Chen Ge stepped up to the stairwell and glanced down at the collapsed stairs. Reaching into his grenade pouch, he pulled out two RGO grenades and dropped them through the gap.
The twenty-some foreign volunteers on the first floor were just converging on the stairs. Spotting the grenades, they dodged aside with practiced ease, clearly seasoned veterans with abundant combat experience.
*Boom! Boom!*
The grenades detonated. Chen Ge vaulted down through the breach, raising his weapon and opening fire. His fifty-round drum emptied in an instant, cutting down six volunteers.
Other volunteers stationed in the rooms lining both sides of the corridor immediately unleashed a fierce barrage toward the stairwell.
By then, Chen Ge had already darted diagonally across into a hall whose doorway had been blasted open. Drawing the war hammer from its custom leather sheath at his lower back with his right hand, he raised it high and slammed the spiked pick ruthlessly into a volunteer's FAST XP helmet.
*Crack!* The helmet and skull shattered simultaneously. Chen Ge yanked the war hammer free and swept it backhanded into an adjacent volunteer.
The spike pierced clean through the man's right earpiece and skull, embedding deep into his brain. Without even a groan, the volunteer collapsed limply to the floor.
With no time to wipe the blood and brain matter from the hammerhead, Chen Ge shoved it back into its sheath. He snatched up an Mk 48 Mod 1 machine gun dropped by a volunteer on the floor, pressed against the doorframe, bent down to pluck an M67 grenade from the chest of a corpse at his feet, pulled the pin, and hurled it out.
Four volunteers advancing from the flanking corridors were caught off guard. Three were blown off their feet by the blast, while the fourth took two pieces of shrapnel to the thigh. Collapsing to the floor, he scrambled on all fours to the corner, propped himself against the wall, and frantically fumbled for a tourniquet.
*Tat-tat-tat!*
More than a dozen other volunteers directed their fire at the hall's doorway, riddling the frame and wall with dense clusters of bullet holes.
Philippe, commander of the Norman Battalion's Second Company, flashed a hand signal, gesturing for the AT4 gunner to fire.
The gunner lowered his HK416, unslung the AT4, clicked off the safety, hoisted it onto his shoulder, and pulled the trigger on the doorway.
*Whoosh—boom!*
A gaping hole was blasted through the wall and doorframe. Philippe immediately led his men forward, halting at the jagged breach to poke their muzzles through and spray the room with wild bursts.
Once their magazines clicked empty, Philippe raised a hand to signal a cease-fire. Slapping in fresh magazines, they raised their rifles and swept into the hall.
A second later, a chilling sight met their eyes, turning their blood cold and freezing them dead in their tracks.
Near the corner of the seven-meter-high ceiling hung a figure... well, if it could even be called human.
His feet were hooked around an overhead pipe, dangling upside down in midair, the black muzzle of his Mk 48 machine gun leveled directly at them.
Never in their wildest dreams could they have imagined someone hanging from the ceiling like that, so none of them had thought to look up.
"Afternoon, gentlemen!"
Chen Ge greeted them politely in English and squeezed the trigger.
Struck as if by lightning, Philippe cursed in rabid fury, "Fuck you!"
Deafening gunfire roared as 7.62 NATO rounds tore into the eight volunteers led by Philippe.
Spent casings clattered onto the floor in a crisp, rhythmic shower. Though all eight men wore tactical vests fitted with SiC/PE Level IV plates, the armor was powerless against 7.62 NATO rounds hammering them point-blank.
Having emptied more than seventy rounds from the belt box, Chen Ge released his footing, flipped twice in midair, and landed cleanly in an Iron Man pose.
He set the machine gun down and examined his palms, nodding with satisfaction.
This wall-crawling ability was incredibly practical—perfect for sneaking around and ambushing enemies.
Glancing at the machine gun on the floor, he muttered to himself, "Huh... looks like machine guns are actually better suited for this!"
He had scavenged a PKM upstairs earlier, and now he had fired the Mk 48. A machine gun seemed to fit his physical strength far better.
Assault rifles had low recoil and were light, meaning tiny micro-movements could easily throw off aim. Machine guns were heavy, had stable trajectories, and delivered sustained firepower. With his immense strength, he could completely lock down the recoil and hold the weapon rock-steady, making his suppressive and continuous fire far superior to that of a rifle.
Besides, using a machine gun to shoot down drones would look much more plausible. He wouldn't have to stay hidden anymore; he could simply raise the gun and unleash hell.
Without hesitation, he unslung his HK417 and shifted it behind his back, then ran over to the volunteer machine gunner's body. He retrieved three 200-round soft assault pouches from the pack and a 100-round hard-plastic belt box mounted on the MOLLE webbing.
He locked the belt box onto the gun and stuffed two of the soft pouches into his backpack.
Only someone with his abnormal strength would dare do such a thing. For an ordinary man, hauling roughly eighty kilograms of combat load would make even walking an ordeal.
*Boom! Tat-tat-tat!*
The blast of a grenade and the roar of a PKP echoed out—Big Bear had made his way down.
With half their number wiped out by Chen Ge, the remaining twelve volunteers had fallen back into the first laboratory on the right side of the south corridor, frantically calling for reinforcements over their radios.
Big Bear dropped through the breach, lobbed an RGO grenade, sprinted nimbly to the corner diagonally opposite the laboratory, and opened up with his PKP in a furious spray.
All the volunteers were veterans of the French Foreign Legion, seasoned and sharp. Seizing their moment, one of them launched an AT4 rocket.
*Boom!*
The corner wall shattered. Having ducked aside just in time, Big Bear was still hurled back by the shockwave, slamming heavily onto the floor, the wind knocked out of him.
Three volunteers moved in interlocking cover, attempting to finish him off, but Chen Ge was already kneeling at the entrance of the north corridor, weapon trained on them.
*Tat-tat-tat!*
The three took twenty-eight rounds directly to their bodies, convulsing under the impacts before dropping with dull thuds.
As one of the volunteers went down, his finger clamped on his SCAR-L's trigger, spraying wild rounds that nearly clipped Chen Ge.
Seeing this, the volunteers inside the lab began hurling grenades.
The grenades pitched from the laboratory landed right near Big Bear's position. Adrenaline surged through him. He sprang up in an instant, scrambled on all fours to the wall corner, and yanked over a battered metal table to shield himself.
*Boom! Boom! Boom!*
Shrapnel sprayed outward, pinging fiercely against the metal table and throwing up sparks.
Tucked back behind the breach in the hall's wall, Chen Ge adjusted his sweat-soaked balaclava. Reaching into the large quick-release grenade pouch on his MOLLE vest, he felt around: one RGN and two RGOs left.
He yelled, "Big Bear, still alive?"
Big Bear coughed repeatedly, rubbed his aching chest, and shouted back, "Still breathing! Hammer Brother, I heard them calling for backup!"
Chen Ge had heard it too. He dashed over to the bodies of Philippe and his squad to loot their gear, mainly scavenging grenades.
American M67s, German DM51A2 offensive/defensive dual-purpose grenades, and two Finnish M50s.
Chen Ge casually peeled back Philippe's balaclava to take a look. In his thirties, and quite handsome.
*Crackle... "Bordeaux, Bordeaux, hold on for ten minutes! The Sakura Detachment is on its way!"*
The Motorola DP4401E radio strapped to Philippe's chest crackled to life. Chen Ge's eyes lit up. He unclipped it, lowered the volume, hung it at his waist, and listened in on the Ukrainian tactical deployment.
*Bordeaux? The callsign of a squad leader or detachment commander among the volunteers in the lab?*
*And Sakura Detachment?*
One glance at the name was enough to tell where they came from!
Chen Ge licked his lips with a vicious grin. Holding two M67s, he stepped up to the jagged breach in the wall, pulled the pins, and hurled them inside.
"Big Bear, move in with me!"
*Boom! Boom!*
The grenades detonated. The ten volunteers inside the laboratory were already bracing for it, immediately opening fire to suppress the doorway.
Chen Ge bounded into the corridor, pulled out a DM51A2, lined up the angle, and threw it.
The grenade struck the corner of the wall opposite the laboratory door and ricocheted neatly inside.
"Holy shit! Grenade!"
The two volunteers behind the door cursed in panic and dove for cover. *Boom!* The grenade went off, the shockwave blasting both men off their feet.
The others abruptly ceased fire, throwing themselves flat or scrambling behind equipment and tables to escape the shrapnel.
A three-second window opened—more than enough for Chen Ge to reach the door.
Chapter 49