"You don't even know if he's a good person or a bad person. If we rush to save him, he might repay kindness with hatred!" Cao Gang was getting a bit angry but still held back.
"Cao Gang, how can you be this kind of person? How can you say something like that? You're making me feel like I don't know you anymore." Wang Xiaoxin was also angry now.
"No, I mean, we can't rule out that possibility. I'm not definitely saying he's a bad person. We need to ensure our own safety." Cao Gang immediately softened.
"We'll face difficulties too. When we're facing death, we also hope someone will lend a hand, not look away coldly, and certainly not kick us when we're down, right? Anyone with a conscience should reach out at a time like this. Cao Gang, I hope you're a person with great compassion, not someone selfish like others. If you're not, it'll make me feel like I misjudged you." Wang Xiaoxin's tone carried a note of finality.
"Alright, I hope this choice isn't a mistake." Cao Gang yielded under Wang Xiaoxin's sharp gaze and agreed to her request to save the person.
"Captain, this goes against the rules," Wild Boar interjected hastily.
"Brothers, Xiaoxin is also a member of our team. This is her first request. I hope you brothers will consider my feelings and let it slide." Cao Gang was conciliatory towards Wang Xiaoxin, but his tone towards the others wasn't so kind, fully displaying his authority as team leader. Although the members were unwilling, they also didn't want to damage team harmony. However, Li Juxu raised a question.
"Taking a wounded person along means we can't complete the mission." Cao Gang frowned. This was indeed a major problem. The mission was paramount. But taking someone with broken legs along wasn't realistic. Leaving him here would require at least one team member to stay behind, which wasn't suitable either.
"I'll treat his wounds first. We'll worry about the rest later. Maybe the situation isn't that bad." Wang Xiaoxin spoke up.
Li Juxu fell silent.
Seeing no one阻止, Wang Xiaoxin picked up her medical kit and went to the injured person's location. Cao Gang, worried, followed closely. The others, though reluctant, remained fully alert. Years of hunting experience had ingrained caution into their bones; they dared not relax at any moment.
There was blood on the rocks. The injured person must have hit the rocks first, then rolled into the crevice. Li Juxu glanced at the cliff—about 45 meters high, like 15 stories. Falling from that height and surviving was incredibly lucky. Although the backpack had cushioned the fall, this person's luck was truly remarkable. Suddenly, Li Juxu realized something. In an instant, his hair stood on end. Forgetting about staying hidden, he shouted loudly, "Captain, come back! It's a trap—"
Team cooperation relied on默契 and a familiar system for conveying information, usually through hand signals. In urgent situations, they used various sounds—monkey calls, bird calls, etc. These sounds were understandable to the team but meaningless to outsiders. The most critical situation called for shouting, regardless of exposure.
This canyon was named Blood Wolf Canyon, inhabited by numerous blood wolves. Blood wolves had exceptionally sensitive noses, able to detect the scent of blood from over 10 kilometers away. Their current位置 was the periphery, still far from the wolves' haunt. But Li Juxu recalled it was within 10 kilometers. Given the wolves' nature, they would never ignore the blood on the rocks, let alone the fact that the injured person had been chased by them and fallen. Blood wolves indeed wouldn't dare jump from 45 meters, but taking a detour, at their speed, they'd arrive in at most three hours. Yet the injured person claimed to have been injured for five or six hours—it didn't add up. Blood wolves didn't get lost.
All signs pointed to a trap. Although everything was conjecture without concrete evidence, instinct told Li Juxu this was a trap.
As he warned, he rolled on the ground to his备用 sniper position. As a qualified sniper, upon arriving at any location, the first thing was to find the most suitable sniper spot, then immediately prepare position number two—the backup. No position was absolutely safe; a sniper staying in one place too long was asking for death.
Almost the instant Li Juxu rolled to his备用 position, a puff of smoke rose from his original spot. A bullet hole appeared in the ground, its diameter comparable to an index finger.
A chill ran down Li Juxu's spine. A 12.3mm armor-piercing round—the kind he had always wanted to buy but couldn't bear to. He used 10.6mm slugs, which were also powerful—within 200 meters, they could penetrate 10mm alloy steel plates—but compared to armor-piercing rounds, they were two levels weaker.
Monkey's scream and Cao Gang's angry roar sounded almost simultaneously. Li Juxu glanced quickly. Monkey had been stabbed through the heart from behind by a knife; he was clearly done for. Cao Gang was hiding behind a large boulder, roaring in rage. The supposed injured person had stood up as if nothing was wrong. Wang Xiaoxin, caught completely off guard, was now under his control, a sharp knife pressed against her throat.
"Stop immediately, or she dies!" The one who killed Monkey was a burly man over 1.9 meters tall. He expertly stripped the equipment off Monkey's body and casually tossed his corpse down the ravine.
Bang!
The body hit the rocks, flesh and blood flying everywhere. That impact was like a boulder slamming into the hearts of the team members. Everyone's eyes turned red; they nearly ground their teeth to powder. Monkey was witty and humorous, the team's comic relief, well-liked by everyone. His death hit each member like losing a family member.
"What do you want?" Cao Gang made a hand signal for everyone to hold steady. He stared intently at the man on the cliff, struggling to stay calm.
"That's an amateur question. What do you think we want?" The man, after discarding Monkey's body, immediately raised a huge shield. He crouched completely behind it. The shield had a fist-sized glass window in the center for observing outside.
Li Juxu took one look at the shield and abandoned any thought of sniping this man. This type of shield was called a polyethylene fiber reinforced shield, commonly known in the market as a "15mm shield," meaning it was impenetrable by rounds of 15mm caliber or less. Anything larger than 15mm wasn't really a gun anymore; it was cannon, impossible for an individual soldier to carry.
Li Juxu focused his attention on the enemy sniper. That was the real threat. Until that person was eliminated, a sword of Damocles hung over everyone's heads. As for Wang Xiaoxin's fate, that was for Cao Gang and the others to worry about. It was a, a division of labor.