So soft...
Looking up at the fist-sized hole in the wall left by the bullet, Li Changjiang felt his heart race with fear. A sniper. To be targeted by a sniper on the battlefield was terrifying enough, but especially so in urban combat, that infamous “meat grinder.”
“Damn it, I’m just a nobody. Isn’t this overkill? Using a sniper against a mosquito like me?”
This time, Li Changjiang was genuinely on the verge of tears from fright. Yet, after the earlier ordeal, he found himself becoming more rational; war was undoubtedly the ultimate crucible for growth. Whoever you were, you matured quickly in battle: kill or be killed, there was no other choice.
All he could do now was lie flat against the ground, curl up as tightly as possible, press himself against the base of the wall, holding his breath and gasping for air. Faced with this sudden turn, Li Changjiang needed to calm down and think clearly. He had to find a spot where he wouldn’t be seen, use the scope on the light screen to observe the enemy’s location and distance.
But this was an extremely dangerous move—risk level was a full hundred. The sniper already knew his position; any movement would be caught in that deadly gaze.
“Don’t panic, don’t panic,” he began muttering under his breath, almost hypnotically, then paused in surprise.
Quickly, he shed his jacket, eyeing the rifles scattered nearby, and decided to gamble once more.
If he succeeded, he’d live. If not, he’d die.
Slowly, he moved his left leg, hooked the rifle he’d already unloaded, and propped his jacket up against the wall with it. Carefully, he let a sleeve hang where it would be visible to the sniper, then crawled across the floor to the other side of the room, toward a window.
He chambered a round.
Just as he poked the barrel out—
Whizz!
A bullet thudded into the jacket, muffled, but the sleeve merely slumped further down the wall; the decoy still held.
Seeing his trick work, Li Changjiang was secretly delighted.
Whizz!
Another shot. This time the bullet struck the rifle beneath the jacket, and both collapsed to the ground.
The trajectory vanished in an instant, but Li Changjiang, ever sharp, caught the direction through the scope on his screen: northwest, a window on the second floor across the street.
Target range: eighteen meters.
Meanwhile, the effective shooting distance displayed was still only ten.
He pulled back, shrank further inside.
He waited. No further sniper fire came, and Li Changjiang grew suspicious.
Had the enemy left?
Impossible. A sniper would never withdraw without confirming a kill.
Just as he hesitated, suddenly—
A barrage of gunfire erupted once more.
Li Changjiang instinctively flattened himself, unmoving, but to his shock, the gunfire seemed to come from outside the wall.
He gritted his teeth, climbed up to the window, and saw three figures brazenly charging from across the street.
He was dumbfounded.
What were they thinking—running straight across with a sniper watching? He didn’t believe any of them would survive; in urban combat, especially when the enemy is hidden and you’re exposed, a lone sniper could inflict more casualties than an elite assault team.
Running in full view was suicide.
Sure enough—whizz! A shot rang out. The man in front dropped instantly.
Whizz!
Another one.
The last man hit wasn’t killed, just clutching his arm as he fell. The one in front doubled back to help, and a phrase sprang to Li Changjiang’s mind.
“Surround the point and strike at the reinforcements.”
A master at work. They were doomed.
Then, to Li Changjiang’s utter astonishment, the retreating figure shouted a phrase so familiar it stunned him.
“Brother Liu! Brother Liu!”
What the—Chinese!
How could there be Chinese here?
Li Changjiang was completely bewildered.
Should he help, or not?
Life or death in an instant.
Without hesitation, he tore off his camouflage and leapt from cover, adopting a firing stance. He knew this was a gamble for his life, hoping the sniper’s attention was fixed on the two exposed men.
He’d guessed right.
No new shots rang out.
Without delay, Li Changjiang aimed at the window he’d already determined, and before he could feel any relief, his finger squeezed the trigger.
Bang!
Bang bang bang!
A single shot, then a burst.
The sniper was clearly not as skilled as Li Changjiang had feared; at the first shot, he fired back, a bullet whizzing past Li Changjiang’s left cheek and striking nearby.
Li Changjiang wanted to keep firing, but didn’t give the sniper the chance; with the crosshair calibrated on his screen, another burst finished him.
He holstered his weapon, rose, and sprinted out, the sequence fluid and seamless.
“Move!” he shouted, hauling up the wounded man, directing the other, then dashed toward a shop across the street.
Once the three had taken cover inside, their pursuers arrived—more than ten rebels, spraying the outside with gunfire before shouting frantically.
“Quick, undo his sleeve!”
Amid the chaos, Li Changjiang began his counterattack.
Bang bang bang!
Three shots, each a burst, and within the scope’s effective range, blood spurted as several enemies dropped in the darkness. The remaining rebels, shocked, scattered and stayed low, not daring to rise.
Seeing he’d lost the best shooting angle, Li Changjiang crouched down, shouting at the uninjured one. When nothing happened for a while, he grew furious.
“Stop dawdling and get it undone!”
“I—I can’t tear it!”
The voice.
Li Changjiang was stunned.
A woman.
What the hell—what was a woman doing here in this hellhole? He himself was barely competent, and now, not only did he have a wounded man to deal with, but a liability as well. What a disaster.
Rip!
Damn clothes—so stubbornly strong.
His jaw ached, but Li Changjiang didn’t care; tearing open the man’s sleeve, he turned back to firing position, watching the window.
The man had passed out from pain.
“What are you staring at? If you don’t want him to bleed to death, hurry up and bandage the wound.”
“Oh—okay!”
The girl’s voice trembled; she was young. Actually, holding back tears in this situation was already impressive. But the battlefield didn’t care whether you were man or woman; as long as you breathed, you were a target.
Night deepened. Li Changjiang glanced at his watch.
He cursed under his breath—useless thing, with chicken-scratch letters. What rotten luck. At least he could read the hour hand; it was past two in the morning.
Outside, the rebels had mistakenly assumed a formidable opponent was hiding within; after dropping down, they made no further moves. Both sides were locked in a standoff, but time was running out for Li Changjiang.
Once dawn broke, not even gods could save them.
He counted.
With those he’d killed, there were six left outside, all armed with identical weapons.
“You—come here.”
Without turning, Li Changjiang beckoned behind him.
Suddenly, the woman gasped softly.
Li Changjiang was bewildered yet again.
“So soft!”
A military rookie begs for recommendation votes to climb the ranks!