Although he didn’t know whether hyenas would hunt living people, Brian Carter knew that hyenas would absolutely never let any corpse go. These hyenas probably thought he was already dead, which is why they targeted him. And a hyena’s bite force is even stronger than a lion’s—so even if he was still alive, just a few bites from a hyena would turn him into a real corpse.

Sitting limply beside the hyena’s carcass, Brian Carter clutched his now-empty AK47 tightly. As he recalled everything he’d experienced over the past two days, tears streamed uncontrollably down his face.

Feeling the gun in his hands, Brian Carter was filled with mixed emotions. The root cause of everything he was going through now was the gun in his hands.

The only reason Brian Carter came to Africa was because he wanted to play with real guns.

Brian Carter was born in the capital of Hebei Province. His parents ran a small factory. Although they weren’t super rich, their conditions were still quite good, and his parents doted on him. He had always had a smooth life.

When he was in junior high, Brian Carter’s father took him to a shooting range. At that time, gun control wasn’t so strict, and the range used real guns and live ammunition. It was there that Brian Carter first showed his shooting talent.

Using a Type 56 semi-automatic rifle to shoot at a 100-meter target, except for the first shot, every shot Brian Carter fired scored no less than seven points, with most bullets landing in the eight or nine rings. Don’t underestimate this result—even veterans who’ve handled guns for years can’t always shoot like that, let alone a kid holding a gun for the first time.

Brian Carter’s performance stunned the staff nearby. Coincidentally, the shooting range Brian Carter visited was actually a shooting training base in Hebei Province, which also operated to the public for extra income. The staff there were all professionals. After Brian Carter had his fun, it didn’t take long for a professional shooting coach to be drawn over.

After watching Brian Carter shoot a few rounds, the coach asked him to try the 200-meter target. Brian Carter didn’t care how far it was—he just aimed and fired, every shot hitting the bullseye. The coach immediately said Brian Carter was a great prospect for shooting and quickly discussed with Brian Carter’s father about letting him train in shooting.

After a month of persuading at home, and once his parents learned that sports schools also taught academic subjects, Brian Carter finally got his wish and entered a sports school to train in shooting.

Brian Carter was indeed talented at shooting, and he was willing to work hard at things he was interested in. After two years at the sports school, he quickly became the youngest member in the history of the Hebei shooting team.

But after joining the shooting team, Brian Carter never got the chance to participate in any competitions. After all, everyone who made it to the provincial team was highly skilled, and they wouldn’t let a newcomer like Brian Carter stand out so easily. As for making the national team and competing on the world stage, that was even more out of reach. With so many shooting talents in the country, there was no way it would be Brian Carter’s turn.

To compete, he’d need at least another two or three years of training. But Brian Carter was still young and lacked perseverance. He got tired of shooting practice and saw no hope of standing out, so he started thinking about quitting. His parents had long hoped he would come back, so at sixteen, Brian Carter returned home to continue his studies.

After three years of shooting training, Brian Carter inevitably fell behind in his academic studies. Plus, he was never the studious type. But at this point, Brian Carter revealed his second talent: learning foreign languages. For most people, English is a headache, but Brian Carter found it surprisingly easy. After three tough years of high school, he went to a third-rate university to study foreign languages.

For many people, graduating from college means unemployment, but Brian Carter started looking for part-time work at foreign trade companies in his freshman year. His spoken English was pretty good, at least good enough to communicate with foreigners without any problems. So after graduation, Brian Carter started his own business, opening a foreign trade company with his father’s help.

Unfortunately, just as Brian Carter’s business was getting on track, an economic crisis hit, dealing a huge blow to the entire foreign trade industry. Brian Carter’s company was no exception. At the age of twenty-three, his first company declared bankruptcy.

Brian Carter’s foreign trade company had been open for over a year. The performance wasn’t great, but he still made about two hundred thousand yuan, which was a decent achievement among his peers. But Brian Carter spent almost all his money on replica guns and some famous knives, then traveled everywhere with a big backpack, saving nothing at all.

The company’s closure didn’t put much pressure on Brian Carter. The day after the company shut down, he excitedly joined a live-action CS game.

Due to the national situation, real guns couldn’t be used, but with a pile of replica guns, Brian Carter certainly wasn’t interested in those laser tag games where getting hit didn’t hurt at all.

Brian Carter played live-action CS with BB guns. Of course, “live-action CS” was just what outsiders called it. Among themselves, Brian Carter and his friends called it wargame. Although it was still a game, they tried to make everything as close to real combat as possible.