Chapter 4

In his sleep, Gao Yang seemed to hear a burst of laughter, strange and eerie, fluctuating in and out of his surroundings. Gao Yang remained in a semi-conscious state, able to hear the bizarre laughter nearby, but his extreme fatigue made him indifferent. However, for some reason, after the strange laughter stopped, Gao Yang felt a sudden palpitation and abruptly woke up from his drowsiness.

Many people have had such experiences, waking up suddenly from a deep sleep, even though nothing has actually happened. Gao Yang was no exception. However, when he woke up, he was startled to find at least four or five pairs of green eyes staring at him, and right in front of him stood a hyena.

After waking up in shock, Gao Yang thought he was having a nightmare. But after a moment of confusion, he remembered that he was not sleeping in his bed at home; he was alone on the African savannah, and in front of him were at least a dozen real hyenas.

Gao Yang smelled a strong stench, and a hyena was almost face-to-face with him, ready to bite his throat at any moment. Almost scared out of his wits, Gao Yang, out of instinct, aimed his gun at the hyena's head and pulled the trigger. With a "bang," the hyena in front of Gao Yang fell to the ground, and the group of hyenas surrounding him scattered in fear.

Gao Yang stood up in a panic, his heart pounding. After standing in place and catching his breath for a while, his extremely tense nerves finally began to calm down.

The hyena that had been hit had a wound between its eyes and was already dead. Gao Yang poked the hyena's body with his gun to confirm that it would not stand up again before sitting down again.

Gao Yang knew that even if there were other wild animals nearby, they would have been scared away by the gunshot. However, thinking about how he almost became a hyena's meal, Gao Yang still felt a chill.

Although he did not know if hyenas would hunt live humans, Gao Yang knew that hyenas would not let any corpse go. These hyenas might have thought he was dead and targeted him. The biting force of a hyena is even stronger than that of a lion. Even if he were still alive, a few bites from a hyena would turn him into a real corpse.

Sitting beside the dead hyena, Gao Yang clutched his empty AK-47 tightly, reflecting on his experiences over the past two days, tears streaming down his face uncontrollably.

Feeling the gun in his hand, Gao Yang was overwhelmed with mixed emotions. The root of his current predicament was the gun in his hand.

Gao Yang came to Africa simply to play with real guns.

Gao Yang was born in the capital of Hebei Province, where his parents ran a small factory. Although they were not extremely wealthy, their conditions were relatively good, and his parents doted on him, making his life smooth from childhood to adulthood.

In junior high school, Gao Yang's father took him to a shooting range. At the time, gun control was not as strict, and the range used real guns and ammunition. It was there that Gao Yang first displayed his shooting talent.

Using a semi-automatic rifle to shoot at a target 100 meters away, Gao Yang scored no less than seven rings on every shot except the first one, with most bullets landing in the eight and nine rings. This was no small feat, as even veterans who had handled guns for years could not always achieve such scores, let alone a child who was touching a gun for the first time.

Gao Yang's performance left the staff at the range speechless. Coincidentally, the range was a shooting training base in Hebei Province that also operated as a commercial facility. The staff were knowledgeable, and Gao Yang's enthusiasm soon attracted a professional shooting coach.

After watching Gao Yang shoot a few times, the coach asked him to try a 200-meter target. Gao Yang aimed and shot without hesitation, hitting the bullseye every time. The coach immediately recognized Gao Yang as a promising talent and discussed with his father the possibility of Gao Yang training under him.

After a month of persuasion and with the knowledge that the sports school also offered academic courses, Gao Yang finally got his wish and entered the sports school to train in shooting.

Gao Yang indeed had a talent for shooting and was willing to work hard on things he was interested in. After two years at the sports school, he quickly became the youngest member of the Hebei shooting team in its history.

However, after joining the shooting team, Gao Yang had no chance to participate in any competitions. After all, everyone in the provincial team was skilled, and they would not easily let a young newcomer stand out. As for the national team and international competitions, it was even more out of the question, given the abundance of shooting talent in the country.

To participate in competitions, Gao Yang would need to train for at least another two to three years. Being young and lacking perseverance, he grew tired of training and saw no prospects for advancement, so he decided to quit. His parents, who had long hoped he would return, helped him do so, and at the age of 16, Gao Yang went back to school.

After three years of shooting training, Gao Yang's academic performance inevitably suffered. However, he was not a diligent student. At this point, Gao Yang displayed his second talent, which was learning foreign languages. He found English, which many people found difficult, relatively easy. After three years of high school, he went to a third-rate university to study foreign languages.

Upon graduation, many people faced unemployment, but Gao Yang had started working part-time for foreign trade companies in his first year of college, practicing his oral skills. He was able to communicate with foreigners without any problems. After graduation, with his father's help, he started his own foreign trade company.

Unfortunately, just as Gao Yang's business was about to get on track, an economic crisis hit, severely impacting the foreign trade industry. Gao Yang's company was no exception, and at the age of 23, his first company went bankrupt.

Gao Yang's foreign trade company operated for over a year, with moderate success, earning about 200,000 yuan. Among his peers, this was considered a small achievement. However, Gao Yang spent almost all his money on airsoft guns and famous knives, and on traveling with a large backpack, leaving him with nothing saved.

The company's bankruptcy did not put much pressure on Gao Yang. The day after the company closed, he enthusiastically participated in a real-life CS game.

Although real guns were not allowed due to the country's regulations, Gao Yang, who owned a collection of airsoft guns, would not play the laser-based real-life CS games that caused no pain.

Gao Yang played a real-life CS game using airsoft guns that fired BB pellets. Of course, real-life CS was a term used by outsiders; Gao Yang and his friends referred to it as a wargame, which, although still a game, aimed to simulate real combat as closely as possible.

Gao Yang intended to use the BB pellets to vent his frustration, but while playing real-life CS was legal, using airsoft guns was not. When Gao Yang and his teammates were engaged in a firefight with airsoft guns, they were caught by the police and arrested.

Fines and detention were inevitable. After a few days in custody, Gao Yang was released by his father, who managed to keep him out of prison.

The day after Gao Yang was released from custody, he saw an advertisement online while surfing the internet. The ad promoted a private hunting trip in Ethiopia for 88,000 yuan, with the option to hunt lions for an additional fee.

Gao Yang was not bloodthirsty; his interest in hunting was more out of curiosity. However, the ad promised everything he loved: real guns and knives in the African wilderness. This made Gao Yang incredibly excited. He felt that instead of nervously playing with airsoft guns, he might as well go to Africa for a real experience.

A person's interests cannot be easily changed in a short time, and Gao Yang was the type of person who acted on his impulses. So, he sold all his airsoft guns and famous knives, along with his savings, to gather 100,000 yuan, just enough for a trip to Africa.

Although 100,000 yuan was the minimum amount, it was only enough to hunt common small animals. Gao Yang was not interested in using guns to hunt defenseless animals; he saw the trip as a way to play with real guns and see the African landscape.

Gao Yang spent all his savings to go to Africa. Upon arriving in Ethiopia, he boarded a plane that would take them to the hunting grounds, or rather, to hell. Then, Gao Yang encountered a mysterious gunfight, which led to him, who had never killed before, killing four people and a hyena.

When Gao Yang practiced shooting in the past, he trained with both pistols and rifles, but his main focus was on clay pigeon shooting. Therefore, his shooting habit was to fire two consecutive shots, especially at high-speed moving targets.

Although he had not touched a real gun for many years and was using an assault rifle instead of the familiar shotgun, Gao Yang naturally used his habit of firing two consecutive shots. Despite the increased difficulty, the effect was still quite good.

As for why Gao Yang, who had never touched an AK-47 before, could use it without any unfamiliarity, it was thanks to his collection of airsoft guns and his status as a true military enthusiast. Even if he could only learn about military firearms from the internet and books, he could memorize most of the gun structures. Once he touched the real thing, he could disassemble and reassemble it, and the AK-47, with its simple structure, was no exception.

Gao Yang's weekly real-life CS games also helped him master most tactical movements. After all, being hit by BB pellets is quite painful.

To make his real-life CS games more realistic and professional, Gao Yang practiced various tactical movements and hand signals online many times.

Compared to real elite soldiers, Gao Yang's skills were certainly lacking. However, compared to untrained individuals who picked up a gun and went to war, Gao Yang was indeed more skilled.