Chapter 96: A Show of Strength and a Counter Show of Strength

Translator: Exodus Tales  Editor: Exodus Tales

Under the curtain of night, all around the city was feasting and pleasure-seeking. Youngsters traveled back and forth between tall buildings, reflecting the city’s prosperity everywhere.

Qin Fen walked alone in the streets of Seoul tonight. He wasn’t in the mood to enjoy the scenery all around him. Aside from the destination point and time, Butcher gave him a set of ordinary civilian clothes upon landing. He had changed out of his soldier uniform.

He had no map, no compass, nor any assistant devices. Before Qin Fen could tell which was south, east, north, and west, Butcher and Phoenix had disappeared before his eyes.

Butcher didn’t give him an abundant amount of time. Qin Fen was quite clear about this, so he quickly made his way down the roads between the tall buildings of the city.

It wouldn’t be hard to find the rendezvous point for the mission, but it was quite the distance away.

Qin Fen hurried his way to the rendezvous point’s building and walked into the elevator in the reception hall. He indifferently sized up his surrounding environment. It was luxurious! Qin Fen was really surprised that the rendezvous point was set to be here.

The elevator’s door closed, and Qin Fen picked up the telephone the elevator was allocated with. He punched in a series of numbers, which were actually a secret code. The side of the elevator opened up, revealing a new elevator to a completely different world.

Qin Fen walked into the new elevator, closing the elevators and choosing to head down to the sub-tenth floor. He secretly admired this ingenious design.

“Oh man! Another recruit turd has come. It looks like we have an additional mission besides our original mission.”

“What sort of mission, Iron Hand?”

“Babysitting.”

The elevator’s door opened, and Qin Fen heard the peculiar voices of five seasoned veterans within the room. Qin Fen walked out from the elevator quite undisturbed, arriving before the seasoned soldier named Iron Hand.

Bam!

It was a standard military salute!

Qin Fen puffed out his chest and quickly said, “Recruit Qin Fen reporting for orders! Please give me an assignment, sir!”

Once you arrive, and you see that we’re not there yet, just ask about the combat mission from the one called Iron Hand. Qin Fen had memorized these words that Butcher had spoken to him before he left.

“Assignment?” Iron Hand, who possessed a pair of hands that were slender like a woman’s, pointed at a desk not too far away, his eyelids, not even raising. “First choose a gun from there. That’s the weapon you’ll be using for tonight’s mission.”

Qin Fen didn’t move. He remained standing ramrod-straight before Iron Hand. “I first need to know what’s the mission is about so that I can choose the best firearm to match with the mission’s environment, sir!”

The moment Qin Fen spoke these words, a hint of praise flashed in the eyes the five seasoned soldiers, who had been smiling in mockery. The mental quality of this recruit was quite decent. He had just entered the room and was mocked as a kid that needed a babysitter, yet he didn’t act as they expected upon hearing that he needed to choose a weapon. He didn’t immediately seek to prove that he wasn’t a kid that needed a babysitter. He didn’t impulsively or casually choose a weapon.

Aside from the five seasoned soldiers, there was a recruit around the same age as Qin Fen in the room as well. The recruit had spiked up hair, around an inch long. Below his thick eyebrows were large eyes curved into a smile of schadenfreude, as if he were ridiculing the five seasoned soldiers for their failed plan of mockery.

“This is the mission.” Iron Hand tossed Qin Fen a bag of documents nearby. Though the modern era was ripe with using digital information, it was best to use a paper medium to maintain secrecy. This medium could, at the very least, completely thwart high-level hackers from accessing the information.

Capturing terrorists in Seoul? Qin Fen’s forehead creased with a few wrinkles. According to the mission briefing, one mistake could easily cause a variety of bad situations, such as fighting in the downtown streets and so on.

“Finished yet?” Iron Hand asked.

“Yes.” Qin Fen responded in a simpler way than Iron Hand asked. Such a calm response could easily be misunderstood. Qin Fen did this on purpose, acting cool as a counterattack against Iron Hand.

“Choose a gun.” Iron Hand simply pointed at the table. I’ll let you act cool for now, kid! But I’ll have something good for you to see in a bit!

“….”

Qin Fen responded this time with silence and practical action. From his perspective, this was the method most effective in not wasting both of their time. He could see the signs of provocation within the eyes of the five seasoned soldiers.

Recruits always possessed a self-infallible arrogance. This was especially true of recruits taking part in a special forces mission; they were more likely to have inflated egos, act on their own, and not listen to commands.

There was a tradition in the military where the seasoned soldiers would give the recruits a show of strength. Squad Leader Hao had done the same when they first joined the military.

Qin Fen arrived before the table. There weren’t any truly assembled firearms here. It was just a pile of parts.

The mission might spread to the downtown area. It would be bad if the kinetic energy of the bullets shot from the primary firearm was too high; there was the possibility of piercing the enemy and injuring civilians. The strength of the firearm had to be controlled.

Qin Fen whipped out the HK45C from his waist. With a flick of his wrist, the completely intact firearm instantly became part of the pile of parts on the table.

There had been a few seasoned soldiers who wanted to deride and mock Qin Fen after he assembled a gun, seeking to display a show of strength, but their eyes lit up during this moment.

The recruit, who was looking at the lively situation, gaped slightly before closing his mouth. Qin Fen’s dismantling of his gun was, in a certain sense, a type of art.

Even some of the seasoned soldiers didn’t dare to say that they could dismantle a gun with the same ease and speed as Qin Fen.

This recruit can’t just know how to dismantle guns, right? The seasoned soldiers couldn’t refrain from being skeptical. It hadn’t been long since this young man joined the military, the air of a recruit was easily felt on him. It was very hard for people to have large expectations for him.

Qin Fen visualized the direction in which he should assemble the gun and began to make his move.

Qin Fen moved without the slightest hesitation nor confusion. He used every part he grabbed in assembling the gun, never discarding a part. His firm approach caused the seasoned soldiers to feel astonished.

What? Did this kid keep watch over a military armory? Did he just assemble guns when there was downtime? Otherwise, how could he be so fast?

With a bit of disbelief, Iron Hand slowly stood up and came to Qin Fen’s side. He had been the one to prepare all the parts on the table. Iron Hand just needed a sweeping glance to know what parts were being used in assembling the gun.

A modified HK45C pistol lay quietly by Qin Fen’s hand. Qin Fen’s two hands hadn’t stopped for a break upon the finished assembly of the gun. Instead, his hands began to quickly assemble a second gun.

Iron Hand couldn’t believe it. Qin Fen’s style in assembling his second gun was completely different from when he assembled the HK45C. Could this newly assembled gun even be used?

The gun barrel had a unique length of three hundred millimeters and a caliber of point sixty inches. It was specially modified to take in armor-piercing projectiles. The recoil spring was directly installed within the gun barrel. It was a design that completely pursued the greatest destructive power. The crazy recoil and balance of the gun were completely disregarded.

Such a focus on destructive power completely disregarded the material properties of the gun. Could the gun endure the modification? Iron Hand estimated that firing only two or three shots would completely wreck the gun.

After a quick examination, Qin Fen was very satisfied with his just-in-case gun. It was a weapon to be used in a situation with no other options. He placed the gun on the table.

“You…. are you sure?” Iron Hand was a bit suspicious. Just which madman had produced this disciple? The other recruit, Xue Tian, had come in a bit earlier than Qin Fen, and he was freakish enough. Iron Hand never thought that Qin Fen would be even more freakish.

Qin Fen was able to use the existing parts on the table to assemble two guns in a short period. One of the guns had an extremely fast firing speed, but it could only penetrate a single person with its power, after which the bullet would have no power left. The other gun had a power that was explosive to the extreme, yet the same firing speed. Iron Hand didn’t dare say that he could have a better performance than Qin Fen if he were to personally try it himself.

Iron Hand was a special forces soldier of ten years, but he might not be able to beat this recruit in terms of assembling guns. Iron Hand felt a bit of a loss of face.

“Kid, you’re decent at assembling guns, but how are your skills and abilities in actually using a gun?”

A seasoned soldier, who sat at a different desk not too far away, pointed at a fifty-meter target. He faced Qin Fen with his gaze, telling him to shoot and see.

Qin Fen extended an arm to grab his gun. One of the seasoned soldiers was leaning against the wall. He placed a hand below the desk; there was something that controlled the movements of the target under there, specifically used to train someone’s shooting skills and reactions. It was also something they used to bully recruits.

Qin Fen grabbed the gun, lifted his hand, and pulled the trigger!

At the same time, the target moved to the right.

Kachink…

The sound of the striker rang in the air, but there was no sound of a bullet being fired.

The seasoned soldier controlling the target revealed a hint of shock on his face. At the same time, Qin Fen’s lips curved faintly into a smile, having guessed the situation correctly.

Qin Fen had completely learned and applied the psychology that Squad Leader Hao taught him. He had felt that everyone wanted to display a show of strength the moment he walked into the room. Heaven knows if they would cause issues with the target. He simply pretended to fire, seeking to see what the reaction would be like before doing anything else.

The seasoned soldiers were stunned, and the recruit Xue Tian also revealed a face of shock. Xue Tian had gotten the worst of it during this part; the target deviated from his shot. He really didn’t know if Qin Fen was just lucky in a misfire or had Qin Fen guessed correctly.

While everyone was still in shock, the gun in Qin Fen’s hang rang out!

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang…

Six series of shots were shot in rapid-fire, displaying the limits of the firing speed of the modified gun in Qin Fen’s hand.

Six bullets were used, but only three bullet holes were left in the target.

Qin Fen was displeased with his own performance. The performance of the modified gun and bullet was likely due to his quick shots. He didn’t have the time to feel the gun in conjunction with the bullet. If Gun King was here, he would probably toss over a case of bullets for Qin Fen to practice hard.

The same performance gave the seasoned soldiers a different feeling from their perspectives. Though Qin Fen had been tricky, seizing the moment of shooting six shots at a fixed target rather than a moving target, his performance was beyond that of a typical recruit.

This was especially true since the gun was just assembled. There needed to be some time to get familiar with the gun. How did Qin Fen have such a great performance?

Clap, clap, clap…

The hall was silent, causing Xue Tian’s slow claps to sound particularly crisp.

“Hey, seniors.” Xue Tian slowly dragged out his words. He jumped from a crate of ammunition to the ground. “Hurry up and do your last show of strength with firearms. If you can’t get that right, then you guys really will lose face.”

The last show of strength? The seasoned soldier’s eyes lit up once more. The last show of strength was the curve shot!

Whether it was being able to hit a moving target or a fixed target. this was all on the level of an ordinary soldier.

For a true expert in firearms, those who had mastered the curve shot were the only ones who had truly stepped into the palace of shooting.

“Do you see the apple behind me, kid?” Iron Hand pointed at an apple fifty meters behind him, his head in the way. “Stand right there, don’t move an inch, and shoot! Strike the apple with my skull blocking your line of sight, and you will pass the test of the first stage. If you’re scared of killing me, then you can also give up….”