Chapter 4: Brothers on the Internet

Back in the dorm, I still couldn't let go of today's defeat, because I had to admit that part of the reason for losing the match was my own poor skill, which dragged the whole team down.

That "NoNoYes" captain was probably so polite because he recognized me, since I found him somewhat familiar too; it seemed we had clashed before in the national Thunder God tournament.

Of course, his Thunder God strength never posed any threat to me, yet now he's acting all high and mighty playing CS—damn it!

I pressed the computer's power switch; since I had ordered my teammates to gather tactics, I, as captain, naturally couldn't make an exception. Although this school wasn't great in other aspects, I was quite satisfied that the dorms were connected to broadband internet.

There are many ways to gather tactics; copying from the database on a famous team's homepage is naturally the quickest method. Of course, those teams certainly wouldn't be kind enough to throw their hard-earned tactics onto the street for resource sharing; instead, they hoarded them like a broom they cherish, using layer after layer of firewalls to symbolically hide those well-known secrets behind their backs while wasting their already limited online space.

However, for me, the hacker "Lucifer" who is somewhat famous online, those firewalls could only serve a symbolic function.

My targets were first some domestic team homepages, because my future opponents would mainly be these domestic friends, and Sun Bin once said a very reasonable thing: "Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated in a hundred battles." Hehe.

What? You say this isn't very moral? You must know, my creed is: "All men are brothers under the four seas." What is a brother? A brother is someone used to pay the bill when eating, to take the blame when scolded, to be called when skipping class, and to escape when clashing with thugs... Also, a brother's things are my things, and my things are naturally still my things; like Xu Ge is my good brother.

What I am doing now is merely taking a look at my brothers' webpages...

"If the first round pistol match is lost, it is best in the second round to collectively run naked to the enemy base and beg the opponents for a quick death to save time and money, ensuring the third round can equip better weapons..."

"If the rules allow, one might as well constantly provoke in the public channel; there is a high probability of distracting the opponents' attention..."

"If you are playing as a police officer and luckily kill the terrorist carrying the C4 bomb, your best choice is to ambush all members near the bomb pack on the ground, waiting for the terrorist to pick it up. Of course, if you are the terrorist, you can also just throw the pack on the ground, then ambush nearby waiting for a curious police officer..."

Damn! What kind of nonsense is this?! After reading countless such nonsense from my brothers, I finally understood one thing: this is why China's Counter-Terrorists lose repeatedly in international competitions...

What I want is not these joke-like things, but real analysis of the maps, assignment and positioning of team members, setting up crossfire points, and how the captain gives orders quickly at the start of a round!

Helplessly, my target shifted to the European internet, but I couldn't enter the homepage of the Swedish team "Saint Virgin," the champions of the last tournament; it seems there are experts guarding it. So my target locked onto the homepage of Germany's =HISTORY=.

Half an hour later, I successfully entered their core database and routed the anti-tracking signal into the exam management section of the school's database. After copying everything clean, wiping away the traces I left upon entering, I opened the newly acquired data with trembling hands.

No wonder everyone says Germans are rigorous; look at how their tactical analysis is written: a map drawn to precise scale, marking attack points and defense points, outlining each person's movement for different tactics with different colored pens, with arrival times at various key points precise to the second... And what the captain must do first is announce which tactic to use at the start of a round.

For example, if the captain types: B02210, it means Tactic B, with two people going to the second route and two to the third route out of five, and one person to the fourth route; of course, who goes where must be decided beforehand. This way, the attack flows like liquid mercury, and the defense is as vast as the sky's net; everyone knows where everyone is, and as soon as someone falls, they know where the breakthrough occurred, allowing coordinated defense to happen without a word... (Note 1)

"German brothers, you are so good; I will visit often..." I clasped my hands together and silently thanked them. From then on, every night I faithfully visited a nest of brothers' databases, slowly expanding outward from Germany; after a few months, my footprints of visiting my brothers were left all over the world...

"Ring~~~~" The phone rang.

"Hey, Boss? Someone has challenged us to a practice match; they say it's a top-four team from the last tournament, called ★BigBoss★." Xu Ge's voice carried a hint of schadenfreude.

"I know," I said calmly and confidently while holding the data, "When is the match?"

"Tomorrow morning!"

>>>>>>

"If the first round pistol match is lost, it is best in the second round to collectively run naked to the enemy base and beg the opponents for a quick death..."

Crack, crack, crack. I first tore up the "data" Xu Ge and others had collected, threw it on the floor, and stomped on it a few times, then pulled out the tactical data I had just "A"ed from the German brothers. "There is half an hour before the match starts; memorize all of this. There will be an exam in twenty minutes; those who fail will treat us to dinner tonight."

I memorized it for half a night myself, hehe.

They were all experts; after glancing a few times, their eyes lit up. Xu Ge smiled ingratiatingly: "Boss, this data is really top-notch, but there's too much of it. How about we only memorize the tactics for one map... Since it's a map selection match, I think the opponents won't make things too hard for us..."

I hesitated for a moment; between dinner and victory, I ultimately chose the latter. "Alright, then you guys just memorize the Aztec (Diaoqiao) map!" Anyway, Xu Ge could treat me to dinner anytime...

By then, the BigBoss team had arrived. The captain was a guy with long hair; he came over and shook my hand, smiling: "What, studying new tactics?"

Xu Ge and the others said nothing, still bowing their heads and memorizing furiously.

"No, we are reading Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I Have a Dream'," I replied casually. "As you know, the most important thing before a match is confidence; we are cultivating confidence."

That guy shook his hair and smiled again: "What a coincidence; the purpose of our match with you is exactly to cultivate confidence." The few guys behind him laughed heartily in perfect coordination.

I ignored his provocation. "See you in the match later."

"By the way, which map will we play on later?" Long Hair seemed reluctant to let it go.

"You pick a map you are good at; we will accompany you." I casually spread my hands, while Xu Ge and the others instantly broke out in cold sweat.

However, the opponent's reaction was exactly as I had imagined; Long Hair coolly shook his head. "We are equally strong on any map!"

"Then let it be Aztec (Diaoqiao)!" I pretended to be indifferent on purpose.

The match was about to begin. There were many spectators; of course, the object of attention was not us. I turned my head to look; only Yang Mo seemed to have finished memorizing, while the others were still burying their heads, desperately K-ing that piece of paper. I looked at my own hands, took a deep breath, and said:

"I have a dream!..."

Today is the starting point!

>>>>>>>>

Recalling the instructions in the data, I quickly typed: A0410

Thus, those four obediently swarmed into the small house at the bridgehead, took their positions, and waited for the terrorists to arrive, while I, holding a pistol and three grenades, guarded alone opposite the terrorists' main entrance.

The opponents were indeed worthy of being Beijing's top four; with a flashbang, all five rushed out of the main entrance. Without stopping for a moment upon exiting, they set up their fire line in an instant, preparing to occupy the bomb site opposite the main entrance.

Rush! Five people charging one route; this tactic is simple and direct. Although it carries an element of luck, its killing power cannot be ignored!

While hiding, I threw various grenades from my hand, then stumbled out to tap-fire with my pistol. Since the five opponents stood together, I achieved perfect accuracy without even aiming. However, there is still a quantitative difference between one pistol and five pistols; soon I became a sieve's brother, and the screen before my eyes turned black.

I silently prayed in my heart: Hope my teammates notice my death and rush to support the main entrance... If so, in about three seconds, both sides should engage...

Half a minute later, there was still dead silence.

Seeing the police with no support, the terrorists quickly occupied the bomb site, leaving one to plant the bomb while the remaining four formed a squad to prepare to hunt down the police. Of course, they didn't really need to do this; the bomb exploding would count as their victory. But I could understand their thinking; to use an old Beijing phrase: "Seeing a person makes one unable to hold back the fire!"

However, contrary to everyone's expectations, the four terrorists hunting the police happened to pass right by the small house at the bridgehead, and even more coincidentally, one of them poked his head in for a look, and immediately flew out backwards with blood spurting from his head. You must know, Xu Ge's tap-fire has been tempered by the Thunder God's RailGun (laser trajectory gun), so pistol shooting is naturally a piece of cake, and that guy only poked in a very large head...

Just as everyone was stunned, Andy immediately jumped out, roared "Go! Go! Go!", and blew off another fine head with a shot. Immediately after, Yang Mo and Xu Ge took care of the other two. Xiao K, not wanting to fall behind, charged straight toward the bomb site where only one terrorist remained, but was easily killed by the terrorist who had turned grief into strength. When everyone thought there wasn't enough time and the bomb was about to explode, Yang Mo, after killing the last terrorist, touchingly pulled out the defuser. He had saved 200 yuan from his already limited 800 yuan in the first round to buy the defuser; he is truly a model police officer!

The second round began. After the previous practice match, we fully understood what to do when the opponent has pistols and we have submachine guns, and the opponents fully understood this too. So when we walked to the terrorist spawn point, a group of terrorists was already holding Glock18s, warmly welcoming us. We did not hesitate; dense bullets poured down on these poor people...

Starting from the third round, the match entered a stalemate. The opponents were obviously somewhat impatient, causing dissonant notes in what was originally smooth coordination. In contrast, our team members' characteristics gradually came to the fore: Xu Ge's accuracy, Yang Mo's steadiness, Andy's ferocity, Xiao K's cunning, and mine... um... this... mine's comprehensiveness (Xu Ge: I vomit, I vomit wildly). Combined with our advantage in one-on-one encounters, we finally maintained the advantage from the first two rounds until the end.

13:7! The victory of =LOST=!

Yang Mo pushed up his glasses. "As I expected..."

"To hell with you! Why did no one provide backup defense in the first round?!" I punched the table.

"This move of ours is the famous strategy: 'Waiting for a rabbit by a stump'! It indeed produced miraculous results..." Xu Ge was still laughing.

"Hehehe, my tactics were successful, right? I carried this move through to the very end..." Xiao K wore a look of smug satisfaction.

Andy was still spouting: "... In the blink of an eye, I leaped into the air, firing left and right..."

"Blue Sky Flying Pig..." Yang Mo smiled like a fox again.

The people from BigBoss had already left without saying goodbye. For the excitement and clamor always belong only to the victors...

"It seems the existence of tactics indeed played a huge role... and the reason the last few rounds, where we held all the advantages, ended in a draw, is that we threw our tactics aside again in those rounds..." I concluded with deep gravity.

"Starting tomorrow, no more practice matches. Use the guys in the internet cafe's local network who fight on their own as opponents, and train hard on tactical positioning across various maps!" I announced my conclusion.

"Received!" These guys were full of energy.

As for me, I was thinking: Which brother's place should I borrow tactics from tonight?...

>>>>>>

Note 1: In a real match, it is not so simple. Overly rigid tactical rules can actually hinder the players' performance. Positioning and movement are certainly necessary, but the ability to adapt to changing circumstances is the true guarantee of victory.

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