Chapter 036: Captured in an Instant

After five or six minutes, when Li Xiangyang and Zhao Ming saw on the tracking map that their pursuer had entered within a kilometer of them, they finally rose slowly to their feet. Each of them stretched and loosened up, then, as per their original plan, slipped into separate, hidden positions to lie in ambush, eyes fixed on the dense forest below, waiting in silence for their opponent to appear.

The one tracking them clearly knew something in advance. When Li Xiangyang and Zhao Ming stopped, they guessed that their pursuer would find a place with a tactical advantage and set up an ambush, turning this into a fight to the death. Thus, as the pursuer neared the one-kilometer mark, his pace slowed as well. The position updates on the map showed significant changes in direction, no longer the straightforward pursuit of before.

Zhao Ming gripped his pistol tightly, eyes locked on the path ahead, clearly ready to shoot the instant his enemy broke cover. Since his speed had been enhanced, he was confident in his marksmanship. The earlier confrontation, where he’d retreated without even catching a glimpse of his opponent, still gnawed at his pride—after all, the enemy had exploited the terrain and wielded a sniper rifle, an advantage he himself could have used to similar effect.

Occasionally, Zhao Ming glanced at the lower left of his field of vision, where a hovering virtual display showed a map with a one-kilometer radius centered on himself. Every minute, the positions of himself and other participants refreshed on the tracking map.

Now, nearly a minute had passed since the last update, when the pursuer had just entered his detection range. Zhao Ming’s gaze flicked between the forest ahead and the map in the corner. After a brief flicker, the yellow, green, and red dots—his own, an ally’s, and the pursuer’s—remained mostly unchanged, save for the red dot, which had shifted dramatically and was now nearly overlapping with his own.

Zhao Ming’s pupils contracted. The yellow dot was himself, and the red dot was his relentless enemy. He could hardly believe it—just a minute ago, the pursuer had been at least three hundred meters away. How could he have closed the distance in so short a time? Was this foe human or something else entirely?

He had kept a constant watch ahead, certain the enemy couldn’t have approached unseen from that direction. That meant the pursuer must have taken a far more dangerous route to flank him. As these thoughts raced through Zhao Ming’s mind, he quickly scanned his surroundings—and caught sight of a figure to his left.

A shadow emerged from the darkness, gun in hand, eyes calm and cold, as if he had been waiting there for ages. He looked no older than thirty, with an ordinary yet austere face, steely and indifferent eyes, short hair, and a military uniform that suited his lean, upright build, radiating an air of discipline and deadly resolve.

This was none other than Huang Feng, number 7845—a member of the Cobra Special Forces from the Southern Military District, top-ranked among all survivors in the potential rankings compiled by the highest authorities at the lunar base. He hailed from YN Province.

A strangled cry escaped Zhao Ming as he stared, terror-stricken, at the man who had appeared without warning. Panic seized him as he raised his pistol, trying to fire.

A gunshot rang out.

But it wasn’t Zhao Ming who fired. Before he could even aim, Huang Feng shot first, hitting Zhao Ming’s pistol and knocking it from his grasp. Then, without hesitation, Huang Feng closed the distance in a few quick steps and brought the butt of his rifle down toward Zhao Ming’s head in a smooth, practiced motion.

But just as the blow was about to land, Huang Feng’s expression flickered with surprise—the strike missed as Zhao Ming narrowly dodged. The surprise lasted only a heartbeat before Huang Feng’s face returned to its cold composure. Without pause, he kneed Zhao Ming in the abdomen, the force and precision of the blow instantly robbing Zhao Ming of the will to fight.

Huang Feng followed with another strike to Zhao Ming’s head. This time, Zhao Ming couldn’t evade; the heavy blow landed, his eyes rolled back, and he collapsed, utterly unconscious.

From the moment Zhao Ming first saw Huang Feng to the moment he hit the ground, no more than seven or eight seconds had passed.

“One down. Next.” After quickly confirming Zhao Ming was truly unconscious, Huang Feng murmured softly, then melted back into the darkness, heading rapidly toward his next objective.

Li Xiangyang, seeing the shift on the map and hearing Zhao Ming’s terrified cry and the gunshot, immediately sensed something was wrong. Without hesitation, he turned and fled in another direction without lingering for a second.

Though he’d never faced the enemy directly, not even glimpsed his form, Li Xiangyang had no doubt about the man’s strength and deadly skill. Any notion of a head-on fight had vanished; now he had only one thought—escape at all costs. Zhao Ming’s fate was irrelevant; his own survival was all that mattered.

Freed from Zhao Ming’s burden, he moved much faster. But his expression was grim. An unshakable sense of dread haunted him, as if unseen eyes were watching from the gathering gloom, the gaze of a hunter fixed on his prey. The invisible pressure spurred him to even greater speed.

A minute passed.

Li Xiangyang had already put considerable distance between himself and the site of the ambush. But when he checked the tracking map again, disbelief twisted his features—the red dot had refreshed, now appearing not far off to his right.

Gunfire rattled through the woods. Unlike Zhao Ming, Li Xiangyang was bolder; he dashed for cover and fired several shots blindly into the shadowed forest to his right as he ran.

Taking shelter, he gulped for air, slowing his hammering heart after the desperate sprint. Swallowing hard, he called out, “Since you didn’t kill my companion right away, you must have either claimed the mysterious prize already, or you have some other purpose. If that’s the case, there’s no reason for us to fight to the death.”

If a contestant was eliminated in the game, their marker would vanish from the map. Yet just now, he’d seen that Zhao Ming’s marker still remained. Li Xiangyang was stunned by his enemy’s choice to capture rather than kill Zhao Ming outright, which only confirmed the man’s formidable skill.

Surprise and confusion mingled in his heart, but so too did a spark of hope. If he could join forces with someone this powerful, perhaps he could survive the apocalypse and ultimately win the game.