Seraphs of the Emperor’s Judgment

Chapter 117: Survival Trial Grounds

This was Soshyan's first time presiding over the recruitment of Neophytes. Previously, the Chapter's screening was not so strict. However, out of consideration for the scarce number of Chapter gene-seeds, Soshyan increased the difficulty of the screening, and the entire scheme was roughly designed by Sol.

It had to be said that this scheme was designed very ingeniously. If it was simply a pure life-and-death battle royale, then it wouldn't be considered special. But Sol added the segment regarding extra supplies, which elevated the effect of the entire trial by several levels.

From the composition of the teams and the choice of supplies, one could glimpse the personalities and wisdom of different people.

On the largest display screen in front of Soshyan, clusters of red dots were gradually spreading out within the designated area. Those trial-takers were very smart, trying their best to avoid conflict right from the start.

According to the statistical data provided by Logris, 14 groups chose the Camo Cloaks and Night Vision Goggles; 11 groups chose the flare guns; 8 groups chose the protective gear; 6 groups chose the heavy machine guns; 4 groups chose the Cyber-mastiffs; 3 groups chose explosives; 3 groups chose the special maps; and 1 group chose extra supplies.

This also meant that the first night would be incomparably dangerous.

As such, it would also force those groups that did not choose the Camo Cloaks and Night Vision Goggles to either enter a stronghold with cover as quickly as possible, or construct a safe temporary campsite.

But the tools the boys had on hand were very few; constructing a campsite was not realistic. Therefore, entering a stronghold would perfectly be the best choice.

Just one hour after the trial began, Soshyan saw that six teams had already entered strongholds.

Based on the terrain, the types of strongholds in this area were divided into three.The first type of stronghold: steel-and-concrete structure, two floors upper and lower, deployed in the river valleys of the mountainous region. Although the terrain was the worst, the defensive power was the strongest, capable of withstanding explosives. Furthermore, it was electrified with four high-power searchlights. Streams were nearby, making it easy to obtain water resources.

The second type of stronghold: masonry structure, two floors upper and lower, deployed atop small hills with altitudes not exceeding 150 meters. Defensive power was medium, but unable to withstand large amounts of explosives. Un-electrified, and situated relatively far from water sources.

The third type of stronghold: wooden structure, only single story, deployed in the foothills zone at altitudes above 300 meters. Defensive power was the worst, but the terrain was the best. Located very far from water sources.

Of the 6 teams that had entered strongholds, 2 were those carrying heavy machine guns. Their luck was pretty good; when drawing lots to determine the drop zones, they selected positions relatively close to a stronghold. Thus, the moment they hit the ground, they bolted straight for the stronghold.

The other teams carrying machine guns were still arduously approaching the strongholds. Moreover, some strongholds had already been occupied by others, but they did not know it.

When the time entered the afternoon, sporadic conflicts began to appear.

However, there were only extremely minor casualties. Each team was still in the probing phase, and those conflicting were mostly reconnaissance personnel.

There were also those who launched feints against the strongholds. However, on the first day everyone had amply sufficient ammunition, hence no one would waste their strength and manpower to do the dirty work for the benefit of others.

Not long after, all 10 strongholds were occupied by different teams. As a matter of course, they also became the thorns in the eyes of the other forty teams.

Time quickly reached evening. The color of the sky gradually darkened.

Finally, some teams could no longer restrain themselves, especially those teams that hadn't found suitable campsites. They could only begin taking risks to snatch a stronghold.

Da-da-da—

With a shudder of his body, Ford immediately shrank back behind the rock. At the same time, another hail of machine gun bullets subsequently chiseled into the rock body, chewing the rock—which was mere inches away from his face—into dancing fragments, splattering his entire body with crushed stone dregs and carving several gashes across his face.

"Sons of bitches!"

He could not help but roar.

"Everyone get down and stay down!"

A few minutes ago, he had just led his team to arrive at this hilly region, and set their sights on a stronghold atop a small hill. This stronghold looked like its defenders were not a team carrying a machine gun; therefore, he planned to utilize the dimness of dusk to launch a sneak attack.

But they encountered unexpected trouble while seizing the stronghold.

Between the jungle where they were concealed and the stronghold, there was a stretch of open ground with only some rocks serving as cover. But this place was still a certain distance from the stronghold. He had originally thought they shouldn't encounter any trouble.

But the defenders were much smarter than he anticipated. The other party didn't hunker down to defend to the death inside the stronghold at all. Instead, they directly laid in ambush at a nearby commanding height.

Waiting until their team entered the open ground, preparing to creep toward the stronghold, the ambushing machine gun immediately gave them a ruthless strike from the flank.

The result perfectly was that two team members were now lying on the ground.

They were hit while charging toward the next piece of cover ahead. The machine gun firepower came from a concealed bunker piled up using rocks thirty meters away.

In principle, the dim sightlines of dusk should have somewhat hindered visibility, yet the opposing side's machine gun was astonishingly precise. It looked exactly as if they had known their route of movement from the beginning.

The corpses of the dead team members were proof of this.

They lay amidst the crushed gravel, faint wisp of hot steam wafting into the air from every single wound on their backs.

"Got a plan, team leader?"

An eccentric, mocking voice asked from behind. Ford didn't need to turn his head to look to know who it was.

He turned his head back around. Everyone else was perfectly still looking at him with expecting gazes, except those four lower-hive pups—it should perfectly be these people among the two who sacrificed their lives instead.

But who told them to dislike acting like cowardly turtles shrinking into their shells? Therefore, two of them were now lying not too far ahead.

However, at least the expressions of those four people were the same as Ford's. They also wanted to retalliate against the attackers.

"If we continue to be suppressed here, other teams might appear from behind to flank attack us."

Ford feigned composure and said:

"We must act swiftly. If we can charge over, even if we're short two men, we can still smoothly finish off the other party."

But the sole problem was that they perfectly needed a safe path to cross that godforsaken machine gun fire.

After saying this, Ford risked popping his head out from his position to take another sweeping glance. Through the dim lighting, he could clearly see the stronghold not too far away, roughly 100 meters distant from here.

Subsequently, he narrowed his eyes and continued observing the machine gun aperture on the left, discovering other shifting figures of people.

From his position, Ford judged that the machine gun's field of fire should be affected by the stone foundation beneath it. It looked like as long as they moved to within a distance of 15 to 20 meters, they would enter its firepower blind spot.

As an officer's son, his judgment was still relatively accurate.

Suddenly, the machine gun grew clamorous once again. Bullets pounded against the rock sheltering him, and he hurriedly shrank his head back behind the wall.

"See a fucking ghost!"

But at this time, Ford heard faint, indistinct voices speaking. Although interfered with by the gunfire, they were not completely unintelligible.

That tone of voice sounded very anxious.

Ford immediately turned back to his team members.

"Those pieces of trash; I can hear that they're very nervous. These sons of bitches thought that they had already controlled the entire area. I just heard him telling his men to stay calm, that they have heavy machine gun cover... What do you think, Bahram?"

"It's almost nightfall. They also can't remain in a stalemate with us indefinitely."

Bahram pondered for a moment, then said:

"Furthermore, they've also used up quite a few bullets; they should have spent around a hundred rounds. They still need to defend for four days, so they can't be this extravagant. Plus, I'm guessing that right now they perfectly must divide their men to watch over the stronghold, to prevent being backdoored."

Ford nodded in agreement. Pondering for a moment, he said:

"I think we can dispatch several people to loop around to the flank and feint an attack. If they feel that the flank needs manpower, it shouldn't be hard to lure them away from the front. Then only the machine gun will be left. Once we reach their firepower blind spot, we can easily finish off that thing."

"Sounds like an idea."