Mingfei, don't shoot!

Without even a moment to mourn his fallen comrade, another Dead Guard that rushed straight at Gao Mi transformed into a headless phantom of fury.

Before Gao Mi could even register who had arrived, yet another headless corpse dropped, tumbling like a rolling gourd to land right beside him.

The predatory instincts of the remaining three monsters snapped back at this moment, and they turned as one, charging toward the uninvited guest who had struck from a hundred meters away.

Drawing on their prior experience of hunting Gao Mi, the monsters' not-yet-fully-hardened brains made a rudimentary calculation, attacking from three separate directions.

Facing the menacing, ravenous beasts, the young man concealed within the shadows smoothly and steadily worked the bolt. The classic Remington 700 sniper rifle ejected its empty casing.

"We are all crack marksmen~"

He suddenly hummed a tune from a bygone era, yet one that could never grow old.

His voice was soft and light, as though narrating a chapter of fiery years, yet the pitch-black eyes behind the riflescope radiated a bone-chilling, lethal murderous intent.

Pushing the bolt forward, the chamber received the next round pushed by the mechanism, and a slender index finger rested lightly upon the trigger before gently squeezing.

The muzzle flashed, and the .308 Winchester round sliced through the horizon like dawn's first light. The copper-jacketed, lead-cored projectile reached the Dead Guard, sinking softly yet brutally into those glowing, bright-gold eyes, whipping up a storm of blood and gore amidst the forest.

"Every single bullet eliminates an enemy."

With a crisp click, the final round from the magazine was chambered. Lu Mingfei wielded the modified Remington 700 sniper rifle—its weight and power visibly distinct from standard firearms—and landed a fatal blow with a precise angle.

Amidst a deafening boom, a ferocious skull shattered into bone and blood fragments. The bullet, having shed most of its kinetic energy, burrowed into the last monster's right shoulder, tearing away an arm while sending it staggering sideways.

Taking advantage of the monster's loss of balance as it fell through the air, Lu Mingfei let go of the sniper rifle to let it drop freely, pulling a claw hammer and a large adjustable wrench from his pockets and launching a sudden assault before the Dead Guard hit the ground.

The brand-new, unwrapped claw hammer traced a perfect arc, rotating at high speed through the whistling wind, before striking dead center between the monster's legs.

The anticipated shriek did not pierce the night sky. Lu Mingfei raised a nearly forty-centimeter-long silver-white wrench at an angle, closing in on the prospective eunuch of a monster in the blink of an eye.

"Friendly Face-Breaking Pliers!"

With a furious roar, the closed, chicken-head-like jaws of the pliers struck with violent force, brutally denting the ghost-like visage that seemed to wear a bronze mask.

Those two yellowish, blood-streaked eyeballs were forced out of their sockets by the sheer impact, dangling against the cheeks like bouncy balls in a bizarre and hair-raising display.

"Roar-aah—!"

The delayed scream of agony echoed through the mountain forest. Lu Mingfei lifted his thin shirt to reveal a concealed lumbar support beneath, drew out a Phillips screwdriver, and drove it straight into the black hollows left by the missing eyes.

The squelching sound of solid and liquid matter being violently churned was enough to turn anyone's stomach. Bracing himself against the risk of contracting an unknown virus, he swung the wrench to deliver a finishing blow, literally pinning the monster to the ground with the screwdriver.

Yet this creature's tenacity was absurdly resilient; even with its brain scrambled into paste, it refused to die. Lu Mingfei had to be thorough to the end, snapping its cervical spine with a textbook soccer kick.

A rounded object resembling a streamer-wrapped sphere flew rapidly through the air, colliding repeatedly with the ground and trees before finally tumbling to a stop right in front of Gao Mi.

Looking at the distorted features, shattered facial bones, and empty eye sockets of the skull, even Gao Mi's composure could not stop him from shuddering.

It was not merely the relief of surviving a near-death experience, but also the lingering fear that his savior might be so caught up in the killing frenzy that he would slaughter him as well.

Fortunately, Lu Mingfei had not lost his mind to the slaughter. He simply retrieved his Remington 700, keeping his guard up as he rapidly approached.

In the distance, the gunfire had not ceased, though its intensity was fading. It was impossible to tell whether they had run out of ammo and resorted to close-quarters combat, or if the personnel had been wiped out and were in full retreat.

Still, judging by the dense and unfocused pattern of the gunfire, they probably hadn't been beaten into a panicked rout.

"Tap, tap, tap—"

As the footsteps drew closer, Gao Mi, gradually regaining his stamina, narrowed his eyes slightly, trying to make out the identity of the newcomer and offer his sincere gratitude for saving his life.

Yet, a fraction of a second before the words left his mouth, a blindingly intense glare suddenly ignited.

"What the hell..."

Assaulted by the harsh light, Gao Mi was instantly blinded, plunging him into temporary darkness in such a perilous environment.

It felt precisely like driving a small car and encountering a speeding, overloaded dump truck driving on the wrong side of the road with its ultra-bright high beams glaring. He had ten thousand curses screaming in his mind but dared not utter a single one, terrified he'd find himself reporting to the afterlife in the next second.

Lu Mingfei had not anticipated that the flashlight's high-intensity mode would be quite this potent, and he quickly dialed down the brightness to avoid attracting the monsters lurking in the distance.

The moment he had stealthily crept over just now, he had already realized that the guy shielding his eyes with his hand had completely exhausted his ammunition.

If a swarm of monsters were to charge over right now, his only option would be to sacrifice his ally to save his own skin and flee posthaste.

Still, that brief glimpse earlier had given him a sense of familiarity; this guy looked like someone he knew from somewhere.

Realizing that the blinding glare had vanished, Gao Mi lowered his shielding arm, cautiously massaging the pressure points around his eyes in an attempt to restore his vision as quickly as possible.

Watching Gao Mi—who was inexplicably performing eye exercises despite suffering severe injuries—Lu Mingfei was briefly at a loss for words.

Though he had long known this world differed from his past life, seeing a former bookworm and dyed-in-the-wool straight-laced nerd suddenly transform into a hardcore man wielding a heavy sniper rifle against monsters left him entirely speechless.

To think you were a top student at Peking University, who liked getting caught up in online romances and getting scammed in your past life, and now you've managed to get yourself scammed all the way to Cambodia or Laos to work as a mercenary?

Judging by the combat prowess and marksmanship Gao Mi had just displayed while under covert observation, it was definitely not something learned overnight; he must have put immense grueling effort into it.

After all, not everyone could be like Shunliu, turning into a sniper god the moment they touched a rifle, nor was everyone named Lu Mingfei.

While Lu Mingfei stood there speechless, Gao Mi—whose golden pupils had faded back to their normal shade—finally recovered his sight.

He stared at the young man holding a rifle, whose expression carried a complex, indescribable mix of emotions, and wore an equally stunned and bewildered look:

"Who are you? Why are you here?!"

Lu Mingfei's attire was casual and simple; let alone a Cassell College agent, even calling him a mountain-hiking amateur backpacker would stretch credulity.

Yet how could a youth who still looked somewhat un-weaned remain so utterly calm after consecutively slaughtering five Dead Guards?

Moreover, the kid's marksmanship was absurdly good, and the final scene of blowing up a skull was a bit too brutal. Was he really not encountering the teenage warlord of a mercenary syndicate in Laos?

"I should be asking you that. Who are you, why are you here, and what are these monsters?"

Lu Mingfei lifted the rifle in his hand slightly, reminding Gao Mi who held the upper hand in this conversation.

Gao Mi: "..."

Is it too late to fake fainting now?

Would he get smashed awake by that blood-stained wrench?

As he hesitated over whether to fabricate a lie to fool the youth, a burst of hurried footsteps and chaotic lights erupted in the distance. Someone was evidently coming to rescue this nearly fallen sniper.

Before long, an elderly European man with white hair, dressed in tactical gear, led a search party over. When he caught sight of the standoff beneath the tree, he instinctively blurted out:

"Mingfei, don't shoot!"