Mercenaries, I Will Be King

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I didn't know how much time had passed.

Maybe a few seconds, maybe more than ten.

Song Heping regained his consciousness.

Pain...

Pain everywhere.

His body felt like it was falling apart, his ears buzzing, as if his soul was about to be shaken out.

He wanted to call out to Ah Guan.

"Ugh—Ugh—"

The moment he opened his mouth, an irresistible wave of nausea surged, and Song Heping couldn't help but vomit.

The driver's cabin was filled with the sour stench of stomach acid, and after he had thrown up everything from breakfast, he finally felt a bit clearer and turned his head to look for Ah Guan.

Ah Guan was curled up in the driver's seat, his eyes rolling back and whimpering, like an old dog that had been harshly clobbered.

"Ah Guan, are you okay!"

He wanted to reach out and pull Ah Guan up, but suddenly smelt a strong odor of urine.

Looking down, Song Heping couldn't help but exclaim, "Fuck! You peed yourself!"

Ah Guan glanced at his own crotch, feeling too ashamed to face anyone, and began to whimper again, holding his head.

Pop pop pop—

Pop pop pop—

Dense gunfire rang out from all around.

It was unmistakably the sound of Soviet-style weapons.

Song Heping cursed inwardly; this was a disaster.

It was exactly what he had feared.

No need to guess, it was definitely an attack by the Resistance Organization.

Bang—

A warhead hit the body of the truck, making a crisp sound.

Boom—

Then a hand grenade exploded not far from the roadside in front of the truck, raising a small cloud of black smoke.

Several new holes appeared on the already battered roof of the driver's cabin.

Song Heping instinctively ducked his head and waited for a moment before looking out through the now windshield-less front of the truck. He saw several US Army soldiers hiding behind a Stryker armored vehicle, continuously firing their M4A1 and M16 rifles across the highway.

On the right side of the highway, not far away, gunmen seemed to hide behind mounds of earth and buildings, their AK47s cheerily barking as they sprayed bullets towards the Americans by the Stryker.

The attackers clearly had a significant advantage, with US soldiers screaming as they fell to the ground. The convoy's commander shouted hoarsely into the radio microphone.

"Mayday, Mayday, Mayday! This is D1 squad, we are under attack on Highway 3 close to the airport outside the city! Repeat! We're being ambushed!"

Whoosh—

As the standoff continued, an RPG rocket flew in from across the highway, hitting the Stryker dead on.

This RPG was fired at a tricky angle. The armored vehicle was surrounded by an anti-explosion grille and was stuffed with sandbags, which would typically be enough to fend off a regular RPG. The attackers had aimed carefully for this, targeting the front wheel.

While the front wheel blocked the RPG rocket, the metal jet and shards could bounce to the other side of the vehicle because of the gap between the bottom of the vehicle and the ground, hurting soldiers hiding on the other side with poor cover.

Boom—

As expected, the front wheel was blown clean off, the Stryker's body sagged heavily, and smoke billowed out.

The spattering metal jet struck a US soldier's leg, immediately turning him into a rolling gourd on the ground, clutching his wound and howling in pain.

Soon, his camouflage trousers were soaked red with blood.

Another US soldier grabbed his tactical vest and dragged him behind the wheel.

At that moment, Song Heping saw the woman in the black robe take action.

He had noticed her before, sensing something was amiss, and now his suspicions were confirmed.

The woman suddenly threw back her robe, revealing an AK74U carbine hidden underneath, raising it to spray bullets at the group of US soldiers hiding behind the Stryker.

The American soldiers were all focused on the opposite side, and the woman in the black robe was behind them. Everything happened in the blink of an eye, with death silently sneaking up from behind.

Pop—

The Beretta 92F in Song Heping's hand rang out.

A burst of blood sprayed from the woman's chest as she fell straight down, still managing to pull the trigger before dying, releasing a burst of bullets.

The soldiers crouching behind the armored vehicle were startled; some pointed their guns in the direction of the woman's fall, while others pointed towards Song Heping.

Suddenly, one of the US soldiers with a big beard gestured, lowering the gun of another soldier who was pointing at Song Heping.

He realized that if it weren't for the person hiding in the truck, they and their teammates would probably be on their way to meet God right now.

The big-bearded US soldier nodded at Song Heping, seemingly a friendly gesture of thanks.

Song Heping nodded back.

His heart was in turmoil.

This was the first time he had killed someone.

Although he had served in the military and fired a gun before, killing someone was a completely new experience.

He had no choice just now. The woman, the soldiers, and he himself were all in a straight line. Firing at them with the AK74U, considering its notorious spread, could easily take him out along with them.

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The feeling of killing someone is terrible.

Song Heping felt dry-mouthed and his tongue parched, his heartbeat clearly accelerated, and his body temperature rose, making him feel agitated and at a loss, with his fingertips trembling slightly.

He steadied himself and said to Ah Guan, "We need to find a way to leave this place."

Ah Guan, bewildered, asked, "I'm not going out, I have a young wife and child, and an elderly mother..."

It was no wonder Ah Guan was so fearful.

Now outside, bullets were flying everywhere as the US Army soldiers and Resistance Organization gunmen fought fiercely. Trying to leave the truck now would probably be inviting trouble.

Song Heping didn't bother to explain; he found a walkie-talkie on the floor of the cab and pressing the talk button, called Tan Pudgy in the other truck.

"Pudgy, Pudgy, this is Heping, do you hear me?"

After several shouts, there was no response from Tan Pudgy.

Song Heping's heart sank.

It looked like Tan Pudgy's chances were slim.

Dang dang dang—

It was the sound of bullets hitting the truck again.

Immediately afterward, a pungent diesel smell entered Song Heping's nostrils.

Damnit!

The fuel tank had actually been hit!

His hair stood on end.

This was damnation opening the door to more damnation—it couldn't get any worse!

Although diesel has a higher flash point, it doesn't mean it couldn't catch fire, especially now that bullets were flying everywhere and hand grenades were raining down; a single grenade landing nearby could ignite the leaked diesel.

A hard choice lay before him once again.

Go out?

Or stay here and wait?

This was the first time in Song Heping's life that he faced real combat.

There were no baby steps, no psychological preparation, it was straight into a hellish ordeal.

He, too, started to panic.

Whoosh—

Before he could make up his mind, another RPG rocket came flying over and hit the Stryker in front once again, causing sparks to fly.

Right after the explosion, two soldiers who were hiding behind the vehicle staggered and then slid to the ground alongside the Stryker, leaving behind a trail of blood.

"Hansen, watch your back!"

The bearded soldier who had nodded at him earlier shouted hoarsely.

"Take them out!"

The soldier called "Hansen" was crouching next to Big Beard, wearing a baseball cap with quick reflexes. He kneeled and spun, smoothly transitioning from left shoulder to right shoulder, firing his M4A1 carbine in short bursts and suppressing the two armed insurgents that emerged from another direction.

The two ambushers quickly dove behind a crumbled earthen wall along the road to take cover.

At this point, the situation on the ground was highly disadvantageous for Big Beard and his men; insurgents were coming from all directions, and they were caught in a crossfire.

Song Heping felt that this time he might indeed be in serious trouble.

If these soldiers died, when the insurgents came to clean up the scene, he didn't know if they would also take him out, especially since he had just killed one of them.

Soon, he witnessed a shocking scene.

The bearded soldier and Hansen were astonishingly in sync; Hansen, with only his M4A1 carbine and rapid magazine changes, managed to lay down fire like a light machine gun, completely suppressing the gunmen behind the earth wall from raising their heads.

Meanwhile, Big Beard leaned over and took an M72 anti-tank rocket launcher from Hansen's back, quickly disengaging the safety, and fired at the earth wall.

Boom—

The wall was immediately swallowed by dust.

Big Beard discarded the M72 rocket launcher and swiftly switched back to his M4A1 carbine, aiming at the earth wall, waiting for an opportunity to strike.

Before the dust had cleared, an armed insurgent covered in blood staggered out, swaying unsteadily as if he were drunk.

Big Beard raised his gun and lightly squeezed the trigger, a neat burst taking the man down.

"Nice shooting!"

Song Heping couldn't help but admire in his heart.

He suddenly noticed that these two bearded men seemed a bit different from the other Country M soldiers.

Their uniform and helmets were unique: one was wearing a baseball cap, the other something like a skateboard helmet, and their M4A1 carbines were fitted with numerous tactical attachments. Remarkably, they lacked any rank or branch insignias, setting them apart from the regular Country M soldiers.

"Hansen, smoke bomb! Let's retreat to those houses over there!"

Big Beard shouted to his companion, pointing to a chaotic array of buildings not far on the left side of the road.

The slopes on both sides of the highway were filled with dense earthen houses. If they could pull back there, they could use the buildings to counter-attack, and as long as they could hold out for a while, the US Army's reinforcements would surely arrive.

"Yes, boss!"

Big Beard and Hansen each took out a smoke grenade, exchanged a glance, pulled the pins, and threw them into the middle of the highway together.

Then they quickly threw a second smoke grenade each to different positions.

The smoke from the four grenades quickly enveloped the highway, forming a wall of smoke.

Big Beard waved his hand, "Retreat!"