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墨書 Inktalez
Chapter 176: Exploring the Thunder and Stepping on the Mine
The sudden fright disrupted the plans of the two amateur lurkers. In fact, when Jiang He caught the scent of feces carried by the night breeze, he realized something was wrong. The smell of rotten flesh was different from that of feces; dry feces did not have such a strong stench. The only reasonable explanation was that they had stumbled into an open-air toilet. And since they were still far from the buildings shrouded in darkness, who was this open-air toilet for? Undoubtedly, it could only belong to the patrol defense's sentry.
Jiang He's reasoning skills had improved significantly, but his ability to adapt had not kept pace. If he had been more alert, he should have immediately retreated with the graduate student from the foul-smelling area and taken another route to sneak around. However, he did not do so, thinking that at this hour of the night, no one would come this far to relieve themselves. It turned out he was wrong, as both he and the graduate student were focused on the cluster of buildings, completely overlooking the lower-lying container cluster.
It must be said that their exposure was somewhat unjustified; after all, the nights in the Gobi Desert were different from what one might imagine. Cheng Long's choice of camping spot was indeed a bit eerie, cleverly utilizing the shadows cast by searchlights at night and the undulating terrain of the desolate Gobi to conceal the container houses effectively.
In short, these two visually deceived amateurs failed to approach the buildings successfully. They had barely exited the open-air toilet when they were discovered. Indeed, it was a fellow who had gotten up in the middle of the night. The sudden appearance of two sneaky figures in the remote heart of the Gobi Desert was too unusual; thus, without hesitation, the field personnel using the squat toilet lit up a signal gun without even pulling up his pants.
The signal flare shot up with a fiery tail, illuminating the open-air toilet and exposing all three individuals to each other's line of sight.
Having weathered many storms, Jiang He quickly shook off his momentary frustration and decisively launched an attack, cursing as he tackled the field personnel who was still adjusting his pants, using his explosive strength to knock him down with a few punches and kicks.
"Next!" Jiang He confiscated this guy's weapon; feeling much more secure with a firearm in hand, he knew he wouldn't just be taking hits without being able to fight back. He held two guns—one long and one short—both loaded and ready to fire. Jiang He thought this field personnel was quite foolish for firing a signal flare. At such close range, a single burst could take them both out.
It was at that moment when a thick beam of bright light shot toward them that Jiang He suddenly understood the field personnel's intention. The next second, another searchlight from the direction of the buildings turned toward them, while voices erupted from a dark area several hundred meters ahead.
"Damn it, run!" Jiang He thought quickly and urgently pulled on the graduate student to retreat. The graduate student was a beat slow to react but eventually grabbed hold of Jiang He as they fled.
"What an opportunity! Let's get in while it's chaotic!" The graduate student's acne-flushed face glowed with excitement as he pointed at the downed field personnel and said, "Strip him!"
Bang!
A spinning bullet whizzed through the air, narrowly embedding itself in the ground beside the graduate student, sending a spray of damp earth into the air.
“Damn it! Run!” Jiang He felt a cold sweat break out. Precision strikes from a distance—this wasn’t just a missile; it was likely a sniper. As an ordinary civilian who had been fortunate enough to experience two battles with snipers present, he understood the gravity of the situation. That last shot must have missed due to the darkness or the strong winds of the Gobi Desert; otherwise, they would have been left as corpses among the scattered debris.
Just before entering the Gobi Desert, he had been eager to reach their destination quickly. Yet, barely stepping onto the desert sands, bullets were now forcing them back. Jiang He felt a deep sense of frustration. He suddenly recalled what Shaoshan had told him during their farewell, making that eerie building seem even more mysterious.
Fortunately, the sniper did not continue firing; unfortunately, they could see numerous beams of flashlight illuminating the area ahead—dozens of them—swaying as they approached.
The searchlight atop the building had a limited range and merely indicated the general direction. The rest was left to the field personnel at their container. Chen Zhao Zhou had previously led a team to set up an outpost around the building's perimeter, but it seemed that outpost had failed to serve its purpose; instead, it was those who had been caught short in the night who had made a contribution.
For reasons unknown, the pursuers behind them did not fire or shout; they simply chased silently and relentlessly. After running for about a hundred meters, Jiang He and the graduate student were panting heavily, realizing they couldn’t keep this up. They were far from where they had parked and would surely be caught. The vastness of the Gobi Desert offered no cover, and there was always a chance that if the pursuers grew tired of chasing them, they might just shoot them down without hesitation.
“What do we do? We haven’t even started properly!” The graduate student tightened his grip on his hbk, contemplating whether to fight back desperately or accept a heroic sacrifice.
“Should we surrender?” Jiang He ’s forehead throbbed as he said, “Since their defenses are so tight, we probably have no other way to infiltrate. Look at them; they’re not shooting. They might want us alive.”
“ Jiang He …” The graduate student gasped for breath, three parts doubtful and seven parts hesitant as he asked, “Did you plan this all along or is this just a spur-of-the-moment idea?”
“If I said I calculated this based on last night’s star patterns, would that make you feel better?”
“Let’s just run.” The graduate student decisively rejected Jiang He ’s unreliable suggestion and raised his gun, firing off a burst of flames. The footsteps of their pursuers faltered for a moment.
“Damn it, intellectuals are ruthless!” Seeing things take a turn for the worse, Jiang He quickly pulled down the graduate student. Almost immediately after, bullets from their attackers turned the area where they had stood into a rain of craters on the sandy ground.
"You see, they don't plan to leave anyone alive." The graduate student lowered his head and shouted to Jiang He beside him, "Let's fight back!"
"Fight back my ass, reinforcements are here." Jiang He raised a hand to hold down the graduate student who was about to stand up, firing a few shots with one hand to slow down their pursuers. Taking advantage of the moment, he grabbed the graduate student's neck and crawled backward.
The graduate student turned his head and immediately understood Jiang He's intention. In the distance, two dim beams of light were rising and falling, the gunfire masking the sound of the truck bumping along. In the blink of an eye, the two managed to climb onto the approaching truck while keeping their distance from the Pursuers. Weiwei was greatly startled by the commotion; a bullet shattered the truck's window, whizzing past Weiwei's ear. If it weren't for Yin Nuo steadying the steering wheel in time, they would have faced a disastrous outcome.
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