106: Chapter 106 Morning Grumpiness

Cao Xiao collectively named the firearms, cold weapons, and protective gear he had created the Tianxing Type-1, or TX-1 for short. The bodyguards were already equipped with the cold weapons and protective gear, and now that the firearms had been designed and produced, he could equip Duan Hong and Li Quanshuo first. Pistols were a must; each man received one TX-1 pistol along with a magazine and a box of ammunition. For assault rifles, they were equipped with two magazines and two boxes of ammunition. Since the cost of manufacturing these firearms was low and he wasn't short on cash, he planned to equip both snipers and assaulters with a TX-1 assault rifle. Li Quanshuo was a sniper, but Cao Xiao didn't give him the sniper rifle yet; the TX-1 assault rifle could also function as a sniper rifle. Using the TX-1 sniper rifle against ordinary militants wasn't worth it—it would be like using a cannon to hit a mosquito.

In addition, he produced some tactical grenades and tactical vests. The tactical vests were essential for increasing the amount of ammunition they could carry. The tactical grenades didn't use superalloys; instead, he simply improved the explosive formula, making the explosive power 1.5 times that of the original while reducing the weight and volume by a third. This made them more convenient to carry, allowed the carrying capacity to increase to five grenades, and enabled them to be thrown further. Due to a shortage of raw materials, only five hundred of these tactical grenades were produced, and the remaining materials were all made into bullets.

“Brother Duan, Brother Li, follow me to my bedroom for a moment.” Cao Xiao found the two men on the roof and had them follow him.

Following Cao Xiao into the bedroom, the two men felt a jolt in their hearts as they saw the items placed on the table. Unsure of what Cao Xiao meant, they asked in confusion, “Mr. Cao, what are these?”

“This equipment is for you. However, while they look like the originals on the outside, their internal structures are completely different. Their performance is much better, and they aren't difficult to operate. These will be your standard equipment from now on. The specific performance parameters are on that instruction manual; take a look for yourselves. You can experience the actual effects when you use them later. I've also prepared Brother Li's specialized rifle; I'll hand it over when it's needed,” Cao Xiao said.

Duan Hong curiously picked up the sheet of paper, which listed the specific parameters and instructions for the weapons. However, his brow furrowed more and more as he read. After finishing, he handed it to Li Quanshuo and picked up the pistol. With a flick of his hands, he tried to disassemble it, but to his surprise, he couldn't open a single component. After fumbling for a while, he only managed to remove the magazine. He held the pistol before his eyes, staring in disbelief, and asked Cao Xiao with a slight stutter, “Mr. Cao, is this a monolithic construction? 3D printed?”

“Yes, it's not just 3D printing technology; it also involves some new techniques, otherwise this kind of integrated molding wouldn't be possible. This is a company secret, so you don't need to know the details. Just use them well. But don't lose them, or it will cause a huge mess. So, you must not only use them but also protect them. Anyone who tries to take them can be invited to taste what it's like to be kissed by them.” As Cao Xiao spoke, his tone inevitably turned a bit grim. Nothing had gone smoothly since he left the country. From Dubai to Cape Town, one thing after another had happened, all of them unprovoked. He had nearly lost his life today, and it was inevitable that some hostility had accumulated in his heart.

Seeing Cao Xiao like this, Duan Hong immediately stopped speaking. He could tell that Cao Xiao's mind was unsettled today; it was already commendable that he could remain so calm after experiencing a brush with death. They had seen blood in the military, and only after experiencing it would one be able to handle such things. He would wait for a while until things were resolved before trying to counsel him; asking or saying too much now would only irritate him. So, he gave Li Quanshuo a look, put on the tactical vest, holstered the pistol, hung five grenades at his waist, put all the magazines and bullets into the vest pouches, shouldered the assault rifle, said goodbye to Cao Xiao with Li Quanshuo, and returned to the roof to continue their watch.

The night was quiet and the sea waves were rolling. It was already 2:00 AM Cape Town time. Cao Xiao had been asleep for a little while. When there was still no movement by 1:00 AM, he figured the Angress Family probably wouldn't come for revenge tonight. However, it was better to be safe than sorry, so Duan Hong and Li Quanshuo continued their rotating watch, and Cao Xiao, unable to hold out any longer, went back to his room to rest.

But just then, a strange sound came from the sea. Li Quanshuo was on watch, primarily focusing on cars coming from the land-side road. When the strange sound first arrived, he didn't pay it much mind. It wasn't loud and was mixed in with the sound of the tide, so he could only vaguely tell it was the sound of an engine. Victoria Harbour was not far away, and countless ships passed through the waters every day; such sounds could be heard from time to time, so he didn't take it seriously, assuming a ship was passing by. But as the sound got closer, he felt something was wrong. As the volume increased, he identified what kind of vessel was making the noise—it was a speedboat! But who would be cruising around in a speedboat in the middle of the night? And it wasn't just one; from the lights, he could see there were three speedboats. After looking through his binoculars, he discovered these speedboats were heading exactly toward them. He was startled, but his mind reacted instantly. Seeing that the speedboats would reach them in just a few minutes, he quickly got up and rushed downstairs.

“Mr. Cao, wake up quickly. It's likely the Angress Family. They're coming from the sea with three speedboats, and there will be many of them. What should we do now?”

Cao Xiao opened his eyes groggily and saw Duan Hong speaking to him urgently. When he heard the words 'Angress Family,' his sleepiness vanished instantly. He had been sleeping fully clothed, so he jumped out of bed immediately. He felt very tired—anyone would feel that way if they were woken up after only a short sleep—but his heart was filled more with rage. It wasn't directed at Duan Hong's pair, but at the people sent by the Angress Family. There is a legendary ultimate power called 'waking up on the wrong side of the bed'—it is irrational and brings misfortune to those who encounter it!

He didn't care how many enemies were coming. Now that he was prepared, any number of people were just coming to be slaughtered. He understood Duan Hong's meaning; it was simply that the enemy was numerous, they weren't sure they could handle it, and it wasn't appropriate to directly tell him to retreat, so he asked euphemistically.

“They're coming from the sea, so it will take some time before they can land. Although there are only three of us, they are in the light while we are in the dark. We can strike them while they're mid-crossing. They can't move or hide at will, so we can completely catch them off guard. Use the rifle grenades directly; maybe a few rounds will end the battle quickly. Go and lie in ambush by the shore. When they enter the effective range of the rifle grenades, make your move. Even taking out one speedboat might make them retreat, but wait until they're closer before firing. I want to make sure they have no way back,” Cao Xiao said, pulling himself together and quickly analyzing the situation.

“We can handle that. We can't be sure if the enemy is carrying rocket launchers. Mr. Cao, you should go to the tunnel first. If something unexpected happens, it'll be easier to relocate in time.” Duan Hong had no objection to Cao Xiao's plan. The only uncertainty was whether the opponent carried heavy firepower. If they couldn't eliminate the enemy in one go, staying in the villa would be dangerous.

“Alright, be careful. This is your first time using these new weapons. The performance parameters in the manual aren't exaggerated, so don't use them like the originals,” Cao Xiao nodded in agreement without hesitation and then cautioned them.

“We know, you go on,” Duan Hong nodded understandingly. Although they were amazed by the high performance of these weapons, after the incident with the bulletproof vests, they were no longer surprised by the strange items Cao Xiao produced.

Watching Duan Hong and Li Quanshuo leave, Cao Xiao didn't obediently go to the underground tunnel but instead went to the roof.

He took out a wooden guitar case from his storage space. This case didn't contain a guitar, but the TX-1 sniper rifle. He quickly assembled the parts, attached a long cylindrical flash hider and suppressor to the muzzle, pulled the bolt to chamber a round, and then lay down at the edge of the roof, observing the rapidly approaching speedboats through a 24x scope. The speedboats were currently only 2,500 meters away, already within the effective range of the sniper rifle, but Cao Xiao didn't fire rashly. He hadn't received any marksmanship training and only knew how to aim and fire. Sniping a high-speed moving target at a long distance at night was not something a rookie like him could do. Furthermore, he couldn't alert the enemy; otherwise, even if he luckily killed a few people, he would expose himself.

A distance of 2,500 meters was only a minute or two of travel for a speedboat. Cao Xiao watched the rapidly approaching targets with a mix of nervousness and excitement. Thirty seconds later, the speedboats were within 1,500 meters. Forty seconds, fifty seconds, one minute—the speedboats were less than 500 meters from the shore and looked ready to land at any moment, yet Duan Hong and Li Quanshuo still hadn't attacked. Cao Xiao glanced at the two of them and saw nothing unusual; they were also solemnly holding their guns with their fingers on the triggers, seemingly about to fire.

In less than ten seconds, the speedboats appeared 200 meters away. Suddenly, two faint gunshots and whizzing sounds were heard. In the blink of an eye, two of the speedboats on the sea simultaneously erupted into large balls of fire. The explosions were massive and sounded even louder in the silent night. Those two speedboats were blown to pieces by the sheer force of the blast. The remaining one hadn't had time to react and was still rushing forward at high speed.

At the same time, a burst of gunfire rang out. Needless to say, this was also from Duan Hong and Li Quanshuo. However, the combat skills of the people on the remaining speedboat were quite good. After the sudden attack, they regained their senses within a few seconds and quickly changed direction. By some stroke of luck, they actually avoided the curtain of bullets fired by Duan Hong and the other. However, because the turn was too sharp, the others in the speedboat didn't have time to react, and two unlucky souls sitting on the edge lost their grip on the gunwale and were thrown into the water.

The helmsman of this speedboat likely had experience in naval combat. He didn't drive the speedboat in a straight line but instead rapidly changed course from left to right to evade the enemy's hail of bullets. In the blink of an eye, they had escaped 200 meters away, getting further and further from the shore. Even after being hit a few times by bullets, they didn't stop. Unless hit by a large volume of fire, small-caliber rifle rounds were unlikely to damage a speedboat enough to stop it. Under these circumstances, no matter how good Duan Hong and Li Quanshuo's marksmanship was, it was difficult to accurately hit the driver of a speedboat moving erratically and rapidly in low light. At this rate, the opponent might very well manage to escape. They hadn't expected this either; the opponent had retreated without hesitation after being attacked, instead of continuing the assault as they had imagined.

In the field of view of the 24x optical scope, aided by the light from the burning wreckage of the two exploded speedboats, the speedboat several hundred meters away looked close to Cao Xiao. There were several armed personnel with weapons in the speedboat. Judging by their clothes, they didn't look like Cape Town military or police, so they could only be from the Angress Family; they hadn't attacked the wrong target. Seeing the speedboat gradually pulling away, Cao Xiao felt extremely anxious, but he could only keep adjusting his aim. He couldn't lock onto the speedboat, let alone the enemies inside. His eyes were getting dizzy from the movement. At this moment, the industrial mother machine couldn't help him either, and he was helpless against the speedboat. But he couldn't just do nothing and let them leave safely, so he could only try his luck.

He steadied his breathing and focused all his attention on the scope. The opponent's movement was completely erratic, and the field of view was large, so he could only rely on his own guesses about their possible path. It was just a matter of wasting some bullets.

“Bang!” Cao Xiao fired the first shot. Although the recoil of the TX-1 was much smaller than the original prototype, it wasn't negligible. The bullets were as long as a soda can, so it was already impressive to have it this controlled. His shoulder was still jolted back by the shock.

Unfortunately, that shot hit the sea. However, Cao Xiao didn't lose heart. He quickly chambered another round, spotted a position, and fired again. The second shot still missed. The third and fourth shots were the same. By this time, the speedboat had already fled to a kilometer away. The threat from the TX-1 assault rifles in Duan Hong's hands had diminished significantly, and the frequency of the speedboat's turns was no longer as high. Seeing this, Cao Xiao didn't rush to fire. He wanted to lull the people on the speedboat into a false sense of security, making them believe the weapons here could no longer reach them, so they would stabilize their course.

But the distance couldn't be too great. The opponent had turned off their lights, and there was no moonlight tonight. He could only barely see the shadow of the speedboat by the distant lights of Victoria Harbour. As Cao Xiao expected, when the speedboat reached 2,000 meters away, it stopped turning frequently and gradually moved in a straight line, only slightly changing direction every five or six seconds.

By the time it was 2,500 meters away, the speedboat not only stopped changing direction but also slowly decelerated. At around 3,100 meters, it actually came to a stop.

“Bang!”

Another faint gunshot rang out. Cao Xiao fired decisively. Without checking if he hit the target, he quickly chambered another round, aimed, and fired. After three shots, fire actually broke out on the speedboat. The view in the scope brightened, and Cao Xiao could see the situation over there clearly. The speedboat's engine was on fire, and there was one less person in the boat. It seemed his four shots hadn't all missed; at least two bullets had hit the target. He was using armor-piercing incendiary rounds, which would ignite the engine upon impact. One unlucky fellow had also been hit; after being struck by the modified armor-piercing incendiary round, his fate was obvious—a portion of his corpse would be missing and never found.

With the light from the fire, Cao Xiao could see the situation on the speedboat clearly and began his slaughter. Two had been thrown into the water at the start, and he had killed one; now only four people remained in the speedboat. Sniping a stationary target with a TX-1 sniper rifle, which had a 24x scope and an effective range of 3,000 meters, was not difficult even for a rookie.

Consequently, two more people in the speedboat were killed by him. The remaining two, seeing things were wrong, jumped into the sea to save their lives. They didn't surface after going into the water, leaving him helpless. However, unless those two were master swimmers, they would have to swim toward the villa. The reason was simple: only this villa area was flat ground; all other directions were sheer cliffs. And the distance to Victoria Harbour was too far; the sea was freezing on a winter night, and they wouldn't last that long.

Now they just had to wait by the shore for them to walk into the trap. In less than two minutes, Duan Hong returned, dragging two unconscious men. These two were the unlucky ones thrown into the sea by the speedboat; as soon as they reached the shore, they were captured by Duan Hong and the other. Li Quanshuo was still on guard by the sea. They were safe for the time being. However, although Cao Xiao was still tired, he wouldn't be able to sleep peacefully if he didn't deal with the Angress Family as soon as possible. Besides, his anger hadn't subsided yet. The Angress Family's manor was located in the suburbs fifty kilometers away. Once they caught the two armed men who jumped into the sea, they would head to that manor and let the people of the Angress Family also taste what it was like to be woken up in the middle of the night.