Chapter 10.2 - Luck
Both sides suffered rather severely.
Not only was Fazir’s favorite necktie drenched, cracks even appeared on his thirty or so years old tortoise shell style glasses. Li Gaolei didn’t seem to be in a much better state. His masculine disheveled beard was swept clean, and the chest hair that was essential to a man was also completely wiped out.
It seemed like Fazir’s small bottle of cologne became extremely unstable in the presence of flames.
Following the explosion, Li Gaolei rubbed his clean chest and chin and became momentarily stunned. Then, he released a bitter laugh. On the other side, Fazir was propping up his chin that had swelled from the explosion while looking at the cracks on his glasses. Every crack he saw would induce a bit more pain in his eyes.
Even though Li Gaolei wasn’t injured, his face and chest had a numbing sensation to them. As an ability user, this small attack was insignificant to him. Li Gaolei took a deep breath, and the injured areas gradually healed. However, Fazir was different. Not only his lips, but his entire face began to swell up.
Li Gaolei released a bitter laugh and asked, “You are going to leave?”
When Fazir decided that the cracks on his glasses were irreparable, he tossed them onto the table. WIth a heavy sigh, he shook his head and said, “There isn’t much for me to do even if I stay here. You know how things have been unstable at headquarters these past few years. If I don’t return, I fear that many benefits would be seized by others. It wasn’t that easy for the company to invest so much resources in the northern division.”
“It is best if you don’t leave right now if you want to live a few more years.” Li Gaolei spoke in a serious voice.
“Is it that serious?” Fazir frowned. This movement brought about another wave of pain which distorted his face into a rather ridiculous expression.
Li Gaolei released a heavy sigh. He looked outside the window and said, “Extremely serious! I have a feeling that he has already arrived.”
Fazir also looked outside the window. Apart from the boundless sand blown by the wind, he didn’t see anything else. He shook his head and sat back down on the leather seat. Then, he undid the file holding the documents. After taking a deep breath, he seemed to have relaxed quite a bit.
“Fine, I’ll stay here a few more days and see how things pan out. However…” Fazir looked at Li Gaolei and said bluntly, “The losses I suffer from not returning will all be on you.”
“No losses can be greater than life!” Li Gaolei said seriously. He remained momentarily silent, then, he asked, “The value of the intruder cell is extraordinary. Exactly what kind of price did the Black Dragonriders pay for you to happily give out this secret?”
“A complete formulation for a fifth level ability.”
“Fuck!” Li Gaolei cursed.
Meanwhile, Su was quietly sitting next to an abandoned villa’s window, watching as an armored vehicle quickly advance at a speed of 30 kilometers per hour several hundred meters away. This off-road vehicle was carrying out its routine patrol. Normally, there were five or six soldiers on the vehicle, and its main firepower was the 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine gun on the car’s roof. On top of the secondary piloting seat was a 7.62mm normal machine gun.
In the vast and complex wilderness, this off-road vehicle seemed rather weak in comparison and, the weapons on the vehicle were extremely enticing for either mobs or armed refugees. However, due to a lack of knowledge, refugees often couldn’t accurately determine the power of the anti-aircraft machine gun and the defensive capabilities of the armor surrounding the off-road vehicle.
For this off-road vehicle equipped with two machine guns and three automatic rifles, there was no significant difference whether there were ten or fifty lightly armed refugees. Their weapons wouldn’t be able to break through the vehicle armor, and at a distance of roughly 200 meters, the marksman on top of the off-road vehicle could easily wipe them out. These marksmen would all be equipped with two levels of ability in large-scale weaponry.
These patrol cars were actually traps set up by Li for those small groups of refugees. If they believed that they could use numbers to make up for the difference in firepower, then most, if not all of them becoming corpses would be the price these refugees would have to pay.
With a ka sound, Su pushed a bullet into the gun’s barrel.
Nightfall.
The patrol car that should have returned already, but the military officer on duty today wasn’t worried at all. It was dinnertime right now, and he had ordered a large plate of his favorite cheese and tomato beef from the military mess hall, so he was enjoying himself at the moment. From the speed he was eating at, it was clear the military officer’s mood was quite good today. In fact, this military officer was thinking about the mob that was wiped out a few days ago and the food they were eating then. After comparing it to what he was eating now, his dinner naturally became even more delicious.
In the wilderness, the plate of food in front of the military officer could truly be exchanged for several nights of service from a delicate and pretty girl. If the circumstances were a bit rougher, it could even exchange for one or even more young female slaves.
There were times in the past where the patrol car returned late. If this kind of situation happened, then it signified that a group of armed refugees with poor judgment was out of luck. If the refugee numbers were greater? The military officer was never concerned with this question. The patrol car was armed with 1000 rounds of anti-aircraft machine gun bullets and 2000 rounds of machine gun bullets. These things could continuously and completely wipe out the refugees. As a result, the military officer’s appetite was just a great as usual.
When the afterglow was about to disappear over the horizon, the patrol car slowly appeared in Pendulum City and entered a sentinel’s field of vision. Compared to the violent entrance and surging smoke that accompanied the prestige of an intense battle in the past, this time, it was different. This time, the patrol car slowly crawled towards Pendulum City at ten kilometers per hour. Its easygoing speed seemed as if it was on a sightseeing trip. On top of the car, the marksman sitting behind the anti-aircraft machine gun was also leaning on the gun in a listless manner.
“Hey! Look, Charlie’s group has returned! After such a delay, they must have fought quite a bit. Why don’t I have his luck? Nothing ever happens when I’m out on inspection!” The shooter sitting behind the sentinel machine gun was both envious and in admiration as he spoke.
The sentry was located at the top floor of a ten floor building, allowing for a great field of vision. Moreover, there was concrete in front of the gun, so it served as a much better defensive wall than temporary sandbag walls.
Behind the wall was a veteran with a face that revealed great hardships. He was currently sitting while leaning against the wall, comfortably smoking a cigarette. A RF010 assault rifle was casually resting on his side, but as soon as something happened, the veteran would be able to grab the gun just by reaching out his arm.
“Youngster! After you participate in more battles or reach my age, you’ll understand that idling for an entire day is the greatest happiness.” The veteran spoke in an unhurried manner.
The younger soldier clearly didn’t accept this. His face that still had a bit of immatureness that was full of a desire for victory, glory, and wealth. He jealously watched the patrol car slowly return, and he was full of bitterness when he thought that they would definitely receive glory after fighting. They had to have returned in this way in order to attract even more attention, or maybe even gain General Li’s favor!
As soon as he thought about Li’s full bottom and her long, slender legs, the young soldier’s blood immediately began to involuntarily flow faster. When he looked at the patrol car again, there was a vague hostility that even he himself didn’t realize he was exerting.
In Pendulum City, Li’s authority was great and unquestionable. However, in this era, the notion of women being men’s accessories, sexual objects, and their body serving as reproduction means had long been engraved in their minds. Even young soldiers ranked as the lowest, third grade soldier would have thoughts of viciously ravishing Li on the ground. Of course, this kind of thinking could only be kept in the deepest parts of their hearts. Not only could this not be exposed in front of Li, it definitely couldn’t even be spoken of among peers during times of leisure.
Those that tried to get Li’s attention in all types of bizarre ways, regardless of whether they were the delicate, pretty, and weak types or the rough, robust, and full of chest hair types, their mortality rates were all incredibly high without exception.
The veteran finally finished the cigarette and lazily moved his head over the protective wall to take a look at the patrol car. Even though the sky was already rather dim and that there was still some distance between himself and the patrol car, from his abundant experience, he could tell with a glance that the marksman’s posture was greatly abnormal. He abruptly stood up and grabbed the binoculars with a single motion to observe the patrol car. After taking a look, the veteran immediately turned around and shouted loudly, “Alarm! Alarm! Hurry up and pull the alarm! Charlie and the rest of them are all dead!”
The earsplitting alarm rang. The instant it did, the military officer that was about to down a spoonful of beef bit rigidly down on the spoon. Fazir’s hand that was slowly adding sugar to his coffee trembled, accidentally adding a large part of the jar into the coffee and completely ruining this cup of high quality Jamaican brew. Li Gaolei had secluded himself within a pitch-black office while smoking one cigarette after another. When he heard the alarm, the cigarette end no longer flickered between light and darkness and was instead extinguished. Li was currently inside the underground shooting range, continuously challenging Su’s modified pistol under the deafening gunshot noises.
The veteran turned on the searchlight. A strong beam of light shot towards the patrol car that was slowly arriving in a straight line, clearly revealing the people on the patrol car.
The marksman was leaning on the gun, his head hanging down to his chest. Under the powerful lighting, he could see that the back of the marksman’s uniform was dyed in a dark color. The two soldiers in the front seat were leaning backwards with their heads absentmindedly staring into the sky and the car roof. Dark colors stained their chests.
The patrol car released a deep and low groan and continued to crawl towards the alarm sounded Pendulum City at a speed of less than twenty kilometers per hour. Confused noises of military personnel could be heard within the city, and soldiers rushed out one after another. An armed nighttime patrol troop hurried over in a vehicle to welcome the patrol car. A few brave soldiers jumped onto the patrol car to remove the dead soldiers from inside and even stopped the automatically moving patrol vehicle.
The patrol car stopped fifty meters outside of Pendulum City. An experienced officer had long considered that there would be a bomb installed on the vehicle, and as such arranged for an electronics specialist to inspect the car with special instruments.
Fortunately, apart from the anti-aircraft machine gun on the roof disappearing, there weren’t any other losses. There weren’t any explosives or other traps set up either. Apart from the two soldiers in the front seats and the car roof marksman, there were two more corpses inside the car. They were both people that departed in the same car. The ammunition in the vehicle was mostly well preserved, with only a few anti-aircraft machine gun bullets missing. It was unknown whether they had been fired or removed by someone. After counting what remained, not many anti-aircraft machine gun bullets were missing, numbering only around one or two hundred rounds.
When Li Gaolei and Fazir hurried over, the patrol car had been parked on the side, and the five soldiers’ corpses were arranged on the ground. Ten or so armed soldiers walked about, forming a cordon around this area.
Li Gaolei threw the cigarette butt that had been smoked to its limit on the ground and crushed it a few times with his military boots. “See? These are our third level sheep.”
The marksman lying on the ground possessed heavy weaponry proficiency at the third level and one of Li’s elites. Whether it be firing in bursts or gunning enemies down, this marksman could use the anti-aircraft machine gun to achieve the same level of result at 500 meters as an excellent soldier could with a rifle in 100 meters. Yet right now, he was quietly lying on the ground, his tattered uniform only barely able to cover the large hole in his chest. The other soldiers were the same, with each of them bearing an extremely striking bullet hole.
Fazir wiped his forehead that was densely covered in sweat and revealed a forced smile. “It seems like the opposing party is an excellent sniper.”
“Not simply just outstanding.” Li Gaolei coldly replied.
Fazir loosened his shoulders and said, “However, I’ve heard that the best snipers all like to aim between the brows.”
“His gun is different. If he aimed between the brows, the brains would be completely blasted apart.” Li Gaolei looked at Fazir. Only after a moment had passed did he continue, “He didn’t aim for the head so that we could see these people’s expressions before their death.”
As he looked at these faces that contained either alarm, horror, confusion, or even blank expressions, Fazir suddenly felt as if the flesh on his face began to feel extremely sore. He could no longer smile. These bullet wounds were all greater than ten centimeters in diameter and extremely horrible to look at. Fazir even began to feel the illusion of these bullet holes being transferred to his own body. As the night wind blew through these bullet holes, a cold chill ran down everyone’s spines.