Through the binoculars and the armored vehicle's glass, Hong Fei could clearly see Tony chatting and laughing with the soldiers inside.
Seeing the convoy getting closer and closer to the militants' ambush point, Hong Fei put down the binoculars and raised his sniper rifle instead.
Frank, who was operating the mortar, saw Hong Fei lying on the ground aiming his rifle and couldn't help but ask, "Are you sure you really know how to snipe?"
"Of course. I'm a famous sharpshooter for miles around!"
Hong Fei's confident demeanor almost made Frank doubt his own judgment. His eyes flickered as he asked again, "What's the wind direction and wind speed?"
"What are you talking about?"
Frank was immediately rendered speechless.
Hong Fei stared into the sniper scope and said, "Stop talking nonsense, hurry up, they're almost here."
On the road, three armored vehicles were moving forward, maintaining a certain distance, with Tony sitting in the middle vehicle.
Boom!
A sudden, deafening blast echoed across the plains. The first vehicle was instantly swallowed by an erupting fire, and the violent shockwave flipped the armored vehicle, sending debris flying in all directions.
The vehicle Tony was in only stopped quickly after passing through the thick flames ahead.
Suddenly, gunfire erupted from all sides.
In Hong Fei's observation, the militants hidden on the side of the road were either pulling out rifles or setting up machine guns to fire wildly, while others kept throwing grenades at the remaining two vehicles.
The machine gunner on top of the armored vehicle was killed immediately. The U.S. troops who rushed out of the vehicle to hold their ground and counterattack were riddled with bullets before they could run a few steps, and those with worse luck were blown to pieces by fragmentation grenades.
Soon, Hong Fei saw Tony push open the car door and scramble, hunched over, to hide behind a rock.
Missiles were already being launched from afar, and everything at the impact points—whether vehicles or corpses—was instantly obliterated, creating a horrific scene.
"Frank, get ready, take out that missile vehicle first."
"Don't worry."
The fewer than ten U.S. troops were wiped out by the militants in the blink of an eye. Tony, hiding behind the rock, was panting heavily and frantically pressing buttons on his phone.
Whoosh!
A whistling sound approached from afar. A missile landed beside Tony. After seeing his own company's logo on it, he had just stood up to run when the missile detonated instantly, and the shrapnel and shockwave sent him flying through the air.
On the mountaintop, Hong Fei spoke at the same time: "Fire!"
Bang!
The 120mm heavy mortar shell instantly left the barrel. A mortar with a maximum range of over seven thousand meters found hitting a target just over a thousand meters away to be a piece of cake.
In the sniper scope, the missile vehicle was instantly swallowed by flames, the blazing fire rising dozens of meters high.
This sudden change immediately alerted the militants hiding by the roadside. They shouted in a language Hong Fei didn't understand, rushing toward the surrounding flames and thick smoke, hoping to use them as cover to escape the enemy's sight.
But Frank wouldn't just sit by and watch.
With another boom, the second shell was fired, landing precisely above a group of militants.
Suddenly, in addition to the still-deafening blast, the shell exploding in mid-air erupted with billowing white smoke. In an instant, countless small white specks splattered out. Once these white specks hit the ground, they immediately began to burn; whether it was grass or rocks, they were swallowed by the raging flames in the blink of an eye.
At the same time, figures engulfed in flames ran quickly away from the center of the explosion. Even from hundreds of meters away, Hong Fei could hear the horrific, incessant wailing.
"Why is this shell different?" Hong Fei was somewhat shocked.
Frank picked up his sniper rifle and said while aiming, "White phosphorus bomb. It can adhere to any surface and continue to burn, and it's very difficult to extinguish. If it lands on a person's body, it will burn through the skin and even burn their bones to ash."
Hong Fei gasped, "Isn't that too..."
"Boss, this is war." Frank said coldly.
Then, he aimed at his target and added, "There are six lucky ones left. The four on the left are mine, the two on the right are yours. If you can't handle it, speak up."
Bang!
As soon as he finished speaking, he pulled the trigger, and a person in the distance fell in response.
Hong Fei quickly composed himself, red light gleaming in his eyes.
Instantly, the five militants running for their lives were performing comical actions in his field of vision. After his muzzle quickly swept over their heads, it left behind scarlet cross marks on each of them.
The five were marked in an instant, and Hong Fei immediately pulled the trigger.
Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!
The semi-automatic sniper rifle fired five consecutive shots. The gunfire was continuous, and one couldn't even see Hong Fei make any adjustments to the muzzle.
Five bullets tore through the air. Before the gunfire had even faded from the desert, the five men fell almost simultaneously.
At the same time, Hong Fei could clearly feel five streams of energy surging into his body one after another.
At this moment, Frank, who was aiming at his second target, watched helplessly as his target suddenly fell.
The successive gunshots by his ear startled him. He turned his head and saw Hong Fei smiling at him, "You're welcome!"
Frank raised his rifle again to observe in disbelief.
After a long time, he put down his rifle, his eyes still unable to hide his shock.
"How did you do that?"
"Raise the gun, aim, pull the trigger. All in one motion, a hundred hits out of a hundred. I told you, I'm a famous sharpshooter for miles around!"
The Eyes of Death were perfect for long-range sniping.
No matter the distance, as long as a mark could be placed and there were no obstacles, the bullet would inevitably cross the vast space and hit the marked point directly.
Don't talk to me about wind direction, wind speed, or humidity, and don't lecture me on ballistic measurement methods.
In short, just raise the gun and do it!
For Hong Fei, sniping was much easier than kung fu.
Frank's expression was complicated.
Hong Fei stood up, shouldered his rifle, and said, "Let's go. Time to withdraw. If we stay any longer, the U.S. military will be here."
Frank snapped out of it and said in a low voice, "You go down first. I'll pack up the mortar."
"That thing is so heavy, let me help."
Frank politely declined. "No need. After you go down, go to the car and find two gas masks, then bring them over. If we're any later, the target might be poisoned to death."
"Huh?"
"I forgot to mention earlier, the smoke produced by the explosion and combustion of white phosphorus bombs is highly toxic."
Hong Fei took off running.
Half an hour later, Hong Fei asked while driving, "How is it? Not poisoned to death, right?"
Tony, who had lost consciousness, was lying in the back seat. He was almost completely stained red with blood, and his face was terrifyingly pale.
Frank said while performing first aid, "No poisoning. The wind happened to blow the toxic smoke the other way. Otherwise, he would have been dead long ago."
Hong Fei breathed a sigh of relief, then added, "Use white phosphorus bombs less often in the future."
"Are you scared?" Frank didn't hide his mockery.
Hong Fei certainly wasn't scared; he just believed such a method of killing was unnecessary.
Before he could speak, Frank continued, "Do you know what these people have done? They use blunt knives to slowly saw off their enemies' heads. They massacre entire villages and post these videos online to show off their might. Do you think they don't know what they're doing? I can tell you clearly, they even enjoy inflicting violence on others."
Hong Fei said, "It can be used, but it should be slightly restrained to avoid abuse."
The effect of the white phosphorus bomb was truly brutal. If that white phosphorus bomb had landed in a town, city, or other densely populated area, the scene would surely have been ten times more cruel than a pure bomb explosion.
Frank shook his head. "Don't worry. I'm afraid you won't be able to use it even if you wanted to in the future. The power of white phosphorus bombs causes trauma to both the physical and mental states of both sides in a war, and very few people produce them now. This one was the only white phosphorus bomb you could buy; I guess it was leftover stock the seller practically gave away."
"You were the one who gave me the supplier's contact information."
"I only know he ships from the Middle East. It's all remote contact; I haven't met him yet."
"I guess he's not a good person."