"We’ll stay in contact over the radio from here on out. All right, move out."
The woods where Adrian’s squad was positioned lay at the entrance to the ammunition depot.
The two NPC guards at the gate had already returned to their posts.
It had to be said: NPCs really were not very smart.
The ammunition depot had turned into a war zone, yet they were still lounging around at their assigned positions.
"Sniper in position."
"Machine-gun position established."
Adrian’s nine-man squad was concealed in the patch of brush where Rem’s group had hidden earlier.
Once he heard that the support element was in place, Adrian stopped waiting and led his men straight out.
The squad moved along the edge of the brush, advancing until they were fifty meters from the guards at the entrance.
"There are two hundred guards inside the ammunition depot. There’s no way we can infiltrate unnoticed, so from here on, we move in combat formation."
"Remember, this isn’t a special-operations mission. It’s a rescue."
Adrian had wanted to say something to raise morale, but then he remembered that these men were System summons—more or less like NPCs. In the end, he simply explained the mission.
"Don’t worry, Captain. Leave it to us."
To his surprise, the System-summoned squad members answered him. Their voices were not cold or mechanical; there was emotion in them.
Did they actually have independent thoughts?
"Of course, Commander."
Adrian also noticed that each of them had a name floating above his head. Oddly enough, their names were currently just their unit roles.
Fortunately, although they all had Russian-looking faces, they did not have those absurdly long Russian names.
"All right. Execute the plan as briefed."
Two riflemen took the lead, followed by the two machine gunners, with Adrian behind them.
The medic came next, flanked by the engineer and the other rifleman.
At the rear was the anti-tank specialist. An RPG-7 launcher was strapped to his back, and his pack held two heavy tandem-warhead rockets. But this anti-armor weapon would not be much help in a rescue operation.
"Who goes there?"
Bang! Bang!
The moment the VDV squad emerged from the brush, the gate guards spotted them.
But two shots rang out, and both guards dropped.
"The System really is useful."
Adrian had fired those two shots. When he put his eye to the optic, there was no awkwardness at all. It felt just like aiming down sights and firing in a game.
It was not only his marksmanship. Even the way Adrian held his rifle was identical to the other squad members.
They truly looked like a special-operations team carrying out a mission.
"Keep moving."
They did not go over to inspect the bodies. The System had already delivered the kill reward.
[Killed 2 riflemen. Reward: 20 points.]
Without pausing, the group slipped up to the ammunition depot’s perimeter wall.
"Captain, the entrance is packed with hostiles."
The lead rifleman quickly leaned out to look into the depot, then snapped back behind cover.
"They aren’t watching this side."
Staying tight to the wall and quickly checking around the corner—Adrian had not ordered any of it.
Clearly, the squad awarded by the System had extensive combat experience.
"Machine guns, suppress them."
At a moment like this, communication had to be simple and direct.
Adrian spoke only two words, and the men immediately understood.
The two riflemen gave way to the two machine gunners behind them.
The machine gunners moved to the corner. One crouched while the other remained standing.
The standing gunner held his weapon in his left hand and rested his right hand on the crouching gunner’s shoulder.
That hand on his teammate’s shoulder was clearly a signal. It allowed the two men to fire simultaneously and maintain suppressive fire.
Having received the signal, the crouching gunner poked his barrel around the corner while keeping his body low.
The standing gunner removed his hand from his teammate’s shoulder, braced his right hand against the wall, and leaned out as well.
Rat-a-tat-tat!
The two RPKs formed a terrifying web of fire, spraying rounds through the ammunition depot entrance and down the corridor beyond.
This was a long hallway, and nearly all the NPCs on the first floor were gathered there.
After the RPKs fired for several seconds, the two riflemen behind them leaned out as well and opened fire.
"Reload!"
The riflemen took over the job of suppressing the enemy while the two machine gunners rapidly changed magazines.
The RPK might have been called a light machine gun, but without a drum magazine it held only forty-five rounds—just fifteen more than a rifle magazine.
Yet before both RPKs had even finished reloading, the firefight was over.
The two riflemen stopped shooting and ducked back behind cover. After waiting another dozen seconds without hearing any movement, they leaned out again.
A string of kill notifications sounded in Adrian’s ears.
Professor Ellis had said that NPCs in scavenging mode would respawn. If he found the chance, clearing an entire map for points would be a pretty good deal.
Points were too important to Adrian. If he wanted more and stronger squads, he needed more points.
"All hostiles eliminated," a rifleman reported.
Under the rules of the Battlefield Instance, NPCs left no bodies after being killed. Their bodies vanished completely, leaving only weapons, equipment, and dropped items on the ground.
It made collecting drops easier for players, and it also made it easier to confirm whether an enemy had been killed.
"Advance."
The biggest difference between battlefield searches and special operations was that war did not always require a silent entry. Otherwise, Adrian would have had to use hand signals the whole time.
Since he had never trained with this squad, he would not have been able to communicate that way.
Thankfully, this mission was clearly the simple, direct kind. There was no need for special-operations stealth.
Second underground level of the ammunition depot.
The five survivors were still running desperately downward, not daring to stop on this level.
Its layout was much the same as the floor above: one enormous corridor lined with rooms on either side.
The rooms contained the ammunition and supplies they had come for.
But no one had the mood to loot. They just sprinted toward the far end of the corridor.
"The NPCs on this level only spawn when the doors to the rooms beside us are opened. As long as we don’t open them, we’ll be fine."
Just as they were about to catch their breath, rapid gunfire erupted from the floor above.
"The NPCs upstairs probably followed us down. Move!"
The AK-47 and AK-74 sounded similar when fired, and the NPCs here happened to be armed with AK-47s.
"Hurry. We’re going down another level."
Unlike Captain Rem, Adrian was not familiar with this map.
All he could do was maintain a search formation and keep pushing forward.
Rat-a-tat-tat!
A burst of gunfire sounded. Adrian’s team reacted instantly, flattening themselves against the stairwell wall and aiming their weapons down the stairs.
"Frost’s group has been spotted by the NPCs. We need to move."
With that, Adrian took the lead and ran downstairs.
They accelerated their search and soon reached the first underground level.
There was another corner ahead, but this time they did not need to handle it the way they had at the entrance.
Through the minimap and his teammates’ vision, Adrian could clearly see the enemies’ positions in the corridor.
He had only just discovered this.
As long as an enemy was in an ally’s line of sight, that enemy would be marked.
Apparently, the System had classified Frost and the others as allies.
Frost’s group was pinned down inside a small room.
More than twenty NPCs were gathered outside its door.
All their weapons were trained on the room where Frost was hiding.
"They’re pinned down," Adrian said.
The room was at the far end of the corridor, while the stairwell Adrian’s squad had descended was at this end.
About fifty meters separated them. Since Frost’s group had exposed its position, every NPC on this floor had been drawn toward them.
"We’ve only known each other a few hours, but saving you once should repay what you did for me."
Adrian pulled the face covering around his neck up over his face.
"Get ready."
They used the same method as before. The two machine gunners worked together, while the riflemen waited behind them, ready to take over sustained suppression when the machine gunners had burned through half their ammunition.
Rat-a-tat-tat!
The combined fire of the two RPKs was so continuous it nearly sounded like a single unbroken line.
"The NPC firepower is too heavy. We can’t get out."
"Once the NPCs lose aggro, we’ll be safe."
Frost analyzed the situation calmly, her gaze flicking toward the mercenary lying at the doorway.
What had begun as a five-man group was now down to four.
A moment ago, they had tried to hurry through this stretch of corridor. But one room’s door had been open, and the NPC inside spotted them as they ran past.
With no other choice, one of Rem’s men had charged straight at the NPC.
The NPC reacted immediately and opened fire. Every bullet struck Rem’s teammate.
Frost had then drawn her pistol and shot the NPC dead.
But Captain Rem had lost another man, and the NPC’s gunfire had drawn out all the NPCs from the surrounding rooms.
The group had no choice but to retreat into this room and make a stand.
"We haven’t exposed ourselves. Why is the gunfire outside so intense?"
Clearly, they had mistaken Adrian’s squad’s RPK fire for NPC gunfire.
"Keep your heads down. Don’t expose yourselves."
The gunfire gradually died away.
Adrian checked the minimap. All the NPCs here had been eliminated.
"Maintain formation. Watch both sides—every room."
Using the two riflemen as the spearhead, the squad advanced down the corridor in sequence.
Along the way, Adrian noticed that the rooms on both sides held large quantities of supplies and ammunition. That had to be why Rem’s group had come here.
When they reached the doorway of the room where Rem’s group was sheltering, something unexpected happened.
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