The night here is utterly quiet.

They made me work overtime the last two days, and now today they send me to proctor an exam! What a delightful treat! First update—please vote for me!

The night air was chilling to the bone. The rousing military songs had finally faded into silence. Lying motionless behind cover on the rooftop, Li Changjiang barely moved a muscle. After such a long time prone, his arms and waist had gone numb, yet he felt a certain exhilaration.

The strange targeting system he saw in his vision had lain dormant ever since he forcibly shut it down during the incident in Benghazi. But just now, as he tried to connect with it mentally, his vision twisted as if something had warped it.

A familiar sensation surged within him.

Beep!

Beep beep!!

Beep beep beep!!!

He couldn't actually hear the beeping, but he saw a progress bar slowly moving forward in his field of vision. A wave of dizziness swept over him, but it vanished as quickly as it came.

The image flickered.

"Congratulations on completing the Novice Hunter mission! System upgrade complete!"

Those red letters appeared as if out of thin air, followed by a row of numbers just like the first time he saw such a display. Then, once again, the system fell silent.

Effective range: 200 meters!

Shooting accuracy bonus: 20%!

Additional 10% chance of penetration!

Novice Hunter Tutorial unlocked!

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Li Changjiang didn’t even have time to examine the remaining statistics; he was too stunned by those few lines of numbers up front.

A 200-meter effective range! Astounding!

This meant that within a 200-meter radius, the auto-targeting system could lock onto the best possible shooting angle for any target. As for whether he could hit the shot, that depended on his own marksmanship, but even so, it ensured he could fire instantly at the optimal aiming point within that range.

It was almost frightening.

"Damn!" Li Changjiang couldn’t help cursing out loud.

Thinking back to when his effective range was only thirty or fifty meters, he suddenly felt like a country bumpkin who’d just won the lottery.

And with a precision bonus and a chance for penetration, this was a skill practically tailored for a sniper.

He steadied his mind.

Li Changjiang quickly familiarized himself with the newly updated system, then, taking advantage of the darkness, slipped off the rooftop and raced downstairs.

No doubt about it—the Libyans on the other side were in for a rough time.

It couldn’t have come at a better moment; Li Changjiang had no doubt about that.

Two hundred meters!!!

Enough to send the Libyans running for cover.

No matter how many of them there were, they probably couldn’t withstand the sniping of a marksman with such precision. Even without running any tests, Li Changjiang was confident he’d reached the standard Lin Jianyong once described as an expert marksman.

Misrata, second only to the capitals Tripoli and Benghazi, had no shortage of high-rise buildings in its city center. Li Changjiang’s target was a five-story building seventy or eighty meters away, less than 150 meters in a straight line from where the Chinese nationals were hiding below. With an open view directly facing the direction of the Libyan advance, it was a superb sniping position.

He made his way from the first floor to the rooftop in one go. After quickly setting up four or five decoy firing positions, Li Changjiang retreated to the fourth floor. He found a simple but highly exposed firing spot with a wide field of view.

After a quick setup, he took off his backpack. Dumping everything out, he found only a military dagger, a palm-sized nylon pouch, a canteen, and over twenty chocolate bars, all now melted into lumps.

Ever since he’d discovered the benefits of chocolate in Benghazi, Li Changjiang hadn’t bothered to restock anything but weapons and ammo when leaving Tripoli—he’d just taken a giant bag of chocolate. Clearly, it was coming in handy again.

He tore open a wrapper and stuffed a deformed chunk of dark chocolate into his mouth. After two days of deprivation, his taste buds leapt at the intense flavor.

Li Changjiang nearly bit his tongue. Only at that moment did he finally understand the blissful expression on the Pigsy’s face in Journey to the West when he ate the fruit of immortality.

After demolishing three bars in one go, Li Changjiang suppressed the urge to keep eating, haphazardly stuffed the remaining chocolates back into his backpack, and reached for the cloth pouch, intending to toss it in. Suddenly, he paused.

He’d picked up this pouch during his dash out of the rebel command’s underground tunnel in Benghazi. In the chaos, he hadn’t checked what was inside. Afterward, while recovering from his injuries in Benghazi, he’d been too busy outwitting Caesar’s men and that bastard Hamis to give it any thought.

But now, feeling it in his hand, Li Changjiang couldn’t help examining it in the faint moonlight. It wasn’t heavy, and felt like a flat object.

He tried pulling it open, but the nylon was tough and wouldn’t budge. He grabbed his military dagger and carefully slit a seam along the edge.

Just as he expected.

Inside was a small, jet-black box with rough corners. The dim light made it hard to see any details. After studying it for a while and finding nothing special, he tossed it into his backpack and leaned against the wall, letting himself catch his breath.

Two days and nights of constant movement would wear out even a man of iron. As his nerves finally relaxed, Li Changjiang drifted into unconsciousness. He had no idea how long he slept—only when his gun slipped from his hand and the butt hit the concrete floor with a clatter did he startle awake.

Seeing nothing but darkness, Li Changjiang wiped cold sweat from his brow, feeling a stroke of luck.

“To fall asleep on the battlefield—nobody else could manage that!”

He checked his watch. It was already 1 a.m., local time. That meant he’d just dozed for almost four hours.

As consciousness returned, Li Changjiang immediately raised his gun, scanning the group of a dozen Chinese nationals more than a hundred meters away.

Sure enough.

Their senses were razor-sharp. Nearly all of them were staring intently ahead, not relaxing even at this late hour. If it weren’t for their guns held at the ready, Li Changjiang would have thought they’d fallen asleep.

Time ticked by.

The night dragged on endlessly.

Far away, in the command center of the Chinese military, not only had the number of people in the main hall not diminished, but a few new faces had appeared: middle-aged men in suits, experienced intelligence experts and diplomats, though not from the military itself.

As the fighting in Misrata hit a stalemate, they’d held several rounds of discussions, but none had changed the outcome.

Now, everything depended on Guan Hu and his team.

The Jiangzhou had anchored not far from Sirte Bay on the Mediterranean. Even such a minor maneuver had prompted private inquiries from several nations, including the powerful neighbor to the north, to both the Chinese military and foreign ministry.

The night was silent.

Dawn pressed ever closer, just below the horizon.

Taking a deep breath, Li Changjiang thrust his rifle out the window, swiftly locking onto a shadow creeping forward under cover of darkness.

Thump! Thump!! Thump!!!

His heartbeat accelerated.

Crack!

The instant he squeezed the trigger, Li Changjiang’s gaze sharpened, and the bullet, spinning madly, shot from the barrel.

With a dull thud, it struck home.

“Quick! We’re under attack!”

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