Chapter 266: 3 Men Make 30 Flee In Panic
As long as it’s fake, there will eventually be loopholes.
No matter how well the actual combat assessment is camouflaged, there’s no way to make it perfect, no matter how careful or professional, there are always places that can’t be perfectly restored.
If the top student Wu Zhe were here, seeing such an obvious coincidence, he would definitely react to it.
But Wu Liu Yi and Cheng Cai were too panicked at this moment, and they were already immersed in the atmosphere of this being a real battle, so they couldn’t think carefully anymore.
In other words, their brains weren’t working well enough!
Neither of them noticed anything wrong inside, and instead focused on “where did Xu Sanduo go,” very worried that Xu Sanduo would encounter danger.
After all, Xu Sanduo had always been clumsy and slow-witted, and his personality was overly kind.
Kindness is an advantage in other situations, but on the life-and-death battlefield of combat with the enemy, the advantage turns into a fatal flaw.
If he encounters the enemy and can’t bear to “fire,” then the problem would be huge.
Thinking of this…
Cheng Cai and Wu Liu Yi became even more anxious.
Unfortunately, they didn’t know where Xu Sanduo was, and enemies could appear here at any time, leaving them with no way to act despite their urgency.
The only thing they could do was head in another direction to see if they could run into Xu Sanduo who had come out early.
The two moved very cautiously, crouching low and hugging the walls, trying to stay behind cover as much as possible to eliminate the chance of being exposed and discovered by the enemy.
The cautious strategy combined with the technology learned in A Company produced a very good chemical reaction.
The two carefully walked for a few minutes, during which they spotted several groups of villains wearing yellow chemical protective suits, and they successfully dodged them all.
The villains didn’t discover them.
Even perhaps blessed by the goddess of luck, the two actually encountered Wu Zhe, who was also acting alone and had just come out of the passage.
“Hey, Wu Liu Yi, Cheng Cai, over here.”
Wu Zhe spotted them first, poking half his head out from behind cover, quietly greeting them and signaling them to come over.
“Wu Zhe? Are you alone too? Where are the others in your group?”
Wu Liu Yi thought he had run into the veterans from old A, but upon running over and seeing only Wu Zhe, he was somewhat disappointed and could only pin his hopes on asking: “Have you seen Xu Sanduo?”
“No, haven’t seen Xu Sanduo, the others in our group have all been scattered now, and we can’t contact them either…”
As Wu Zhe spoke, he sensed something was off, remembering that Cheng Cai and Wu Liu Yi weren’t in the same group, yet they were together without any other veterans.
He asked in astonishment: “How did you two end up together? Where’s your team leader and other team members? Don’t tell me, A Group and C Group only have you two left too?”
“Yeah.” Wu Liu Yi nodded seriously.
“The others in our group all sacrificed.” Cheng Cai said with a face full of sadness.
“All scattered in the underground passage?” Wu Zhe quickly asked again.
“Yeah, that’s right, what’s up?” Wu Liu Yi nodded and asked curiously.
Wu Zhe didn’t answer directly, but frowned and asked again: “Did you all encounter enemies, then both sides engaged in a fierce gunfight, and they suddenly disappeared afterward, and you didn’t see them at all?”
“Yeah.”
Wu Liu Yi and Cheng Cai didn’t understand what Wu Zhe meant by asking this, but they both nodded in cooperation, confirming what happened.
Wu Zhe got the definite answer, and recalled his own encounter.
He began to seriously suspect!
“Our three situations are all the same, the team leader and others all mysteriously disappeared, the communicators that were working fine suddenly stopped functioning, don’t you think all this is too much of a coincidence?”
Wu Zhe made a serious analysis with a stern expression, once again doubting the authenticity of this combat operation.
“The people in our group all sacrificed, the team leader told me personally over the communicator, he was badly injured at the time and even told me to abandon the mission.”
Xu Sanduo had a talent for overly trusting people, which seemed to have infected his good friend Cheng Cai.
“Since they sacrificed, did you see their corpses on your way out of the passage?” Wu Zhe asked pointedly.
“No, no, I didn’t.” Cheng Cai shook his head.
“I didn’t either, not a single one.”
Wu Zhe looked at the last one, Wu Liu Yi, and asked: “Did you see any in the underground air-raid shelter?”
“Actually, no.”
Wu Liu Yi, being questioned by Wu Zhe like this, did start to suspect a bit, but with just this evidence, it wasn’t enough to make him fully convinced.
“Let me repeat seriously once more: the battle was so intense, yet every group’s team leader disappeared without us seeing any corpses, every group’s newcomers were separated, with so many things, don’t you think all this is too much of a coincidence?”
Wu Zhe, as a skeptic, now had his suspicion exceeding fifty percent.
“What you say does seem right, but it doesn’t rule out that there really are this many coincidences, after all, actual combat is inherently uncertain.” Wu Liu Yi was still hesitating.
“The captain definitely wouldn’t deceive us, we should trust them and complete the mission.” Cheng Cai insisted.
“Whether it’s real or fake, I have a way to confirm it.” Wu Zhe’s eyes lit up as he said.
He could go all out to complete the mission, whether this was just an exercise or a real life-and-death battle, but he had to confirm if this operation was real or fake.
As a top student with high intelligence quotient, Wu Zhe didn’t want to be treated like a fool.
“Confirm? How to confirm?”
“There’s a way to confirm this too?”
Wu Liu Yi and Cheng Cai were both shocked, very curious about what method Wu Zhe would use.
“Very simple.”
Wu Zhe pointed to his gas mask and said in a heavy voice: “If this operation is fake, then this smoke definitely isn’t poisonous, even if I take off the gas mask, there won’t be any danger.
If this really is a villain attack and this smoke is highly toxic gas, then as long as I inhale one breath, there will definitely be a serious reaction.”
This method sounded quite reasonable, exercises usually don’t set dangerous projects.
Without Chen Jun, he really could have tested it out.
“Don’t, this is too dangerous.” Wu Liu Yi immediately opposed it.
“Yeah, yesterday at the meeting, the captain said these gases contain highly toxic substances that can kill people, better not to try it.” Cheng Cai disagreed too.
“It’s fine, even if it’s highly toxic gas, inhaling just one or two breaths won’t be a big problem, and with you two beside me, nothing should go wrong.”
Wu Zhe really wanted to uncover the truth, and before he finished speaking, he had already started to act.
Seeing that Wu Zhe had made up his mind, Wu Liu Yi and Cheng Cai were very worried despite their curiosity, and what Wu Zhe said made sense.
So they didn’t stop him further and chose to cooperate by providing cover for Wu Zhe.
“Hoo—”
Wu Zhe was actually quite nervous too; inhaling one breath wouldn’t be fatal, but it could make him pass out, and passing out on the battlefield could be deadly.
Fortunately, with two comrades beside him, even a brief blackout would have protection, which served as a form of insurance.
If he were alone, he really wouldn’t dare do it.
To pursue the truth, Wu Zhe slowly exhaled the air he had inhaled, then held the front of the mask, only lifting a small gap to let some air in.
This way, less air would enter, and if there was a problem later, he could quickly put it back on.
Then he lifted a gap three fingers wide, inhaled just one breath of the yellow smoke that rushed in, and was choked into coughing by the pungent smell.
His head also felt dizzy from that pungent smell.
“Poisonous~”
A thought flashed in Wu Zhe’s mind, and he immediately put the mask back on to prevent more smoke from entering and worsening the situation.
However, yellow smoke had already entered the mask, and once sealed, it couldn’t escape and had to be fully inhaled.
Wu Zhe had to inhale two or three more breaths afterward to finish all the yellow smoke, and only then was the subsequent air filtered.
Just these three or four breaths of yellow smoke made Wu Zhe feel the world spinning and his vision blurring.
This made him one hundred percent certain.
This yellow smoke was poisonous.
Seeing Wu Zhe stagger after just one inhale, barely able to stand, Cheng Cai and Wu Liu Yi were truly startled.
They rushed over to support him while caringly asking what was wrong.
Wu Zhe wanted to answer but couldn’t, feeling dizzy and uncomfortable; it took over two minutes before he eased a bit.
But the moment his mind cleared, Wu Zhe fell into confusion.
All the various information and intelligence collected so far proved that this combat operation was fake, but the highly toxic smoke he inhaled proved that the captain was right, there really were large amounts of toxic chemical raw materials here.
Under this mutually conflicting structure, even a top student like Wu Zhe was stumped.
He could only be dumbfounded!
Unless he could find more evidence to corroborate in other aspects.
And as a staunch skeptic, Wu Zhe naturally wouldn’t give in so easily; he wanted to find more evidence to prove it.
But just as he wanted to discuss with Cheng Cai and Wu Liu Yi and share his thoughts.
Suddenly.
“Quick, go put out the fire, don’t let it spread.”
In the originally very quiet vast warehouse, someone suddenly shouted, followed by a lot of footsteps on metal racks from the southwest direction of the warehouse.
“What’s going on?”
Cheng Cai, Wu Liu Yi, and Wu Zhe were all baffled, unsure what new trick this was.
“Could it be, our other people are taking action?” Wu Liu Yi voiced his guess.
“Let’s go, hurry and help.”
Upon hearing that his own people had started acting, meaning they weren’t fighting alone, Cheng Cai’s previously tense mood improved, and he bolted in that direction.
Wu Zhe and Wu Liu Yi had no choice; they couldn’t let Cheng Cai go on this adventure alone.
So they followed after him.
With yellow smoke everywhere in the warehouse, visibility wasn’t great, at most seeing less than five meters ahead, so the three could only charge forward blindly.
Until twenty-some seconds later.
Wu Zhe and the other two arrived at the front section of the warehouse, where near the warehouse entrance the air circulation was better, and visibility was relatively much improved.
They could already see twenty meters away.
And just as the three arrived, a new situation occurred.
They could only hear footsteps and shouts to put out the fire before, overall still orderly without any chaos.
But upon arriving, they found the scene very chaotic.
A small truck loaded with several wooden boxes, and nearby wooden boxes, were all on fire, with a large group of people surrounding them to extinguish it.
But strangely, among this group of firefighting villains, one jumped into the driver’s cab.
The other villains seemed to notice something wrong and tried to stop the one entering the cab, pulling at his clothes and such.
But the villain who ran into the truck was very determined, and wasn’t dragged out from inside.
He even started the small truck.
As the small truck’s engine roared to life, it immediately alerted all the firefighting villains, who realized what had happened.
It must be a mission-completing newcomer who disguised himself as one of them, slipped into the truck, wanting to drive away the bomb-laden vehicle.
The villains realized the situation, and Wu Zhe, who had just run over, saw it too, immediately saying: “It must be one of ours grabbing the truck, we have to go help.”
Cheng Cai immediately raised his gun, wanting to fire to cover the “comrade” in the truck.
But as soon as the muzzle came up, it was blocked by Wu Zhe.
“Don’t, can’t fire, the truck is loaded with chemical products and bombs, shooting will detonate them, and we’ll all die here.”
“Can’t fire, then what do we do?” Cheng Cai said helplessly.
“They won’t dare fire either, detonating the bomb would kill everyone, we just need to cover him to drive the truck out; as long as the bomb doesn’t explode here, the poison gas won’t spread.”
Wu Liu Yi, having been a soldier longer with richer experience, quickly analyzed and came up with a plan.
“There are only three of us…”
Cheng Cai looked at the more than twenty villains on the scene and did hesitate a bit.
“No time, if you’re scared, then don’t go.”
Wu Liu Yi saw the car turning in circles on the spot, the steering wheel being forcibly held by people outside, unable to turn toward the entrance.
He simply stopped minding Cheng Cai and Wu Zhe, and charged ahead first.
Hesitation flashed in Wu Zhe’s eyes too; charging like this really could mean death, but thinking of a soldier’s mission and duty.
Ultimately, it made him make a firm choice, gritting his teeth and rushing forward.
As for the suspicions.
In this brain-hemmorhage situation, they had long been thrown to the winds.
“Damn it, die then.”
With the atmosphere fully set, emotions ignited inside, seeing his comrades charge ahead, Cheng Cai felt his blood boiling.
Ignoring the fear of death, he gritted his teeth and ran after them.
The villains’ attention was all on the small truck; Wu Zhe, Cheng Cai, and Xu Sanduo suddenly charging up truly caught them off guard.
The original annihilation attack on the small truck instantly turned into a massive melee.
Cheng Cai, Wu Liu Yi, and Wu Zhe charged in with a determination to fight to the death, so they fought like desperate men.
Basically without any defense, just madly attacking with all their might.
Swinging their rifles as weapons in a frenzy of smashing.
The villains were just here to act; they couldn’t really go all out against the newcomers, had concerns when fighting, and also needed to protect themselves.
This led to their group of over twenty being beaten into fleeing in panic by the three.
And with the heroic protection of these three fierce warriors, the small truck was no longer constrained, finally adjusted direction and charged straight for the warehouse entrance.
Throttle floored, black smoke billowing from the rear.
And just like that, it rushed out!
