Volume 4 Chapter 30: Boarding the Train

“Can you hit it? Oh, sorry, Gerthard, I shouldn’t doubt your marksmanship!” Bock stood up from the cliff, nervously watching the rapidly approaching train below. “Damn, I never thought I’d have to parachute onto something as thin as a wire one day!”

The left end of this railway bridge connected to sparse mountain woods. The forest area faced a steep cliff towards the canyon direction. Below the railway bridge was a rushing intermittent river, with the water surface tens of meters lower than the bridge.

The right end of the railway bridge was also a cliff, though different from the left side’s woods. The cliff on this side was at a higher elevation than the left. Therefore, the right side of the railway bridge actually connected to a railway tunnel piercing through the mountain. Of course, the tunnel wasn’t very long, only about a hundred meters or so.

The right cliff near the tunnel entrance was reinforced with blue stone blocks, making the entire tunnel mouth look like a neatly cut piece of snowflake cake. The small concave mountain ledge where Bock and Joey hid was on the right end of the railway bridge, positioned about ten meters higher than the blue stone-reinforced tunnel entrance.

Though the drop from here to the train cars was less than 20 meters, converted, that was still the height of a six or seven-story building. Looking down from this height at the train car roof less than three meters wide, even if not as exaggerated as the wire Bock mentioned, it was similar to the balance beam in women’s gymnastics.

Armored trains were different from regular trains. Though slower than ordinary passenger trains due to heavy external armor and artillery cars, their defenses were exceptional.

Taking the armored military train the “Gentlemen Alliance” was raiding as an example, it only had seven cars total with steam locomotives at both ends, allowing reverse movement when needed. Among the seven cars, one carried a twin 380mm railway gun, and another was equipped with two 24mm dual-purpose anti-aircraft guns that could rotate 360 degrees.

These two gun mounts were semi-enclosed, operated by two persons each, with armored shields at front and back, capable of resisting attacks from scattered fighter planes and guerrillas.

Skorzeny had Bock and Gerthard take the lead for a reason. One was a special forces paratrooper, the other the best sniper in the “Gentlemen Alliance”.

Gerthard was responsible for neutralizing one of the gun mounts immediately, while “Queen of Sandstorm” Madame Monica handled the remaining one.

As for Captain Bock’s mission, it was even more demanding. As a special forces paratrooper, he needed to jump from the six-story high cliff and accurately land on the first or second car of the military train. Then, taking advantage of the train entering the tunnel, he had to seize control of the locomotive in the darkness and slow the train down slightly, making it easier for Skorzeny and the Hydra Corps waiting at the tunnel’s other end to board.

“Heh, what’s so difficult about that? You’re a special forces paratrooper, plus you have Madame Monica’s assistance!” Joey tilted his head, pressing his right eye against the sniper rifle’s scope. While teasing his companion, he muttered without much confidence, “Actually, you should be more worried about my shooting!”

That day Joey told Grant that he could do everything Qin Lun could, but that was actually a lie. He could indeed change his demeanor to act like Qin Lun because they knew each other too well. But he couldn’t use Qin Lun’s unique ability – the Combat Model.

Joey wasn’t just the “Dissector”; he was also Qin Lun’s “cleaner”. All the emotions Qin Lun couldn’t handle were passed to Joey. In the Orphan’s Grudge world, Qin Lun had experienced “rage”, “sorrow”, “love”… but in the end, he handed all of it to Joey!

Qin Lun spontaneously “split” himself. Whenever he encountered emotions he couldn’t process, he would have Joey hide and suppress these emotions. Using Joey’s brutality and bloodlust, he slowly digested and expelled these emotions, ultimately achieving “cleansing”.

Joey didn’t automatically appear every time Qin Lun faced danger; he hadn’t shown up even once during the Death Hunt world. The reason was Joey hadn’t completely digested and expelled the chaotic emotions from the “Orphan’s Grudge”.

Because of this, Joey could never achieve Qin Lun’s zombie-like cold numbness. In other words, absolute calmness. And the Combat Model was a product of self-hypnosis under this absolute calm. Therefore, Qin Lun could use the Combat Model, but Joey Foster, who had stronger combat abilities, couldn’t.

Without the Combat Model, Joey’s marksmanship naturally couldn’t compare to master sniper Gerthard. Fortunately, Qin Lun’s original modified Kar98k sniper rifle had been destroyed in the fight with Kathleen. The sniper rifle he now used was a special firearm from the Hydra Corps.

When Joey first saw this sniper rifle used by the Hydra Corps, he couldn’t help but curl his lips because this thing couldn’t really be called a sniper rifle – it was actually a powerful anti-materiel rifle, commonly known as the PZB39 anti-tank rifle.

The Hydra Corps’ predecessor was the Brandenburg unit. These people were mostly agents and spies, with very few master snipers. Since shooting accuracy wasn’t high, they had to pursue power instead, making sure assassination targets got more than they bargained for.

The PZB39 anti-tank rifle had the same 7.92mm caliber as the Kar98k sniper rifle, but its tungsten-core armor-piercing rounds had extremely large propellant charges, making them 95mm long – almost like a ballpoint pen – with armor penetration of 20mm within 100 meters.

This rifle had also been specially modified by German research departments. It had a 4x optical scope mounted at the rear and a rifled silencer attached to the muzzle, improving accuracy and reducing noise.

Though Joey couldn’t use Qin Lun’s Combat Model, his Law Body’s Firearms Expertise skills remained. While he couldn’t shoot through the gun mount’s narrow firing port to kill the machine gunners inside, the gun position’s less than 10mm armored shield was like thin paper before this anti-tank rifle.

“Bang!” The military train’s whistle as it entered the tunnel largely covered the anti-tank rifle’s noise. The first gun mount on the third machine gun car’s roof now had a small bullet hole in its front armored shield.

The fragmented hole was dented inward, emitting a wisp of white gun smoke. Parts of the breach showed a dark red color – the tungsten-core bullet had almost ignited the steel fragments around the hole while penetrating the armor.

The two Allied machine gunners inside the gun mount remained motionless in their positions, their heads slumped unnaturally on the guns. The shooter facing the tunnel had a tragically beautiful blood flower blooming on his chest, while his comrade behind him showed blood stains seeping through his back.

Joey’s shot had killed two birds with one stone, taking out both gunners simultaneously. The tungsten-core bullet had extremely strong penetration. Though the wound channel in the human body wasn’t large, the high-velocity bullet instantly cooked the gunners’ internal organs, killing them almost before they could feel any pain.

“Great shot!” A sweet compliment from Madame Monica faintly carried on the wind. After being saved by Joey, the Queen of Sandstorm seemed to open her closed heart again, showing unusual closeness to this super sniper who always wore a cold expression with light gray pupils.

Compared to the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross, Gerthard’s luck this time actually earned him many jealous stares. If not for the Heracles Plan being at a critical stage, and Baron von Wurdenbeller – who admired Madame Monica the most – being unconscious, he probably would have received a duel challenge already.

“Hey, I think I heard a gunshot!” In another nearby gun mount, an Allied gunner said doubtfully.

“Probably just the wind. Or, you can ask them!” His comrade replied somewhat uncertainly.

“Alright!” The gunner hesitantly took the communicator from his partner. Neither noticed the air inside the gun cabin seemed much murkier, as if mixed with quite a bit of wind and sand.

“Hello… whoa!” The gunner had just uttered a greeting into the communicator when he felt his neck tighten, as if large hands were choking his throat.

The gunner released the communicator, his hands clawing uselessly at his neck. Apart from some scattered sand, his final struggle achieved nothing. His comrade opposite didn’t fare much better either – the last sight in the gunner’s eyes was his partner’s purple-swollen face, bloodshot eyes bulging from their sockets, and dust and sand wrapped like a whip around his neck.

“Alright, my turn now. God bless me!” Bock made a bitter face and drew a cross on his chest, secretly swearing, “When I get back to the unit, I’m definitely adding ‘balance beam’ parachuting to those bastards’ training manual!”

Under the mocking gaze of the sniper beside him, Captain Bock resignedly jumped off the cliff, spreading his arms to stabilize his body, swooping like a large bird toward the speeding locomotive.

Unfortunately, without the Combat Model’s extremely precise calculations, though Captain Bock roughly calculated the landing spot, the canyon winds still blew him slightly off course from the locomotive’s intended landing spot.

“No Iron Cross Medal for me!” Bock thought with a flash of disappointment as he looked at the car roof just a meter away.

His failure hadn’t actually ended the mission yet. After all, the train’s most critical gun positions had been eliminated. But with the train’s speed not reduced, Skorzeny and the others would have much more difficulty boarding. Of course, this performance during the mission naturally wouldn’t earn him the Iron Cross Medal.

Just as Captain Bock was feeling sorry for himself, an unexpected push came from behind him. The Queen of Sandstorm truly lived up to being the most powerful Superpowered Being in the “Gentlemen Alliance” – while neutralizing one gun position, she still had capacity to observe the entire battlefield and helped Bock at the most critical moment.

Captain Bock’s eyes flashed with intensity. The push Madame Monica gave him wasn’t actually enough to send him directly onto the car. But for him, it was sufficient. The paratrooper captain reached out with simian arms, his five fingers gripping the car roof’s steel railings like steel pincers. Using his core strength, he twisted his body and flipped onto the roof.

His position was at the front end of the second car. Looking at the locomotive just ahead, the paratrooper captain ran quickly along the roof, leaping toward the locomotive just as the military train entered the tunnel. He grabbed the right-side window with both hands, twisted his body, and dove into the locomotive.

“Good morning, gentlemen!” Bock smiled brightly at the two bewildered train crew members, revealing a mouthful of gleaming steel teeth.

“Something’s wrong!” At the same time, in the fourth car, a tall man who had been sprawled on the sofa sleeping with a cowboy hat over his face, reeking of alcohol, suddenly stood up. His face was grave as he looked forward, his piercing gaze seeming to penetrate through the car partitions directly to the locomotive.