3 Chapter 3: This Grudge, I Remember It

In the infirmary, everyone looked in shock at Shen Congfei who was holding a gun and had just shot one of the Imperial soldiers.

No one expected that he would actually shoot.

Xia Wei was the first to react: "Damn."

The others turned to look at her.

Shen Congfei also realized the problem: "Quick, let's escape. The sound of gunfire will attract the other Imperial soldiers."

Upon hearing this, panic ensued amongst the rest.

"Where can we run? Imperial soldiers are everywhere."

"That's right."

Xia Wei turned her head towards the window; beyond the playground were continuous mountains.

She said: "We need to head for the mountains."

The nurse who was armed with her high heels seemed to remember something: "Follow me. The back door might not be safe, but I know a small path that leads to the mountains behind the school."

"What about the others?"

"Forget about the others. We just killed someone here. Are you sure the Imperial soldiers won't kill us off once they find out?"

Shen Congfei retorted, gripping the gun tightly. Now that the system was online, he didn't intend to approach this with his previous negative attitude.

He needs to survive and find a way out.

Upon hearing this, everyone else also decided to escape.

Without further hesitation, the group of five quickly left the infirmary.

Before they left, the two other boys each grabbed some weapons for self-defense.

These were from the deceased Imperial soldier.

"Skinhead" Xue Yangping, seemed excited. Not only did he take the gun from the dead body, but also extracted a sharp combat knife and three or four magazines from the pool of blood.

He was clearly an experienced FPS player.

"Gorilla" Tang Ke, seeing this, could only suppress his discomfort; he took the black helmet and grabbed the backpack.

If they weren't short on time, Shen Congfei wondered if Tang Ke would even strip the soldier's uniform off him.

The infirmary teacher was also busy. She exchanged her high heels for flat shoes, packed up a first aid kit, hastily collected some other items, and rushed out of the infirmary to lead the way.

Xia Wei, who had already run out of the infirmary early, was leaning against the hallway wall and carefully observing their surroundings without showing too much urgency.

Upon seeing the others come out, she said to Shen Congfei:

"Let's go."

The group of five people headed through the corridor towards the garden on the left side of the school.

During this time, they could hear noise and comforting voices from upstairs.

The gunshot made everyone aware of the dire situation.

However, facing the unknown armed forces, the teachers and students had no solutions.

Not resisting was their perceived best choice.

Running away might get them instantly killed.

However, Shen Congfei and the rest had no choice. After killing an Imperial soldier, it is clear they wouldn't be easily forgiven.

Moreover, this was an invasion war.

As they had anticipated, not long after they left, Imperial soldiers followed the sound of the gunshot and found their comrade lying dead in a pool of blood in the infirmary.

At this time, one of Imperial officers also came into the infirmary escorted by the guards.

Upon seeing the corpse, a hint of gloom flashed across his face.

"What happened, who killed him?"

Upon hearing their superior's question, the responsible squad leader stepped forward.

"Reporting to the colonel, the suspected murderers have possibly escaped. Private Yosef was shot in the heart, dying instantly."

"We suspect that there were professionals present at the time as his weapon and backpack were also taken."

Upon hearing this report, the Imperial officer, referred to as the colonel, stared at the corpse on the floor, his eyes icy cold:

"Bring me the principal of the school, take a headcount, I want to see who is missing."

After hesitating a little, he added: "Gather all the teachers and students on the playground, they couldn't have run far."

"Yes, Colonel."

...

An hour later, halfway up the mountain behind the school.

The gasping group of five stopped here. As they hadn't noticed any Imperial soldiers pursuing them, they decided to rest here for a while.

"Huff... huff... where do you think our country's army has gone?"

The one who inquired was "Skinhead" Xue Yangping. He spoke while catching his breath, knife in one hand, gun in the other.

However, no one responded because everyone else was too exhausted to speak.

Xue Yangping, who didn't get a response, pouted. He scratched his shaved head with the hand holding the gun while scanning the surroundings.

Tang Ke began examining the Imperial soldier's backpack. He found a bunch of dried food, a water flask, binoculars, and some ammunition.

The only adult in the group, the Infirmary teacher, stayed calm.

She turned to the students in the group: "Don't rush. Let me think about what we should do next."

Xia Wei nodded in agreement and turned to the others: "Let's all try to think. Our plan for what comes next is crucial."

The remaining member, Shen Congfei, stared distractedly at the gun in his hand.

While others might think he was experiencing post-shooting trauma, he was actually inspecting his cheat system that had just come online due to a bug.

It was a common player template, as expected.

However, compared to what he had experienced during the previous beta testing.

This player template was extremely simplistic.

It basically only included character status, occupation, abilities and achievements.

But it was still better than nothing. Who would expect a tragedy to occur just before the world's end?

According to the timing, the server shouldn't even be up for beta testing yet, right?

Did he come back when the game was just beginning to be developed by programmers?

Is that why everything is so simple?

Shen Congfei could not figure it out, but he decided to choose a profession first so as to utilize the profession planning point he had obtained from the First Blood achievement.

The biggest appeal of the game was, after all, here.

Unlike other games where all professions level up by killing monsters based on a single template.

In "Codename: Wasteland", almost every profession had completely different gaming methods and made their unique contributions.

He had anticipated that this game would become wildly popular once it went public after he participated in the beta test.

But he never expected that an accident would occur when it was his turn.

"Sigh."

Shen Congfei shook his head, deciding not to think about it. As he was about to allocate a point to his profession, a voice interrupted him:

"Quickly look. What's happening on the field?"

Turning his head, he saw Tang Ke, the "gorilla", holding binoculars and looking downwards.

Seeing this, the other four of them also walked towards the edge of the slope, looking down.

It was indeed the school's backfield.

But besides the smoky wreckage of an airplane, there were people everywhere.

This made Shen Congfei and the others feel uneasy.

At this time, the Empire's paratroopers were on the outskirts of the field, guns pointed at the thousands of teachers and students inside.

At the front of the audience seats, several people had been "escorted" onto the stage by the imperial soldiers.

"Isn't that the principal?"

"And our class teacher."

Among the trees halfway up the hill, excluding Shen Congfei, the other four recognized the people who got on stage.

Of course, he also perceived the male teacher he had met once before through the zoom lens of the automatic rifle.

It was evident that he was forced on stage.

On the field, the principal held up the microphone, his loud voice emitting from the broadcasting station:

"Students, don't worry. The reason these officials are acting like this is simply to find a soldier's killer."

"Does anyone know where Teacher Chen Yuanjia from the infirmary and the four students on leave from the High Three One class went?"

Hearing this, teachers and students on the field whispered to each other, but no one knew where the five people had gone.

Seeing this, the principal asked several times, but to no avail. Helplessly, he turned to look at the Imperial officer beside him.

"Hmph."

This imperial officer, the colonel from earlier, snorted and walked beside the principal, instructing him to precisely repeat his words:

"I know you haven't gone far. Come back now, and I might spare you once."

"Otherwise, the people below..."

Before he could finish speaking, the surrounding imperial soldiers cocked their guns and aimed them at the teachers and students in the circle.

In an instant, people's cries, curses, and pleas for help erupted.

Halfway up the hill, the five of them felt cold and numb in their hands and feet at this situation.

"They're not really going to shoot, are they?"

"That's over two thousand people!"

"Given the Empire soldiers' temperament, they're absolutely capable of doing it."

Xia Wei sighed deeply, indirectly answering the others' comments.

"Shouldn't we... shouldn't we go back?"

Infirmary teacher Chen Yuanjia knew she shouldn't be saying such a thing at this time, but she also couldn't just watch and let over two thousand teachers and students be killed.

On the stage in the field, the male teacher suddenly broke free from the soldiers and rushed over.

"What are you doing? They are all innocent students. Have you lost all humanity by doing this!"

The colonel watched the man charging at him with a cold gaze and nodded.

"You're right."

"Since it's the students' fault, let the teacher bear it."

Having said that, he took out his pistol and aimed it at the teacher's forehead.

"Bang!"

A gun sounded, a figure fell.

"Teacher Xu!"

At the halfway point of the hill, the other four were filled with rage.

Shen Congfei, who had just transmigrated, although not as emotional as the other four, was nonetheless distressed. After all, the person he had just met was killed.

This made him realize that the world he was now in was just like a game where life was insignificant, easily taken away at any moment.

Who knows if there's a revival mechanism.

Shen Congfei held his gun tightly. Now, he didn't want to die.

On the backfield of the school, the colonel holstered his pistol and continued to have the principal relay his message:

"Whether or not you've seen this scene, I hope you will obediently come out, or else everyone else in the school will face the same fate as your teacher!"

Upon hearing this, the other people on the hillside were about to move when,

"Wait, if you trust me, we should be able to solve this problem."

The four people looked at Shen Congfei who was speaking. They saw him aiming his gun at the field, loading his gun.

"Cong Fei, what are you planning to do?" Xia Wei was the first one to ask him.

"Let them chase us, so the people at the bottom can temporarily hold onto their lives. You guys won't object, right?"

Having said that, without waiting for the others to respond, Shen Congfei pulled the trigger.

"Bang!"

The gunshot echoed in the mountains, making both the teachers, students, and imperial soldiers at the bottom of the field, flinch in fright.

Following the gunshot, the colonel squinted and looked towards the hill.

Since the other party had voluntarily exposed themselves, his objective had been achieved. He waved his hand and signaled to the other soldiers in the field to temporarily discontinue the firing mode.

If there were large scale killings now, the repercussions could affect the Empire's upcoming plans. This was not something he wanted to see.

"First squadron, go up the mountain and capture them!"

"Yes."

Immediately, a small team of around ten soldiers left the group surrounding them.

Halfway up the hill, once they saw the situation below clearly, the four breathed a sigh of relief.

Shen Congfei put down his gun, feeling a little regretful. The effective range of the automatic rifle was only four hundred meters; he was still too far away.

If he'd had a sniper rifle, he might've been able to take down the imperial officer.

Thinking about the male teacher who died, partly because of him.

He made a resolution:

I'll remember this vendetta.

...

Knowing that someone was coming to chase them, the five of them mustered their spirits, prepared to evacuate deeper into the mountains.

The reason they were confident of escaping was because Shen Congfei knew from the internal testing that the invaders occupying the civilian area were not elites.

The Empire's elites were likely busy rounding up the veterans on the frontline.

This was the best opportunity for them to escape.