Reborn, I Became a Male God - Chapter 45

As the “roommate who turns on speakerphone to watch movies,” Er Tiao took several seconds to realize that he was “watching a movie”—no, wait, he was in a movie. He felt completely unwell.

They had accidentally uncovered the dirty dealings between Marcus and the Huguer military and now had a key witness in their grasp. If they could successfully bring this person back home for trial, it would be an international sensation of a case, and the consequences for both parties would be entirely predictable. As a result, both sides were desperately hunting them down. From disembarking the ship until now, their team had been hiding and dodging through this dense jungle all through the night and into the morning.

Late last night, after confirming the situation, the team split into two groups. Fei Hu took three drug traffickers and headed east toward Mount Karal, which was thirty kilometers away. Their contact was waiting at the mountaintop, along with three helicopters on standby. Meanwhile, Jing Ling took two others to destroy the stash.

1.5 million pills sounded like a lot, but it was actually only about 150 kilograms. Hidden somewhere in a vast jungle stretching out of sight and in the dead of night, finding it was like searching for a needle in a haystack. Of the four traffickers, only two knew the exact location—Connie and another who was already dead. But since Connie was an important witness, they couldn’t risk putting him in danger, so they had to find the stash on their own.

When they set out, Wu Tiao and Liu Bing didn’t hold out much hope. However, reality proved to be far simpler than they expected. Jing Ling led the way in front, barely pausing at all, walking for nearly twenty minutes straight before stopping and muttering a few words into the air. Then came the sound of birds flapping their wings, and the second “Xiao Xiao” appeared, acting as a guide and leading them directly to the drug stash—a hidden pit by a stream running through the jungle into the Jiudu River. There were three bags, just enough for each of them to carry one and go.

Shortly after they left with the evidence, Marcus’s men arrived, heading straight for the hiding spot. When they found the drugs missing, they ordered their people to scatter and search. These men were well-prepared, not only bringing plenty of manpower but also several dogs.

Thanks to the native birds in the jungle leading the way, Jing Ling’s group managed to avoid being caught but couldn’t shake off the pursuers. After being chased for several kilometers by the dogs, Jing Ling lost patience. He borrowed Wu Tiao’s gun on the spot, turned around, and shot the dogs. Since the enemy forces were spread out, their firepower was also scattered, making this round of dog-killing even easier than the last.

Without the dogs leading the way, the enemy could only rely on experience and instinct to guess their path—and naturally, they were shaken off.

Jing Ling’s group soon reunited with Fei Hu’s team. Though the straight-line distance between Mount Karal and their landing point was about thirty kilometers, it was much farther on foot. The jungle environment was complicated—not just because of the dense vegetation but also because of the overdeveloped tributaries of the Jiudu River. After fording one stream and walking only a short distance, they’d encounter another small river ahead.

Initially, Fei Hu’s group crossed directly, but after nearly becoming crocodile snacks at a shallow stretch, they obediently started taking detours. This inevitably slowed them down—despite walking a long way, their actual progress in straight-line distance was minimal. It wasn’t until Jing Ling caught up and took the lead again that their pace picked back up.

Even after traveling all night through the jungle and waterways, they had only covered half the distance. They finally survived the perilous night, but daylight didn’t bring any relief. The number of pursuers had increased again—now not only Marcus’s men, but also the military had joined in. More than a dozen police dogs and several speedboats were now roaming the jungle waterways, nicknamed the “Death Maze.”

Even though Jing Ling’s group was already being extremely cautious, they were still discovered at the foot of the mountain.

A fierce battle was inevitable.

They not only had to fight the enemy but also act like nothing was going on—drawing closer to Mount Karal without letting the enemy notice their objective. This clearly tested their acting skills.

The enemy outnumbered them and outgunned them completely. Their bullets came down like rain—ratatatatatat in a crazed sweep. Forced into miserable hiding, they could only occasionally return fire. And it wasn’t just bullets—they had grenades too. One might be tossed their way at any moment, and if they couldn’t dodge in time, this would be the end.

The battle had been going on for nearly half an hour. They had long since run out of ammunition and supplies, now relying entirely on looting corpses for resupply. The only thing to be thankful for was that aside from Sanbing taking a bullet to the arm, the remaining eight were unharmed.

They were getting closer to the mountaintop, and the enemy was closing in. If things kept going like this, they would be surrounded before reaching the summit. Fei Hu had no choice but to split the team again—one group would rush to the summit with the witness and evidence, while the other would act as a decoy to lure the enemy away. He originally intended to stay behind with Er Tiao, but Jing Ling volunteered and took Er Tiao down the mountain instead.

Under their deliberate misdirection, most of the enemy was drawn away. But the two of them had now gone from near the summit back to the mountain’s base. Returning would now be near impossible.

Er Tiao was already regretting not leaving a will earlier, when from the corner of his eye, he saw Jing Ling suddenly switch his gun to his left hand. With his right hand free, he pulled a phone from his pocket and put it to his ear.

“Yunshu, happy birthday.”

“Of course I asked someone.”

Just then, the enemy spotted them. A burst of machine-gun fire ripped through the air, and a grenade was tossed toward Jing Ling’s location. For a split second, Er Tiao’s heart stopped. But Jing Ling simply turned his body sideways and raised a leg—kicking the grenade right back.

A loud boom erupted nearby, followed by agonized screams.

Er Tiao stood frozen. When he snapped back to reality, he couldn’t help shouting, “Jiang Yang, what the hell are you doing?! You’re making phone calls in this situation—are you out of your mind?!”

Just then, Jing Ling raised his gun and aimed it at him. Er Tiao panicked—until the trigger was pulled and the bullet whizzed past his head. Something fell behind him. He turned to look—it was one of Marcus’s men. A gentle voice behind him said, “It’s fine. Roommate turned on the speakerphone to watch a movie.”

Er Tiao felt like he was going to pass out. The two of them had just lured away over twenty enemies. They were outnumbered ten to one and completely outgunned, at risk of being killed at any second—yet this was the moment his teammate casually answered a call, sounding utterly calm, and even spun such a ridiculous excuse.

Watching a movie? Why not just say you’re playing real-life CS?!

“He’s more timid than a pinhole. Gets scared watching war movies. I was the only one in the dorm, so I got pulled in to help. But the movie’s almost over. I’ll call you back later. Bye.”

Er “more timid than a pinhole” Tiao stared blankly as Jing Ling hung up the call, tucked the phone back in his pocket, walked past him, squatted down to loot a body, and acquired one pistol and one magazine. After replacing the empty magazine in his current gun, he stood in front of Er Tiao with a pistol in each hand, calmly saying, “The movie’s over.” Before Er Tiao could react, Jing Ling grabbed a tree branch, leapt up in a few swift moves, and used the trees to swing from one to the next. In less than ten seconds, he was completely out of sight—only the swaying branches remained as proof of his passage.

—

Later, when Er Tiao was training new recruits, he would tell them about this experience. He omitted the classified parts and only talked about the rear guard episode—how a man named Jiang Yang had calmly taken a phone call amid a rain of bullets, left behind the words “the movie’s over,” and then charged into enemy territory alone, 1v20, taking them all down.

The rookies never believed him and joked that he had watched too many over-the-top dramas. He only smiled and never argued.

Because everything he experienced—was more unbelievable than anything in those dramas.