Unique Tracking Skills

At noon, Hong Fei and Frank boarded a plane heading to the other side of the world.

Frank wore a suit, paired with a clean crew cut and chiseled features, his demeanor abruptly shifting from a worker to a social big shot.

Hong Fei's attire was simpler by contrast; casual clothes made him look like a college student.

"Frank, next time you go out, put on some sunglasses and stand behind me."

Frank curled his lips. "You want to be the boss?"

Hong Fei said, "It's not that I want to—I already am!"

"Yeah, you really are the boss." Frank replied with a smile, but his tone didn't sound sincere at all.

Hong Fei simply put on an eye mask and lay back to rest.

The plane took off, crossing land and ocean.

After several transfers and over twenty hours, the two arrived at their destination, Afghanistan, where the sky was still bright.

Leaving Kabul Airport, Frank said, "I never thought I'd one day have to come back to this damn place on my own accord."

"Life is full of surprises."

"Where to next?"

Hong Fei hailed a taxi and said, "To sleep, of course. I haven't seen nighttime in over twenty hours."

They checked into a hotel and crashed immediately.

At nine in the evening, they went out.

A hotel clerk handed a leather bag to Hong Fei.

Opening the bag, there were only two keys inside.

Frank frowned. "This is all you've prepared in the past two days?"

Hong Fei smiled. "Don't rush."

Leaving the hotel, they walked, weaving through turns to reach a sparsely populated suburb, surrounded by shipping containers.

Scanning the numbers on the containers, Hong Fei stopped at one, inserted the key, and turned his head. "Ready to witness a miracle?"

Frank kept his face grim and stayed silent.

The iron door clattered open, revealing pitch darkness inside.

A faint red tint flickered in Hong Fei's eyes as everything in the dark became crystal clear. With a click, he flipped the switch, and the light at the top of the container blazed on.

Instantly, a rugged off-road vehicle with a sandy-yellow exterior and sharp, tough lines came into view.

"This is a real treasure—discontinued, hard to buy." Hong Fei sighed with admiration, then turned to the next container.

When this one opened, the contents finally made Frank's expression shift dramatically.

From goggles to helmets, from pistols to assault rifles, from light and heavy machine guns to sniper rifles, piles upon piles of ammunition, crates of various grenades, RPG rounds stacked from the floor to the ceiling of the container—and even behind the packed boxes, he spotted a mortar!

"Have you lost your mind?" Frank stared in disbelief at the massive stockpile of military supplies.

"Lost my mind?" Hong Fei raised an eyebrow. "I think you've got the wrong idea about me, and maybe even about yourself. What did you think I brought you here for?"

Frank turned to fix his gaze on Hong Fei, eyes wide.

"What exactly are you trying to do? I can help you with intel, but there are limits!"

"I know, of course I know. Limits are a good thing—everyone should have them. I'll never cross my own limits. Want to know the first rule of my code of conduct?"

Frank kept staring at him.

Hong Fei said, "Rule one: when you don't have to kill, absolutely don't kill. How's that? A little higher than your limits?"

Frank narrowed his eyes, catching Hong Fei's implication. After all, when he got to work, he rarely left anyone alive.

The argument ended there, and the two entered the container to gear up.

When they emerged again, they were fully armed from head to toe. At first glance, they looked more elite than many countries' special forces.

No other reason—they'd spent way too much!

Hong Fei touched the gear, packed with features, feeling a sense of novelty. Truth be told, without Frank around, he wouldn't even know how to put it all on.

Frank was an undeniable veteran, a soldier with solid military expertise.

He reached over to adjust the infrared thermal imager on Hong Fei's helmet and couldn't help saying, "Wearing gear like this on you is such a waste."

"Hey, don't push it, alright? I paid for this!"

Frank sighed, turned to look at the massive stockpile in the container, thought for a moment, then frowned and pressed again. "What do you actually want to do? If you don't tell me now, I can't adjust the loadout. There's only two of us—we can't take everything."

Not impossible!

Seeing Frank's serious expression, Hong Fei held back.

"This isn't a real kidnapping. Actually, our target will first get hit by a group of local Armed Militants, and our job is to snatch him back after the attack. They're the mantis stalking the cicada—we're the oriole behind."

"I'm not a bird."

"Didn't say you were a bird, illiterate!"

Next, Frank began selecting from the large pile of weapons. He grabbed the most machine guns and ammunition, followed by RPG rounds.

Hong Fei grew more and more uneasy as he watched, and finally just stepped in himself.

Frank immediately stopped him. "Wait, what are you doing?"

"Helping out!"

"Are you sure we need that thing?"

In front of Hong Fei was the only mortar in the entire container.

"Of course. This cost me a pretty penny; it'd be a waste to leave it sitting around." Hong Fei said it as if it were only natural.

Frank disagreed. "It's certainly powerful, but we only have one vehicle. Bringing it means bringing shells, which will cut into how much other weapons and ammo we can carry."

"It won't cut that much. We have to bring it. One shot from this is more useful than you aiming for half a day, isn't it?"

This was a core principle Hong Fei had always held. Unlike sparring or challenges, if the goal was purely to kill, he had no problem setting aside personal combat skills and embracing modern weaponry. In his past life, this was also a major point of criticism against Master Hong.

In the present, it meant that if he could solve it with artillery, he absolutely wouldn't use a gun.

"The enemy won't just stand there and let you lob shells at them."

"Then don't let them find out."

"Do you know how to use it?"

"No. But don't you? Don't tell me you don't. Besides, we're running out of time. Are you sure you want to keep arguing?"

Frank let out a heavy sigh, turned away, and continued hauling ammunition.

In the early morning, the vehicle, loaded with munitions, set off, heading straight into the wilderness.

Frank: "Do you know the exact location?"

"Roughly."

"There's no 'roughly' in the military!"

"Alright, this isn't the military either. I'm starting to regret bringing you along." Hong Fei grumbled, then continued, "Kunar Province isn't big. There aren't many armed groups active in this area, and only one has the guts and the capability to snatch people from the US military. Their usual area of operation is a narrow strip. While it's hard to pinpoint an exact spot in the desert mountains, if you add in the US military's zone of activity, the overlap gives us a necessary route."

Frank thought for a moment, then said, "Even if everything you said is right, how do we find their exact position? They know these mountains and deserts better than we do. Driving around, we'll be found sooner or later."

Hong Fei snapped off the headlights.

In the darkness, only the dim moonlight remained, making it hard to see anything a few meters away.

Hong Fei: "You can't see, but I can. Also, I forgot to tell you—I'm an experienced hunter. I have unique tracking skills."

The Shinigami Eye activated again. In his vision, beyond the clear black-and-white picture, there were stark white trails, some straight, some winding, spreading across the ground. At the end of each trail, a red body could often be found—animals active in the desert at night.