0125 The Stunning Little Camel

“Lieutenant Colonel, I’ve repaired this armored vehicle. It can continue serving you from now on. It should have taken me less than an hour!” Hou Rui climbed out of the Araklan’s driver’s compartment and looked at Lieutenant Colonel Timo with absolute confidence.

“Clap, clap, clap.”

At last, Lieutenant Colonel Timo acknowledged Hou Rui’s contribution. He said nothing, merely began applauding, one clap after another. Captain Mulu and the other Alliance officers quickly joined in, and a wave of applause rang out at the fortress entrance.

With a broad smile on his face, Hou Rui had finally escaped disaster. Only then did his racing heart begin to settle.

When Hou Rui had first left the fortress, he had actually been looking for a chance to slip away. But while he was racking his brains over how to shake off the two officers sent after him by the lieutenant colonels, he suddenly spotted the stranded Araklan. In his haste, a wild and audacious idea had burst into his mind.

He immediately put it into action. He dismantled a pickup truck and an off-road vehicle in succession, stripping parts from them to replace those on the Araklan. Finally, after cleaning the armored vehicle’s engine spark plugs, he somehow managed to restore the fifty-year-old war machine to working order. And so, the scene that followed had come to pass.

“Second Lieutenant Douglas, welcome back as a member of the Liberator Alliance. After this little incident, we will truly be brothers from now on.” Lieutenant Colonel Timo offered a few polite words, then put an arm around Hou Rui’s shoulders and led him back toward the fortress.

But as Hou Rui passed Sergeant Kun, he did not forget to remind him, “Sergeant Kun, in order to repair Lieutenant Colonel Timo’s armored vehicle, I had no choice but to remove some parts from your pickup. But don’t worry. When I get the chance, I’ll repair it for you as well!”

Sergeant Kun was caught completely off guard by the sudden reversal of fortune. He could only glare viciously at Hou Rui. With Lieutenant Colonel Timo standing over him, did he dare say anything?

Go ahead and glare. Keep glaring as hard as you can. Tonight, I’ll make sure you never open your eyes again!

The banquet welcoming Lieutenant Colonel Timo continued until evening. By the time most of the officers had come down somewhat from their drug-fueled frenzy, another round of selection for the child soldiers’ champions was about to begin.

Lieutenant Colonel Timo suddenly took an interest and insisted on seeing it in person, so the entire group of officers promptly moved to the hill behind the abandoned school.

The procedure was the same as before, as was the brutal fighting.

This time, the final victor was a thirteen-year-old girl. After having her right leg broken, she suddenly erupted with astonishing ferocity. She gouged out one of her opponent’s eyes with her fingernails, then thrust her fingers deep through the empty socket and into the victim’s brain, winning the fight.

The only image left to the spectators, including Hou Rui, was that of the girl slowly pulling two fingers drenched in blood and brain matter from her opponent’s eye socket.

Witnessing such a savage battle, and seeing how ferocious the future soldiers of the Alliance were, Lieutenant Colonel Timo was delighted. As he applauded vigorously, he called Captain Mulu over.

“This girl is excellent. Have her come keep me company tonight.”

Nearly a month of life in hell had already accustomed Hou Rui to such filthy transactions. Now, when he heard something like this, he could remain utterly unmoved, his heart as still as water. He simply sat there in silence, watching Sergeant Kun, as usual, tie a red strip of cloth around the victorious girl’s forehead.

Perhaps because he felt that Sergeant Kun’s training of the child soldiers had produced excellent results, Lieutenant Colonel Timo unexpectedly rewarded him in front of everyone. The prize was Timo’s own sidearm—a Beretta 92 automatic pistol that had never once been drawn from its holster since Timo had passed it on to Captain Mulu.

A weapon of such quality was a rare treasure within the Alliance. Even Hou Rui found himself admiring it, let alone Sergeant Kun, whose expression was one of ecstatic delight.

Next came the customary target-shooting test for the recruits. One by one, the children raised their AK-47s and fired at the trees. Some were successfully selected for the reserve forces, while others, still too young and weak to control the tremendous recoil, shot wide of the mark and had to remain among the recruits.

Soon it was Little Camel’s turn.

Quite a few people in the crowd remembered the boy who had once lifted a rifle above his head and sent everyone behind him scattering in terror. The moment Little Camel stepped onto the field, waves of mocking laughter erupted.

Curious, Lieutenant Colonel Timo asked Captain Mulu what had happened. But after hearing the whole story, his expression gradually darkened. Then he suddenly stood up and pointed at Little Camel, shouting, “Get off the field! The Alliance needs warriors, not useless trash!”

“Get off!”

For a moment, the entire testing ground filled with shouts and curses. Almost everyone took pleasure in ridiculing and insulting Little Camel.

As Hou Rui watched the boy standing in the open with an aggrieved, frustrated expression, he was thinking about an entirely different matter.

Although he had survived that morning’s ordeal without incident, his relationship with the Alliance had inevitably been stained by a shadow. Based on his understanding of Lieutenant Colonel Timo, the man was cautious and meticulous, and genuinely concerned with expanding and strengthening the Alliance.

If Hou Rui wanted to regain the lieutenant colonel’s trust, he would have to appeal to what Timo valued. He would need to begin by contributing to the Alliance and helping it grow stronger.

With that thought, Hou Rui decided to gamble.

Summoning his courage, he rose to his feet and walked several steps to Lieutenant Colonel Timo’s side. Leaning close to the officer’s ear, he said, “Lieutenant Colonel, this boy was trained by me personally. Could you give him a chance to try?”

“Oh? Is Second Lieutenant Douglas skilled at training child soldiers too?” Lieutenant Colonel Timo was evidently intrigued.

“No, no, how could I possibly know how to train child soldiers? But I once lived next door to a Russian veteran, and he taught me a little about the basics of using firearms. As for whether it actually works, why don’t we let the boy try and see?”

“I object!”

While Hou Rui was still making his case, Sergeant Kun had already strode over, shouting from a distance.

“Lieutenant Colonel, I personally trained all these child soldiers. I know every one of them inside and out. This little runt is far too thin and weak. He couldn’t possibly hold a rifle steady enough to fire. Letting him try would only waste time and ammunition.”

Sergeant Kun was so intent on contradicting Hou Rui that he failed to notice Lieutenant Colonel Timo’s brow tightening when he interrupted. Hou Rui, however, keenly caught the lieutenant colonel’s displeasure with the sergeant.

“Sergeant Kun, why don’t we make a wager?” Hou Rui changed tack and chose to challenge him directly.

“Wager what? Your head, or your heart?” Sergeant Kun stared at him defiantly.

“No, no. How about Lieutenant Colonel Timo’s pistol—the one he just awarded you?”

The wager instantly enraged Sergeant Kun. Forgetting that Lieutenant Colonel Timo was sitting nearby, he reached for the long hunting knife at his waist and drew it. If Captain Mulu and the other officers had not restrained him, he would probably have raised the blade and killed Hou Rui on the spot.

“That’s enough!”

Lieutenant Colonel Timo was furious at having a knife brandished in front of him. He roared to silence the quarrel between Hou Rui and Sergeant Kun, then pointed toward Little Camel, who was still standing in the open field.

“Give him a rifle. I want to see whether he is a warrior or a piece of trash.”

The test rifle was soon placed in Little Camel’s hands.

The boy stole a glance at Hou Rui, then, exactly as he had practiced countless times, lowered the barrel and fired a decisive three-round burst at the large tree in the distance.

“Rat-tat-tat!”

The gunshots rang out, and everyone present froze.

The rifle had not swung wildly in some other direction as they had expected. Instead, Little Camel had forced the barrel down and kept it aimed squarely at the tree ahead. His thin body swayed under the recoil, but he ultimately remained standing nearly straight. He did not collapse as he had the last time.

Good work, kid. My instruction was not wasted on you.

Hou Rui was still secretly congratulating himself when Sergeant Kun, unwilling to believe what he had witnessed, leapt to his feet. He rushed over, snatched the AK-47 from Little Camel’s hands, and examined it carefully. He even fired several rounds himself before finally accepting that the weapon had not been tampered with in any way.

The small, frail Little Camel had truly completed the standard shooting procedure by relying on his own strength.

“Sergeant Kun, how accurate was his shooting?” Lieutenant Colonel Timo asked.

Still shaken, Timo immediately realized that another question was even more important. If Douglas’s training method truly worked, it would represent an enormous transformation. The Alliance could lower the minimum age for selecting child soldiers from ten to seven or eight. That alone would provide the Liberator Alliance with thousands upon thousands of additional recruits. In this chaotic region, as long as the Alliance had men and guns, it could continue enjoying its carefree existence.

“Lieutenant Colonel, all three shots hit the target.”

Sergeant Kun personally went to inspect the tree, then returned and answered Timo with a dejected expression.

“Hahahaha! Excellent! Magnificent! Beautiful! Second Lieutenant Douglas, you really are a magician. I eagerly await the next miracle you create.”

Lieutenant Colonel Timo was overjoyed. His decision to inspect Captain Mulu’s territory had been one of the wisest he had made in years. Had he not discovered an extraordinary talent like Douglas?

“Lieutenant Colonel!”

“Lieutenant Colonel!”

Hou Rui and Sergeant Kun called out almost simultaneously.

After colliding once again, the two men stared at each other, sparks practically flying from their eyes. Their conflict had finally erupted into the open.

Hou Rui simply called out, “Lieutenant Colonel, I have a personal matter I would like to settle with Sergeant Kun.”