799: Chapter 790: Safely Bagged 799: Chapter 790: Safely Bagged After infuriating Sadiq, no matter how Gao Yang taunted him, Sadiq never spoke again.
Old Fox wanted to wear him out, which concerned Gao Yang somewhat, but adopting the principle that the more worried he was, the less he should show it, Gao Yang aimed to demonstrate that he had a lot of patience and was not afraid of a prolonged standoff.
However, Old Fox stopped responding as well.
The evidence proved that the strong were indeed strong.
The Tuareg people truly intended to trap Gao Yang alive in the cave, not leaving nor attacking, just barricading the cave entrance, leaving Gao Yang completely stuck.
Dealing with an experienced and exceedingly cunning enemy was most headache-inducing.
Gao Yang did not fear a direct assault; if the enemy left and then blocked the cave entrance, he could only gamble, hoping that the other two lava tubes inside the cave led to the outside world.
At least he would have had a chance to gamble, but with the Tuareg people not retreating or advancing, just draining his endurance, it completely frustrated Gao Yang.
With age comes craftiness, and older people often also have a lot of patience.
For an Old Fox, if he could wear down his opponent without risk or alarm, he certainly wouldn’t choose a riskier method.
At first, because of the enemy threat, the highly tense Gao Yang didn’t notice anything, but after waiting four or five hours, with no one coming out or speaking, Gao Yang began to find it unbearable.
To conserve battery power, Gao Yang turned off the camera.
As a result, not only was the cave in absolute darkness, but it was also silent, instilling fear.
Initially, Gao Yang could relieve some stress by nibbling on something to eat, but not knowing how long he would be trapped and needing to conserve food and water, he quickly reached his limit.
Gao Yang had never been a soldier and didn’t know what solitary confinement tasted like, but now he knew.
Having run for an entire day still under high psychological tension, Gao Yang was already very tired, but in the pitch-dark cave, he found it utterly impossible to sleep, not just because of the pressure from the enemies but also due to the severe oppression the darkness brought.
Physically exhausted to the extreme and mentally highly strung, after silently holding out for twelve hours, Gao Yang’s physiological limits finally hit him.
In the absolute darkness where keeping one’s eyes open or closed made no difference, no matter how tough your mind is, you can’t remain awake indefinitely.
Gao Yang, without realizing it, leaned against the statue and entered a drowsy state.
Gao Yang quickly fell asleep without noticing.
A sudden intense toothache violently woke Gao Yang from his sleep.
It was like being doused with a bucket of cold water while in a profound slumber, reluctant yet forced to become alert immediately.
When caries develop to acute pulpitis, the pain is intermittent.
The agony of acute pulpitis is something that cannot be comprehended by those who haven’t experienced it.
This sheer nerve pain shooting straight into the forehead can focus one’s consciousness on the pain in the shortest time, leaving no possibility to divert attention.
Gao Yang first clutched his mouth, but as he grew frustrated with the pain, he suddenly realized that he had fallen asleep.
Falling asleep surrounded by formidable enemies, Gao Yang broke out in a cold sweat from the pain and fear, and then he immediately reached for the camera in front of him and turned it on.
As the image appeared on the screen, Gao Yang’s unresolved cold sweat resurfaced.
Two people were slowly approaching him, now less than fifty meters away.
The enemy must have had night vision devices.
Gao Yang saw one of the two quietly approaching people suddenly charge at him, firing as he ran, while the other turned and ran, presumably having noticed his movement, leading to the two men making different decisions.
Without any room for politeness, Gao Yang fired three bursts from his gun.
After emptying a full magazine, he killed the enemy charging at him on the ground.
Then, as he loaded a new magazine and fired a few bullets at the one who had retreated, Gao Yang stopped shooting.
Having his life saved by a bad tooth, Gao Yang, feeling both thankful and fearful, pressed his cheek a couple of times, then immediately shouted out loud, “You’ve been fooled, Old Fox.
Do you think I would fall asleep under these circumstances?”
“Perhaps this really was the trap you set, or perhaps your alertness saved your life.
No one knows the truth except yourself, so say whatever you like.
However, if it were me, I would have waited at least twenty more hours before attacking.”
Gao Yang inwardly smiled bitterly.
Old Fox’s analysis was too accurate.
In absolute darkness, so-called willpower amounted to nothing.
If he had waited another twenty hours, who knew whether he’d be asleep or awake by then.
The enemy had a substantial number of men, and they could take turns standing guard, but it was absolutely impossible for Gao Yang to remain awake and alert by himself without any rest.
Gao Yang knew he could no longer remain in total darkness, but even with a dim light, he could avoid finding himself completely disoriented with respect to space, time, and even his own existence.
To turn on a light source, he had to face the problem of wasting electricity.
However, Gao Yang’s headlamp brand was SureFire, the model was Maximus HS3, with infinitely variable brightness ranging from a maximum of five hundred lumens to a minimum of just one lumen.
SureFire is the largest tactical flashlight manufacturer in America, and indeed the world.
All of Gao Yang’s tactical flashlights are from SureFire.
In Huaxia, the reliable and powerful SureFire is nicknamed ‘Divine Fire’ by flashlight enthusiasts.
The SureFire Maximus HS3 headlamp was good: a lightweight headlamp.
The problem was that it could only use one CR123 battery, and the capacity of CR123 batteries is limited.
Using high brightness would quickly deplete the battery, while low brightness could indeed last a very long time.
But the issue was that Gao Yang only had two batteries, and one of them was already more than half drained.
If you want to use a high-brightness headlamp and also want it to be as light as possible, not using the larger and heavier 18650 batteries with a higher capacity, you can only use the CR123.
The problem is that while these batteries are easy to buy in developed countries, they are very hard to come across in Africa; otherwise, Gao Yang wouldn’t have brought only two.
The camera’s power was limited, and if he ran out of camera battery, and the headlamp also ran out of power, he wouldn’t even be able to walk in the pitch-dark cave.
That would be a real disaster.
Therefore, even though it was dim, Gao Yang intended to use the light as little as possible.
But now, Gao Yang had no other choice but to focus on the immediate situation.
After taking the headlamp off his head, Gao Yang adjusted it to the lowest brightness and placed it beside him.
He would occasionally glance at it to ensure he was still awake.
After setting the headlamp aside, Gao Yang felt he couldn’t continue like this or it would lead to disaster sooner or later.
He had to seize the opportunity to turn the unfavorable situation around.
Actually, the opportunity had already presented itself with the enemy he had just killed, who had charged at him.
The enemy must have been using a night vision device, otherwise, he couldn’t have approached so stealthily in the dark.
To retrieve the night vision device, he would have to move forward at least forty meters, but Gao Yang estimated that if he advanced about ten meters, the enemy would be able to see him.
It was fine for now as he was hiding behind the statue, but once he entered the tube-like cave, the enemy could shoot without aiming and the ricochets in the confined space could also likely hit him.
Therefore, retrieving the night vision device was an extremely risky move.
Gao Yang knew he had to make a decision quickly.
The night vision device was definitely turned on, and it consumed a lot of power.
If he waited too long, the device he picked up would be a night vision device that had run out of power, which would be of no use at all.
Whether or not to risk retrieving the night vision device, he had to prepare first.
Gao Yang quietly took off his boots so he could move noiselessly if needed.
After removing his boots, Gao Yang checked his watch and found that it had been fifteen hours since he entered the cave, which meant he had been in an unconscious sleep for at least three hours.
Once again frightened by his realization, Gao Yang decided there were some things he had to do quickly.
Gao Yang had intended to take the diamonds from the statue at the very end, but now he decided to do it right away.
If he died, the diamonds would just benefit Sadiq, and if he had the chance to break out, he certainly couldn’t come back to retrieve them afterward.
Before taking the risk, he wanted to make sure the diamonds were in his possession.
Gao Yang also had another idea: if he suffered a serious injury but didn’t die, or if the enemy eventually broke in, then he would jump into that bottomless pit with the diamonds, making sure Sadiq didn’t get to keep them.
Gao Yang put the headlamp back on his head and increased the brightness slightly before jumping onto the statue.
He held the statue’s neck with one hand and began to pry off the largest diamond with the other.
The largest red diamond refracted the light from the headlamp into an enchanting glow, causing Gao Yang’s heart to tremble for a moment.
Unable to pry the diamond loose with his hands, Gao Yang lowered his head and, with trembling hands, took out a knife.
After prying around the red diamond, he forcefully plucked it out.
Gao Yang didn’t even look at the diamond; he dared not.
He immediately put the diamond into his pocket and then took a deep breath.
With the largest diamond now safely in his pocket, Gao Yang felt somewhat relieved.
He went down to check on the camera to make sure no one had come in before climbing back up the statue.
The diamonds that formed the white part of the eyes were very small, seemingly small diamonds that had been specifically selected, uniformly sized, but only half the size of a rice grain.
The eye made of small diamonds looked more symmetrical, perhaps that was why the ancestors who crafted this statue chose small diamonds.
Realizing the diamonds were too small, Gao Yang abandoned them and started prying from the largest downward; two black diamonds the size of peanuts that served as pupils were quickly pocketed by Gao Yang.
(To be continued.
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