“Set up a sniping position, here?” Gu Nianzhi’s interest was piqued; she turned her large, lively eyes towards Little Mirror Lake and gazed upon Mingyue Court, standing there upon the far shore. She closed her eyes and whispered, “Oh my god! You’re going to use an anti-materiel sniper rifle, aren’t you?!”
Only a bullet from an anti-materiel sniper rifle would be able to reach Mingyue Court from here, across the vast expanse of the lake.
The military officer was surprised. “Huh, you know about anti-materiel sniper rifles?”
Not everyone in the military knew about these sniper rifles. It was extremely unusual for the average layman to know about them.
Gu Nianzhi smiled. “I read about it on the internet. I’m kind of a military nut.”
“You should spend your time studying instead of wasting it on the internet,” admonished the military officer with complete seriousness. “Get in. I have to shut the door now.”
Gu Nianzhi nodded. She was about to turn away when she saw, out of the corner of her eye, two tall, strapping men step out of the Humvee, one after the other.
She could feel a current of shock run through her body. Her mind had gone blank, and there was a steady buzz in her ears. She quickly turned her eyes towards them, and greedily drank in the sight of the tall figure walking in front.
A column of light shone down from the heavens; there was a helicopter circling above them with its searchlight on.
In this very moment, the sound of rain no longer reached her. She watched the dark of the night slowly recede before her very eyes. The world around her had turned into nothing more than a stage backdrop, superficial and meaningless. Her whole universe was now comprised only of a single entity: the tall, well-built man clad in the military’s Special Taskforce uniform.
Although it was impossible to see the man’s face, obscured as it was by a black helmet and night vision goggles, she was familiar with the tall, strapping figure, the broad shoulders, and the imposing aura enveloping him—it was her Uncle Huo, she was sure of it!
There was no way she would mistake someone else for him: she had followed him about like an accessory strapped to his leg during her first four years living with him, after all!
But those days were a distant memory. She hadn’t seen him for over two months now, and had spoken with him over the phone only twice…
Gu Nianzhi clung to the frame of the straw hut’s doorway. Her body had locked up. She couldn’t move.
The military officer in front of the door gave her an impatient push. “Get in. We need to clear the area, authorized personnel only.” With that, he shut the door in her face, loudly.
Gu Nianzhi staggered backwards, and almost fell to the ground.
Mei Xiawen hurriedly put an arm around Gu Nianzhi to steady her. He asked, his voice full of concern, “Are you okay?”
Gu Nianzhi shook her head slowly.
Her breath seemed to have caught in her throat; she did not know whether she was supposed to breathe in or out.
She pressed a hand against her chest, leaned her back against the door of the straw hut, and slid to the ground.
The straw hut had no windows. Darkness enveloped them as soon as the only door was shut.
…
Huo Shaoheng and Zhao Liangze got out of the Humvee and walked past the closed doors of the straw hut without a second glance. They arrived at the shore of Little Mirror Lake, and began to look for a suitable spot to set up the anti-materiel sniper rifle.
“This spot will give you the shortest possible distance from this side of the lake to the back wall of Mingyue Court.” Zhao Liangze walked about in the rain with a measuring instrument in his hand, and pointed to a patch of muddy grass next to Little Mirror Lake.
This patch of grass was right in front of the straw hut Gu Nianzhi and her classmates were hiding in.
Huo Shaoheng turned on his night vision goggles, and stood in the spot Zhao Liangze had pointed out to him. He looked towards Mingyue Court.
His special night vision goggles were equipped with an infrared detection system. The infrared imaging allowed him to see through the walls and observe what the people inside Mingyue Court were doing.
He watched as his night vision goggles slowly showed him the situation over at Mingyue Court.
The kidnapper, armed with a sniper rifle, was crouched against the back wall, right in the middle.
Although he could only make out a vague silhouette, the position of the kidnapper’s head was clear as day.
Inside the house, a large number of motionless silhouettes lay haphazardly upon the floor—these were most likely the hostages.
They had learnt from the resort staff that the kidnappers had drugged their hostages in advance. This explained why the hostages were still unconscious.
It was a good thing that they were still out cold.
This way, there was no possibility of them complicating the situation by behaving erratically.
“This is the spot.” Huo Shaoheng got on one knee, opened the case for the anti-materiel sniper rifle, and began to assemble the gun.
The anti-materiel sniper rifle in his hands was one of the heavy weapons belonging to the local garrison. The entire rifle was 1200mm long, with the gun barrel taking up 500mm. It weighed 20kg, and was equipped with a magazine that held ten 25mm bullets, capable of penetrating light armored vehicles. Huo Shaoheng had heard that Mingyue Court, over on the opposite side of the lake, was made entirely out of wood; the courtyard walls were definitely a lot more vulnerable than armored vehicles.
Huo Shaoheng set the spike-like bipod on the ground. He laid himself flat on the grass, and began to calibrate the scope.
The scope for the anti-materiel sniper rifle was extremely sophisticated and precise. The rifle was able to pull off high-precision shots over long distances thanks to its highly-advanced real-time data processing network sight system. It was on an entirely different level than the optical sights used in common sniper rifles.
The sighting system not only collected data on the current air pressure, temperature, wind speed, rain speed and target angle, but also processed the data and ran the calculations simultaneously, in real time—all for the perfect, fatal shot.
Snipers were already rare to begin with. Snipers capable of utilizing these complicated sniper rifles were even harder to find.
Huo Shaoheng had had few opportunities to engage in actual combat in the last few years. Even so, he had not neglected to practice his shooting.
No one in the entire Imperial Army was able to match his skill with a sniper rifle. It didn’t matter whether it was a normal sniper rifle or an anti-materiel sniper rifle; his sniping skills were unparalleled.
Huo Shaoheng finally finished calibrating his scope. He was flat on the ground; he put both his hands around the grip of the anti-materiel sniper rifle, and settled into the aiming position.
For snipers, aiming was a process that required the utmost patience and composure.
It was sometimes necessary for snipers to lie in the same position the entire day just to hit their target.
Of course, Huo Shaoheng could not spend the whole day lying on the ground waiting, even if he wanted to. Not this time. He had less than ten minutes left to end the battle.
…
Gu Nianzhi sat in the dark straw hut, hugging her knees. Her dark eyes were as bright as the finest obsidian.
Inside the straw hut, all was silent. Rain continued to pour incessantly outside.
Her hand was pressed against her chest. Her heart was beating so loudly and rapidly she was afraid her classmates would be able to hear it.
At this very moment, what they needed was absolute silence. She didn’t want Huo Shaoheng to be distracted by any kind of noise, not even the sound of her heartbeat.
Outside the straw hut, her hero, the idol she worshipped, was doing his best to take out the vicious gangsters. She wasn’t going to distract him, no matter what.
“Argh—I can’t stand it! What are they up to?!” The female student Gu Nianzhi had helped tow across Little Mirror Lake was close to her breaking point. She began to cry and scream hysterically.
“Shut up!”
Before anyone could react, Gu Nianzhi had pounced on the female student and grabbed her by the throat. Her voice was quiet, but full of anger: “Another word out of you, and I’ll kill you!”
The female student immediately stopped her crying and screaming. Her eyes were wide and seemed about to bulge out of their sockets.
She stared at Gu Nianzhi in horror, and struggled to push her away.
All the other students were stunned by this.
Was this really Gu Nianzhi? Their little sister who had always been as gentle and harmless as a lamb?!
Mei Xiawen was stunned, too, but only momentarily. He moved closer, pried Gu Nianzhi’s fingers off the student’s neck, and said quietly, “Let go of her neck, she can’t breathe.”
Gu Nianzhi loosened her grip slightly. Her voice was low as she warned her hysterical classmate: “Have you any idea what the soldiers outside are going through?! Why are you crying, when they’re the ones risking their lives for you?! Let me hear another peep out of you—and I’ll make sure you won’t be able to cry again for the rest of your life!”
A sniper using an anti-materiel sniper rifle could not afford the slightest distraction.
Huo Shaoheng was no ordinary sniper, however; he was so good someone could start a drumming session next to him and he wouldn’t even bat an eye.
Still, Gu Nianzhi wanted to do something for him, and this was all she could come up with.
…
Huo Shaoheng lay in the muddy grass, watching the cold rain dance in the wind through his rifle scope.
He was in the zone: he saw and knew nothing outside of the rifle scope.
He could only see vague shadows through his infrared night vision goggles; even so, the crosshairs on his anti-materiel sniper rifle were aimed squarely upon Yang Dawei’s head, which was leaned against the back wall of Mingyue Court.
An anti-materiel sniper rifle bullet, capable of penetrating an armored vehicle, was now ready to be fired across the two-kilometer expanse of water that was Little Mirror Lake.