Chapter 9

Chu Junhui looked at the spaceship that appeared in the sky with a look of surprise. This was a model he had never seen before, with thick and obvious external armor, a forward main cannon, and unmanned turrets on the ship's body, indicating that it was not an ordinary armed transport ship but a warship.

The spaceship slowly flew over the valley, and the hatch opened. One by one, soldiers jumped out, using the jetpacks on their backs to turn and disperse in mid-air, landing in various parts of the valley.

Chu Junhui squinted his eyes, and his exceptional vision allowed him to see clearly that each of the airdropped soldiers was heavily armed. The identical combat suits and backpacks indicated that they all belonged to the same unit.

How could such a unit suddenly appear on this desolate, uninhabited planet? And why did they choose to drop right above him? Could this be a coincidence?

Chu Junhui quickly calculated the planet's surface area based on the curvature of the horizon and compared it with the size of the valley to determine the probability of a coincidence. The number was so small that even he, as an experimental subject, could only consider it zero.

If it wasn't a coincidence, then there was only one explanation: these people belonged to the same force that attacked the base. They must have known that Chu Junhui had escaped here and had come to hunt him down.

A glint of killing intent flashed in Chu Junhui's eyes.

He was no longer a docile experimental subject. Dr. Chu had broken the final restriction for him. Now, he was Chu Junhui, both an experimental subject and the youth in the data, carrying the last wishes of the doctor. He had finally gained freedom and would not let these people take it away again.

However, the airdropped soldiers were all heavily armed. He only had a heavy machine gun, a close-combat weapon, which would put him at a disadvantage in a fight.

On the other hand, in terms of combat skills, the close-combat gun fighting techniques he mastered were only at version 0.1a, which was clearly very primitive. The regular soldiers airdropped here likely had mature versions 1.0 or even 1.2, covering both close and long-range combat.

Chu Junhui could roughly guess the gap between the initial test version and the mature version.

He calmed down and retreated behind a tree.

The disparity between the two sides was significant, and the enemy was well-prepared. A direct confrontation would be disastrous. Fortunately, he was familiar with the planet and the surrounding valley, with a complete map and terrain advantage. He could try to approach stealthily. If he could get close, switch to close-combat mode, and swing his 40-kilogram heavy machine gun, it would easily overpower the thin assault rifles in their hands.

With his plan set, Chu Junhui retreated, intending to move outside the encirclement.

However, there was an unobservant guy in the sky who kept adjusting his course, heading straight for Chu Junhui. Chu Junhui dodged several times, but the guy always adjusted his course as if he could predict the future, following him closely.

Chu Junhui stopped running and hid behind a large tree. If this guy dared to land, it would be within close-combat range.

The airborne soldier accelerated his descent, increasing the power of his jetpack when he was a few dozen meters from the ground to slow his landing speed and successfully land. He quickly removed his jetpack and threw it on the ground.

The discarded jetpack made Chu Junhui's eyes light up. In the past week, he had struggled to make a few primitive pieces of equipment. The alloy materials used in this jetpack were two generations more advanced than what he had. By disassembling this jetpack, he would likely get titanium and magnesium.

If they could casually discard such a jetpack, it meant that the other equipment on their bodies was even better.

Looking at the airdropped soldier not far away, who was crouched behind a tree, peering around, Chu Junhui felt a sense of a better life ahead.

Chu Junhui held his breath, held the heavy machine gun upside down, and silently approached the soldier step by step. Even the best tactical helmet couldn't withstand a blow from his heavy machine gun.

As a former experimental subject with no sense of time, Chu Junhui had infinite patience. He moved at a snail's pace, silently inching towards the soldier.

He didn't know if the soldier had any advanced sensors, such as those that could detect sudden vibrations, sounds, or other things, or if he could, like Chu Junhui, use various sound waves and vibrations to create a holographic image of the surroundings.

So, inching forward was the safest.

The soldier kept peering around, and at the slightest sound, his gun would point in that direction, moving swiftly and efficiently, clearly well-trained. However, he switched targets too quickly and never thought to look behind him.

Chu Junhui was only ten meters away.

Chu Junhui looked at the soldier with some confusion. The soldier's movements were like a tactical action manual, many of which were inexplicable and seemed pointless. Unable to understand the meaning of some of the soldier's actions, Chu Junhui hid behind a tree and observed carefully. Without even peeking, he could use the vibrations and sounds caused by the soldier's exaggerated movements to visualize his position, almost like X-ray vision.

After observing for a while, Chu Junhui suddenly understood. The young soldier's excessive movements were not for any special purpose; he was just nervous and scared, so much so that he was at a loss.

"Is he afraid of me?" Chu Junhui wondered. He never thought of himself as particularly formidable. Human combat techniques and skills had developed to a very mature and efficient level, with versions 7.0 and 8.0 everywhere. His 0.1a version was still a test version and not something to be proud of.

If the technical version was lacking, there were ways to compensate, and the method was simple and brutal.

Chu Junhui slowly raised his heavy machine gun, preparing to knock out the nervous and helpless young soldier and then find a place to interrogate him. Although the experimental subject had not learned interrogation techniques, the youth had read many miscellaneous books and had a broad knowledge, including a lot of information on this topic, mostly from novels and movies.

Bang! The airdropped soldier fell to the ground, his body instantly sparking with electric shocks, his limbs twitching uncontsciously.

Chu Junhui looked at the scene in shock. His heavy machine gun was still in the air, and he was in the position to strike. He was just half a second away from charging forward.

Chu Junhui felt a chill. With more opponents, there would always be lapses. He had been completely focused on the rookie in front of him and hadn't noticed the sniper lurking in the distance.

Fortunately, the sniper seemed to be focused on the rookie and didn't notice Chu Junhui, who was ten meters away.

Chu Junhui crouched motionless. Any movement could be detected, and human eyes were much better at catching moving objects than static ones.

Sure enough, not long after, another airdropped soldier appeared from the forest, crouching and slowly approaching the fallen rookie. She was a young girl with braids tied at the back of her head. Her movements were light and powerful, like a female leopard. She held her gun and approached the fallen prey.

Bang! She fell beside the rookie, her face buried in the dirt.

Chu Junhui appeared behind her, and the heavy machine gun finally saw action.

He was somewhat merciful, only knocking them out without killing. The situation with these airdropped soldiers was strange, as if they were fighting each other. Perhaps their arrival had nothing to do with him. If so, he couldn't kill them indiscriminately.

Chu Junhui picked up the assault rifle on the ground, inspected it, found the data interface, and extended a probe to read all the usage data of the assault rifle.

This was a general-purpose multifunctional rifle with some long-range sniper capabilities. The sniper function switch was essentially just a change in the reticle and the use of specialized sniper ammunition.

Chu Junhui checked the magazine and found that it was filled with semi-transparent bullets with blue cores, which were electric shock rounds. When these rounds hit a target, they would instantly release a high-voltage current, paralyzing movement and causing non-lethal effects, typically used for riot control or capture.

He searched the unconscious airdropped soldier and found that she had only a small amount of food and water, enough to last a day. There were no tents or sleeping bags for camping. She also had a pistol and a dagger. The pistol ammunition was also electric shock rounds, with no lethal rounds.

Seeing this, Chu Junhui had a general idea. These soldiers were indeed not here for him. It seemed they were conducting a field training exercise or drill, and unfortunately, they had chosen the drill site right above him.

He looked at a small box on the female soldier's shoulder, which was a personal information terminal with communication and battlefield information recording functions.

Chu Junhui didn't know if the female soldier had seen him, so he took the information terminals from both soldiers, crushed them, and buried them in the soil. In the planet's strong acidic environment, the sensitive components in the information terminals would be destroyed within half an hour.

The first fallen soldier's body twitched again with electric sparks. He groaned, his limbs twitching uncontsciously.

"Poor little guy," Chu Junhui shrugged.

The electric shock rounds used by these airdropped soldiers seemed to be enhanced. Although they wouldn't kill, the pain was unbearable, similar to an electric torture. The unfortunate rookie was probably knocked out by the electric shock when hit but was still being tortured by the current in his unconscious state.

Chu Junhui picked up the assault rifle and two magazines and disappeared into the forest.

At this moment, the transport ship was hovering high in the sky. A burly officer without a rank stood by the forward window, looking at the distant land. On the wall was a three-dimensional projection map of the valley battlefield, with several light points, some stationary and some moving quickly.

Each light point represented a soldier, and two of them suddenly turned red, indicating they had been eliminated.

"Haha, they didn't train well in peacetime, so they're suffering now," the burly officer sneered.

A young staff officer beside him seemed a bit worried and said, "Colonel, we secretly increased the power of the electric shock rounds and disabled the anti-electric function of their combat suits. Is this... really okay?"