Chapter 21: Coarse Old Patrick

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

This place was also considered the police department’s collaborative partner, as this was where the town’s police force practiced shooting.

Robert was old acquaintances with the owner of this place. After they entered into an agreement to make this place a training location for the police department, the entire police force was offered a special discount.

Also, because of the agreement, most of the police force didn’t bother to keep an eye on this place.

No business would enjoy being under the watchful eye of the police force. As for whether or not this place made extra income from any less than legal side activities, Robert couldn’t be bothered about it.

This was Texas. Any random house would contain several firearms. Walking along the street with a rifle slung over one’s back was a common occurrence here. In fact, open carry was allowed by the law here.

The owner of this place was an old man of about 50 years of age with a head of white hair. When he saw Selina walk over, he whistled and said, “Wow, the beauty is here again.”

Selina gave him the finger and said, “Old Patrick, leave your dirty talk to those strippers in Knox City.”

The old man shrugged. “Business has been bad recently, so I haven’t visited that place in a while.”

At that moment, he noticed Luke behind Selina and immediately smiled. “Ohh, look who’s here. The little girl from Robert’s household! Why are you here? I thought you hated guns?”

Luke wasn’t offended. Patrick was a person with an extremely coarse mouth, but a long time ago, Luke had taught him a lesson. Since then, he had been pettily calling Luke a little girl.

This was because Luke had always been lukewarm toward firearms, and for people like Old Patrick, a real man would always love firearms.

In fact, he was already pulling his punches when he called Luke a little girl because of how close they were.

Luke gestured at what he was wearing and said, “See?”

Old Patrick curled his lip. “It’s just a police uniform. What’s so special about it?” There were police officers coming here almost every day to practice shooting.

Luke replied, “If you see it, why do you need to ask? I didn’t train previously because I wasn’t interested. Now, I’m training because of work. Are you telling me that all chefs love to cook before they become chefs?”

Old Patrick was speechless, unable to offer a retort.

Work was work; just because someone was performing a task as part of their job didn’t mean that the person loved it.

Luke gestured at Selina as the two headed to the shooting range behind the store.

Everything was bigger in Texas, including the shooting range.

Especially shooting ranges outside of town like this one. The owners could make them as large as they wanted.

When Luke and Selina headed over, the shooting range looked empty at a glance. However, the sound of gunshots could still be heard.

Only when they took a proper look did they see that there were about five or six people practicing shooting at the range, and even with that number of people, the place still felt rather empty.

When the two arrived, one of Old Patrick’s employees came over with guns.

Selina was a regular customer here. Unless she made a special request, she had the same requirements every time she was here.

As for Luke, Old Patrick still held a grudge against this fellow who had been able to counter his words to the point of leaving him speechless since young. Thus, Old Patrick didn’t bother asking Luke what he needed, and directly gave him the same gun that Selina used.

But of course, Old Patrick had still glanced earlier at the gun Luke had at his waist, and recognized it as one of the guns most commonly issued to police officers. Five out of ten police officers would be issued this gun.

Luke was curious. “Are we not using our own guns?”

Selina said, “Sure you can. But aren’t you here for practice?”

Luke replied, “Yes. Wouldn’t it be easier to learn with our own guns?” After all, in the novels he read, things like “gun sense” and so on were frequently mentioned.

Selina said, “...You aren’t a complete rookie. Please tell me you’re not totally clueless about guns.”

Luke replied, “Oh, sure, I know how to fire a gun. I have all the basic skills. I just have bad aim.”

Selina said, “That’s your answer. If you have bad aim, shoot until you have good aim. And to have good aim, you just have to practice and become good through sheer amounts of it. Before you reach the height of your talent, the only thing you need to do is shoot and get used to the sensation of shooting.”

Luke had a pensive look. “I see. Practice until it becomes second nature.”

Selina asked, “What?”

Only then did Luke realize that he had accidentally spoken Chinese, so he quickly changed his words. “In other words, so long as I have the basic skills, I only need to achieve a degree of familiarity and my aim will improve along with it. Am I right?”

Selina nodded. “Yes. Therefore, to quickly improve your aim, the easiest way is to come here and shoot a gun about 100 times or so after work each day. Of course, if your hands can take it, firing 200 or 300 shots would be even better. In a few months, your aim will naturally improve.”

Luke nodded. “I understand. Why can’t we use our own guns though?”

Selina rolled her eyes. “To improve quickly, you’ll have to fire thousands, if not tens of thousands of shots, in a few months. After that? You’ll need to change your gun barrel. And after that, your aim will be affected. More importantly, you need to write a report when you change the barrel. That’s way too troublesome.”

Luke was hit by a realization. “I see.”

Selina picked up the gun provided by the store and started inspecting it as she spoke. “Therefore, when I come by, I use the guns here most of the time. As for my own gun, I’ll only fire it a couple of times every few days just to retain a certain level of familiarity with it. With that, I might only need to change the barrel once before retirement.”

Luke: “...Should I praise you for being so smart?”

Selina looked at Luke suspiciously. “Why do I feel like you’re mocking me instead?”

Luke: “Hehe.”

Next, the two stood about seven or eight meters away from each other and started practicing.

Selina’s movements were extremely fast.

She had been in the force for five years. She started at nineteen, and was now twenty-four. Her marksmanship had long reached the limits her talent would allow. If her full potential was 100, she was already currently at 90.

Thus, she only needed to come every few days to practice and keep her skills polished.

In less than 10 minutes, she emptied two magazines. She placed her gun down, removed the empty magazine, and went over to check on Luke.

After watching for a bit, she couldn’t help but start to give him advice.

Luke had indeed learned how to use a gun, and he had even learned from a veteran like Robert. Thus, he had a stable foundation and his firing motions were very textbook-like.

But he rarely fired a gun, and his interest hadn’t lasted long. Real life wasn’t the same as an action film. After a few days of target practice, he got bored and stopped practicing.

Because of that, he was akin to someone who once learned to drive and had a driving license, but still couldn’t drive well.

When handling and firing a gun, he had many bad ticks. Without someone else to correct him, he wouldn’t notice these bad habits.

Selina slowly corrected all the bad habits.

Right now, Luke was in a different state of mind.

When he learned from Robert in the past, it had been a hobby.

But learning from Selina now, it was for work.

And thus, he was learning seriously, which yielded completely different results.

Of course, Selina’s aim wasn’t as good as Robert’s. In fact, her aim was much worse. That was because she only had a police background and her training was generally in accordance with how the police did things. And in terms of handling guns, there was a difference between the police force and other professions.