Mercenary I am the king

Chapter 1164 Please enter the urn
Kold's Control Area, the U.S. Army's forward operational command center.

Almost at the same moment Song Heping shut down and disassembled the satellite phone, next to the huge electronic sand table in the command center, an intelligence analyst sergeant who had been staring intently at the SIGINT terminal screen suddenly straightened up, his voice rising slightly with excitement:
"Sir! 'Wind Listener-1' emergency report! Brief satellite phone beacon captured! Location: Northern edge of the Mannier Valley area, grid coordinates 8-1-2-1! Duration is extremely short, approximately 2-3 seconds, beacon disappears! Cannot be repositioned!"

Major James abruptly looked up from the electronic sand table, a hint of excitement flashing in his eyes like a hunter finally finding the exact trail of his prey.

He strode to the large screen and looked at the red signal markers that were still flashing after the system had just automatically updated, precisely printed on the contour lines of the northern edge of the Mannier Valley.

"As expected... they're losing patience? Trying to find a detour from the north? Or... are they deliberately releasing smoke to test our reaction?"

James sneered, picked up a bottle of water, took a sip, and gathered his thoughts before saying:
"No matter what tricks you Russian moles are up to, since you dared to stick your heads out of the hole, don't even think about pulling them back in! This time, we're going to crush you all inside!"

He immediately grabbed the dedicated encrypted communication microphone for the "Razor" squad, pressed the send button, and his voice, clear and cold, traveled through the encrypted channel to Captain Ronson in the distant mountains:
"Langsen, latest intelligence! The target is in the northern edge of the Mannier Valley, in grid 8-1-2-1 area. A satellite phone beacon has been briefly spotted, and the signature has been confirmed to match! Its existence has been confirmed! They are likely trying to find a breakout route from the north or establish an emergency communication node."

"I order you to immediately abandon the original search route and proceed at full speed to that coordinate area to engage the enemy! The 'Reaper' drone will prioritize adjusting its patrol trajectory to ensure real-time reconnaissance and readily available fire support in your airspace! Find them, keep them on your heels! Repeat, never let them disappear from your sight again! Over."

"Command, 'Razor' received. Coordinates 8-1-2-1, turn immediately and engage the enemy at full speed."

Captain Ronson's voice was equally excited over the communicator.

“We will keep them firmly pinned down. 'Razor' complete, communications over.”

Below a severely weathered, cracked, and shadowed rock ridge on the northern edge of the Mannier Valley.

Song Heping stuffed the disassembled satellite phone parts into different tactical bags.

He looked up and nodded to the hunter beside him, who was as silent as a rock.

“The signal has been sent, the ‘invitation’ has been delivered. With the Americans’ technology and reaction speed, they should have taken the bait and are rushing over here.”

Song Heping's voice was very low, almost a whisper, "We should get going and lead the way for them."

"OK."

The hunter quickly checked the SV-98 sniper rifle in his hand again, which was equipped with a long-barreled suppressor and an advanced night vision scope. He pulled the bolt to confirm that a subsonic bullet had been silently loaded.

Then, he got up and disappeared silently into the darker and more complex forests to the north.

Song Heping took a deep breath, glanced one last time at the direction where Petrovsky and his men had set up an ambush, then turned around, tightened his equipment, and followed closely behind the hunters with equally agile and stealthy movements. The two figures were quickly swallowed up by the jagged rocks and the rapidly descending shadows of night.

Behind them, several kilometers to the southeast, Major Petrovsky was already directing the SSO team members, who were operating efficiently and silently like precision combat machines wound up tightly.

The squad's demolition expert, "Thor," muttered the steps only he knew, as he skillfully laid the tripwires for the last few POM-2 "larvae" directional tripwire mines among the grass, gravel, and tire tracks in the narrow passage.

As his assistant, Nikolai, laboriously placed the heavy directional fragmentation mine into a naturally formed rock groove in the middle of the cliff. The mine's front, covered with numerous pre-fabricated steel balls, was coldly aimed at the death tunnel below.

Sniper "Cold Blade" Dmitry and machine gunner "Hammer" Volkov used rocks and bushes for cover to create extremely concealed flanking and backward firing positions, setting up general-purpose machine guns and carrying sniper rifles.

All the gun barrels, like the forked tongues of venomous snakes, were coldly and precisely pointed eastward, at the area where the 1515 militants were about to surge in like a tide.

The air was thick with an overwhelming sense of death.

Everyone's heart was pounding, a sign of exhaustion and the start of adrenaline rushing in before a major battle.

Half an hour later.

Inside a natural cave eroded by wind and rain on the northern edge of the Mannier Valley.

Song Heping gently exhaled a breath of stale air, unloaded his backpack, and leaned against the cold rock wall.

After several kilometers of high-intensity cross-country running, even with his and the hunter's physical abilities, their muscles felt hot and their lungs were pounding like bellows.

Sweat soaked through his underwear, sticking stickily to his skin, but the chilly air in the cave brought him a sense of clarity.

The cave is in an excellent location, its entrance hidden by several clumps of tenacious thorns and a protruding boulder.

The interior space is not large, but it is large enough to accommodate two people and provides good protection.

Most importantly, the cave entrance faces southwest, overlooking the winding valley below—the route that US special operations teams and Kold's allied forces had to take.

Furthermore, there is a path behind the cave that leads down the slope on the opposite side of the mountain.

That was an excellent escape route.

"Good location."

The hunter's deep voice echoed in the cramped space. He had already taken the best shooting position on the right side of the cave entrance and was carefully placing the barrel of his SV-98 sniper rifle into a crevice in the rocks, covering it with a dark camouflage cloth to prevent certain parts from reflecting the moonlight.

The long-barreled silencer makes the entire gun look longer and more deadly.

Song Heping didn't say anything, but quickly took out a high-magnification observation scope and an HK416 assault rifle from his equipment bag, and gently placed them on the left side of the cave entrance, also with a soft cloth as a pad.

He adjusted the focus, his gaze slowly sweeping across the passage below, the slopes on both sides, and the undulating mountains in the distance.

"The controlled area extends from southeast to northwest, covering the riverbed and approximately 150 meters of slope on both sides. The field of view is good, and the firing range is clear."

Song Heping reported the observation results in a low voice, as if confirming something, or as if talking to himself.

"receive."

The hunter responded, his eyes fixed behind the night vision scope. The bullet was already chambered, the safety was off, and his finger rested lightly on the trigger guard. He was like a frozen sculpture, with only barely perceptible breathing.

The two quickly completed their battle preparations, turning the small cave into a concealed yet deadly firing point.

Now, all that's left is to wait.

Time passed silently, second by second.

Only the whistling of the wind through the cracks in the rocks and the occasional low chirping of unknown insects remained in the valley.

The deathly silence before a major battle is often more nerve-wracking than the gunfire itself.

Song Heping put away the observation mirror and rubbed his slightly sore eyes.

He glanced at the hunter beside him, who was as steady as a rock, and suddenly spoke, his voice so low it almost blended into the wind:

"Hunter, there's a question I've always wanted to ask you."

"Boss, you say it."

The hunter's response was extremely concise; most of his attention remained focused on the field of view through the scope.

"The money the company has given you over the years should be enough for you to live comfortably as a wealthy man anywhere in the world for the rest of your life, right? Why do you still follow me and take on this kind of job that puts your life on the line?"

Song Heping's tone carried a hint of curiosity.

"This doesn't seem like the retirement life of a normal person after achieving financial freedom."

The hunter was silent for a few seconds, seemingly organizing his thoughts, or perhaps simply not wanting to be distracted.

After a while, he slowly spoke: "When I didn't have money before... I thought money was everything. I thought that with money, I could buy everything: dignity, happiness, women... everything you wanted."

He paused, as if recalling something: "Do you remember when I went back to my hometown the year before last? Actually, after that trip, I went to many other places, Switzerland, Monaco... I bought all the things I wanted to buy but couldn't bring myself to buy, went to all the places I wanted to go but couldn't, and even met the women I wanted to meet."

"And then?" Song Heping pressed.

"Then?"

The hunter chuckled, a hint of self-mockery in his voice.

"Then I realized, it's so damn boring. Spending money is fun, but once the fun is over, it's just like that. Lying on the big bed in a five-star hotel, staring at the ceiling, I felt emptier than sleeping in a hammock in the rainforest. The men and women around you, their eyes have nothing but money in them. I even started to miss my old buddies, I missed the days when I was with you and those old guys."

As he spoke, he subtly adjusted the angle of his sniper rifle: "At least back then, I knew why I was alive, why I pulled the trigger. The adrenaline was real, the comrades behind me were real, even the danger... was real. It was much more real than those fake celebrations built with money."

Song Heping remained silent.

He could understand that feeling. In fact, the battlefield is like a drug; it can be addictive.

The extreme experience of walking on the edge of life and death, and the pure friendship of fighting side by side with your best friends, are hard to forget once you get used to them.

Returning to the mundane routine of daily life can lead to an unbearable sense of emptiness and discomfort.

"And you, boss?" the hunter asked, unusually. "Do you miss home? Your real home, your homeland."

Song Heping's body stiffened almost imperceptibly.

He gazed at the sky outside the cave, which was gradually being stained with ink, his eyes somewhat unfocused.

After a long silence, he whispered, "Yes. Of course I want to."

Images of his hometown flashed through his mind: quiet, clean streets, and his younger siblings whom he hadn't seen for many years...

These images all seem shrouded in a thick layer of dust, distant and unreal.

"but……"

His voice carried a hint of bitterness.

"My current identity is too sensitive. KB leader... international mercenary leader... arms dealer... warmonger... I've lost count of how many labels people have pinned on me. Go back? What would I do back there? To cause trouble for my younger siblings?"

He shook his head: "Never mind. Some roads, once taken, can never be turned back. Here..."

As he spoke, he pointed to the gun in his hand.

"...is my true home."

The hunter seemed to want to say something, but in the end it just turned into a barely audible sigh.

Silence fell once again in the cave, with only the sound of their breathing mingling.

This oppressive silence lasted for about ten minutes.

Suddenly, the hunter uttered a single word in an extremely soft voice: "Here it comes."

Though the sound was soft, it shattered the silence of the cave like a flash of lightning across the night sky.

Song Heping immediately bent down and pressed his eyes tightly against the observation scope.

He carefully adjusted his direction, searching in the direction the hunter had indicated earlier.

At first, all that could be seen were swaying bushes and jagged rocks.

But soon, several blurry, moving spots that differed slightly from the surrounding color caught his attention.

He held his breath and turned the magnification to the maximum.

That's right!

It's a heat source!
It is located at approximately one o'clock, about 800 meters away, on the eastern edge of the valley.

The three heat sources are in a loose, guard formation, cautiously advancing along the edge of the riverbed.

No need to ask, just by looking at their formation and advancing posture, you can tell that these are the vanguard of the Kold'd forces.

Further back, about several hundred meters away, there seemed to be faint orange-red heat sources emanating from the edges of the cracks in the rocks.

Suddenly, a faint buzzing sound came from high above.

"Death Drone..."

Song Heping made a sign language gesture to the hunter.

The hunter nodded slightly, indicating that he understood.

He didn't even have the interest to look up.

The shooting location they chose was inside a rocky cave halfway up the mountain, with the entrance facing downwards and covered by natural vegetation and rocks.

Unless a U.S. military drone happens to fly directly overhead and perform a near-vertical perspective scan, it would be impossible to discover this small opening, let alone the two people hiding inside.

The thick rock layers also effectively blocked their heat signals, making them completely undetectable to the enemy.

Just as Song Heping judged.

In the sky, the U.S. military's MQ-9 Reaper drones, like circling vultures, conducted detailed reconnaissance around the northern edge of the Mannier Valley.

Its high-resolution camera and infrared sensor scanned the mountains and valleys below repeatedly.

The pilot's voice was clearly transmitted back to the command center via data link:

"Command, 'Reaper-2' reporting. Preliminary scanning of the area surrounding grid 8-1-2-1 has been completed, with no obvious heat source signals or suspicious moving targets detected. The surface vegetation and rock structure are complex, with many blind spots. Currently, observation of the riverbed area indicates that our ground units are advancing according to plan. Over."

Inside the forward command center, Major James frowned slightly as he stared at the dotted line representing the flight path of the "Reaper" drone and the blue dots representing the "Razor" squad and Kold's Company on the electronic sand table.

not found?

The other party was indeed cunning.

However, he believes that the signals captured by the "Wind Listener-1" electronic reconnaissance aircraft were not accidental.

The other party must be in that area, just hiding using the terrain.

"Ronson."

James grabbed the microphone, his tone leaving no room for argument, "Drone reconnaissance found nothing unusual, but we can't rule out the possibility that the target is using the complex terrain for concealment. You continue your search towards the coordinate area as planned, remain vigilant. Koldren, as the forward, expand the search area. Once contact is made, engage immediately and call for fire support!"

"Razor received. Onward."

Captain Ronson turned around and gestured, and the squad members immediately changed formation, advancing forward at a more vigilant pace, about 200 meters behind Kold's scouts.

Inside the cave.

Song Heping's observation scope's crosshairs firmly locked onto the three Kold's scouts.

"780 meters away, left-sloping wind, wind speed about 3 meters per second. Moderate humidity."

Song Heping reported the correction parameters to the hunter in a very low voice.

These data are crucial for long-range precision shooting using subsonic bullets, as subsonic bullets are more susceptible to environmental factors.

The hunter slightly adjusted the knob on the scope, his breathing becoming longer and shallower.

He gently pressed the trigger with his index finger, feeling the resistance at the critical point.

In the scope, the head of the lead Colder scout appeared just below the center of the crosshairs, leaving a slight margin for bullet drop.

"Target locked."

The hunter's voice was calm and undisturbed.

"Free fire."

Song Heping gave the order to fire.

　Asking for a monthly ticket! Asking for a monthly ticket!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)