86: Chapter 85 Not Luck 86: Chapter 85 Not Luck When someone accomplishes what the vast majority cannot, it can be called a miracle, and Gao Yang performed such a miracle before many witnesses.
At a distance of one thousand meters, Gao Yang fired twenty shots from his 7.62mm caliber semi-automatic rifle, killing ten people—a fifty percent hit rate.
A fifty percent hit rate might not sound very high, but when a bullet takes two seconds to hit its target, even a slowly moving target can cover two to three meters in that time.
Once the opposition realized they were being targeted by a sniper, they began moving constantly, leading to several missed shots by Gao Yang.
However, whether it’s operating rocket launchers or machine guns, one must stay put, and Gao Yang’s tactic was to target anyone who dared stay in one place for more than two seconds.
Thus, although it was possible to dodge a bullet by moving slightly after Gao Yang fired, ten people were still killed after he changed his shooting strategy.
Whether it’s operating machine guns or rocket launchers, one must stay by their side.
Gao Yang first ensured that no one dared to operate the two vehicle-mounted machine guns, because only the machine guns had the range and power to threaten him.
The rocket launcher, though much more powerful, could not accurately target him.
After killing ten people, the opposition finally collapsed.
Several pickup trucks started up one after another, then sped away in a cloud of dust.
Gao Yang initially thought the trucks would stop a few hundred meters out to continue firing, as even a two-hundred-meter move would put them out of his reach.
However, he overestimated the opposition’s will to fight; the pickups didn’t stop at all and disappeared after driving away.
Having lost the support of the anti-aircraft guns and rocket launchers, the opposition’s attack, which had rallied at least two hundred people, immediately fell apart.
They retreated in disarray under celebratory gunfire from Coleman and Sandstorm’s men.
An attack under the cover of rocket launchers and anti-aircraft guns was single-handedly repelled by Gao Yang.
After the Rebel Army left behind more than a dozen bodies and withdrew, a cheer immediately went up inside the building.
Gao Yang just felt drained, and he sat down on the ground with a thud.
Cui Bo, who had been stifling his urge to shout, finally couldn’t restrain himself.
He slapped Gao Yang on the shoulder and bellowed, “Damn, that was epic!
Brother Yang, you’re a legend, you know that?
I don’t care, I’m getting Bob to get me one of those rifles, no doubt!”
Gao Yang gave Cui Bo an annoyed look and said, “Dead Rabbit, could you not hit me that hard?
You want a good rifle?
Sure, shoot tens of thousands of rounds first to practice your marksmanship.”
Glolov remarked with admiration, “Gao, you said you weren’t a sniper.
You said shotguns were your specialty.”
Gao Yang took a deep breath and lay flat on the ground, responding, “Yeah, I was just filling in as a sniper.
No choice, you wouldn’t understand the world of a genius.
Who am I?
I can hit far if I want to hit far, close if I want to hit close.”
Cui Bo curled his lip in disdain, “Pfft, get over yourself.
You’ve never hit a target over six hundred meters before!
This time, you just got lucky.
No, not just luck, your scope is good, bullets are good, and the rifle is good.
Of course, you’ll hit the target if you aim well.
Sigh, if I had your rifle, I could do it too.”
Gao Yang didn’t bother arguing with Cui Bo.
He just sat up, replaced the empty magazine with one loaded with hand-loaded heavy bullets, and gestured towards Rabbit, saying, “Enough talk.
Find a target and give it a try.
Just to let you know, I only have a few hand-loaded bullets left, so three shots it is.”
Cui Bo excitedly took Gao Yang’s rifle, fondled it for a long while before raising it to aim.
Glolov and Li Jinfang immediately fought over the only spotting scope to be Cui Bo’s spotter.
But Glolov had no chance against Li Jinfang in a scuffle; the spotting scope ultimately ended up in Jinfang’s hands.
After looking through the scope, Cui Bo shouted, “Toad, pay attention, I’m aiming at the same spot Brother Yang was.
See the green transformer box over there?
It’s about the size of a person, right?
Watch carefully, I’m starting.”
After saying this, Cui Bo took his time aiming and finally fired a shot.
But after the gunfire, it took a while before Li Jinfang confusedly said, “Which spot did you hit?
I didn’t see the impact point?”
Cui Bo’s face struggled to maintain composure as he retorted, “Nonsense, even if I didn’t hit the transformer box, it couldn’t have been far off.
You’re not a good spotter.
Change, change, let the Old Russian take over.”
Li Jinfang handed the spotting scope to Glolov with a look of disdain.
Once Glolov had the target in sight, Cui Bo took his time, aimed again, and fired another shot.
This time, Glolov immediately reported the impact point after the shot.
“The bullet fell about ten meters to the left.
I could only spot the impact because I saw the dust on the wall, otherwise I wouldn’t have seen it.”
Cui Bo huffed and puffed, “Damn it, I’m just not familiar with the gun.
You guys watch this shot, it’ll definitely hit.”
Gao Yang, who was acting as a translator, couldn’t help but burst into laughter and said, “I mean, Rabbit, a ten-meter margin of error, and you still have the nerve to shoot again?
Haha”
Cui Bo ignored Gao Yang, aimed for about three minutes, and then fired a shot.
After this shot was completed, Glolov didn’t utter a word for a long time.
After a while, he sighed and said, “Well, Rabbit, I honestly didn’t want to discourage you, but I still have to tell you that your shot veered to the right, about fifteen meters off target.
And there’s something else I have to tell you, I wasn’t even paying attention to the target.
I was watching the walls, and thankfully, you didn’t disappoint me, you actually hit the wall.”
All the air went out of Cui Bo as he looked to the sky and sighed, “That doesn’t make any sense.
How could I be that far off?
I calculated the wind speed, humidity, and fall-off; it’s illogical that it didn’t hit.”
Gao Yang grabbed the gun from Cui Bo’s hand, patted him on the shoulder, and laughed, “Kid, you’re not even holding the gun steady.
How could you possibly shoot accurately?
A tremble of the hand, and you’re off by so many meters.
Shooting a person?
More like hitting the wall.
We’re telling you to practice shooting not to harm you.
Do you really think that just because you know how to shoot, you can shoot accurately?
Easy to know but hard to do, get what I’m saying?
You’ve never handled a real gun before, and with that junk gun and crappy bullets, you’ve only fired about two thousand rounds.
You think that’s enough practice?
Pfft, better off not trying.
Come on, don’t be sad.
Shoot more when you have time, and I’ll get you a top-notch gun.”
Cui Bo, who was down in the dumps, suddenly perked up, threw a punch in the air, and said, “Practice, I’ll practice right now.
We’ve got plenty of ammo right now, and even if we run out, we can get more.
Just you wait, after this battle, I’m determined to wear out my gun barrel until it’s smooth.”
Gao Yang and Cui Bo often teased and took digs at one another, though most of the time the victor was Gao Yang, and this time was no exception.
The tense mood was lightened up by Cui Bo’s episode, and everyone started to happily engage in personal attacks while bragging about themselves.
When friends were together, blathering away, it seemed this was the only tune they knew.
While Gao Yang and the others were chatting and shooting the breeze, Coleman and Sandstorm’s men ran up, one after another expressing their admiration for Gao Yang’s marksmanship for a long time.
By this time, the daylight had already faded, and according to their experience, there wouldn’t be any fighting at night.
With nothing else to do, the number of people chatting and shooting the breeze grew to over a dozen, sharing their experiences and their concerns.
Time passed quickly, and the sun finally set completely, leaving the sky pitch black.
The pleasant conversation lasted about two hours.
Green Mamba, who had been all smiles, glanced at his watch, clapped his hands, and said, “Alright, there’s a fight tomorrow, we should let Ram and his men rest.
If Ram gets good rest, we benefit too, haha.
Don’t worry about the night watch, we’ll handle that.
All you need to do is have a good sleep while it’s nice and quiet.”
After expressing their gratitude to Green Mamba, Gao Yang and the others found a room away from the street-facing windows, laid out their moisture-proof mats, and crawled into their own fleece sleeping bags.
For the sake of convenience and saving space, everyone had brought fleece sleeping bags.
As the nighttime temperature in Misrata wasn’t very low, and though the fleece sleeping bags were a bit thin, they weren’t cold when they slept in their clothes inside.
Exhausted from a day, especially Gao Yang, who was in a state of high tension, quickly fell into a deep sleep.
Gao Yang had no idea how long he had slept when he suddenly woke up from his sleep.
Apart from the sound of Cui Bo grinding his teeth, there was no noise in the room that indicated anything was amiss.
Gao Yang knew that Sandstorm and Coleman’s men were guarding the building, so it should be safe, and he tried to go back to sleep.
However, for some reason, he just couldn’t fall asleep again, feeling as if something was about to happen.
Gao Yang sat up again, reached for a small flashlight, intending to go out and see what was up, but before he could take any action, he heard Li Jinfang whisper, “Brother Yang, is that you?”
Gao Yang jumped at the sound of Li Jinfang’s voice and said, “Damn it, don’t scare me like that!
What’s got you up, too?”
“Uh-huh, just woke up.
I’ve got a bad feeling.”
Hearing Li Jinfang, Gao Yang felt his own unease intensify.
“Let’s go and take a look.
I’ve got a bad feeling too, and since I can’t sleep, it’s better to go check it out.”
Gao Yang and Li Jinfang quietly climbed out of their sleeping bags, grabbed their backpacks, and after leaving the room, pulled out their weapons.
Gao Yang replaced the batteries in his infrared night scope and mounted it onto his rifle.
While attaching the scope, Gao Yang chastised himself for being negligent; he should have had the scope ready as soon as it got dark instead of waiting until now.