Chapter 164: Li

"Alright, it's done. Now let's close in on that armored vehicle ahead; that should be our final target."

"Understood."

Lehm drove the vehicle rapidly toward the armored vehicle. Meanwhile, Li Hongshen pulled out another M500 and fired four consecutive shots directly at the armored vehicle's tires.

With equally pinpoint accuracy, he instantly blew out both rear tires of the armored vehicle. Li Hongshen then pulled out two grenades and tossed them directly under the chassis as they sped past.

"Boom—!"

Watching the armored vehicle in the rearview mirror get blasted off the road and plunge beneath the bridge just like the others, Li Hongshen pulled his upper body back into the car and bumped fists with Lehm.

"Let's go. I doubt anyone else will bother us on our way to the port now."

***

In a certain warehouse at a certain port in an Eastern European country, watching Koko—the arms dealer—deliver her famous quote to Jonah about "selling weapons for world peace," the corners of Li Hongshen's mouth twitched upward wildly.

Fortunately, he remained quite professional and didn't laugh out loud at the remark. In his view, aside from the Big Five superpowers or the deterrent of nuclear weapons, nowhere in the world could ever truly be peaceful.

Have you not seen how the Middle East fought each other to the death, only to now experience mere sporadic covert raids after paying sufficient protection fees? How long has it been since a proper, full-scale frontal war occurred there?

Still, Li Hongshen agreed with that statement just a little bit. After all, besides light weaponry, Koko also dealt in heavy military hardware, which still carried a certain degree of deterrence.

***

Returning to the temporary base, Li Hongshen had no desire to converse with Jonah. Although their backgrounds might seem similar on the surface, they were actually worlds apart. One had been experiencing life from the very beginning, while the other had started out purely to kill.

Entering his room, he drew a bath, maintained his firearms, inventoried his weapons and ammunition, and then sat down on the sofa to enter a state of light sleep.

This was a state Li Hongshen had mastered only after entering this world. Relying on his spiritual power, which constantly drifted outward to monitor the surroundings, his physical body rested while his mind remained alert.

At the slightest hint of disturbance, he would instantly snap awake, with his loaded firearm already positioned right in front of him, ready to be drawn effortlessly upon waking.

This caution was necessary because Koko was an exceptionally successful arms dealer, with a bounty on the dark web hanging high—including rewards posted by the official departments of certain nations.

Therefore, out of professional dedication and to ensure that his world-essence mineral deposits remained undisturbed, Li Hongshen had no choice but to slaughter every single attacker who came their way.

Presently, his room was separated from Koko's by only a single wall, connected by a door that allowed free passage. As for Valmet, she shared a room with Koko.

Naturally, he wasn't entirely free from distractions. For instance, right now, a certain white-haired woman was interrupting his rest.

"Li, won't you come into my room? My bed is super big and very comfortable. Care to come in and try it out?"

Seeing Koko hugging his arm and swaying back and forth, alongside Valmet standing nearby with visible, simmering jealousy written all over her face, Li Hongshen felt somewhat amused yet helpless. He carefully extricated himself from Koko's arm-lock, though unavoidable physical contact occurred during the process, causing the lesbian warrior to grit her teeth in frustration.

"Koko, be a good girl and go get some sleep. You know how I am."

With that, he gently pushed Koko back through the connecting door into her own room, bid her good night, and firmly shut the door.

Just as Li Hongshen was about to return to the sofa to rest, the connecting door swung open once more.

"Li, I'm not locking the connecting door, you know! You can come in whenever you want. Good night, *mua*!"

After blowing a flying kiss, Koko was yanked back by Valmet, who then glared at Li Hongshen and made threatening gestures, seemingly warning him to watch his step.

Li Hongshen merely waved his hand and walked back to sit on the sofa. Even after transmigrating and being reborn, influenced by his brilliant soul, his appearance remained strikingly handsome.

Even though his ethnicity had changed, he still possessed a high bridge of the nose, thick eyebrows, large eyes, and facial features that were sharply chiseled yet softened by a gentle aura. His brownish-red pupils brewed an enigmatic charm, and through years of conditioning, his skin had lost its childhood pitch-black hue, settling into a healthy light-brown tone.

Thanks to his courier-like line of work—delivering bullets—even without practicing martial arts in this world, Li Hongshen possessed well-defined muscle lines and chocolate-bar abdominal muscles.

Combined with several instances of saving the damsel in distress and their day-and-night companionship, romantic feelings were naturally bound to sprout. Toward such affections, Li Hongshen maintained an attitude of not initiating, not resisting, and not taking responsibility.

After all, he already had a nagging partner back in the prime material world, so he had no wish to sow wild oats in this world. However, when the woman happened to be his boss, a steady provider of world-essence minerals, and remarkably attractive to boot, things became rather troublesome for Li Hongshen.

Especially since this was a low-tier world, and he hadn't yet developed enough to establish an outpost and turn this place into his own enclave, this romance was destined to have no future.

Shaking his head, Li Hongshen cast these sentimental thoughts aside, closed his eyes, and immersed his mind deep within the framework of world laws.

As Koko's personal bodyguard, he was exempt from rotational guard duty. Therefore, whenever he rested, he would immerse his consciousness into deciphering the framework of laws.

By now, Li Hongshen had deciphered well over half of the world's legal framework. Comparing it with the curricula of the prime world to analyze this world's relatively classic world-law framework further enhanced his comprehension of the laws of nature.

***

At 3:00 AM, Jonah was awakened by Lutz to take over the watch. Arriving in the hallway, he exchanged greetings with Lehm before posing a question that had been on his mind:

"It's surprising. You actually took the initiative to ask me a question—and instead of asking why a highly skilled, battle-hardened super mercenary like you is subservient to an arms dealer like Koko, you're asking about something else."

"You want to know why everyone previously mentioned that he used to be a child soldier, too? I can tell you, kid: because Li used to be a child soldier himself."

"From the age of six, he spent seven years on the front lines in the Graveyard of Empires, before Koko's father pulled him out and he joined Koko's squad alongside me."

"And you know what? His former unit was also called the Mountain Guerrilla, and your unit was formed much later."

"He ended up wiping out his entire original unit because of the orphan issue. Back then, he told us that the organization wanted to use orphans as human bombs or something like that, which is why he took down his former faction."

"Furthermore, he actively sought out Koko's father—my former boss—and made a deal using himself as a bargaining chip. That completely shocked me at the time."

"I assume you already know a bit about him. Over the years, he has used the money he earned to open several orphanages named 'Starting Point Orphanage,' rescuing countless orphans from the Graveyard of Empires."

"He settled them in peaceful worlds to receive a proper education. That includes some of your own friends; they passed through his hands as well."