Chapter 6

6

Yan Xiu’s eyes were locked onto his computer screen, completely unaware of any changes happening within the training room.

This round was extremely difficult.

Spawning at Control Center, Yan Xiu took command and played an unconventional strategy. Instead of heading to the Core Area to contest resources and fight, they blitzed the Dormitory. His read was correct—the streamer team that spawned at the Dorms never expected such a sudden assault. After picking off one from a distance early on, within three minutes, they wiped the entire three-man streamer squad.

The three streamers were already cursing parents in voice chat: “fuckin’ hell, does OLG even know how to play?! From Control Center, you don’t hold Staff Passage 2, don’t go to Core Area, but straight-up rush Dorms right at the start?!”

Following that, OLG entered the Core Area.

Everything was going smoothly. The one thing Yan Xiu hadn’t anticipated was that the VE Second Team they encountered in the Buoyancy Room Corridor had all three members in full Tier 5 Gear with Tier 5 Ammo.

This round, Tao Shi and Yan Xiu had both brought Tier 5 Gear and Tier 5 Ammo. Carrier Pigeon had Tier 4 Gear, Tier 4 Ammo.

All three VE players were heavily armored. OLG narrowly won the fight, but Tao Shi was killed, losing one life, and now lay on the ground waiting for a teammate to revive him.

Yan Xiu immediately directed Carrier Pigeon to revive Tao Shi. Carrier Pigeon was playing the operator Stinger, whose passive skill “Efficient Rescue” made him the fastest reviver in Delta Force. But even so, another streamer team pushed up from the stairs, beginning a Third-Party. Carrier Pigeon couldn’t get the revive off in time, and Tao Shi was eliminated completely.

This streamer team played a reckless style—all aggression, no words, just fight.

Luckily, Yan Xiu’s Luna was a utility-heavy operator. He turned back and fired a Shock Arrow down the corridor, halting the streamer team’s advance and giving the two time to heal up and repair armor. Carrier Pigeon’s Stinger lacked combat capability. Yan Xiu opened his map.

Yan Xiu: “You go first. Take the Drop Backpack Extraction route.”

Besides normal extraction points, Delta Force also has a Drop Backpack Extraction point: you drop your backpack, then you can extract from the game at the designated drop point.

Carrier Pigeon: “2v3, we might still manage it.”

Yan Xiu: “They looted the VE Second Team’s gear, plus Tao Shi’s. At least three sets of full Tier 5 Gear and Tier 5 Ammo. The odds of us both making it out are too low. And there’s still one team unaccounted for on the map. You take the Drop Backpack extract, take as many resources as you can.” As he said this, he dropped the Small Gold and Small Purple items from his pack onto the ground: “Put these in your Chest Rig, go extract.”

Carrier Pigeon: “Got it.” He followed the IGL’s orders.

Yan Xiu: “Don’t go through Rat Path. Circle through Control Center and take Staff Passage 2. If there’s another team left, they’re probably in Dark Room.”

“Okay.”

After sending Carrier Pigeon off, Yan Xiu continued holding off the streamer team on the other side of the corridor.

Even one man alone, he was playing Luna. His kit included two Shock Arrows, two Grenades, and his ultimate could detect the exact position of enemies.

Confirming that Carrier Pigeon had successfully extracted with three million in funds, Yan Xiu started going all out. He’d already heard the subtle audio cues that the opposing team was a broken squad with only two members. Using his ultimate to pinpoint their positions, he successfully secured a 1v2 kill.

Bai Wei had arrived right as Yan Xiu had just killed the two-man streamer squad, only to face a final, sneaky attack from the last team approaching from behind.

Aerospace Base had six teams total. Excluding OLG itself, there were five others. They had already killed three teams, and VE had also killed one. Who knew the very last team would end up facing Yan Xiu like this?

He checked his skill cooldowns.

Ultimate only at 50%. Shock Arrow still 18 seconds. Grenade 30 seconds.

Listening to footsteps, the final team had reached the CEO Office entrance, about to close in on the corridor. Yan Xiu flicked his mouse, seemingly in panicked retreat, sprinting frantically towards the Stairwell.

Hearing his hurried fleeing footsteps, and only one set of them, the last team immediately thought: Only one left!

A full three-man squad had no reason to fear a single person. All three pulling coordinated angles could turn him into a bullet-riddled beehive.

Yan Xiu ran ahead, three chasing behind. A rapid Jet Boost sound—it was a Vyron using his skill, the first to catch up to the stairs—High ground vs low ground, advantage mine, and he’s alone, no reason to lose!

“Bang Bang Bang!!”

The Vyron absolutely hadn’t expected this Luna to be faking! While Yan Xiu was jumping down the stairs, he was constantly turning back to check enemy positions. The instant the Vyron entered Yan Xiu’s field of view, Luna’s M14 bullets sprayed directly into his face.

It was high ground hitting low ground—Vyron had no reason to lose this duel.

But… three shots, head locked!

[Onlyshow eliminated Zhongnan Vocational-Long Long using M14]

Vyron: “fuck! Aimbotter!! His armor is shattered, just rush him! One guy!”

The Shock Arrow cooldown just came up. The Vyron’s two teammates had just reached the stairwell. Yan Xiu’s Shock Arrow accurately struck the enemy Luna. The enemy Luna flinched backward, frantically pulling the arrow out, while his teammate, also caught in the arrow’s AoE, fell back to heal up.

Yan Xiu immediately thirsted the kill, finishing the Vyron’s first life.

Then he stood on the stair railing, repairing his armor while listening to the footsteps in the fourth-floor corridor. Armor repair speed was very slow. Soon the enemy finished healing, and the footsteps on the fourth floor rapidly closed in again. When the enemy Luna appeared, he immediately pre-fired directly at Yan Xiu’s location. But Yan Xiu reacted faster, jumping down from the railing to avoid the fatal damage while his armor finished repairing!

Engagement again!

This time, Yan Xiu retreated to the second-floor corner. He pulled from his backpack the sole gun he had managed to snatch from the VE Second Team’s corpse earlier.

The streamer team had come too quickly. Even with his quick eyes and hands, he’d only had time to grab this one gun. Afterwards, before he could even loot the streamer team’s gear, the last squad arrived.

– It was an AWM.

In his headphones, volume set to “85,” Yan Xiu held his breath, pouring all his concentration into the final two-man squad.

Faintly, he felt like he heard someone outside his headset ask in surprise: “Second game of scrims, where’d he get A-Max?”

Jack took off his headset, explaining to Bai Wei: “Those idiots from VE Second Team, only the second game and they went full gear, full aggression. Thought they could run scrims like a public match and kick people aside like roadkill. Got kicked aside by us instead. Show immediately looted that A-Max at the time. It was from an Airdrop. A-Max and the ammo. VE had stashed 6 shots in their Secure Container, used 3, and there was still 1 left in the chamber.”

A deathly silent Buoyancy Room stairwell. Luna hefted the ice-cold sniper rifle onto his shoulder. Standing on the stair railing, he Sneaked forward step by step, simultaneously holding the sightline on the gap in the corridor. Yan Xiu moved step by step, returning to the fourth floor.

The enemy Luna fired a Shock Arrow at Yan Xiu. The instant he heard the utility sound, Yan Xiu Jump Peeked backwards, simultaneously firing his own Shock Arrow to block the enemy’s advance.

Both sides were Lunas just trading skill utility. Three minutes of standoff just with abilities.

The enemy Vyron’s corpse had been forced to rot into a loot box. At this point, there were only 8 minutes left before the round ended.

By the fifth-to-last minute, someone had to pull the extraction switch. Otherwise, all three of them would be lost in the game, unable to extract.

Now it was a battle of who was more desperate.

Yan Xiu held his angle at the corner of the Buoyancy Room corridor. His breathing was very quiet, his expression blank, calmly fixed on the screen.

He wasn’t in a hurry.

Carrier Pigeon was already gone. Even if he and the enemy all died here, of the six teams in this lobby, ONLY their squad had taken three million in loot and successfully extracted.

He just needed to seize one opportunity. Just one.

He only had one single round of A-Max ammo.

Suddenly, someone threw a Smoke Grenade. The enemy Medic couldn’t hold back anymore. He’d previously wanted to save his teammate, the Vyron, but was locked out by one of Yan Xiu’s Shock Arrows, forced into the Red Room on one side of the corridor. Now he needed a chance to get out and link up with his teammate, the Luna.

The moment the Medic threw the Blinding Smoke, before the smoke fully bloomed, Yan Xiu launched his ultimate. A Recon Arrow shot through the enemy’s smoke, revealing his position. The Medic’s hands were also fast. The split second after throwing the Smoke Grenade, he also deployed his own ultimate.

Instantly, countless miniature toxin drones swarmed towards Yan Xiu on his screen. He started taking massive damage, his vision blurred and shook, and a prompt appeared in the bottom right corner: “Hold H to remove Drones.”

The Medic’s ultimate, “Firefly Swarm System,” upon hitting, drained 60 HP and disrupted the enemy’s hearing and vision. Unless the affected player removed the drones embedded in them, their health and status wouldn’t recover.

Removing the drones took about three to four seconds. The Medic ran out of the Red Room through the smoke and linked with his teammate in two seconds.

Yan Xiu stared silently at the screen.

Through the scope, his vision was violently shaking, disrupted by the toxin drones. Within the smoke, the red silhouette of the enemy illuminated by the Recon Arrow also violently wobbled.

“BANG!!!”

[Onlyshow eliminated Zhongnan Vocational-Little Ya using AWM]

Medic: “fuck! If this guy’s human, I’ll eat sht! Who the hell can snipe with an A-Max while tanking drone damage?! I’d have believed it if he just sprayed me down with an M14!”

Luna was also demoralized beyond anger: “Will you fucking shut up?! Quit scamming for free meals!”

Vyron: “I TOLD YOU HE’S A CHEATER!”

Luna: “You shut the hell up too! ‘You charge, you charge!’ Who the fuck can keep up with you, Young Master?!”

Not long after, another exchange of Luna utility.

[Onlyshow eliminated Zhongnan Vocational-Azure using M14]

[Team Wipe!]

…

Tao Shi let out a hoarse roar: “THAT WAS SO fuckING SICK, BRO! From now on, you’re my bro! My REAL bro!”

Yan Xiu breathed out shakily. The intensity of that Aerospace Base round had put him under immense pressure. With six minutes left, he quickly ran to Blue Room and Centrifuge Room to pull the switch, and with 5 minutes 3 seconds left, successfully activated the match’s final extraction point. After pulling the switch, the fixed extraction point needed a five-minute countdown before successfully extracting.

Carrier Pigeon: “Hurry back and loot the bodies! They’re SO SO FAT! VE Second Team aren’t human, bringing gear THAT good! Completely fat, and we haven’t even looted them yet. And that streamer team from the end, and that university team just now… ah, G-God D? When did you get here?” Carrier Pigeon instantly shot up from his chair, the rolling casters sliding backward and bumping into Yan Xiu’s chair back.

Yan Xiu’s shoulders stiffened. Before his brain even reacted, his body had already turned around.

The bright white basement light shone from behind Bai Wei, who stood backlit behind Yan Xiu, his hands in his pockets, lowering his eyes to watch the computer screen in silence.

A flurry of commotion erupted in the Second Team training room. Tao Shi and Carrier Pigeon both shot to their feet.

The lighting fell upon them. Bai Wei’s brow bone was so sharply defined that it cast his narrow eyes deep in shadow. He lowered his gaze and met the eyes of the young man sitting in the chair.

After a brief few seconds of staring, Bai Wei spoke: “Are you going back tonight, or staying at the club overnight?”

Yan Xiu was slightly dumbfounded, instinctively vocalizing a confused: “Huh?”

Bai Wei looked at him for a moment, a smile tugging at his lips. He turned his head, his Diamond Stud Earring flashing fiery brilliance under the lights. He said to Jack: “His tryout is a pass. When is CatClaw finalizing the contract?”