A Mercenary's War

Chapter 86: Ain’t Luck

Translated by: kevin1782

Edited by: Isalee

When somebody did what most people couldn’t do that would be called a miracle. And Gao Yang had just completed a spectacular and miraculous act.

With a distance of one thousand meters, Gao Yang used the 7.62mm-caliber semi-automatic rifle and fired twenty shots, killing ten. That just happened to add up to a fifty percent kill-death (KD) rate. 

A fifty percent KD rate would not seem very high if one just heard that. However, when a bullet reaches its target after two seconds, regardless how slow a target walks, they’d walk two to three meters in those two seconds. When the Opposition found that somebody was sniping them, they began shifting around. Hence it resulted in Gao Yang failing several times.

Yet whether they were the operating rocket launchers or the MG, they had to be stationary. Gao Yang’s method was to shoot those that dared to stay at the same spot for two seconds or more. Hence, even though the targets could dodge by just moving a little, after he changed his shooting strategy, he still managed to ice ten men.

Regardless of the MG or rocket launchers, they had to stay at the side. Gao Yang first made sure that n.o.body dared to operate the two MGs on the pickup trucks as those were only the MGs (machine guns) that had the shooting range to threaten him. Despite the power of the rockets that were much more terrifying and overwhelming, they couldn’t really accurately hit Gao Yang.

After killing ten people, the Opposition finally fell apart mentally. The trucks started after one another and then nipped off. At first, Gao Yang thought that those few trucks would stop two hundred meters away and continue shooting. If they stopped after driving some distance away, even if it were only two hundred meters, Gao Yang wouldn’t be able to hit them anymore. But he overestimated the Opposition’s will to fight. The few trucks didn’t stop as they somehow sped off and vanished.

Losing MG and the rockets’ support, the a.s.sault from the Opposition that numbered at least two hundred immediately broke off from their rally. Under Coleman and Sandstorm’s friendly sending-off fire, they ran off in groups and batches with their tails between their legs.

Gao Yang alone had somehow fended off an a.s.sault supported by rockets and MGs. Just like that.

When the Opposition left after leaving a dozen plus cadavers, loud cheers filled the building. And Gao Yang only felt a wave of weakness wash over him as he plopped down on the floor on his b.u.t.t.

Tribo who had been suppressing with all his might not to shout finally couldn’t hold it any longer. He patted Gao Yang’s shoulders and roared, “Awesome, too much friggin’ swag, Bro Yang, you’re G.o.dlike, [1] you know? I don’t care, you find Bob and get him to make me a gun like yours, you have to!”

Gao Yang rolled his eyes at Tribo and told him, “D*mn it Hare, can you not pat me with so much strength? Want a good gun? Sure, shoot dozens of thousands when you’re free to train your marksmanship before saying anything else man.”

Grolev exclaimed, “Gao, you said you ain’t a sniper man, you said your greatest forte is the shotgun.”

Gao Yang exhaled a long breath and simply laid down on the floor. He replied, “That’s correct, I am just making a cameo appearance in being a sniper, no choice. Y’all don’t understand the world that prodigies live in. Who are we man? Shoot however far you want?”

Tribo pouted his mouth to the side in contempt and said, “Ptui, if I said you’re fat then you’d be inflated man. You didn’t even hit anything over six hundred meters! This time, you’re lucky, nope, can’t say it’s luck. But your scope, bullets, and gun are all good. If not, why are you hitting everything with accurate aim? Hah, if I had your gun, I’d be able to do it too.”

Gao Yang was too lazy to talk sh*t with Tribo. He sat up and changed the empty magazine. He took a magazine of handmade slug rounds and raised it towards Hare. “Cut the c.r.a.p, find a target yourself and try it out. I’ll tell you beforehand, three shots man! I’ve only this much ammo left.”

Tribo excitedly took the rifle from Gao Yang. He caressed it for a long time first before raising the rifle. Grolev and Jin immediately s.n.a.t.c.hed for the only pair of binoculars that was available. Both of them were vying to become the spotter. But Grolev wanting to fight for stuff from Jin? It obviously would end up in a tragedy and the binoculars still ended up in Jin’s hands at the end.

Tribo used the scope to have a look and said loudly, “Look properly Toad, the location where Bro Yang just hit, there’s a green pad-mounted transformer[2], you see it? Around the same size as a man right? Take a good look, that’s where I’m starting.”

After saying that, Tribo aimed half a day before firing a shot. However, after the shot had rung out for so long, Jin puzzledly said, “Where did you hit it? Why didn’t I see the impact point?”

Tribo had jam on his face. “Bullsh*t, even if I didn’t hit that transformer, it wouldn’t be far from it. You are not a qualified spotter. Nope, change, change to another. Let Old Ruski spot.”

Jin handed over the binoculars to Grolev as his face was full of disdain. When Grolev used the binoculars to view the target point, Tribo aimed for half a day before shooting another time. Grolev immediately pointed out the impact point’s location.

“Bullet’s tilted to the left, around ten meters or so. I just happened to see the dust particles from the wall, if not, I can’t see the impact point.”

Tribo angrily said, “I Ci-Ao, I’m not familiar with the gun, y’all look at this shot, it’ll definitely hit.”

Gao Yang, who acted as the translator, was triggered to the point of bawling in laughter. “I say, Hare, an error of ten meters and you got the b.a.l.l.s to shoot again still? Haha!”

Tribo ignored Gao Yang and aimed for approximately three minutes and then fired. After waiting for the shot to be completed, Grolev didn’t say anything for a long time. He only sighed after a long while, “Alright Hare, I really don’t want to put you down but I still gotta tell you, the impact point was tilted to the right, around fifteen meters away. One more thing, I didn’t focus on the destination point at all — just the two sides of the wall. Luckily, you didn’t disappoint me and really hit the wall.”

Tribo collapsed as if he was a p.r.i.c.ked balloon and sighed to the heavens, “Makes no sense man, how could I be so off? I took into account the wind speed, the humidity, and the bullet drop — all of them. Doesn’t make sense that it didn’t hit, man.”

Gao Yang grabbed the gun from Tribo and patted his shoulders, chuckling, “Son, you weren’t even stable whilst holding the rifle, how would you possibly shoot accurately? Just a slight tremble of the hand would cause G.o.d-knows-how-many meters off the target. Shoot people? It’s more suitable to shoot walls in your case man, it ain’t ripping you off by making you practice — you thought if you knew how, you’d be accurate? Know the meaning of ‘Easier said than done’, eh? You’ve never shot a real gun before, relying on that sh*tty rifle and firing two thousand shots with it, you think you can get real results? Spit, might as well not train. Okay, don’t be sad man, practice more the next time around. Bro will be responsible for getting you a good gun, the best of the best.”

Tribo who had been sighing in despondence suddenly perked up and waved his fists, “Practice, I’ll do that right now. I still have a lot of bullets left, I can reload even if I run out. Just y’all wait, after this war I will shoot till my gun’s broken, I definitely won’t rest till the bore lines are ground shapeless!”

Gao Yang and Tribo had been always shooting other with sarcastic and sardonic remarks. It’s just that most of the time Gao Yang emerged victorious. It wasn’t an exception this time either.

The anxiety turned into light-heartedness with Tribo’s little ‘additional content’. A few people began to attack each other excitedly with caustic remarks and at the same time hugely bragged about themselves. When friends bantered with each other it could only seem to be like that.

Just as Gao Yang and the few of them were chatting their *sses off, Coleman and Sandstorm’s people ran up and one by one expressed their admiration for Gao Yang’s marksmanship. It wasn’t early by the look of the sky’s colors. According to their experience, there wouldn’t be an incoming battle. Since nothing else was coming up, the banter circle soon consisted of a dozen plus people. Each of them were talking about their experiences, their concerns, and other strings attached. Time flew by just like that. The setting sun finally went down. The sky turned completely dark.

The wonderful chat lasted for around two hours. Green Mamba who had been all smiles looked at his watch and clapped. “Alright, there’s a battle tomorrow, we should let Ram rest. When Ram is well-rested, we can get some credit too. Ha ha, no need to consider night duties, we’ll settle it. What you gotta do now is use tranquility and get a good night’s sleep.”

Expressing his grat.i.tude to Green Mamba, Gao Yang and the rest found a room further away from the window that was facing the front street. Gao Yang and the rest took portable humidity-resistant cushions and squeezed it into their personal fleece-made sleeping bags.

In order to be more convenient and s.p.a.ce-efficient, Gao Yang and the few others all brought fleece-made sleeping bags. Misurata’s night temperature wasn’t very low. Even though the sleeping bags were thinner, squeezing into it with clothes on wouldn’t be too cold. After working doggedly for a day, Gao Yang who had been highly strung quickly shifted into dreamland. 

After sleeping for who knew how long, Gao Yang roused suddenly from sleep.   

Apart from Tribo’s teeth-grinding, there weren’t any other sounds. Didn’t seem like anything happened. Gao Yang knew that people from Sandstorm and Coleman were guarding the building and thus nothing would happen. Hence he wanted to continue sleeping. But without knowing what was wrong, Gao Yang couldn’t sleep no matter what and instinctively felt that something was going to happen.

Gao Yang sat down again and fished out a small flashlight and planned to go out to have a look; but before he could make a move he heard Jin whispering, “Bro Yang, is that you?”

Gao Yang was frightened by Jin’s voice and he said, “I Ci-Ao, people scare people and thus people are scared to death[3] man, how come you’re awake too?”

“Hmm, just woke up, feeling uneasy now.”

Hearing Jin, Gao Yang’s uneasiness grew stronger.

“Let’s go and take a look, I also feel troubled. Might as well have a look since we can’t sleep anyways.”

Gao Yang and Jin silently crawled out from their sleeping bags and carried their personal backpacks. When they were out of the room, Gao Yang and Jin both fished out their weapons. Gao Yang changed to new batteries for the infrared night-vision scope and installed it on his gun.

Just as he was changing the scope, Gao Yang was still blaming himself for being careless. He should have [4] changed the moment it became dark and should not have waited till now.

Translator’s note(s):