Chapter 309: We Are a Professional Counter-Terrorism Unit! (Requesting Subscriptions, Monthly Passes)

Chapter 309: We Are a Professional Counter-Terrorism Unit! (Requesting Subscriptions, Monthly Passes)

After completing the new player tutorial, everyone’s level was only level one.

The only available mode to play was Quick Match.

It would randomly select one from Bomb Mode, Hostage Mode, or Terrorist Hunt Mode—also known as Secure Area—and use a best-of-four format, switching attackers and defenders after two rounds. If the score was tied at 2:2, a tiebreaker round would be played.

Although systems like Ranked Mode had already been developed, regular matchmaking still calculated hidden MMR and team score using the ranked mechanism, ensuring players faced opponents of similar skill.

However, since no one knew how to play yet, there was no real need to open Ranked Mode just yet.

As for the Recruit Mode—a special beginner-friendly mode designed in Chen Xu’s previous life specifically for new players—it was clearly unnecessary now, since every single player was a rookie.

They would wait until the game had been running for some time before introducing Recruit Mode, separating seasoned veterans from fresh rookies.

After clicking Match, it took less than a second before Song Ren and the others were transported into the game.

"The enemy team seems to be a full party of five as well!" Zhang Yi exclaimed, staring at the five enemy IDs in the game interface.

Moreover, these five opponents clearly belonged to the type with extremely fast hand speed.

Their usernames were highly distinctive. Only someone with exceptional reflexes and internet speed could have snatched such names.

The five IDs were: ASD, QWE, ZXC, 123, and ABC.

Extremely disciplined.

In contrast, Zhang Yi’s team used their usual personal IDs. They were already mentally overpowered before the match even began!

"It’s normal. After all, party players get matched against other party players, while solo queue players face other solo players—it’s all to maintain game balance," Song Ren remarked calmly.

This was standard in most games.

Even though Rainbow Six Siege, like many other games, supported voice chat,

there was usually a noticeable difference in coordination and tacit understanding between random pickup teams and pre-organized squads.

The chosen mode was Bomb Mode, a familiar game type for many FPS players.

The objective was simple: enter the bomb site, plant the bomb, then defend it until the timer ran out or the enemy attempted to defuse it.

In essence, the gameplay was the same—only the terminology had changed.

The map selected at random was Chicago Mansion.

"So, how should we pick our Operators for attack?" Song Ren asked.

"Old Song, you decide. You’ve played Terrorist Hunt Mode once already, so you’ve got a bit more experience than us," Zhang Yi replied.

Picking team roles was a Scapegoat position—if they lost, it would be blamed on poor team composition.

As old friends, Song Ren understood this subtle trap.

Yet he found himself unable to speak.

Why had he gone and played Terrorist Hunt Mode first?

Well, if he’d actually learned something from it, fine. But he hadn’t figured out anything useful.

Well… not entirely nothing.

At least he now knew that AI in Realistic difficulty was freakishly tough, and that the breaching rappelling through windows technique shown in the video seemed impractical—at least for him right now.

"Uh… well then, I’ll use my experience to assign roles," Song Ren said, clearing his throat with a couple of coughs.

"Hurry up! Only twenty-seven seconds left! If you don’t decide, I’m picking randomly—don’t make me end up with the default Recruit Operator!" Zhang Yi urged.

Anything was acceptable—except the Recruit.

That Operator had no Skills, couldn’t be seen properly, and just felt utterly pathetic!

"One Operator with a large deployable shield and one with a small flash shield—each one!" Song Ren declared.

These were the two Operators who stood out most in his memory.

After all, how could a counter-terrorism operation proceed without a ballistic shield leading the charge?

"I’ll take the Greatshield—I already selected this Operator!" Wang Yifan volunteered, confirming his choice and moving on to equip attachments.

"Then I’ll take the Flash Shield," Wang Han chimed in.

"Next, we need our entry fraggers. One Sledge! And one Fuze with a shield to cover the rear. I’ll take IQ!" Though he had no idea how to play, Song Ren couldn’t say for sure whether these Operators’ Skills were effective in combat.

But that didn’t stop him from mentally picturing a perfect scenario.

The Greatshield and Flash Shield would advance in front, holding up their shields. Sledge would follow closely behind, smashing through any blocked walls with his Hammer.

Fuze would bring up the rear, equipped with a small pistol and a shield. As for why Song Ren picked IQ—

the main reason was her ability to scan electronic devices.

Defenders could use cameras, and since none of them were familiar with the map, he suspected they’d struggle to locate cameras. Even if they kept getting alerts about being scanned, they’d probably take ages to find the source.

With IQ, a simple scan could reveal all nearby cameras.

And based on the video introduction he’d seen, IQ’s gadget could detect not only cameras but also electronic traps and devices—like Kapkan’s electronic trap devices.

With that, the enemy’s eyes would be effectively blinded.

Meanwhile, his team would have ten drones gathering intelligence and reconnaissance.

How could they possibly lose?

This was their team—a professional counter-terrorism unit!

As the match began, the five players sent their drones into the Mansion.

Their mission: locate the two bombs hidden somewhere inside the Mansion,

then defuse one of them.

"This map is so complicated!" Song Ren muttered, guiding his drone.

His head was already spinning.

The new player tutorial had been manageable, but now in actual gameplay, he was completely lost.

The layout was just too confusing—he had no idea where anything was.

Right now, he’d taken the main entrance stairs up to the second-floor office… and then he got lost.

"Don’t worry. If we’re confused, the enemy probably is too. Let’s just wander around," Zhang Yi said.

And why was he saying that?

Because he was lost too.

"Found it! I found a bomb! It’s in the basement garage room! Oh no—my drone just got destroyed!"

While Zhang Yi and Song Ren were wandering cluelessly, Wang Han had successfully located one of the bombs.

The other bomb should be nearby.

A yellow marker appeared on the map. Song Ren, Zhang Yi, Wang Yifan, and Joey all directed their drones toward the location.

The marker was there, yes—but the players inside the house couldn’t figure out how to reach it.

Although Chicago Mansion was a relatively small map, for first-time players like them, it still felt quite complex.

And Chen Xu had chosen the pre-rework version of the map, not the post-rework one.

The original was more realistic and offered higher playability and entertainment value. The entire interior was mostly made of wooden floors, meaning players could theoretically destroy the entire house.

Some minor improvements had been made, though. For example, the basement garage was more aligned with the post-rework design, adding extra cover instead of the original’s empty, open layout that favored direct gunfights.

For casual matchmaking, it worked just fine.

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