The sun was shining brightly, sunlight filtering through the gaps in the leaves and scattering across the forest floor, making the low shrubs dapple and sway with the wind like colorful dancing butterflies, a truly splendid sight. In the forest, a faint killing intent gradually spread, causing the insects and birds to fall silent, while wild beasts in the canyon had long since fled without a trace. Several camouflaged and ard personnel appeared in the forest, moving forward with caution, stopping to take cover every few steps and peering around before continuing on.
The one leading the way was a short and stocky youth with small but spirited eyes and short hair, clutching an AK47 as he moved cautiously forward, his body tensed as he leaped forward a distance and then hid behind a tree. After observing for a bit and detecting no signs of danger, he signaled to the people behind him.
Several people instantly appeared behind, all of them vigilantly scanning their surroundings and moving forward carefully. The stocky young leader pressed on, taking a few more steps when suddenly, from within the woods, a thick wooden stick as large as a child's arm flew out. About one and a half ters long, its front sharpened into a triangle, it whistled through the air like lightning.
The young stocky leader was startled and twisted his body like lightning, lunging forward to avoid the hardwood attack. Just as he landed, he distinctly saw a thin vine on the ground, laid across the underbrush, which was highly unusual. He imdiately realized sothing was wrong, but it was too late to react as his body fell onto the vine.
"Boom—shoo shoo shoo!" ca the sound of a grenade exploding, bullets scattering in all directions like fireworks, knocking down many of the surrounding ard personnel. Imdiately, chaos ensued as everyone rushed to find cover, but unexpectedly, more booby traps were set off, and bullets flew wildly everywhere.
"Ah—?" Many people scread in pain as the bullets, dislodged by the blast of the grenade, lacked the penetrating power of a direct shot from a gun barrel but still burrowed into the flesh, lodging and churning irregularly inside, leaving behind large bloody holes.
With a series of explosions and bullets raining down, dozens of people were laid out on the ground, writhing and howling in agony. Their piercing screams could break one's spirit; in such a primitive jungle lacking dical supplies, a severe injury was synonymous with death, and the morale of the pursuers crumbled at the sound of the wailing.
The pursuers in the rear realized they had stumbled into a trap and stood frozen in place, looking on sympathetically at their wounded comrades, but no one dared go forward to rescue them. The morale was already low from a night of being bombarded in their camp, and now, after being rallied to pursue their quarry and trekking non-stop, everyone's strength was at its limits. Seeing their companions wounded once again, hesitation took hold.
The leader of the troops saw this and his face turned cold as he urged everyone to move forward. But with just one life to live, no one dared to openly defy orders, so they proceeded cautiously. This angered the commanding officer, but he was helpless to do much more—after shooting a few ard n to spur the others on, the pace quickened slightly. However, those at the front occasionally looked back at their leader with resentful, cold eyes, unwilling to be led to their deaths.
The leader, sensing the resentnt in his troops, didn't dare push them too hard for fear of mutiny. It was already a miracle that the troops hadn't disbanded after surviving a night attack, so after a mont of thoughtful silence, he imdiately ordered a halt and went forward himself. Seeing the leading stocky young man, he felt a surge of unexplained fury. If only the guide had chosen the right path and spotted the traps in ti, they would not have been reduced to such a state. He raised his gun and shot the young man dead, then bellowed, "Brothers, the enemy is right ahead! A reward of one hundred thousand for killing one! Charge with !"
The leading stocky youth had not died in a trap but by the hand of his own devoted commander, his eyes bulging wide, with an expression of disbelief even in death.
Killing the leader quelled the team's resentnt to so extent, as the leader held so responsibility for not detecting the trap in advance. In a group assembled under the influence of interests, there are no sentints, no morals, no loyalty—only interests. Therefore, the death of the young leader was t by everyone else with barely a ripple.
The boss, seeing that the morale of the team had sowhat recovered under the promise of a generous reward, breathed a sigh of relief and decided to lead by example. He charged forward but had only gone a few ters when suddenly he felt sothing wrap around his foot. A strong force yanked him up, and he found himself hung from a tree, upside down in the air. Shocked, he shouted loudly, "Quick, save ." As soon as the words left his mouth, several wooden arrows flew at him from both sides.
The wooden arrows, sharpened from hardwood, were not as deadly as real arrows, but their number made up for it. The boss, hanging in the air with no support to leverage, took a direct hit. Blood burst from his body—while not fatal, the wounds were painful enough. The other ard n, witnessing this scene, rushed forward to rescue him.
One of the ard personnel accidentally stepped on an earth pit, but fortunately, his other foot was on solid ground. Sensing sothing was wrong, he sprang away from the pit, only to inadvertently press down on a thin vine which triggered a tripwire mine nearby.
"Boom!" The hand grenade exploded with a deafening blast, causing everyone nearby to imdiately drop down for cover. But it was too late for those in close proximity; a dozen or so fell into pools of blood, trees were blasted away, and a wasp nest in one of them, affected by the shockwave, shattered. Swarms of wasps flew out chaotically.
"Buzz buzz buzz!" Countless wasps pursued and stung the people, shocking the militants who instinctively ran and dodged in disarray. This triggered even more traps—explosions, gunfire, and flying wooden spikes inflicted heavy casualties on the ard group. In the woods, continuous screams painted a terrifying scene.
Not far away, a group of ard personnel watched the ordeal with a calm deanor and sneers on their faces, filled with awe for Luo Zheng's cunning traps linked in a series. Such horror! Even Luo Zheng hadn't anticipated such an effective outco and heaved a sigh of relief to himself. Seeing that more than half of the pursuers had fallen and the remaining were cautious, not daring to enter the trap zone, he aid at the hanging boss's head, focused, steadied his breath, and pulled the trigger.
"Bang bang bang!" Three bullets whistled past, forming a '品' shape, almost unnoticed in the noisy forest. So ard n, busy trying to rescue the boss, failed to notice as the boss's head was hit by three bullets, his head bursting open, scattering brain matter and blood everywhere.
Nobody knew who yelled first, but all halted their attempts to untie the ropes, standing there stunned, staring at their dead boss. Soone let out a strange cry and ran towards the edge of the woods, prompting others to follow suit with strange yells of their own, frantically shedding layers and retreating as if fleeing from a plague. The remaining mobile ard personnel, seeing others retreating, didn't insist on staying and turned to run.
"Huh?" Luo Zheng watched this scene in surprise, not expecting the ard n to actually flee. Looking closer, he saw that the others outside the trap zone were also in turmoil, shouting sothing as they too turned and ran, leaving everyone else dumbfounded.
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