"Actually, he's a special agent."
"Huh?"
Seeing Shen Congfei in a daze, Xia Wei was left somewhat helpless.
"I happened to stumble upon it, that's how I found out he was gathering intelligence for the Neutral United Front."
"That study room is their spot for exchanging information."
Having said this, she had a pretty good guess as to how the person next to her knew about the cabins in the mountains.
These cabins were probably safe houses set up by the intelligence bureau in the wilderness, right?
It just happened to be spotted by Cong Fei.
Seeing Xia Wei deep in thought, Shen Congfei, who did not know what she had extrapolated, had just snapped out of his shock.
What the heck.
Turns out he's a second-generation special agent?
Having learned this, he was even more curious about his foster parents' family structure.
He wanted to ask Xia Wei again, but was interrupted.
"Look, we're here!"
The only one who would yell excitedly like this was Xue Yangping, known as "Brother Flathead".
The rest of the group looked over to see a hunter's cabin by a lakeside.
There were deer drinking water nearby, who lifted their heads to look upon their arrival before quickly bounding off into the woods.
The five of them moved toward the new Hunter's cabin, which differed from the previous ones.
Apart from having a chimney, there were two floors.
The most excited, "Brother Flathead" Xue Yangping, went right up and tried to open the door with no delay.
However, the door remained unmoved, and only then did he react.
"Is it locked? Is someone living here?"
Hearing this, Shen Congfei walked up and rolled his eyes at him:
"Who told you someone lives here? See, it's open."
Saying this, he pushed the door. It gently swung open as if it hadn't been locked at all.
Xue Yangping was stunned. He clearly remembered that the door wouldn't budge despite his efforts earlier on.
But now, with just a light touch, it swung open. This was utterly unbelievable.
After the other four had entered the cabin, "Brother Flathead" still exhibited a childlike curiosity, staring at the door and trying to figure out why this happened.
Shen Congfei and others paid no notice to this overly curious fellow. They threw their backpacks they had carried for almost a day onto the floor, sat down to catch their breath and rest.
This cabin was infinitely better compared to the previous one.
The room was fully furnished, there was even a fireplace in the living room.
The first floor had a kitchen and a bathroom, the second floor was the bedroom.
This matched Xia Wei's conception that the Hunter's cabins were safe houses set up by the Intelligence Bureau. Otherwise, how could such a luxurious cabin, deserted in the deep woods, exist?
Shen Congfei was clueless that because of her intuitions, he had been saved from many explanations.
Seeing the other four had settled down, he glanced at his skill panel and said, "I'm going out for a bit to check the surroundings."
After saying this, Shen Congfei took his gun and walked out of the Hunter's cabin towards the woods.
The reason for his tension was that the count on his trap-setting skills had been restored to full.
This was not a good sign.
Those traps had all been laid out on the way.
The fact that they were now triggered meant either they got an accidental animal catch, or they had inflicted damage to the pursuing Imperial Soldiers, or the traps were dismantled.
But with all this, excluding the first point, the other two meant an enemy was close.
Shen Congfei had to go and see for himself what the situation was.
As soon as he entered the woods, he activated the Hunter's skill. His world turned to a black and white outline with glowing animal silhouettes appearing now and then.
He began to retrace their steps and explore the path they had taken.
But soon, Shen Congfei stopped and hid behind a tree.
Several human-shaped outlines appeared in his black and white vision, the guns in their hands and the helmets on their heads revealing their identities.
Imperial Soldiers.
Unexpectedly, they had caught up.
He couldn't understand how these guys who were not dogs found them so quickly.
Although it was still a fair distance from the new Hunter's cabin, it was still too close for comfort.
Soon, Shen Congfei, hiding behind the tree, found the answer.
The Imperial Soldiers were standing around an exposed pit trap, which answered his question.
Even though he could use the traps to his advantage, these guys could also predict their general movement direction through the position of these traps.
It seemed that among these Imperial Soldiers, there were some clever ones too.
Surprisingly, he had made the correct judgment through reverse thinking.
Having thought about this, he didn't linger much longer. After carefully scanning the number of opponents, he decisively and quietly withdrew.
As soon as Shen Congfei returned to the hunter's cabin, he immediately gathered everyone to discuss strategies.
"The Empire soldiers are getting closer and closer to us. I think we can no longer hide. What are your opinions?"
The other four exchanged glances and nodded unanimously.
The doctor looked at him: "What's your plan?"
"Well, firstly, in terms of numbers, they have the same number of people as us, five."
"This is our opportunity."
After talking about the advantages, naturally, the disadvantages couldn't be ignored.
"But, it seems that they have a veteran with abundant combat experience commanding them, and their marksmanship is generally better than ours."
Shen Congfei didn't think they had mastered shooting just by practicing with guns for a few days.
Compared to fixed targets, moving ones were the real test.
Close range could guarantee the hit rate, but it was hard to say with long-range.
But the problem was that if you approached the enemy, you would also expose yourself to their close range.
So, something had to be done to bridge this gap.
"So, we may not be able to compete head-on, let's try circumventing instead."
...
Once the strategy was laid out, they began to act separately.
In the forest and with only five men left, the team of Imperial soldiers cautiously advanced.
Along the way, their fallen comrades and the unpredictable traps had dispelled any thoughts of an easy journey.
At present, it seemed that there was only one enemy, but they were rather tricky.
However, as long as they stuck to their formation, even if the enemy dared to appear, they would lose one at most, while the enemy would fall under a hail of bullets.
"Bang!"
A gunshot, coming very unexpectedly.
At the leader's shout, all five of them dropped to the ground.
Then the leader looked at the tree trunk that was hit by a bullet next to him. He made a slight judgment about the direction and realized that the shot was intended for him.
Luckily, because of the terrain, the enemy's shooting accuracy fell a little short, otherwise, he'd be dead already.
With a judgement of the enemy's position, although they didn't see anyone, the five empire soldiers changed to a half squat or lay on the ground raising their rifles to fire.
However, at this point, there was another round of gunfire from behind them.
The imperial soldiers were stunned.
What the hell? How did the enemy suddenly get behind them?
As a more experienced veteran who was also their leader:
"There's more than one enemy... be careful..."
Before he could finish, gunfire echoed from both left and right.
"Captain, we're surrounded!"
These newly recruited Imperial soldiers suddenly panicked.
"Don't panic."
Their leader, listening carefully.
Although the gunfire came from different directions, unfortunately, it was isolated each time.
That meant, there weren't many enemies, at most one person in each direction.
With this judgement, he regained his confidence.
"Don't be afraid, they are about the same number as us."
"I remember us chasing a regular teacher and a few students. Are you guys going to tell me, you're not as good as those teachers and students?"
"No!"
The four Imperial soldiers, both being motivated by the captain, simultaneously denied in bloodlust.
"Alright, the gunfire is getting less and less, which suggests they can't keep up with ammo consumption. Each of you will take one side, and I'll take the other."
The veteran team leader looked in the direction of the first shot. He would handle this himself.
Because he was certain, that shot had been aimed at his forehead, but had fortunately missed.
Without a doubt, the one who had such marksmanship was a professional who had previously ambushed his soldiers one after another.
As for those in the surrounding, they just knew how to shoot, their accuracy was extremely poor, undoubtedly they were ordinary people with guns.
His subordinates were, at the very least, soldiers who had completed a regular military training camp, which was stronger than a trained civilian.
With this thought, the leader crawled on the ground, moving towards the direction of the professional.