Chapter 129: The Hunt

"Ah!" The sniper sergeant let out a soft exclamation, immediately clapping a hand over his mouth to ensure his voice didn't distract David.

He had just witnessed an astonishing scene: three formidable mercenary exo-soldiers had been killed by headshots almost simultaneously. While a layman might simply see the result of David's marksmanship, the sniper sergeant understood the true level of difficulty involved.

The factors that influence a sniper—wind direction, wind speed, temperature, and humidity—went without saying. A standard sniper could achieve a hundred percent success rate after mastering these variables and performing the necessary calculations. However, David had not only accounted for these but had also accurately anticipated the movements of the mercenary soldiers, including their reactions to the first kill. He had analyzed and judged all of this before even pulling the trigger.

In just over a dozen seconds, while soldiers on the battlefield were still maneuvering and fighting, David had already processed the situation, predicted the mercenaries' actions, and successfully eliminated half of them. The sniper sergeant even wondered if, given access to more long-range sniper cannons, David could have taken out all six mercenary soldiers in a single volley.

David paid no mind to the sergeant's reaction behind him. He was discovering the benefits of his 5.01 spirit stat; his calculation and analytical abilities were much faster than before. More importantly, while performing these calculations, he still had the mental bandwidth to track the specific movements of up to three targets.

He was satisfied with the result of this strike, but the battle was far from over; the remaining three mercenaries were still fleeing. Even at this moment, they did not realize they were being targeted by long-range sniper cannons. The sound-dampening barrier between the city and the defensive wall made the attacks feel eerie; the silent bullets were all the more terrifying.

The three soldiers retreated rapidly, maintaining erratic, unpredictable lateral movements to prevent a sniper from getting a lock on them. The city's architecture provided cover, which gave them a sense of security. The military soldiers followed closely behind, maintaining a distance so as not to interfere with David’s line of sight, while holding a numerical advantage to swarm the mercenaries if an opportunity arose.

"Damn it, how does Perrin City have a sniper exo-soldier!" the sixth mercenary shouted over the comms.

"Those guys in Intelligence—when I get back, I’m going to tear them apart!" the fourth mercenary added furiously.

"Be careful, the opponent is strong. Don't let them lock onto you!" the lead mercenary, number one, commanded in a low voice. Suddenly, a thought struck him, and he yelled, "The intel said Perrin City has a Silver Star Medal recipient who saved the city with long-range sniper cannons! There was no sound of a sniper rifle—it must be the long-range cannons!"

As he spoke, the first mercenary ducked low and darted toward a nearby corner. The previous attack had been too sudden for him to process, but with this moment of respite, he had deduced the most likely reality.

If it were truly long-range sniper cannons, their movements were entirely exposed within the line of fire. There were few high-rise buildings in Perrin City; the structures around them were only two stories tall. Running through the streets made it almost impossible to escape the locking mechanism of the cannons on the wall.

The fourth mercenary realized this too and rushed toward a wall corner by the street, which was the blind spot closest to the heights of the city wall. Only the sixth mercenary reacted a beat too slowly. He was instinctively using his erratic combat evasion pattern when a silent, grade-one bullet struck his head. His headless body, carried by the inertia of his exoskeleton armor, slid across the ground for several meters before coming to a stop.

"It's not David—this isn't just a regular sniper soldier; there's a peer helping the military!" the first mercenary cried out upon seeing the gruesome fate of the sixth.

He refused to believe David was capable of such a shot. The erratic evasion patterns of mercenary soldiers were the result of years of development, forming various sophisticated styles. Only a sniper among the mercenaries would study these movement patterns, as they were the ones who faced other mercenary soldiers most often.

When David observed the movements of the three mercenaries, the knowledge from his memory surfaced automatically. Although their footwork appeared completely random on the surface, the deeply ingrained influence of their original training could not be fully suppressed. During the fifteen seconds it took for the long-range sniper cannons to recycle, David made his judgment: there was a seventy-percent probability the mercenaries would move in a certain direction. As soon as the cannons were ready, he fired.

Indeed, only a mercenary truly understands a mercenary. Once again, it was an accurate headshot.

"Five hundred meters more and we'll be out of the effective range of the long-range sniper cannons!" The first mercenary, watching the sixth's gruesome end, felt his lip twitch. These were elite soldiers from his squad; the mercenary group would suffer heavy losses from this mission. He whispered a reminder over the channel.

"This sniper won't let us leave," the fourth mercenary replied quietly, clearly shaken by the sheer terror of David’s marksmanship.

"Don't give up. We can't let our brothers die for nothing. Once we escape, we will have our revenge," the first mercenary said grimly.

The fourth nodded, sticking to the walls to avoid the line of sight from the city wall. Unfortunately, the buildings here were not connected; there were gaps of five to ten meters between every property. Every time they passed a building, they had to sprint across these gaps, and in those moments, they were exposed to the sniper’s scope.

David was not in a hurry. The soldiers moved with incredible speed, but across a distance of over four thousand meters, he could only threaten them by preemptively predicting their movements across the ten-meter gaps. His brain calculated at lightning speed. He noticed the fourth mercenary crossed the gaps with a very consistent rhythm. The moment he calculated the trajectory, he fired a grade-one bullet without hesitation.

The fourth mercenary had only escape on his mind, trying to put as much distance as possible between himself and the terrifying sniper. Because fear had robbed him of his usual composure, he made a fatal error: his pace was too rhythmic.

How could an experienced sniper let such an opportunity pass? As the fourth mercenary lunged to cross a gap, a silent grade-one bullet struck his skull, instantly obliterating his head. David’s habit of targeting the head came from the knowledge he had inherited; every mercenary knew that only the head and heart were truly lethal. But a shot to the heart was far less definitive than a shot to the head. If he hit the chest, who would know if the enemy were truly dead when they collapsed? Only by destroying the head could a long-range sniper be one hundred percent certain of the kill. When possible, the head was always the first choice.

The first mercenary stopped mid-leap. Of his six-man elite squad, he was the only one left.

"Calling Soldier Gerard, I need to share the field of vision of the soldiers on the battlefield!" David said, watching his target vanish. He activated the communication device on his exoskeleton and sent a request to Gerard, who was outside the door.

"Brother David, I'm transferring the feed to you now!" Gerard’s voice replied, and a permission notification appeared.

David’s display screen split into ten small windows, each showing a different perspective. Aside from the injured soldiers unable to move, four military soldiers were flanking to intercept the first mercenary, while five others had him locked in their sights, ready to strike.

David triggered three long-range sniper cannons simultaneously. Three grade-one bullets flew in a horizontal line toward the building where the first mercenary was hiding. Although the mercenary hadn't crossed the five-meter gap, he hadn't stayed still either; he was moving erratically while checking his map for other exit routes.

When he saw the wall suddenly shatter, it was already too late. While David's judgment, based on the shared feed, wasn't perfectly precise, he had used the three long-range cannons to maximize the probability of a hit.