Chapter 117: Learning to Shoot

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The moment the pistol touched his hand, Chang Yu felt as though he had become an entirely different person.

A sense of seamless fusion welled up from the depths of his heart, quietly resonating with the firearm in his grip.

It was an experience both familiar and strange, as if what he held in his hand was not a weapon he had never seen before, never touched.

But rather... his own hand, his own foot—a natural extension of his own body.

He finally understood what those ancient warriors meant when they spoke so often of becoming one with the blade.

The gun was him, and he was the gun.

Surely this was the very sentiment those warriors sought to express!

Gripping the pistol with both hands, arms extended level, aiming horizontally—from raising the weapon to lining up the shot, Chang Yu's movements were executed in one fluid motion, nothing like a green novice, but rather like a seasoned veteran.

"Bang!"

Chang Yu fired the very first bullet of his entire life.

The muffled gunshot rang out across the empty space, wisps of white smoke curling from the barrel, a faint scent of gunpowder lingering in the air.

The performance appraisal system responded quickly, displaying on the large screen the bullet hole Chang Yu had just made along with the final score.

And when Katerina finally saw the hole Chang Yu had put in the target, her beautiful eyes could not conceal the shock within.

Eight rings!

That was a region very close to the central red bullseye, and a remarkably good score.

"You haven't practiced live-fire shooting before, have you?" Katerina, who had been expecting to see Chang Yu make a fool of himself, found it hard to believe what she was seeing.

If that shot had been fired by a veteran, Katerina would not have been nearly as surprised.

But this shot came from Chang Yu, a complete novice, and that struck her with profound amazement.

For a beginner, hitting nothing but the empty space around the target should have been the norm, shouldn't it?

Recalling how her first shot had missed the target entirely on her initial attempt, with no idea even where the bullet had landed, Katerina felt as though her entire worldview had been shaken to its core.

Could the gap between one person and another really be... this vast?

Thinking back to all the extraordinary strokes of fortune that had befallen Chang Yu since they first met, Katerina felt a wave of deflation wash over her.

Just by sleeping one night, he had become the disciple of an enlightened master...

With barely any effort, he had acquired a formidable set of skills...

Just by enduring one morning of pain, he had gained a little boy with explosive combat power...

Just by drinking a small glass of wine, he had seemed to undergo a complete rebirth...

And now, by simply firing a shot on instinct, he could hit eight rings?

So geniuses really did exist. The fact that she had never encountered one before did not mean such creatures were absent from the world.

She was absolutely certain that Chang Yu was a shooting prodigy, a true marksman born.

His shooting talent was far beyond what an ordinary person like herself could ever hope to match. Katerina reached that conclusion quickly.

"Perhaps you were born to be a shooter," Katerina murmured softly.

In truth, even Chang Yu himself had not expected to produce such a good result.

For him, he had simply fired that shot in accordance with his heart.

The moment he gripped the pistol, the target in his eyes had already magnified infinitely.

It was as if the distance between him and the target was shrinking without end, shrinking until the target was right before his eyes, close enough to touch with an outstretched hand.

The world around him froze in that instant he pulled the trigger. The flow of time seemed to slow, the air felt thick and viscous.

Only his mind and thoughts continued to race at their eternal, unchanging speed, as though everything around him had shifted into slow motion.

He knew this was a benefit brought on by his rising soul power. Though he had no direct evidence, he simply knew it to be true.

Perhaps he had once been a person with no shooting talent whatsoever, but now he was almost unnaturally capable. The advantages of formidable soul power became unmistakably apparent in that moment.

So this was it—the elevation of soul power also provided such an enormous boost to shooting accuracy.

With Katerina's help, Chang Yu practiced live-fire shooting continuously for an entire afternoon, seeming utterly tireless.

No breaks, no pauses—shot after shot, as if the only thing in his life that mattered was shooting.

Chang Yu genuinely loved shooting. The instant he reached out and gripped the pistol, a sense of arrogant confidence, of overlooking all things, surged up from within him.

This feeling of being able to control everything was intoxicating to Chang Yu. It got him high, made him unable to stop.

For ordinary people, the powerful recoil of a firearm had always been the main obstacle to intense practice.

Because the strength of muscles and bones does not allow the human body to endure such recoil repeatedly, and over time, sprains and bruises would occur.

But none of that mattered to Chang Yu.

Given his current physical resilience, let alone a pistol with low recoil, small caliber, and modest stopping power—

Even if he spent an entire afternoon firing a Vulcan-style Gatling gun, he probably would not feel a thing.

Thanks to the continuous shooting practice, Chang Yu's marksmanship was steadily improving at a visible pace from its already solid foundation.

By the time they left the shooting range, Chang Yu was already able to hit nine rings—an exceptionally high score.

"I thought you would complain about being tired, that you'd be begging for a break," Katerina said, sitting in the back seat of the military jeep beside Chang Yu.

The jeep had been arranged by the range staff, and the driver was an active-duty soldier, sent to take Katerina and Chang Yu away from the place.

"I've loved firearms since I was a child—I just never had the chance to actually hold one. Now that I finally had an opportunity to fire at will, of course I wanted to enjoy myself to the fullest."

"Time is finite. Waste a little and there's a little less. My practice time was already insufficient to begin with, so why make an already limited resource even scarcer?"

At that moment, Chang Yu was still basking in the thrill that shooting had given him. A single afternoon of practice left him wanting more, savoring the lingering aftertaste.

Hearing this, Katerina fell into a long silence.

What was that saying again?

Genius is not what's frightening—what's frightening is when a genius works harder than you do!

"You did quite well today. At your current pace of learning, it will probably only take one or two more sessions before you can hit the red center of the circular target." Katerina paused briefly here.

Worried that Chang Yu might grow arrogant, she refrained from overpraising him: "But that said, this is only a stationary target. In the future, there will be moving targets, rotating targets, and clay targets. The stationary target is just the simplest one, so you shouldn't get too proud of yourself."

"I'll come here often to practice from now on." Chang Yu loved the feeling of shooting at the range.

When an activity can both satisfy one's psychological needs and improve one's practical combat ability, it is easy to develop a sense of anticipation for it.

"By the way, can I switch to a different pistol next time? I feel like that Colt didn't have enough stopping power—the caliber was too small."

Recalling the various and sundry firearms stored at the shooting range, Chang Yu felt his palms beginning to itch.

The commanding and imposing revolver, the unruly Desert Eagle, the uniquely styled Mauser pistol...

If only he could play with each of these legendary weapons that had earned their fearsome reputations throughout history, one after another, up close—how wonderful would that be?

"Of course you can." Katerina agreed to Chang Yu's request without hesitation. "You may use any pistol that catches your eye."

"Thank you." Chang Yu's gratitude came from the bottom of his heart.

"I thought we didn't need to stand on ceremony like this." Katerina furrowed her brow slightly.

"I wasn't talking about this," Chang Yu said with a smile. "I mean, thank you for bringing me a brand-new life."

"You were the one who pulled me out of that mediocre, hopeless, impoverished existence with your own hands. I've always owed you a thank-you."

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(To be continued on the next page)

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Katerina's lips curved up ever so slightly into a faint smile: "Don't thank me. Thank yourself."

Chang Yu: ???

"If the surveillance footage hadn't happened to capture you beating Zhao Dasheng to a pulp, I wouldn't have found you so quickly."

"After all, there are far too many people boasting on the internet every day—we couldn't possibly take all of them seriously."

So... that beating Zhao Dasheng took was well deserved, then, Chang Yu thought to himself.

Saying goodbye to the military jeep, Chang Yu and Katerina stood shoulder to shoulder on Central Street.

Under the night sky, Central Street was a spectacle of rare splendor—golden lights and breathtaking European-style architecture lining both sides of the road.

This broad, historically renowned avenue was the most densely crowded street in H City at night, thronged with countless couples strolling in pairs.

"I've always felt that taking a walk is an extremely stress-relieving activity," Chang Yu sauntered leisurely, his nerves somewhat relaxed.

The two strolled beneath the exquisitely crafted European architecture, bathed in the amber glow of the spotlights, not looking out of place among the crowd at all.

"I'm the kind of person who tends to be anxious. Walking has always helped release my tension and ease my restless mind," he said.

"So if you ever feel weighed down, wound tight, and unable to find relief, you should just go for a walk down the street."

Because of his natural love for walking, he had an innate fondness for places like Central Street that were so perfectly suited for it.

Especially when he saw the sight of those young people, full of vitality and radiant energy.

Chang Yu felt... as though he too had grown several years younger...

"I don't really walk around here much," Katerina said after a pause. "Even though this is where I grew up."

"Why?" Chang Yu could not understand Katerina's way of thinking.

Here there were lights, a great river, crowds of people and life, beautiful buildings—everywhere radiating an aura of prosperity and civilization.

If he were the one living here, Chang Yu thought, he would definitely bring Yang Yang here for a stroll every single day.

"I don't care much for that feeling of being gawked at." When she said this, Katerina's expression was perfectly calm, betraying neither pleasure nor displeasure.

"I don't like being gawked at either—it always feels like being treated as a monkey in a zoo." Chang Yu knew exactly what Katerina meant.

Ever since the two of them had entered this pedestrian street, they had been the subject of onlookers' attention.

Pedestrians on both sides pointed and whispered at them. Those ahead couldn't help turning their heads for another glance. Some even went so far as to pull out their phones and take pictures.

Of course, they were all aimed at the person beside Chang Yu—Katerina.

Because Katerina was simply too beautiful, so beautiful she hardly seemed to belong to this mortal world.

She was more like a fairy from the heavens, with every movement drawing eyes and every gesture striking hearts.

Everyone who laid eyes on her could not help but stop and stare, some even snapping photos to remember the moment.

"But today is an exception," Chang Yu added after a moment of thought. "Only today, I don't mind them gawking at me like this."

Because today, by my side, I have a fairy of breathtaking beauty—those words Chang Yu kept to himself.

"Look, look! She's gorgeous! What a beauty!" A random passerby quickly nudged his friend with his elbow.

"No kidding! I've never seen anyone this beautiful in my entire life. I feel like even those movie stars can't compare to her." The passerby's friend let out an exclamation of admiration.

A beautiful woman walking down the street was in itself a visual shock, let alone someone like Katerina—the kind of woman who could topple kingdoms and captivate nations, a devastatingly stunning presence.

From eighty-year-old grandmothers to three- or four-year-old little boys, no one could help but gasp in wonder.

(The End)