Delta: Mandel Bricks drop right at the start!

Awei's analysis report was a full fourteen pages long.

When Lin Rui finished turning the last page, it was already past 1 a.m.

He closed the document, pushed his chair back half an inch, and rested the back of his head against the chair back.

Fourteen high-level players, three professional team practice accounts, and one player ranked first in total kills.

The most valuable part of this report is not the data, but the "habitual routes" that Awei marked under each contestant.

The map of Dam Zero is only so big, and there are only so many evacuation points. Thirty-two people were thrown in, and the overlap rate of the routes was astonishingly high.

Who takes which route, who prefers to camp in which area, and whose first choice for withdrawal is in the east or west—these pieces of information together form a complete hunting route map.

He mentally reviewed the habitual routes of the three professional players in the report, and then turned off his computer.

The match is in three days.

Three days is enough time for him to play a few more games, push his level up, and gather another batch of enhancement materials.

At 2 PM the next day, Lin Rui put on the virtual reality headset and logged into the game.

Dam Zero, Single Player Mode.

The match loading bar took twelve seconds, and the server threw him into a full match.

The birthplace is the old cargo terminal in the northwest area of ​​the dam, 300 meters from the main channel.

Transcendence scan enabled.

Supply points and player locations within an 80-meter radius are marked in the field of view.

There were no other players around the dock; the nearest group was 120 meters to the southeast.

He ran two steps toward the dock warehouse, then suddenly stopped.

Looking out to the edge of the field of vision, the number of people in the southeast direction is increasing.

Four...six...eight.

Eight red silhouettes were gathered in the same area. Instead of scavenging supplies in a scattered formation, they patrolled back and forth along several fixed routes.

He pulled up a map, and to the southeast was the cargo transfer station in Zone B of Dam Zero.

The transit station has a three-story structure with complex passageways and a high density of supplies, making it one of the richest looting areas on the entire map.

There are only two explanations for the eight people patrolling Area B: either two full squads of four are facing off, or someone has booked the entire area.

Lin Rui abandoned the dock warehouse and moved southeast.

When they got within 100 meters, the X-ray scan completed the information for the eight people.

Everyone had the same guild label above their heads: [Black Scorpion].

The entire venue was booked.

The eight people were divided into three groups. Two people guarded the three entrances to the transfer station, while the other two searched inside.

This tactic is not uncommon at Zero Dam. Small and medium-sized guilds often organize multiple players to enter the same game, using their numerical advantage to block high-value areas and keep all solo players out.

He crouched behind a row of containers between the cargo terminal and the transshipment station and observed for thirty seconds.

There were two people at the south entrance: one was carrying an RPK light machine gun and propped it up behind sandbags, while the other was patrolling nearby with a rifle.

There were two people at the east entrance, both carrying rifles, standing very close together.

There were two people at the north entrance: one guarding the stairs with a shotgun, and the other setting up a sniper rifle at the second-floor window.

Two people inside were opening boxes and looting quickly; their movements indicated that they had planned their route in advance.

Eight against one. The equipment difference wasn't significant; his SCAR-H and the opponent's rifles were on par, but the opponent had an overwhelming numerical advantage.

Without hesitation, Lin Rui moved along the shadow of the container toward the south entrance.

He didn't choose the entrance with the fewest people, nor the one with the worst view; instead, he chose the one with the narrowest internal passage.

The south entrance leads to the first-floor cargo passage of the transfer station. The passage is less than three meters wide, and both sides are filled with shelves and iron cages.

In this terrain, a numerical advantage can turn into a disadvantage.

No matter how many people there are, they can only line up and push forward, and the crossfire in the passage is enough for a SCAR-H to pin everyone to the spot.

It is 40 meters from the south entrance.

The RPK light machine gunner's head was facing him directly, while the patrolling rifleman had just reached the other end of the passage and was facing away from him.

Lin Rui emerged from behind the container, the SCAR-H's crosshair landing on the back of the RPK machine gunner's neck.

Two bursts of fire.

The first shot hit the back scalp of the level 4 helmet, shattering it. The second shot penetrated through the shattered area.

The machine gunner lay prone on the sandbags, the RPK's barrel resting on the edge of the cover.

The patrolling rifleman turned around when he heard the noise, but he turned in the wrong direction, looking into the passage and misjudging the source of the gunfire.

Lin Rui had already stepped over the sandbags and entered the south entrance.

Just as the rifleman determined the direction of the sound, before he could even turn his gun around, Lin Rui's third bullet had already sliced ​​through the top edge of his level 4 armor collar.

The upper edge of the collar. This is not a weak point gap, but the normal edge of the armor-covered area.

He intentionally shifted the point of impact two centimeters off the normal range; this had become a habit of his for faking data.

The fourth shot landed squarely on the front of the chest. The combined damage from the two shots pierced through the level 4 armor's durability, and the rifleman fell.

Eight became six.

From the moment the first shot was fired until now, no more than four seconds have passed.

But the gunshots had already echoed inside the transit station.

In the perspective of X-ray vision, the two people at the east entrance stopped patrolling, and one of them pressed his earpiece and said something.

The sniper at the second-floor window of the north entrance turned his gun south, but the angle of the south entrance was blocked by the building, so he couldn't see anything.

The two people looting inside also stopped what they were doing and began to advance towards the south entrance.

All six people converged at the south entrance.

Lin Rui retreated into the cargo passage inside the south entrance, leaning against a row of iron shelves, his SCAR-H gun pointed in the only direction of the passage.

The aisle is about forty meters long and less than three meters wide, with shelves and iron cages on both sides compressing the space into a straight line.

He waited at a corner of a shelf in the middle of the aisle, his body pressed against the metal frame, only half of his shoulder and the muzzle of his gun visible.

Footsteps came from both ends of the passage.

People from the east entrance came in from the other end of the passage, while two others from inside turned in from the connecting corridor on the first floor of the transfer station. A pincer movement from two directions.

But there was only one passage. He was stuck in the middle, and whoever showed their head first would be shot first.

A figure appeared first from the direction of the east entrance.

The man leaned forward, close to the right-hand shelf, with the muzzle of his rifle in front of him and himself behind.

The standard close-quarters combat stance is not amateurish.

Lin Rui didn't fire. He was waiting for the second person.

Two seconds later, a second figure followed the first person and turned into the passage. The two were less than two meters apart.

The SCAR-H fired at the corner of the shelf.

The first shot hit the person in front in the chest; the 7.62mm bullet had no room to deflect in the three-meter-wide passage.

The man's level 4 armor withstood the first shot, and his body leaned back.

The second shot followed, hitting the same armor plate. The combined damage penetrated the armor, and the person fell.

The person behind reacted a beat faster; he crouched down as soon as the first shot rang out, intending to use his teammate's body as cover.

But as soon as the person in front fell, the obstruction disappeared.

Lin Rui's third bullet pierced the front of the crouching player's helmet. The level 3 helmet couldn't withstand 7.62mm damage; it was destroyed in one shot.

At the other end of the passage, the two people who had come from inside stopped when they heard the gunshots and did not continue pushing forward.

From the perspective of the X-ray, they were crouching behind the corner at the entrance of the passage, typing to communicate.

Lin Rui didn't give them time to discuss it.

He slipped out from around the corner of the shelf and quickly moved along the aisle towards the two men. His footsteps tapped out a rapid rhythm on the metal floor.

The two men around the corner made a decision: one retreated, intending to withdraw back into the transfer station via the connecting corridor; the other chose to stay put, pointing his gun at the entrance of the passage.

The one who stayed behind fired first, a burst of bullets hitting the walls and shelves in the aisle, sparks flying everywhere.

Lin Rui did not slow down during the advance.

He lowered himself to the height of the bottom shelf and fired two shots through the gaps in the metal frame.

The other party did not expect the bullet to fly from the bottom of the shelf.

Two 7.62mm rounds grazed about 20 centimeters below his knees and struck his shin guards.

The damage wasn't severe, but the pain response caused his body to instinctively take a step back.

This move pushed them out of the cover around the corner.

Lin Rui's third shot blasted through the tunnel from the front.

The front breastplate of a level 5 armor plate is the thickest part of the entire body, and it generally takes four to five shots from a 7.62mm gun to penetrate it.

But the shot didn't hit the chest, it hit the belt buckle.

The belt buckle of the level 5 armor connects the upper body plate and the lower body skirt armor, and the thickness of the metal buckle is only one-third of that of the plate.

The bullet entered through the buckle, directly destroying the armor's connection structure and doubling the damage.

The man's health bar dropped significantly. Then, a fourth shot landed on his exposed abdomen, finishing off the remaining health.

Only one remained, and it has been returned to the transit station.

The X-ray revealed that he was crouching behind a central shipping container in the lobby on the first floor, with his gun pointed at the exit connecting to the corridor.

A classic example of waiting passively for a rabbit to run into a tree stump.

Lin Rui did not go out through the corridor.

He glanced back at the ventilation ducts above the passageway.

The access panel for the pipeline is just two meters overhead, and the iron grate cover is rusted so badly that one corner is warped.

He climbed onto the ventilation duct using the shelves, crawled fifteen meters, and reached the top of the lobby on the first floor.

In the perspective of X-ray vision, the last member of the Black Scorpion Guild was still crouching behind the container, his gun pointed motionless at the corridor exit.

Below the duct is an air vent grille, with gaps just large enough for the gun barrel to protrude.

Lin Rui extended the SCAR-H's barrel from the grille gap, pointing it vertically downwards.

From this angle, the protection on the top of the opponent's helmet is practically useless.

One shot.

The last Black Scorpion member's health bar was depleted, and he collapsed next to the shipping container.

Where are the two people at the north entrance?

The X-ray scan revealed that the snipers on the second floor of the north entrance and the shotgunners on the first floor were already moving towards the south entrance, but they were taking the outer route and had not yet reached the entrance of the passage.

Lin Rui flipped down from the ventilation duct and landed on the floor of the lobby, where he began to loot.

Six boxes were scattered throughout the passageway and hall.

He quickly searched through the three boxes, taking away useful ammunition and a new level 4 armor plate.

There wasn't time to see the rest; the two people at the north entrance were almost there.

Through the peek-a-boo lens, the sniper stopped outside the passage, peering inside.

He saw the bodies of his four teammates and scattered supplies in the passage. He held his gun in his hand and stood rooted to the spot.

The shotgunner on the first floor circled around to the side door of the hall from another route and was pushing open the half-closed iron door with the muzzle of his gun.

Two people, two directions.

Lin Rui's location was in the central area of ​​the hall, among the containers, 15 meters from the side door and 30 meters from the passageway entrance.

At a distance of fifteen meters, shotguns have an overwhelming advantage, provided the opponent can spot them first.

The iron gate was pushed open.

The shotgunner took his first step in, his gaze still scanning the shadowy area to his right. Lin Rui was to his left.

The SCAR-H fired two shots through the gap between the containers.

The shotgunner's level 4 armor shattered on the left breastplate, and the third shot entered through the shattered area, causing him to fall.

The sniper at the entrance of the passage saw the direction of the muzzle flash and the crosshairs of his scope swept over.

The 7.62×54mm SVD warhead whistled through the passageway into the hall and embedded itself in an iron pillar a meter behind Lin Rui.

Sparks flew and shards of debris bounced off his armor backplate.

One meter missing.

Lin Rui dodged to the left, and the shipping container blocked the sniper's line of sight.

He quickly shifted positions along the gaps between the containers, peeking out the muzzle of his gun from another angle in the hall.

The sniper had no cover at the entrance to the passage, and his action of pulling the bolt while standing still was clearly visible in the perspective of the sniper.

Although the SVD is semi-automatic, its recoil slows down the rate of fire, with an interval of nearly one second between two shots.

Lin Rui stepped out of the container in that split second.

The SCAR-H fired five shots in one go in fully automatic mode.

At a distance of thirty meters, two out of five shots hit him.

The level 4 armor was penetrated, and the sniper fell at the entrance of the passage.

Eight, all killed in action.

In the passageway and the hall, a total of eight death markers belonging to the [Black Scorpion] guild were densely packed together on the map.

He changed the magazine, knelt down, and gave himself an emergency injection. His health returned to full from 72%.

A system notification popped up:

[Eight enemy players killed, experience points +1600.]

My level has increased from 17 to 70% of level 17. I'm just a little short of reaching 18.

He slung the SCAR-H back onto his back and began looting the boxes on the ground one by one.