Chapter 149: Known Worldwide

Chapter 149: Chapter 149: Known Worldwide

Sigh, how did I get so carried away yesterday that I actually went through with this plan?

Dane struggled to resist the urge to smack his chest and stomp his feet, his mind spinning as he tried to come up with a remedy.

Team Red gathered up the vine net from the ground. A few of them worked together to lift it, planning to toss it to the side of the road. But unexpectedly, as the net left the ground, it seemed like they’d triggered some mechanism—the net started writhing and contracting. With a sharp ’snap’, like a rope pulled to its limit, it suddenly broke free and sprang up, flipping over and dropping right onto their heads.

All the tangled threads in Dane’s mind seemed to explode apart with a thunderous crash.

"Fire!" he shouted, leaping up first with his rifle in hand, rushing onto the road and laying down a barrage at the Team Red members ahead.

Hart, Boland, and Vance sprang out right behind him, firing at them.

"Team Blue assault, Dane scores one point. Total: 32 points."

"..."

"..."

"Team Blue assault, Dane scores one point. Total: 35 points."

"Team Blue assault, Hart scores one point. Total: 6 points."

"Team Blue assault, Hart scores one point. Total: 7 points."

"Team Blue assault, Boland scores one point. Total: 9 points."

"Team Blue assault, Boland scores one point. Total: 10 points."

"Team Blue assault, Vance scores one point. Total: 4 points."

Team Red snapped to attention, quickly tossing aside their shields and grabbing the guns hanging from their shoulders, ready to fight back.

At Dane’s signal, the squad darted into the downhill jungle trail, vanishing in a flash.

Team Red pursued a few steps, wary of falling into a trap, and hurriedly retreated again. Just then, a blank round flew at them, with impossible accuracy—’pop’—smacking dead center on someone’s helmet.

While Dane and his team jumped out, Renee Morgan had been lurking in the shadows, her sniper rifle trained on the Team Red crowd, locking onto her targets and pulling the trigger.

"Bang!"

Quick reload, trigger pulled.

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

"..."

Team Red members were completely stunned. When Dane led his group charging out earlier with bullets whizzing past, they were scared, but nothing like this sense of dread.

After all, these weren’t real bullets.

No threat to their lives.

But when those rounds started striking them right in the forehead, a primal fear for their lives surged up without warning.

"It’s... it’s that woman... it must be her... she’s here..." someone in Team Red muttered out loud.

"Team Blue sniper, Renee Morgan scores one point. Total: 102 points."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Team Blue sniper, Renee Morgan scores one point. Total: 107 points."

Six shots, six hits, six headshots—six points.

The livestream viewers all drew in sharp breaths.

Script?

Who wrote this script?

Forget variety shows—even movies wouldn’t dare stage something like this.

[Admit there’s a script, fine, but you have to admit she’s the sniper king in this competition.]

[Variety shows always have scripts and character settings, that’s normal, but this is insane, right?]

[Movies all follow scripts and character arcs, frame by frame, with painstaking post-production. But are you blind, or suffering from amnesia? This is a live show! Live footage means no do-overs, no practice run, definitely no stand-ins. Script or not, persona or not, Renee Morgan’s sniper skills—calling her the sniper queen of the arena—is that really an exaggeration?]

Everyone felt like their chest had been punched hard.

Is the script or the character setting really that important?

Renee Morgan’s skill is plain for all to see; even if you don’t want to admit it, you have to.

The strong prevail. Anyone still making such arguments just doesn’t want to accept it—doesn’t know how to truly appreciate excellence.

Overseas viewers didn’t have these doubts.

They were more interested in that vine net.

[God Renee ever study magic tricks? How did those vines shrink by themselves and wrap up Team Red?]

[I kept rewinding and rewatching—looks exactly like one of those Z-country ancient mechanical traps. Must be a mechanical structure; just touch it and it shrinks, snaps, springs up...]

[It probably can’t be lifted. When the vine net was on the ground, nothing happened. After Team Red lifted it off, it suddenly snapped up and ensnared them.]

[God Renee is amazing, she made a snare out of just a few vines.]

Six shots in a row left Team Red so rattled that they finally managed to identify where the shots were coming from. They quickly twisted their heads in the opposite direction, standing back-to-back and picking up their shields to defend against incoming fire.

From the shadows, Renee Morgan calmly retracted her sniper rifle, crouched down and quietly retreated, rapidly changing position.

"Move, move, keep moving forward, get out of here now!" Team Red shouted in frustration. In just this short time, they’d lost half their men.

The vehicle started up, slowly moving forward.

The team marched at the sides of the truck, holding shields to cover the tires, heads turned in one direction, eyes locked forward.

"Wait, what’s this?" Team Red stared at a vine ’roadblock’ a meter ahead, glancing around at one another. They couldn’t figure out the purpose of this vine tied up across the way.

They sent someone forward to test, stomping his foot as he slipped under the vine—nothing happened at all.

The guy came back, still nothing.

So, the squad could safely pass under it.

But with this height, the vehicle probably wouldn’t make it through.

"Should we take it apart?" someone suggested.

"No, no, what if..." The others quickly shook their heads, still shaken from what just happened with the vines.

"Are we just going to abandon the vehicle here?" he wondered aloud.

"Maybe... let’s try..." Someone proposed backing the truck and team up to a safe distance, then carefully touching the vine to see if it was some kind of electronic sensor trap.

The livestream chat erupted in laughter—if these guys ever get back to base and watch the replay, who knows if they’ll want to murder the show’s director.

Embarrassment isn’t scary; what’s scary is being embarrassed in front of the whole world.

He touched the vine with his fingertips—it swayed, and nothing else happened.

He pressed harder, and the vine bent under the weight then bounced up, trembling, still nothing.

"Why not just dismantle it?" said the guy, itching to try.

"Don’t, don’t—if it’s fine just touching it, let’s just drive the truck through."

The others waved him off, reminding him not to mess around. Just earlier, the vine net snapped up and trapped them when it was lifted off the ground.

If this vine works the same way—if they break or cut it...

They shook their heads and urged everyone to clear the way for the truck to go first.

The driver went slowly; the truck reached the vine, which was at windshield height, and just drove straight through. The vine inevitably snapped.