In the third round for Seiji and the others, Seiji was yet again voted the Blue Team commander, and he accepted once more.
With last round’s experience, he believed that he could perform even better than last time. As long as nothing unexpected happened, he was confident of winning and ensuring the "survival" of all his teammates.
Yes, if nothing unexpected happened…
For some reason, after Seiji entered the gymnasium, he had an ominous premonition. He felt a faint sense of discomfort and felt that he had forgotten something important.
The whistle blew, signaling the start of the battle.
Seiji passed down orders to each small-team captain. They were to attempt a direct frontal attack.
That’s right—he'd changed his tactics.
He considered the fact that everyone outside had seen their tactics from the previous round. If some of them were now participating against him, they might be on guard, which was why he decided to change his strategy.
However, this was ultimately a mock battle-game, and everyone had varying levels of skill, so complex strategies were unfeasible. It was just a simple change.
Their direct attack… was rather successful—they managed to take out two Red Team members.
Just as Seiji was contemplating whether to press his advantage or to cautiously maintain the current balance and attempt a flanking attack, someone from Blue Team ‘died.’
‘No, I won't press the attack. I'll play it safer.’ Seiji decided on the latter strategy.
"Teams #3 and #4, don’t proceed any further…"
Before he even finished talking, he heard the announcement that two more Blue Team players had ‘died!’
"Commander, there’s an incredibly strong person on the other team; this person used only three shots to—"
*Boom!*
The sound of a grenade explosion interrupted the message on his walkie-talkie.
Seiji instantly heard the ‘death’ announcement for this person.
Four people had ‘perished!’
"Team #4, retreat! There’s an expert player in the Red Team! Hurry up and retreat!"
Seiji shouted into his walkie-talkie as he followed the sounds and looked in the direction of that particular battle.
There was fierce gunfire coming from that direction.
"Blue #13 has ‘died…’"
"Blue #14 has ‘died…’"
Another two people from Seiji’s team were killed.
"Team #4 squad leader! Please respond…"
"Damn it! I can’t even hit her!! What’s with that girl!?" He could hear Team #4's squad leader yelling in frustration.
A girl?
*Boom!* Seiji could faintly hear the unmistakable sound of a sniper shot through the walkie-talkie.
Then, there was an announcement that the Blue Team had lost another member—this time it was Team #4's squad leader.
‘A female expert who’s a sniper and can make perfect headshots every time…’ Seiji had a hazy image of who he was facing.
"Everyone watch out: there’s an incredible female sniper on the enemy team! Everyone needs to protect their heads. Don't allow her to pick you off with a single shot!" He informed the remaining Blue Team members.
Teams #3 and #4 had been eradicated.
That one person… that single female sniper expert took out seven people all by herself!
‘Which movie did she come out of!? She’s a little too amazing as a main character, isn’t she!?’ While Seiji was energetically commenting in his mind, everyone outside watching the proceedings on the big screens was awestruck.
They had just witnessed a beautiful girl carrying a heavy laser sniper rifle and moving about as swiftly as a ghost. She dodged her enemies’ gunfire with incredible skill and used her chances to come out from cover, aim, and fire, one-hit-KOing every single one of her enemies.
For seven people, she only shot six times and made a headshot every time! She also took care of one person with a grenade.
How amazing could this person possibly be!?
If it weren’t for the fact that she was obviously a teenager and was still wearing the Genhana High School uniform, many people would misconstrue her as some type of special forces agent or secret assassin.
This definitely was far above the average level of someone who simply enjoyed field battles as a hobby!
Was she a professional player? By the way, did such a game even have professional players? Were all professional players as strong as she was?
The girl with the big gun who could shoot with 100% accuracy… she seemed exactly like a character out of a movie or an anime.
Her back against a wall and a sniper rifle in her hands, she cautiously stuck her head out to observe the situation—this scene was one of indescribable beauty.
The handsome Seiji had originally been the center of attention on the big screen, but now this dark gray long-haired beautiful girl was cast into the limelight.
The Blue Team had sunk into a bad situation.
So, what would the young commander do in such a situation?
They'd lost seven members… this was a huge loss. His ominous premonition had come to fruition. They were likely to lose now that the opposition possessed such an expert female sniper.
Seiji smiled wryly; he felt he had just been slapped in the face after believing that he could easily obtain his third victory.
He even wondered if this expert female sniper was a secret weapon from the student organizers, who had the special role of preventing people from obtaining three victories.
No, he couldn’t give up so easily. An expert… that meant a worthy challenge for him!
Seiji’s eyes flashed with anticipation. First, he had to confirm her location.
Teams #3 and #4 had met her head-on, so if she proceeded onwards instead of retreating, then she would soon reach this location.
Then, he had to devise a method to deal with her.
He would have to surround her with everyone. Seven people in total had already been "killed" by her alone, which meant that the only way they could possibly defeat her would be to surround her with the remaining thirteen and attack from all sides.
Thirteen against one... even with such a large numerical difference, Seiji still felt it would be difficult to win, which was rather…
He could only chuckle wryly.
It was time to put their plan into action!
"Everyone listen closely—if we can’t take out the enemy’s expert right here and now, we won’t be able to win… no, honestly speaking, it’s already almost impossible for us to win. But, at the very least, it’s still possible for us to defeat their expert!
"As the commander, I’m going to lead everyone to surround this expert, and use all our forces to defeat her!
"I won’t accept any objections. If any of you object, then just go hide somewhere and wait for defeat." Seiji paused for a moment. Nobody objected. "Now, let me make the arrangements for the ambush…"
All the members of Blue Team followed Commander Seiji’s orders.
"Captain, thirteen against one is rather shameful," Chiaki said.
"That might not be the case. The other members of Red Team aren’t inanimate pieces of wood after all, and they may come as well," Seiji answered.
"That’s true… you’re not going to make any preparations against the other members of Red Team?"
"There’s no point—we need to use all our forces to deal with that female sniper and have no leeway to care about anything else."
"How shameless indeed."
"Who cares about honor or shame when playing a game! As long as we can defeat the strong enemy before us, that’s enough!"
"Sigh… the hot spring hotel…"
"Wah… let’s stop thinking about that."
Even though they felt excited when they discussed the hot spring hotel trip, they were now at such a disadvantage… how heartbreaking!
‘It’s time to transform our broken hearts into strength to take out this expert,’ Seiji thought to himself.
The preparations for the ambush were quickly completed. The only part left was to wait… and they saw her!
Right when Seiji saw that figure, he stiffened as he finally recalled the important detail he had forgotten.
Yesterday, there was someone that participated in the activities together with them in order to collect emblems to participate in this game today—Mai Houjou!
The Smiling Executioner… President Yoruhana’s maid, the legendary person who had singlehandedly eliminated half of the clubs in Genhana High School.
Right now, she was in front of him as a sniper in Red Team.
She was the expert sniper who had singlehandedly defeated seven members of Blue Team by herself!
After he figured that out, Seiji’s expression relaxed and he smiled.
"Senpai, you’re really quite something…"