In the zoo, Shen Congfei and his group began to check the resources they had brought back from the shopping street.
Besides food and some essential items, all the rest were weapons and ammunition seized from the card soldiers.
They were standard automatic rifles, pistols, and magazines.
Only this time, they additionally found three submachine guns.
This was an improvement for the five of them, lacking in close-combat firepower.
Shen Cong Fei reserved one for himself and gave the other two respectively to the newly joined Tom and Jerry, to compensate for their lack of shooting accuracy with the rifle.
Although both claimed to be members of the shooting club, their current accuracy was even lower than the other four teammates.
Both of them also had their code names as of yesterday.
Skinny Cat and Fat Rat.
Shen Congfei felt a bit regretful that no one picked up on his pun.
Fortunately, the two of them were good-natured and accepted these not too flattering but very descriptive code names.
Tom and Jerry, Skinny Cat and Fat Rat, were overjoyed upon receiving the submachine guns.
Shen Congfei smiled at their excitement, and his eyes darted to a long black box near their feet. He hurriedly inquired, "What's this?"
They looked down at the box and started to explain its history:
"This? Boss Starfire, we found this strange box in one of the Imperial jeeps when we were scavenging for supplies. Unfortunately, we couldn't open it."
"We thought there might be some good stuff inside, so we brought it back with us."
Before they finished speaking, Shen Cong Fei had already squatted down to inspect the box closely.
If he wasn't mistaken, the box looked like a special weapon box that occasionally drops in the game "Code: Wasteland" when players fight against different enemy factions.
With this thought, Shen Congfei tried to pry the box open.
As expected, it didn't open, but he noticed a keyhole on the side.
However, they certainly didn't have the key, so Shen Congfei had to forcibly open it using a crowbar.
Upon opening the black box, his face changed, bursting with joy.
Two weapons that looked like metal cylinders lay inside the black box.
He recognized them.
They were rocket launchers, disposable ones.
With these two powerful weapons, they could easily initiate a large-scale assault.
When Shen Congfei took out the weapons from the box, the atmosphere on site became even more tense.
This operation was an absolute windfall.
Apart from swaying public opinion in the city toward their side,
they also gained two more fighters and now two high-damage weapons.
This meant a significant enhancement for their team.
In their excitement and celebration, they realized they had forgotten something.
If it weren't for Xue Yangping's reminder, Shen Congfei would've forgotten about the aristocratic Imperial Lieutenant still locked in the basement of the Hunter's cabin.
"Oh, I knew we were forgetting something."
"But with things as they currently stand, we can only let fate decide. If the Imperial Army does rescue him, we'll just have to take another opportunity to catch him again and get that guy to lead us to your enemy."
Upon hearing this, "Big Brother Ping" Xue Yangping nodded his head, a flash of murderous intent appearing in his eyes.
However, what happened next was surprisingly simple.
Before dark, Shen Congfei learned from Mr. and Mrs. Tang.
That the convoy that was dispatched for a sweeping operation outside the city had all returned, stationed at the shopping street.
Upon receiving this information, they promptly scaled the zoo wall and rushed back to their original Hunter's cabin, to check if their old base had been exposed.
...
Meanwhile, in front of the charred and ruined shopping street.
"Well, this is some great 'lure the tiger out of the mountain' strategy."
The colonel, who was currently the highest military official in this city representing the Imperial Army, was seething with rage, laughing angrily.
"Colonel, it's my fault. If it were not for my request..."
The Imperial officer who had initially been eager to fight was now terrified.
Even so, he chose to kneel and voluntarily take the punishment.
The colonel didn't even glance at him, just stared at the ruined shopping street:
"This too was my decision error, I will not deny my mistakes and cast the blame onto my subordinates. Get up."
"Yes."
The kneeling Imperial officer, upon hearing this, felt an instant surge of loyalty.
Like a new recruit, he sprung up immediately:
"Yes, sir! I would go through fire and water for you, Colonel!"
The colonel put his hands behind his back and started walking with serious footsteps.
"Tell me, how did these people achieve all this?"
"They played the 'lure the tiger out of the mountain' strategy when we left the city."
"By the time we left, they must have already left, too. Tell me, how did they manage to do it?"
Faced with these questions, the Imperial officer who had just led the way calmly started thinking.
He came to a conclusion.
"Colonel, this could very possibly mean that there are people in the city passing them information."
The colonel nodded in response to this claim.
"But presently, all communication networks are under our control."
"Key passage points have also been blocked by various checkpoints. How on earth are they quickly transmitting messages?"
"This..."
The Imperial officer momentarily ran out of ideas.
The colonel didn't blame him and paced back and forth in front of the ruined shopping street.
Just then, he turned to look at the spherical device on the lamppost.
Surveillance footage.
"Check that out. I want to see the bugs that have crawled out of whichever hole."
"Yes, Colonel."
The Imperial officer saw the colonel resolve the problem so simply and he admired the capabilities of the colonel.
"Follow me. Let's head to the surveillance center."
...
On the other side, Shen Congfei and his group returned to the forest at the lakeside with the weapons and ammunition.
They didn't rush back to the Hunter's cabin.
After all, they didn't know if this place was compromised yet or if the Imperial Army had set an ambush.
Better to be safe than sorry.
However, compared to the concerns of others,
Shen Congfei was more direct. He merely clicked open the player template and examined the skills panel inside.
The trap skill, with its 0/3 uses, indicated that the traps set in the vicinity of the Hunter's cabin weren't triggered.
This meant the enemy's sweep didn't reach here.
After all, considering its conspicuous location beside the lake,
the surroundings would definitely have been checked and the traps definitely would have been triggered.
As it hadn't been tripped yet, indicated that they were safe.
Upon hearing Shen Congfei's explanation, everyone else was in awe.
They had always thought traps were used just to catch enemies.
They never considered that traps could have this alternate use as well.