Chapter 17 - The Importance of a Good Gun
Translated by: Spot
Edited by: Isalee
Seventy-four thousand dollars for a M1A. Gao Yang was scared sh*tless when he heard this amount. From what he knew about the civilian guns in America, particularly from the factory that produced the M1A, the most expensive was only three thousand U.S. dollars. And this price tag already indicated the good ones.
"Bob, you're telling me that you bought your gun for seventy-four thousand dollars?"
The extremely pleased Bob apparently had let out a secret in front of his father. After hearing his dad's ill tone, Bob immediately corrected himself: "Oh this, I said it wrong. I meant seventy-four hundred dollars. Now isn't the time to talk about this, heh. Friend, you should get rid of that sniper. Then we can leave. What do you think of this plan?"
Gao Yang felt now wasn't a good time to chit-chat either; he obviously also wanted to annihilate the enemy sniper. Except, the problem was he didn't dare leave the car's cover, and the opponent's sniper also didn't leave any opportunity for him to shoot. Aside from doing this stand-off, he truly had no other means.
"If you have a method to get rid of that sniper, go for it. Mm, do you guys have any rocket launchers, or missiles of the like?
Bob's dad sadly answered, "None, there were a total of two RPGs. We just used up one earlier."
"Ah, what a shame. Okay then, currently neither one of us is willing to move and thus we have some time to chit-chat. What are you people? Why are you being attacked?"
"We're here to hunt. As for why we're being attacked, you should ask the people attacking us."
Gao Yang laughed out loud and responded, "I don't want to get involved with your private affairs, but bringing a rocket launcher to hunt, isn't that a bit inappropriate? Mister Morgan."
Right after Gao Yang finished talking, Bob's dad's demeanor changed dramatically as he replied with nervousness: "Who are you? How do you know my name, and why did you appear here? Please answer my question otherwise I have no choice but to shoot you."
"Seems like I'm not mistaken. You truly are Mr. Morgan. The answer to your question is very simple. This is because somebody took us as part of your crew. We even lost fourteen people, no, that's not right. A total of sixteen people. We became your scapegoats and many of us lost our lives. And the killers said your name over the walkie-talkie. When he found out that he had gotten the wrong people, only then did he find you. Now do you understand, Mr. Morgan?"
A moment of silence later, Mr. Morgan said in a somber voice, "It's truly unfortunate. As for this, I'm very sorry."
Gao Yang sighed: "In reality though, you can't be blamed. It can only be seen as a coincidence, that's all. But this coincidence was fatal. I have a question I wanted to ask from the very beginning but there wasn't any time. Now please tell me, where is this place? And who are the people attacking you?"
"This is Sudan, as for who the attackers are, I don't know either. Except I will find out, and make him pay considerably. For my people, as well as for your people who died. Now what about you? Who are you?"
Gao Yang was gobsmacked, because he was in Ethiopia when he got on the plane and the plane's destination was also within the borders of Ethiopia. Although the area where the plane crashed was unknown, it was impossible for the plane to have gone to Sudan. However, after finding out that he was in Sudan, Gao Yang immediately understood why he kept running into battle, one after another.
Sudan was continuously in warfare — there was a civil war between North and South Sudan. Even though the present widescale civil war had already stopped, the smaller fights never ceased.
"This is Sudan? This place is unexpectedly Sudan? Oh dear, how did I end up in Sudan? How far away is Ethiopia from here?"
"I'm not too sure about the distance to the borderline of Ethiopia, but it should be around three or four hundred kilometers. Why do you ask that?"
Gao Yang replied absentmindedly: "Due to a plane crash, I ended up here. I got on the plane in Ethiopia. F*ck, how did I end up in Sudan."
Mr. Morgan laughed: "No matter where you are, you should thank God. At least you didn't die in the plane crash. Alright then, I have a GPS. After finishing off the opposing sniper, you can easily find out where we are."
After composing his mindset, Gao Yang didn't say anything. He placed his attention back onto the opposing sniper and furthermore, he felt that Morgan and his son were very mysterious. If there were any doubts, he could just ask Professor Buck and them. No need to have so much contact with Mr. Morgan.
Thinking of Professor Buck, tribal chief, and the rest, Gao Yang became even more eager to kill off the sniper. However, after racking his brains, there was no method to get rid of the sniper without putting himself in danger.
Thanks to the infrared imaging scope, the car's engine that the sniper was hiding behind had just recently been turned off, so the temperature was still hot. Within the scope, it was a huge mass of red light. It created a big interference in Gao Yang's scope. Now that the engine was slowly cooling off, the obstruction in his scope was slowly dispersing.
After thinking for a bit, Gao Yang started to fire at the engine as he planned to blow up the car that the sniper was hiding behind. He was not going to let the opposing sniper have the ability to drive away with the car.
After firing a few shots at the engine, Gao Yang suddenly felt that instead of wasting bullets, he might as well use this opportunity to calibrate the scope.
After aiming at a particular spot on the engine, he fired a shot. Since the new hole's temperature was very high, a small red dot could be seen through the scope. Using this, Gao Yang could distinguish the difference and begin calibrating the gun.
In reality, the crosshair and the scope's positioning weren't too off. Within a distance of about 150 meters, the inaccuracy was twenty centimeters or so. Gao Yang reached out, twisted the scope a few times, and then fired another shot. Soon after, found that it was pretty much done. As soon as he hit the fifth shot, the crosshair was already within the radius of a tangerine.
There weren't any precise reference objects in range of where he was right now. He was only able to use a rough approximate to calibrate the gun. It was already very impressive of him to have managed to get the inaccuracy down to a radius of a tangerine. At this moment, he didn't have any objections to what Bob had said earlier. Great guns were truly great; it could be tested after trying it once.
After calibrating it decently, Gao Yang suddenly remembered something. He immediately turned to the injured Bob and said, "Bob, do you still have any bullets? More importantly, any tracer ammunition?"
Bob nodded his head, but he then realized that Gao Yang couldn't see the motion he was making so he immediately replied softly: "I do. Though there's only five tracers, I have one magazine. Inside, for every third lead bullet, there's one tracer. I originally wanted to use it to hunt lions at night. What do you want it for?"
Gao Yang became very excited and he laughed in reply: "I want to try it and see if I can blow up that car."
Once Bob heard him, he also became ecstatic; he immediately said, "Good idea, we have a lot of bullets. You can slowly try it out."
At this point, Mr. Morgan spoke up with his deep voice: "That car is a Toyota LC80, the oil tank is on the left side of the car. Hit the rear side of the back wheel and you should be able to penetrate the fuel tank."
Gao Yang didn't know what sort of a car the Toyota LC80 was, but as long as he knew where the fuel tank was, it would be enough. He wanted to confirm another thing. "Are you sure the opposing car's fuel tank is behind the rear left wheel?
"Of course, I'm sure."
Gao Yang eyed the position of the front part of the car. What he saw made him jubilant, because this luck too damn good. The sniper had hidden his body on the left side of the front of the car. That meant the fuel tank was directly facing him.
Gao Yang faced the left rear wheel and fired in that direction. Everytime he shot a bullet, he shot another at the engine, just in case the sniper realized his plan. Also, he needed to guard against the sniper's return fire.
As expected, Gao Yang shot one after another, leaving his opponent unable to hold back as he started firing at Gao Yang. But that sniper didn't have any good opportunities and almost all the bullets were wasted on the car's body.
Gao Yang finished the rest of the ammunition clip and changed to full twenty bullet magazine. After shooting out all the bullets and thinking it was enough, he switched to the tracer ammunition magazine. Then he started firing at the car's left rear wheel's vicinity near the ground.
The fourth bullet was a tracer bullet that shot out a red light, but after the tracer bullet struck the soil near the rear wheel, it didn't even start a tiny flame. Truthfully, Gao Yang didn't know if he had made a leak in the fuel tank, nor did he know that even if he did make a leak, if it would be lit by the tracer bullet. But for right now, he could only foolishly try.
He fired off nineteen consecutive rounds; the third tracer bullet had already been fired, and next was the fourth tracer bullet. However, the opposing car was still perfectly fine and at this point Gao Yang felt a bit pressured. He gently kissed his trigger finger and softly said, "Give me some face — it's all up to you to stop this fight."
Right after saying that, Gao Yang pulled on the trigger and a red light flew out. A flash flickered underneath the opposing car and a flame immediately started burning. After one or two seconds there was a boom, and the car that had been ignited had already become a ball of fire.
Gao Yang excitedly shouted, "Success!"
At this moment Mr. Morgan urgently said, "Ignition doesn't mean it'll burn him to death. But no matter what he's using, be it night vision or infrared vision, neither of those will work. Take advantage of it now and go kill him."
"There's no need to charge over. Check out my skills."
After finishing his sentence, Gao Yang armed himself with the M1A and ran to one of the front sides of the car by borrowing the burning car's light. He took a gun out from the dead god-like guy who had fallen out of the car door.
That godly guy had been using a M4A1, and it was even the one with the double magazine fast reload system. Gao Yang grabbed the M4A1, approached the car, and circled around it.
Standing beside the burning car and looking out, one could only see darkness. However, if one were looking from the darkness at the burning car, then it was as clear as day. Gao Yang ran ten plus steps, and when he could already see the other side of the car, he saw the silhouette of a man staggering away hoping to make an escape.
Chapter 18 - Men Who Deal in Big Business
Translated by: Ciel
Edited by: Isalee
Gao Yang had no idea if the person he just knocked down was the last one. He carefully looked around him to make sure there were no humans left alive. Even so, Gao Yang was still worried. He picked up a new M1A and looked through the night vision scope to double check. When he was sure he couldn't see any more men, he finally let out a sigh of relief.
Even without enemies, Gao Yang did not completely let his guard down. Morgan and his son Bob were just too strange and mysterious. Before he could be certain that they didn't hold any hostilities against him, Gao Yang remained vigilant.
He held up the M4A1 and stood up with a wave. "It's safe now, come out."
Morgan and Bob walked out together. Morgan held a flashlight in one hand and a handgun in the other. He knelt before the car door and examined the side. After he stood up again, he jogged over to the sniper that Gao Yang had just killed and picked up a shiny revolver. He then jogged back to Gao Yang.
When he reached Gao Yang, Bob looked like he was taking a minute to judge Gao Yang. He then shouted, "Woah mate, you're really strong. I can tell, especially from your clothes. I can't help but comment that even I was confused by your outfit. You are truly my idol. Hehe, even your clothing looks like it's from a tribe. Mate, what do you think?"
Bob was on the chubbier side, and he looked around twenty years old. He was a tall kid, but he was somewhat rotund and blunt with his words. Not to mention the fact that he was constantly shouting. He gave an indescribably annoying feeling.
Gao Yang ignored Bob and looked towards Morgan: "Aren't you going to go check it out with your father?"
Bob switched his gun to his left hand and raised his right hand. "Come on brother, give me a high five. Can I put those pictures of you on my Twitter? Oh, my handle is bob.louis. I'm happy we met."
Gao Yang reached out and clapped Bob's extended hand. "My name is Gao Yang, and I'm from China. Thanks for your gun. But please don't take my picture. I will be very unhappy otherwise. Thanks."
Bob shrugged. "Alright then, I'll respect your wishes. But it's really a pity. You're missing out on a chance to become famous."
Gao Yang thought about it for a moment and figured he might actually be able to get some information from Bob. At the very least, it'd be much easier than getting information from his father.
"Hey, Bob, why were you guys ambushed? You guys aren't really here to hunt, are you?"
"This f*cking country, only God knows why we were ambushed. Motherf*ckers, we really came here to hunt. I love hunting, but I've already hunted every animal the States. When I got my new gun, there wasn't any prey that I was interested in, so when my father came to Africa, I followed along."
"Then what's your father doing here? Brother, you're not going to try and tell me that you're using bazookas to hunt, right?"
"Oh, my old man's here for business. You should know, South Africa is about to go independent. They're already in the middle of voting. Soon, South Africa will become its own independent nation. Father wants to take this chance to make a big deal."
"South Africa is becoming independent? That really is big news. So what kind of business does your father do?"
"He does everything really. As long as it means earning money, he's doing it. My old man found some connections with some Dinka tribes here. He's probably here to buy some land. All I know is that this region is abundant in oil. When South Africa becomes independent, then we'll be able to mine the oil here. We've been waiting here for a few days now. My old man's probably like me and wants to kill a lion so we can make a rug for our fireplace. That's why we went out today to hunt. But we were randomly ambushed, and as you saw, both of my father's bodyguards died. If it weren't for you, the two of us would've died too."
Bob didn't hide anything. He had the guts to say everything. Gao Yang wanted to extract some more information from him, but right then, Morgan ran over. He ran right up to Gao Yang and then glared at Bob. He reached out for Gao Yang's hand and said, "Let me introduce myself, I'm Morgan Louis. Thank you for helping us. I'm extremely grateful. But we have to leave right now. We're far from being out of danger."
After shaking Morgan's hand, Gao Yang said, "Nice meeting you. Mr. Morgan, if you can tell me, just what other danger are we in?"
Mr. Morgan put his gun back into the holster on his hip, pulled out a walkie-talkie, and gravely said, "Here, just now, someone called out for that dead sniper. If nothing expected happens, more people will come after him."
Right then, the radio in Morgan's hand made a noise. Everything was spoken in code. All Gao Yang heard was a bunch of meaningless words, but the man's voice sounded extremely familiar.
The three didn't respond. After the voice finished speaking, Gao Yang pointed at the radio on his waist. "I've heard this man's voice before. He said he was going to kill you, but he chose the wrong target and killed a bunch of innocents. On top of it, he said that if we wanted revenge, we should go after the Sudanese Liberation Front. I exchanged fire with them just this afternoon. They're clearly talented and have the advantage in numbers."
Morgan nodded. He clenched his teeth and said, "D*mned idiots, they aren't even truly independent yet and they're already fighting amongst themselves. Thanks for your report, but it is time for us to leave now."
Gao Yang hesitated for a moment and then shook his head: "I'm sorry, I cannot go with you. There are some others I need to take care of. I have to go find them. You can leave on your own — just pretend you never met me."
Morgan pondered for a moment and then shook his head. "We can't leave on our own. I'm not familiar with this region, and there's a high probability that we'll be found. I have to ask for your assistance. I'll pay you. Name any price. I'll give you the highest pay amongst regular bodyguards. No, how about this? I'll take you to Malakal and give you a hundred thousand dollars. How does that sound?"
Gao Yang shook his head. "This isn't a question of money. I've told you, there's other people waiting for me. Plus, I don't accept this kind of business because I'm not interested in putting my life on the line for others."
Morgan still was hesitant. It looked he was determined. He nodded and said to Gao Yang, "How about this — you take us away from here and go find your people. They are probably about to leave as well. I will still give you the agreed upon hundred thousand. Mr. Gao Yang, you must help us."
Gao Yang thought for a second. He was worried that if he brought Morgan and Bob, he'd attract the attackers to himself. Even so, these two had just gone through a battle, and he couldn't just leave them. His conscious wouldn't allow that. Gao Yang finally nodded. "Please wait then, I have to contact my friends. I need to get their agreement first."
After that, Gao Yang went to the side, picked up his walkie-talkie, and softly said, "I am Gao Yang. If you can hear this, please respond."
Kathleen's voice immediately responded. She had clearly been waiting for his call.
"This is Kathleen. Please respond."
He briefly explained the situation that he'd just been in, including Bob and Morgan's identities. He then told Kathleen that their photography team had met their misfortune because of these two. Gao Yang was blunt about it. If Professor Buck and Kathleen wanted to help them, Gao Yang would bring them along. If they didn't, then Gao Yang would leave on his own.
Even though they were simply strangers who he had just so happened to meet, Professor Buck and the others provided unconditional and generous assistance. Furthermore, they had a clean background. Naturally, Gao Yang already thought of them as his friends. As for the Morgans, Gao Yang had no obligation to help them. He would've left long ago if he hadn't been caught up in their conflict.
Professor Buck and Kathleen quickly discussed among themselves. They finally decided that if it were convenient for Gao Yang, then they asked that he help the father and son. Of course, the condition was that Gao Yang would agree to help.
When he received that reply, Gao Yang didn't waste any time. He jogged back to the Morgans and said, "Time is of essence. Quickly gather your things and leave."
The Morgans were naturally very happy with this outcome. Nobody wasted their breath on small talk and quickly packed up the truck. Morgan pointed at the two bodies next to the car and said, "If you're okay with it, I want to take their bodies. At the very least, we should find a place to bury them when we're out of the area. Is that fine?"
Gao Yang nodded: "Start up the car, I'll help you move them."
The car had taken a lot of shots. Bullet holes were scattered about on the side of the car. Miraculously, it still worked. Morgan easily started up the car while Gao Yang and Bob moved the bodies into the trunk. Gao Yang also picked up the M4A1 and some bullets.
With the two bodies in the back, there wasn't any space to sit. Gao Yang slapped his forehead and ran over to the car that their attackers had ridden. He pushed off the bodies in the front seats and started the car. It was good that nothing was wrong with this car either. The only problem was that the seats were covered in blood. Gao Yang shot out each corner of the windshield and then kicked it out before driving it over to the Morgans.
Gao Yang knew how to drive, but it had been so long since he had last driven that he was feeling a bit rusty. Despite that, he could still drive it over. After starting it up, he started loading his own things onto the car.
Without any pretenses or courtesy, Gao Yang helped himself to the M1A from Bob and threw it onto the car. He then ran over to the dead sniper and searched him for guns and bullets. The most thing was the night vision goggles on his helmet.
Originally, he didn't need anything else, but the rifle on the ground caught his eye. Gao Yang didn't want to part with it. After thinking for some time, Gao Yang yelled to Bob for some help to gather the six somewhat new AK-47s off the dead enemies.
Gao Yang picked up another AK-47. It was much better than the battered one that he was using before. Plus, there was still a dozen or so bullets that came with it. If they weren't in a rush, Gao Yang would have taken more time to gather all of the guns and bullets. He continued collecting them until Morgan urged him to leave. It was only then that Gao Yang reluctantly jumped into the car and lead the way.