Chapter Fifty-Three: Unintentional Gain

  "This time, among the equipment issued to you, there are two items that must not be damaged or lost. One is this wireless signal transmitter, and the other is this handheld signal flare." At 3:10 in the morning, in the swaying truck compartment, a high-intensity flashlight was hung above the instructor's head, and the instructor, surrounded by a white light, was explaining some precautions to everyone while holding two pieces of equipment.

  "In the event of an unexpected injury during the competition that renders you unable to continue, especially if the injury is severe, please quickly fire this signal flare into the sky. We will retrieve you from the competition area in the shortest time possible. To launch it, twist open the rear cover, point the mouth of the tube at the sky, and pull the fuse inside. Remember to do so in a relatively open area towards the sky, and absolutely avoid hitting trees."

  The instructor said seriously, "I hope you understand that this is just a competition, please don't be reckless. As for the wireless signal transmitter, attach it to your hat, it will report your location to our control center at all times, making it convenient for us to keep track of your whereabouts."

  Qu Mingjun and the 18 martial arts team members from eight military academies across the country were fully armed, listening attentively to the instructor's explanation, with wireless signal transmitters pinned to their hats and signal flares loaded into a cartridge bag on their chest.

  The truck was constantly swaying and changing direction, the martial arts team had long lost their way. Qu Mingjun had also tried to look at the situation outside the car, but the carriage was tightly closed, and it was still dark outside, so he couldn't see anything from the gap in the canvas. From the sound, more than ten minutes ago, the other three cars had already parted ways with them, and they didn't know where they were headed.

  "Feng Shaojun!" The truck slowly began to slow down, and the dispatcher took a look at the name list on his head with the flashlight.

  "Here!" Feng Shaojun replied promptly.

  "Prepare to disembark."

  "Yes!" Feng Shaojun crouched down and walked towards the back of the car, slapping each of Guo Xiangyang and Qu Mingjun on the cheek along the way, exchanging encouraging glances.

  ……

  "Qu Mingjun!" The stewardess looked at the flower name list in her hand, and there were only two contestants left on the train.

  "Arrived!"

  "Prepare to disembark."

  "Yes!"

  Qu Mingjun once again checked the equipment on his body, and the attendant held a small radio in one hand of the carriage, reporting to the control center, "Report to the control center, this is car number one, my tenth seventh contestant Qu Mingjun is preparing to get off the bus, please check the wireless signal, please check the wireless signal."

  "Car number one, car number one, wireless signal reception is normal, you can disembark, you can disembark." The voice from the control center came through the radio.

  "Number one understood, number one understood, over." The dispatcher put down the radio handset.

  The truck soon came to a stop. Before the dispatcher could speak, Qu Mingjun took the initiative to walk to the back of the carriage. Suddenly, a voice came over, "Brother, refuel!"

  Qu Mingjun didn't need to look, he knew that the one speaking was the last one to get off the truck, the Tu Bao brothers from Chun Cheng Lu Institute. He smiled and waved his hand, lifted up the canvas of the truck and jumped down. The truck swayed away into the distance once again.

  He was the seventeenth one to be thrown out of the carriage, Qu Mingjun thought. Watching the truck swaying away in the woods where the road was almost invisible, Qu Mingjun quickly glanced at his luminous tactical watch and saw that it was 4:55, which meant that from the moment he got off the car, the dispatcher had started timing him.

  The sky was very dark, especially in the woods. Looking around, you couldn't see anything five meters away. The planning team for this martial arts competition was absolutely ridiculous. At the darkest time before dawn, they simply threw people into this pitch-black forest and only gave them a map and a compass.

  Qu Mingjun muttered to himself, but for a while, he didn't have any good ideas. Which direction should he go? The compass was fine, and the gathering point was on the map, but where was he himself?

  Let's take a look at the map first. Qu Mingjun pressed the cold light button on his multi-functional tactical watch, and the entire dial emitted a blue-green glow. The foreign goods sent by Xiao Yu looked pretty good, and it was said to be in line with military standards. In addition to having many practical functions such as a compass, stopwatch, timing, and cold light source, even the strap and dial were camouflage. Fortunately, he had left a thoughtful mind when he went out today and put it on, otherwise, how could he see the map before dawn?

  Let's take a look at the map first. I remember that when we left the base, there was still one road, but I don't know if it can be found on the map.

  Qiu Mingjun shone the cold light source on the dashboard onto the map, searching up and down, almost cursing out loud. This broken map didn't even mark the location of the training base. Thinking about it, it made sense - the buildings at the base looked new, and the equipment was relatively advanced, probably built in just the past few years. But these military maps were drawn in the 60s and 70s, how could they possibly have the location of the base?

  Qu Mingjun furrowed his brow, thinking about the geographical situation they had learned when they first arrived at the base and wandered around nearby. Especially Fang Shao's team, he told all the training team members about the situation they had inquired about, clearly and plainly.

  I remember that there is a lake about two kilometers southeast of the training base, which seems to be called something Valley Lake. Qu Mingjun searched for it on the map and quickly found a lake called Guchehu Lake, fortunately this map only has one lake with a name like "Valley"

  Then, according to direction and terrain, um, roughly found a small meadow where the base is located, and then continued to feel for a standing point.

  It's almost there, although the exact coordinates can't be determined, but it's certain that he is somewhere in this forest area of several square kilometers. Qu Mingjun spent nearly half an hour to roughly determine his location, and if it were daylight, he could verify again, but he didn't have so much time for himself, wanting to contend for first place had to set off as soon as possible.

  Looking at the map, heading east will reach a river. Once you arrive, you'll know if your verification point is real or not. Decide and act, no hesitation, set off!

  It has to be said that the venue chosen by the martial arts competition organizing committee is really well thought out. The trees are tall and dense, with shrubs growing in between, and vines intertwined, which obviously increases the difficulty of movement for the contestants. However, the clever thing about this terrain is that it's relatively flat, without any deep pits or steep cliffs, otherwise, moving around in such a place at midnight could easily lead to unnecessary injuries.

  Qu Mingjun struggled through the forest, occasionally checking his direction with the compass in his hand, and pulled out the military dagger from his waist to cut a path for himself.

  As I walked slowly, the sky began to brighten up gradually. Although it was still impossible to see far away, it was much better than the previous darkness where nothing could be seen a few meters ahead.

  He had just climbed over a small mound when Qing Ming Jun suddenly heard the sound of someone speaking. Hmm? How could there be people talking here? No, it was enemy intelligence, he suddenly remembered the situation announced before the competition regarding enemy intelligence.

  Although it's still unclear whether his guess was correct or not, and there might be another martial artist nearby, Qu Mingjun quickly crouched down, quietly and slowly moved to a new location, lying down on the ground behind a cluster of bushes, looking around cautiously.

  At dawn, the forest was very quiet, and a faint voice could be heard coming from the west, not far away. Qu Mingjun slowly crawled towards the west, and soon he discovered human figures. Qu Mingjun hid in a relatively safe place where he wouldn't be easily found and looked ahead, seeing three figures. One of them seemed to be an officer who was talking to a fully armed contestant, while another soldier with a radio on his back was opening it and taking out the transmitter.

  Qing Ming Jun's heart skipped a beat, and he slowly continued to crawl forward for several steps, almost reaching the eyelids of the three people before stopping. At this time, it was possible to hear the soldier holding the walkie-talkie lowering his voice to call out, "Control Center, Control Center, I am Enemy Situation Three, I have discovered Candidate Number 43 at coordinates 3165, 8876, and I will bring that candidate to Area Two, over."

  The contestant from an unknown land institute stood beside the adjutant with his head hung low, unable to see what he was doing. However, after the adjutant persuaded and commanded him for two sentences, they waited until the little warrior put away the radio, and the three people finally started walking towards the north.

  He walked far away, Qu Mingjun let out a sigh of relief and was about to slowly leave when he suddenly heard a loud shout from the north that echoed through the clouds, "Ah——". The shout contained unacceptance and humiliation, anger and despair.

  Qu Mingjun sighed, although losing an opponent meant having a greater chance of winning the championship himself, but seeing that unknown brother being taken away by the referee made him feel as if his own brother had been captured by the enemy. If it were a real battlefield, he would have fought to the death and believed that brother wouldn't have suffered such humiliation, but this was just a martial arts competition. Qu Mingjun shook his head, feeling a twinge of sympathy for that unknown brother in his heart.

  Wait, what was that I just heard? Coordinates 3165, 8876???

  Qu Mingjun suddenly became overjoyed, hastily pulled out the map, and found a hidden place to locate the coordinates on the map with the help of the dawn light. Haha, it's true, it's really here! Qu Mingjun's estimated location was indeed correct, according to his original plan, although the direction he walked wasn't entirely wrong, but not directly towards the gathering point either. However, now that it's daylight, he can find the correct direction, and just needs to take a few extra detours. Now that it's still early, he has unintentionally gained such an advantage, which is simply much greater than other martial artists' chances of winning.

  It's unlikely that the command center of the search operation would have thought that the search personnel they arranged would become the ones to tip off Qu Mingjun, which got him so excited that he almost burst out laughing three times if he hadn't restrained himself with great effort.

  Yeah, the straight-line distance from the gathering point is probably over 20 kilometers. If you factor in the ups and downs of the terrain, it's likely to be a walk of over 30 but less than 40 kilometers. It was like picking up a big treasure while walking, Qu Mingjun set off with great enthusiasm.

  The sky is getting brighter, Qu Mingjun walks more easily now, has a correct understanding of the direction to go, his mood is flying high, let's cheer himself up, grasp the advantage and strive to be the first to arrive at the gathering point.

  At around 7 am, Qu Mingjun found himself walking to the edge of this forest area. In front of him was a small and very flat meadow, with half-withered yellow grass swaying in the wind.

  As Qu Mingjun was about to leave the forest, a thought suddenly flashed in his mind like lightning. If he were one of those guys at the command center, wouldn't they definitely arrange for some hidden sentries here? This terrain is too open and it's on the edge of the forest. If someone comes out of the forest, it's basically impossible to escape being discovered. Qu Mingjun broke into a cold sweat behind his back. He couldn't afford to be complacent, or else he'd be caught before he could even run.

  But where should this ambush be? Qu Mingjun didn't dare to rush out of the forest area, but instead lay on the ground and carefully observed the terrain in front of him. Where was the best place to observe? Could all these places be monitored?

  Qiu Mingjun's eyes scanned back and forth like radar, from left to right, from right to left, but he didn't find anything.

  It's really hidden well, I don't believe the control center here wouldn't have a secret sentry.

  Qu Mingjun cursed himself in a low voice, although he never found out, but he believed his judgment and couldn't just walk out like this.

  Just as he was observing carefully, Qu Mingjun's stomach suddenly growled twice. Bad food, this broken stomach is starting to rebel, you know it hasn't eaten a single grain of rice since dinner last night.

  Endure, wait, rather starve to death, rather slow down but cannot be caught by the Blue Army, Qu Mingjun viciously tightened his own armed belt...

  Qu Mingjun repeatedly scanned the area in front of him, thinking to himself, "If I were to set up an ambush, where would I put it?" The area was so barren and the grass was half withered and yellow. If someone wanted to hide, they could only do so underground. Qu Mingjun's eyes suddenly lit up as he thought, "Could it be here?"

  At this time, Qu Mingjun suddenly heard a faint sound of breaking twigs coming from behind him...

  (ps: I got drunk at noon today, unexpectedly 18 comrades came, and when we arrived at the restaurant, we couldn't fit in so we asked the manager to change to a room with two large tables. This is our regular annual gathering before the new year, we drank until after 3 pm, finishing off two boxes of white wine, I don't know exactly how much because I was too drunk to count, when I got home I fell asleep at 6:30 pm. When I woke up, I quickly sent out this stored draft, apologizing to everyone. Tonight it seems like I won't be able to write anymore, my stomach hurts and my eyes are all red, the next chapter will be updated tomorrow morning, please continue reading brothers and sisters.)