A team needs a strong leader, and Guan Jinsong ranked sixth, so Lü Qingqing needed her to be an indispensable core member of the group.
Zhou Fengjiu not only consistently worked in criminal investigation but was also a top-ranked female, making her a great help when male team members faced situations where it was inconvenient for them to act.
Then there was Cai Xiaojuan, from the forensics department, adept at investigation and counter-reconnaissance.
And a man named Ye Fengyi, whom Lü Qingqing had seen climbing trees several times. He was agile, and each time he climbed, he chose trees that were at a 45-degree angle to the ground and had vines. Lü Qingqing deduced that this person must have extensive jungle experience.
Lü Qingqing explained everyone's strengths, astonishing everyone.
They never imagined that after just a few encounters or a brief period of interaction, Lü Qingqing could see the shining points in them.
"What about me, why not say something about me?" Everyone else had been discussed, except for Zhan Ruoxuan.
"You? Your strengths are too numerous to list here," Lü Qingqing said with a smile.
"Huh?" Hearing this, Zhan Ruoxuan puffed out his chest like a proud peacock, "You have a great eye for people, but to make it easier for everyone to understand me, you can just say one or two things."
"Firstly, you can serve as a good reference point to boost everyone's confidence. Secondly, our team does need someone to run errands and do odd jobs."
Ugh.
Zhan Ruoxuan was so angry he jumped up and down, making everyone burst into laughter.
Everyone assumed Lü Qingqing was joking and secretly wondered what hidden talents Zhan Ruoxuan possessed.
In reality, Lü Qingqing was telling the truth. Zhan Ruoxuan didn't have any exceptionally outstanding skills, but he was lively and good at building interpersonal relationships, which served as a strong bonding agent in a group of strangers.
Most importantly, as the team leader, Lü Qingqing needed someone she could trust one hundred percent.
With the teams formed, everyone dispersed according to their groups.
The second stage finally began.
The rules were quite simple: each person had an armband sewn onto their sleeve, and if it was taken by an opponent, they were deemed eliminated.
The opponents were composed of senior students, forming 10 teams, twice the number of the freshman class. For the freshman class to win, they had to infiltrate the senior students' camp and seize a token.
"Everyone be careful, someone just passed through here." As soon as they moved out of the visual range of the second peak, Cai Xiaojuan's forensic investigation skills came into play.
She picked up a fallen leaf and examined it closely.
The primeval forest was filled with trees that blocked out the sun. Normally, they could judge based on footprints in the soil, but here, the ground was covered with thick layers of leaves, leaving few marks.
However, Cai Xiaojuan, from forensics, noticed something different.
Fallen leaves could be categorized as normal or abnormal.
Abnormal fallen leaves included those that detached due to external force.
Normally, leaves fall when the petiole or leaf blade detaches from the branch at the site where bud scales form. But the break on the leaf in Cai Xiaojuan's hand was fresh, and there were no bud scales. Therefore, she suspected someone had just passed through here and dislodged it.
Each team had its own separate starting route, fanning out from the mountaintop in a loop. In other words, they wouldn't encounter each other for a while.
"So, the person who appeared here just now wasn't from our freshman class," Cai Xiaojuan concluded.
If it wasn't one of their own, it had to be an opponent. Everyone immediately became vigilant.
"The senior class shouldn't be nearby, right? After all, we just descended from the second peak, everyone is full of energy, and their chances of successfully attacking us now wouldn't be high," people speculated differently.
"That's not necessarily true. Don't you see that you've relaxed your guard precisely because you have this idea?" Lü Qingqing's words silenced everyone.
"Shh..." Ye Fengyi signaled for everyone to be quiet. He listened intently, his eyes sharp.
After a few seconds, he pinpointed a direction, "There was a noise over there just now, but I don't know if it was a wild animal or a person."
Upon hearing this, everyone tacitly moved in that direction.
They had no choice. Their mission was to seize a token from the senior students' base camp, and now that they had a direction, they had to investigate.
"Everyone be careful." Ten people moved cautiously, in pairs.
Suddenly, a scream echoed through the jungle.
It was a woman's voice, startling numerous birds.
They looked at each other and quickly reacted, rushing towards the depths of the forest.
"Oh no." Lü Qingqing and Ye Fengyi, running at the front, immediately frowned as a startled cry came from behind them.
"Heh, juniors, you're not very good, are you?" A stranger raised his armband triumphantly.
The one whose armband had been ripped off was a male officer ranked lower down the list. He looked dejected, "I didn't expect him to be hiding under the leaves."
Lü Qingqing cursed her bad luck, this was truly an unfavorable start.
According to the competition rules, neither side was allowed to carry firearms, only to engage in hand-to-hand combat.
Simultaneously, to prevent accidental injuries, the competition stipulated that the battle ended as soon as a senior student obtained a freshman's armband.
So, they could only watch helplessly as the senior student left, sighing.
"I'm sorry." The male officer whose armband was taken felt very guilty.
"It's okay, you go back and rest. We will complete the mission and won't return with an empty basket," Lü Qingqing could only console him.
After all, it was a team competition. Even if only one person remained at the end, as long as the mission was completed, the team would still get points.
However, this incident served as a reminder to everyone that in such an environment, they couldn't even trust the plants and trees around them.
They continued their journey, encountering several ambushes along the way. However, with the lesson learned, no one was eliminated.
"I thought there were very few junior female students this year. I didn't expect there to be 4 in your group, much cuter than the one I saw earlier." The speaker was Cao Yang. He had been about to ambush Cai Xiaojuan, but Cai Xiaojuan had already noticed the movement in the grass and let out a loud shout, causing everyone to surround him and trap him.
Since his sneak attack failed, Cao Yang had to reveal himself. He even chatted with them for a bit.
"From what Senior Brother Cao said, you've seen another female officer?"
"I saw one, acting like a lunatic, actually calling me a savage?"
"Haha, your attire does look like a savage's," Zhan Ruoxuan teased.
"Have you ever seen such a talkative savage?" Cao Yang gave Zhan Ruoxuan a glare. "Alright, hurry up and go, don't delay my search for the next target."
With that, Cao Yang adjusted the foliage he was using for camouflage and retreated into the bushes.
The group shook their heads and continued their trek.
They walked for an unknown distance, estimating it was around noon.
As they were eating their dry rations, Guan Jinsong suddenly stood up, his eyes fixed forward with sharp intensity.
"What's wrong?" Everyone was startled by him.
"There's something," Guan Jinsong remained vigilant.
Something?
Everyone looked ahead.
If it was a person, it was a person. If it was a beast, it was a beast. What did "something" mean?
Just as everyone found it inexplicable, the low bushes in the distance moved.
They exchanged glances. It seemed another senior student's disguise had been exposed. A thin member of the group rejoiced and ran straight towards the bushes.
"Don't go..." Guan Jinsong exclaimed in alarm.
But before he could finish, the thin man's face changed as a sharpened wooden stick flew towards him...