Chapter Fifty-two: Returning to Old Haunts

  Stepping back onto Liberian soil, surrounded by dense jungle and black people everywhere, feeling the scorching heat of over 30 degrees Celsius, listening to the distant rumble of gunfire, I realized that I had returned to this unforgettable country once again.

  "Hello! Liberia! We've met twice in half a year, we're really fated!" I muttered to myself. Thinking of that sniper battle in the jungle, my whole body involuntarily trembled.

  "Enjoy your fear! The body's memories are a delicacy!" the butcher said as he pressed down on my slightly trembling shoulders.

  "Go die!" I pushed away the butcher and walked towards the military jeep parked not far away.

  "Welcome! I am Habu. On behalf of the great President Taylor, I extend to you our sincerest gratitude! You can have anything you want in Liberia as long as you complete your mission!" said a black government official who was receiving us.

  "If you knew I had killed your great president's son, you wouldn't be talking like that!" I thought to myself but didn't dare say it out loud.

  Actually when I saw the government soldiers wearing green camouflage, my first reaction was to pull out my gun. Luckily, I was stopped by our squad leader, otherwise I would have shot the officer who was receiving me!

  The captain and the officer exchanged a few words and went straight to the command center of the army. This time, we came with twelve people, and others went to perform other tasks. Except for Da Xiong, Lang Ren and several old partners, Chong Ji and DJ were on their first mission with us. Chong Ji was a machine gunner, while DJ was a wireless radio soldier responsible for intercepting enemy wireless and electronic information.

  Because I have a guilty conscience, I always hide in the crowd and dare not be too conspicuous, afraid that someone will recognize me and I'll be finished. The captain brought me here, but I don't know what his intention is. Sometimes I really want to grab the captain's beard and ask him what he's thinking.

  Following the captain into the forest military camp, everyone arrived at the combat command room. As soon as they entered the door, they saw a group of war counselors arguing about something. Listening carefully, it turned out that they were arguing over which route to take to attack the city occupied by the rebel army. Seeing us coming in, they all paused, stopped arguing and looked at us.

  The officer who received us asked if we wanted to rest first or listen to the briefing first. After receiving the reply that we would listen to the briefing first, he spread out a map and pointed to a city, saying: "I'm Habu. This is Buchanan, the second largest city after the capital Monrovia, it's a port city. Thirty days ago, it was occupied by rebel forces, and for various reasons, it has not been recovered until now. Moreover, it is said that the leader of the rebel forces occupying Buchanan wants to gather all the anti-rebel leaders in the city to form an alliance. The government cannot allow this to happen. So we hope you can disrupt this meeting, capture the rebel leaders present, and at the same time, we will also launch an attack to retake Buchanan!"

  "What if we can't capture it alive?" Chongji asked.

  "Then kill them!" Habu replied curtly, which was actually the result they wanted from their expression.

  "Alright, no problem!" The captain promised. As I looked at the captain's serious expression on the side, my heart suddenly trembled without reason. The captain's words meant that we had officially stood on the opposite side of our former comrades-in-arms, and unexpectedly, the situation that had made me feel lucky for Ha Wei's misfortune just two days ago was now closing in around us.

  I recall friends who once shared life and death together, now turned into sworn enemies in a matter of an eye blink. For the first time, I felt the helplessness of being a blade. Thinking about the possibility of having my friend's blood on my hands, my heart churned with emotions that weren't exactly sadness, but I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was...

  Everyone listened to the briefing, and the captain led us out of the combat room to a separate camp, where he began to issue combat instructions: "Alright! Now that our mission is clear, our target is to capture the leader of the rebel army at tomorrow's gathering. The time, location, and attack and retreat routes are all clear to everyone, and our battle plan is simple. We will set out tonight, cross the front line, infiltrate behind enemy lines, and sneak into the port where the troops are most dispersed. We will enter the city by waterway and then hide around the gathering point. Ghoul, Quick Machine, Assassin, you will occupy the surrounding church bell towers and other high points to provide us with firepower cover and sniper support for the reinforcement troops. Butcher, Werewolf, Impact, you will be responsible for taking out the guards and establishing a defensive line to intercept the reinforcement troops. Everyone else will follow me in to capture the target." The captain gave the order.

  “YESSIR！”

  "Hmm... Captain!" I wanted to ask what if we ran into the rebel troops from last time, but I couldn't open my mouth because I already had an answer in my heart.

  "What?" The captain looked at me and seemed to see something from the embarrassed expression on my face: "Quickly, you and he will form a two-person sniper team."

  "No problem!" The vending machine also seemed to have a certain awareness as it looked at me and replied.

  After the meeting, everyone started preparing their weapons and resting for tonight's action. I lay in bed but couldn't sleep, my mind kept flashing back to Hei Zhen Zhu, Shi Mai Si Ling and other rebel leaders' smiling faces, their laughter echoing in my ears, these things felt like a thousand-pound boulder pressing on my chest making it hard to breathe, all I could do was silently pray that they wouldn't come to the gathering tomorrow...

  After dark, it was like a wound-up clockwork, everyone opened their sleepy eyes at 9 o'clock and started doing dinner and pre-war preparations in an orderly manner. Wearing camouflage uniforms, wearing camouflage nets, slowly taking out camouflage paint and applying it to my face with great force, I don't know why this time I applied more and thicker than before.

  After checking the guns and ammunition, everyone walked out of the camp together. The officer who received us was already waiting there. Seeing us coming out, his eyes burst with a crazy godly aura, saying: "This is what real soldiers look like! This gaze, this momentum, this is what real killing machines are like! If we had such an army..."

  We ignored him and walked past him, the team leader and us disappearing into the jungle in our original formation without a word, because we didn't need to speak, everything had already been arranged and was in our minds, all we needed to do was follow through. Everything was tacitly understood!

  The same night color, similar trees, even the humid air I breathed in was so alike, it seemed as if I had returned to the time of fierce battle in the jungle. The distant sound of artillery and the rustling of leaves by my side were like a catalyst injected into my body. Before long, I felt my blood churning and my spirit became excited, as if I wanted to pounce on someone and devour them.

  Holding the PSG1 sniper rifle in my arms, I kept tapping the cold barrel with my fingers, and the coolness transmitted from the fingertips slightly suppressed the surging blood. My nerves slowly calmed down. Walking cautiously in the dense forest, one foot deep and one foot shallow, we were on high alert for potential dangers lurking on frightened animals due to the cannon fire. Our group slowly advanced towards the enemy's firing line...

  Kicked away the venomous snake entwined around his feet, he slowly climbed to the top of the tall tree, picked up the sniper rifle and used the scope as a night vision telescope to survey the enemy's position.

  "There's a forward outpost fifty meters ahead, and behind it should be the opened battle line! There's one heavy machine gun inside, three people, can't see clearly in the back of the battle line." I quietly transmitted the observed situation to my teammates through wireless radio.

  "There is also a similar outpost on the left front,"

  "There's also one on the right front! However, the battle line is getting thinner and thinner as it stretches to the right, I estimate that there should be a gap to break through in the distance!" The voices of the assassin and the devil also came from the radio.

  "We're heading right, the government troops are really pigs. They said this was their controlled area, but it's been taken down in less than 6 hours!" The captain cursed while giving orders: "Everyone put on night vision goggles, beware of scattered soldiers! Kill anyone who gets in our way, friend or foe! We must take away the bodies and not let anyone know our whereabouts."

  Put on the night vision device, and the jungle turned into a familiar bright green. To be honest, since I was flashed that time, I have had a love-hate relationship with night vision devices. Without it, I would definitely be at a disadvantage in nighttime battles, but if another flashbang comes my way, I won't have the same good luck to survive like last time. Fortunately, the genius who designed the night vision device installed a brightness hazard control - when the light entering the lens is too high, the night vision device will automatically shut off the lens, making me feel slightly less uneasy.

  We walked another twenty minutes to the right, and suddenly heard the sound of people moving in front of us. Everyone immediately crouched down, and after a while, a group of rebel soldiers passed by in front of us, slowly heading in the direction we came from. It seemed they were trying to launch a surprise attack on the government troops stationed there. But they would never have thought that we were hiding just five meters away from them in the bushes, unknowingly walking under their guns.

  Staring at the rebel army passing in front of me, I let out a slight sigh of relief. These rebels looked more regular and even wore uniforms, they didn't seem to be the same group we had collaborated with before. With the pressure in my heart slightly alleviated, I felt that the air in the jungle wasn't so foul-smelling anymore, the humidity wasn't so high either, and even the python crawling by the side looked more pleasant.

  After the group of people walked by, the assassin went in the direction they came from. Before long, a voice came from the radio: "Captain, this group of people was dispatched from here. Now there are only three people at the sentry station and not many on the front line. Do we want to pass through here?"

  "It's here!" The captain immediately gave the order: "Ghoul, Slow Machine and Assassin, you are in charge of the people in the rear trench. Werewolf, Impact, Vanguard, you are in charge of the people at the sentry post. Others, be vigilant and beware of anyone who might turn back."

  I didn't realize at first that the captain was calling me by my nickname, and I was stunned for half a day before I snapped back to reality.

  "Damn corpse! Son of a bitch!" I cursed this disgusting nickname, slowly approaching the frontline. When I approached the sentry station, I stopped to put on my night vision goggles and mounted the silencer on my rifle. Through the scope, I searched for targets in the trenches, and the genius-made sight was indeed formidable, clearly seeing four people in the distant trenches. After locking onto the target, I gently opened the safety and cocked the gun, waiting for the captain's command.

  "Four people, I'll take the two on the left." The voice came from the wireless radio.

  "I'll take out the one in the middle!" The assassin also locked onto his target.

  "Got it!" I replied, and put the soldier drinking water at the far right into the center of the crosshairs. The others began to move towards the forward outpost after receiving information from us three.

  "Bang!" The sound of the gun's firing pin striking the primer reached my ears, the PSG1 originally had a built-in silencer, and with the external silencer added, the sound was as small as a mosquito buzzing.

  "Ding! Ding!" The MSG90 and the G22 of the assassin also rang softly, and the four rebel heads that were eating midnight snacks swung back and hit the wall of the trench, then bounced back and fell into the rice box in front of them. The sound of people falling to the ground startled the observers at the forward outpost, those guys were all carefully selected smart guys, one look at things not right, one of them raised his hand to the sky and was about to fire a signal flare. The observation post was very hidden and almost fully covered, making it impossible to accurately shoot people inside, but his raised hand stretched out of cover.

  I had just taken aim at the guy's hand exposed outside the observation post and hadn't even fired when that hand went limp again. A few muffled shots came from the dark outpost. It seemed that Butcher and his men didn't dare to use knives to silently take out these well-protected rebels, so they used silencers. Although the sound of a silencer is very small, it's still mechanical work, the sound of the mechanism striking and the gas escaping from the silencer is still "alarming" in the silent jungle.

  Quickly turn the muzzle towards the direction of the nearest enemy to the sentry post, afraid that the enemy will be alerted after hearing these few gunshots, and our actions will be exposed.

  Two minutes passed without any movement, and everyone let out a sigh of relief, slowly retracting their guns and approaching the dark whistle. I held my gun and slowly moved forward while looking around in the direction of the enemy through the scope. The people on the other side were moving about, but no one looked over here, seemingly preparing to push forward the defensive line. Fortunately, the captain decided to break through here, otherwise it would have been easy to run into the advancing rebels face-to-face if we had continued to move forward.

  We carefully dragged the corpse out of the trench and hid it in a remote area with no one around. Our group accelerated our pace towards the enemy's rear, hoping to leave no trace by the time they discovered someone had breached their defense line. As we ran, Fast Knife asked me, "Corpse Ghost, aren't you feeling weighed down carrying that nearly 20-kilogram PSG1? Why not use a simplified MSG90 like Slow Machine?"

  I inexplicably turned my head and looked at him, saying: "Why should I use MSG90? That gun is too light, it's not cool to use. The key point is good, stable!" I pinched the 20-pound sniper rifle with two fingers like a piece of paper in front of Kuaizi, making his eyes blur.

  "Your kid's strength is getting bigger and bigger!" Fast Knife said with a shake of his head.

  I didn't respond, but I clearly knew that after the life-and-death struggle with Gus on campus, my body felt better and better, like a fully charged robot. The battlefield is indeed a place where human potential can be tapped to the fullest! Dying once makes you three times stronger! Looking at those powerful, inhuman butchers, werewolves, and giant bears, I really don't know how they've managed to survive until now.

  After advancing for three or four hours, the DJ on the side suddenly pressed his earpiece and listened for a while, then said: "Captain, they have found the gap in the front line and are now reporting to the city, but they did not mention whether anyone has broken through the defense line."

  "Never mind him, speed up, we have to get through the second defense line on the edge of this forest before dawn when humans are most spiritually relaxed." The captain said and quickened his pace.

  Everyone bowed their heads and hastened on the road, running in the jungle was extremely exhausting. If you ran with dozens of kilograms of equipment on your back, it would be even more tiring. But to ask you to run silently at the same time is simply asking for one's life. If not for the fact that we practiced like this every day in the base, fully armed, people would have been exhausted long ago. Even so, I was drenched from head to toe, my stomach churning with acid rising up non-stop, and even the quick knife on my side was drooling uncontrollably. But not a single person fell behind!

  The hardship finally passed after breaking through the second line of defense. After entering the no man's land, the team leader signaled to slow down the advance speed. Kuai Dao wiped his mouth with one hand and panted: "Damn! Fifty kilometers, I've never run so far and so urgently in a forest run before. I need to practice when we get back, I almost died... Spit! Spit!"

  I didn't bother with him, I didn't have time to bother with him either. As I walked, I slowly adjusted my breathing, although I don't know internal strength, but I do understand a bit about adjusting my breath... After a while, the dryness in my chest that felt like fire and had a bloody smell was slowly suppressed. Luckily, I hadn't eaten much when I came out, or else it would have been a disaster!

  After breaking through the second line of defense, although there were fewer soldiers, but more and more civilians, all of whom were fleeing. We proceeded with caution, afraid of being discovered, and narrowly avoided encountering civilians several times. Each time I saw the butcher aiming his gun at the civilians, I couldn't help but fear that he would suddenly go on a killing spree and wipe out all these helpless men and women. Although this slowed us down considerably, we still arrived at our first destination on schedule in the afternoon - a river! This river connects to the largest sewer in the city, from which we can enter the most important underground street of Rubik's Cube.

  Looking at the countless corpses and various domestic waste floating in the black river water emitting waves of foul odor, we all focused our eyes on the team leader, meaning: Boss, you've chosen a good route! Is this a road for humans to walk?

  The captain looked at us with a shrug, indicating that he didn't know what to do either. Under our murderous gaze, he took the lead and jumped into the river water that was up to his neck. After exchanging a look, everyone else also jumped into the river water with a resigned expression.

  One jump into the river water, and the stench of rotting flesh rushed into my nostrils, reminding me of the last time I escaped from a muddy swamp. But that was the smell of decaying plants; this time it was the stench of rotting corpses! As I slowly made my way through the river, pushing aside the corpse with only half its face left, I saw dead rats and feces floating by. The military rations I had just eaten began to churn in my stomach, accompanied by a strong odor that seemed to pierce my nostrils like a physical entity. It was as if I had really drunk from the river water. Just then, I covered my mouth and saw a layer of yellowish feces on my hand. I couldn't hold it back anymore and let out a loud "wow" as I vomited everything in my stomach. As I finished vomiting, the assassin next to me also threw up, and he was even worse off than me. The water only reached my neck, but his face was half-submerged. My vomit splashed all over his face, causing him to throw up too. Luckily, a big bear nearby pulled him out; otherwise, he would have had to take a sip of the "high soup".

  With the good start of the two of us, the people around also began to indulge themselves, and in the end, except for the captain, even the butcher vomited twice. Looking at the captain's pale face, he actually wanted to vomit too, I guess it was because he thought that since he chose this road himself, he should not vomit, feeling a bit embarrassed so he held back and didn't vomit. However, looking at his suffering, I think it would be better if he just vomited.

  A group of people walked for three hours in the dark, wading through countless checkpoints. As night began to fall, they approached the city and started to see houses and drainage ditches. Carefully avoiding the "fresh" goods rushing out, they slowly entered the urban area. It's estimated that the enemy never thought anyone would be so "patient" as to take such an obvious route into the city. So many soldiers carrying guns and covering their noses walked by the riverbank without even giving a second glance at the river.

  Finally walked into the lower water street, a group of people scrambled to climb ashore, desperately pulling from head to body with toilet paper, plastic bags, dead mice... all sorts of things. After finally cleaning up the debris on my body, I felt a bit numb in my chest, opened my collar and saw a black patch, five huge leeches sucked full and stuck to my body.

  The doctor turned around and saw me trying to pull it out, so he rushed over to stop me: "Don't pull, whatever you do, don't try to yank it out. The more you pull, the tighter the leech's suction cup grips, and if you end up pulling the leech apart, its suction cup will stay in the wound, which can cause infection and festering." He then took out a Zippo lighter and started heating up the area above where the leeches were attached. As they slowly backed out of my skin and released their grip, I stomped on them with my foot, and blood splattered everywhere, giving me quite a scare. How much blood did those little vampires suck from me?! The doctor cleaned my wound and applied some styptic powder, then checked everyone else for leeches and helped the other unlucky ones remove theirs before we continued on our way.

  We waited in the sewer until midnight before climbing up to the street via the manhole ladder. As soon as we reached the street, everyone almost threw up again, not because the street smelled bad but because it was too fresh and our bodies stank. How could we hide like this? We were now reeking for 800 miles against the wind! After searching around, we found a car wash and rushed in to turn on the machines and stood there to let the washer clean us before leaving.

  At night, the military curfew was implemented with a blackout, walking on the empty and dark streets, stepping on the shells scattered all over the street, scanning this devastated city. The entire city had been almost destroyed by artillery fire, leaving only a few densely built buildings in the city center. We cautiously moved forward to the city center, careful not to slip or make any noise on the shell-covered road surface, lest we be heard by the parked military vehicles and patrol teams.

  Along the wall corner, we quickly advanced towards the city center's St. George Church, with whistling shells constantly falling not far from us, and the blast waves blowing up shell casings hitting the walls like a dozen machine guns firing at once. Under the cover of artillery fire, we almost encountered no obstacles as we entered the city center, but after entering the city center, the enemy became increasingly dense, so we changed our route and started walking on top, jumping from one building to another like Tarzan. After taking out five sentries who accidentally discovered us, we arrived at our second destination, St. George Church, an hour earlier than expected.

  The clergy of St. George's Church had all withdrawn, leaving only an empty shell, and the captain pointed to me and the machine gunner to a half-destroyed office building at a diagonal angle, then pointed to the assassin and the devil and again pointed to the clock tower above our heads, indicating that we two teams occupy these two high points, and the others took advantage of the night to rush into a large building across from the government building.

  I and the assault rifle rushed into that office building, inside was empty with shells and feces everywhere, the stairs had been blown off, we two used hooks to climb up to the third floor of the building, looked down at the broken corridor below, the two of us exchanged a glance: this is great! Others can't come up, we can't go down either!

  I went up to the sixth floor and found a perfect sniping position, from which I could clearly see everything in the government building across the street. Everything around us was within our line of sight. Then I started setting up my position, piling up cover, adjusting my sniper rifle, and preparing ammunition. Slowly, I took out the special "ice bullets" and "fire bullets" that had been given to me earlier, loading them into a 20-round magazine in the order of armor-piercing, ice, and fire. After loading two magazines, I placed them on my chest - this was definitely going to be a lifesaver! I had a premonition that I would need them.

  After setting up the decoy, he quietly returned to my side and said, "Have something to eat and take a nap! Tomorrow is going to be a fierce battle!"

  I nodded and said, "You take the first watch. I'll take the second!" After finishing speaking, I took out high-protein rations, beef jerky, and energy bars, and no matter how much my stomach was churning with nausea, I wolfed them down, drank two mouthfuls of water, then hugged my gun and fell asleep in my clothes.

  An hour later, the watch on my hand vibrated and I opened my eyes to see Kuai and Man busy with their sniping work - drawing a shooting distance relative position table. Seeing me sit up, they asked coldly: "Why don't you sleep for a while?"

  "It's my turn!" I pulled up the collar and took over the rangefinder from his hand to fill in for him. Actually, this thing has no use after we got the genius aiming device from Tiancai, but Kuaishou is not like me who majored in computer science and can get familiar with electronic devices so quickly. He always had a skeptical attitude towards electronic stuff.

  Watching the fast machine quickly fall asleep, I gaze at the flashing cannon fire in the distance, drawing charts and fantasizing about tomorrow's unpredictable everything, until an hour later the fast machine comes to replace me again.