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Chapter 242: The Empty Camp Trap

Battle Royale of the Sinners

'17 … 18 … 19 …'

Tong counted as he continued to snipe the guards on watchtowers.

*POEK*

The 20th arrow found its target and pierced the victim's skull. The arrowhead dug into his brain, killing him instantly.

'20! That should be the last guy in this perimeter.'

Tong darted his eyes around the camp, searching for anyone who might have been overlooked.

Seeing that no one else remained inside the watchtowers nearby, Tong snuck into the outer trench. Unlike inside the camp, the soldiers did not carry a torch inside the trench. With his black cloth, Tong blended into the darkness and crawled inside the moat line.

Moving forward for a few seconds, Tong ran into the stationing soldiers inside the trenches who were gazing at the dark forest.

The squad captain had noticed Tong, but he mistook him as a comrade from another squad. He reprimanded Tong and ignored him.

"Hey, don't move around. Stay in your position, didn't you hear the general's order?"

Tong smiled and said, "I need to poop. Where should I dump it? Inside the moat?"

The entire squad turned to Tong and looked at him with disgust, "Get your ass inside that forest or I'll splatter your shit on your face!"

"The forest is too dark. I'm afraid of ghost. Can someone come with me?"

"…"

While Tong was messing around with the garrison squad, he counted the members in this group. Only five people were in his line of sight.

"Fine, you and you, go with this shit-break."

Tong smiled again while his right hand drew the blade from his back, "Thank you."

'Overclock mode!'

Without letting anyone utter a word, Tong rushed in and sliced the necks of the five men within two seconds.

After the men collapsed into the moat, Tong stripped the uniform of the soldier captain and disguised himself with the soldier's clothes.

'How nostalgia. I did this when I raided Guo Dian's camp, but I don't have a system map with me this time.'

Finished dressing, Tong leaped over the trench and entered the next line of the moat. Upon entering the trench line, he saw another group of soldiers.

'This can be tedious.' Tong complained in his heart.

"Hey, which squad are you from? What are you doing over here?" The captain of the squad asked Tong.

"The Avenger."

"Ar-Wen-What?"

*SWOOSH*

*SWOOSH*

*SWOOSH*

Another five-man squad was cut down.

Tong leaped over the moat and slain another squad of patrolling guards. He did not kill them because he felt like it, he was securing an escape route.

With the last line of defense squadron down, Tong left the moat and jumped across the spike barricades and the fences. He proceeded to the watchtower and climbed the ladder to the top of the building.

Upon entering the watchtower platform, a corpse with an arrow on the forehead was there.

'A bunch of noobs. If it were me, I would have stationed at least two guards on one watchtower,' Tong mocked Zou Jing in his mind while he looked back to scout the camps from the tower.

The tents in this camp were packed close to each other, leaving only enough no space to walk at the side of the tents.

In an ordinary set up of the army tents, they had to leave enough spaces on the side so soldiers could use the gap to run when there was an emergency. However, Zou Jing's camp setting was weird.

All tents did not have a light of a lamp. Only torches on the walkways illuminated the light inside the camp.

'Huh? This is odd.'

Tong felt that something was not right about this camp, so he concentrated his feeling, trying to sense a living being using his demonic instinct.

Friday had not taught him about the instinct or the sixth sense yet, but Tong had this tingling unexplainable feeling ever since he had fought with Lu Bu in Jinyang.

He could sense a lifeform signature nearby.

As Tong slowly scanned around the camp, he could feel that there were soldiers inside the trenches, but there was no one in the tents.

'Haiz, now I wish I have the map. My life would have been a lot easier.'

'An empty camp tactic. This is a bait to lure my troops here or me.'

Tong's face darkened as he simulated a scenario where Zou Jing and his men gathered outside of the camp, surrounding it and waiting for Tong to enter. He would have been trapped in here if he was discovered.

'Too risky. I have to leave the camp and scout the surrounding some more.'

Tong climbed down the ladder and returned to the trenches where he first entered. After he reached the first line of the ditch where he stripped the captain's clothes, a horn sound roared from within the camp.

"ARCHERS, FIRE!"

Thousands of fireballs appeared within the dense forest. The moved up and down before all of them were launched into mid-air and landed inside the camp.

The tents caught fires, which spread throughout the entire areas in an instant.

"TRENCH TROOPS, SURROUND THE CAMP! DO NOT LET ANYONE GET OUT!"

While Tong was changing his cloth back to his black uniform, all soldiers inside the trenches stood up and pointed their spears toward the camp as if they were waiting for an enemy inside.

The fire in the camp got stronger each second passed. Tong peeked from the edge of the trench to see the situation outside in shock.

'It is a trap! Were they waiting for me? But how did they know?'

'The tents catch fire too fast. Did they put flammable things in there?'

'Hahaha! Wow, I'm speechless. You are good, Zou Jing. To be honest, I wanted to recruit you. Too bad that I have to kill you because of the goddamn system.'

Tong stopped thinking and leaped from the trench, running toward the dark forest. Unfortunately, the areas were too bright because of the burning camp, Tong's figure was seen by many nearby soldiers.

"There's a runner! Over there!"

"Give chase!"

"That should be Zhang Tong! After him!"

Hearing the commands of the soldier captains, Tong was astonished once again.

'Holy-shit-damn! They even knew that I'll be here!'

The adrenaline within Tong's body rushed into his blood vessels. His overclock mode activated once more, and his legs exerted power while he moved over the natural obstacles as if he was a parkour master.

"HAHAHA, he's running toward the net! Form lines and block his escape route!" The soldier captain issued another order, which alerted Tong.

'A net!? There's another ambush party ahead? But I don't see a lighted torch. Wait, they want to catch me off-guard?'

Tong narrowed his eyes and expanded his sense to the limit. Just like the enemy captain had said, there were thousands of life signature a hundred meter ahead of him. The troops had positioned in a half circle formation, surrounding Tong.

A few seconds after Tong had sensed the ambushing force, the ambushing army lighted their torches, revealing themselves to Tong. Every direction around Tong had torchlight.

'It's really a net. I'm surrounded.'

The legs stopped moving as Tong knew that the pursuing parties had stopped chasing but circling around him from the back. He took out his bow again and aimed toward the front.

'I wonder how the lock-on works.'

…

*******************************

[Homing Arrow] LV. 5 (337/1,600)

- Fire a magic homing arrow at a locked target.

- Convert an ordinary arrow into a magic homing arrow.

- Passive skill [Bow Mastery] will be applied to the host once the skill is equipped.

Skill Cost:

- 1 Lifespan for firing a homing magic arrow with an ordinary arrow.

- 10 Lifespan for firing a homing magic arrow without an arrow.

Skill Restriction:

- Homing effects only applies to a locked target in the range of 300 meters or lower.

- Range restriction depends on the level of the skill

*******************************

...

Tong stared into the distance where he sensed the ambush soldiers. It took him a second of waiting, and a red crosshair appeared in his vision.

'Is this the lock on?'

Tong activated the homing arrow skill in his mind and fired a shot. The arrow glowed in white light. It flew high into the sky and chased after the target by itself.

It did not take long for Tong to hear a scream from the soldier.

'This is convenient. Much better than snipping with a rifle.'

Tong remembered that Hua Shi used to fire several homing arrows at once. He picked four arrows from the quiver and nocked them onto his bow.

As Tong was aiming forward, four red cross-hair appeared.

'The number of lock-on targets depend on the total arrow I'm using?'

Tong fired the arrows, but he pulled the string again without using a real arrow this time.

'What will happen if I fire 10 arrows without a live arrow?'

By thinking that he wanted to shoot ten arrows, ten cross-hair flashed again.

'How about 20?'

More targets appeared in his vision.

Tong released the string, and twenty light arrows manifested out of thin air, flying toward the targets.

'Sweat, how about a hundred?'

<<Warning, the maximum number of arrows you can fire at once is 25>>

Tong raised his eyebrows in disappointment. He pulled his string again and continued his one-man-arrow-rain.

As Tong continued firing, the commotion in front was getting louder. He ignored the shout and the command from the enemies and repeated his action as if he was grinding in an MMORPG game.

<<Ding>>

<<+25 Lifespans>>

<<+41 Lifespans>>

<<+24 Lifespans>>

For every kill, Tong got lifespans in return as the passive skill of [Sword Mastery] was at work. Meanwhile, his [Homing Arrow] EXP skyrocketed in a short time.

'Now, I know why her skill level increases so fast. Damn, she's OP.'

Two minutes after the unstoppable barrage of arrows, the ambushing troops decided to charge toward Tong's direction.

Tong narrowed his eyes as he realized that arrow barrages took a few seconds to lock-on and shoot, so he switched his weapon. He hung his composite bow behind his back and drew his gun.

'Time to bail.'

Tong scanned the area and looked for the gap in their encirclement. The south and east side was packed with thousands of Liu Yan's men. There were the trench troops from the west, but the north was thin in number.

At first glance, the north should be the target to break the encirclement.

'They intentionally left a gap toward the north, but that should lead to a more ambush site.'

Tong recalled the Romance of the Three Kingdoms 14th-century novel where Cao Cao broke through the series of ambushes of Liu Bei force one after another after he had lost the Battle at Chibi. It was a stratagem of Zhuge Liang which he forced Cao Cao to move to the direction that he had placed the ambush forces. In the end, Guan Yu managed to capture Cao Cao, but Guan Yu let him go.

He had a feeling that he would be Cao Cao in this scenario if he were to break through to the north.

'I'm forcing my way through the south!'

Undaunted by the thousands of soldiers, Tong ran toward the south with a handgun in his left hand and his blade in his right.