Kang Chan and Daye sat with their backs against a tree, eating C-rations.

Kang Chan couldn't believe he was sitting in the middle of Africa and having dinner with the same guy that he had beaten up in a basement bar in Paris.

Perhaps it was because Daye’s instincts were relentlessly going against his anxiety, but his eyes were darting around more than when Kang Chan had seen him in the helicopter.

They wordlessly ate dinner and drank water.

Ten minutes later, Kang Chan and three other soldiers rotated shifts with the ones standing guard. Even then, Daye continued to stay right by his side.

“Go and get some rest,” Kang Chan told Daye, gesturing with his chin at the tree that they had sat against earlier.

Daye remained standing next to him, pretending not to understand.

Even though it hadn’t been long since Daye joined the 11th unit, he was already on his way to his first battle. If Kang Chan threw recruits like Dayeru into battle and told them to fight by themselves, their death would be as likely as Kang Chan finding sugar at the bottom of a cup after finishing his sweet coffee.

“Daye,” Kang Chan called as he looked out into the darkening evening sky.

Daye stood next to Kang Chan, his bear-like build looming over his captain’s toned physique. The burly man then stared at Kang Chan, fires burning in his eyes.

“Survive. Right now, that’s all you have to do,” Kang Chan said in Korean.

It didn't matter what language he used. Since Daye couldn’t understand either language, Kang Chan speaking in Korean was no different from him speaking in French.

The wind swept across the top of the mountain, brushing past Kang Chan and Dayeru. Their surroundings continued to grow even darker.

Kang Chan sharply examined the area below the mountain. As if imitating him, Date looked down as well.

Swish!

For some people, their grades were the most difficult problem they had to deal with. For others, money mattered more than anything else. Some hoped to get a job or earn more.

Kang Chan glanced behind him. For Daye, Éiric, Mazani, Montechelle, and even Smithen, surviving in Africa mattered more than anything else.

They came to Africa because they didn’t want to be a coward and because they didn’t want to ask other people for help. However, since then, the continent had been forcing them to prioritize their survival.

The men here often showed pictures of their families smiling and talking to each other. In Éiric’s family photo, though, his younger sister was the only one who had ever reached out to him. He had four siblings, and his parents were still alive, yet the others never contacted him for some reason.

Kang Chan didn’t ask Éiric about it since he didn’t want to know why. Éiric didn’t talk about it either.

Most of Kang Chan’s subordinates were going through something similar.

Rustle! Rustle!

Ten minutes quickly passed.

Éiric approached Kang Chan with another soldier. It was now time for them to leave.

“We should reach our target location in an hour,” Kang Chan told his men. “Our enemies may be on the lookout, so be careful. Mont!”

No one approached or answered him.

Montechelle, who had been looking around, met Kang Chan’s eyes. Startled by the realization that he was the one being called, he immediately rushed over.

“You’ll be taking point with Éiric. Stay on your toes, got it? The enemies’ sniper could be anywhere. Do you remember our signal?” Kang Chan asked.

Montechelle quickly glanced at Éiric—he didn’t know the signal.

"Fsssssss, fsssssss!"

Kang Chan made a noise that sounded like he was inhaling through his teeth.

“Understood,” Montechelle responded.

“Go.”

“Oui.”

Éiric already knew why Kang Chan was sending Mont with him: Kang Chan wanted Éiric to teach Mont how Kang Chan commanded the unit.

“Smithen,” Kang Chan called.

“Oui.”

He energetically approached KC as if God himself had called him

“Follow me.”

“Oui.”

Just like before, Kang Chan pointed Mazani to the back, sending the soldier to guard their rear.

With all preparations complete, they would now enter their enemies’ range.

Kang Chan glanced at Daye before advancing. As he walked, he prevented the weapons on his body from making any noise.

Daye continued to glance at how Kang Chan was walking, but he didn't mimic Kang Chan. Instead, he continued to walk with his rifle slung to the front and his left hand on the muzzle.

The stars in the sky shone as brightly as ever, seemingly doing their best to fulfill their purpose. Unfortunately, here in Africa, even stars risked dying earlier than others.

Although it was hard to believe, the crescent moon above them was the same as the one that Kang Chan had seen in Seoul. That truth was as undeniable as the color of the blood that had gushed out of the natives, soldiers, and rebels who had fallen on this land.

***

Mahujani, the leader of the Taliban in Chad, slowly looked to the side with sharp and slanted eyes. He was in charge of the holy duty of teaching the warriors and eliminating the anti-Islamic forces.

“Five companies from the Foreign Legion have moved out in armored vehicles, sir,” a commander wearing a turban reported.

“What about their special forces teams?”

“We have already finished preparing to fight against the 11th unit, their advance party. As soon as we kill them, we’re planning to follow the route they had taken.”

The lights in the cave flickered, looking like they were going to lose power soon. It was unstable due to their outdated generator, but nobody blamed it.

Men with sunburned faces, curly beards, and Turbans waited for Mahujani’s orders.

“We will follow Allah’s intentions. Have the British intelligence bureau take care of France’s Foreign Legion and the monster in their special forces units. Afterward, we will regroup here for our next crusade,” Mahujani said.

His voice echoed in the cave with a rhythmic cadence. For some reason, the others had been deluded into thinking that Allah had sent a holy message, and Mahujani was its deliverer.

Mahujani continued, “Allah has given us Jihad as our holy obligation! Islam will spread through the warriors who will fight in this holy war! Hence, Allah will provide a place for them in heaven!”

Mahujani looked at one of his men. The soldier fiercely stared back at him and gritted his teeth, expressing his firm determination.

“Africa’s headache is going to be punished today. Trample over him, then return with his head and throw it into the fire. We will become stronger when the soul of that monster wails because it has no place in the afterlife!”

The men before Mahujani clenched their fists, showing their blood-boiling resolve.

***

In the dark of the night, Plip looked through his night scope on his Barrett M82, checking the area where he assumed his target would appear.

There was little chance of Plip missing his target if they were less than a kilometer away. Not to mention, two other snipers whose skills he had acknowledged were on standby. Even if the target was one of the Foreign Legion's special forces soldiers, it would still be difficult for them to survive.

Personally, Plip didn't want to carry out this mission, but a sniper only followed orders and eliminated targets. Deciding who to kill was beyond his power.

Their mission would be completed as soon as he shot his target and confirmed that the Taliban from Chad was attacking the rest of the 11th unit.

Fortunately, the moonlight wasn’t bright, which somewhat consoled Plip.

***

Kang Chan and his men walked for about forty minutes as quietly as possible, making them slow down.

The ground under Daye’s military boots quietly crunched whenever he took a step, while the ground under Kang Chan’s feet kept the silence of the night.

Whenever the wind blew and the trees rustled, Daye would immediately look at the trees. Afterward, Daye made sure to examine Kang Chan.

Kang Chan’s rifle was slung over his right shoulder, his right index finger hanging over the trigger. His eyes sharply glinted like a leopard targeting its prey.

He exhaled quietly, feeling as if somebody was tightly gripping his heart. As if half of his lungs were filled with cotton, he also found breathing uncomfortable no matter how much he inhaled.

Kang Chan’s anxiety kept making him think that a lion would attack them from out of nowhere or a venomous snake would fall on them from a tree. He considered the possibility of the ground under them suddenly sinking as well.

Even if none of those were going to happen, he couldn’t help but feel uneasy anyway. After all, this was his body’s way of warning him about the impending danger that they would soon face.

Kang Chan wasn’t a shaman, and he couldn’t see the future. However, whenever his chest tightened like this, danger somehow always followed.

After sharply looking at their surroundings, he looked at the mountain in the distance.

Haah. Haah.

Even though he hadn’t intended to, he could hear himself breathe now. This always happened automatically whenever he became nervous.

They walked for about five more minutes.

Badum. Badum.

Kang Chan’s heart pounded loudly.

They were still quite a distance away from their enemies’ base. Still, in this darkness, they could never be sure where death would come from and bite their necks.

“Fsssssss!”

Kang Chan inhaled through his teeth, giving Éiric and Mont the signal.

***

They almost got Kang Chan.

Plip could see the outline of their enemies through the reticles of his scope. Had their enemies approached for just three to five more minutes, he would have gotten a clear shot of the target.

Plip discretely raised his head and looked ahead of him. He couldn’t see the enemies hiding in the forest. If they turned even just slightly, the branches near them would also move. They could accidentally scare a bird or a wild animal as well.

However, there wasn’t any of that; Plip couldn’t confirm where they went at all. He looked into the night scope again. The enemies that had been visible from time to time until a moment ago were now gone.

With his anxiety making his heart race, he quickly looked at his spotter. The man briefly shook his head; he couldn’t find their targets either.

Had their enemies discovered their position and moved around it? No, that was impossible.

Not only were Plip and the other snipers camouflaged, but they had applied camo cream and were even trained not to let their eyes reflect the moonlight.

Where did they go?

The eerie feeling that had started in his head seemed to be coursing through the rest of his body now, giving him goosebumps.

‘Something’s wrong.’

Tightly clenching his teeth, Plip glared through his scope. He wasn’t going to back down. As the best sniper for difficult missions, Plip would stop at nothing to kill the Asian commander.

After firmly making up his mind, Plip placed his index finger on the trigger.

***

Crouched low, Éiric and Montechelle approached Kang Chan.

Unlike Montechelle, Éiric knew what the glint in Kang Chan’s eyes meant.

They had descended the mountain, slightly deviating away from the path that they had been. They were in the middle of the woods now.

Looking at the soldiers, Kang Chan put on his balaclava. Since they weren’t camouflaged, there was nothing better at quickly hiding their skin tone than this headgear.

His men put on their balaclavas as well.

With his left index finger, Kang Chan pointed to Montechelle and then to the ground. Afterward, he pointed his right index and middle fingers to the ground behind his left index finger, ordering Montechelle to prepare to shoot their enemies and two other soldiers to protect him.

Éiric pointed to his eyes with his index and middle fingers before opening his hand and showing his palm.

‘Which direction should we go, sir?’

Using his hand like a compass, Kang Chan made an angle with his thumb and index finger toward the mountain at the front.

‘Go to that mountain across from us. Keep a gap this wide between us.’

Montechelle was experienced enough to understand Kang Chan’s orders, but he couldn’t understand why Kang Chan was acting like this even though they hadn’t found anything particularly suspicious. He didn’t get why Éiric and the others were following his orders with nervous expressions either.

While Kang Chan was covering them, Montechelle carefully went behind a fairly thick tree.

Kang Chan had ordered them to put on their masks, which meant that their enemies were nearby.

Montechelle placed his Chaytac on the ground and slowly aimed at the area that Kang Chan had ordered them to target to check if he had a clear view of it.

About a minute later, Montechelle raised his hand above his head and then tightly clenched his fist.

In response, Kang Chan ordered Smithen and another soldier to guard Montechelle.

With the basic preparations done, all they had to do now was search the area that Kang Chan was anxious about.

Kang Chan pointed the soldiers to their positions, including Dayeru. He then looked at Éiric and Mazani before descending the mountain.

He moved so slowly that watching a snail would have been more exciting.

There wasn’t a predetermined distance that they had to search, nor was there a time limit. He would keep checking the direction that he and his team were going to go until his instincts told him that it was enough.

Kang Chan could keep doing this until the morning. There had even been times when he had arrived at their target locations during searches like this.

Éiric and Mazani carefully searched and followed Kang Chan from both sides.

It wasn’t easy to cheat death, but if it meant getting to protect his unit, he would never hesitate to keep acting like this.

They advanced as they conducted the strenuous and difficult search.

***

Thirty minutes passed quickly. Plip hadn’t found a trace of the 11th unit since.

If their enemies had a change of plans, Plip and his team should’ve seen them going back. If they had changed course instead of heading back to their base in Gorko, he would have found signs of that.

The more time passed, the more frustrated Plip grew.

His countless training and the senses that he had honed through his experiences in various operations were telling him that he was in danger and that he should run away while he still could.

Plip had once waited in the middle of a road that his enemy would eventually take and endured three days at the edge of a precipice. He had also felt a snake brushing past his leg multiple times. Moreover, he had lost his spotter on more than one occasion, forcing him to stay in one place alone for three days.

Plip sighed.

The worst thing a sniper could ever do was move after finding their target. This was especially true when their enemy suddenly disappeared, like now.

Plip slowly rubbed his sniper rifle with his right hand.

This Barrett m82 was his reliable comrade. Since it was given to him, it had never missed a target until now, regardless of who it was.

Plip believed that Kang Chan was bound to eventually appear in his scope again. Once that moment came, all he had to do was to pull the trigger.

This strange situation would only last for a moment. Soon, he’d have a bullet in his target, ending this operation with his victory.

The best time to ambush someone was right before sunrise.

The 11th unit probably chose to rest right now for that moment. Plip and his spotter just had to keep waiting. Sooner or later, the Asian commander would show himself.

Exhaling softly, Plip glared ahead.