Chapter 10.3 – Luck
The searchlight radiance now seemed particularly pale and blinding.
Tong tong tong! Thunderous gunshots suddenly erupted, quickly resounding through the wilderness. The echo of the gunshots continued to ring between the high buildings of Pendulum City.
“It’s the anti-aircraft machine gun!” Upon hearing this sound, Li Gaolei immediately reacted and threw himself to the side, pushing Fazir down below him. However, he understood how great Su’s marksmanship was; since he already heard the shooting, it meant that everything was already over. Anything Li Gaolei did based on his instincts could only serve as some type of personal consolation.
The searchlight shining from above suddenly emitted a wisp of white smoke, and then it was extinguished. The body of the veteran operating the searchlight was penetrated by two anti-aircraft machine gun bullets. One of them smashed apart his waist, and the other one shaved off half of his scalp. The third and final bullet wiped out the searchlight.
The young recruit sat blankly in the machine gun position as if he didn’t fully process what had just happened in front of him. Warm blood flowed down from his head and face down to his clothes, producing an extremely uncomfortable feeling. The new recruit hadn’t been injured; the blood and maybe even some flesh that had splashed onto his head belonged to that old veteran.
The recruit suddenly recalled the sentence the veteran had just said. “Youngster! After you participate in more battles or reach my age, you’ll understand that idling for an entire day is the greatest happiness.”
Only now did fear begin to brew within him. The recruit suddenly squatted on the floor while firmly holding his head, crying bitterly in a hysteric manner.
Within the darkness, the large lumps of fiery light the anti-aircraft machine gun emitted were especially striking and not disguised in the slightest. Roxland Company’s experienced soldiers didn’t seem to require any moment to contemplate the situation as the weapons in their hands immediately returned continuous fire. Their instinctive reactions were extremely fast, and their weapons that had not taken aim beforehand were still rather decent. Nevertheless, they weren’t effective at all. The reason was extremely simple. It was hard for the weapons in their hands to exceed a range of 400 meters, while the anti-aircraft machine gun’s firing range exceeded 800 meters.
The night was extremely dark, especially after the sole searchlight was wiped out. Even though there was a reserve searchlight, no one dared to go turn it on. The distance from the firing position and the searchlight was over a 1000 meters, yet it was taken out with a single bullet that didn’t even belong to a sniper rifle.
Ten or so soldiers lowered their bodies as they moved in a roundabout way to outflank the shooter. However, this order from the military officer was brought to an end by Li Gaolei. He deeply understood Su’s shooting capabilities, and he also knew how terrifying Su was in the darkness. This order would only be sending these few individuals straight to their deaths. Meanwhile, the patrol car’s vehicle armor couldn’t defend against the firing of the anti-aircraft machine gun at all. If those from the base came, or if a tank was brought over, who knows where Su would have fled to by then.
Li Gaolei stood up. After being forcefully pushed to the ground and crushed by the imposing body weighing nearly 100 kilograms, Fazir’s body that was almost sixty years in age was clearly having trouble and he only climbed up after some difficulty. Fazir was about to issue a complaint out of habit, but then he saw that Li Gaolei’s gaze was focused intently in one direction. When he followed Li Gaolei’s gaze, he noticed that it was actually aimed at the patrol car that had returned late. The anti-aircraft machine gun had already been stripped off and exchanged for a similarly giant, yet crude and worn out modified rifle.
Li Gaolei climbed onto the patrol car and removed the modified rifle. He then carefully inspected it. The rifle had an exceptionally long barrel, but the body had long been scattered and smashed. The gun’s barrel and bolt were long covered in scratches, and no matter how you looked at it, it was clearly an old modified rifle that was close to being scrap metal. Great power, simple composition, and relatively stable firing trajectory were probably this rifle’s only merits. As a firearm expert, Li Gaolei had no idea how this tattered rifle worth less than 300 yuan could take out Laiknar before their eyes and even force a troop that with such advanced equipment and remarkable abilities to retreat.
Li Gaolei raised the gun and made a aiming movement. He lined the simple front sight with the buildings now indistinct under the darkness of night. This primitive sighting device could hit a target a thousand meters away?
“Let’s go back.” Li Gaolei tossed away the rifle and spoke towards Fazir. As for whether or not the gun had intruder cells, it was already no longer important. Li Gaolei had always been rather clear that the one Su aimed at wasn’t him, and the main reason was because he wasn’t valuable enough.
Upon returning to headquarters, Fazir originally wanted to return to his own residence on the fifth floor, but he never thought that Li Gaolei would follow him inside. He heavily threw himself onto a couch in the outer room and coldly said, “Your couch here is more comfortable than my bed.”
Fazir stuck his head outside his bedroom and said, “You have to at least take a shower. Right now, your odor is extremely strong!”
Li Gaolei seemed to have a spring installed in him as he bounced up from the bed. “Whatever! This is your order, so the water fee will be on you!”
Fazir looked at his hand and said, “You only have five minutes. After five minutes, I’m cutting off the cold water.”
Five minutes later, Li Gaolei walked out from the bathroom with a refreshed look while emitting steam. There was only a large towel around his waist, and the muscles winding around his body gave off a powerful masculine charm.
Fazir sat on the single-seat couch while holding a cup of coffee. Through his glasses that were full of adhesive plasters, he looked at Li Gaolei. “Your skin isn’t bad, it’s quite glossy.”
Li Gaolei’s pleasant expression immediately disappeared without a trace, replaced with a face that seemed like he wanted to beat someone up. After losing his beard and chest hair, the originally crude-looking Li Gaolei became extremely handsome. His appearance wasn’t bad to begin with, and the beard as well as the chest hair gave him much more of a masculine style.
This night was passed in peace.
Early the next morning, Li Gaolei whistled as he left Fazir’s room. He looked for Li to eat breakfast with and conveniently engage in some chatter. Pendulum City in the olden age was a major city of a hundred thousand. With just 500 soldiers, they simply couldn’t stop Su’s infiltration. If Su was going to make a move sooner or later, Li Gaolei hoped that the room he entered would be Li’s. If that was the case, then no matter what happened after during the endless night, it could still be considered the best result.
However, Li Gaolei’s plan to eat breakfast with Li fell through. It seemed like Li had only heard about last night’s matters after leaving the underground shooting range. Out of rage, she brought several individuals out with her on a patrol car out of Pendulum City to settle things with Su.
Li Gaolei’s face immediately changed greatly! Li was completely unaware that Su was being chased by Laiknar and O’Brien under his lead, and she didn’t know why Su suddenly opened fire on Pendulum City. Li was a talented and outstanding general, and she possessed exceptional gifts in the Combat Domain. However, her thinking was also rather conservative. Li cherished the soldiers under her. Even though none of the people she truly cared about had been injured, losing so many outstanding soldiers in one night, moreover all of them under Su’s hands, made Li absolutely furious.
Li Gaolei understood Li’s frame of mind, and also knew that she didn’t truly understand how dangerous it was.
Su, if given the chance to pull the trigger, probably wouldn’t hesitate.
