Chapter 61
So spacious....
The Wirye Awakened Training Center is the biggest place in Korea if you exclude guild-owned training grounds, so every so often you can spot famous people around. Mostly A-rank Hunters who are guild masters of smaller or mid-sized guilds.
"Whoa, do you know that person, Ophelia?"
"That's Han Suryeon, an A-rank Hunter."
"Right! She has a lot of fans."
The walls are divided up with things like magically reinforced glass partitions, but since they're all transparent, you can somewhat watch other people's training. What I use is the C Building long-range Awakened training room.
If you just keep pressing the buttons on the electronic panel next to you, the target way off in the distance will automatically move back and forth.
"Hmm, well, about 250 meters for now?"
"Let's start from 10 meters."
"Eek."
Ophelia seems to be misunderstanding something, but I have, for the record, fired a gun before. I even did pretty well. This tiny little pistol, I could fire it one-handed and hit something five kilometers away.
ㅡclick
"Hmph! Then let's do 250 meters."
"Understood."
At Ophelia's button press, the target that had rolled along the rail to just 10 meters away moved back to a 250-meter distance.
As I extended the pistol in my right hand toward the distant target, Ophelia came over beside me and spoke again.
"Princess, you need to use a two-handed grip."
"I've even fired rifles.... I should be able to shoot a pistol one-handed, right?"
"Is that so. Understood."
I aimed the front sight at the very end of the pistol toward the target 250 meters away.
"Ugh... why is my hand shaking so much."
First, let me take a deep breath. Again.
"Huu...!"
Since I wasn't very good at winking with either eye on command anyway, I covered my left eye with my free hand. As my vision narrowed into one point, the front sight lined up perfectly and overlapped the dead center of the target the instant it all came together.
ㅡBANG!
"Eek!"
The muzzle kicked upward with a pop, my elbow bent, and my hand flew up. My wrist stung too, and the gunshot—something that hadn't felt all that loud in the military—was enough to leave my ears ringing.
When Ophelia pressed the button and brought the target right in front of me, the paper target was fluttering in the wind, so clean that I could just dust it off and use it again, as if it were laughing at me.
"Damn... what the heck. I'm good at shooting."
Just how many FPS games have I played? And I can't even control the recoil on something as trivial as this pistol? No, this is a body problem. My software is a super amazing, ultimate John Wick-level expert, though....
"Next, I'll teach you the two-handed grip at 10 meters."
"O-Ophelia, try it once!"
"Hm, understood."
After handing the gun to Ophelia, I went over to the electronic panel and shoved the target all the way out to 250 meters. She had told me to use a two-handed grip, but she herself held the gun stylishly one-handed and fired the remaining 11 shots in three-round bursts.
ㅡBANG-BANG-BANG!
'Wait, why is she good at this?'
Were maids originally supposed to be able to shoot guns too? Come to think of it, Ophelia is good at fighting.
ㅡwhirrrrr....
When I pressed the button, the target came right up in front of me. It looked strangely clean, with only one hole punched through the very center and no sign of where the other 10 shots went.
"Hehe, Ophelia! Only one shot hit?"
"Would you like to check?"
"Eeeh."
When Ophelia went over to the electronic panel and played the recorded video, 11 bullets flew toward the dead center of the target in a precise trajectory, like they were riding a train, and the slow-motion footage showed them moving languidly.
"Wait, all 11 shots hit the exact same spot..?"
"That is correct."
That's unfair. If Ophelia goes and does everything well, what am I supposed to do? Still, I can eat Dubai chewy cookies better than Ophelia can, though.
"Sniffle."
"It's all right. Everyone is inexperienced at first."
I'm not a beginner at shooting, so that's not comforting?? Besides, the beginner here is Ophelia, isn't it?? My head suddenly went dizzy. It felt like getting hit on the crown by Suri's Bird Strike.
"Th-then I'll do what I'm good at too!"
"You may not make a golem."
"Huh..? Why not?"
"Using authorized firearms is fine, but unauthorized modifications are illegal."
"Waaah."
In the end, I admitted I was a beginner and decided to take a firearms lesson from Ophelia. If it had been a K2, I could've shot much better, but this is my first automatic pistol, so.
"First is wrist rotations. They relax the ligaments in the wrist and the tension in the arm muscles, and have the effect of lowering the risk of injury."
"Yep...."
Next is ankle rotations, but that could cause controversy, so we'll skip it.
After finishing my warm-up, I received the pistol from Ophelia and, with both hands, aimed at the target that had come in to 10 meters. Ophelia stood behind me and explained all sorts of things about how to hold a pistol properly.
"Take a deep breath. It stabilizes your heartbeat and helps you relax."
"Huu, I'll try!"
"Yes."
"B-but, Ophelia. I can't wink. Could you cover my left eye for me?"
"I will give you this."
"Ohhh..!"
What Ophelia handed me was exactly that. You know those shooting glasses with one eye open and one eye closed? They call this an eye blinder.
"Hmm.. isn't it kind of cool?"
It's like I've suddenly become a pro? With the eye blinder, it's way more comfortable. It also kind of feels like a scouter.
ㅡBANG!
"Ghk..!"
Even with both hands on the gun, recoil is still recoil. This gun was made for low-rank Awakened, and Awakened people generally have much better physical ability than ordinary people. But surprisingly, even though I awakened, my physical ability didn't really improve at all??
So there was no choice but for the recoil to feel huge.
ㅡwhiiiiir
"Excellent."
"6 points? It's 6 points!"
That's just a tiny bit off the dead center. For a first shot, that's basically genius level. 250 meters was a bit of a stretch, so let's just pretend that never happened.
"Eheheh, so can I fight now too?"
"Unfortunately, since these are suppression rounds, direct monster hunting isn't possible."
"Aww."
That's kind of a letdown. If they're suppression rounds, then it does seem like there's no need to shoot at someone all the way out at 250 meters. You're supposed to fire them as a warning at enemies who've come close, right? I guess this gun was made wrong after all.
It looks like even with a good aim, it's hard to hit anything beyond 100 meters.
"Umm...."
"What's wrong?"
Come to think of it, Ophelia hit all 11 shots exactly from 250 meters. Suddenly all the strength drained out of my body.
"Ophelia.. it's Christmas today, aren't you going to give me that present..?"
Getting the pistol was fun, but once I actually tried it, it was really hard. I thought it was just pull the trigger click-click, but it uses way more mental energy than I expected. I feel like this gloomy feeling right now needs some kind of payoff. Pistols aren't fun, you know.
"Then, Princess. I'll fire five shots from 10 meters. If your total exceeds 30 points, I'll give you a present."
"Whoa."
Of course, I'm a shooting prodigy, and 30 points is a pretty easy score to reach, but still, was a Christmas present supposed to come with conditions like that..?
Come to think of it, yeah. Santa also said you don't get one if you cry. But why do I have to shoot well to get one? Is it because I already cried?
"O-okay! I'll give it a try!"
"Yes."
* * * * *
"L-look at this!!!"
"Excellent."
Was the 6 points I got on my first shot just newbie luck? It only succeeded after I went through three 12-round magazines. Seeing the world through only half a field of vision was making me dizzy too. I realized shooting was harder than I'd thought.
So what was the result?
"37 points. You exceeded it by 7 points."
"Ahem!!!"
And one of my shots even hit 10 points. It didn't go well when I kept thinking in my head that I had to get a present, but once I emptied my mind and found peace, I shot amazingly well. I've had a revelation.
"Am I kind of a genius?"
"That is correct."
"Thanks, even if you're just being polite...."
I was so focused that I didn't even know what the others around me were doing, but after some time passed, other people had also come into the shooting range and were practicing. Actually, it wasn't really shooting practice; this place is just a training facility for long-range Awakened.
Beside me, someone was firing some insanely cool mechanical bow or something, and the target was a full 500 meters away.
ㅡthwoong!
"So cool...."
Since I was staring at her through the glass window, the older archer beside me gave a little snort of laughter and even waved at me.
"Hi, little one?"
"H-hello...."
"Are you shooting guns? For someone so young, that's impressive."
"Heheh...."
Later I looked at that sister's target too, and she had split the arrow she'd shot before by shooting another arrow into it, with a little pop. Honestly, when ranged Hunters came up in Hunter Gallery, I used to think, oh, okay. But actually trying it myself made me realize how amazing they are.
In the A Building close-combat training hall, Minyum was sparring with unfamiliar middle-aged men while holding a sword. From what I heard, those men apparently thought Minyum was some newly installed combat-training machine here.
"Minyum!! Go wild and do whatever you want!!"
Fueled by my cheers, Minyum even started trading blows with two B-rank frontline swordsmen and one tank. The boosters coming out from her back looked incredibly cool.
"Mwahaha! Good job, Minyum!"
ㅡclack!
How could Minyum move so smoothly even though she's a machine? It feels like there's something strange in her joints.
"Ooooh...."
ㅡclack..!
"What, are you embarrassed?"
As I squatted on the floor and stared at her knee joint, Minyum somehow looked embarrassed. She's still a cute little thing even when she's huge.
I tossed Daengdaengi into a kids' café made for Awakened people, and she was busily playing in the ball pit with the other little kids.
Suri was using the same long-range Awakened practice room as me, but not the target-practice kind—you know, the disc-throwing, shotgun-shooting one? She was doing that. There were seriously a ton of people watching; she might be more popular than I am.
"Did you do well, Suri?"
ㅡchirp
I like staying home every day, but these guys like coming out and moving around like this. I'm their owner after all, so I guess I need to come out regularly and let them have some fun.
* * * * *
"Princess, this is your present."
"A-a present..! It's really a present?!"
"Yes."
The pistol Ophelia gave me was nice too, but honestly, how often was I going to use it? After I got home, I received a real present as the reward for scoring 37 out of 50 points.
"U,woooah..!!!"
"I hope you like it."
"Heheh, I love it so much!!"
Look at this. Ophelia gave me a present. I'm the best.
[LifeNotRuined : Got a Christmas present lol
Who am I?? A Switch owner]
-Anon : Gimme one
ㄴ LifeNotRuined : Gimme what, ㅡㅡ
-MacHamTong : Elementary schooler lol
ㄴ LifeNotRuined : So what;
This isn't something I should just brag about to the gallery guys. Let's go straight to Instagram!
[_Princess_Eve]
suich!!!
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ㅡding!
-nintendo_jp : Thank you for loving our 'suitch', Princess!
"Eep."