The dull thud of the blast door closing echoed through the low barracks for three seconds before finally fading away.
Grey Falcon—the one-eyed, limping man—sat back down on his bunk. He did not look at Lin Xiao and the other two again. He merely pulled a flat metal flask from beneath his bed, unscrewed the cap, and tipped back a mouthful. The sharp scent of vodka spread through the air, mingling with mold and sweat to create a suffocating atmosphere.
The other men in the barracks continued with their own business. One cleaned his gun with mechanical focus, the smell of gun oil stinging the nose; another sharpened a dagger, its blade rasping rhythmically over a whetstone; a third lay on his bed with a tattered magazine covering his face, letting out faint snores.
No one spoke.
Lin Xiao swept his gaze across the entire room. The barracks were about thirty square meters, with twelve metal bunk beds, though only seven were occupied. The two beds near the door were relatively tidy, their sheets old but washed nearly white. The farther in one went, the messier the beds became. The three beds at the very back near the ventilation duct—the ones Grey Falcon had pointed out to them—had filthy sheets, and dark red stains could even be seen on the bed frames.
The ventilation duct was directly overhead, giving off a constant hum like the wings of some giant insect. Condensation dripped from the joints, forming a small puddle on the floor, black mold growing around its edges.
"We're going over there," Lin Xiao said quietly.
He picked up the pitifully light duffel bag and headed toward the back of the barracks. His boots rang clearly against the concrete floor. Those gazes followed him, pricking his back like needles.
Su Ying walked on his left, her pace slightly slower than usual. Her body still held itself in a stance ready to explode into action at any moment, but Lin Xiao could tell she was restraining herself—her breathing was steady, her fingers not clenched, hanging naturally at her sides. Wolf walked last, his steps unsteady. His eyes darted anxiously around him like a rabbit that had wandered into a wolf pack.
The three beds stood together. Lin Xiao chose the lower bunk against the wall. Su Ying took the lower bunk in the middle. Wolf hesitated, then climbed onto the bunk above Lin Xiao.
The bed board was hard, with only a thin army-green pad. Lin Xiao set his duffel at the foot of the bed and reached out to touch the sheet. The cloth was rough and stained with something unknown, leaving a greasy feeling on his fingertips. He caught a complicated odor of sweat, blood, and mildew seeping from every crevice of the bed.
"The armory is at the end of the corridor, then turn right." Grey Falcon's voice suddenly sounded. Without turning around, he remained with his back to them. "It opens for one hour every day at four in the afternoon. Miss it, and you're out of luck. Give them my name to collect basic equipment—don't expect anything good."
Lin Xiao looked at him. "Thank you."
Grey Falcon did not respond. He took another swig of liquor.
At 3:50 in the afternoon, Lin Xiao left the barracks with Su Ying and Wolf. The corridor was dimly lit, its walls painted with peeling green paint. The floor was rough concrete, cracked in places. As they passed the doors of several other barracks, they could hear voices, laughter, and the sounds of things being thrown around inside.
The armory door was a heavy iron slab with a small window in it. Lin Xiao knocked. The window slid open, revealing a pair of cloudy eyes.
"Name."
"New replacements for Grey Falcon's squad," Lin Xiao said.
The eyes behind the window studied them for several seconds before it slid shut. The lock clicked and turned, and the door opened inward.
The armory was not much larger than the barracks. Several metal racks stood against the walls, loaded with all kinds of equipment. The air smelled of gun oil, leather, and metal. The quartermaster was a gaunt old man in filthy work pants, with half a dead cigar clenched between his teeth.
"Grey Falcon's people?" The old man's voice was hoarse. "Over there. Pick your own."
He pointed toward several crates in the corner.
Lin Xiao walked over and opened them. The first contained several sets of old combat uniforms, the fabric badly worn and patched in places. The second contained tactical vests, but many attachments were missing. The third held weapons—several old AK-74U compact assault rifles with rusted barrels; two Makarov pistols with all the paint worn off their grips; and several daggers so dull they could have been used as rulers.
"That's all?" Su Ying asked, suppressed dissatisfaction in her voice.
The old man glanced at her and blew out a puff of nonexistent smoke. "A woman? Grey Falcon's squad really takes anything. Take it or leave it."
Lin Xiao pressed a hand to Su Ying's arm. He could feel her muscles tense instantly, hard as steel.
"We'll take them," Lin Xiao said evenly.
He selected three relatively intact combat uniforms, three tactical vests, two AKs, one Makarov, and three daggers. The old man scribbled a few strokes in the registry, then waved them away. "Get lost."
When they returned to the barracks, Grey Falcon glanced at the equipment in their hands. A trace of mockery flickered through his remaining eye.
"I told you not to expect anything good," he said. "Base rules: newcomers use old junk. Only those who survive earn the right to trade for new gear."
"We understand," Lin Xiao said.
He distributed the equipment to Su Ying and Wolf. Su Ying took the AK, running her fingers over its body as she checked the bolt, rifling, and trigger. Her movements were professional and quick. She completed the initial inspection in seconds.
"The rifling is forty percent worn. The trigger pull is too long, and the front sight is off by half a degree," she said softly. "It'll barely do, but don't expect accuracy beyond fifty meters."
Lin Xiao nodded. He picked up his own AK. It was slightly lighter than the standard model he remembered—some component had probably been replaced. He pulled back the bolt and saw carbon buildup in the chamber, though it was still fairly clean.
"Wolf, your pistol." He handed the Makarov to Wolf.
Wolf accepted the gun with trembling hands. He tried to rack the slide, his movements awkward.
"I... I'm not very good with this," he said quietly.
"Learn," Lin Xiao said. "Here, not knowing how to use a gun is the same as asking to die."
At six in the evening, the barracks speaker suddenly crackled with piercing static, followed by a rough male voice.
"Squad Four, Training Ground Three. Fifteen minutes."
The training ground was on the surface level, a semi-open concrete lot roughly the size of two basketball courts. Tires, sandbags, wooden obstacles, and several rusted targets were piled around its edges. Night had already fallen. Several high-powered floodlights switched on, bleaching the grounds white.
Grey Falcon led the squad's seven men—including Lin Xiao's group of three—to stand in the middle of the field. The instructor was a bald, muscular brute over six foot three, wearing a tight tank top that exposed thick arms covered in scars. A faded Hydra emblem was tattooed on his neck.
"I'm Blood Axe." The instructor's voice sounded like a grinding wheel against metal. "Starting today, I'm in charge of your recovery training. I don't care who you were before or what kind of background you had. Here, what I say goes."
His gaze swept over the group, lingering two seconds longer on Lin Xiao and the other two.
"First, endurance testing." Blood Axe pointed toward the tires at the edge of the field. "Each of you drags a tire back and forth twenty times. Timed. The last three get no dinner tonight."
They were heavy truck tires, each weighing at least one hundred kilograms. Grey Falcon was the first to step up. He bent down, gripped the tire's edge, took a deep breath, and heaved. The tire moved, scraping shrill sounds across the concrete. His movements were awkward—his bad right leg prevented him from putting out his full strength—but he still gritted his teeth and dragged it forward step by step.
The other veterans followed one after another. Their movements were practiced. Clearly, this was not their first time doing this kind of training.
Lin Xiao looked at Su Ying and signaled with his eyes for her to control her strength. Su Ying gave a slight nod, walked to a tire, and bent to grip it. Her movements looked strained, and she dragged the tire even slower than Grey Falcon—but Lin Xiao knew it was an act.
When it was Lin Xiao's turn, he adjusted his breathing and bent down to grip the tire. The rubber surface was rough and bit into his hands. He pulled, and the tire proved heavier than expected, his arm muscles tightening instantly. He began walking, the coarse grit of the concrete coming through his boot soles. He reached the marker ten meters away, turned, and dragged it back. One trip, two trips, three trips...
His breathing began to grow ragged. Sweat slid from his forehead and into his eyes, stinging sharply. He could hear his own heavy breaths, the tire scraping against the ground, and the panting and cursing of the other squad members.
By the fifth trip, his right arm had begun to ache. By the eighth, his lower back felt as though the muscles were tearing apart. By the twelfth, his lungs were on fire.
But he did not stop.
Grey Falcon finished twenty trips and collapsed onto the ground, gasping for air. The other veterans finished one after another. Su Ying was on her eighteenth trip, her pace still steady. Wolf was on his fifteenth, already swaying on his feet.
Lin Xiao clenched his teeth and kept pulling. Seventeen, eighteen, nineteen...
Twenty.
He let go, and the tire crashed heavily to the ground. He bent over with both hands braced on his knees, sweat falling like rain. His throat was filled with the taste of blood, and every breath sent stabbing pain through his lungs.
"Times." Blood Axe looked at the stopwatch in his hand, expressionless. "Grey Falcon, four minutes twenty seconds. Butcher, four minutes thirty-five seconds. Venomous Scorpion, four minutes forty seconds..."
He read out the names of all the veterans before finally looking at Lin Xiao's group.
"Woman, five minutes five seconds. Rookie, five minutes fifteen seconds. Skinny Monkey, six minutes thirty seconds." Blood Axe put away his stopwatch. "Skinny Monkey came last. No dinner tonight. The woman and the rookie came second-to-last and third-to-last. Half rations."
Wolf—Skinny Monkey—went pale, but he did not dare say anything. He only lowered his head.
"Next, tactical drill." Blood Axe pointed toward the obstacle area on the other side of the field. "Simulated urban combat environment. Two per team, attackers and defenders. Rookie, you're with the woman. Attack. Venomous Scorpion, Butcher, you defend."
Venomous Scorpion was a lean man with hollow cheeks and narrow eyes. He always squinted when looking at people, like a viper sizing up its prey. Butcher, meanwhile, was a hulking brute, half a head taller than Blood Axe, with shoulders as broad as a door.
"Instructor, isn't this unfair?" Venomous Scorpion grinned, showing a mouthful of yellow teeth. "Two veterans against two rookies?"
"There is no fairness on the battlefield," Blood Axe said coldly. "Begin."
The obstacle area was a crude urban combat setup built from wooden boards and sandbags, with corners, windows, and cover. Venomous Scorpion and Butcher had already entered their defensive positions. Lin Xiao and Su Ying stood at the entrance, rubber daggers in hand. Those were the rules: close-combat practice, no live firearms.
"Follow me," Lin Xiao said quietly.
He took a deep breath and stepped into the obstacle area. The lighting was dim, with only a few small lamps providing weak illumination. His eyes quickly adapted to the darkness, and his mind began analyzing the surroundings. There was a corner on the left, a window on the right, and a stacked sandbag barricade straight ahead.
Footsteps.
Very faint, coming from the direction of the window to the right. Lin Xiao raised a hand to signal Su Ying to stop, then pressed himself against the wall and slowly leaned his head out.
The window was empty.
But in the shadows beneath the windowsill, a wooden board had been moved—the gap that should have lined up was now offset by three centimeters.
A trap.
Lin Xiao drew back and turned toward the corner on the left. Faint breathing came from behind it, shallow but unmistakable. Two people, one about three meters behind the corner and the other farther inside.
"Venomous Scorpion is behind the corner. Butcher is deeper in," Lin Xiao whispered, barely audible. "There might be a tripwire or alarm device behind the corner. We'll go around from the right."
Su Ying nodded. The two pressed close to the wall and moved right. When they passed the window, Lin Xiao suddenly stopped.
There was a faint drag mark on the ground outside the window, as though someone had dragged a foot across it. The mark extended beneath the window, then vanished.
"Something's wrong," Lin Xiao whispered. "Venomous Scorpion isn't behind the corner."
He looked toward the corner again. The breathing was still there, but... it was too regular. Once every three seconds, identical in depth and rhythm, like a recording.
Bait.
Lin Xiao's mind raced. Venomous Scorpion was the type who liked to toy with his prey. He would never obediently stay in his designated position. So where was he? The window? No, the drag marks were too obvious, deliberately left behind. The breathing by the corner came from a recording device. Then the real ambush point...
His eyes swept over the ceiling. The ceiling of the obstacle area was made of canvas, sagging in places and forming patches of shadow.
The outline of one shadow was not quite natural.
"Above," Lin Xiao said.
Almost at the same instant, the shadow moved.
Venomous Scorpion leaped down from behind the canvas, his rubber dagger stabbing straight toward the back of Lin Xiao's neck. He moved with terrifying speed, like a real viper striking.
But Lin Xiao had shifted aside half a second early. The rubber dagger sliced past his ear, stirring a gust of air. Su Ying attacked at the same moment, thrusting her dagger beneath Venomous Scorpion's ribs—the location of the body's nerve plexus. Even a rubber dagger could temporarily disable someone with a heavy blow there.
Venomous Scorpion reacted quickly, twisting in midair and blocking with his other hand. The rubber daggers collided with a dull smack. He landed and retreated two steps, surprise flashing through his narrow eyes.
"Not bad luck," he said, licking his lips.
Lin Xiao did not respond. He looked toward the corner. Butcher should be coming out now.
Sure enough, heavy footsteps rang out. Butcher emerged from behind the corner, gripping his rubber dagger like a battle axe. The pressure brought by his size was immense. Every step he took seemed to shake the ground.
"Two against two." Venomous Scorpion smiled. "Fair now?"
Lin Xiao assessed the situation in an instant. Venomous Scorpion was agile and specialized in ambushes; Butcher was powerful, and meeting him head-on offered no chance of victory. The obstacle area was cramped, making it unsuitable for maneuvering. They had to end this quickly.
"Su Ying, Butcher is yours," Lin Xiao said. "Ten seconds."
Su Ying glanced at him, then nodded. She stepped toward Butcher. Her movements did not seem fast, but every point where she placed her foot was precisely calculated—she was adjusting the distance.
Butcher gave a low roar and lunged. His dagger chopped directly at Su Ying's head with enough force to smash a skull. Su Ying did not block it head-on. She shifted aside and stabbed at Butcher's wrist. Butcher pulled back and grabbed for her shoulder with his other hand. Su Ying ducked, then flicked her dagger upward toward his armpit.
The two became entangled in combat.
Lin Xiao turned toward Venomous Scorpion. Venomous Scorpion had already taken up a fighting stance, body slightly inclined forward like a viper ready to spring.
"Rookie, let me see what you can do," Venomous Scorpion said.
Lin Xiao did not waste words. He stepped forward and thrust his dagger at Venomous Scorpion's chest—the most basic stab, neither fast nor tricky in angle.
Venomous Scorpion blocked it easily and countered with a thrust toward Lin Xiao's throat. Lin Xiao leaned back, the dagger grazing his skin. He could feel the burning friction of the rubber.
A second strike. A third.
Venomous Scorpion's attacks grew faster and faster, his dagger leaving afterimages in the air. Lin Xiao continuously blocked and dodged, appearing completely on the defensive. His breathing began to quicken, his footwork turning slightly disordered.
"That's all you've got?" Venomous Scorpion sneered. "I really don't know how you survived this long."
Lin Xiao did not answer. His eyes remained fixed on Venomous Scorpion's wrist. Before every attack, Venomous Scorpion made a minute inward turn of the wrist—a tell that came before he exerted force.
The fifth attack.
Venomous Scorpion turned his wrist inward, the dagger shooting toward Lin Xiao's abdomen. At that instant, Lin Xiao moved.
He neither blocked nor dodged. Instead, he stepped into the strike, seized Venomous Scorpion's wrist with his left hand, and thrust his own dagger toward Venomous Scorpion's Adam's apple—stopping one centimeter short.
Venomous Scorpion froze. His own dagger was only two centimeters from Lin Xiao's abdomen, but his wrist was locked in an iron grip and could not move forward at all. Lin Xiao's dagger pressed against his Adam's apple.
"You..." Venomous Scorpion's eyes widened.
"Your habit before attacking is too obvious," Lin Xiao said calmly. "You always strike 0.3 seconds after turning your wrist inward. By the third time, I knew how to deal with it."
He released him and stepped back.
On the other side, Su Ying's fight with Butcher had also ended. Butcher lay on the ground, his rubber dagger tossed aside, both hands clutching his abdomen—the liver region. A heavy hit there could cause temporary unconsciousness. Su Ying stood beside him, her breathing steady, without even breaking a sweat.
Blood Axe walked out of the shadows. His face remained expressionless, but there was now a trace of scrutiny in his gaze toward Lin Xiao.
"Drill over," Blood Axe said. "Attackers win."
Venomous Scorpion climbed off the ground and brushed the dust from himself. His eyes remained fixed on Lin Xiao. That look no longer held contempt, but a cold appraisal tinged with killing intent.
"Rookie, what's your name?" he asked.
"Lin Xiao."
"I'll remember you." Venomous Scorpion turned and left.
Training continued until nine that night. The following events were shooting practice, obstacle traversal, and combination-lock cracking. Lin Xiao performed "just well enough" in every category—average shooting scores, average obstacle times, average lock-cracking speed.
But while cracking an old mechanical combination lock, he "casually" remarked, "The third gear set in this kind of lock has a design flaw. Turn it backward two notches, then forward again, and you can skip one test."
The instructor—a technician with glasses—looked at him. "How do you know that?"
"I saw a similar one at a flea market before," Lin Xiao said. "The vendor taught me."
The technician did not question him further, but Lin Xiao noticed him write something in his notebook.
When training ended, everyone returned to the barracks. Dinner was cold stew and hard bread, and the portions really were only half the usual amount. Wolf had no food at all and could only sit on his bed watching everyone else eat.
Lin Xiao broke his bread in half and handed one half to Wolf.
"I don't..." Wolf tried to refuse.
"Eat," Lin Xiao said. "There's training tomorrow. You won't last without strength."
Wolf accepted the bread and softly said thank you.
Grey Falcon sat on his own bed, watching the scene. There was no emotion in his lone eye as he silently ate his food. When he finished, he got up and limped over to Lin Xiao's bed.
"You did well today," Grey Falcon said in a low voice. "But don't get cocky too soon. Venomous Scorpion holds grudges. You made him lose face. He won't let you off."
"I know," Lin Xiao said.
Grey Falcon looked at him for several seconds, then pulled a small paper packet from his pocket and tossed it onto Lin Xiao's bed.
"Compressed biscuits. Black-market goods circulating through the base," he said. "Hide them. Don't let anyone see."
With that, he turned and returned to his own bed.
Lin Xiao opened the packet. Inside were three military compressed biscuits. The packaging was worn, but they were still within their expiration date. He looked toward Grey Falcon, but Grey Falcon had already lain down with his back to him, seemingly asleep.
Late at night, snores rose and fell through the barracks.
Lin Xiao lay awake on the hard board bed. The ventilation duct hummed constantly by his ear, punctuated by the occasional drip of water. He could smell all kinds of odors in the barracks—sweat, mildew, gun oil, and the faint scent of alcohol drifting from Grey Falcon's bed.
His mind reviewed everything that had happened that day.
Blood Axe was probably with the Radical Faction. Otherwise, he would not have been so close to Venomous Scorpion. Grey Falcon belonged to the Conservative Faction, or at least held no goodwill toward the Radical Faction. The other veterans in the squad had ambiguous attitudes and were still watching.
Venomous Scorpion's hostility had already become open. At the training ground today, he had tried at least three times to lure Lin Xiao into preset trap positions. If Lin Xiao had not noticed in advance, he would have long since been "injured and forced to withdraw."
And that packet of compressed biscuits from Grey Falcon... was it a test of goodwill, or something else?
Lin Xiao did not know. But he knew that in this nest of snakes, every step had to be taken carefully.
At two in the morning, he got up to use the toilet. The barracks restroom was at the end of the outside corridor, an open cubicle without a door. After relieving himself, he heard faint footsteps outside as he washed his hands.
They were very soft, but definitely there.
Lin Xiao turned off the faucet and held his breath. The footsteps paused outside the restroom for several seconds, then gradually retreated.
He waited for a minute before leaving the restroom. The corridor was empty, holding only dim lights and shadows swaying across the walls.
When he reached the barracks door, he stopped.
There was a faint drag mark beneath the gap under the door, as though someone had kicked something up to its edge.
Lin Xiao crouched and inspected it carefully. The mark was fresh. Dust had been pushed aside, revealing the relatively clean concrete below. The trace extended to the gap beneath the door, then disappeared.
He gently pushed open the door.
The barracks remained dark, the snoring unchanged. He tiptoed back to his bunk without turning on the lights.
But as he passed the equipment lockers, his steps halted.
The equipment lockers were metal cabinets assigned to each team member for storing personal gear. Lin Xiao's was on the bottom row near the corner. At that moment, a black, cylindrical object protruded from beneath its door.
Lin Xiao's heart skipped a beat.
He slowly crouched down and, by the faint moonlight filtering in through the window, saw what it was.
A grenade.
An F-1 defensive grenade, an old Soviet Union model, but it had been well maintained. The safety pin had already been pulled, but the safety lever was still held down—ready to detonate at any moment.
The grenade had been carefully placed beneath the locker door. If someone opened it and used even a little force, the door would strike the grenade and release the safety lever.
Four seconds later, it would explode.
Cold sweat beaded on Lin Xiao's forehead. He did not touch the grenade. Instead, he slowly backed away until his back pressed against the wall.
His gaze swept across the barracks.
Grey Falcon was asleep, snoring steadily. Wolf was curled up on the upper bunk, completely still. Su Ying's bed... was empty.
Lin Xiao's heart clenched sharply.
But in the next instant, he heard an incredibly faint breath behind him. He turned and saw that Su Ying had somehow appeared at his side. Her eyes glimmered faintly in the darkness as she stared at the grenade.
"Venomous Scorpion," she mouthed.
Lin Xiao nodded. He pointed at the grenade and made a gesture for disarming it.
Su Ying shook her head. She pointed at herself, then outside the barracks—asking whether they should go catch Venomous Scorpion.
Lin Xiao considered it for three seconds, then shook his head.
Now was not the time.
He motioned for Su Ying to retreat, then crouched beside the grenade again. His fingers were steady as they slowly reached toward it. When his fingertips touched the cold metal surface, he could feel the raised and indented production number engraved on it.
He carefully gripped the grenade, then pulled a small object from his pocket with his other hand—a bent paper clip he had picked up at the training ground that day.
He straightened the paper clip and carefully inserted it into the safety pin hole. Slowly, he turned it, feeling for the mechanism inside.
The bomb disposal knowledge he had learned in the military in his previous life surfaced in his mind. The F-1 grenade's structure, its safety mechanism, its detonation principles...
The paper clip touched some kind of catch.
Lin Xiao stopped moving, took a deep breath, and slowly applied pressure.
Click.
A faint sound, almost too quiet to hear.
The safety mechanism was secured again.
Lin Xiao released his hand. The grenade remained where it was, but it was safe now. He carefully picked it up and held it in his hand. Its metal surface was icy cold, and it weighed around six hundred grams.
He looked at Su Ying, signaling with his eyes: Hide it.
Su Ying nodded, took the grenade, and vanished into the shadows.
Lin Xiao lay back down on his bed. His heart was still racing, and his palms were slightly sweaty from the tension.
Venomous Scorpion.
The name echoed through his mind again and again.
This was not a warning. This was murder. If he had been even slightly careless just now, there would have been nothing left of him but chunks of flesh scattered across the floor.
And Venomous Scorpion dared to do this, which meant he had nothing to fear—either he was certain he would not be discovered, or someone was backing him.
Lin Xiao closed his eyes.
The first night deep within Snake Belly was more dangerous than he had expected.
And tomorrow, when the sun rose, this silent war would only just begin.
Before you continue