Chapter 236: Setup Within Setup

The focus of the game had never been on the border. Therefore, Tang Ling selected the middle interception point to break through the enemy defense line.

What was the nature of pursuing a target?

For the pursuer, it would be a game of chasing the target with relentless manpower or whatnot, and when the prey was finally exhausted, the pursuer would go in and capture the prey.

For the pursued, one word—escape. Escaping the pursuer’s grasp was the key to this whole game.

Combining the nature of the pursuer and the pursued, this game started off with an intention that was not based on the pursuing process. If it really did, then the pursuer’s tactic was very lousy. He would surely lose because once the pursued managed to break through, the opportunity to play the game would be lost.

On the contrary, if the pursued started off to solely break through the intricacies of the game, it would also be a cheap strategy because the pursuer would have the time and manpower to set up a lot of things. Without ample preparation, apprehension would be certain in the end.

Tang Ling and Tang Long were both excellent players in this game of chess. They understood that this game was not confined by space and time.

In Tang Long’s perspective, his first goal was clear, which was to force Tang Ling to expose himself. The interception point set up at the border was solely for that purpose.

Whether he could capture Tang Ling or not at the border, as long as Tang Ling exposed himself, Tang Long would strategically win. He could use this to his advantage and start a long-term quest for Tang Ling, exhausting him, forcing him to his limit, and ultimately apprehending him.

What would the difficulty be then?

Tang Long would have to calculate his opponent’s situation, his speed, his time left on the clock, and his goal to figure out where his opponent would break through so that he could set himself up in advance.

Judging from the situation, Tang Long had successfully achieved his goal.

As for Tang Ling?

Having started off in a bad position, he was not allowed to waste time in the grasslands to observe the situation and figure out a safe route to break through from there due to his environment and time. It would have cost him a lot of time to observe and analyze things.

Tang Ling was not God, so he could not have known where Tang Long would have set up the interception point without any information at hand.

The possible outcome following this path would be scary if misplayed. With every minute of delay, it would be time for his opponent to grow his forces to capture him. In the end, the entire grassland would be filled with troops on his tail.

The biggest disadvantage was if he dragged it out. Even if he managed to get out of the grassland, he would have to bear the relentless and seemingly endless pursuits for the time to come because it would no longer be possible for him to shake them off.

Therefore, Tang Ling’s initial goal was also clear. He had two points to achieve. Firstly, he had to beat the time. Secondly, he had to select a route that benefited himself and break through regardless.

By doing so, exposing his whereabouts was certain! Therefore, he selected the middle interception point to break through and utilized his only advantage to the maximum: the black notebook with the map. He knew the terrain better than the soldiers, and moreover…

As for how to break through the enemy’s defense line?

Most of the time, breaking through required no plan or preparation. With the general direction set, all he needed was to beat the time and break through with violence. He had two trump cards under his sleeves anyway: his Precise Instinct and his transformation.

These two abilities were utilized to their full potential during the attempt.

His Precise Instinct brought out the full potential of a firearm and managed to suppress the enemy with accuracy whereas the surprise transformation allowed him to break through after he got near to the goal! First, he surprised the enemy. Secondly, he could save time.

His transformation could only last for five minutes, and he had to draw distances and set something up during the duration of the transformation! Every second was precious to him.

As the two players clashed, Tang Long forced Tang Ling to expose himself, but the latter managed to escape the grassland by fully utilizing his advantage.

In short, Tang Ling got the slightly better end of this game.

Tang Long could not have known the reason why Tang Ling chose to break through the middle interception point, meaning that he could not predict Tang Ling’s upcoming actions and the reason behind it, hence the pursuers would risk falling into Tang Ling’s pace soon.

…

“Death Adder Scale, your coordinates?” Tang Long reconfirmed the location of the squad through the communication device.

“Santos Ridge. Coordinates 121.77,” the sharp and sinister voice of Death Adder Scale responded.

Following the sinister voice, Tang Long’s finger moved across the map quickly and landed on a valley.

The terrain of the valley was unlike others. The widest area was only 9 meters while everywhere else was less than 5 meters. It was known as the ‘single line sky’ terrain by the old civilization, meaning that the valley was so narrow that only a single line of sky was visible above.

Tang Long’s finger tapped on the map and said, “Move to the south right now and stop at coordinates 114.63. It’s 17 km from your current position. Get there in 5 minutes. Any problem?”

“Three will be enough.” Death Adder Scale chuckled sinisterly and hung up.

He was not boasting. His top speed neared a hundred meters per second, and if he maintained the speed, he could run a kilometer in a matter of seconds, at most, ten.

However, of course, maintaining top speed was not possible. With the complicated terrain, the best he could do was three minutes; he could reach in two if it was flat land.

After getting the answer, Tang Long did not look thrilled at all. His expression looked even heavier. He and Tang Ling had officially fought twice now.

The first was the fight to seize the window for information. He had lost! His setups had been a little rushed and he finally realized the situation after 10 minutes. Only then did he call for the search in the villages. Regardless of the excuse, be it objective or subjective, the fact was that he had lost.

The second time was at the southern border.

Looking at the map before him, Tang Long marked down four important points. One of the points in the southeastern corner had Tang Long’s handwriting on it: “61%”.

The rest of the three points were 22%, 14%, and 3% respectively. The percentage represented the possibility of Tang Ling choosing that particular route.

Who would have thought that Tang Ling would pick the center, the route which had a 0% possibility?

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The center point was just a regular point to form the line of defense at the border and was actually difficult to break through. The center point was a lot deeper into the Raqir Plains, and even after Tang Ling broke through, the other two sides could easily flank him and chase him down if he slipped.

Why would he choose the center point then?

Even if Tang Long did not know Tang Ling’s capabilities after the transformation, like how he did not expect Tang Ling to possess such speed after his transformation, it still did not make sense! It was a taboo for the pursued to have a group of pursuers on its tail.

Is he counting on the soldiers to chase him?

This was the result of insufficient information which would produce a blank space in the strategy because Tang Long had no way to predict Tang Ling’s goal, hence rendering the pursue blind.

Even if Tang Ling did expose himself, because of this particular choice, exposing himself might turn into an advantage.

Tang Long clenched his fist tightly.

The game only started at the Santos Ridge as he had set up traps in the area.

The members of the Death Adder Squad, who were stationed at all the strategic points beyond the border, would be key to this new round of game. Beyond that, he had many other setups ready such as how he was able to summon a member of the Death Adder Squad to intercept Tang Ling on the inevitable route via a simple call.

The coordinates that he gave was indeed a definite route Tang Ling would have to pass if he wanted to go deep into the Santos Ridge after running out from the border. If he did not go through that route, given how he would cross the border, he could never go deep into the Santos Ridge. The most he could do was circle around at the entrance.

If Tang Ling was smart, he would never circle around at the entrance because it would increase the possibility of him being captured by 95%. Therefore, he would surely take the risk and go deep into the mountain ridge.

A question then arose. It was still that same old question: why did Tang Ling choose the center point? Going into the Santos Ridge via the center point and crossing the certain route, which was the ‘single line sky’ terrain, was very dangerous for him! How could he put himself in such a situation?

Unless he had no idea what the terrain beyond the border was like…Would he be that stupid though?

Tang Long felt heavy grievance from missing the last step for his setup to the point that he had to guess Tang Ling’s every step, instead of deducing with valid evidence based on the situation.

He had a feeling that he was playing the game at Tang Ling’s pace, which hurt his pride, his carefully protected pride of being undefeated.

…

Before his transformation, his top speed was around 2.5 seconds for every hundred meters. After the transformation, it was 110 meters per second! His speed did not increase accordingly, but his legs were longer, hence the wider steps!

Tang Ling grumbled because he was not actually running on both his feet. He was running with all four of his limbs, choosing to mimic a leopard’s sprint. Indeed, he ran faster, and if not for his strengthened waist after the transformation, his body could not support the sprinting posture at all.

Fine, even if he sprinted like a leopard, his top speed was only 110 meters per second.

Was it enough? It was!

The center point was 8.7 km deep into the Raqir Plains, meaning that he would have to travel another 8.7 km to reach the foot of the Santos Ridge. The 8.7 km distance could be referred to as the buffer between the Raqir Plains and the Santos Ridge.

Tang Ling was on the clock. Since he broke through from the center, he would be that much farther from the Santos Ridge and the soldiers from the other two points could easily flank him.

Through the Precise Instinct calculations, he was able to know when the troops on both sides received news about him breaking through and where they would flank him.

There were two points that he had to overcome. The first one was at the 29th second. He had to cross the 2.8 km point within 29 seconds to avoid being caught by the troops from the left. The second one was at the 61st second. He had to cross the 6.1 km point within the remaining time to avoid the troops from the right.

Theoretically speaking, he had enough time to do it, but factoring the terrain or some unexpected encounter in, he would barely make it.

Therefore, sprinting on four limbs was nothing! If he could buy himself some time, he would even roll if he could. Because his body was huge after the transformation, at such speed, the wind resistance was huge.

The strong wind buffeted Tang Ling’s face like knives cutting him. Thankfully, his body was a lot more tenacious after the transformation. Otherwise, he could have turned into a bloody man with all the running.

The heavy resistance also brought sharp whistling into his ears. He constantly heard loud whistles as he ran like how the supercars in the old civilization sprinted on the highway.

Despite the tense situation, he did not forget to entertain himself. Of course, he could not let the tense situation pressure himself as he had to relax. He thought of the supercars from the old civilization, the transportation that almost all men liked, including himself. “What a pity! If I could install a flat-eight engine in my body, will I become a supercar and tear through the streets?”

Unfortunately, in the Purple Moon era, people could no longer produce cars and all running vehicles were a legacy from the old civilization, so there was only a limited number of them.

The Stardust Council had mobilized that many off-road vehicles from a single base just to chase him down. Extravagant much?

With that in mind, the 29th second passed.

Tang Ling successfully shot across the first point. Six seconds later, noises from the troops in pursuit came from that particular point behind him.

After the 61st second, he successfully ran across the second point, and three seconds later, the noises from the troops behind him grew even louder.

From a bird’s eye view, it was a spectacular sight to the eyes because as Tang Ling ran in front, there were at least 200 soldiers on his tail, including nine Purple Moon Warriors.

Thankfully, Tang Ling beat the clock and drew some distance from his pursuers.

Even if the Purple Moon Warriors used Transient Steps, they could not catch up to Tang Ling in a few steps. Transient Steps required energy to support its activation and even Purple Moon Warriors could not use it endlessly.

The best option for the soldiers and Purple Moon Warriors would be keeping Tang Ling within sight because anyone with a little common sense knew that his current form would not last forever.

Judging from the situation, Tang Ling’s decision to break through at the middle interception point was probably the most foolish choice, but was it really?

He looked up and saw the Santos Ridge before his eyes.

The most critical moment was just around the corner.

Tang Ling had picked up a reverberating gallop that put a smile on his face, yet a mixed feeling arose in his heart.

‘Kid, do you want to experience the night when the wolves attack? If you reach the Raqir Plains and are fortunate enough to run into the wolves, I suggest you turn around so that you won’t pee yourself. Actually, these greedy grassland wolves are nothing and I know why they attack the human villages annually, but I’m not telling you.

‘Hurts to be a fool, right? Do you want to beat me up? Fine, to heal that little heart of yours, I can tell you another interesting fact. Every year when the wolves attacks, tons of Raqir raging bulls will gather at the foot of the Santos Branching Ridge.

‘Nevertheless, it’s not weird since they also want to avoid the wolves, and only for one night, they will gather in a large herd. Don’t underestimate the raging bulls. They are quite scary when they are agitated.

‘That’s why I’m here to remind you to never get too close to the foot of the Santos Branching Ridge on the night when the wolves attack. And if you somehow have to, remember to avoid these particular points that I’ve marked down because these few points are…’

Tang Ling looked ahead and saw a large herd of Raqir raging bulls as the strange feeling in his heart got heavier.

Did Tang Feng anticipate all this? Is that why he wrote all those in the notebooks?

He was reluctant to accept the goodwill from his father.