Chapter 689: Chapter 66 Professional Terminology
“””Speaking of Shadow Demons, Kapei remembered that since the early days of the Research Institute’s establishment, they had dealt with them for a long time.
These creatures were nearly invincible in darkness: you didn’t know when they arrived or when they left, or who they had killed before departing. It was only during the daily roll call that everyone suddenly realized someone was missing, and they understood that another person had fallen victim to a Shadow Demon’s stealthy assault.
At first, experience showed that Shadow Demons feared light: they seemed only able to move in darkness, so the Research Institute set up lighting equipment that stayed on 24 hours along the main corridors.
However, it was to no avail; people still went missing every day.
According to closed-circuit surveillance footage, these monsters would mysteriously “spawn” from dark rooms within the base, even if the rooms were completely “sealed” by light sources.
So the facility lit up all the rooms for 24 hours… which greatly affected everyone’s sleep quality, forcing them to take melatonin pills daily.
The secrecy of the Shadow Demons’ surprise attacks was one thing; their combat style that completely defied the laws of physics was another. They didn’t have a tangible body, so human firearms were ineffective against them, whereas light was especially lethal.
In turn, Shadow Demons were certainly aware of their weakness, so they would use a variety of eerie abilities to avoid being exposed to light, such as destroying light sources from a distance or using objects around them to block the light, and so on.
Therefore, the Research Institute’s security forces often prepared for both: using high-energy bullets to tear through barriers, and using tracer or signal flares to inflict damage.
The entire set of tactics had to be based on the squad’s quick response and high precision shooting because the Shadow Demons moved very fast. If your burst of gunfire missed, it’s likely they were already in front of you. To increase the margin of error for reaction and shooting, each squad was composed of around seven members, to ensure that when an enemy was encountered, at least 2-3 people could open fire immediately.
As for the cool move of slashing through a barrier at close range and then throwing a Flame Signal Flare inside, that wasn’t part of the tactical manual for dealing with Shadow Demons because it didn’t fit the military science of margin for error requirements; that was the realm of science fiction… no, fantasy, the fantasy of a B-movie where the hero hacks and slashes through a camp single-handedly.
…
So, the present Kapei was trapped in such a paradox.
It knew that it was Mia who had thrown the Flame Signal Flare directly into the body of a Shadow Demon, causing the Extraordinary Creature to die quickly, but it completely couldn’t understand how Mia had done it.
Even the most elite of the Research Institute’s security teams couldn’t easily accomplish this.
Or to think of it from another angle, the casual yet precise teamwork displayed by the three individuals in front of it could accomplish what a seven-member security team could do—let alone that two of them were just little girls. What kind of military strength was this?
Kapei didn’t understand, not at all.
Kapei silently went downstairs, summoned two engineering robots, and started repairing the holes in the wall.
Aske stayed on the top floor with the others, asking Miel to summon the people from the parallel world and the Shadow Demons to start reviewing the battle they had just fought.
“In professional circles, there’s a term called ‘decisive between the Rabbit Jumping and Hawk Falling’,” Aske said, watching the people from the parallel world repeat the act of Assassinating the Shadow Demon with the same swift and neat movements, “It means seizing the initiative from the very first moment of encounter.”
“Then, by using that initiative to quickly expand your advantage, create a crushing situation, and achieve victory… the whole process will not take more than 30 seconds to a minute.”
“If you review the battle again, you’ll realize without a doubt that it fits all the characteristics of ‘Rabbit Jumping and Hawk Falling,’ from Miel taking the initiative, to Mia and my own coordinated assault. Most of the elements were done to perfection—you fought incredibly well, and even I, being highly critical, have to admit this.”
“Heehee,” Mia immediately chuckled with delight, while Miel, with a keen ear, picked up on certain phrases Aske used and asked, “‘Most of the elements done to perfection’ means it wasn’t perfect, right?”
At this moment, Kapei had just brought the engineering robots upstairs, and upon hearing Miel’s question, it also couldn’t help but stop and listen in.
“Well, if I really had to say,” Aske pondered, “we both rushed in front of the Shadow Demon at the same time. In fact, ideally, Mia’s actions should have been delayed by 0.3 seconds after mine, which would have been more appropriate.”
“Why?!” Mia immediately became unhappy. So not achieving perfection was my mistake?
“It’s simple,” Aske explained, “If both of us rush at the opponent at the same time, the opponent has to keep an eye on both of us.”
“In reality, if I went first and you followed, then the opponent’s attention would focus on me right away, my offensive pressure would increase, and correspondingly, yours would decrease. And since you were going to execute the decisive move in our tactics, reducing pressure could increase the margin for error.”
“For instance, suppose we both rushed at the opponent at the same time, and the opponent had a Law Skill, capable of instantly knocking an enemy back five or six meters, then he has to choose whether to use the skill on you or me.”
“If he chooses you and you are knocked back, then our tactic would fall apart since the Flame Signal Flare is with you.”
“But, but!” Mia tried to defend herself, “Even if the opponent chose to attack me, it doesn’t mean I would have been hit for sure! Conversely, if it chose to knock you back first and you were hit, failing to breach its defense, then my charging in with the Flame Signal Flare would also be pointless, right?”
“I understand,” Miel suddenly spoke up. “Squad Leader is hoping to bear more pressure himself, lessening the load passed onto us in battle. Such thinking is based on his belief that he’s stronger than us, ‘letting the attack fall on the heaviest part of the blade’—isn’t that understandable?”
“Uh…” Mia was momentarily left speechless. Although this conclusion was irritating, she hadn’t dared to claim she was stronger than Aske and, faced with the same unknown Law Skill, she wasn’t confident in outperforming Aske.
“When one day I surpass Aske… I definitely will…” she thought somewhat sullenly to herself.
Kapei was listening in the whole time, only feeling that these three were complete oddballs, talking in professional jargon that “he could understand each word, but when put together, they were hard to make sense of.”
But such scenes were not unfamiliar to him.
Before he had acquired the memories of a scientist, those scientists would also often sit together, staring at the experimental records or cell culture screen data, discussing things that his logic processor couldn’t parse at all.
That was a special language only used effectively by certain humans who had delved deeply into their professional fields, a language that contained their ultimate understanding of the domain.
That was their pride and glory.”””