Evolution - Chapter 88
Chapter 88
The one to fire the first shot was not Ji Changqing’s team of “punks,” nor was it the unknown force currently sneaking toward Cishu District.
It was the advance troops the big boss had secretly arranged to slip in.
Before meeting Ji Changqing, he had investigated her group. There was nothing suspicious about them—just a bunch of idle hooligans who had likely heard some rumors and were now fighting desperately to survive.
Ordinary punks one moment, great heroes saving the masses the next. This kind of script always carried a sense of surreal unreality.
But in this world, it was normal for people to transform into all sorts of freaks and monsters. This transformation, at least, was for the better, which was a rare and valuable thing.
Still, something felt off. They had been monitoring Cishu District, sending people to investigate both openly and covertly. The operation was supposed to be very discreet, so how did these punks catch wind of it?
It must have been the work of that stupid resistance army!
Combined with what he’d learned in the past two days, he discovered that many people were secretly circulating “truth posts,” sharing what they mistakenly believed to be classified information with a secretive “I’m only telling you” attitude.
Then, just last night, Ji Changqing had decisively captured a group of collaborators and eliminated a batch of opportunists from various factions trying to fish in troubled waters.
The big boss’s ability to act was far superior to Ji Changqing’s. By examining the bodies, he followed the clues and found that at least three factions had made a move—of course, the main culprit was undoubtedly the resistance army!
Legend had it that when the city was built, not only was a city-wide defense system installed, but also a self-destruct system. The hub for this self-destruct system was most likely located in Cishu District.
A rosy face leaves the mirror, a flower leaves the tree—both signify irreversible destruction and demise.
If the resistance army hadn’t been so crazed, constantly fantasizing about dragging everyone down with them and frequently searching possible areas, he wouldn’t have been forced into such a passive position. He was compelled to pay attention to this legendary self-destruct hub and, more importantly, find and control it before the resistance did.
Otherwise, they could all be blown sky-high at any moment for no reason!
Thinking it through, the entire chain of logic became clear. The punks had accidentally heard the rumors. A crowd of people was eyeing Cishu District like a juicy piece of meat, and while they were hesitant to make the first move, there was no telling how long their patience would last.
In such a situation, the first instinct was naturally to run!
If he were alone, he could flee anywhere. But this punk clearly had some conscience and wanted to take everyone with him to live a peaceful life.
That was why he had fought in the arena, winning ten consecutive matches to both equip his team and find a way to relocate as quickly as possible.
Because of what his investigation had uncovered, the big boss’s suspicion of Ji Changqing lessened a few degrees. He even secretly thought that since she was so sensible and tactful, he could look out for her a bit more in the future.
The moment the gunshot rang out, Ji Changqing, Du Zhong, and the others felt a jolt of energy.
“They’re here!”
Ji Changqing signaled for everyone to hunker down, stay on their toes, and observe carefully. Unless it was absolutely necessary, they were not to reveal themselves.
The families that had moved out today were all from the area closer to the vacant houses they had previously occupied as a base. This was to prevent being caught in the crossfire if those shameless people really did try to seize the area or cause other trouble.
Now, with four hundred households suddenly empty, they had effectively created a man-made firebreak.
According to Ji Changqing’s plan, with so many people moving in and out during the afternoon, it was incredibly easy to slip a batch of the big boss’s men in unnoticed.
Their original base had long since been taken over by the big boss’s people. As for the underlings Ji Changqing had forcibly recruited in her guise as a punk, one group had quietly moved to the newly selected location to secure the new territory. The other group, mainly composed of military academy students, was hiding on the other side of the firebreak, planning to watch the tigers fight from a safe distance.
If anyone crossed the line during the fight, they would hit back hard!
After all, you love this land so deeply, don’t you? Here, it’s all yours!
The stage was set. Let the show begin!
As expected, these people couldn’t hold back. After losing a group of men here last night, they returned tonight with even more forces, exuding an air of determination to press on, creating the opportunity if one didn’t exist.
The big boss’s men occupied Ji Changqing’s former base, holding every advantage of time, place, and personnel. When they discovered intruders sneaking in, they naturally opened fire without hesitation!
Realizing they had been exposed, the other side returned fire just as fiercely.
And just like that, the two sides erupted into a fiery, explosive, and spectacular battle!
As the fighting intensified, it was inevitable that they would try to break through from the flanks.
The spot where Ji Changqing and her team were hiding was, of course, chosen as one such point.
They didn’t hold back either, sending a hail of bullets their way!
After a brief, cautious war of attrition, the enemy had had enough!
The vanguard sent to break through the flank found themselves being suppressed from two sides. But as soon as they pulled back from the boundary, the other side would cease fire.
What did that mean?
There was a third party here!
The resistance army’s leader for this operation was so furious he could have ground his teeth to dust!
It must be the people of Cishu District! They had killed a group of his men yesterday, and today they were colluding with the enemy. A bunch of traitors seeking glory! How despicable!
He still had some sense. He considered the large influx of munitions and supplies over the past two days, which suggested the two sides had only just teamed up. Furthermore, those monitoring the area hadn't detected any large-scale troop movements. That could only mean they had used the chaos of the afternoon move to sneak in a group of people specifically to wait for them to walk into a trap!
“This is bad! Request backup, quickly!”
He had figured it out. This was a trap to lure them in. The enemy would surely have troops behind them to encircle them and cut off their retreat!
Their numbers weren’t even a mouthful for the enemy!
Besides, the enemy had already quietly taken over the territory. After tonight, they would likely lose their chance to secure the area and search for the fated hub that could send the entire city to its doom.
At this point, they might as well go all out and risk everything on one big gamble!
Since their forces were weaker, mutual destruction would still count as a win!
His only regret was that their plan for today had merely been to acquire some supplies, subdue the punks in Cishu District, and quietly take control of the entire area. Because they didn’t want to cause a huge commotion and wanted to disguise it as a turf war between two factions, they hadn’t brought any large-scale destructive weapons!
Otherwise, a few artillery shells would have been enough to level the entire district. They wouldn’t even need to search for the hub. If the ground itself was blasted open, surely the self-destruct system would be triggered, right?
While he was stewing in regret, his rear was indeed cut off, just as he had predicted.
Ji Changqing and her team had never expected the resistance to be so utterly insane. Their plan had been sound: with the enemy having lost their spies these past two days, they wouldn't know the details and would assume they were just a small squad that could be easily swallowed up.
But it turned out the resistance, in their madness, would even kill their own.
Because of the resistance army’s frenzy, the city was plunged into a decisive battle ahead of schedule. Unlike the small-scale guerrilla skirmishes of the past, both sides continuously poured in military forces. With Cishu District as the epicenter, the surrounding areas transformed into an interconnected meat grinder.
Cishu District was the center, surrounded by a layer of so-called government troops. Beyond that was a layer of the resistance army, and beyond that, another ring of government troops cutting off their retreat. In this layered, interlocking battlefield, everyone was trapped in a meat grinder, fighting to the death and sinking into oblivion together.
This decisive battle lasted for nearly sixteen hours. It finally ended when the resistance army, driven by the desire for mutual destruction, paid an immense price in countless soldiers’ lives to finally bring in heavy artillery—a dozen or so shells.
As those shells whistled through the air and blasted Cishu District into flat ground, Ji Changqing and her fellow military students were ejected from the competition scenario, filled with a collective sense of “what the hell”!
Du Zhong and the others crawled out of their simulators, dizzy and disoriented. Fighting through the throbbing pain in their heads, they didn’t immediately seek treatment to alleviate the mental shock of in-game death. Instead, they scrambled over to Ji Changqing, who was sitting by her simulator, holding her head and staring blankly into space.
“Changqing, you don’t think the entire city was actually destroyed, do you?”
“Doesn’t that mean our mission failed?”
“Heh heh, if the mission failed, we should still be able to scrape by on kill points, right?”
...
Their chatter only made Ji Changqing’s head hurt more!
She shot them an annoyed glare. “You can’t even eat expired medicine, and that city was built ages ago. Even if it had a self-destruct system, who knows if it still works? Besides, do you think the city’s original area is the same as the area it expanded into later?”
“Ah, I get it! That’s why we chose to relocate them to the new district!”
“That’s great! So, does that mean we completed our mission?”
The group savored the thought for a moment. The two thousand-plus people they had moved would survive, which meant they had exceeded their mission objectives! Thinking of all those wonderful points, they instantly felt that this was a solid win. Even their headaches seemed to lessen.
Ji Changqing finally couldn’t resist mocking their intelligence. “We may have been kicked out of the scenario early because we ‘died,’ but can’t we just open the live broadcast and watch the outcome as spectators?”
Why are you simpletons all crowding around me asking questions?
Looks of dawning realization spread across her teammates’ faces. They all took out their comms, typed in a few keywords, and were immediately met with complicated expressions.
The screen was flooded with hot posts about Ji Changqing.
“Hahaha, witness the epic fail of Student Nine-Moves!”
“Look at the dumbfounded expression on Student Nine-Moves’ face as they were blown sky-high! I could laugh for a year!”
“Student Nine-Moves’ earlier reverse-psychology rumor tactic was brilliant. Maybe it was too successful, and that’s why it backfired in the end, hahaha!”
“Hold on, person above! Student Nine-Moves may have made an early exit, but it wasn’t a fail!”
...
Du Zhong nudged Ji Changqing, who was still massaging her forehead, and suppressed a laugh. “Student Nine-Moves, you’re famous!”
Famous in every sense of the word.
What the hell kind of name is Student Nine-Moves? It was truly awful!
Ji Changqing decided that if she had a choice, she would rather go back to “Your Majesty,” a title she once found incredibly cringey.
At least it sounded majestic.
Everyone opened the live broadcast. They saw that although Cishu District had been bombed into flat ground, and the nearly five hundred households that hadn’t evacuated in time had quietly vanished in that battle, the city had not self-destructed.
Though scarred and battered, it still stood strong.
As the resistance army was almost completely wiped out, the city gradually returned to peace.
Meanwhile, at the new site they had chosen for the Cishu District residents, the tech specialists among the military students learned that their allies had all been blown sky-high. This spurred them to work even harder, carefully protecting the few remaining survivors of Cishu District.
The selected factories were also preparing to start operations, making arrangements to ensure the survivors could live well in the future.
The big boss, who had underhandedly tricked them into becoming bait, was perhaps feeling guilty. He generously provided money and supplies, treating these people with extra care.
Ji Changqing and the others watched for a while. Once they confirmed there was no major issue with their mission’s completion, they helped each other to the medical bay.
With their heads splitting, none of them had the energy to pay attention to the lively analyses and discussions buzzing all over the StarNet.
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