Chapter 22

Chapter 22

Feigning weakness to slip from the radar offers an advantage of 'exerting force in the shadows.' The pitiable status of being at the bottom, now under scrutiny by those above, diminished the aloofness his appearance once conveyed.

His demeanor, akin to that of a low-ranking clergyman—enduring, silent, earnest, and devout—won him the goodwill of the medical staff. Few would suspect a dove, and he appeared as a pure messenger of the divine—though such individuals were unlikely to be found here.

'Deng' was well-prepared, even summoning an entire medical team when calling for assistance.

Fortunately, he did bring them; otherwise, the injured would have been left to fend for themselves.

Mercenaries are not like personally trained troops; mishandle them, and you risk a mutiny. If Deng dared to abandon them to their fate, they would ensure he wouldn't return alive.

Thus, Deng is now overwhelmed, for he must compensate for the mercenaries' deaths—a significant expense.

In the following days, Ji Xinghai constantly accompanied the male nurse on his rounds—some lightly wounded sub-leaders wouldn't come to the makeshift clinic, necessitating the nurse's visits with medication and supplies.

In the hectic rush, the nurse forgot that this person was still somewhat untrustworthy.

"I need..." As the nurse tended to a leader's arm wound, he was about to request what he needed when Ji Xinghai had already handed over forceps, gauze, and alcohol.

The nurse paused, but there was no time for reflection.

"Get..."

Ji Xinghai then presented a bottle of anti-inflammatory medication and cotton swabs.

Afterward, as they exited the room and descended from the third floor, the nurse suddenly asked, "Have you studied?"

"A little, out of interest before."

"Why didn't you continue?"

Ji Xinghai shook his head with a bitter smile. "My family needed money."

As they walked down the stairs, by the time they reached the first floor, Ji Xinghai had become his temporary assistant.

Perhaps feeling camaraderie or needing an outlet for the stress of death and slaughter, the male nurse became more talkative.

Of course, he didn't dare complain about Deng or the ill-tempered mercenaries, so his grievances centered on the villagers under control and facing slaughter.

Most villagers who hadn't escaped were already buried, with a few remaining for drug trials.

This was another project given to Deng by the general. They had developed a biological agent requiring human trials. Knowing the situation here, a doctor was sent to conduct these trials, utilizing the villagers.

At this point, medical personnel also had to assist.

Ji Xinghai wasn't overly concerned about the villagers; he was a cold-blooded creature. Once recognizing the world as a game, he refused to invest any emotion.

He was more interested in the 'biological agent' that required human lives for testing—it might be a breakthrough.

Everything here was fragmented, but taking it required meticulous planning.

"That must be quite taxing."

"It's manageable. Doctor Wu Qiang primarily handles these matters. He oversees the special agents, and only Bo Deng and he have access," the nurse explained.

Nurse 'Su' joked that if the current extermination plan continued to fail, they might have to call in drones to scatter the biological agents.

This would achieve the extermination goal while recording the practical effects of the agents.

However, at that point, Deng would struggle to explain himself to the general.

In the evening, the base lit fires to cook meals. The medical staff enjoyed good rations: white rice, meat, vegetables, and mushroom soup—far better than cold sweet potatoes.

After dinner, the legendary 'Doctor Wu Qiang' appeared. A young man wearing round glasses and a white lab coat, he looked scholarly and amiable.

"Doctor Wu Qiang." The three nurses stood up, with Ji Xinghai standing behind them. Adding a 'Mr.' before the name was a sign of respect, indicating high status.

The doctor's gaze swept over the injured. His eyes seemed gentle but lacked warmth.

Ji Xinghai glanced away, lowering his head.

After inquiring about the situation, Doctor Wu Qiang left. The nurses whispered about the young doctor: "Truly deserving of his reputation as a returned overseas doctor. Despite his young age, he's highly capable."

They spoke at length, during which Ji Xinghai minimized his presence, occasionally introducing a topic.

When the time was right and no further information was forthcoming, Ji Xinghai closed his eyes. A transparent, three-dimensional map of a Tulou appeared in his mind.

Golden lines sketched connections in the dark world—the makeshift clinic, temporary office, arms and ammunition storage, grain warehouse...

All the complex information gathered during the day was unraveled in his mind. Soon, an undefined black area was delineated.

If there was a place in this Tulou off-limits to ordinary people, it would be there.

A biological drug requiring human trials could be dispersed by aircraft.

It was suitable for use in the mountains.

Consider this: deep in the mountains, trainees believe they can rest easy, only for drones to wipe them out in one fell swoop, akin to a dark joke.

But it won't be used tomorrow, for it poses a threat to the local leader, Deng. Once deployed, his position would weaken.

Yet he cannot avoid using it. Given the trainees' capabilities, by the third day, he will choose the lesser of two evils.

It seems there's still a day to observe and confirm.

With such severe casualties today, he would likely accompany the medical team as their assistant tomorrow. He wondered if he would have the chance to meet Doctor Wu Qiang.

Apart from 'Deng,' he was the best choice.

Gathering, analyzing, and predicting, Ji Xinghai quickly reviewed the information before settling into a peaceful sleep.

Now, only these intensely stimulating activities could help him expend his energy and pass the time.

This world was a false playground, but weren't all the previous worlds just the same? Except for his homeland, every world was a game.

"Hello? Dan? Are you asleep?"

"He's asleep; you should rest too. We'll need to check on the wounded soon, and there's a lot to do tomorrow. Goodness, can't those patients just be quiet? Who's playing with guns in the middle of the night? I won't get up even if they kill themselves."

"Who knows, they're all madmen."

It was a dark and windy night, another evening without stars or moonlight.

The hungry students who had been hiding in the village all day finally emerged. Due to the heavy losses suffered by the mercenaries because of the failed elimination mission, the patrol teams that had been so prominent on the first day were reduced by thirty percent. This emboldened the two students who had planned to retreat back into the mountains.

And for those already in the mountains, there were two paths to take.

Those without supplies or who were injured prepared to retreat further into the depths of the mountain. However, about fifty to sixty people had reaped the benefits of the daytime counterattack and were ready to test the strength of the enemy camp—they had obtained firearms and ammunition, and their combat capabilities remained intact.

Some went down the mountain, while others ventured deeper into the mountains. The quiet forest was anything but peaceful.

The students retreating into the depths of the mountain encountered trouble earliest.

The danger didn't solely come from the mercenaries. When there was no activity below, the abnormal creatures above became active.

Creatures like the Wooden Skeletons and Bloodthirsty Butterflies, Level One biological anomalies, were the most common. Each one was a skilled hunter. Some lay in wait silently, only striking when a student fell into their trap. Others used various hallucinogenic effects to make students willingly sacrifice their lives.

Within just two hours of nightfall, some students had become reserve food for the abnormal creatures, and many more had been reduced to mere nutrients, flesh and bone alike.

The exhausted students, after a day of turmoil, had to stay alert against the dangers that could appear at any moment.

"A world of anomalies, this environment is not as perilous as the tropical rainforest, but it's absolutely not somewhere ordinary humans can easily tread."

"In just an hour, over twenty students died. The新手adaptation period for the students has ended."

"The previous day was indeed too gentle; this is what the instance should look like—a meat grinder. I wonder how many students will return in a normal state. Most of them must be mentally unstable now, right?"

The students descending the mountain didn't fare well either. Although they held hot weapons and possessed the means to kill the patrol teams, the snipers atop Tulou, aided by searchlights, turned them into frantic rabbits, struggling to escape with their lives.

"F*ck, how many bullets do they have!" A student cursed as he ran, nearly being sent back to hell by the sight of gray faces under the green glow when he looked back.

"Zombies?!"

The green lanterns, which had emitted an orange-yellow light, now shone with a faint greenish-white hue. Under their radiance, the mercenaries 'revived,' turning into living dead that neither tired nor died.

The student's fear level skyrocketed. He fired his machine gun wildly, bullets passing through the bodies of the living dead without slowing them down for even a second.

But attacking the lanterns was useless. Bullets could damage the lanterns, but they couldn't extinguish their light.

"How can I stop this?" Unable to destroy the green lantern's reviving light at close range or kill the living-dead mercenaries, the student who had run out of bullets was on the verge of collapse.

The living dead showed no signs of fatigue, relentlessly pursuing him. There was no escaping them.

"Follow that jiuZhou student's example and swallow the wick inside. Or smash the lantern." The livestream offered an effective solution, but unfortunately, the student inside couldn't hear it. His rapidly rising fear level spoke volumes.

The livestream eventually went black.

The citizens of their country wiped their faces weakly, trying to put on a brave smile for their children: "Alright, it's time for a new game. Let's see who can stay in the safe room without speaking for the longest time."

Zhang Ziqing didn't make such a mistake. Despite the excruciating pain in his arm, he crushed the green lantern and burned the paper lantern immediately, black smoke billowing out.

At this point, he had already earned an additional twenty points, but Zhang Ziqing's goal extended beyond that. A score in the eighties wasn't enough to make him the top scorer; he had to enter the main base.

However, Tulou was a special cylindrical building with only one entrance. It had some windows at the very top, where the snipers resided.

Searchlights swept densely outside Tulou, preventing outsiders from entering the area. Attempting to shoot the snipers through the small window was akin to hitting a coin from a mile away, especially on a pitch-black night.

Even an uninjured Zhang Ziqing wouldn't have been able to accomplish this, let alone in his current state.

"Unless he blends in with the NPCs, but how is that possible?" There was a significant gap between students and mercenaries in terms of appearance and behavior. Putting aside other factors, language and identity posed a significant barrier. Blending in was as difficult as ascending to the heavens.

"It's impossible."

"Tulou's characteristic is its ease of defense and difficulty to attack. For students to breach it, they would need to use mountain guns. Tulou was primarily a strategic structure during the cold weapon era, and its walls couldn't withstand cannon fire."

"There's a student who obtained a cannon barrel and ammunition, but he didn't descend the mountain. What a pity. If the students wielding heavy weapons could cooperate, they might have had a chance to storm the enemy's main base tonight."

In the end, they fell short, leaving viewers feeling sorry for the students circling around Tulou without a way in.

However, it was everyone's first instance, and the students were completely unfamiliar with each other. How difficult it was for them to drop their guard and work together!

"They still have one chance. Prepare machine guns and cover, hide near nearby residences, and wait for the mercenaries to move out the next day. They still have a chance to reap a batch."

"That's all they can do. In truth, they've already done quite well, but there's only one Ji Xinghai from jiuZhou."

Mentioning this name that had flooded the screens in recent days, everyone fell silent for a moment.

They were delighted that humanity had such a reliable student, yet also regretted that he wasn't from their own country.

Throughout jiuZhou's history, whenever storms threatened, there always emerged individuals capable of turning the tide. That's why ancient civilizations elsewhere had faded into darkness, while jiuZhou continued to shine brightly.

"How envious it is to see that nation favored by the whims of fate!"