Chapter 14: First Contact With The Sniper Rifle
The night air was slightly cool. Chang Ning returned to the dormitory with the lights-out signal, but if he had been even a little later, he would have been caught by the military police.
Old Ma the Squad Leader had not forgotten what he promised Miao Lian. Through more than half a month of observation, he discovered that Chang Ning was a self-disciplined person who never skimped on training.
Such a good disciple is hard to find even with a lantern. Since they had met, what harm was there in teaching him his skills.
Having made up his mind, Old Ma the Squad Leader already had several cultivation plans in mind. These plans were all ones he had come up with in his spare time over the years.
“Chang Ning, stay behind for a bit.”
In the morning, Old Ma the Squad Leader called out to Chang Ning who was heading to training.
“Yes.”
Suddenly being called by the Squad Leader, it seemed like he wanted to chat with him alone. This made Chang Ning inwardly start to worry. He couldn’t help but sort through whether he had done anything wrong in the past couple of days.
“Relax, young man, don’t be nervous. Calling you over isn’t anything bad.”
Seeing Chang Ning’s unusual expression, Old Ma the Squad Leader, who had lived half his life, knew exactly what was on his mind.
After finishing his words, Old Ma the Squad Leader ignored Chang Ning’s reaction and walked straight out of the kitchen.
Seeing this, what could Chang Ning say? He had no choice but to follow him.
Besides, there was nothing to worry about. Not to mention he hadn’t broken any rules— a clear conscience fears no shadows! Even if he had broken rules, they would follow the process. They couldn’t just find an empty corner and beat him up, right.
Having psyched himself up, Chang Ning followed the Squad Leader, and his expression gradually became strange.
He was extremely familiar with this road. Every time after training when he had free time, he would take this road to the armory to find Xiao Zhuang.
As Miao Lian’s clerk, Xiao Zhuang was also in charge of managing the armory. Therefore, Chang Ning could play with the big guns too. He had handled weapons like the 40 fire, but to fire rocket launcher ammunition, he needed to request permission from Miao Lian.
“Log it, I’m taking two 85 snipers.”
Entering the armory, Old Ma the Squad Leader said this to the duty Xiao Zhuang and walked right in. His proficient manner showed he was definitely a regular.
“Chang Ning, you’re not going to training today?”
After carefully logging it, Xiao Zhuang looked up and saw Chang Ning standing nearby. He knew how obsessed this guy Chang Ning was with training. Normally, he should be striving on the training ground right now, but today he had unusually come to the armory.
“I was going to, but the Squad Leader dragged me here. Maybe the Squad Leader is going to teach me some other things.”
At this point, Chang Ning remembered the photograph he had seen on the wall when he first arrived at the cookhouse dormitory that day.
“You’re still more comfortable in the cookhouse. Train when you want to. I’m watched closely by Miao Lian here.
That said, people are just cheap! I’ve gotten used to being trained by Miao Lian. If there’s a day without training, it feels a bit uncomfortable.”
How could Xiao Zhuang know that later, when he got into trouble and left the military unit, he would become irritable and decadent, nowhere near as self-disciplined as now.
“What’s there to envy? To prepare breakfast for you all, I get up earlier than the chickens every day!”
Hearing this from Xiao Zhuang, Chang Ning immediately objected, indicating that Xiao Zhuang had some misunderstanding about the cookhouse.
The Night Tiger Reconnaissance Company was the sharp knife of the Great Merit Regiment. When sent out, they had to fight and win!
How could Miao Lian let the cookhouse idle? They just had more random training, but it wasn’t easy at all!
“Alright, you two will have plenty of time to chat later. Now, Chang Ning, come with me to the shooting range.”
Old Ma the Squad Leader, carrying two 85 snipers, put the bullets in Chang Ning’s hands and interrupted their chat. Seeing that it was time to prep vegetables and cook again, he didn’t have time to wait for the two young guys to finish talking.
Since the Squad Leader had called him, Chang Ning didn’t want to keep the Squad Leader waiting. Besides, he and Xiao Zhuang were just chatting idly, nothing important.
Chang Ning could only give Xiao Zhuang an apologetic smile before hurrying to follow behind the Squad Leader.
Actually, when Old Ma the Squad Leader took him toward the armory, he had pretty much guessed what the Squad Leader wanted to do.
Guessing the Squad Leader’s intentions wasn’t hard. First, Miao Lian’s thoughts and his own situation were crystal clear to Chang Ning.
To put it arrogantly, with Chang Ning’s own talents, he could outmatch 90% of the veteran soldiers in the Night Tiger Reconnaissance Company.
Not to mention anything else, just Chang Ning’s scout 100-meter speed shooting completed in 30 seconds during the new recruit company was enough to make the scouts despair.
So Miao Lian couldn’t let him stay in the cookhouse forever. At most, it was a transition, plus having Old Ma, this former elite sniper, train him.
Combining Miao Lian’s intentions with the Squad Leader’s unusual behavior today, Chang Ning easily deduced the above conclusions.
Early spring was still a bit cold. On the shooting range, Chang Ning lay on the ground in prone shooting position, holding an 85 sniper just brought from the armory.
“The 85 sniper rifle in your hands has a caliber of 7.62mm, muzzle velocity of 830m/s, uses 7.62x54mm ammunition, effective range: 1000m
Full gun weight 3.8kg.
Its predecessor was an SVD captured during the South Border Defense War.”
“Today, your mission is to fire all these bullets for me.
Tonight, I have some things to give you.”
After simply explaining the information on the 85 sniper to Chang Ning, Old Ma the Squad Leader left. He was very busy and didn’t have time for detailed explanations. Everything depended on Chang Ning figuring it out himself.
‘Am I being free-range trained?’
Chang Ning smiled mockingly to himself, but no big deal. He was the self-learning type anyway, and with the golden finger boost, he could check his progress on the experience bar anytime. If the experience wasn’t increasing, it meant his learning method had issues.
After Old Ma the Squad Leader walked far away, Chang Ning then called out the golden finger.
“Name: Chang Ning (Private)”
“Age: 19 years old”
“Stamina: 350/???”
“Rifle Shooting: 100/100 (Cannot upgrade)”
“Knife Skills: 100/100 (Cannot upgrade)”
“Sniper Rifle Shooting: 0/100”
“Note: This system’s level is linked to the host’s military rank. Please strive hard, host!”
The golden finger hadn’t changed much, still so plain. But it was fairly intelligent. Aside from no helper sprite, everything else was fine.
Chang Ning now had a bit of a headache. After stamina experience broke through 300, the growth speed had slowed.
“Whatever, if it’s slow, so be it. At least it’s still rising.”
Having comforted himself, Chang Ning began to focus on shooting. Don’t think that maxed rifle shooting experience meant much carryover to sniping—it was actually very little.
Sniper rifles had longer range, so they were much harder than rifles, with more interfering factors to consider. But now, Chang Ning didn’t need to think about that much. He just needed to fire off these 100 bullets in his hands.
The target wasn’t beyond the 85 sniper’s range. Old Ma the Squad Leader knew Chang Ning hadn’t touched a sniper rifle before, so he placed the target at 1000 meters.
His task today was to get the bullets on target, then take the target paper to show Old Ma the Squad Leader.
Chang Ning guessed the Squad Leader wanted to analyze his bullet impacts. Good shooters had very clustered bullet impact distributions.
At maximum effective range, even the best sniper wouldn’t dare guarantee every shot on target, because the moment the trigger was pulled, environmental interference factors had to be considered.
