by A Sick Frog
“Above.”
A bland and calm voice belonging to Qin Ke Xuan sounded from above. Chi Qu Qi raised his head and saw Qin Ke Xuan with a leg bent hugging her knees as she sat on the tree branch above. It was impossible to try to decipher her expression from her painted face, but he was sure she looked as expressionless as usual.
“Oi, hurry help me untie, why did you tie me at all?!”
“Untie it yourself.” Qin Ke Xuan was in a rare mood where she couldn’t be bothered to move. Her good train of thought was chopped off by him.
“Oi! I was tied by you, how do I untie! Hurry! Stop joking!” Chi Qu Qi shouted in irritation.
“If you were held captive by the enemy would you still get the enemy to untie you?” Qin Ke Xuan stood up from the branch. Holding on to the branch, she leapt from above to the branch she rested on the previous night. “I’m going to look for something to eat. If you still haven’t untied yourself by the time I return, I’ll call over the people who are looking for us to help you untie.” With that, she jumped down lightly and quietly, leaving behind a fuming Chi Qu Qi clenching his teeth in rage.
He watched Qin Ke Xuan just walking away like that and couldn’t help but want to just slam head-on into the tree. If she really called over those people to help him untie, then he would just be sent directly back to the base. He tried to untie the ropes in a rush. Freaking hell, exactly how did she tie it for it to be so dead?! He shifted his hand in difficulty, trying to reach for the dagger attached to his waist. With a flip of his hand, he cut the ropes tying his body.
“Still not done?” Qin Ke Xuan raised her head to look at the Chi Qu Qi who was currently duelling with his ropes. She’d already returned from picking some fruits; he’s seriously too slow.
“Freaking hell! Why are you so fast! And, your knots are dead tight, how would I be able to untie them so quickly?!” The dagger that was assigned to each of them was very sharp. As he talked, he had already cut away the ropes. Chi Qu Qi tugged away the ropes on his body and jumped from the tree, and then pounced at Qin Ke Xuan, baring his fangs. “Why did you tie me?!”
Qin Ke Xuan threw one of the fruits she had in her hands at him, saying lightly: “If I don’t tie you, you’ll fall off. I sure haven’t seen anyone who can guard the night and still getting hurt even though nothing happened at night.”
Chi Qu Qi caught the fruit and sent it into his mouth. After hearing Qin Ke Xuan saying it like that, the sides of his lips tugged awkwardly, and he bit into a fruit. “Hehe, where did you pick these fruits from? It tastes pretty decent, pretty decent…” It was probably due to him getting bitten by a snake yesterday and losing so much blood, and then walked a day’s worth of mountain road, that’s why he was so tired he fell asleep and didn’t even notice Qin Ke Xuan tying him. However, what actually happened was Qin Ke Xuan that pressed his sleep acupuncture point so she could tie him up.
Qin Ke Xuan very nonchalantly ate the fruits in her hands as she walked forward. When she passed the place that had been rustling last night, she pushed aside the wild grass and saw a wild rabbit that had been shot by her empty ammo lying dead. She picked up the dead rabbit and threw it at the Chi Qu Qi following behind.
Chi Qu Qi caught the dead rabbit, saying excitedly: “Wow! There’s actually something like catching a rabbit after guarding a tree-trunk! That’s amazing, we have rabbit meat to eat!”
“The people from yesterday are catching up. Finish them all.” Qin Ke Xuan calmly told him her opinion.
“You… you’re still not awake yet right? How are we supposed to finish them?!” Chi Qu Qi looked at Qin Ke Xuan as though she was from another universe.
“Not willing to? That’s fine, I originally hadn’t wanted to stay together with you anyway. You can go.” She could finally get rid of this bothersome person. It would be much more convenient for her to go on her own as she wouldn’t need to worry about as much things.
“You, you what do you mean by that?!” Chi Qu Qi flew into a fury. It was as though she was very unwilling. He inhaled deeply so as to not choke on his rage. He shook the dead rabbit in his hand. “Then what about this?”
“Your gift.” The mountain was filled with wild animals anyway, she would be able to hunt some anytime. She was not going to lug around a dead animal to fight with other people.
“Who wants it! Then let’s part!” Chi Qu Qi threw the dead rabbit on the ground and walked away puffing anger.
Qin Ke Xuan watched expressionlessly as he walked away, bent down to pick up the rabbit and aimed it at the retreating figure.
“Ah! What is it? Rabbit? Qin Ke Xuan!” Chi Qu Qi turned around, ready to blast fire at Qin Ke Xuan, but he didn’t expect her person to be gone already. He couldn’t help to twitch her lips. “Can you appear and disappear any more unpredictably?”
Chapter 38 - Chance
The three SF soldier found their way over by tracing the footsteps. The team leader leading in front waved his hand at the other two to halt their movement. He made another gesture and the two ducked to the two sides and slinked in quickly while the team leader continued his way forward. The three of them formed a circle, as though a large web, with its opening directed at the target they were tracking down.
Qin Ke Xuan was squatted on the tree. Upon seeing the three SF soldiers moving here in an encircling arrangement, she couldn’t help but raise her brows. Such alert and sharp SF soldiers were the ones that were as good as what she’d heard about. She could overlook the three soldiers she’d taken care of within a few moves from yesterday. They had underestimated them too much and so they relaxed their vigilance.
She clipped the stone she had readied long ago between her fingers and shot it at the bushes where she had hidden her backpack and rifle. The rustling noise created immediately attracted the attention of the vigilant SF soldiers. They laid low. After careful observation, they discovered a corner of the camouflage backpack filtering through the leaves.
The team leader made hand signs silently and the two members continued outflanking over without a sound while he laid on the ground and set his assault rifle to aim there. There was a 20-metre distance between them so he would not inflict any injury. He would immediately shoot her “dead” the minute she showed herself.
Suddenly, he heard a whirl of wind coming from above. Before he even had the time to look up to find out what it was that had happened and just as the black figure pounced right at him, the soldier, owing much to his battle experiences, grabbed his rifle and rolled one round on the ground on reflex and managed to avoid the heavy item that had smashed from above. He gave it a proper look and realised that the heavy item that landed was actually a person, and the person was just the person they were currently tracking.
Qin Ke Xuan had a dagger in one hand and the other hand pressed flat in support against the ground. Both her feet and hand pushed off the ground, she borrowed the momentum to lunge at the team leader that had already gotten up.
The team leader immediately used the rifle he held in his hand to block the dagger Qin Ke Xuan was slashing at him. Upon meeting his eyes with Qin Ke Xuan’s clear and expressionless ones, he tugged his lips into an eerie smile: “Close combat huh? Do let me keep you company!” With that, his arm waved with sudden force, and his rifle pushed aside Qin Ke Xuan’s dagger. Throwing down his rifle, he swept out his leg at the same time at her.
Qin Ke Xuan bent backwards and flipped, evading the team leader’s attack. However, her feet did not immediately land, rather, she flipped half a somersault, both her feet landing on the trunk of a tree. Both her hands pushed off the ground, her body shot off and she lunged towards the team leader again, one of her hands becoming claw-shaped as she tried to clasp the team leader’s throat.
The team leader had not expected Qin Ke Xuan to make such a move. Upon seeing that things were not turning out well, he retreated, but it was too late for him to evade her attack. Just as he saw that Qin Ke Xuan was about to claw at his throat, a hand that appeared from the side
tried to catch Qin Ke Xuan’s hands. Qin Ke Xuan’s gaze slanted and she changed her direction of attack towards the person who had suddenly appeared.
That person was not a member of this team. When Qin Ke Xuan felt him approaching, she had thought he was someone from the RS. However, upon seeing his actions, it seemed like he wasn’t from her faction. But seeing he had no examiner emblem either, was he a neutral party? If he was a neutral party then why did he want to cut into her duel with the examiner? She sure didn’t care what faction you were in. As long as you made a move at her, she would not be merciful.
Qin Ke Xuan’s Wind Claws became sharper, and she went at the person’s throat with force. That person, as though having had expected her train of thought, caught her wrist tightly.
Just as he was about to announce that Qin Ke Xuan’s attack had failed, he didn’t think her hand pressed against his chest would suddenly grip his collar. He started in shock: “I’ve already held you…” But suddenly felt his belt being gripped. In a flash of a moment, both his legs left the ground and his entire body flew. He only managed to catch a sight of the person’s minced lips before him before he was flung to the ground, and then, his back burnt with agony.
Qin Ke Xuan half-squatted as she pressed her dagger against his throat, saying icily: “You have died.”
That guy stared at her in shock, his mouth agape. She stood up with without care, waved her hand and threw the thing she had held in her hand at the team leader. The team leader caught the thing she threw, took a look, and his agape mouth grew wider. He waved the emblem in his hand. “You, when did you…”
“If I wanted, you’d have already been dead.” Qin Ke Xuan stuck her dagger back into her belt, saying blandly.
“Bang, bang, bang.” Gunshot sounds suddenly blared.
The team leader didn’t believe, and then he saw his two SF members walking over together with a RS soldier. When they neared, the team leader saw that there was bullet powder from the blank ammo on the two of their uniforms. The RS soldier happily walked over to Qin Ke Xuan’s side, hooking his arm around her shoulders, saying, immensely proud of himself: “How amazing am I? I finished off two SF soldiers!”
Qin Ke Xuan swatted away Chi Qu Qi’s two fingers he held waving before her eyes, and sent an elbow at him for him to stand properly and not lean on her. “Why are you back?”
“Hehe, ge ge I’m a good person, so I’m back to help you. Just look, if it hadn’t been me that came back sneakily to help you finish these two, would you be able to one versus one two three four?”
The lips of the team leader and the unknown guy twitched. Qin Ke Xuan had effortlessly finished them off. Even if two more came, it wouldn’t do much to change the outcome.
“The difficulty level of this surprise attack is just like this?” Qin Ke Xuan swept a gaze at these people who’s been ousted and was slightly disappointed.
The facial muscles of the SF members all convulsed.
“Haha, with me here, of course we’ll be able to surmount all difficulties and sweep everything before us!” Chi Qu Qi was immediately excited and almost wanted to fire a sweep of bullets with his rifle at the sky. “Even though I’m still in the RS, entering the SF is as easy as one two three, hehe.” Chi Qu Qi said with wild arrogance, completely disregarding the thoughts of the SF soldiers in front of him. Weren’t they finished by him, why couldn’t he be pleased?
The unknown man looked at Qin Ke Xuan with intensity. Only after he looked at her for a while did he turn to say to the team leader: “Eagle Three, what do you think of her?”
“Very strong, but…”
“But what, it’s no harm being frank.”
“If we’re talking in terms of gaming, she’s a very high-levelled player with top-notch damage. It’s just that her gear is too poor so she’s not the best top-notch player.”
“This lad, you only know about gaming. But not bad, your description is pretty on point. According to the reports, her various stats were not bad, but I heard when she had first joined, she hadn’t learnt how to shoot and didn’t know how to use all sorts of weapons, nor had she learnt any motor skills, infiltrating skills, reconnaissance intelligence skills. If she’d learnt all those, I believe she would be an excellent SF soldier.”
After Chi Qu Qi listened for half a day, he argued nosily in discontent: “Oi oi, why’re you only talking about how good she was? I’m also pretty impressive! Godly sniper here!”
Eagle Three looked at Chi Qu Qi, his face darkened, and he bellowed lowly: “What’re you shouting for, being so impolite in front of Hé Company Commander!”
“Company Commander?!” Chi Qu Qi looked at Hé Company Commander in shock.
“I’m going.” Qin Ke Xuan hadn’t planned on staying to continue listening to them talking about all these stuff. She discovered a new prey; it’s more interesting to finish her prey off.
Hé Company Commander asked her in curiosity: “Where are you going? I still have some things I want to talk to you about.”
“Discovered a new batch of people, I’m going to go finish them.”
“…” The masses were rendered speechless. Was she a killing devil? Even though this test was taking care to not overdo things, did she have such a hobby of “killing” people?
Hé Company Commander facepalmed. “Who’s that, why don’t you let them go. The RS test still needs to go on, why don’t you be magnanimous and leave some teams behind. You have passed the test now so you need not continue. Come with, I need to talk to you about some things.” He gestured for Qin Ke Xuan to catch up.
Chi Qu Qi had also wanted to follow over to listen to what the Company Commander had wanted to say to Qin Ke Xuan on their own, but the two team members blocked his way and didn’t let him near them, and so he muttered: “Oi oi, you guys were killed by me! How are dead people still able to block the road?!”
The two team members stared at the muttering Chi Qu Qi with fierce gaze. Chi Qu Qi had also figured he would have to bear the consequences if he engaged in close combat with these two, and so, he only slanted them a gaze and walked away muttering.
“You can say now.”Qin Ke Xuan halted her footsteps and said to Hé Company Commander.
Hé Company Commander said sternly: “What I am going to say is not to be revealed to a third party be it you join or not join. I will continue if you can do that.”
“Sure, continue.”
“You have a chance to enter the SF in advance, but this chance will not fall from the sky on its own. I’ve seen your ability, and if it’s according to normal requirements, you need to wait two three more years until you’re 18 to join the army. However, we have a mission at the moment that is very urgent. Time waits for no one and you happen to be very suitable for this mission, so I’m asking for your opinion right now. Will you accept this mission and enter the SF? Or will you continue staying in the RS and wait to join the army three years later?”
It could be said that this was a much-needed chance for Qin Ke Xuan. Originally, if she could, she would want to just join the army immediately. Pity was that this body’s age was still too young, so she had repressed her sentiments of urgency and remained in the RS without choice. Now that she had the chance to skip the three useless years of wait, why would she reject! She nodded. “I accept the mission this time.”
Hé Company Commander seemed to be very surprised with her reply. She was, after all, still a kid who had just started high school. Usually, they would choose to follow through with the set rules inflexibly and develop from there on. He reminded her: “The mission this time is very dangerous. It isn’t like the training with empty ammo, everything here is only touched on and not overdone. Have you considered properly? Why not you consider it first…”
“I’ve already clearly considered, didn’t you say it’s urgent? Then let’s not waste time.” Qin Ke Xuan cut him off and straightforwardly said her decision.
“Okay. With regards to the chance, I can only recommend you to the superiors. A
s to whether you can or not… it’ll have to depend on the decision of the leaders as well as your performance.”
“Alright.” There was no one clearer than herself about her true abilities.
“Then you prepare first, and I’ll bring you to our Tercel SF base. After you see the Lieutenant Colonel, you need to gain his approval before you begin.” As Hé Company Commander said, he had Qin Ke Xuan retrieve her bag back and rifle and follow him down the mountain.
A military truck was parked at the mountain road. They boarded the truck, and after Hé Company Commander said to drive, the driver started the engine and the truck started down the mountain, heading straight in the direction of the Tercel SF base.
Chapter 39 - Second Identity
The base of the SF was not the same base as the RS’s, but instead was a standalone building built in the mountain ridges in the city’s remote outskirts. Before they had even neared the base, they had already seen patrolling vehicles, signs reading “military strategic location, strictly prohibited from entering” installed everywhere as well as concealed sentries on duty every certain distance apart.
This array was on a completely different level from the RS’s base. Qin Ke Xuan looked out the window, mentally weighing the strength of this SF Brigade.
Hé Company Commander upon seeing Qin Ke Xuan keep looking out the window quietly, chatted with her intentionally, and asked smilingly: “How is it? Our SF base.”
“The soldiers still lack some maturity.”
Hé Company Commander raised his brows. “You haven’t even entered the base and seen the soldiers, why would you say that?”
Qin Ke Xuan scoffed, saying: “Since five minutes ago when the vehicle drove onto this road, there is a total of 12 concealed sentries. Seeing they are meant to be concealed, they shouldn’t allow themselves to be revealed to others.”