SCOM - Chapter 51
Chapter 51
The school funeral lasted the entire day. In the end, the three sacrificed cadets were carried into the Capital Martyrs' Park, a place where countless soldiers who died for the Federation were buried. Today, three more young military cadets were added to their number.
The joy of thwarting the Gashiro's sneak attack plan was completely overshadowed by the pain of losing these three comrades.
And the second stage of the military exercise, which had been postponed due to the attack, reopened on Thursday.
This time, lots also needed to be drawn. The drawing proceeded in the same order as before, with the Northern Military Academy drawing first, followed by the First Military Academy. Luo Shaoyuan and Ji Yuezhi both drew red lots, while An Yingjing and Cha Lili both drew blue ones.
After all four teams had finished drawing, an announcement broadcasted: 【Two teams will form a group, with each group sharing the same lot color. The red lots represent the Federation, and the blue lots represent the Gashiro Empire. Recently, technology was stolen from a secret Gashiro base. They have tracked it to Leye Small Town, where they will engage in a fierce battle with the Federation. The Federation's mission is to protect this technology, while the Gashiro Empire must use all means necessary to retrieve it.】
"They're even making it a continuing series," Jiang Hong muttered under his breath.
"Then we'll be in a group with the Northern Military Academy," Yan Yan said, looking at the red lot in Luo Shaoyuan's hand across from them.
"We won the first stage last time. Weren't we told we could use that technology?" Jiang Hong asked Guan Xue.
"I couldn't really understand it; it seems only Qian Mao did," Guan Xue said with a shrug. "But the instructor took that USB drive afterward."
Just then, the broadcast sounded again: 【Teams with the same color lot may now form a group. Additionally, the winners of the first stage may come and view the technology you have obtained. In half an hour, a flyer will transport you to Leye Small Town.】
As Ji Yuezhi led his team over, Luo Shaoyuan also led her people, trotting eagerly behind them. They hadn't gone far before an instructor stopped them.
"We're a group now. A win for the First Military Academy is a win for the Northern Military Academy. Can't we go in and take a peek?" Luo Shaoyuan said with perfect naturalness.
Kang Guang crossed his arms and grinned. "No."
Each team had only one core technician. The broadcast had already stated they could only view it once. After that, there would be no second look, and recording with an optical computer was forbidden. How much they could remember depended on the winning team's ability.
So when the files on the USB drive were opened, Qian Mao was dumbfounded. There was too much data; in half an hour, he could barely scratch the surface. What a useless reward!
"I'll give you ten minutes to pull up the important information. I'll memorize the rest in the remaining twenty minutes," Ji Yuezhi said suddenly.
Qian Mao's spirits lifted instantly. He immediately began picking out useful information from the files, pointing out all the filenames, which Ji Yuezhi then opened one by one to memorize quickly.
Memorizing such a large amount of information required immense mental effort. After half an hour, just as Ji Yuezhi finished the last page of the document, his body swayed as he stood up. Zuo Luohuan, who was standing behind Qian Mao, instantly stepped forward and reached out to steady him.
Qian Mao looked down at the hand that had reached in from behind him, a strange expression on his face. Since when was Zuo Luohuan so kind?
What he found even stranger was that Captain Ji, who was always so particular about etiquette, showed no reaction. After steadying himself, he followed the instructor out, never intending to say thank you to Zuo Luohuan from beginning to end. And Zuo Luohuan, walking by his side, also seemed to think her action was a matter of course.
Strange.
Qian Mao thought about it until his head hurt, then decided not to dwell on it, focusing his mind on the files he had just seen.
The so-called secret base technology didn't seem particularly new. It was probably just a weapon modification, likely something developed by the Federation and used for the competition.
Half an hour later, everyone from the First Military Academy was stopped from viewing the files further, but at the same time, they were given a plastic-cased USB drive.
"This is the most important item in the second stage. You must hold onto it until the end of the competition to win. Otherwise, the blue side wins."
Qian Mao took it and looked at it, discovering that the plastic-cased USB drive was a toy. "..."
Right up until they boarded the flyer with the Northern Military Academy, Jiang Hong was still looking back reluctantly toward the broadcast area, asking the instructor below, "Are we just leaving like this? Isn't the broadcast going to say anything more?" It felt like they had been given too little information.
"There's nothing more. You can go compete with peace of mind," the instructor said with a smile that didn't reach his eyes.
The First Military Academy and the Northern Military Academy had suddenly gone from opponents to teammates, making the atmosphere inside the flyer a bit strange. The two teams looked at each other until Luo Shaoyuan finally couldn't help but speak up. "Since we're in the same group, let's work together for the second stage... So, what was the technology you went to see just now?"
"It's not very clear," Qian Mao said.
Luo Shaoyuan didn't believe him. "How could it not be clear? You were in there for half an hour."
"Too many files, too little time. We couldn't get through it all," Qian Mao said with a shrug.
Ji Yuezhi, who had actually finished reading all the files, had his eyes slightly closed, organizing and categorizing the information he had memorized in his mind. As soon as they reached Leye Small Town, he could begin writing it all down.
The flyers for the red and blue sides took off from different directions and landed at different locations in Leye Small Town. After they were dropped off, the flyers immediately departed, saying nothing and giving them nothing.
Not only were the two red teams stunned, but the two blue teams representing the Gashiro Empire were also looking around, unsure of what to do. Most importantly, they didn't even have backpacks.
"So... how are we supposed to track the red side now?" The wound on An Yingjing's gland had fully healed, and he looked even more energetic than before. "Can we use our optical computers to contact them?"
"You can try," Cha Lili tossed out in response.
An Yingjing's face darkened. "We're in the same group now, not competitors. It's not right for you to say something so irresponsible."
"Have you considered which military academy will be declared the winner if the blue side wins?" Cha Lili asked him.
"Based on performance in the competition?" An Yingjing pursed his lips. "That's only if the blue side can even win. The red side has the First Military Academy and the Northern Military Academy. They're tough and cunning."
"No matter how tough the Northern Military Academy is, didn't you eliminate all of them?" Cha Lili threw out coolly.
The Northern Military Academy would definitely be on guard this time; it wouldn't be so easy to take them all down. Besides, that freak Zuo Luohuan seemed to be developing an immunity to his pheromones.
Several thoughts spun in An Yingjing's mind, but his expression remained unchanged as he said with a hint of smugness, "So when the blue side wins, the United Military Academy will probably still have made the biggest contribution."
Cha Lili scoffed. "If only it were that simple."
In contrast, the atmosphere on the red team was relatively peaceful. Although the people from the Northern Military Academy were hot-tempered and blunt, they weren't being quiet at this moment.
"Looks like this Leye Small Town has been abandoned for a long time," Jiang Hong said, surveying the surroundings. Weeds grew rampant, and a half-collapsed building stood in the distance. Every step landed on either weeds or moss.
Ji Yuezhi looked down, moved his foot, and picked up a mud-caked flyer from the ground. It was a promotional flyer for the Leye Mall's tenth-anniversary sale.
He gently brushed the mud off the flyer and looked at the small print at the bottom: 190 Shangmin Avenue, West District, Leye.
A large building loomed faintly in the distance. Ji Yuezhi clutched the flyer. "We'll head that way." He needed to get his bearings first.
The group walked toward the distant building. As they got closer, they saw that a huge sign from the top of the building had fallen halfway down, blocking the mall's main entrance.
The words on the sign matched the mall flyer in Ji Yuezhi's hand.
Guan Xue tilted her head to look at the sign. "Leye Mall... I wonder if there's any food inside?"
"Let's go in and see." Luo Shaoyuan had just stepped onto the stairs when she suddenly stopped and turned back to look at Ji Yuezhi. "Let's get this straight. The Northern Military Academy won't be your cannon fodder. If we're going to win, we win together. Don't think about using up our people first."
Ji Yuezhi tore the flyer to shreds and tossed it into a nearby abandoned trash can. He didn't answer Luo Shaoyuan but walked inside as well.
The tall building looked to be over ten stories high, the tallest structure in the vicinity. When they entered, they found the inside wasn't much better than the outside. Weeds had grown through the cracks in the floor, some nearly as tall as a person. The air conditioning ducts were now leaking sewage, emitting a foul odor. All sorts of expired goods were scattered on the floor, and a few food items remained on the shelves, though most of the packages were bloated.
Yan Yan reached out and grabbed a snack that wasn't bloated. As soon as he tore it open, a foul stench hit him in the face.
"Ugh!"
Yan Yan, who had inhaled the stench head-on, hadn't even had time to react before Qian Mao, who was passing by, gagged, his eyes watering.
"What is that smell?" Qian Mao clutched his nose, feeling as if his sense of smell had gone numb.
"A foul smell." Although Yan Yan found it smelly, it wasn't unbearable for him.
Qian Mao had already started to quickly move away from Yan Yan's area, but then, as if remembering something, he backed up while still holding his nose and grabbed several more bags of the same snack Yan Yan had taken.
Yan Yan: "...It's already rotten. Are you still going to eat it?"
Qian Mao gave him a profound look. "If we run into An Yingjing releasing his pheromones, I'll use this to attack him."
Omegas were always sensitive to smells. He refused to believe that An Yingjing wouldn't gag just like he did after smelling it.
Yan Yan thought for a moment and said, "Senior, you have a very good point."
While the two of them were searching for the most potent-smelling snacks, Ji Yuezhi and the others had already reached the mountaineering section and found intact hiking backpacks.
"One, two, three... There are fifteen. Enough for one each," Guan Xue said, taking down all the hanging backpacks and counting them.
The backpacks were covered in years of accumulated dust. The only fortunate thing was that the area was relatively dry, so no moss had grown on them.
Zuo Luohuan tilted her head, watching Ji Yuezhi who was standing in one spot, staring at a shelf for a long time.
She walked over and asked, "Is something wrong?"
Ji Yuezhi didn't answer. Instead, he walked straight to the shelf, reached down to feel underneath it, and pulled out a piece of metal with a strange structure.
"Qian Mao." Ji Yuezhi had him come over and take it.
"What is this?" Qian Mao examined it carefully in his hand, then suddenly looked up. "Is this something from the files?"
Ji Yuezhi nodded. He wasn't as proficient in weapons research as Qian Mao, but this wasn't the time to sit down and transcribe the files. He first needed to understand their current environment.
"First, find food. The organizers might have placed some here. Afterward, we'll go to the top floor," Ji Yuezhi commanded. They needed food and a vantage point.
Although the building had more than ten stories, only the first six floors were for merchandise. Above that were the mall's office areas. They quickly swept through the first floor and gradually made their way up.
Ji Yuezhi's prediction was correct. The organizers had indeed hidden food inside. It wasn't much, but it was enough for a day's supply.
As for other findings, there were none for the time being, so they could only continue upward. While passing through an office floor, Zuo Luohuan found a pair of binoculars in an employee's desk. She tested them; though the model was old, they were still functional.
"Captain." Zuo Luohuan approached Ji Yuezhi and handed him the binoculars.
Ji Yuezhi took the binoculars, fiddled with them for a moment, and then put them away.
The strange atmosphere between the two left Qian Mao, who was standing nearby, completely baffled. The Captain and her must have had a fight, he thought. They must have had a falling out but are forced to cooperate on the same team.
Sigh, are the Zuo and Ji families really destined to be at odds?
By the time everyone reached the top floor, two hours had passed. Ji Yuezhi used the binoculars to observe the area below, getting a general understanding of Leye Small Town's layout. Then, he sat down behind a water tank on the roof and began transcribing all the memorized files onto his optical computer.
Row after row of complex terms and numbers, along with various diagrams, were perfectly replicated by his hands.
Luo Shaoyuan watched from the side, dumbfounded. "Your captain has this kind of ability?"
Although speed-memorization was a required course for military cadets, most only learned it to a mediocre, barely passable level. Ji Yuezhi was practically a human scanner.
Jiang Hong glanced at Zuo Luohuan. If he remembered correctly, her memory wasn't bad either, but she hadn't stepped forward when it was time to view the files.
"Are we just going to hide here?" Ding Wuming asked, clutching an iron rod in his hand.
"The entire Leye Small Town probably isn't that large. With us at the center, it's likely only a hundred li in radius," Jiang Hong said. "We'll run into the blue side sooner or later. Besides, we don't have any weapons."
"I'll take a few people and search the vicinity for weapons," Zuo Luohuan said, looking at Luo Shaoyuan. "You pick a few of your team members to come with me."
No one else spoke up. Although the First Military Academy and the Northern Military Academy were in the same group, the broadcast hadn't specified how a victory would be credited. The correct approach was for both teams to move and act as one.
Luo Shaoyuan also understood the key issue and picked a few team members for Zuo Luohuan. "Zuo Luohuan, I'll have my technician go with you to help find parts or other things. You make sure you protect him well."
Zuo Luohuan smiled. "Alright. But leave Hui Bing here. If I remember correctly, she's a good shot. If anything happens, the view from here is excellent."
"We don't have any guns right now," Luo Shaoyuan grumbled, then added, "Fine, I'll swap someone else. Hui Bing stays here."
Before leaving, she glanced back at Ji Yuezhi. He was still focused on writing out all the information from the files.
There had to be a pattern to how the organizers hid weapons and food. Zuo Luohuan led the four members from the Northern Military Academy to search the roadside shops. Most of them were empty, containing only weeds, moss, and abandoned tables and chairs.
"Let's check that movie theater," Zuo Luohuan said, leading the group inside.
It appeared to be a private cinema with two floors, filled with abandoned red seats and covered in cobwebs.
"Wait, can we go up and check if there's anything near the lights?" the technician asked, stopping in his tracks.
"I'll go up and look." Zuo Luohuan quickly climbed up from the side, glanced down at the people below, and then stepped onto the meter-wide lighting rig. The entire row was filled with lights.
"Feel around the edges, see if there are any gun barrels," the technician shouted from below. "If they were going to hide something, that's a good place for it."
Zuo Luohuan reached out to feel around. Before she could report her findings, she frowned and shouted toward the second floor, "Who's there!"
The people below instantly clustered together, looking up at the second floor.
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