Dangerous Tarantula

"The match begins, countdown begins."

The Purple Crystal team members quickly took their positions, and the five of them arrived at the complex modular sandbox fighting area, ready to split up.

Standing at the very front of the group were Fiego Sebastié and the scout sentry [Tarantula].

In the eyes of both coaches, this map was a miniature version with all the essentials. The tactical instructions given by the head coach of Purple Crystal and Sharks Chili were strikingly similar. The players' deployment, running lines, and first destinations were to revolve around the Red Tower in the housing area. The scout sentry who was the first to climb the Red Tower would gain a high-ground advantage and have a panoramic view of the entire area.

The side that captures the Red Tower can not only clearly see the surrounding complex alleys and prefabricated houses, but also the courtyard houses and IKEA supermarket near the Red Tower, as well as the entrances and exits of the Blue and Yellow Boxes, all within the range of the high point.

Beneath the Red Tower lies a complex network of interconnected buildings, fully furnished with appliances, fitness equipment, and kitchenware—a truly treacherous combat zone. If this terrain were placed on the mission list of the Guangling Zhixi Rapid Reaction Force, it would be the most dangerous urban warfare terrain with the lowest survival rate.

In this environment, besides combat skills, luck plays a major role in determining whether soldiers can survive safely.

The countdown officially began, and the sentries from both sides bypassed the dribblers and started observing the environment of the fighting zone.

The moment the starting gun fired, Kaycee Gerrard ran straight to the outer wall of the sandbox maze, took a short run-up of about ten meters, jumped off the wall onto the terrace of the two-story building, and quickly climbed onto the yellow brick roof.

Li's guidance: "The scout from the White-Clad Gang is very proactive. She is very fast, and her jumping ability and climbing skills are excellent."

Teacher Ke: "It seems that both teams' coaches have chosen the Red Tower as their primary objective. This is a very important strategic point. Occupying the high ground on this small map can indeed give them an early advantage."

Following the sentry's recitation of the route map, the two breakers rushed into the fighting zone one after the other, traversing narrow and complex alleyways and streets, and passing through door after door.

Fiego could hear his teammates' calls over the radio from time to time. He didn't need to look up; he could hear the footsteps of the tarantulas running and jumping from the roof of the shrine.

Teammates should be at least one corner behind Fiego, maintaining a safe distance—just out of his line of fire, but not within his field of view. This delicate sense of distance requires long-term practice and coordination within the team.

The Purple Crystal attacker was a seasoned veteran. He followed closely behind Fiego, his movements ambiguous and elusive. As the temple doors opened and closed, he crossed the shrine and arrived in front of the yellow box, only a step away from the Red Tower.

On the other side, Xiao Hao overheard Kaycee's breathless delivery of the route notes over the communication.

"Once you come out of the garage, immediately turn right. Be careful when you climb over the garden fence; it's very close, extremely close! There are a few fish tanks and a small pond that can be used as temporary cover. I'm about to run out of breath, huff, huff."

Using only her arms to grip the cracks in the stone, Kaycee leaped from the chimney of the Western-style building to the access road leading to the Blue Box. A few simple oak planks were laid between the rooftops, serving as a shortcut that allowed scouts from both sides to skip the cumbersome and complex first-floor alleyways and arrive directly at the central spiral staircase of the Red Tower.

The yellow and blue containers serve as cover and passageways, and are temporary havens specially set up on the map. They are placed on both sides of the loop road, like the black and white dots in a round yin-yang symbol. If the marching speed of both sides is not much different, entering the containers will inevitably expose them to the enemy's sight.

At that very moment--

--Kaycee felt an excruciating pain shooting through her ankle.

Her face was covered in cold sweat, and she lost her balance, tumbling onto the concrete roof of the bungalow. She rolled several times before hitting the brick steps of the drain, her earpiece nearly flying off.

She was stunned by the fall. When she came to her senses, she saw her swollen ankle and a series of crystal-clear spiritual threads. Alarm bells rang in her head instantly!

At the same time, Fiego heard the scouts' orders.

Tarantula: "Breakthrough, prey has fallen into my web."

The road structure surrounding the Red Tower allowed psionicists to fully unleash their imagination. The tarantula was much faster than Kaycee, and by the time this elite sentinel arrived at the complex spiral oak plank road, it had already arranged its psionic threads into a tripwire structure, scattering them like a lottery ticket to create traps.

While not as time-consuming and laborious as carefully crafted lethal traps, these unintentional little boonies, used to hinder opponents, always bring unexpected joy to the tarantula.

In a race against time, sentries climb, jump, and run frantically through complex building complexes. These actions are inherently risky, and with just a little "assistance," a height difference of about 150 centimeters can injure their legs and rob them of their mobility.

Li's guidance: "JK tripped over the net and fell pretty hard! It must have hurt a lot—she was so unlucky, jumping from another building to the rooftop near the Red Tower. If she had tripped like that on the main road, she definitely wouldn't have been injured so badly."

"Purple Crystal's sentinel gained the opportunity to set up the attack thanks to her speed advantage." Crown was smug, proud of the men of Daji Town: "How is she going to deal with these bruises and splinters? These stumbling webs are connected to the tarantulas, and she's going to face a barrage of attacks. If Purple Crystal manages to get to the Red Tower first, but she can't reach the two safe havens smoothly—then she'll become a sitting duck."

At this point, Klein specifically asked Li Zhiwen another question.

"Li's guidance, the soldiers of the Bullfrog Regiment are skilled at boarding operations, and the urban warfare vanguard of the rapid reaction force can leap across rooftops of all kinds of buildings. People call the Bullfrogs 'flying men.' If you were in such a predicament, how would you treat your injuries?"

Li's guidance: "The correct approach is to ignore it."

"Huh? We're not going to do anything about it?" Teacher Ke asked in surprise.

Li's guidance explained in a very methodical manner.

"Reconnaissance soldiers are like the eyes of the entire team. If their eyes stop moving, the team members become blind and can only passively take hits. Subsequent teammates will not receive effective information and it will be difficult to launch a rescue operation."

"We now have unmanned reconnaissance aircraft and various technological enhancements, but we still need sentries. Because electromechanical systems lack Inspiration, what machines can pass through, humans may not be able to pass through, and trip mines that machines cannot trigger are very likely to be triggered by soldiers."

"In this situation, the correct approach is to ignore it completely. The pain is only temporary, and you must not stop."

"If you stop, you'll lose everything. Whether it's a bruised ankle or a broken ankle, keep moving on your other leg. Even if you're injured and exposed to enemy fire, don't think about counterattacking immediately."

"An unbalanced body cannot control its aim. In the same shooting environment, one person can stand firmly and shoot accurately, while the other can only crawl hunched over and look pathetic, with no chance of fighting back. Not everyone is like the nameless man, possessing the shooting skills to turn adversity into advantage and change their fate with bullets."

"JK's current task is to overcome the pain, find suitable cover, and continue planning the route for breaking through Shouhao's defenses—her position has been exposed, and she cannot remain where she is to die."

"Li's guidance makes a lot of sense," Klein said, but before he could finish, the players on the field had already made their decisions.

Kaycee gritted her teeth and crawled toward the oak plank. She knelt on one knee, trying to touch the ground with her injured leg. The moment her foot gave way, she was in so much pain that her face turned red and she broke out in a cold sweat.

A hissing growl escaped her throat. Her eyes widened, and she nearly lost her mind from the intense pain. Finally, she put on her headset and heard A Hao's urgent question.

"JK! How are you?!"

But time waits for no one.

The enemy wouldn't know either. The tarantula used its speed advantage to gain the opportunity to set up its attack. If the attack was effective, it would have more time to set up more attacks.

Before Kaycee could reply, the oak plank pavement beside her suddenly cracked open—

--P99's explosive charge shattered the wooden planks leading to the shelter enclosure.

On the first floor of the building, the Purple Crystal attacker, from a distance of over seventy meters, guided by the tarantula through layers of electrical wires and clothes racks, found the correct target.

At that moment, the audience erupted in enthusiastic cheers.

The intense roar was like a raging sea, trying to grab Kaycee's ankles and drag her into the deep water.

Even without seeing her opponent, she could vaguely see a hideous spider baring its fangs at her in her mind.

--The Purple Crystal sentry was incredibly strong; his callouts were precise, and he was agile. The fact that he could clearly communicate the firing targets to the attackers amidst so much clutter made Kaycee realize the difference in their raw skill.

She couldn't even see where the enemy was; the road ahead had already been blocked.

"JK! Keep running!"

A voice came from the squad's voice chat—

"Who is that? "Kaycee didn't know; her ears were already ringing from the pain.

Qi Ji crossed the low fence in the garden and watched Hao Bro run further and further away.

Without hesitation, he said, "JK, keep running! There's still time. You need to secure the blue box, otherwise we'll have to enter the Red Tower from H1."

The term H1 refers to the height difference between the four floors above ground of the Blue Box, used to describe the location of the Red Tower corridor. The first floor of the Red Tower is a prayer hall of less than ten square meters, with the spiral staircase taking up most of the room. To think that you could fight the enemy above you from here is simply a pipe dream.

Kaycee didn't answer. She was panting heavily, her mind under immense pressure. But her body didn't hesitate; she quickly took off her shoes and stood up barefoot, swaying unsteadily.

Li Zhiwen: "That's it! That's the kind of girl I'm talking about! A good girl!"

Klein: "Li's guidance! Isn't she afraid of getting hurt?"

Li Zhiwen: "Adrenaline can relieve some of the pain, but continuing to move will worsen the ankle injury. Fortunately, we have Universal Elixir —maintaining our fighting spirit is the most important thing. Teacher Ke, losing is more terrifying than the pain."

The pain seemed unable to defeat the White-Clad Gang's sentries, and the audience's enthusiastic cheers gradually subsided. They stared at the girl, their eyes softening and growing tense.

People watched the figure silently, looking at the over six-meter-long diving platform. To cross this path, even athletes with both legs would have to consider their own abilities.

Kaycee's palms were sweaty as she pinched the bright red pentagram on her chest. She didn't have time to consider whether the decision to make a miracle was right, because the cliff was right in front of her. If she couldn't jump over it, she would fall from the fifteen-meter-high rooftop into the courtyard alley, and she would probably break several bones.

She hopped on one leg a few times, waving her arms as if rowing a boat, drawing small circles.

Immediately afterwards, the injured leg slammed hard onto the solid cement ground, and a spiritual glow burst forth from the heel. Dense threads tightly bound the swollen ankle joint, making it leap high like a nimble deer!

Purple Crystal aimed his gun but didn't fire immediately. As the captain, he ordered the remaining two at the back of the team to stop attacking as well.

At this distance, using pistol ammunition to intercept a fast-moving target is like trying to catch a mosquito with chopsticks—the P99 only has fifteen bullets, and wasting ammunition on such a futile endeavor is not a wise choice.

Moreover, it seems this scout from the White-Clad Gang is unlikely to be able to leap over this cliff.

JK's takeoff was very awkward; the muscle spasms caused by pain prevented her from moving freely. She began to weaken in the latter half of her hang time.

She swung her arms weakly, as if trying to grab onto something, but there was only an office building without a terrace in front of her, not even a utility pole or a clothes rack to hold onto—the miracle seemed to have failed to happen.

But at this very moment, right now.

A powerful figure entered the firing range of the Purple Crystal main force. From the low wall of the winding alley, a strong and robust Hao Bro jumped out from the top of the solid red brick wall.

"Why is he there?" The tarantula, who was observing the terrain from a high point, suddenly stopped thinking. He found it hard to understand the behavior of the White-Clad Gang's breakthrough player. His rich experience in the game told him that if a breakthrough player lost the guidance of a scout, he would normally return to the team's formation to wait for orders.

A Hao's mind was blank—he wasn't thinking about anything.

The moment Kaycee Gerrard was frustrated, his legs moved involuntarily. Before he could even figure out how to help the girl, he had already jumped out.

As a result, Kaycee leaped forward from the rooftop, still in the latter half of her mid-air flight, while simultaneously the audience saw the White-Clad Gang's breacher leap out from the wall—

--Completely different from the hero rescuing the damsel in distress in fairy tales or cartoons.

For the heroes to catch the princess, they would have to collide with her from two different directions, and their speeds could not be too fast. The heroes would cut into the princess's waist from different angles and lift her legs.

Hao Bro was different. He jumped in the same direction as Kaycee, leaping from the top of the wall to a height of about six meters in the air.

The high-speed camera footage showed that Kaycee's undamaged leg stepped on Hao Bro's raised face. One second he had a cool expression of being on high alert with his mind blank, and the next second Hao Bro's face was contorted as he crashed into the second-floor window of the office building along with Kaycee.

"Why is this guy here?!" The tarantula asked repeatedly in the voice channel, bewildered. "Why? Why?"

Viewers could see A Hao's changing expressions through the replay; he looked like he was trying to suppress a laugh the moment Kaycee stepped on him.

"Go to the office building and encircle them!" Purple Crystal's captain immediately made the judgment. "Fiego! You're closest to them!"

"I know! I know!" Fiego ran like the wind, returning from the haven to the top floor of the office building to meet up with Senior Tarantula and head towards the second floor. The initial goal was to capture the Red Tower, but now, because of Hao, all the plans have changed unpredictably. If they can break two of the White-Clad Gang's fingers in this office building, their huge advantage will turn into victory.

The battle became unpredictable. The moment the Black team's Purple Crystal members entered the office building, the three members of the Red team's White-Clad Gang arrived almost simultaneously. Miracle acted decisively, never intending to abandon the sentry. The instant Hao Bro took a step, he led the remaining two members towards the office building to provide support.

Teacher Ke: "Li's guidance, the situation seems to be getting complicated."

"My thoughts are exactly the opposite of Teacher Ke's; it should be simpler," Li's guidance analyzed the office building model. "Originally, in the battle for control of the Red Tower, the team's shooting environment was very three-dimensional—they had to adjust their depression and elevation angles to attack the opponent."

"In this office building, the combat environment is relatively flat. The outcome will be decided very quickly."

Teacher Ke's forehead was sweating, and he suddenly felt a little embarrassed after being retorted like that.

"So, Li's guidance, who do you think is the most crucial factor in determining victory or defeat?"

Li Zhiwen smiled, remained silent for a moment with feigned mystery, then picked up the thermos and took a tactical sip of water.

"The sentry's mission is complete. Now it's the blitzkrieg's turn. As for who will decide the outcome, I'm not that professional, nor would I dare to make any professional judgments. Judging from the current situation—if Purple Crystal can complete the encirclement first and take out the White-Clad Gang's blitzkrieg and sentry, then they will have a very large numerical advantage."

"If everything goes smoothly, they will have already won a large part by seizing the rooftop and moving towards the Red Tower."

"As captain, Miracle will face a difficult choice. If he leads the remaining teammates back to the alley, they can regroup in a short time and wait for Purple Crystal to make a mistake. If Purple Crystal remains calm, and the match ends at the last minute, the winner will be determined by the casualties, and they will be forced to lose."

"Oh! So what Li's guidance means is—" Teacher Ke exclaimed excitedly, "—our little heroes have a very high chance of winning!"

"Teacher Ke, please don't do that. Please don't do that." Li's guidance explained awkwardly, "Please don't do that, Teacher Ke, I can't be a jinx!"