“It shouldn’t be anything bad. From the expression of the staff officer who asked me to pass on the message, it did not look like it was something bad. Oh yeah, there’s a mission. Chen Haiqing and Lei Dong asked me to tell you to go to the runways later to hunt rabbits! We’ve spoken to the boss not to dispatch us for missions in the afternoon,” Hao Dali continued.
“How many people are going?” Lin Mo touched his chin. Birds in the sky over the base were often driven away, and eagles did not dare to get close. Wild animals like wolves and foxes could not pass the wall around the base and airport runways. The grass by the runways was almost growing past their knees. Without their natural enemies, wild rabbits multiplied quickly, and there were too many of them. If they did not eliminate some of them, it would definitely affect their take-offs and landings.
Hao Dali rubbed his head as he tried to recall. “Other than you and me, there are Chen Haiqing, Lei Dong, Wu Bin and Zhang Si from the terminal yard, Ye Xiaowei and Bai Fei from the 6th Flight, Tāng Zhimin from the 2nd Flight, and Old Fang from the fuel depot. There are going to be around twenty people, maybe more.”
Wild rabbits and jet fighters, these two things that were as different as night and day, had an unusual fate. Little rabbits seemed soft and weak, but they not only had amazing fertility, they were also very good at burrowing. Planes flew into the air, while wild rabbits burrowed deep into the ground. If their population was left unchecked, they would bring a lot of trouble to the base. Sometimes, they would scurry around on the runways, affecting normal take-off and landing, interfering with the ground radar, and even damaging some equipment. Disasters caused by wild rabbits were regarded as a large part of disasters in airports.
The base had its solutions. Soldiers would spontaneously organize hunting teams to eliminate some of these rabbits. Not only did they become delicious snacks, but they could also fill up the food chain as their natural enemy. The leaders turned a blind eye to the methods of controlling the rabbit population. It was an unwritten rule that anyone could participate in the hunting, and there were no restrictions as long as it did not affect the normal operations of the base.
“All right! I’ll join you!” Lin Mo nodded. He should add to his diet since he had not eaten rabbit meat for a long time.
Hao Dali flashed his pearly white teeth. “Okay, I’ll inform the others right away!” He knocked on the doors of the other dorm apartments in the hall and organized the rabbit hunt team.
Lin Mo leaned against the door and let out a sigh of relief after he closed it. Seeing Gold Coin sprawling generously on the table and studying electronic components as though nothing had happened, Lin Mo could not help but feel anger creeping into his heart. “Say, Gold Coin, can you be more careful?! You didn’t even hide when the outsider was here. So careless, are you not afraid of death?!”
“He’s just a commoner. Just get rid of him!” Gold Coin glanced up at Lin Mo and then lowered its head again. Its claws dragged a number, and the multimeter poked around the circuit board.
It seemed like in the subconsciousness of Gold Coin, other than regular warriors, everyone else without combat power was a commoner and of no threat to it. In its eyes, they all belonged to existences on the level of ants.
Lin Mo fumed. He walked to the square table and flicked his finger on the metallic head of Gold Coin. “This world weighs human life heavily. Do you think others are fools? Don’t think that the commoners in his world can’t do anything to you. Be careful you don’t eat another missile and then get thrown directly into a furnace to melt with other ores.”
Gold Coin ignored Lin Mo and continued what it was doing. I poke, poke, poke, poke!
The metallic head of Gold Coin was harder than steel. Lin Mo’s finger hurt after flicking it, and he rolled his eyes. Finally, he gave Gold Coin a pointed warning. “Don’t forget. This world is still very dangerous. Come with me on the rabbit hunt in the afternoon. I need some tools. I’ll cut off the supply of your experimental parts if you don’t agree.”
Gold Coin continued ignoring Lin Mo.
…
After lunch, Lin Mo went to the runways and saw Chen Haiqing and the rest already gathered here.
“Grandet! You’re finally here!” Chen Haiqing recently gave Lin Mo a new nickname since Lin Mo took the code name ‘Gold Coin’ and liked to collect electronic rubbish.
Hearing Chen Haiqing greet Lin Mo like this, the others burst into laughter.
“Do you have to say that? Don’t blame me if I hit you with my big mortar fist!” Lin Mo waved his fist angrily. He took the blame for his former mount.
Chen Haiqing’s nickname would probably spread throughout the base before long. Lin Mo might not be as greedy as Grandet, but he could not overturn public opinion.
“All right, all right. I surrender, okay?” Chen Haiqing immediately softened upon seeing Lin Mo’s fist. Lin Mo was not tall nor a big muscle head, but his strength surpassed that of ordinary people. He could lift more than double the usual weight of people of his size. Moreover, he did not know if this was Lin Mo only showing a portion of his true strength deliberately. He was certain that being punched by Lin Mo would not have any less impact than being banged by a car going one hundred kilometers an hour.
“It’s great that you understand!” Lin Mo was pulling his leg. Such jokes were very common among comrades. The lively atmosphere was equivalent to playing a good lubricating role for the team’s cooperation.
“Lin Mo, what tool did you bring? Don’t tell me you only brought your mouth to eat.” Lei Dong drilled over at this time. He had recently passed the assessment, became an official fighter pilot, and was assigned to the 2nd Flight. He could not help but jump out to tease Lin Mo even now.
“How is that possible?!” Lin Mo eyed Lei Dong and dangled an instrument in front of him. “Look, what is this?”
Hiss!
Chen Haiqing, Lei Dong, and the rest sucked in a breath of cold air and widened their eyes.
“Damn, cool!” Lei Dong’s mouth opened wide as he raised his thumb. “Good, really good. I didn’t think you were a master of the slingshot!”
Lin Mo had used materials on hand to make it. He bent a thick steel wire to make the frame and used a parachute cord to wrap the handle, the discarded inner rubber strips of a discarded tire as the rubber band, and then a piece of cowhide leather as the pocket. It was all made with waste materials, but its power could not be underestimated when using bearing balls as bullets.
“What about you guys?!” Lin Mo raised an eyebrow in challenge.
“I’m using this!” Chen Haiqing slowly took out the thing he had behind his back.
It was a crossbow in military camouflage. In addition to optical scope, it was also equipped with a laser pointer. Simply too luxurious.
Lin Mo could feel his teeth hurting.
Although using firearms was forbidden in wild rabbit hunts, the regulations on cold weapons were relaxed. Lin Mo looked at the others and saw quite a few with crossbows as well. There were other odd weapons such as engineer shovels, machetes, daggers, and short spears. There were also others who made their own hunting tools such as a short bamboo bow, blow arrow, a sling with stones at both ends, and passive capture tools such as rope traps and large nets.
Sure enough, no one was thick-skinned enough to bring just their mouth to eat free food. It could be said that everyone showcased their talents. The base guards were among them as well, with Company Commander Tang leading them. Most of them used the most primitive and crude tools while revealing quite a bit of self-confidence.
Several people from the kitchen were here as well. They could not miss out on such excitement. They were not here to hunt the wild rabbits though but were ready with all sorts of spices to deal with the prey. No one at the scene was better at skinning, bleeding out, and deboning prey than them. They had sharpened their knives and were ready for business.
“About time. Let’s get started!” Chen Haiqing was indeed a natural leader. He saw that almost everyone had arrived. There were about thirty people, from the lowest-level soldiers to senior officers. He clapped his hand loudly.
In the past, wild rabbit hunts were organized spontaneously. Chen Haiqing had initiated the hunt today. In addition to the cadet group, some veterans also participated.
“Lei Dong and those of you who brought traps, set them northeast of the runways. There’s a ditch that can capture them!” Chen Haiqing had long familiarized himself with the terrain of the entire runway area. He pointed at the northeastern part of the runways.
“Company Commander Tang, we’ll leave the west side to you and the guard company. The strength of each one of you is like two of us!” Chen Haiqing did not forget to flatter the guards while handing out the tasks.
“No problem, leave it to us!” Company Commander Tang shouted at the guards he brought with him, “Guard company! Follow me!” Their professionalism and seriousness were no different from appearing to sacrifice themselves to blast a bunker.
“Lin Mo, take Bai Fei and Ye Xiaowei to the south. There’s more grass there, so a lot of rabbits should be there. We’ll be depending on your slingshot for more food!” Then Chen Haiqing pointed to the east at the end of Runway 2. “Who’s going to the east? Right, you, you, and you, bring your crossbows there and beware of snakes! If you run into them, don’t let them go. Catch it for us to stew later.
“Those with nets! Follow us to the north. The rest with crossbows will follow me. Don’t shoot at a distance farther than twenty meters so that you don’t hurt anyone. We’re gonna carry out an all-rounded ambush today.” Chen Haiqing was so pretentious, feeling the kick from being a leader. Suddenly, he thought something and said in a low voice, “Cooks, someone bring me a pail and a spoon to use as a gong. I need to startle the rabbits so that they’ll come out.”