There was only one man and one gun on the peak, but this seemed like a great obstacle to the Indian troops. Any person who revealed his head, or tried to advance was met with a life-ending bullet. The man on the peak had godly gunskills, and it was already way beyond what they could handle.
They had done one charge but no one dared to reveal himself after a dozen bodies had dropped in the charge.
“Charge up there!” Hattori Tsukijin crawled to the side of the Indian officer commanding the soldiers and shouted at him in English. “What are you still waiting for? He doesn’t have so many bullets! Are you Indian military men so afraid of death?”
“Bastard!” The Indian officer was so ashamed he got mad. “Why don't you and your men charge up there? We’ve already lost over ten men, and you dare to tell my people to go to their deaths?!”
“Don’t forget that I paid you! That money is enough for you to live in luxury for the rest of your life!”
The Indian officer was subdued at the mention of money. He had accepted money in exchange for calamity. If he and his deputy had not accepted this Japanese person’s money, he wouldn’t be here. He’d thought that it was just a simple military exercise at first and that no one needed to die, but he had not expected this to happen. Over ten of his men had been killed. This sort of thing couldn’t be covered up, and once the higher-ups investigated, he was screwed, no matter how much money he had!
“If you want to go up, then take your men and go up yourselves. I took your money but you didn’t tell me that the target is so powerful!”
Hattori Tsukijin made a gun-raising movement.
“Don’t move!” warned an officer next to the Indian officer.
Hattori Tsukijin pressed the muzzle of his gun down. “If you and your men attack and help me capture that man, I will give you one million US dollars more. Take this money and you can leave India to go live somewhere else.”
The commanding officer hesitated. “Two million.”
A small sneer appeared on Hattori Tsukijin’s face. “You’re very greedy. But deal.”
The Indian commanding officer gave the command. “Charge up! He has no more bullets! I will give a hundred thousand American dollars to the man who kills him! And five hundred thousand to be shared among the survivors!”
A hundred thousand American dollars was a heavenly amount to an officer of the lowest rank. Plus, he would get a share of five hundred thousand American dollars even if he didn’t kill the man on the peak and survived — this was a quick path to riches. Riches and honour in danger, and the commanding officer had said that the man on the peak had run out of bullets. The Indian troops in hiding started their charge again.
Bang!
A gunshot came from the peak.
An Indian soldier who had just burst out of cover had his head blown away; he died horribly.
The soldiers who had just gathered their courage were disheartened again. Riches were very attractive, but you’ll need your life to enjoy them! You only had one life, so anyone would be terrified when faced with death.
Bam!
A Japanese military man shot a grenade at the peak when Xia Lei shot at the Indian officer.
Boom!
The grenade exploded close to Xia Lei’s sniping point, and it sent up flames and broken rock and dirt.
“Charge!” screamed the Indian commanding officer.
Ratatatatat…
Bang bang bang…
The Indian troops charged madly at the peak. They fired their guns as they ran, using their firepower to suppress Xia Lei.
This seemed to be effective. The sniper at the peak did not fire again to kill his targets below. The Indian troops soon neared the peak. The eyes of these soldiers held not just the cliff, but the riches which awaited them.
“Success!” said a Japanese military man to Hattori Tsukijin. They were downhill. He was the one who had fired the grenade launcher at Xia Lei to injure him.
“You two go up. Don’t let the Indian guys kill him. I want him alive,” said Hattori Tsukijin.
The Japanese military man who had spoken made a hand gesture at his colleague, and they walked out from under their rock cover.
A bullet came flying the instant he came out from his cover. It went through his left eyeball, and out the back of his head. He did not feel what death was like, because he was already dead.
The other military man turned pale immediately, and he instinctively dove for the rock cover he had come out from earlier.
But he was a step too late.
If he had done this move the instant his colleague had died, he would have been in time to save himself. But, he had been shocked when his colleague had been shot, and only done the movement after a pause. His reaction had already been very quick but it was not quicker than a bullet.
Pew!
A sound like a hot water bottle bursting came from his body, and blood spurted from his neck, staining Hattori Tsukijin’s face with it before he collapsed to the ground.
Hattori Tsukijin was pale. He crouched behind the rock, and did not dare move.
His plans had been going smoothly so far but he had not planned that the men he brought would die so horribly. Twelve of his family’s soldiers, all wiped out! He had brought these twelve men to the Middle East to fight for an entire year and they had not been injured or killed. Not many people know of the existence of ‘Tsukijin’s Team’ but those who knew would turn pale. He had also relied on his military strength to make big war money in the Middle East. However, all of his glory was eradicated tonight. He dared not believe that the might of he, and his twelve soldiers, plus this Indian border troop actually couldn’t take down one Xia Lei!
He took the Barrett M8A21 sniper rifle from his back. His anger and his pride made him want to have a sniping battle with Xia Lei. However, when he had his M8A21 sniper rifle in his hands, and was going to do it, his gaze went to the body of the family soldier next to him. His courage disappeared all of a sudden when he saw the dead man with half his neck missing.
He glanced at the watch on his wrist. “Fuck. Are the CIA going to wait for all of the Indian troops to die? Are they waiting for Xia Lei to run out of bullets to go capture him? Damn it! No one can compensate me for my loss!”
The safest way to capture a man like Xia Lei really was to have him run out of ammunition. As long as he had a gun in his hand, and the gun had bullets, he was an existence close to that of a grim reaper!
Two gunshots later, no more shots came from the peak.
Xia Lei seemed like he really was out of bullets this time.
“He’s out of bullets! Charge! Capture him!” This time, even the Indian soldiers hiding behind the rock dashed forward, ecstatic.
The Indian troops shouted madly as they charged up the hill with their guns blazing.
To the surviving Indian soldiers, they had very definitely gotten past the worst of it, and the only thing left to do was to count money.
Over thirty Indian soldiers finally made it to the peak, and they came to the place where Xia Lei had gathered them. A sniper rifle was on the rock, and empty bullet shells. Xia Lei had indeed run out of bullets, but he was nowhere to be seen on the peak.
“Fuck. What’s going on?”
“Impossible! He must have hid somewhere! Find him!”
“There’s blood over there!”
“He’s gone that way! He’s hurt!”
“Capture him!”
The group of Indian soldiers had discovered the spot where Xia Lei had slaughtered the dogs. They saw the dog blood on the snow, and rushed towards the cliff in glee.
There was no one at the cliff. The dog blood trail went on to the recess where Xia Lei had used rocks to seal it off.
“He’s hurt! He’s hiding in the cliff! Surround him!” The Indian commanding officer shouted orders excitedly.
The big group of Indian soldiers approached the cliff.
At that moment, a person suddenly popped out of the snow behind them. One man, one gun, one underwear.
Bang bang bang…
The Gust assault rifle spat out bullet shells. Bullet after bullet shot from the muzzle, and the Indian soldiers fell like wheat being cut. Their deaths were different, but they all shared a similarity — the person shooting at them was doing a sweep with an assault rifle, but every one of them had died due to a headshot, and one shot, one head too!
To achieve this level of shooting with a sweep… Just how terrifyingly coordinated were his hands, eyes, and brain? No one knew, because it had never been done before. But Xia Lei had done it. His brain, his left eye, and his hands were like a super computer directing a high-precision machine to do high precision processing in that instant of firing. Efficient, accurate and no margin of error!
Of course, a very good reason why he could do this was that the Gust assault rifle was excellent. If he’d been given a gun with great recoil like the AK47, or other assault rifles, he would not be able to shoot like this, even if his brain, hands and eyes were godly powerful.
But there was one who had escaped the sweep — the Indian commanding officer.
No bullet came from the muzzle when Xia Lei fired at him.
That Indian commanding officer had been so scared he’d pissed himself, but he paused and laughed loudly after Xia Lei’s gun clicked on empty. “You’ve run out of bullets? Haha, you’ve saved me a lot of money by killing them all. I really have to thank you. Kn—”
Xia Lei suddenly swung his arm.
The Indian commanding officer fell to the ground in the middle of the word ‘kneel’. A throwing knife stuck out of his forehead.
“I have to thank you too. You’ve given me more ammunition,” said Xia Lei. He threw aside the empty Gust assault rifle in his hands, and strode to the large pile of corpses.
He had timed it well. The Americans would arrive at about the time that he took the Indian troops’ weapons and ammunition. This was also why he had given up on engaging the Americans earlier and focused on eliminating the Indians. This Indian troop had the advantage in numbers, but they were not well trained in military tactics so it was easy to kill them off. If he’d chosen to exchange fire with the Americans first and run out of bullets, he would have been trapped in a desperate situation where he’d be surrounded on both sides. Without ammunition, he had just two choices — suicide, or be captured.
The low grade weapons of the Indian troops made Xia Lei frown, but he had no better choice. He picked out a few of the assault rifles at random, and dozens of ammunition cases, then left the cliff in preparation of moving to a new battlefield.
There was one Japanese man he had not killed yet. He was not a pressing worry, but Xia Lei could not take care of him right now. Compared to his earlier dire straits, however, Xia Lei was in a much better position now.
Xia Lei took a step over the edge of the cliff, and lunged at the side—