Chapter 320: 317: Careless, Taught a Lesson
Bi Fang felt a chill in his heart, because as far as he knew, Yemen should have been an abandoned city, as even the mission brief stated. All along the way, he saw the same scene: abandoned buildings, not a soul around, no different from a Ghost City.
It was precisely for this reason that he thought he might encounter stray bandits in Yemen, though the probability should be extremely low.
He had grandly flown into the city in a helicopter, followed by a high-altitude descent, never expecting to run into thugs right away, with a violent confrontation where rocket launchers were drawn, and inexplicably a building was bombed, leading to the current situation.
It was not that he regretted it. As a live streamer, he needed to act ostentatiously and attract attention.
If you do nothing, say nothing, you won’t attract viewers. In his previous life, Bear Grylls made his recordings by taking risks; otherwise, how would he have earned nicknames like “must dive into every hole” and “must sink every boat”?
Moreover, live streaming needed more highlights than recorded broadcasts. It had not been easy for Bi Fang to get to where he was.
Next time, he’d have to do more reconnaissance. As his personal capability grew, Bi Fang realized his mindset was subtly changing, even getting lazy with preparation work.
It started when he commented solo and faced off against a wolf pack.
This change, it wasn’t good.
Little did he know, when personal capabilities improved, wasn’t the difficulty of the tasks also increasing?
Bi Fang sighed, having learned a lesson from the surprise attack, and shook off the distractions in his mind, his eyes regaining their determined and fearless look.
His live streams were about doing what others dared not; if he lost that adventurous spirit, he couldn’t possibly have reached his current status.
What’s done is done. How could he just turn back now that he had entered the territory of the Bandit Gangs? He couldn’t just retreat from Yemen now; that would be a total loss of face. He just needed to be cautious.
Having made up his mind, Bi Fang once again worried about his situation.
This place, it wasn’t easy to climb.
The drone flew high, and the audience could see the collapsed building had almost completely smashed the residential building across the street, like a square cake that had been gouged out with a spoon, leaving only a small fraction teetering on the edge.
The top floor, made of reinforced concrete, was even more fragmented. Bi Fang was clinging to a slab that hadn’t completely fallen but was also on the verge of collapse.
Due to the stress on the structure, it had nearly broken apart, held together only by a few steel bars. When Bi Fang had tried to move, several bars bent down, scaring him into stopping immediately, but leaving him stuck where he was.
If it were just his weight, the bars wouldn’t have bent like this, but there was also a large chunk of concrete on top. Conservatively estimated, it weighed at least half a ton; with Bi Fang’s weight additionally, even the slightest movement posed a great danger.
Many viewers also cried out about the danger, unsure of what to do.
But seeing that Bi Fang was temporarily safe, most of them let out a sigh of relief and dismissed the idea of seeking a rescue team.
In the eyes of the audience, as long as things hadn’t reached the last step, it seemed Master Fang always had a way to solve them, and they just watched on.
However, after realizing the true precariousness of Bi Fang’s situation and seeing the gradually bending steel bars, everyone was greatly alarmed, unsure of how to proceed. There were no points of support above, and below, it had been smashed to pieces; letting go would mean falling from the seventh floor, with slim chances of survival.
But how long could he hang there on his own?
[It’s over, should we get the helicopter that just flew away to give Master Fang a lift?]
“How am I supposed to get up there? If I hang from a horizontal bar, I can only last a minute at most. Rescue wouldn’t make it in time, right?”
“Why would a solid building collapse? Are rocket launchers really that powerful? Times really have changed, modern technology is incredible.”
“Could it have hit a gas pipeline or something? I seem to remember there was a secondary explosion?”
“It was indeed a secondary explosion.”
Bi Fang, suspended in mid-air, nodded his head. A rocket launcher had not enough power to bring down a building just like that.
“It could be that the building… had not been maintained for years, plus the secondary explosion, or even the armor-piercing warhead that hit a load-bearing wall, leading to the building’s direct collapse.”
As Bi Fang explained, he looked around in search of a way to survive. Looking down, the dust on the ground had not completely settled, but it had thinned out a lot, making the situation visible.
The fighting factions had long since disappeared, with no clue where they had fled. They seemed like a group of bandits with little military training. How they got their hands on rocket launchers was a mystery, not to be underestimated. Operating in Yemen, there might still be a chance to encounter them.
“In this kind of situation, we mustn’t panic too much. We need to calm down. The more panic we are, the faster we use up our energy. We could figure out a solution, but in a rush, we might lose our ideas, and we might not last until we come up with that solution.”
After a brief explanation, Bi Fang slowly let go of one hand, causing the pupils of the viewers to constrict sharply.
That’s damn dangerous. In such a predicament and he dares to let go with one hand?
“Are you out of your mind?”
“Holy shit, Master Fang, you’ve got guts, holding on with one hand. That’s badass! I don’t even hold on peeing against a wall, but you, I respect.”
“How long has it been? Half a minute? He’s still holding on with one hand? I would have given up long ago.”
“Damn it, I’m going to run laps tomorrow for sure. I have to improve my endurance!”
Was Bi Fang courting death?
Of course not. He had his eye on a broken rebar nearby, but it was out of reach, forcing him to try another method. Letting go with one hand, Bi Fang pressed the buckle on his waist and slowly started taking off the backpack from his back.
“The strength and toughness of the steel reinforcement in reinforced concrete are very high, enough to support the weight of an adult. But I’m also hanging a chunk of concrete here. Under the leverage effect, the force becomes very great. As you have just seen, it started bending the moment I moved slightly.”
Bi Fang took a deep breath, and it was clear to any observant person that his energy was being rapidly consumed.
“So, my goal is to use my backpack to hang onto another piece of exposed rebar.”
The camera shifted, and everyone immediately saw the broken rebar jutting out, not too far away, roughly one and a half meters, but just beyond reach.
Halfway through taking his backpack off, Bi Fang carefully switched hands. He relaxed his left hand, which greatly reduced the soreness, but he didn’t dare delay, and immediately took off the entire backpack.
With the backpack off, Bi Fang looked at the rebar not far away and felt challenged. He glanced at the backpack in his hand, shifted slightly to the left, then grabbed one of the shoulder straps and swung out the backpack.
The strap hadn’t hooked on when the concrete that Bi Fang was holding suddenly sank. In the chaos, he completely missed the mark!
The sudden sinking of the concrete nearly scared the viewers out of their wits, and even Bi Fang himself broke into a cold sweat. In April, the weather hadn’t fully warmed yet. A cold wind blew, and the lining suddenly clung to his back, chillingly cold, like a slippery venomous snake.