Chapter 210: No Interest
Translator: BeetleBarker Editor: Tennesh
Yan Biao could not clearly see the situation ahead of him, but since Bie Liao had seen it through his sniper scope and confirmed that the two terrorists had already been killed, Yan Biao could rest easy and receive treatment. However, if what Fang Zhao had said was true, examining the wounds on the bodies would verify his words. The gun used by Fang Zhao was different from the ones used by the outpost team. The gunshot wounds would be different, so it would be easy to distinguish.
Yan Biao was a little puzzled when he saw Fang Zhao keeping his gun away. "Aren't you going to continue? There are a few more beasts over there."
"The others can handle it. Besides, I'm out of ammo," Fang Zhao replied. The situation was already under control. There weren't many threats remaining, and he had no need to snatch military glory away from the outpost team.
Yan Biao did not question how Fang Zhao had managed to smuggle the gun into planet Baiji. Instead he asked, "These types of old gun models have very little ammo. How many bullets are there? You ran out of ammo so quickly."
"There were only 20 bullets when I brought it over." Fang Zhao did not hide this bit. Yan Biao and the others did not think highly of these sorts of decades-old guns. If a gun from the Old Era were placed in front of them, they would surely treat at as an antique.
Bie Liao had just arrived and had a shocked look on his face. "You dared to head to the battlefield with only 20 bullets? Was it enough?"
Yan Biao too was used to high-capacity magazines and also found it utterly unimaginable. "What can you do with so little ammo?" But when he remembered how Fang Zhao had shot the terrorists and the reports of how Fang Zhao had killed those beasts with one shot, he swallowed his words.
"That's why I brought a steel rod." Fang Zhao brandished his already-deformed steel rod, which was now full of brown bloodstains. Not every beast had been shot dead; some had been bludgeoned to death.
Yan Biao silently watch Fang Zhao for a few seconds, then handed his own gun over to Fang Zhao. "You use it first. I no longer have the strength to use it."
Fang Zhao did not accept it. He looked up at the sky in a certain direction. "Should be reinforcements from the base arriving."
Yan Biao felt delighted inside and looked over... but he did not see anything.
But when he remembered Fang Zhao's "Diting ears," he largely believed it. He still pushed the gun toward Fang Zhao. "Even if personnel from the base have arrived, you hold onto it just in case."
Indeed, after a short while, a black speck appeared in the distance. Yan Biao switched the modes on his comms device and received a new signal accessing the outpost's communications network. It was the personnel dispatched from the base.
After reporting the situation over here, Yan Biao checked his comms device again. There were two missed comms from Kevin Lin.
Yan Biao had set up a few communication channels in the network. Channel 1 was for personnel with a squadron leader position or above, including the command post. Channel 2 was for team leaders and above. Channel 3 was solely for communications with the command post and to understand the current situation. Channel 4 was for personnel not part of the outpost team, like Kevin Lin and the rest.
Previously, he had been in the outpost internal comms channel and been set to combat command mode, so those in other channels could not interfere.
Yan Biao switched over and immediately heard Kevin Lin's anxious voice asking. "Fang Zhao went up! Have you seen him?"
"He's here beside me. He's all right. Base personnel have also arrived, but we still need time to make sure the danger has passed. You people stay where you are first and don't come out. When it's safe, I will send men to fetch you."
Yan Biao's words were undoubtedly good news to those in the underground shelter. They signified that the situation was roughly under control.
Yan Biao did not say much else. Two soldiers came over and prepared to carry him off for medical treatment. He no longer needed to maintain his position. As he relaxed, he felt his vision blurring as he faded in and out of consciousness.
Of the two terrorists, one of them was indeed armed with explosives. Furthermore, the explosives were embedded within his body and were difficult to remove. After the personnel dispatched by the base determined the identity of the two terrorists, they moved the bomb-laden corpse far away for detonation.
The explosion in the distance shook the earth, vindicating Yan Biao's judgement. If those terrorists had infiltrated the outpost's interior, the consequences would have been even more dire..
Now that there were reinforcements, Bie Liao held his gun and sat at the side. He was really tired, yet he could not control his curiosity. He asked Fang Zhao. "Were those two terrorists really shot by you?"
Bie Liao had seen the gunshot wounds on the two terrorist's bodies. Both had been killed with a single shot, and the wounds had not been made by the gun model issued by the base. On the contrary, the gunshot wounds seemed similar to those found on the bodies of the beasts Fang Zhao had shot dead. Because of this, Bie Liao found it unimaginable.
If it was an old experienced soldier around 70 or 80, Bie Liao would only have had admiration for him, but Fang Zhao? How old was Fang Zhao?
Those two terrorists were experienced hands with sharp perceptions. Bie Liao had kept an eye on them for so long, yet he had been unable to succeed. Every time he had caught sight of their shadow, the other side seemed to have sensed it and had evaded so Bie Liao could not get a lock on them.
Not just himself, Bie Liao reckoned that if it had been any of the few ace marksmen from the base, they would not have been able to do it either.
Timing, speed, decision-making, mental state, external factors, and other factors affected the final outcome. Bie Liao was not finding excuses—it was indeed very difficult.
However, today, the scene that had unfolded in front of Bie Liao's eyes was like a lesson for him.
Even if Bie Liao was unwilling to admit it, he had to accept this fact. In less than a minute, Fang Zhao had used a gun that was no longer in production and two bullets to shoot dead the targets that Bie Liao had been unable to hit for 20 minutes.
This skill was really extraordinary!
Furthermore, from what Riode and the others had said, given Fang Zhao's skill, marksmanship, and temperament, if he joined the military, anywhere he went, he would be the absolute trump card!
"If I had your ability, maybe even just half, I would have become a senior officer long ago. I wouldn't still be stuck as a lieutenant like now!" Bie Liao lamented to Fang Zhao. This little fellow, why did he not think things through? Why did he decide to be a celebrity!? Bie Liao was especially curious about one thing. "How long have you been practicing with a gun?"
Fang Zhao thought for a bit before replying, "Very long."
"Definitely not as long as me." From what Bie Liao saw, he was older than Fang Zhao by a few decades. He'd had access to firearms from a young age. Bie Liao had certainly held guns longer than Fang Zhao, but his skill could not be compared. This Bie Liao acknowledged.
Bie Liao had an envious look in his eyes. "Your talent is really good." This sort of thing known as talent was not something anyone could have. Some people could just use a shorter time to achieve more dazzling results.
When Fang Zhao heard this, he gave a faint smile.
Talent?
These technical abilities and skills were gained from experiencing living hell for close to 100 years and from the accumulation of many wounds and injuries. Technical abilities did not drop from the sky. How much had his body and mind gone through to achieve the level of skill he had today?
In his previous life, the reason Fang Zhao had not survived was largely due to his accumulated injuries and illnesses coupled together with the immense pressure on him from the war. As the leader of a large warzone, he had been unable to avoid many affairs. Before his death, his body had already reached its limits, and even if the battle where he had died had not occured, he might not have made it to the Founding Era.
Fang Zhao's rebirth had let him feel pleasantly suprised, but ultimately, his soul was still the same one that had gone through close to a hundred years of the apocalypse.
During that period where they'd had to make sure every bullet counted and where danger had lurked around every corner, where they'd had to stay alert both day and night and a person's life could have been lost at any moment, he had lived for close to 100 years.
This was something Bie Liao would never be able to imagine.
When Fang Zhao faced those beasts, his soul and body combined to create an instinctive reaction.
But Fang Zhao could not say any of this.
Noticing Fang Zhao not speaking, Bie Liao did not mind. He continued, "The magazine for that gun of yours is way too little. But speaking of that, for Old Era guns, their bullets were big, and the magazine capacity was really little. I heard that some of the gun magazines could only load 10 shells? I have no idea how those people from the Period of Destruction could get by. If it was me, I would have fallen into despair."
Fang Zhao nodded. "Yeah, they probably wished they could have broken a single bullet into many more."
"Oh right, I forgot that you were a godlike player in 'Battle of the Century.' I heard that 'Battle of the Century' is set during the Period of Destruction, and things during that period were recreated. I will try it if I get the chance."
"Godlike player" and so on were the words entertainment media used to describe Fang Zhao. When Bie Liao had first seen it, he had felt that it was rather exaggerated, but looking at things now, even if it was exaggerated, it was not beyond reason.
Bie Liao decided that, when he got the chance, he would go online and search for Fang Zhao's dazzling game videos.
"I heard that some units have already been allocated the latest gun model, the sort that shoots beams. That sort of gun doesn't require bullets at all, and the firepower is even greater. There is even a vertigo mode and a heat mode." A look of yearning crossed Bie Liao's face. "It sounds so cool. I wonder when would our side will get to use it."
"Equipment will get better and better in future," Fang Zhao said.
"That's for sure. If we were the planet Baiji of old, all we would be able to do is dream. But now, it's different! We can look forward to it! If we'd had equipment of that sort of grade, we would have beaten these attackers to a pulp!"
At this point, Bie Liao once again thanked Fang Zhao. "It was all thanks to you discovering Baiji ore that our systems and equipment were upgraded. Otherwise, during this attack, maybe half of us wouldn't have survived. But what can we do? Resources are limited, and there are positions in the development sequence. You see, we, planet Baiji, were poor and had lousy equipment and so were placed at the back. It's little wonder we got targeted by terrorists." Bie Liao lameted for a little bit before asking Fang Zhao, "Oh, do you have any interest in developing in the military?"
"Nope," Fang Zhao replied. "I'm in the art industry."
He just wanted to enjoy this new life that was hard to come by.
The attacks all over planet Baiji were already under control. Reinforcements from the base had reached all the other outposts in succession. The communications network had not yet been fully restored. Although the network was still unable to support a live broadcast, information transmission was no longer obstructed.
However, people online were unaware.
The matter of planet Baiji being attacked by a terrorist organization had become something that everyone was following closely.
The military would not publicly reveal all information, so for those that wanted to know the latest developments at planet Baiji, they needed to find relevant parties. If not, all they could do was worry.
The large majority of netizens were like this. They were worried, and all they could do was vent in all the large forums until channel S5 released a video.
It had been sent to the company by Kevin Lin on planet Baiji. In the video, Kevin Lin was in a dusky room, his face bloodied. He cut a sorry figure. Ever since the live broadcasts had started, this was the first time he had appeared this way in front of the audience, but nobody mocked him.
"Greetings, everyone, it is your old friend Kevin Lin. My work ID number is LKW7986..."
Kevin Lin's voice was heavy and trembling slightly, as if he was saying his last words.
In no time, every continent's various internet or television channels synchronized to this broadcast.
Channel S5's viewership hit an unprecedented height.