Chapter 19 – Friend, You’re in the Zone.
The most widely circulated clip online was a video of Bison cursing himself after a match loss. The choice of words, the tone—if you didn’t know better, you’d think he was hurling insults at his father’s murderer.
As a result, Weiguangr’s captain, Mu Chen, had no choice but to abandon his plan of reprimanding him and instead comfort him.
Affection for something can sometimes be that simple, straightforward, dull, and utterly irrational.
So when Bison’s ID appeared in the livestreams of other professional players, it caused quite a stir. From not far away at Glimmer’s dining table came the sound of Bison Bull slamming the wall:
“Sh*t, I forgot to switch to my alt account.”
Hearing Bison cursing, the atmosphere on Xinghai’s side was filled with joy.
“And you’re laughing at him? What about yourself?” The team manager, Qin Chuan, pointed at the young player holding his phone in one hand. “Is it safe?”
“Relax, I’m on my alt account,” Jiang Ranran grinned. “We’re just here to enjoy the drama—we’re not dumb enough to become part of it.”
On the other side of the restaurant, Bison threw eight or nine rockets in the livestream chat before quickly logging off to share a device with a teammate watching the stream on an alt account.
…
On the island, Jie Ao team had already racked up more than twenty kills at the bridge. Under normal circumstances, this would have been commendable, but right now, these weren’t the real enemies they had to worry about.
If they wanted a direct firefight with LAP, they first had to deal with some of the stragglers. To ensure an intense and satisfying battle, they had given up a lot.
As Defiant held the bridge, the main battlefield shifted. While the slaughter at the bridge escalated, only a few scattered gunshots rang out from the airport side.
Veteran players could tell that the fight around the containers was nearing its end. Jie Ao was pinned between the safe zone and the toxic gas, and they were also in the bombing zone. If LAP rotated early, they would be at a serious disadvantage.
Their opponents varied in skill, but their sheer numbers posed a problem.
They had originally planned to encircle and eliminate LAP, but before they could even reach the airport, they had already been blocked here, unable to advance an inch.
The remaining teams were all in a blood frenzy, believing they had been betrayed by their so-called allies. They abandoned their original plan and focused entirely on taking down the “traitors” instead.
Even for a professional team, prolonged combat was draining. After all, a bridge wasn’t a loot-heavy area, and the space to maneuver was extremely limited.
The battlefield was littered with death crates, but they were all within enemy firing range. The choke points were already set up—just waiting for them to expose themselves.
“Are these foreigners stupid? So rigid in their thinking,” Jiang Ge complained mid-fight. “Why don’t they use some tactics? Hit and fall back, hole up in the houses beyond the hills, and ambush us properly?”
Luan Feng – Storm took down an opponent and sneered, “Should I translate that into all-chat and call on the remaining enemies to gang up on us?”
“No, no need for that,” Jiang Ge in the live broadcast room said subconsciously, with a pair of bright eyes flashing with disbelief.
“Cut it out. Two more squads coming from the northwest—Storm, keep them locked down,” Zhou Heng issued a curt command. “Song, CHEN, scout behind the bridge and find a vehicle for extraction.” His tone remained calm, but inwardly, he was growing anxious.
Zhou Heng knew that from the moment they started fighting at the bridge, he should have arranged for a gradual retreat. But the current situation simply didn’t allow it. They were moving against the safe zone, aiming to clear any obstacles before facing LAP. No matter what, the enemies in front of them had to be dealt with—fast.
…
But misfortunes never come alone.
Just as Jie Ao was getting tangled up with the waves of enemies charging at them, the roar of high-powered engines suddenly erupted from behind the bridge. As if afraid they wouldn’t be noticed, the newcomers even fired warning shots mid-route—an unmistakable provocation.
Zhou Heng’s expression shifted slightly, but in the next second, the battlefield took a complete 180-degree turn.
Trapped in what should have been a hopeless scenario—pursuers in front, roadblocks behind—the bullets that flew past them struck the enemies ambushing at the bridge entrance instead.
When the kill notification popped up on-screen, everyone froze for a moment.
[LAP—Killer used S1897 to kill Cold Mood]
“No way…” Jiang Ge muttered instinctively in the livestream, his bright little eyes flickering with disbelief.
“This misfire is way too extreme,” Tangyuan pulled his greasy fingers out of his mouth and used his saliva-covered fingertip to measure on the screen. “That’s at least… 800 meters off target.”
Jiang Ranran recoiled in disgust, retracting his phone and wiping it clean with his sleeve.
Shao Zhan crossed his arms, not even looking at the screen, yet his words overlapped with what was being said in the livestream.
“That wasn’t a misfire.”
For once, Zhou Heng’s usual composure carried a rare hint of emotion. He lifted his gaze, looking at the peculiar figures now standing within his own base—and suddenly, he felt an unexpected sense of competitiveness.
“What do you mean?” Jiang Ge mumbled, still focused on chasing down the relentless enemies.
In that instant, Luan Feng understood. His dark eyes deepened as he continued clearing out the stragglers, while at the same time, he subtly shifted his view—keeping a close watch on their unexpected “reinforcements.”
I never expected that these seemingly arrogant and almost unreasonable guys would not take the detour to avoid the poison zone, nor would they take advantage of the chaos to rob others. Instead, they moved against the flow to secure kills, acting like true esports gentlemen.
Yang Sa gripped the highly lethal, his recoil control steady, and every bullet hit its mark.
His face remained expressionless, so cold that the air around him seemed to freeze.
For a moment, Luan Feng felt a strange illusion, as if the arrogance surrounding the young man was something he deliberately created to cover up the deep indifference that reached to his bones.
Every living thing that fell within his crosshairs inevitably became a soul lost to him, even exposing himself and his teammates to extremely dangerous positions in order to eliminate their enemies.
The gates of slaughter had been opened, and only lives could fill the gap.
However, despite the bloodshed and chaos on the battlefield, Yang Sa and his teammates remained casually slouched in their chairs, as if they might fall off at any moment.
One had to admit that these guys had an uncanny ability to grab attention from the start.
At first, it was their diverse skin tones and strange attire. Now, it was their synchronized movements and ruthless slaughter.
They never exchanged words, no cheers after killing streaks, and no signs of regret after mistakes. It was as though they were four emotionless killing machines—tired yet somewhat indifferent, carrying out their bloodthirsty work with a detached attitude.
It was the ultimate form of indifference—indifferent to the lives of others, indifferent to their own fate, as if nothing in the world could occupy their minds.
Sensing the danger in the air, Luan Feng kept suppressing the enemy’s firepower. On the surface, he performed tactical movements, but in reality, he was quietly positioning himself in the blind spot of his rear support, preventing being caught in a gunline.
In the same training room, Yang Sa noticed the actions of the free-spirited Luan Feng. The corners of his lips curled up slightly, appreciating the moves of this team behind him, but that admiration was limited to only a slight amount.
Under the law of the jungle—survival of the fittest—there were no esports gentlemen. Moreover, even gentlemen bite; the moment they strip away a person’s skin is when their blood splatters everywhere.
Originally, Yang Sa wanted to keep playing for a bit longer, but seeing the enemy waking up and sharpening their claws was not something he could overlook.
Yang Sa’s style was always quick, steady, and ruthless. He wasn’t the type to wait for the enemy to fully develop and then engage in a hard fight.
In the next moment, he changed his aim and took out the livestream host with a single shot.
[LAP—Killer used S1897 to knock down Arrogance—Song]
Meanwhile, a barrage of bullets swept across the container where Yang Sa had just been standing, but there was no trace of Killer left there.
It turned out that it wasn’t just Luan Feng—Captain Zhou Heng had been wary of the approaching reinforcements from the very beginning. However, instead of choosing a safe defensive position, he took the risk of exposing half his body to enemy fire and launched a counterattack at the first opportunity, using a fierce offensive to buy time for his teammates.
Yet despite his timely retreat and sharp tactics, he had to admit the enemy’s coordination was tighter and more polished.
Before Song even hit the ground, bullets—already pre-aimed—rained down on his landing spot, leaving no room for his teammates to save him. It was a true execution.
[LAP—White used S12K to kill Arrogance—Song]
The coordination between the two enemies was seamless. After swiftly taking down one target, they immediately sought cover and focused their firepower on Zhou Heng.
As the screen turned grayscale, Song had no choice but to accept reality. He quickly switched to spectator mode and reported, “Enemy at 9 o’clock.”
Now, Arrogance not only had to face LAP’s betrayal head-on, but also fend off the remaining random players outside the bridge. They were caught in a pincer attack, and the situation rapidly deteriorated.
But Yang Sa had no intention of giving them any breathing room. Following the logic that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” he used the crossfire from the opposing side as cover, ducked down, and strafed Zhou Heng’s side with a burst of bullets.
Still, a veteran is a veteran. Just as he was falling, Zhou Heng moved forward, slipping out of Yang Sa’s narrow line of sight. At the same moment, Luan Feng, who had been hiding in the shadows, suddenly launched an attack. A barrage of bullets shredded the cover around Yang Sa, scattering debris in all directions.
Meanwhile, White was hit by a sniper lying in wait at the bridgehead while repositioning. By the time he managed to eliminate the threat and reached the designated point, he was a step too late. He managed to break the pressure on Yang Sa but didn’t deal any real damage to Arrogance.
In the process, another LAP member was exposed. Luan Feng knocked him down, and the kill was picked up by an enemy player at the bridgehead.
[Arrogance—Storm used M16A4 to knock down LAP—BLUE]
[Laughaway used SCAR-L to kill LAP—BLUE]
In that brief killing window, after Luan Feng revived Zhou Heng, the two quickly sprinted off in opposite directions, giving Yang Sa and his teammates no chance to lift their guns and fire.
If at first, Zhou Heng started the match mostly in jest, hoping to scout for potential recruits, now he and his team were fully engaged with the focus one would expect when facing a professional squad.
Likewise, Yang Sa and his friends shifted into a more cautious stance, guarding separately—after all, the firepower from the other side of the bridge was a double-edged sword. It could help chip away at Arrogance, or it could just as easily turn on them and deliver a backstab.
Now that both sides had lost a member, the scales of victory returned to balance—but the situation had only become more dire.
After that brief exchange, even a fool on the other side could see what was going on. LAP and Arrogance had clearly clashed, and now, no matter who they attacked, it would be a win for the outsiders.
More and more players were giving up on escaping the poison zone. From the very beginning, the rhythm of this match had been thrown off by these two teams.
The moment Zhou Heng and Luan Feng regrouped, they rapidly settled on the next strategy in a flurry of fast-paced communication. Luan Feng would stay hidden and wait for the right moment to eliminate Yang Sa and his remaining teammate, while Zhou Heng would take the front, focusing on survival and baiting, trying to maneuver Yang Sa and his ally into the line of fire of the enemies waiting at the bridge.
Both teams were seasoned at using force against force, and this match was bound to turn into a stalemate. But it wouldn’t drag on for too long—the poison circle was already creeping along the riverbank.
At that moment, both LAP and Arrogance each had one member who hadn’t revealed themselves. The two were quietly lying in wait beneath the bridge, hidden on opposite shores amid the chaos.
When the teams first engaged, Chen Shen – CHEN – from Arrogance had already pinpointed this LAP member through the kill feed and decided to eliminate this “free agent” first. That had been part of Captain Zhou Heng’s initial plan from the moment they arrived.
LAP, after all, wasn’t a professional team. Their impressive early-game performance owed a lot to this agile, unpredictable solo player.
As the saying goes, “A thousand-mile dam can collapse from an ant hole.” Sometimes, the smallest, most inconspicuous elements can determine the outcome of a battle.
In truth, Zhou Heng hadn’t been completely confident in this decision. After all, they were facing a brand-new team that appeared impulsive on the surface but was, in fact, disciplined and incredibly efficient.
Back when the two teams first clashed and he saw the cold precision in Killer’s shooting, Zhou Heng already knew that the focus of this fight shouldn’t be on the solo player.
But given how tight the situation was, using Chen Shen to distract and potentially eliminate one of LAP’s active forces wasn’t a bad move either.
At that moment, Zhou Heng had really wanted to recruit this squad into his own. But right now, he had to stay focused on the match—especially seeing how those kids slouched in front of their computers made him want to grab a stick and whack them into sitting properly.
The “Little Blue Man,” already half-reclining in his chair, had fully let himself go now. He lifted one side of his headset to let some air in while switching between teammates’ perspectives to help scout. He even let out a Bruce Lee–style “Waaah-ow!”
Then, poking the person next to him with a blue-painted finger, he said, “Hey, buddy—you’re in the poison zone.”