On the rooftop.
Song Heping pushed away the corpse blocking him and whispered, "Sorry, buddy."
It really was quite regrettable.
The guy was already dead, and now his body had a bunch more shrapnel holes.
But at least he was dead.
No pain anyway...
There was no time to ponder further.
The armed men on the adjacent rooftop were surely looking this way to see if he was dead.
They might even jump over to check the body.
After all, the two buildings were very close, just two meters apart.
All he had to do now was wait.
Play dead and wait for them to take the bait.
Sure enough, a dark figure swept over the concrete parapet and landed in front of Song Heping.
Song Heping's MK18 had already been aimed in the general direction.
The enemy had not stabilized upon landing when Song Heping pulled the trigger.
Tatat—
It was a very crisp burst that dispatched the opponent.
The man didn't even have time to react before he went to meet Allah.
After killing the armed man, Song Heping did not hesitate.
He figured that the armed man across from him was curiously awaiting a reaction from this side.
If he didn't see his comrade stand up within two seconds, he'd surely know the other was dead.
He suddenly stood up from his crouch, searched quickly, aimed at the other armed man who was still peering this way, and pulled the trigger, taking him out with two shots.
Having done all this, Song Heping held his gun trained on the neighboring rooftop for about ten seconds.
No other armed fighters were visible.
He didn't dare to assume there was no one left.
Or it could be someone crouched beneath the concrete parapet, out of his line of sight.
So he tore two hand grenades from the body and tossed them over.
Boom—
Boom—
Muffled screams indeed came from the rooftop next door.
Song Heping couldn't be bothered to check if the guys across were dead or alive.
All he needed to do was incapacitate those on the opposite rooftop to impede their combat capabilities and keep them from interfering with his mission.
Seizing the moment, he sprinted to the rooftop entrance, where a staircase led down to the floors below.
Clearing out the armed men inside the building was his objective.
He had been trained to eliminate any distractions encountered during a mission, focusing solely on the ultimate goal and to accomplish it as quickly as possible.
He had just descended one flight of stairs, not yet reaching the fifth floor, when he came face-to-face with two armed men ascending the stairs.
They had heard the commotion on the rooftop and wanted to check, but ran into the Grim Reaper instead.
Song Heping's gun was always pointing forward, and the moment they entered his line of fire, they were swiftly brought down by his extended burst.
He quickly changed the magazine and continued onward.
No one was in the corridor on the fifth floor.
There were three rooms, one on the right and two on the left.
Song Heping entered the room on the right.
Inside were two men.
But they hadn't noticed that the Grim Reaper had already arrived behind them.
They were firing their guns incessantly downstairs.
Song Heping's steps were extremely light, until he moved behind them and pulled the trigger at the head of one of them, the other seemed to sense something and turned around abruptly.
He was met with the dark muzzle of a gun.
"Bye-bye!"
After Song Heping spoke, he pulled the trigger.
The armed man's head exploded, and his body fell from the window onto the road below.
The cook downstairs was startled, glanced at the body, and looked up at the building, "Song He! Where are you!?"
Samir was still occasionally yelling in the channel, "Boss, are you alright?!"
"Boss! Where are you?"
"Boss..."
From the time Song Heping disappeared on the rooftop, he had been calling non-stop.
But Song Heping simply had no time to answer him.
He had been fighting for his life just moments ago.
Only now did he have a moment's respite.
So he quickly responded, Samir was quite loyal, but also quite annoying.
"I'm not dead... I'm currently upstairs, stop the noise, wait for my signal!"
Song Heping appeased Samir, who was panic-stricken, through the communication channel.
Then he left the room holding his rifle, ready to enter the corridor on the left.
There were two doorways along the corridor.
Meaning two rooms.
Song Heping approached the door of the first room and began to slowly slice the corner to observe.
He saw a shadow move across the room and immediately retracted.
Not daring to barge in with the situation unclear, he proved prudent.
As soon as he had pulled back, a barrage of gunfire like popping beans erupted from inside the room.
Tatatat—
Tatatat—
Tatatat—
Several bursts of bullets flew out, striking the door and the hallway walls, kicking up dust.
Song Heping didn't waste words and quickly threw two grenades inside, as quick as lightning.
In moments like these, combat is entirely muscle memory and subconscious brain reactions.
There is no time for overthinking.
Once indoor combat begins, it isn't like the orderly drills of past training.
These were not mere terrorists, these were members of the Revolutionary Guard Suicide Squad.
Having endured in Mosul for so long, they were certainly hardened veterans.
At this moment, it all boiled down to three words—fast, accurate, ruthless.
Boom—
Boom—
As he tossed the grenades in, Song Heping had already retreated to the corner of the staircase entrance, using the wall corner as cover, ready to shoot on sight.
As expected, agonized shrieks came from the room where he had thrown the grenades, and an armed man emerged from the other room.
Hearing the noise, he wanted to come out to investigate.
Song Heping was waiting for him.
From his current position, he could control the entire hallway.
But what Song Heping was most worried about now was behind him.
Down the stairs behind him was the fourth floor.
No one could guarantee that someone from the fourth floor wouldn't hear the commotion and come up to check.