Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Whoosh~!

A speedboat skidded ashore. A stream of red smoke permeated its bow.

On the west bridge, the 4AM players who were holding their positions on the bridge were staring wide-eyed and mouths wide open at Liu Zilang, who had hijacked the airdrop crate.

For a while, they felt somewhat uneasy.

“I didn’t know the boat can be used this way.”

“I… guess so?”

“Well, it was a good decision letting Vic handle the job.”

“Let’s have him do it again next time.”

Meanwhile, the six players from HQ and Gold were swimming back with all their might, turning to look at the departing speedboat from time to time.

While still confused, a feeling of mutual sympathy arose between them, even though they were mortal enemies not too long ago.

After they had gotten safely back onto the shore, the two teams no longer had the heart to continue their fight.

There was nothing else to be done.

No casualties during their gunfight and their attempt to loot was waylaid.

All that was left to do was to outrun the blue circle and hope to score some placement points to maintain their ranking.

Unbeknownst to Liu Zilang, who had picked up an AWM and a ghillie suit from the loot crate he snatched from the two teams, he had defused a fight between two teams from the same region, and thus planted a seed of hope for the Asian region to perform in this tournament…

That was good karma.

…

While Liu Zilang was delivering the expedited cargo earlier, the radioactive blue circle that was closing in from the north had reached Pochinki.

Most of the teams from the northern continent had converged on the northern end of the two bridges and the surrounding fishing village.

There were a total of 20 teams left in the match, totaling 77 players.

There was no one on the enormous southern Sosnovka Island, save for Vega and 4AM at the southern ends of the two bridges.

It was not hard to imagine how crowded the bridges were on the northern end.

4AM was not the only one occupying the bridge.

In the first circle, the northern ends of the bridges were within the play area. The teams that arrived first had formed a “first line of defense” for 4AM.

Liu Zilang and the others had not seen anyone else approach their way, though they had heard gunfire on the other end of the bridge.

It turned out to be a preview of the incoming storm.

As the saying goes, “All roads lead to Rome.” Not every team had elected to proceed to the safe area on land.

For example, the teams that jumped at Georgopol, and Lipovka at the right edge of the map, had departed on boats after looting their respective towns.

On the Hua Xia commentary platform, Su Changming took a deep breath and spoke as he observed the match. “There are more and more people on the bridge. Looks like there will be a sharp decrease in player count between the first and second circles!”

“In any case, I think there’s a problem with this circle.”

Lord Rong smacked his lips and smiled. “If the play area had been simply isolated on Sosnovka Island, there would have been not much to discuss. However, not only is this circle god-forsaken, but it had also left a buffer zone at the northern side of the bridge. Now that’s where the problem lies.”

“Lord Rong is right,” Ruo Feng agreed. “This buffer zone can be fatal to many. Many teams would subconsciously stop moving at this narrow strip of land, and then there will be more and more people…”

“In the end, boom! Instant explosion!”

“Instant explosion” was one of Ruo Feng’s classic catchphrases in his bombastic commentary.

However, the reality was exactly as he said.

With God’s perspective from the caster’s camera, it was shown that the northern ends of the two bridges were packed with different teams. The player icons were stacked on top of each other.

Most of the teams arrived at the bridge by car.

Upon nearing the bridge, they realized that they would have to blow up their cars to provide cover for themselves.

There was no way for them to outrun the other teams and cross the bridge.

As such, 4AM and Vega were nearly dozing off and still had not seen a single player reach their end of the bridge.

“The players on the other side of the bridge are too strict; they could at least let a couple of teams off the hook,” Aluka said gloomily.

“No worries. When the play area shrinks next round, I doubt they’ll stay there,” GodV replied.

Suddenly, the two players noticed that Liu Zilang was climbing up the railing. Soon, he had climbed up the cross beam at the top of the west bridge.

“What’re you climbing up there for? It’s not like you can hit anyone from this distance,” Cpt asked quizzically.

“Worth a shot,” Liu Zilang replied shortly.

Balancing on the crossbeam, his techniques were anything but conservative.

In his 8x scope, he could see the moving silhouettes of the “defense force” on the other side of the bridge.

There was still a problem: Even if he managed to knock out an opponent with a headshot at this distance, he could not follow up with a kill.

The teams on the other end of the bridge were mostly full squads, with plenty of environmental cover.

He might be able to destroy a few helmets this way, but at the cost of his precious bullets. AWM bullets were very limited, and he needed to make every shot count.

Liu Zilang narrowed his eyes. He surveyed the bridge and the surrounding beach with his 8x scope, searching for a target.

In a short while, gunfire started once again near the opposite end of the bridge.

Aim, fire!

BANG!

A single sniper bullet flew along the bridge, arcing across the sky like the sun, and in an instant reached the other end.

Splash!

An explosion of crimson blood!

A player who was knocked down was desperately trying to crawl into cover when the AWM shot killed him.

“He managed to kill someone?” Aluka was dumbfounded as he stared at Liu Zilang from below.

“It was a follow-up shot,” GodV grinned mischievously. “That’s right! If they don’t come to us, we can still provide long-range cover fire!”

Shortly after, the four players of 4AM were like four monkeys squatting on top of the cross beam of the bridge. Whenever they heard gunfire, they raised their guns.

Most of the time, they stole someone else’s kill.

There were also times when Liu Zilang knocked out an opponent with a headshot, and the other three went for the kill with a haphazard stream of bullets.

Their little scheme was soon discovered by the other players when they saw the sudden influx of kill notifications.

The gunfire on the opposite end of the bridge abruptly ceased.

“What’s going on? Why aren’t they fighting?” The players, thoroughly engrossed in their ploy, were disappointed with this new development.

A speedboat suddenly appeared from the fishing village pier and sailed eastward toward their direction.

It looked like they were attempting to sneak past from under the bridge.

…