Chapter 055: The Sniper’s War

(Monday—please recommend and bookmark! Without your support, Rice would have died on the road!)
He hung up the phone.
Sloan frowned, lit a cigarette, and appeared deeply troubled.
As the operational commander of the US Army stationed in North Africa, he understood all too well the immense power wielded by Deal Karn back in the United States. Yet, from the moment he dialed that number, the two of them had been bound together by the same rope.
Chinese?
The Chinese were merely tools to disrupt the situation in Libya. He wasn’t foolish enough to think that a Chinese squad of fewer than ten could threaten the colossal force that was China, especially since that squad had already left Libya; only a single Chinese mercenary remained.
Since he was a mercenary, he had to abide by mercenary rules.
The US intervention in Libya was gradually proving to be a mistaken decision; no one had anticipated the Libyans would be so incompetent.
Internal strife aside, even Hamis—the prize they had in hand—had slipped away like a duck flying from the grasp. Useless fools.
But since America would not reap the greatest benefits from this war, someone would have to bear the responsibility.
Their goal now was to confirm the role played by the Chinese in this process, and if possible, they wouldn’t mind exaggerating that role.
He returned to the command room.
Many noticed the colonel’s expression was subtly off.
“Connect me to Nightingale Squad!”
“Yes, sir!”
“Nightingale, Nightingale! This is Eagle!”
“Nightingale receiving, Nightingale receiving!”
“Captain, I order you—if necessary, eliminate the target!”
“Yes, sir! Repeating the command: authorized to eliminate the target, authorized to eliminate the target!”
“Hey!”
“Hey-hey!”
Behind the small stone outcrop, Li Changjiang slapped Eliza’s face, but she remained unresponsive, leaving him irritated.
He knew none of the others in this team besides Eliza.
Whoosh-thud!
Just as Li Changjiang tried to rouse Eliza, a sudden barrage erupted from the left side of the highway, bullets raining down as if there were no cost.
Boom!
A grenade exploded near the troop transport’s fuel tank, flames soaring skyward. Several Caesar Mercenary Corps members, unable to dodge, were instantly splashed with gasoline.
Ah!
“Damn it! Get back!”
“Take cover! Stay hidden!”
Utterly exasperating.
Though Li Changjiang was safe behind the pile of stones for now, he knew well that, despite any enmity with the Caesar men, they were in the same trench at this moment. If they were picked off one by one, he wouldn’t escape either.
So when he yelled, several others took the chance to dash behind the stone outcrop.

Li Changjiang was instantly frustrated!
What a bunch of idiots—rushing over now was suicide!
“Get down!”
“Get down, now!”
No one listened.
Desperate, Li Changjiang had no choice but to raise his gun, quickly locking onto a target. His right eye’s automatic targeting system immediately picked up the enemy’s firing position.
Aim!
Pull the trigger!
Bang!
Pull the trigger again!
Bang!
Bang!
Several shots in succession!
When the gunfire ceased, his arm felt sore.
Heavy breaths!
Beside him, the few white men who had managed to get down were also gasping for air.
A dozen had rushed back, but fewer than ten survived; the rest were killed by snipers.
If Li Changjiang hadn’t suppressed two firing points with his shots, even more would have died.
Nearly all who had come over were Caesar men; the Libyan government soldiers were still hiding behind their SUVs, and anyone who popped their head up was immediately killed.
“Thank you!”
Despite recognizing Li Changjiang as their opponent from the Benghazi standoff, the leading white man still offered his gratitude.
But Li Changjiang was surprised—Bati Sanchez was nowhere to be seen.
“Tell me, where is Bati?”
His question left them exchanging uncertain glances.
“You’re Chinese?”
“Yes!”
Li Changjiang was further puzzled—the white men seemed hesitant. He didn’t know Bati was missing, nor did he realize that not only Bati, but also Deputy Commander Cock Levens and the top sniper Rubio Karn were absent.
Back in Tripoli, their second sniper had already been killed by those damned Libyans. In a sense, they had been sold out.
“Okay, Chinese, we want to make a deal with you. I know you’re a sniper—ours is dead. We need a new sniper to help us take out their firing points. Only then can we survive.”
“Anything else?”
The white man didn’t quite understand his question.
“Oh, oh! I’m Marcos, assault specialist!”
“Ryan! Demolition expert!”
“You can call me Doc!”

“--”
Li Changjiang stared in disbelief as the white men introduced themselves one by one. Americans truly were optimistic.
“Li Changjiang! Chinese. You can call me Li. Who can tell me where Bati is?”
Another silence.
Knowing they wouldn’t tell him anything about Bati, Li Changjiang asked no further, and continued searching for targets with his gun.
As for Bati—
He would find him, sooner or later.
Bang!
Thud!
Fuck!
“My hand!”
Just as Li Changjiang took aim, an enemy exposed an arm; he didn’t hesitate to pull the trigger.
“Damn, Wolf is wounded!”
“Medic! Medic!”
On the other side—
The comm channel began to fill with Hobbs’s voice, and the soldier called Wolf had suffered a serious injury to his left arm.
Hit by a 7.6mm sniper rifle bullet—the consequences were obvious.
“Damn it!”
In the operations command room, Colonel Sloan’s brow tightened. He had a bad feeling; the mission might fail.
“Captain, continue the counterattack, repeat, continue the counterattack! Destroy them at all costs!”
“Roger! Repeating: destroy the enemy!”
He shut down the comm channel.
Hobbs’s expression was grim.
In the command room, the colonel couldn’t possibly know how dangerous the situation was. The enemy had a sniper—and a master at that.
This greatly increased the difficulty of the mission.
A trained sniper could annihilate their squad of more than twenty men on the battlefield.
After hitting his target, Li Changjiang immediately shifted to another shooting position. He knew the enemy had experts, trained far more thoroughly than he was.
Li Changjiang was still breathing heavily.
The intense shooting was rapidly depleting his stamina, especially with his nerves stretched taut. The enemy snipers weren’t just one—they had observers too.
And for every shot, he had to not only fire but also observe. Were it not for the automatic targeting system, he wouldn’t be able to carry out these kills under such circumstances.