It was impossible to miss. Not because he was incredibly cool-headed or a professional sniper... It was simply because Paymax was responsible for the auto-targeting and aiming.
All he had to do was pull the trigger.
"..." He didn't even have time to exhale before the bullet covered the entire distance and...
*Booom!* The heavy bullet from the sniper rifle punched into the armored wheel of the car and blew it up.
The shot was fired at a perfect angle, so the chain reaction followed immediately.
"..." Despite its enormous mass, the rear of the car began to rise into the air.
A moment later, the only front wheel was no longer touching the ground, and then...
*Boom-boom-boom!* The car crashed nose-first into the ground, fell onto its roof, then flipped over and did it again. The process resembled a fatal racing accident. The car performed something like a broken vertical roll.
"Pheww..." He exhaled as the half-destroyed vehicle rolled over twenty meters to his left.
Due to the sandstorm, it was unclear where the shot had come from.
The driver of the second car acted instinctively and pressed the gas pedal with all his might.
The second car was heading straight for him!
"..." The armored wheels and front of the car were almost at his nose.
In the time since the shot, he had managed to drop the rifle sideways and lean himself as close to the ground as possible...
At the same time, he reached with his left hand for his belt.
*Vroom!* He found himself sandwiched beneath the four wheels of the metal beast.
He was lying directly under a moving car that weighed several tons!
Using his left hand, he took a big risk, and one of the wheels almost crushed his fingers.
He was lucky, and a moment later, the car almost passed him...
"Ha...!" he exhaled, activating the object on his belt.
A moment later, a hook flew out, carrying a steel cable. A real grappling hook!
The hook caught on the car's suspension and held.
He could already grab it and chase after his target, but...
There was a third car.
"..." There was less than a second left before the bumper of the third car smashed his head...
*Booom!* Another shot rang out from the sniper rifle.
And the bullet hit the wheel again.
This time, the shot was fired at point-blank range. That meant the bullet was traveling at maximum speed.
The bullet pierced the front tire again, but went through and blew up the rear tire!
But this led to a somewhat unexpected situation.
"..." His heart froze.
This time, the front of the car flew into the air and began to roll over to the left. It reared up right in front of him.
He could see its undercarriage, its suspension... And now it was going to crash into his face!
"Whha...!" The rope attached to his torso stretched to its limit and knocked all the air out of his lungs. He may have broken a couple of ribs.
He had attached himself to the rope from the cat hook in advance, and now he was being carried back at breakneck speed. But it wasn't as pleasant as it seemed at first glance.
He was being dragged along the scorched earth like a real sack, and meanwhile...
*Boom-boom-boom!* The car whose tires he had shot was tearing up the ground and tumbling after him! The car, in turn, was performing a horizontal roll.
The scariest thing was that it was keeping up with him and tumbling at about the same speed. It was only a couple of meters away from him.
It seemed as if he and the car were performing synchronized somersaults.
'Daamn!' he thought, trying to curl up.
It was complete madness, and only then did he realize that...
'I forgot to turn on the music!!!'
Participating in such an action without musical accompaniment felt like a crime.
...
The length of the cable stretched to its maximum was about 17 meters.
He had to survive all seventeen meters at a speed of almost a hundred kilometers per hour, and then somehow climb onto the car, but...
'What the hell is going on here?!' he shouted in his mind.
The grappling hook was his favorite piece of equipment. He thought that over the years he had learned to use it to its full potential...
But he had never tried to latch onto a car with a terrified driver.
'Shiiiiit!!!'
What happened to him was almost the same as what he had done to the two cars in the convoy. He was nothing but a stone skidding across the ground.
The car he had punctured two tires on was already rolling somewhere behind him. Meanwhile, the driver of the car that the hook had caught on didn't seem to be slowing down at all.
*Thud-thud, thud* He was being slammed and dragged across the ground so intensely that he couldn't find a way to activate the lifting mechanism.
Initially, he wanted to add some risk to this mission and come face to face with the Scavengers… But what was happening now ruled out any such nonsense.
It really was a crazy adrenaline rush.
'Daamn!!!' He felt like his kidneys had been punched out of place. Surely his whole body was covered in abrasions and bruises.
The sound of the wind heightened the feeling of speed to the limit.
Of course, he loved speed on his motorcycle, but this was something else...
"..." Finally, he started to get the hang of it, and his metal hand grabbed the cable.
Once he had even the slightest foothold, it became much easier to move.
He curled up tight and finally found the moment to activate the hook lift mechanism.
*Bang!* His hand hit the mechanism on his belt, and...
'What the hell?!'
It was strange and funny at the same time. Due to the speed he had already gained, the hook lift, which had previously made his heart tremble and seemed incredibly fast... Now resembled a slow elevator ride.
However, despite this, his heart was already infected with the madness of what was happening.
'Beat that, Nathan Drake!' he wanted to shout. 'Damn, how freaking cool!!!'
And it was really hard to argue with that.
...
Two Dirty Baals, belonging to the scavengers, sat in the cabin of an armored vehicle.
They were dressed in traditional desert attire, their goggles removed — they only got in the way of driving.
"*********?!"
"**** *******!!!"
As their only surviving vehicle made its way through the desert storm, they argued heatedly about something.
Their language and dialects were incomprehensible to ordinary people. However, one thing was clear from their emotions — they were furious and confused.
However, having lost contact with the other two vehicles in the convoy, they did not risk taking any action. Their mission was more important than their wounded pride.
Especially since there were no signs of pursuit or other attacks...
"..." The sound of the wind penetrated the driver's cab.
"*******!" The driver shouted something angrily, but it would have been suicidal to take his eyes off the road in a sandstorm.
He was probably asking someone to close the door.
*Thud* There was a small knock, followed by...
"...Aaaaaah." A distant scream was heard.
It sounded as if someone had been thrown out of a vehicle traveling at nearly 100 kilometers per hour. That's what the scream sounded like.
Of course, if something like that had happened to someone, they would have signaled to their friend and shouted...
*Knock* But the door had already closed, and the recent scream merged with the howling of the storm.
But the strange thing was that there were still two people in the driver's cab...
"Haah..." the driver's neighbor exhaled wearily. "You know, for a second I thought I was going to crash before I could catch up with you."
"**?" The driver muttered something, looking at his neighbor with a puzzled look.
Meanwhile, the passenger was in no hurry to answer. He took the scarf off his face and shook the sand off it.
Then he slowly took out a cigarette and lit it.
"Phew..." he exhaled smoke demonstratively.
"..." Just as he smelled that acrid smell...
The driver realized that something was wrong. No Dirty Ball would ever smoke. For their kind, it was disgusting and repulsive.
The car began to slow down involuntarily, and the driver's hands began to rise from the steering wheel.
There was one cold reason for that — the barrel pressed to his forehead.
Turning his head toward his neighbor, the driver saw a strange sight.
The man beside him looked like he'd crawled through a real sandy hell.
However, despite this, the person... yes, it was a person, not a Dirty Ball... this person looked happy and very satisfied.
"..." Feeling the cold barrel pressed against his forehead, the driver swallowed.
How did this happen?! Such questions could be read in his eyes as he looked at the place where his neighbor had been a moment ago.
The man opposite did not consider it shameful and replied.
"Always keep your doors closed..." he said with a smile, nodding toward the car door. "After all, you never know who might come aboard."
*Click* The revolver's hammer clicked against the driver's forehead.
"..."
"Quite fitting for the third lesson, don't you think?"