Chapter 33 – Who Are We Guarding?
“The airport, huh,” Tangyuan curled up his paws and rubbed his chubby face, eyes gleaming with excitement. “I knew it, this is exactly the style of God Shao—coming here to teach the kids how to call him Daddy.”
Infected by his enthusiasm, Jiang Ranan straightened up after landing, flipped over, and went into the building to scavenge supplies.
Meanwhile, Zhuang Bai calmly reported enemy activity while keeping watch, and Shao Zhan had already set up his gun on the third floor, picking off two unlucky players right at the edge of his line of sight.
“Their teammates got knocked and no one’s coming to revive them,” Tangyuan said, having locked onto his target, listening to the sound of a motorcycle fading away. “Not a shred of team spirit.” With that, he holstered his weapon and switched to defense.
Zhuang Bai picked up the helmet and gear Jiang Ranan had left behind, and the two of them found a jeep, swept the nearby area for vehicles, and conveniently picked up a stray duo team.
By the time they drove back to reinforce the area, Shao Zhan and Tangyuan had already cleared out all the active enemies in the zone. The remaining prone campers who dared to peek were instantly locked in—any movement meant instant death.
Those who tried to escape were, unsurprisingly, picked off by Shao Zhan from his high vantage point. Only two well-coordinated survivors managed to retreat, supporting each other as they fled southwest on the map.
After distributing supplies among the team, Fat Tangyuan switched to the helmet and armor brought back by Zhuang Bai and Jiang Ranan. Now armed with a powerful weapon, he strutted around like he owned the place.
Two rounds of shrinking circles passed, and the team remained safely inside. Though it wasn’t the final circle yet, their position and gear were more than enough to lock down the area.
Shao Zhan kept a close eye on the kill feed, but he only seemed to care about one particular team.
LAP hadn’t racked up many kills, but their gun usage was varied. It showed signs of duo coordination, with one teammate not firing a single shot. This implied that their initial drop point wasn’t ideal, or the early-game situation was too messy for them to gain the upper hand, and they were still on the move.
Just as he was thinking about this, gunfire rang out from the southwest.
[LAP-Killer knocked Surrendering with Win94]
[LAP-Killer killed Surrendering with Win94]
[LAP-Killer knocked NeverSurrender with Win94″]
[LAP-Killer killed NeverSurrender with Win94]
Shao Zhan raised an eyebrow. The opponent he had been waiting for had finally arrived. And it wasn’t just him—every member of Xinghai Squad was ready, watching all the approaches to the airport with sharpened focus.
Minutes ticked by. Aside from a few scouting bots getting shot down, everything around them was as peaceful as a vacation resort.
“What’s going on?” Tangyuan muttered, flexing his chubby fingers as he crouched at the window with his gun. “This is the airport—Daddy didn’t come here for retirement.”
Zhuang Bai frowned slightly, and Jiang Ranan leaned against the building’s corner, alternating between watching two directions. Based on the gunfire on the map, any experienced team wouldn’t recklessly charge the airport. Taking a detour into the safe zone was the smarter choice.
However, there should’ve been at least a few squads who were either fearless or just couldn’t read the situation. This kind of peace felt far too unusual.
At the same time, the kill feed continued lighting up:
[LAP-Killer knocked JAN with UMP45]
[LAP-Killer killed Peekaboo with VSS]
[LAP-Killer killed DeathMaster with VSS]
[LAP-black killed HitTheWall with UZI]
[LAP-Killer killed histogram with GROZA]
…
It wasn’t just the players on the field— even the on-site commentator couldn’t help but joke:
“Is LAP defending the airport, or defending the members of Xinghai?”
In the audience seats, the sharp-tongued Captain Zhou Heng smirked. With his keen eyes, he’d already seen through it: “Defending, my ass. They’re obviously guarding their food.”
Captain Weiguang, for once, agreed with him: “Waiting for prey at the tree. Trapping fish in a jar.”
Qin Chuan turned his head, eyes glinting as he glared at the two whispering troublemakers: “What prey? What fish? Go sit somewhere else.”
The two shameless veterans ignored him, laser-focused on the action playing out on the battlefield, their butts glued firmly to their seats.
…
“Captain.” Jiang Ranan, unable to hold back any longer, called out. The situation on the field was just too strange.
And he couldn’t be blamed. As a professional player, he’d been trained to use the right strategies and strike with precision.
This kind of behavior—surrounding but not attacking, even giving the enemy room to maneuver—was completely illogical.
This weird feeling had been there since their very first match against that person.
“Don’t panic,” Shao Zhan replied, putting away his gun. He stood up on the rooftop, used the cover to jump across to a nearby building, and climbed up to gain a better vantage point to survey the surroundings.
LAP’s kill feed was still being updated. Although Xinghai Squad was still in first place, LAP’s points were skyrocketing.
Every player who tried to skirt around the airport to escape the zone was, without exception, forced to pay a toll to LAP.
However, this strategy didn’t seem particularly clever. While they were still inside the safe zone for now, the next circle wouldn’t be so kind.
Judging from the current situation, the next safe zone would likely shrink toward the southeast part of the map. Teams were already battling over the power station and the nearby ruins, fighting for favorable terrain to get into the circle.
The later they moved, the worse the situation would get.
LAP had only one goal in mind: Xinghai. To them, there was no doubt who the real threat was.
“What should we do?” Jiang Ranan, the youngest member of the team, asked nervously, his eyes fixed on the rapidly rising scores on the leaderboard.
“What do you mean, ‘what should we do?’” Shao Zhan said with a faint smile. “If the mountain won’t come to me, then I’ll go to the mountain.” With that, he called for the team to get in the car.
At the same moment, as if in perfect sync, the roar of engines erupted around the perimeter.
A powerful jeep circled halfway around the airport, fired two empty shots with brazen arrogance, and then sped off toward the horizon.
Before anyone could question the move, Shao Zhan issued the order: “Split up and chase.”
With ample supplies on hand, Shao Zhan and Jiang Ranan drove through the blue zone to try and cut ahead. Meanwhile, Zhuang Bai and Tangyuan followed closely behind LAP. They encountered little resistance along the way, swapping out gear and updating the team with their locations.
LAP, on the other hand, wasn’t having an easy time. Sticking to a standard rotation route, they were forced to fight through squads blocking chokepoints and demanding “tolls” for passage. They also had to watch out for snipers and remain wary of interference from Xinghai creeping up behind them.
It was a grueling rotation—but it was exactly this kind of high-stakes path that kept their kill count and points at the top of the board.
As for Shao Zhan’s side, things weren’t going smoothly either. Pushing through with meds and energy drinks, they were unexpectedly ambushed before reaching the next safe zone.
Their car tires were shot out, so the two of them jumped out and destroyed the tires on the opposite side of the vehicle to prevent enemies from using it. Then, using the vehicle as cover, they took down a camper lying in ambush near the riverbank.
“What the hell,” Jiang Ranan muttered, his gaze shifting between the loot box on the ground and the wrecked motorcycle nearby. “Not rotating, not moving—just lying here to ambush people?” He wiped his face in disbelief. “What are these guys even playing for?”
Shao Zhan picked up some bullets, left the meds in the loot box for Jiang Ranan, and reminded him to top off his health.
This player was either a solo from a temporary squad or had teammates hiding nearby, waiting to coordinate with his callout.
Either way, getting into the next safe zone wasn’t going to be easy.
…
Tangyuan fired a sweeping spray as he leapt from the vehicle with practiced ease, using rocks as cover while laying down suppressive fire on the enemy’s advance. Meanwhile, Zhuang Bai, working in perfect sync with him, had already driven around behind the enemy to launch a flanking attack.
After clearing out the ambushers, Tangyuan jumped back into the vehicle and sped toward a moving marker on the plains.
“What happened?” Shao Zhan asked, hearing the slight urgency in Tangyuan’s breathing.
“Nothing, just got ambushed.” Tangyuan replied while healing in the car, briefly summarizing the situation. They’d been following LAP’s car and hadn’t noticed that LAP had left behind a three-man squad to block them.
“Standard play,” Shao Zhan said calmly, then added a reminder for the team: “Reset and refocus.”
The longer this match went on, the more he found himself appreciating LAP’s team leader.
“How’s it going on your end?” Zhuang Bai asked as he drove—right as the kill feed reported Jiang Ranan being knocked down.
“Xiao Ranan!” Tangyuan called out emotionally, gun propped up as he sprayed at a prone camper from the car.
“He’s not dead.” Shao Zhan replied. At that moment, he stormed the second floor for a close-range gunfight, managing to revive Jiang Ranan just before the bleed-out timer hit zero.
Afterward, with his expression unchanged, he calmly healed up. By the time Jiang Ranan was back on his feet, Shao Zhan had already driven a looted car around and was waiting downstairs.
Once in the car, Jiang Ranan quickly filled the team in on what had just happened. Sure enough, a three-man squad had been camping the edge of the zone, farming kills in the danger zone. With no vehicle, trying to cross on foot would’ve been a death sentence.
Then a motorcycle squad appeared—and without hesitation, they sped right into the chaos.
While the two teams were fighting, Shao Zhan crept up along the blue zone’s edge to third-party them, while Jiang Ranan tried to flank from the side—only to get pinched by a team on high ground.
Shao Zhan finished off a low-HP enemy downstairs, vaulted up a wall, and swiftly regained control of the situation.
“Tough one,” Tangyuan said with a mischievous grin spreading across his chubby face. “Heh… So what now?”
“Go block LAP.” Xinghai’s captain, Shao Zhan, replied coolly, eyes fixed on the edge of his field of vision.