Chapter 98: A Little Display of Skill

In the crude underground basement, Lynn met her new teammates. Back when she accidentally joined the night raid team, led by a tall officer, there were 15 "night warriors" in the assault team. Now the team still consisted of 15 members and 5 sets of infrared night vision equipment. However, apart from Eric, Lynn had only encountered six of them, including two new recruits. The toll of brutal combat was evident!

The smaller the combat team, the easier it was to form close camaraderie among comrades. Lynn had long realized this. After Eric's introduction, the assault team members showed a very friendly attitude. However, Lynn did not cast her net indiscriminately due to this atmosphere. Instead, she quickly "locked on" to two classmates she could name from the reserve team, Frinz and Bruck.

The three newcomers naturally gathered together to chat. Lynn briefly recounted her experiences as a reserve elite undergoing training and later serving in the assault team headquarters. She spoke without any hint of boasting, yet it was enough to make the two conventional soldiers envy. Through their conversation, Lynn roughly judged that Frinz was more cautious and knowledgeable, although they held the same rank as Bruck. Frinz had better potential for progress and prospects. In contrast, Bruck was more straightforward in speech and appearance, with possibly slightly slower cognitive reactions.

To show her consideration for her classmates, Lynn, in a mysterious tone, "spoiled" them about the basic situation of this operation. They went from curious confusion to appreciating the benefits of seizing information opportunities. As it was a large-scale battlefield counterattack, most of the combat zones were in enemy-occupied areas. Lynn deliberately mentioned that valuable spoils could often be found at Soviet command posts, such as valuable items confiscated from soldiers and unpaid military pay. Frinz and Bruck both showed a certain level of interest, although with different intentions. Frinz considered how to safely take away the spoils, while Bruck thought about using the potential profits to benefit his family.

In a brief conversation, Lynn observed two distinctly different personalities.

Lunch at 11 o'clock was much earlier than Lynn's usual schedule, and the breakfast at the assault team headquarters was much richer than the frontline fare. So when dining with her companions, Lynn divided her portion of bacon into two for Frinz and Bruck, explaining that she had breakfast too late and had no appetite now. The two soldiers accepted this small gift without hesitation. Lynn then proceeded to ask them about the key points of night combat. Although they had only participated in two battles, they shared their experiences without reservation—exactly as Lynn knew.

Skilled in field combat, the "vampire" assault soldiers were usually unconventional. In the long and dull afternoon, most of the soldiers in the team were sleeping. Having not been on duty last night, Lynn napped but couldn't sleep anymore. Not wanting to wander aimlessly, she simply stayed in a corner to clean her gun. At 4 o'clock in the afternoon, two soldiers dressed in fatigues brought in a bucket of hot soup, a basket of bread, and a basin of bacon—not only did they eat early, but also served them at their doorstep. Such treatment would surely make the frontline soldiers envy.

After a simple meal, Lynn stored the excess bread and bacon in her backpack, then began to organize her combat gear: to travel light, blankets, spare clothes, and personal items were not necessary to carry around. A steel helmet with a fine net rope was indispensable, which could be adorned with twigs, leaves, and dry grass for camouflage in the woods. Thick outerwear provided warmth, insulation, and moisture resistance, along with scarves and gloves. The two hard-to-come-by "Twenty Shots" had to be taken along. Lynn slung the gun holsters diagonally across her body, crossing into an X shape, and placed the two large holsters on her buttocks, a posture that would seem strange to German soldiers but was considered very fashionable in the East!

Having already carried a shotgun, Lynn held the meticulously maintained MP44 assault rifle directly in her hand. The 30-round magazine was no longer used individually; Lynn learned to bundle two magazines together during training so that she could quickly switch to another after emptying one. Some of the "night warriors" around her also adopted this practice.

"Hey! Lynn, what are you..."

Looking at Lynn's attire, Eric, who carried a battery pack and used infrared night vision goggles, was surprised, especially when he saw the large holster of the M1932 Mauser military pistol, his face full of confusion.

Seeing many curious gazes around, Lynn smiled calmly. "Watch closely!"

Holding up the MP44 with both hands, kneeling on one knee, Lynn moved the barrel horizontally while mimicking the sound of shooting. Approximately thirty rounds later, with a "click," she indicated the ammunition was exhausted. The truly distinctive part began here—Lynn braced the butt of the rifle against her shoulder, gripped the handle with her right hand, raised the muzzle, and pushed open the bolt with her left thumb, changing the double magazine with the smallest lateral movement. Then, her left hand swiftly moved from the magazine to the bolt, racking it back to load a new round. As the bolt returned to its original position, her left hand returned to the fore-end position, and the muzzle was leveled. In this way, she completed the magazine change in just five seconds, halving the time compared to an ordinary person!

With another round of "click-click-click" sounds from her mouth, the muzzle moved horizontally. When the second "click" sounded, Lynn casually tossed the assault rifle onto the bed in front of her, and both hands stretched out from the holsters on her sides, like an American cowboy in a duel. At first, the two shotguns were held upright, with Lynn mimicking the "bang-bang" sound of firing while alternating the states of recoil with her left and right hands. Midway through, she shifted positions, revealing the "Chinese invention"—raising the shotguns, the "bang-bang" sound from her mouth quickened, and the shotguns moved from the middle to the sides due to the recoil. Finally, she coolly holstered the pistols, stood up, and exchanged fist bumps with the surrounding comrades.

"If you can find the right position to shoot, firing a hundred rounds in succession can effectively suppress the enemy with strong firepower and cause significant casualties!"

Including Eric, the surrounding members of the assault team were all stunned.

While at the headquarters of the assault team, Lynn had achieved such results several times on the shooting range, so she calmly picked up her assault rifle and said, "Everyone, these are just small tricks in battle. The final outcome of the battle still depends on everyone's unity and effort! As newcomers, I hope everyone can care for and help each other more!"

Such an attitude naturally earned her some goodwill, although not everyone felt the same way. Eric took the opportunity to announce, "Guys, according to Colonel Bach's direct instructions, Sergeant Lynn Gagor is now appointed as the second deputy leader of our assault team. If both myself and Sergeant Enrique cannot command the battle, you must unconditionally follow Sergeant Gagor's orders!"

Hmm, second deputy leader...

Upon hearing this expected appointment, Lynn neither felt happy nor disappointed, but rather filled with complex emotions. After all, the military is a place where seniority matters. Even with exceptional abilities, one cannot ascend to the top in one leap. At the headquarters of the assault team, despite earning Colonel Bach's appreciation, she was still just a lowly staff sergeant, doing the most basic and complicated tasks; coming to the assault team, at the rate of battlefield attrition, as long as she stayed alive, she would soon become a bona fide commander, but how many times would she have to experience the sadness of losing comrades in the process?

Eric glanced at his watch and then ordered the entire team to depart. His tone and demeanor were vastly different from when Lynn first met him, exuding a calm and resolute decisiveness, fearlessness in the face of strong enemies, and the composure befitting a commander. It seems that the battlefield truly lives up to its reputation as a melting pot, where some become dross and some become steel.