Rebirth of a Mercenary: The Ace Mercenary Forced to Be the Beloved of the Group

Wen Yan appeared beside him at some point, her right hand moving so fast that it was almost invisible as she pulled a scalpel from her medical kit—her index and middle fingers gripped the handle, and with a flick of her wrist, the scalpel transformed into a silver thread, its tip precisely piercing the snake's head and pinning it to the tree trunk behind it.

The snake twisted violently a few times, its tail lashing against the tree trunk with a crackling sound, and then it lay still.

"Thanks." Lu Xiao glanced down at the snake that was still twitching slightly, then turned to look at Wen Yan, his smile returning. "But next time, could you please tell me before you make a move? Your scalpel was only five centimeters from my ear just now. If your hand had trembled even slightly, I would be missing an ear by now."

"Are you worried about losing an ear?" Wen Yan walked to the tree trunk, pulled out the scalpel, and wiped the snake blood off the blade with an alcohol swab. Her movements were calm and elegant, as if she had just peeled an apple. "If I hadn't acted quickly, you would be convulsing, foaming at the mouth, and suffering from multiple organ failure by now. So you can say 'Thank you, Dr. Wen.' I'll give you three seconds."

"Thank you, Dr. Wen."

"Too late."

Wen Yan put the cleaned scalpel back into the sheath on the side of her medical bag, adjusted her glasses, and continued walking forward.

Shen Zhuo whispered to Xie Ran from behind, "Dr. Wen was a bit ruthless today."

Xie Ran whispered back, "When isn't Dr. Wen ruthless? You just haven't noticed because he's always smiling."

---

The team continued north for another hour.

The mud grew deeper and deeper, with water reaching above ankle level in some places. Underneath the water was humus that had accumulated over countless years, making it soft and spongy underfoot, each step feeling like walking on a waterlogged sponge.

Lu Xiao stopped ahead, raising his left fist to signal a halt. Everyone instantly crouched down, pointing their guns at their assigned perimeters, their movements synchronized as if guided by a single thread.

"We've reached the outer perimeter." Lu Xiao lowered his voice and used the tip of his machete to push aside the last layer of branches and leaves in front of him.

The factory's architectural outline is faintly visible through the gaps in the branches and leaves.

"Shen Zhuo." Li Mo's voice came from the back of the line, low and brief.

Shen Zhu handed the gun to Xie Ran, removed all reflective equipment, and took only a dagger and a small recording device. He tightened the collar of his training uniform, tucked all his red hair into his hat, and then disappeared silently into the bushes.

He lay prone in a pile of decaying leaves on the outskirts of the factory, less than fifteen meters from the patrol route. Beneath the decaying leaves was a layer of silt that had accumulated for who knows how many years, emitting a nauseating stench, but he didn't even flinch.

The first patrol passed by. Two men, each carrying an AK rifle, walked at a leisurely pace, chatting casually in some local language; one of them was smoking. Shen Zhuo pressed a button on the recorder to start the timer.

The second patrol team passed by. They were also two soldiers, but the interval between them was shorter than the first team. Shen Zhuo pressed the button again. After the third team passed, he glanced at the timing data—each team was spaced seven minutes apart, with an error of no more than twenty seconds.

He returned twenty minutes later. He looked like he'd been pulled from a swamp—his hair was covered in rotting leaves, his face was smeared with black mud, and three dark brown leeches were crawling on his training uniform, sucking his blood.

"We've figured out the patrol pattern: two people per team every seven minutes, circling the old wall. There's a section of the wall that collapsed at the southeast corner but has been patched with sheet metal; that's where the blind spot is the biggest, so we can climb over there during breaks in patrol." He reported while tearing off leeches from his body. When he pulled off the third one, he finally frowned. "Why don't these things hurt when they bite?"

"Because they secrete anesthetics and antithrombin." Wen Yan walked over and pressed an alcohol swab on the leech bite wound. Blood immediately seeped from the skin and trickled down Shen Zhuo's arm. "Don't pull it off forcefully. If the sucker breaks off under the skin, it will get infected. Next time, tie your pants legs tightly before lying down."

"There'll be a next time? Next time, let Xie Ran go to the party."

"I'm the machine gunner, you're the assault soldier, reconnaissance is your job." Xie Ran said matter-of-factly.

"Shut up, all of you." Li Mo's voice boomed over everyone. "Listen to the plan."

He unfolded the waterproof map again and pointed to a location on the north side of the mine: "The main factory building is in the center of the mining area, surrounded by at least three patrol lines. It's impossible to enter from the front. There's an old ventilation shaft on the north side of the mine, which the French used to ventilate the underground tunnels. This location is marked in the French colonial archives. Going down the ventilation shaft, you can directly enter the mine's underground tunnel system, bypassing all the surface patrol lines."

"Is the ventilation shaft still there?" Lu Xiao squatted down and looked at the map. "This is decades old; it might have collapsed long ago."

"If it collapses, we'll blast it open with explosives. But the prerequisite is that we can reach the ventilation shaft without being detected. The ventilation shaft is located under the rock wall on the north slope. From our current position, we need to cross a swamp and an old drainage ditch to get there."

"Swamps and drainage ditches, that sounds wonderful." Shen Zhuo threw away the cotton ball from the last leech wound, stretched his shoulders, and said, "Okay, let's go. If I lie here any longer, mushrooms will start growing on my body."

Lu Xiao picked up his machete again and led the way. The team's pace slowed noticeably—the closer they got to the core area of ​​the factory, the higher the patrol density became, and any unnatural sound could give away their position. Even Xie Ran stopped cursing and swearing, walking very quietly, with the safety on his machine gun always on.

Nearly forty minutes later, Lu Xiao finally stopped in front of a rock wall completely covered by vines. He swung his knife and cut through the vines, revealing a rusty iron fence behind it.

"Found it." He lowered his voice and tapped the iron fence with the back of his knife. Rust crumbled off. "The French are really practical. The fence is still here after decades, though it's rusted like a cookie."

Xie Ran stepped forward, drew a crowbar from his waist, and wedged it into the gap between the fence and the rock wall. He took a deep breath, tensed his arm muscles, and slowly pressed the crowbar down. The iron fence emitted a piercing metallic clang, exceptionally clear in the quiet rainforest.

"Gently, gently—" Lu Xiao said in a low voice, watching from the side.

The fence finally loosened. Xie Ran changed his angle and pried again, finally removing the iron fence entirely from the rock face. He gently placed it on the ground, wiped the sweat from his brow, and was about to grin—

"Don't move."

Shen Zhuo's voice came from the front of the group.

Everyone froze in place.

Shen Zhuo stood two steps in front of the ventilation shaft entrance.

His right foot landed on what appeared to be a flat layer of fallen leaves. The sensation traveled up through his boot—hard, flat, completely unlike the soft, fluffy texture one would expect from a layer of decaying leaves. He looked down at his foot, then slowly raised his head to look at Li Mo.

I stepped on something.