Chapter 69: You're Surrounded... We're Surrounded?! ?!?!

Morale?

Despair?

Fear?

Anyone could have those emotions. But there was an exception... Players!

They may not be well-trained soldiers, but they were born warriors.

The threat of death was meaningless to them. Instead of bringing them any fear, gunfire ignited their desire for battle, experience, and loot.

Remove their mask of being civilized, players were basically a natural disaster to the world!

They were freaks without any fear of death!

Marauders? We’ll fuck them up!

It has been a long time since the server opened, and finally, it was time for some exciting activities!

"Fire at will! Repeat, fire at will!"

"Attention teams, you are facing the most vicious people in this wasteland. The rules and methods of civilized people do not apply to them. Do not be merciful! Use any means you can think of, and eliminate them all!"

"Fight them until they kneel on the ground, begging for mercy!"

Chu Guang mobilized thirty four reserves to take part in the battle! It was almost everyone who was near the stronghold at the moment.

Fifteen revolver rifles, armed by thirty people.

Two players shared a rifle and 15 rounds of 7mm bullets. Those not in pairs held a bow and arrows and threw objects to prepare for support in the back line.

If a teammate fell to the ground, the substitute would take over.

If the ammunition ran out, they would rush in and fight in an all-out melee!

Thirty players were divided into fifteen teams, which were then divided into two groups to shoot out from the east gate and the west gate while slowly spreading out towards the north gate.

Since there was no radio command, it was agreed that the sound of the whistle to be the signal.

The other four players with the highest contributions were led by Chu Guang himself. They carried the 7mm and 9mm bolt-action rifles they just bought. Each also held 15 rounds of ammunition, outflanking the group of marauders from the rear.

When the whistle sounded, the gunshots became the only sound in the whole woodland. Bullets whizzed through the sky, the sound of explosions were everywhere, and no one could hear what each other was talking about.

But this was not important!

For players who were not affected by morale, the more chaotic the battle situation, the more excited they were, and the more beneficial it was. There were only 30 of them, but their momentum was fierce, showing off the might of almost double that! They quickly surrounded the ten mere marauders who came.

If it wasn't for the fact that only the death penalty was exempted with the resurrection cooldown still in place, they probably would've drawn their javelins, axes, tiny wooden stools, and whatever they could get their hands on and charged at the enemy!

"Bait them! Bait them! Don't stand still, let's push them from south to the north. It's noon, they are facing the sun, we have the advantage!"

"Let's outflank them from the left and smoke them on the right. They will think they are surrounded!"

"Why are you shouting so loudly? Are you not afraid of being heard by them?"

"Heard my ass, they don't understand!"

"Fuck, it makes sense!"

"Damn, this is much more exciting than playing squad games!"

"Fuck, I think I’ve been hit... Huh? It really doesn't hurt at all?"

The marauders in front of the north gate were completely stunned.

They weren't a regular army in the first place. They were just bandits. The people they met before were all cowards, and they easily defeated their enemy. They had never seen anyone so fierce, nor fought that way! It seemed as though they were getting more excited the fiercer the battle became!

"How many people do they have?"

"I don't know! Fuck! Is this really a survivor base with only thirty people?! Why do I feel... Why do I feel like they have more than thirty people surrounding us?!"

"What the hell, why do they feel like they’re even better bandits than us?”

Only having time to retreat fifty meters, the marauders who barely ran pressed themselves to the ground as they lay behind cover without daring to move. They could barely fight back.

The bullets flew over their scalps, accompanied by the flames and smoke of explosives. There were occasionally arrows, stones, and javelins that passed through the smoke.

The air was filled with the pungent stench of sulfur.

They didn't even know which direction the bullets came from. All they felt was that there were people and gunshots coming from all directions.

"The enemy is on our wings! Damn it! They’re trying to surround us!"

"What the hell?! They’re just cowards. How dare they try to surround us?!"

"Fuck, how dare they leave their settlements?"

Badger, their squad leader, was completely stunned.

Obviously, he was the attacker! Why the hell were they the ones surrounded?!

He had looted at least ten survivor strongholds. Among them, there had been those which had as few as one to two households to those as many as nearly a hundred. They had never seen such a tenacious and ridiculous resistance.

Good god.

Are those people all soldiers?

Badger could feel that the opponent had inferior equipment and terrible marksmanship. However, his men were completely suppressed.

The ominous premonition grew stronger, and the thought of retreat already emerged in his heart. However, it was clear that those people didn’t plan on letting them leave alive!

The gunshots could be heard clearly as they got louder from their rear and sides. If they failed to break out of the encirclement, they would soon die under the rain of bullets!

The blood in Badger's heart boiled when he realized the situation he was in.

His eyes bloodshot, he gritted his teeth and mounted a bayonet on the iron barrel rifle in his hand.

"Fuck it! I'll fight them to death!"

Just as he thought about rushing his target, a strange figure appeared from behind the walls not too far away.

The person carried a big and strange device in his hand. Its overall structure is made up of wooden barrels and iron pipes. It looked like a large watering can...

Placing the device in his hand on the ground, he set up the wooden bipod with the nozzle and pointed the spout towards Badger. At the same time, he was muttering something under his breath, accompanied by an almost crazy smile.

Obviously, Badger had no idea what he was saying.

However, the nearby players heard Mosquito clearly and instinctively avoided the lunatic.

"Hahahaha! Feel the heat of my creation!"

A long and narrow stream of fire spouted from the mouth of the iron pipe and flew straight into the center of the marauders’ group.

Although the rain of fire failed to light anyone up, it ignited the leaves in the surroundings and formed a giant wall that divided the battlefield.

Thick smoke rose into the skies as the ground blazed beneath them.

There was smoke everywhere, making these marauders unable to aim.

Mosquito only had time to spray once before he immediately dropped his Hellfire 0.2 and ran away.

He had no choice but to run.

The thing was very fun to spray, but the pressure in the chamber was not enough! The fire rushed back into the tank and started to burn within!

Before Mosquito could run too far away, his Hellfire 0.2 exploded with a massive bang.

Fortunately, the surrounding players distanced themselves early, so no one was hurt.

Although it was only used once, it clearly achieved its desired effect.

The flames raging on the battlefield that caused the air to reach horrifying temperatures were the last straw that crushed the psychological defenses of the marauders.

The loud whistle sounded again as it seemed to be the signal for the players to charge.

Those who had formed the encirclement were nearly out of bullets at that point. The ground filled with flames as smoke filled the air. Everything only caused the players to grow more excited.

After hearing the whistle, they roared and rushed out from their cover as if they were high on drugs. They picked up javelins, axes, and even bricks! They launched a massive offensive under the cover of screams and thick smoke.

The encircled marauders had never seen anything like it. They were always the ones attacking other people. No one had dared to go against them!

They could no longer maintain their morale as they started to run.

One of the three hounds was killed by Garbage, another was scared away by the big green lizard. The last was shot to death while escaping.

Seeing the teammates who fell one after another, Badger fell into despair and dropped the weapon in his trembling hands. He knelt on the ground and raised his hands.

"Stop!"

"We surrender!"

...

In principle, marauders rarely surrender; after all, they had never treated captives well, so no one would treat them well.

However, those blue coats they were wearing gave Badger a false sense of hope.

If there was a chance to live, was there anyone who would want to die?

None of them had any concept of giving themselves up for honor or some shit like that.

The battle lasted less than fifteen minutes before it was over.

Hearing the gunshots from the outpost, nearby players continued to run back to support and tacitly joined in the encirclement and suppression of the marauders.

𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

As a result, the number of people on Chu Guang's side increased from the initial 34 to 45, with their morale rising with it.

After the battle, Chu Guang led the players to put out the open flames in the forest before cleaning out the battlefield and counting the casualties.

Originally, he had already made plans to use the active matter reserve, but he did not expect that their performance would far exceed his expectations.

Although seven were injured, none of them died.

The most severely injured was a constitution type player, who was shot in the thigh during the charge.

Fortunately, the bullet passed straight through without hurting the arteries or bones. Due to the shielding of over-limit pain, by the time he realized what had happened, the wound had stopped bleeding, and he didn’t even need bandages.

As for the marauder's side, their losses were huge and they were extremely miserable. Out of the ten who came, five people were killed on the spot. Two were severely wounded and bleeding to death, and the remaining three were captured with minor wounds.

The only fly in the ointment was that the battle consumed more than two hundred rounds, which was the gains Chu Guang could make during one trade. He started to feel a sense of loss.

Those players really didn’t try to save bullets at all. In fact, they seemed as though they couldn’t wait to use up all the bullets they had been given.

In particular, there was a revolver rifle that was semi-automatic, and its rate of fire was not low. If the player didn't pay attention, the bullets could be used up in just a few pulls of the trigger.

By the way, there were only ten people on the other side! Was it that hard to find the target before pulling the trigger?

What stunned Chu Guang speechless the most was that out of the seven who were heavily injured or were already dead, four were killed by javelins, and bows and arrows. Only three of them were killed by bullets!

Moreover, he shot one of them!

‘I have to find opportunities for these players to practice shooting...’

No, it is better for them to buy the gun themselves and prepare ammunition on their own!

Even though they were fierce, they used up nearly half the inventory of ammunition in the outpost!

With the current state of logistics in the shelter, it was far from able to sustain their consumption!

Fortunately, the gains were not small, which was a comfort to Chu Guang.

They obtained a total of ten guns, nearly eighty rounds of bullets of different calibers, a Molotov Cocktail that had not been used, and two dirty syringes.

"What are those?"

Chu Guang glanced at the captive who was squatting on the ground with his head in his hands, and pointed to the syringes.

The captive raised his head, but immediately lowered it again in fear.

"Stimulant..."

"Is it good?"

"Uh, yes."

No matter how good it was, Chu Guang didn't dare to try it on himself. He left it with the pile of loot, thinking that maybe someday, the players would be interested in buying it for research.

Next, Chu Guang ordered several players next to him to tie the hands and feet of the three injured captives together and bind them to the wooden stakes at the north gate.

The outpost currently didn't have a prison, so they could only keep the captives over there for the time being.

To be honest, Chu Guang hadn't figured out how to deal with the three prisoners.

He’d heard that some of the survivors’ settlements would hang the captives while others would sell them to slave merchants or mines, and some of the stranger ones would harvest their organs and sell them individually.

After all, the cost of bionic organs was usually high, and ordinary people could not afford it. In contrast, tissues taken from slaves or clones were more economical.

But Chu Guang couldn’t do inhumane stuff like that.

Besides, he did not have the conditions for that kind of surgery at the moment.

The next second, Ample Time approached him while carrying a bow and arrow.

When the battle broke out earlier, the Bull and Horse Squad was hunting in the nearby region. When they heard the gunshots and ran back to group up with Chu Guang, the battle had basically come to an end.

They didn’t participate much in the battle at all.

"Dear administrator, the marauders in the north have discovered us. My suggestion is that we should take advantage of the victory and rush forward. We shouldn’t give them any chance to breathe, and end this problem once and for all!"

"Yes!"

"Fuck them!"

Looking at the players around who were eager to fight, Chu Guang thought for a moment, and finally shook his head. "We do not yet have the conditions to attack their base."

Woodland warfare and urban warfare were two completely different matters. The former was their home ground, while the latter was where the marauders were active.

Leading these players into the city to fight street battles with the marauders and rushing into minefields was basically the same as sending them on a suicide mission.

The resurrection CD was three days long, so he had to be cautious.

According to the intelligence obtained from several investigations by Garbage, the marauder tribe in the abandoned tire factory had at least fifty people. Coupled with the intelligence of Liszt's caravan, it was estimated that the real number was about sixty to seventy.

If it hadn't been for the opponent’s misjudgment of his strength, they wouldn't have just sent a ten-man team.

The only thing to be thankful for was that the ten who came wouldn’t be going back. The other party wouldn’t find out anything from the battle either. They probably wouldn’t know if those who went over were dead or alive.

According to a normal attack sequence, they would send a few scouts to gather information before planning the next round of attack.

Of course, there was a chance they would not play by the book.

Thinking of the many considerations, Chu Guang then looked at the players beside him before explaining, "Our enemies have a wealth of experience in urban warfare. They have been active in this area for a long time and are far more familiar with the terrain in the city than we are. In the absence of absolute superiority in numbers and equipment, it is not wise to enter their territory rashly."

"At present, our strategy is still focused on defense while harassing the enemy. In a protracted battle, their vitality would run out and they would have to give up their advantage and enter where we know the best.”

"I have a strong hunch that the coming heavy snow will provide us with a perfect opportunity."

"Before that, what we have to do is to try our best to develop the outpost."

"Everyone, war has begun!"