Tehran Grocery Store: My Intelligence is Priced Clearly

Chapter 4 To Help or Not to Help

"Are you fucking serious?"

Zhang Jian stood in front of the Calimi Noodles, leaning against the wall, and almost laughed out of anger at those words.

Even at a time like this, you're still thinking about Lao Gan Ma (a popular chili sauce brand)?

But his smile quickly faded.

Karimi's condition is even worse than his.

The right half of his uniform was completely torn, and there was a deep wound on his shoulder, with the bone faintly visible.

He covered his ribs with his left hand, blood seeping out from between his fingers.

His face was covered in a mixture of ash and blood; if it weren't for his signature beard, Zhang Jian would have been unrecognizable.

"What are you doing here?"

Zhang Jian slid down the wall and sat down next to him.

The two wounded soldiers were standing side by side, making the scene seem somewhat absurd.

Karimi took several breaths before speaking, his words a mix of Persian and Chinese.

"Check...the early warning equipment."

"There's a radar relay station on the west side of the city. I brought people here today for a routine inspection."

He paused for a moment and coughed twice.

"I just didn't expect..."

"Those mad dogs attacked so suddenly."

"The higher-ups said to be on high alert, not to start war immediately."

"Your superiors' intelligence isn't very good."

Zhang Jian tore off the few remaining strips of fabric from his vest and handed them over.

It was torn twice in a row.

The vest that could originally be tucked into pants now barely covers the chest area, much like a woman's bra.

Karimi took it and, without any hesitation, tightened it around the wound on his shoulder.

The pain made him tremble a few more times.

"Our intelligence has always been inadequate."

Karimi's tone carried a pent-up resentment that had been building up for a long time.

"You don't know about America's electronic warfare capabilities."

"Our early warning network started malfunctioning before they even took action."

"The signal was always intermittent, and by the time we confirmed it was an attack, the missile was already overhead."

Zhang Jian remained silent.

He remembered the list of air raids his system had given him.

Time is accurate to the second, and coordinates are accurate to four decimal places.

He had just personally experienced the US military's strike efficiency.

"Where's your relay station?"

"That's all."

Karimi gave a bitter laugh.

"The relay station was hit directly by the incoming missile."

"There were four of us, but only I came out. The remaining three..."

He didn't go on.

Zhang Jian didn't press the matter further.

The crying continued in the passageway.

An old woman was sitting across from me, constantly chanting scriptures.

The voice was very low, fast, and urgent.

Karimi suddenly pulled a walkie-talkie from his waist.

The walkie-talkie casing had a crack, but the indicator light was still on, flashing green continuously.

"This thing still works?" Zhang Jian asked, somewhat surprised.

"Military grade, shockproof." Karimi held the walkie-talkie to his ear and turned the channel knob.

"Sizzle, sizzle."

It's all background noise.

He changed the channel again.

It's still background noise.

Finally, on the third channel, there was intermittent human voice.

"Captain Karimi, Captain Karimi, please respond!"

Karimi suddenly sat up, the pain in his ribs aggravated, making him wince.

"Falhad? It's me, Karimi, can you hear me?"

"Captain! You're alive!"

The voice on the walkie-talkie suddenly became excited.

"We thought you..."

"Enough with the nonsense! What's the situation on the position?"

There was a two-second silence on the walkie-talkie.

Hearing the two seconds of silence, Zhang Jian felt a strange tightness in his chest.

"Captain, the position hasn't been bombed yet."

"but……"

"But what?"

"The command center issued a notification fifteen minutes ago."

"Multiple U.S. military aircraft have taken off from Bahrain, a mix of F-35s and F-15EXs, with reconnaissance aircraft following behind."

"The command determined that the target was... our battalion's position."

Karimi's body trembled violently.

"What about the air defense system? Is the S-300 activated?"

"It's open, but..."

Farhad's voice was filled with deep frustration.

"The radar is broken, Captain."

"America's electronic interference is too strong. The screen is full of static, and it's impossible to tell which target is real and which is fake."

"What about the fire control radar?"

"That won't work either, it can't be locked."

"It keeps dropping as soon as it locks, and it keeps jumping around. The technicians say it's being suppressed, and they've already cracked our frequency."

Karimi's face looked extremely pale in the dim light.

Zhang Jian sat beside him, listening quietly without saying a word.

"Where is the deputy battalion commander?"

Karimi lowered his voice.

"The deputy battalion commander was organizing the transfer of supplies, but the battalion commander said we couldn't evacuate."

"The orders from above are to hold the position and wait for reinforcements from the rear."

"Bullshit! Where are the reinforcements coming from? Communication is mostly down!"

Karimi growled.

"How long until the fighter jets arrive?"

"The command center estimates the time to be around thirty minutes."

"But this is just a rough estimate; we have absolutely no idea about the exact route and arrival time."

"Captain, the radar is down, we can't see anything."

Farhad's voice grew increasingly urgent.

"There are several hundred people at the position, and all the S-300 launchers and ammunition vehicles are sitting there."

"What if we get targeted by precision strikes..."

He didn't finish speaking.

There's no need to finish speaking.

Even if Zhang Jian wasn't a military enthusiast, he knew that an air defense position with several hundred people was a sitting duck if its radar was jammed and blinded.

"Captain, will you be able to come back?"

Farhad's voice carried a hint of expectation.

"The technician said that if the radar parameters could be adjusted manually, perhaps..."

"I can't go back."

Karimi took the walkie-talkie away from his ear.

"I broke my right rib and my shoulder is ruined."

"I can barely stand, how am I supposed to go back?"

Suddenly, a burst of chaotic background noise came through the walkie-talkie.

There were shouts, the sound of metal clashing, and the muffled thud of an engine starting.

"Captain..."

"Then, what do we do?"

Karimi did not answer.

He sensed Farhad's despair.

He leaned against the wall, the walkie-talkie on his lap, as if all his strength had been drained away in an instant.

Zhang Jian looked at him.

This guy, who was usually so easygoing and would always chat with him for half an hour about international affairs whenever he came, suddenly turned pale.

I couldn't help but feel a little sad.

Once, this guy secretly drank some alcohol and bragged about it to him.

He claimed to be in charge of two S-300 air defense missile systems, making him a key node in the western air defense perimeter of Tehran.

I laughed at him for bragging.

Now it seems that it was all true.

Should we help him?

The panel was still floating in front of me.

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of the text in the upper right corner.

[Current Intelligence Points: 200]

Two hundred points, the reward for the beginner's quest.

His own list of airstrikes only covered the main urban area of Tehran.

Karimi's anti-aircraft positions were outside the city.