"Khilla, three o’clock! Suppressive fire!"

Yves’s voice came through the walkie-talkie.

Feng Shan immediately went prone with his MG42, flipped off the safety, and put his finger on the trigger.

At the poachers’ camp.

Hiding behind cover, the Red Hat Man set up his hunting rifle while Beard observed with the thermal scope.

"They haven’t left. They must be prone in the snow. Looks like they’re planning to charge."

A crazed look flashed in the Red Hat Man’s eyes.

’Looks like they’re not letting this go. They’re preparing to take us down in one go.’

’You’re forcing my hand.’

He then roared at his companions, "Fire! Hurry up and fire! Today, it’s either they die or we spend decades in prison! If you don’t want to be dropping the soap, then open fire! Abbot, call out their positions."

Beard knew there was no point in dragging this out. He raised his thermal scope and yelled, "Four... four o’clock, two men! Six o’clock, two men! And two more at seven o’clock, they aren’t moving!"

"Shoot the closest ones first! Fire, Fack!" The Red Hat Man repeatedly worked the bolt of his rifle, firing in the direction of four o’clock.

"Return fire! The darkness affects their aim too." Lying prone in the snow, Yves squeezed the trigger of his AR-15. The first few rounds were tracers, and the other three retired veterans responded in kind.

Several bright red lines streaked through the darkness, guiding Feng Shan’s aim.

"Dammit, how do they have automatic weapons? Holy shit, that’s illegal!" The Red Hat Man felt his makeshift cover get hammered by a dense barrage of bullets, knowing full well this wasn’t the kind of firepower a semi-automatic rifle could produce.

He had just finished speaking.

A sharp, ripping sound, like tearing cloth, echoed through the dark sky.

Immediately after, a rapid series of thuds hammered against his cover.

It was the sound of continuous fire.

’Assholes, someone on the other side is using a heavy machine gun!’

’Dear God in heaven!’

’We’re just poachers, not terrorists! Do you really need to use heavy firepower on us?’

WHIZZ!

With a soft sound, a bullet pierced through the cover and zipped past his cheek. A sharp sting followed, and the Red Hat Man’s face burned with pain.

’The cover’s been penetrated!’

The Red Hat Man’s heart skipped a beat. Fear instantly flooded him, his face turned deathly pale, and his body began to tremble uncontrollably.

The other poachers were also terrified by the sudden hail of bullets.

They looked at each other, their eyes filled with terror and despair.

The next moment.

The Red Hat Man used his hunting rifle to push aside the top of the tent and shouted at the dark sky.

"We surrender! We surrender! Stop shooting!"

Yves, who had rushed to the side of the poacher camp, heard the shouts of surrender and quickly grabbed his walkie-talkie.

"Khilla, cease fire! Cease fire!"

But Feng Shan’s eyes were gleaming with a fanatical light, completely lost in the thrill of battle. He couldn’t hear a thing. Nash, who was next to him, heard the call but couldn’t be bothered to speak up.

Not until a full ammo belt was spent and the trigger went CLICK.

Only then did Feng Shan reluctantly release the stock of the gun.

He let out a slow breath, a satisfied look on his face.

"Yves told you to stop shooting a minute ago," Nash finally mentioned the walkie-talkie call.

"You could’ve said so earlier." Feng Shan rolled his eyes, grabbed the walkie-talkie, and said, "This is Feng."

"Khilla, they surrendered! Why did you keep firing?"

Faced with Yves’s question, Feng Shan obviously couldn’t admit he was too high on adrenaline to hear. "Sorry, the gunfire was too loud. What’s the situation now?"

"Not sure. I didn’t dare get any closer, was afraid you’d shoot me," Yves replied, half-joking and half-complaining. "I’m approaching now. For the love of God, don’t shoot."

After speaking, Yves carefully approached the makeshift cover. The front of it was densely riddled with bullet holes.

A reindeer’s head had been shot into several pieces and lay scattered on the snow.

"Hey, come on out."

No one responded.

Yves took another step forward, switched on the tactical flashlight on his AR-15’s rail, and shined it behind the cover.

He saw four men, their faces obscured, lying on the ground and trembling violently.

One of them, the Red Hat Man, was still muttering to himself.

"We surrendered... why did you keep shooting? We surrendered..."

Yves picked up his walkie-talkie. "Come on over. It’s all taken care of!"

’Taken care of?’

’Could it be?’

Feng Shan froze for a moment, not sure what Yves meant by "taken care of."

’Could they be dead? Did I kill them?’

For a moment, an indescribable discomfort welled up inside him.

He put away his gun and walked to the poachers’ camp. A bonfire was blazing. The four unlucky bastards had their arms behind their backs, their thumbs bound with zip ties. Yves and the three retired soldiers stood beside them.

"How are they still alive?" Feng Shan was completely baffled.

The next second, he realized that when Yves said "taken care of" on the radio, he didn’t mean the people had been "taken care of." He breathed a sigh of relief.

"Khilla, these are the animals they poached." Gunpowder walked over to a sled, lifted a waterproof tarp riddled with holes, and revealed layers upon layers of animal remains: reindeer heads, reindeer pelts, fox pelts, bobcat pelts, and wolverine pelts.

However, because Feng Shan had gotten a bit too carried away with the MG42.

Many of the pelts were full of bullet holes. They definitely wouldn’t fetch a good price and could only be kept for personal use.

Feng Shan took the thermal imager, walked over to the four poachers, and squatted down.

"What were you guys thinking, coming to the Crown Territory to poach? You looking down on me?"

"Y-you can arrest us, but you can’t use automatic weapons! I’m going to report you for illegal use of modified weapons! And a heavy machine gun!" The Red Hat Man, having regained some of his composure, saw a glimmer of hope as he looked at the weapons Feng Shan’s group was carrying and hurriedly spoke up.

"We were just poaching. We didn’t kill any protected animals. According to federal and Alaska state law, illegal hunting gets you less than five years in prison and a fine."

"But your illegal use of modified automatic weapons and a heavy machine gun is a serious offense. You could get more than ten years."

"I think we can sit down and talk about this. I won’t report you, you let us go, and we’ll never come to the Crown Territory again. How about it?"