Evolution - Chapter 58
Chapter 58
Ji Changqing's plan was, in essence, human wave tactics—a war of attrition. Wear you down, tie you up, drag you out, and finally, finish you off.
Her plan was built on her predictions.
Everyone agreed with her assessment. No matter how desperate the space pirates were, they were risking other people's lives, not their own. If forced to choose between rescuing their comrades and saving their own skin, most of them would choose to run without a second thought.
When they sent out half their people and still heard nothing back, they would grow fearful. They would unhesitatingly choose to stay inside the base, wait for their warship to be repaired, and make their own escape.
This decision would only take twenty-four hours.
Whenever a student was in danger and requested rescue, the instructors had to arrive within twenty-four hours, before the rescue device's built-in defense shield was depleted.
By the time the instructors arrived, learned what had happened, contacted the garrison, and locked down the planet, the pirates would be completely screwed.
However, she had made one fatal oversight.
“The weapons they have are more than a level above ours.” Lu Youxia patted the laser gun and laser sword at her waist. “Suppressive fire will put us at a great disadvantage.”
Ji Changqing licked her lips. “The ones who want military merit points are the suicide squad members of each team.”
If you want the greatest reward, you have to be prepared to take the greatest risk.
After a moment's thought, everyone agreed it was a viable plan. After all, those who wanted military merit points hadn't been saving their points anyway, so what did an early elimination matter? They could even contact their families ahead of time and try to get things in order before the assessment ended.
A camp with such an unconventional style was quite conspicuous. Overnight, they had managed to gather more than three thousand people, nearly four thousand in total.
The next morning, Ji Changqing took the list of teams and individual specializations compiled the previous night and began organizing everyone into groups. She assigned personnel, distributed tasks, designated ambush locations, established signals, and explained the general plan of action. Then, they began to leave in batches for their designated areas.
The day before, Ji Changqing had Gu Changge lead a team to set up the ambushes along the route from their camp to the base entrance.
As for how to conduct the ambushes and control the tempo, that would be up to each team's leader.
After all, their current conditions didn't allow for it, and this wasn't a battlefield that required a supreme commander to arrange every single detail.
Gu Changge left first with thirty-five hundred people. Lu Youwen, Lu Youxia, and Weisman went with him. The mission for these three was different from the others; they were to take two thousand of those people to watch all possible exits of the base. If the space pirates tried to flee, they had to find a way to delay them until the instructors arrived as reinforcements.
Another three or four hundred people remained behind to continue recruiting and registering new arrivals.
Less than two hours after Gu Changge and his group departed, his dozen or so other fated teammates arrived one after another.
By then, the number of people in the camp, including those brought by the fated teammates, was just around a thousand.
Ji Changqing and He Qingping then led their people toward the end of the Asura Field.
Their group moved relatively slowly, scouting for suitable ambush points as they went.
This massive contingent, carrying homemade recruitment banners, was a unique sight that was hard to ignore.
Along the way, some people came over to ask what was going on. They thought this group might have lost their minds, but then on second thought, with several thousand fewer competitors, they could go pick up more score items. So, after asking, they quickly left.
Others, however, happily applied to stay after inquiring.
Traveling alone was so dangerous. By joining the group, they could get 1,000 points right off the bat. If the mission actually succeeded, they might even get an extra one or two thousand points. It was much more comfortable than painstakingly searching for score items like a needle in a haystack while also having to guard against being robbed.
Let's do it!
Like a rolling snowball, their numbers grew and grew. By the time they reached the starting point of the Asura Field, there were a full two thousand of them.
Twenty people were assigned to each ambush point.
Ji Changqing gave them face-to-face instructions: “Remember, survival comes first. If you see more than three people, wait until they’re a bit farther away, then fire a few shots or arrows to harass them and slow them down. That’s all you need to do. But generally, anyone who makes it to this latter half of the route won't be in a group larger than three. Try to engage in close combat to prevent them from drawing their guns.”
The crowd nodded, speechless.
It was the first time a commander had told them not to risk their lives. Be slick, get wild!
Her words of encouragement for the suicide squad members were: “If you’re not the first one to press the rescue request button, then you’ve failed, understand? Activating the defense shield is like turning on a temporary invincibility mode. You absolutely have to take one of them down with you!”
Amid everyone's mixed feelings of anticipation and nervousness, Ji Changqing reiterated the start time and the agreed-upon signal, then finally started heading back.
It had taken her nearly six hours to get from the camp to the start of the Asura Field, stopping along the way to place personnel. When she rushed back alone, the entire trip took just a little over six hours.
As she traveled, she kept an eye on the ambush points and discovered that the creativity of the masses was truly limitless.
Even though she knew where the ambush points were, she could barely spot any signs of hidden people as she hurried past.
The ability of this year's students to ‘hunker down’ truly made her see them in a new light.
She reached the rendezvous point with Gu Changge just in time for dinner. After eating her fill, she fell straight to sleep.
She had been rushing around all day, and no matter how great her stamina was, she was exhausted. If nothing unexpected happened tomorrow, it would likely be another day of running for her life—in the most literal sense, exhausted from running to escape with her life.
At three in the morning, after just seven hours of sleep, Ji Changqing was mercilessly shaken awake by an excited Gu Changge.
Yawning, she quickly washed up, got dressed, and set out.
The group of nine infiltrated silently and with practiced ease, heading straight for the location of the “treasure.”
Ji Changqing stood guard while the six Physique Level 8 students split into two groups. With a clear division of labor, they pounced. After the guards let out a short, angry shout of “Who’s there?” their mouths were clamped shut from behind.
Of the two guards, one was drunk, and while the other was sober, he couldn't withstand a sound beating from three Level 8 experts. They soon fell silent.
The six of them deftly looted the bodies, taking all the weapons they could find.
Either this band of pirates was quite wealthy, or these two were the boss's trusted and favored subordinates, because they were carrying a wide variety of weapons.
But considering they were guarding this thing, they must have been the most trusted of confidants.
There were a dozen small timed bombs, two new-model energy guns, several powerful grenades, and a number of highly concealable modular weapons.
The six gave one of the energy guns to Ji Changqing, along with all the grenades and half of the timed bombs. After all, she and Gu Changge were the main ones responsible for luring the enemy, so they needed more to protect themselves.
After they left, they would need to keep a close watch on the base to prevent any escapes, so they also needed some powerful weapons.
Ji Changqing accepted the items. With a wave of her hand, the six dispersed and moved past her, heading forward.
Their initial success boosted their confidence. Their next task was to intercept the first wave of people who might have heard the guards' shouts and were coming to investigate.
This group of space pirates was probably far too confident in their hiding spot. Even though the guards' angry shouts should have been audible from their main activity area despite the distance, no one came to check.
Someone even grumbled, “Old Third and his partner must be sneaking drinks again. The day before yesterday, they got all paranoid and said someone had snuck in. We searched inside and out for almost two days and didn't find a single hair!”
Everyone had been complaining about it, but the boss took it very seriously, so no matter how much they grumbled, they had to bite the bullet and do the work. Therefore, upon hearing the faint shouts now, the pirates, who hadn't been able to relax for the past two days, were quite displeased.
They didn't want to spare them a single glance.
Amid the chorus of complaints, a man who looked like a sub-leader finally spoke up. “Alright, you two go take a look. It’ll save us the trouble of them snitching to the boss later.”
Only then did a couple of men start shuffling in their direction.
The six Physique Level 8 students hid in a blind spot around the corner, holding their breath and waiting for the two men to get closer so they could strike again.
Behind them was Ji Changqing. Behind Ji Changqing were the two neutralized guards. And further back was a space that could be taken in at a single glance.
Inside was a transparent, high-grade protective shield, the kind often used for displaying valuable items. Opening it required complex authentication, and it was connected to an alarm system below. If a brute-force hack took too long, it would trigger an alarm that echoed throughout the space, which could also be received by anyone with a remote device.
The moment they saw the small golden sphere glowing quietly inside the protective shield, the two exchanged a look—Damn it, we've stumbled into something huge!
This was not something space pirates should possess.
It was a device used by noble families to store secret data, including but not limited to inheritances, assets, networks, and hidden trump cards.
Even the military often used it to store classified information, such as operational plans, base layouts, defense levels, and access codes.
One had to understand, these things were usually kept under heavy guard. How on earth did this group of space pirates get their hands on one? The golden spheres were typically equipped with automatic positioning and self-destruct devices. The moment it was moved from its original position, it would continuously transmit its real-time location for monitoring and tracking.
If it was discovered to have fallen into the wrong hands and couldn't be retrieved, it could also be remotely controlled to erase all data and self-destruct with a small explosion, completely destroying the carrier.
It was just that no one would do so unless it was a last resort.
After all, classified data wasn't like cabbage; you couldn't just have numerous backups lying around.
But then they thought about how they only had to survive for three days before someone else would take this hot potato off their hands, and their hearts burned with excitement again.
Although the appearance of the golden sphere had caused the danger of this operation to skyrocket, the potential military merit had skyrocketed along with it!
Besides, they had already come this far. Reality wouldn't permit them to back down now.
Lu Youxia, of course, couldn't crack the golden sphere itself to access the data inside. She was rapidly hacking the protective shield's security. Her fingers danced, lines of code flowing out like water as the progress bar steadily advanced.
One minute and eight seconds: the progress bar passed the halfway mark.
The two low-ranking pirates sent to check on the situation shuffled in their direction.
Two minutes and eleven seconds: the progress bar hit ninety percent.
The two pirates, dawdling and muttering, were about to turn the corner.
Two minutes and twenty-three seconds: the progress bar jumped to ninety-four percent.
The two pirates rounded the corner.
The six students struck in unison. With perfect coordination, they clamped their hands over the pirates' mouths and pinned their limbs.
Two minutes and thirty-eight seconds: the progress bar jumped to ninety-eight percent.
With two soft cracks, the pirates' heads lolled to the side, and they stopped struggling.
The six continued to loot the bodies with practiced ease.
These two low-ranking grunts only had two old-model energy guns and four grenades on them. Nothing else.
They looked at Ji Changqing, who was focused on placing two small timed bombs in key corners. She waved a hand dismissively. The six accepted the loot with a clear conscience.
Two minutes and forty-five seconds: the progress bar jumped to ninety-nine percent.
From the area where the space pirates were gathered, someone shouted, “Hey, Beardy, Red, stop dragging your feet! Take a look and get back here!”
“Something’s not right. How could those two be completely silent?”
Two minutes and fifty-three seconds: the progress bar was full.
A hesitant question came from that direction, followed by the sound of increasingly chaotic footsteps.
Ji Changqing made a hand signal, motioning for the six to retreat with Lu Youxia first.
About ten seconds later, the footsteps grew clearer.
Gu Changge clenched his fist and reached his “grubby little hand” toward the glittering “treasure.”
The next instant, an alarm blared throughout the cavern.
As the alarm sounded, four or five people rounded the corner. From a distance of nearly thirty meters, they stared in astonishment at Ji Changqing and Gu Changge.
Ji Changqing gave a little wave and silently mouthed the word “surprise.”
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