Chapter 459: How Did You Spot Me!

There's someone on the hillside?!

Li Mingzhao immediately looked toward the opposite slope and quickly spotted two pine trees.

But beyond that, he didn't spot a thing.

He rubbed his eyes, looked again carefully, and still there was no movement.

"You must be seeing things."

Li Mingzhao stared at the area to the right of those two pine trees, not daring to relax for a second:

"How come I can't see anything? And at this distance, even if someone were on the slope, you couldn't make them out, right?"

He was very confident in his own eyesight—if Yu Dazhang could see it, he figured he should be able to as well.

But the distance really was too far; those two pine trees were only the size of a grain of rice in his eyes, and if someone were lying flat on the ground, he simply couldn't make them out clearly.

"He moved just now."

Yu Dazhang stood as steady as a statue in place, his eyes fixed unblinkingly on the opposite slope:

"He's not moving now—he must be observing us. His clothes and helmet are almost exactly the same color as the ground, so if you don't look carefully, it's easy to miss him."

His voice was low and calm, as if stating the most obvious fact in the world.

That person's camouflage was indeed very professional.

Yu Dazhang recalled that when he'd been staring at the slope thinking earlier, it had lasted at least an hour.

And that person had been lying there on the opposite side the whole time, motionless, as if fused with the surrounding environment.

That kind of patience and concealment ability alone was enough to command respect.

"Stay where you are, don't move—draw his attention."

Li Mingzhao said as he walked toward the car:

"I'll contact support from the car."

Even though he couldn't see anything, he believed what Yu Dazhang said.

Aren't you afraid he might be a sniper?

Don't be ridiculous.

That mountain opposite them was at least 1,500 meters away.

Otherwise Li Mingzhao wouldn't have failed to see the person either.

At that distance, even if the other side were using a high-precision sniper rifle, the chance of a kill was almost zero.

Sharpshooters come in two kinds: real combat, and bullshit.

In real combat, no matter how badass a sharpshooter is, none has ever shot beyond 600 meters—not a single one.

In the bullshit category, supposedly the longest kill was a hit on target from beyond 3,000 meters.

Why split them into two kinds?

Because people actually believe the bullshit.

And not a small number of them, either.

Here's an interesting one.

Online there's a short video of Bolt running 100 meters in 9.58 seconds, breaking the world record.

In the comments section of that video, there's this comment:

#When Bruce Lee was alive, he ran 100 meters in 3.5 seconds. Many foreigners saw it with their own eyes back then, and even Bolt said he couldn't outrun Bruce Lee. #

Here's the scary part.

A lot of the replies to that comment actually believed it.

Of course some people thought it was bullshit, but they'd quickly get flamed by mindless commenters.

So, in every field, there will always be people talking bullshit, and there will always be people who believe it.

Yu Dazhang naturally wouldn't believe anyone could snipe him from such a distance.

What he was concerned with right now was whether the National Security side could catch the other party.

About two minutes later, Li Mingzhao returned to his side.

"Contact's made—our people will be in position soon."

Li Mingzhao said confidently, his gaze also falling on the opposite slope:

"Generally speaking, a person with normal vision can see a blurry human figure beyond 1,000 meters."

"Even under ideal conditions with plenty of light and no obstructions, you can only make out a human silhouette."

He continued thoughtfully:

"And from us to that slope opposite, the estimated distance is at least 1,500 meters." "At that distance, even if you can see someone, it's just a tiny black dot—you can't make out any specific movements at all."

At this point, Li Mingzhao suddenly turned to look at Yu Dazhang, a hint of doubt in his eyes:

"Not only did you see the person, you saw him move—even farsighted eyes aren't as good as yours, right?"

He was afraid Yu Dazhang was talking bullshit, so he led with a little science explainer to shut the conversation down.

But to Li Mingzhao's surprise, even after he'd spelled it out that plainly, this guy's expression remained unchanged, completely unfazed.

"It's not entirely good eyesight."

Yu Dazhang explained, pushing through his embarrassment:

"Actually I could only see a blurry shadow too, but I just had this feeling—that shadow has to be a person."

He had done far more than just see the person; after locking onto the target, he'd even spotted the monocular telescope in the other party's hands.

At that moment, the person lying on the opposite slope was also observing them.

Ten minutes later.

Yu Dazhang spotted several more figures on the opposite mountain—they were rapidly closing in on the position of the two pine trees from both sides.

The people from State Security really are something else... Although he was far away, he could still tell that those few figures were moving very fast.

To have that kind of speed on a mountain, ordinary people definitely couldn't pull it off.

He and Li Mingzhao remained standing where they were, not moving.

About five minutes later, the sound of gunfire came from the opposite slope.

The sound wasn't loud, but it was very clear.

Li Mingzhao went back to the car, picked up a communicator, spoke into it, then leaned out and said to Yu Dazhang:

"Let's go, the job's done."

The jeep the two of them were riding in had been specially modified.

Even on rugged mountain roads, the vehicle could maintain considerable stability, and its speed was extremely fast.

Aiming for those two pine trees, they reached the scene before long.

The man wasn't dead... Yu Dazhang spotted the enemy agent sitting on the ground at a glance.

He was wearing a ghillie suit the color of mud, with bright red blood seeping from his thigh, forming a stark contrast with the earthy color of his clothing.

Although the man's face was smeared with a tan-brown camouflage paint, Yu Dazhang could still tell he was of Asian descent.

Just as Yu Dazhang was guessing which country the man was specifically from, the man suddenly spoke.

"How did you find me?"

The man asked in standard Mandarin:

"At this distance, even without camouflage it would have been hard for you to spot me. Tell me, how exactly did you do it?"

From his eyes, one could see that he was deeply shocked by this, seemingly unable to believe that anyone could see through his disguise from such a great distance.

Someone from inside the country? Yu Dazhang was also startled by the man's Mandarin.

He spoke more standard Mandarin than Yu Dazhang himself; one could tell at once it wasn't learned later.

"Checked him?" Li Mingzhao ignored the man's questions and instead looked at the team member standing guard nearby.

"Already checked," that team member replied:

"Every place on his body where poison could be hidden has been inspected, and all weapons have been confiscated."

Li Mingzhao nodded, then ordered:

"Put in the mouth guard, take him back."

The moment his words fell, two team members immediately stepped forward, pried open the man's mouth on the ground, fitted him with a large black mouth guard, then took a black cloth bag and pulled it over his head.

Now he couldn't die even if he wanted to... Yu Dazhang naturally knew the purpose of that black mouth guard — it was simply to prevent the man from biting his own tongue to commit suicide.

On the way back.

"Leader, didn't you say the guy was a foreign agent?"

Yu Dazhang said in a teasing tone:

"But how come I feel his Mandarin is more standard than mine? Compared to him, I'm the one who seems like the foreigner."

He felt Li Mingzhao had been stringing him along, deliberately using a foreign agent to fire up his competitive spirit.

Li Mingzhao didn't answer directly, but asked in return:

"There's a popular saying online lately, I wonder if you've heard it?"

"What saying?" Yu Dazhang was immediately interested.

Li Mingzhao smiled and said slowly:

"Perfectly enunciated Mandarin, lives in Pennsylvania."

(End of chapter)