have discovered us. My recommendation is that we pursue the victory! Give them no time to catch their breath and put an end to this guessing game once and for all!" "That's right!" "Crush them!" Glancing at the eager players around him, Chu Guang pondered for a moment before shaking his head. "We are not yet in a position to take the offensive." Forest combat and urban warfare were two completely different beasts. The former was their home turf, while the latter was the marauders' domain. Taking these players into the city to fight street battles and charge minefields against marauders was essentially no different from feeding them free kills. The respawn cooldown was at least three days, so caution was necessary. Based on the intel Scavenger had gathered from several reconnaissance runs, the marauder tribe based at the abandoned tire factory numbered at least fifty. Factoring in the information from Liszt's caravan, the actual figure was likely between sixty and seventy. If the enemy hadn't misjudged their strength, they probably wouldn't have dispatched just a ten-man squad. The only fortunate thing now was that all ten had been dealt with here. The enemy wouldn't be able to gauge their true strength anytime soon and might not even know whether the raiding party sent to shake them down was dead or alive. According to ordinary logic, they would send a few scouts to gather intelligence before planning the next attack. Then again, there was always a chance they wouldn't play by the book. Thinking this through, Chu Guang turned his gaze back to the players beside him. "Our enemies possess rich experience in urban warfare. They have operated in this area for a long time and know the city's terrain far better than we do. Without an overwhelming advantage in numbers or equipment, rashly stepping into their territory is not a wise choice. "For now, our strategy remains defense first, harassment second. We will wear down their effective strength in a war of attrition, forcing them to abandon their advantages and come onto our home turf. "I have a strong feeling that the coming heavy snow will present us with the perfect opportunity. "Until then, what we must do is trade time for space and develop with everything we have. "Everyone, the war has begun!"