Chapter 43: The Tank Hunter's First Kill

"Hahaha, I won the bet! You owe me a whole box of special-ration chocolate! Do you remember what I said just now?"

"Those foolish Hanwus simply don't know how to fight. They only know how to operate strictly by the book according to those pieces-of-shit military theories, just like wooden puppets!"

The vehicle commander, who had poked his upper body out of the hatch, laughed loudly as he spoke. But the moment his voice trailed off, a radio message crackled through immediately.

"Miller, you idiot, get your ass back in here right now! If I catch you sticking your head out again, I'm throwing you in the brig!"

Hearing this, the commander who had just poked his head out instinctively pulled himself back down, a flash of irritation crossing his mind.

These regular Black Hawk Empire armored vehiclemen were nothing like the players under Andrei's command.

The players hadn't enabled those unpleasant sensory simulations, so while cooped up in armored vehicles, they practically wished they could pilot these big toys all day and sleep inside them without ever coming out!

By contrast, to the armored troops of the Black Hawk Empire, this machine was a stuffy, suffocating iron coffin filled with all sorts of noises and the stench of diesel.

Although their advanced aiming equipment provided an exceptional field of view, everyone undeniably preferred breathing fresh air to peering out from inside an iron coffin.

However, the exact instant he pulled his torso back inside—before he even had time to close the hatch lid—a bullet whistled past.

Had he not ducked back quickly enough, that bullet would have blown his head clean off!

"Damn it! Watch out for enemy sharpshooters, I almost got killed just now!"

Feeling the breeze of the bullet grazing his scalp, Miller broke out in a cold sweat. He cursed angrily over the radio and then began sweeping the distance with his machine gun.

The scout player, who had just fired a shot that missed, felt a momentary twinge of regret. Seeing the stream of bullets sweeping toward him, he quickly rolled away to safety.

Tempered in the crucible of battle, the players were all as lively as bounding monkeys. Unless they happened to find some specialized terrain, they would never remain standing foolishly in one spot.

The continuous bombardment and gunfire instantly kicked off the battle. Through a concealed little window, Andrei watched as these Black Hawk soldiers rapidly formed into individual combat formations.

Although these Black Hawk soldiers were not the armored grenadiers Andrei had imagined, they had clearly been trained in how to coordinate with armored vehicles.

Instead of foolishly clustering around the armored vehicles or using them as moving cover, each squad of Black Hawk soldiers operated with distinct tactical awareness.

Anchoring themselves around the armored vehicles as the core, they formed flexible combat groups, with infantry advancing swiftly under the covering fire of the armored units.

Inside the trenches up ahead, the defending Hanwu soldiers opened fire with a barrage, continuously fighting back against the charging enemy infantry.

Yet, it had to be said, the marksmanship of these replacement troops was truly atrocious!

Perhaps it was because Andrei had spent too much time watching players, leading to an abnormally skewed standard for shooting accuracy in his mind.

Still, watching these replacement troops fire for ages without managing to kill a single person genuinely made him feel a bit weary.

Compared to them, the players' kill efficiency was vastly higher.

The players hiding inside the buildings darted back and forth between second-floor rooms and attics, occasionally dashing over to the neighboring building, changing their position after every single shot.

In just a short while, Andrei saw at least five enemies gunned down. Alongside him, several other sniper players were continuously picking off targets from a distance.

Evidently, however, these sniper players were being a bit too flashy, drawing the enemy's attention and getting targeted in no time.

"No wonder you guys got beaten to a pulp. Looks like there's an elite enemy force in this town!"

"Such a large number of sharpshooters is definitely not normal. Could it be that a Hanwu special marksmanship squad is stationed here?"

Over the communications channel, Armored Battalion Commander August commented with great enthusiasm, completely oblivious to the ugly expressions on the faces of the two infantry battalion commanders.

From their perspective, they had simply gone out on a routine sweep, expecting zero trouble. Yet halfway through the mission, they received radio notification that the 1st Battalion and the regimental headquarters had been completely wiped out!

To be honest, when the two of them first received the news, they were utterly dumbfounded. They could hardly fathom what kind of enemy force could annihilate an infantry detachment of nearly 800 men.

Judging by the current situation, however, this batch of enemies was indeed formidable!

"Hahaha, little rats, all of you go to hell!"

An Arbitrator mecha strode forward ahead of the infantry, stepping onto the opposite bank of the river and immediately unleashing a barrage upon the houses across the way.

The intense firepower of four machine guns tore the walls of those buildings to shreds in the blink of an eye. The scout players hiding inside didn't even have time to run downstairs before they were blasted to pieces along with their cover.

The very next moment, however, they respawned from a nearby building.

"Absurd! That damned thing's firepower is this savage? The legendary 'health bar vanishes' technique?"

A player cursed involuntarily while feeling a secret sense of relief that the map's terrain was complex and dotted with numerous respawn points.

Otherwise, if it were like their previous operations where they couldn't find a respawn point for the life of them, perishing out on the road would have spelled absolute disaster.

Since they had taken over the town, which offered plenty of vacant buildings, Andrei had naturally designated as many houses as possible as respawn points.

Throughout the entire town, he had set up a full nine respawn points, ensuring that whenever and wherever a player died, they could instantly respawn nearby as good as new.

The Arbitrator mecha that had just rolled up was still on a rampage, convinced that sitting inside an armored vehicle meant it had nothing to fear from enemy attacks.

Yet the very next moment, an unexpected armor-piercing shell pierced straight through the front armor of the mecha.

The Arbitrator mecha was, after all, a transitional design in the Black Hawk Empire's armored vehicle development—essentially engineered specifically as an anti-infantry platform. Consequently, it lacked anti-armor firepower and possessed only 20 millimeters of frontal armor.

The anti-tank hunter hiding in the shadows penetrated the armored vehicle with a single shot, instantly killing the vehicle commander within.

What's more, the armor-piercing shell that burst into the vehicle slammed against the rear wall; failing to punch through, it caused a ricochet instead!

The wildly bouncing fragments of the shell then struck the driver inside the vehicle, achieving a double kill with a single shot!

"Nice! One down!"

The anti-tank hunter shouted excitedly after scoring his first kill, then hurried to relocate his position.

In the distance, several armored vehicles were already swinging their turrets around toward his direction, demonstrating the enemy's remarkably swift reaction time.