Mercenaries, I Will Be King Chapter 212 - 181 Sniper's Drawing Ability

Lieutenant Colonel Mandres was shot and fell to the ground, causing imdiate chaos at the scene.

All the machine guns on the tops of tanks and armored vehicles near Area E were roaring.

Song Heping sat behind the concrete parapet on the rooftop and sighed.

Such aimless attacks were useless.

Completely aningless.

He could even judge that the sniper had already slipped away.

A top-notch, clever sniper wouldn't stay a second after firing a shot, not even a second!

So when he shot Lieutenant Colonel Mandres, he had already won in today's cat-and-mouse ga.

"FUCK!"

Vincent cursed loudly on the channel.

Again and again.

But it was unclear who he was cursing at.

Clearly, he now realized why Song Heping had called him earlier.

His hesitation had led to Mandres's death.

He was an excellent Seal Commander, such errors should not have occurred.

But his prejudice against the rcenaries caused his mistake.

If he had been quicker, or if he had notified Mandres imdiately after receiving Song Heping's call, perhaps the lieutenant colonel wouldn't have died.

Vincent didn't care much about Mandres's death.

However, the death of the commander in Area 5 had a huge impact on the entire search operation.

Now, as the operation had only reached midday and less than half of Area 5 had been searched, the absence of the commander, even if the deputy took over, would severely impact the morale of Warrior Camp and Sword Camp.

Song Heping was too lazy to bother with it now.

Good words can't persuade the damned dead.

He had done his best.

"Boss," Hunter was puzzled, "how did you know the sniper wasn't dead?"

Song Heping sneered, "Do you know how much ti and effort it takes to modify an SVD like that? Why would he leave that gun behind? Even if he were dead, soone else would take it. This is clearly a trap; it makes no sense."

Hunter gasped.

The ticulousness of Song Heping's thoughts was beyond imagination.

This small flaw had escaped him.

Mandres's death had slowed down the western attack.

Warrior Camp and Sword Camp both stopped to organize Mandres's rescue.

The rescue helicopter arrived quickly.

Samir suddenly discovered sothing new, "Boss, Lieutenant Colonel Mandres might not be dead."

"Not dead?" The Chef also climbed up and looked through his binoculars in that direction.

The dics and paradics who ca down from the rescue helicopter were hurriedly administering first aid and bandaging Mandres.

"It seems he's not dead. Could there still be hope?"

Song Heping said, "What are you thinking? Do you think that kind of top-tier sniper would give Mandres a chance to survive? He hides in the distance waiting for high-value targets to appear and doesn't hold back in his actions. Mandres is definitely dead, he might have stopped breathing by now."

The Chef's gaze didn't leave the binoculars, "They are still trying to rescue him, it seems there's a chance he could live."

"They are putting on a show," Song Heping sat by the wall and didn't even glance over, "Even if it's a corpse, they would still attempt a rescue. Otherwise, how could the operation continue with the highest on-site commander dead?"

Not long after, Lieutenant Colonel Mandres was carried onto the rescue helicopter, which flew away amid the lingering hope of those present.

After so reporting, the command center also learned of Mandres's condition and thus appointed Major Lonnie to take over command of the troops.

Major Lonnie was a nervous type.

He had been in Illiguo for almost a year, already frazzled by the warfare here.

All the more so now that Mandres had been targeted, indicating that the "Hunter's" sniper was still nearby.

He hid in the armored command vehicle, refusing to co out, and then started frantically calling for air support.

Warthog Attack Aircraft, one after another, swept across the sky, furiously dropping bombs on nearby buildings, destroying any suspected sniper hideouts he ordered them to bomb.

This mode of attack greatly annoyed Lieutenant Vincent.

After all, it ant that the "Hunter's" sniper had already escaped.

They wouldn't be foolish enough to stay in place waiting for bombs to fall on their heads.

Today's operation had started explosively but actually had co to an end.

Indeed, in the afternoon, under Major Lonnie's cautious command, the advance was as slow as a snail's crawl.

They had advanced to Area F in the morning, and in the afternoon, they pushed forward to Areas G and H, the progress being less than half of the morning's.

Song Heping and his small team remained on the original rooftop.

After all, doing anything today had already beco aningless.

The chase between snipers, it's like setting a trap to catch a wolf.

The wolf is a ferocious and cunning animal.

When you set a trap to catch it in one place and it escapes, it's hard to catch it in the sa place again.

"Boss, what are you doing?"

Bored, Samir noticed that Song Heping was always holding a pencil, drawing sothing on a small leather notebook.

He leaned in, full of curiosity, and asked his boss.

Song Heping said, "I'm reviewing the plan."

"Reviewing the plan?"

Samir grew even more curious.

"Review what?"

"The operation." Song Heping handed the notebook to Samir.

Samir glanced at the contents.

It was a hand-drawn map of a simple area that very clearly marked the route of operation progress, points of engagent, and the like.

"I didn't expect you to draw maps so well, boss. It looks just like a military map."

Samir found the simple patterns and loops that Song Heping had drawn in the notebook very pleasing to the eye. Although not as detailed as a map, they seed quite upscale.

He didn't understand any of the technicalities; he simply thought it looked good.

Hunter ca over to have a look and was shocked.

"Boss, were you a sniper before?"

Song Heping nodded slightly, "A bit."

Samir asked, "Hunter, how did you know?"

Hunter said, "An expert can tell at a glance, you wouldn't understand. This is a drawing style commonly used by snipers. Generally, before carrying out a sniper operation in the field, they draw a simple map of the target and the surrounding buildings and environnt, then mark out the patrol routes.

Strictly speaking, they also need to make range cards and the like, all by hand, so snipers' drawing abilities are generally much stronger than those of regular soldiers. But…"

Samir asked, "But what?"

Hunter, staring at Song Heping's map for a mont, said, "This doesn't entirely look like a typical quick sketch of the target area. What are these?"

He pointed to several triangular patterns on it and asked.

Song Heping replied, "These are the Hunter's shooting positions. Today, they sniped from three different locations, and I marked them all."

"What's the point of marking these?" Hunter was puzzled. "The person has already run away, making a range card from this won't help."

Typically, a sniper would mark the target's location, asure the distance based on this position, create a range card considering the surrounding natural environnt, and calculate various elents to facilitate quick preparation when action starts.

But now that everything had ended, marking seed to have no significance.

Song Heping shook his head slightly, "This isn't for making a range card..."

He paused for a mont before saying, "Right now, I can't reveal much, just a concept. I still need a lot of data to support it, but gathering this data will take ti."

Saying this, he looked up at the sky.

It was already the late afternoon twilight.

"It seems today's operation has failed, we'll probably retreat back to Warrior Camp soon. Let's pack up and we'll talk more back there."

"Okay."

Hearing they were returning, everyone was naturally happy.

At least the "Musician" defense had no casualties today.

As for the rest, it didn't matter.

Everything happened just as Song Heping had predicted.

Lieutenant Vincent's team didn't find anything in the end.

The mysterious sniper targeted by Lieutenant Colonel Mandres couldn't be found—not even their corpse, nor the enemy sniper's position. They even took their shell casings, leaving no trace behind.

It turned dark.

For safety reasons, the US Military Command Center ordered all units to retreat from the area and go back to camp for rest. The operations would continue tomorrow.

Back at the camp, Song Heping led his team back to the tent. It wasn't long before Lieutenant Vincent and his Seal Team arrived.

Today they had fought intensely all day, lost one team mber, and their operation was devoid of returns, even though Chris had managed to hit a sniper from nearly fifteen hundred ters away. Clearly, that sniper wasn't the top-tier sniper from the notorious Hunters, the one called the Mosul Reaper.

The atmosphere inside the tent was sowhat tense.

The Seals who had been so upbeat last night, now sat silently on their beds.

Before Song Heping returned, he'd already told everyone that there had been a casualty on the other side, and it was best not to provoke them tonight or trouble might arise.

So everyone stayed out of the tent, went to the camp convenience store to buy so cold beers, and sat in front of the tent drinking without going back inside.

"The sunset is really beautiful."

The cook lay in a folding chair, watching the blood-like sunset towards Mosul.

"It's more comfortable sitting out here. I feel like I'm entering a funeral parlor as soon as I step into the tent..."

Before he could finish, he saw Grey Wolf gesturing at him from across the way.

The cook was about to sit up when he suddenly felt sothing sweep under his chair, sending it flying...

Then, the cook found himself sitting on the ground with a thud.

"Suka! Who did that!"

He jumped up like a tiger that had been kicked.