318: Chapter 316: The Oil Tycoons Who Team Up for Hunting 318: Chapter 316: The Oil Tycoons Who Team Up for Hunting Aside from the shotgun on the car seat, there were two boxes of cartridges, one of which was already open and still over half full, while the other box remained unopened.
Moreover, there was a small bag on the backseat that could be slung over the shoulder or strapped around the waist.
Gao Yang dropped the AK47 he was holding, grabbed the shotgun from the back seat, and snatched a handful of cartridges from the box, then moved behind the front of the car to aim at the vehicle that was now less than fifty meters away from him.
The night vision was still on.
Although the oncoming car’s headlights were blazing, they had no effect on the night vision device.
Thermal imaging night vision is different from image intensification night vision; it’s insensitive to light, reacting only to heat and presenting the image visually.
In fact, thermal imaging night vision can also be used during the day, not only at night, though it’s more frequently used after dark.
Therefore, “thermal imaging night vision” is just a habitual name—the correct term is infrared thermal imager.
Looking through the scope, Gao Yang saw the brightest parts of the car were the front section and the headlights on the roof, which appeared as two white glows in the scope after thermal imaging.
In between them, he could see two red human silhouettes.
The distance was too close; Gao Yang didn’t need to calculate the zeroing distance first.
He directly aimed the crosshairs of the scope at the driver and with just one shot, killed him.
However, when Gao Yang was about to fire again, he realized there were no bullets left in the gun.
Gao Yang worked the bolt action, stuffing one of the cartridges he was holding into the chamber.
Immediately aiming again, he saw that the person in the passenger seat had taken over the steering wheel.
After the car swerved sharply and accelerated, Gao Yang fired but missed the person in the passenger seat, and the vehicle that had been speeding toward him made a quick getaway.
For a moment, Gao Yang faced no immediate threats.
Taking a brief breath, Gao Yang hurriedly loaded a few cartridges into the chamber.
His shotgun could hold a maximum of four rounds.
After filling the chamber, he quickly returned to the rear door of his car, grabbed the small bag, and after seeing that it only contained some small items, he dumped both boxes of cartridges into it before buckling the bag around his waist.
With the waist bag secured, Gao Yang gave it a yank to tighten the strap and with just a glance back and forth, he understood why these cars were able to find him.
The car’s roof must have been custom-made; the sunroof above the rear seating area could open completely, and in the center of the rear seat, a metal pole extended to the roof.
At the top of the pole, a large night vision device was mounted.
As for the car itself, it was a type Gao Yang had never seen before; to be precise, it wasn’t an SUV.
Only at that moment did he notice that the car had a bed attached to the rear; in fact, it was a pickup truck.
The vehicle’s brand was easily recognizable.
The emblem on the wheels revealed it was a Mercedes, but this pickup truck looked exceptionally luxurious and had a lengthy five- or six-meter chassis with dual rear wheels—a total of six wheels.
As for the shotgun in his hands, Gao Yang couldn’t determine its pedigree in his haste, but one glance told him it was extraordinary.
Clad in white robes and wearing a checkered headscarf, with leather sandals on his feet, plus Gao Yang’s unfamiliar model of luxurious pickup truck, a shotgun engraved with intricate patterns, and the undoubtedly expensive large night vision device inside the car, Gao Yang realized with just one sweep that these people had to be wealthy individuals from the Middle East.
The answer was becoming clear.
Among the poachers’ list of prey, the most valuable was a young cheetah, and those who were most passionate about keeping a cheetah were the wealthy from the oil-producing countries of the Middle East.
Going hunting with a few hounds, how could that compare to the prestige of bringing a cheetah along?
Although cheetahs are felids, they’re rather unique.
As the fastest land animals on Earth, cheetahs hunt in a completely different way than other big cats.
With their small size and heads, cheetahs have short teeth, so they rely on speed to catch up with prey.
They first use their paws to strike the prey’s hind legs, then bite the neck until the prey dies of asphyxiation.
What’s more, unlike other felines that are difficult to tame, cheetahs can be completely domesticated if trained from a young age, obeying their owner’s commands.
In this aspect, cheetahs are more similar to canines than felines.
Their tamable nature, combined with a completely different hunting style from other big cats, made keeping and using cheetahs for hunting very popular in the Middle East and North Africa thousands of years ago.
As for today, even though cheetahs have long been listed as a species prohibited from hunting and trading, to the wealthy of the Middle East, international bans mean nothing.
Nowadays, cheetahs are exceedingly rare and the majority of the countries where they are found have intensified their conservation efforts, thus the price of a young, healthy cheetah on the black market has skyrocketed.
Understanding all this, Gao Yang also understood why an ultra-luxurious hunting party would appear in South Sudan—the country was still too powerless to establish comprehensive protection measures for wildlife.
Going on an unfettered hunting trip in South Sudan and being able to buy some cheetah cubs at a low price, it doesn’t take much reasoning to reach this conclusion.
Only those tycoons from the Middle East who are filthy rich, frivolously spending money, and fanatical about raising a cheetah in their own gardens would go to such lengths.
It was no surprise that Gao Yang could be discovered by someone at this time.
The hunting group from the Middle East indeed had medium to large night vision devices; spotting him in the darkness was as easy as child’s play.
Gao Yang didn’t know if the other vehicles were equipped with large night vision devices, but logically speaking, those Middle Eastern tycoons didn’t care about money.
Although he didn’t know the exact model of the night vision devices, they were only a matter of a few hundred thousand to over a million US dollars each.
Since the tycoons were not strapped for cash and had come in a group for hunting, it was impossible that they would have brought only one thermal imager.
By now, the other vehicles had once again driven towards Gao Yang.
They finally began to shoot at him with automatic weapons.
However, Gao Yang noticed that only two vehicles started firing continuously at him, and the shots were quite accurate, as the bullets fell around the vehicle and its vicinity.
Gao Yang crawled to the front of the car, for the heat from the engine was higher, which would help maximize his chances of avoiding detection by the thermal imager.
After getting into position, Gao Yang aimed at a silhouette shooting and fired a shot, compensating for a two-hundred-meter zeroing distance.
Discovering he hadn’t hit the target, he immediately shot again, compensating for the same zeroing distance.
This time his guess was right, and the target four hundred meters away fell back into the car.
Gao Yang was so excited that he wanted to shout because he realized the night vision devices used by these Middle Eastern tycoons were truly top-notch; there was no problem observing human targets beyond five hundred meters.
Top-of-the-line small thermal imagers claimed to detect targets a kilometer away, while large thermal imagers used on tanks claimed to have a range of three thousand meters.
Of course, one shouldn’t take advertising for granted, those figures were derived under the most favorable conditions.
In actual use, various unfavorable factors would significantly reduce their effectiveness.
Thus, being able to detect human targets beyond five hundred meters in practice meant its quality was top-notch, on par with the devices Gao Yang usually used.
With a car, top-notch night vision, a long-range, high-powered, and accurate rifle that didn’t need readjusting, what was there to fear?
Now that his equipment had gone from a bird gun to a cannon, Gao Yang felt unstoppable.
After taking out a machine gunner, Gao Yang swung his rifle around and killed another machine gunner.
Now, only a few hunting rifles on the vehicles could pose a threat to him.
The roles of hunter and prey had changed several times; although Gao Yang was alone, he was no longer the prey.
If he wished, he could hunt them down one by one.
Seeing the red light flash again, Gao Yang fired the third shot, killing the third person who had climbed out of the vehicle to shoot at him.
Shooting beyond four-hundred meters, with or without a scope, untrained people would have great difficulty accurately hitting a human-sized target; otherwise, anyone with a sniper rifle would become a sniper.
Gao Yang was confident in his marksmanship and confident about his enemies’.
Even if the Middle Eastern tycoons had hunting rifles that could be used as sniper rifles, he wasn’t afraid.
Now, his only concern was the guards that the tycoons might have brought along.
When Gao Yang killed the third man, the vehicles sensed danger and began to retreat.
However, looking through the scope, he saw seven or eight red dots left behind, meaning people stayed even though the vehicles had left.
Gao Yang aimed at a red dot lying prone on the ground, ready to shoot, but he saw a flash of red light and instinctively shrunk his head down, hiding it beneath the car body, and then he heard a whoosh as a bullet flew over his head.
The enemy’s marksmanship had suddenly improved, and Gao Yang immediately realized those left behind were skilled guards.
The tycoons had finally decided to get serious.
Now was not the time to be careless.
However, Gao Yang took cover behind the vehicle body.
As long as he was careful not to be flanked, he didn’t have to worry about being hit, so he began to think about what to do next.
Driving away was undoubtedly the most tempting option, but Gao Yang worried that if he fled in the car, he couldn’t shoot while driving.
Since the enemy had at least six operable cars, they could just drive up to him and strafe him with machine-gun fire, which would be even more dangerous.
Driving away didn’t seem like a good option; yet staying put was undoubtedly riskier.
No matter how good a marksman Gao Yang was, he was just one person.
The Middle Eastern tycoons and the Nuer United Front could easily call in more people and surround him completely.
If that happened, it would be game over.
Between two evils, one must choose the lesser.
Gao Yang could only try to escape by car, but no matter what, the situation was already much better compared to when he was hunted by eight cars.
(To be continued.
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