Tempest of the Battlefield

Apache saw Wang Tong and Wang Ben walking towards him. He nodded at them and said, "I knew that you two would be here too."

"Did you find any way out?"

"No, not that easy… Look." Apache picked up a rock and threw it at the fence. Before the rock had even hit the fence, it was blown into dust. They didn\'t even have to identify the direction from where the blast came from.

"How do we get out of here then?"

"There are no gates around here, but I believe there must be a central control room that can shut off the security system. There ought to be a way out of here!"

"Ah right! We can ask help from the Zhang brothers." Apache called out aloud. The three of them found the Zhang brothers in their dorm playing virtual games. It wasn\'t any game one could buy in the store, since it was custom designed by the brothers themselves.

"Hey captain, what\'s up? " Zhang Kui and Zhang Yan dropped their controller as soon as they saw Apache walk into their room."

"I\'m wondering if you two would be able to hack the security system on this island so that we can go out and explore." The brothers were a pair of rebellious teenagers, so they immediately became excited after hearing their plan. They were further emboldened with Apache\'s support, since he would protect them even if shit hit the fan.

"Awesome! We were tempted to try that anyways." The two of them took out their personal computers from their space crystals and connected it to the local security net as they became increasingly excited by the second. As the elite students in the faculty of Information Warfare, their favorite activity was hacking other defense or security systems.

After a brief second of waiting for the perfect moment to start their strike, Apache gave the order: "Now!"

The Zhang brothers quickly went into action. They were infamous troublemakers ever since they were kids. They had created some serious disturbance on the internet and made their name as two of the most notorious hackers. Fortunately for them, their talent was discovered by Martyrus, and the latter took the brothers into his school. Their schooling focused primarily on information warfare, as they had already given up the rest of the subjects.

Martyrus was a great teacher, because he knew when to develop a student in all areas and when to focus on only a few subjects. That being said, Martyrus\'s patience and devotion were the keys in delivering a solid training program while being swamped by administrative matters.

A Thousand miles down the ocean, inside an enormous control room, the siren suddenly went off. However, the workers did not seem to be surprised by it, as they went on with their work as usual.

Both Martyrus and Samantha were inside the room, and an old man accompanied them.

"Dr. Maggis, what do you think about the abilities of these two boys?" The old man stared at the threat level on the display as he cracked a smile and said, "Not bad. But we can make it more exciting for them."

Dr. Maggis dialed up the defense level through a hologram on the control board. The defense level the security system cranked up instantly. On another CCTV screen, people saw the Zhang brothers furrow their brows.

"Captain, the security setting here is harder to hack than those of the trust funds companies," Zhang said as he operated his computer, prying at the security system for weak spots.

"Can you do it?"

"Of course captain! Since when have we let you down?" Zhang Kui smiled casually. Wang Tong and Wang Ben knew they wouldn\'t be too much of help, so they stood aside and watched quietly.

"Doc, let those three pass for now, and we will teach the two insolent boys a lesson later." Martyrus cracked a smile. He felt fortunate that Dr. Maggis was here, so finally, he could show the two brothers Mountain Tai.

"Are you sure you want them out? There are ... Zergs everywhere out there."

"No worries. That tall one is Apache; he has been a member of the Special Unit for over a year now. Wang Ben, the one on the left, is the son of General Hu Ben. The one in the middle is the strongest of the three. He has even impressed Principal Martyrus."

"One of the goals of this boot camp was to challenge the students to push themselves to their limits, to help them prepare for the merciless battles in real-life. Unfortunately for these three, our regular training wasn\'t challenging enough." Samantha smiled as she explained to Dr. Maggis.

Samantha had to leave the Paradise Island for a while and had returned right after Massa had left. She had heard about Massa\'s comments regarding Wang Tong, and found it hard to believe. She couldn\'t remember ever hearing Massa compliment anyone. Massa\'s comments also reassured her of Wang Tong\'s immense potential.

Both principals understood that as a teacher and coach, their duty was to help the students find the balance between overconfidence and the complete lack of it. They both felt that the Wang Tong was on the side of overconfidence, and therefore, they decided to correct the course by giving him even tougher challenges.

The day-off was only a ruse deployed by the two cunning principals. The trap had been carefully set for everyone, and Wang Tong was the first to rise to the bait.

"Ha ha! Done! " Zhang Kui and Zhang Yan high-fived each other after they had successfully breached the security network. Suddenly, a door-sized hole appeared on the electrically charged fence.

"Well done!" Apache patted on the two brothers’ shoulder; he knew this two computer geniuses wouldn\'t let him down.

The Zhang brothers pounded their chest while holding an expression that said, ‘Yea bro, you can count on us!’

"Sh*t! The system is coming back on!" Zhang Yan suddenly shouted out. The two brothers fumbled to regain control of the system. The security system was not supposed to recognize their hacking codes, since they had been carefully embedded into the main codes. The brothers were impressed by FFC\'s security system\'s ability to detect hackers; this had never happened to them before.

"Let\'s move ahead, leave these to the experts." Apache gestured Wang Tong and Wang Ben to follow him before he darted past the hole on the fence. Wang Tong and Wang Ben followed Apache to the other side of the fence, and the hole was shut immediately. The two brothers also fell into disarray as they found out that the FFC system was trying to breach their computer\'s mainframe.

If the FFC controlled their system, it would be the greatest humiliation to the brothers. The boldness of FFC\'s action was on the same level as a METAL\'s fighter who tried to disarm his opponent.

After a brief moment of disorientation, the hackers quickly gathered themselves and focused on defending against FFC\'s invasion.

"They had fended off the B-level threat that I had injected into their system. Not bad at all, considering their very limited resources."

"Tell me about it. I was practically speechless after accidentally discovering their hacking ability on a business trip to the juvenile detention center where they had been held at. I \'liberated\' them and sent them to my school. Well, I never regretted it ever since, although, they do need some training."

"Training your student at our expense? You are indeed cheap like they had told me." Dr. Maggis chided jokingly.

"It\'s an excellent opportunity for the kids to learn from the best." Unable to hide his pride in his students, Martyrus let a smirk creep onto his cheeks. Although Martyrus was confident about his student\'s skills, he reckoned that the two brothers lacked resources to aid their talents, especially compared to their opponent: the FFC corporation.

The insistent sound of network alarms broke Martyrus\'s train of thoughts.

"Ha! The two punks seem to have sniffed out our ruse. They are attacking the system now. Interesting! Well, they asked for it!"

On the main monitor that spanned the entire length of the room was a mosaic of dozen different CCTV screens, one of which showed that Zhou Sisi and Ma Xiaoru had \'accidentally\' triggered a space battle mission and were forced to complete the mission before they could exit the room.

These traps were not random, but were planned carefully by Samantha and Martyrus.

Meanwhile, Wang Tong, Wang Ben, and Apache had finally entered the real Paradise Island. Many exotic plants surrounded them, and some were not even native to Earth. It occurred to the three boys that this island seemed to be an enormous eco-lab, leaving them in awe of the incredible financial power of the FFC corp.

The boys\' spidery senses were tingling: eighty percent of FFC\'s profit came from weaponry deals. So there would be more than just plants on this island.

Wang Tong paused and inhaled the air with a gulp, tasting it carefully in his mouth, and then said, "It\'s like a Zoo here, for Zergs."

"I suppose so. I can only think of one reason for FFC to establish such a large eco-lab. But why? Isn\'t studying Zergs the responsibility of the confederation?" Wang Ben agreed. Although he could not sense any Zergs around him, common sense had told him that danger was out there. Nevertheless, he was impressed by Wang Tong\'s incredible sense of smell.

"Who cares about \'why\'? If there were any Zergs here, I wouldn\'t mind being the gardener of FFC\'s eco-lab." Apache was excited at the promise of killing Zergs.

"I hope there are enough bugs for all of us." Wang Ben joined Apache and flexed his fingers.

As the three of them walked carefully towards the center of the forest, they could hear a deep, raspy growl from the deep and dark end of the woods.

As they went further into the woods, they noticed how different it looked from the ground than it did from up above in the air. The island appeared to be covered with normal vegetation of tropical climate, but down here, the trees grew as tall as a skyscraper. It was evident then that the whole island was under some kind of visual distortion field, another fine example of FFC\'s unequivocal wealth.

Thinking of the \'treasures\' hidden in the forest, the boys became increasingly excited.

After ten minutes of walking, Wang Tong signaled the team to stop as he bent down to a strange looking plant, touched it and then said with dismay: "This island might not be what we had expected."

Wang Tong\'s concern worried the other two boys as they knew that Wang Tong had a fair share of experience dealing with the Zergs. They asked cautiously, "What\'s wrong?"