Chapter 7 - Heavy Machine Gun
translator: xiin
editors: b.u.t.ter, celtic & juurensha
Within the bright and sunny training room, White Moonlight Entertainment’s specially invited tactical instructor took out a small notebook and began to record the contestants’ qualifications one by one.
Out of the four trainees, two of them were old partners who had partic.i.p.ated in the previous Crosson Show. Zoe was an expert sniper and had worked together with Wen Lin, a support player, for two full seasons. One would act as a scout and call out shots for the other to take.
The other trainee was a potential reserve a.s.sault player for White Moonlight’s professional team, Phantom Caesar.
It took Wu Jin a very long time to figure out that Phantom Caesar was this big brother’s stage name.
Caesar shot Wu Jin a grin, his dyed bronze hair fluttering in the wind as he crouched there like a magnificent lion... or a chowchow.
The selection process for the c-position was based on giving everyone a chance to display their specialty, followed by an anonymous vote.
Wu Jin sat obediently in the audience area, and when it was his turn, he sang a pop love song from the blue planet.
“……” The instructor looked down at the information column and was instantly amused––Wu Jin, White Moonlight trainee. Contract signed: 23 hours ago, Training time: 0 hours.
“Alright, vote.”
Wu Jin bit the end of his pen and thought back to his three teammates’ gun performances just now, and voted for the sniper Zoe.
Zoe then won with three votes. The remaining vote went to Wu Jin.
Wu Jin: “!!!” Which person was trying to be cute and voted for me?!
At that moment, the instructor sent him a fond look, his expression declaring his innocence in the matter of this vote.
Zoe’s name now had the letter ‘C’ in front of it. The screen flashed, then switched to display the theme that White Moonlight Entertainment had drawn for the next match––The Wild Desert.
“The second evaluation match will last for a total of seven minutes. It is held within a holographic simulation environment where the desert surface is . Yes, when the time comes, there will be six fans blowing hot air at you. Remember to bring an ice pack before going in so that you can minimize heatstroke.”
The screen zoomed in to display the map of the scene. The instructor continued, “This desert map has appeared on the Crosson Show a total of eight times. Your enemies are the giant lizards that are approximately half as tall as a normal human. Note that there are only a limited number of weapons to choose from; cold steel weapons are basically optional. There will be three waves of giant lizard attacks over the seven minutes, and those who fail to defend themselves during the attacks will be eliminated.”
It suddenly occurred to Wu Jin that this second match was basically a tower defense game played with a small team.
“If the lizards get close to you, a small number of points will be deducted. If no points are lost, a B grade is practically guaranteed. A brilliant performance may result in an A or S grade rating. Remember, your initial trainee rating will determine the frequency of your appearances during the subsequent shows and later matches.” The instructor paused and glanced at Wu Jin, “Of course, exceptions might be made for certain players.”
“Alright. If there are no more questions, we’ll start training.”
Wu Jin quickly raised his hand, “Teacher, what position am I?”
Instantly, four pairs of eyes quickly concentrated on one spot.
The instructor gestured and retrieved the trainee’s performance report from the company system. He received a harsh shock from the miss rate on the report.
“… Little Witch, how about this? You can lay down fire from the front!”
Laying down firepower was commonly known as ‘shooting randomly’. Submachine guns, heavy machine guns, or other similar weaponry would be used to create a powerful line of fire at the front of a team, and the person in charge of this would usually stand about two body lengths behind the main a.s.sault position.
… After considering it for a moment, the instructor finally chose to switch Wu Jin to the front.
This was just in case he missed a target and hit his teammates; Caesar would end up eliminated on the spot if that happened.
Once their positions were set, the next step was to confirm their stage appearance.
Four contestants wearing only uniform black outfitsk2013;k2013;once the sand lizards came close, the judges might even deduct points just because they couldn’t see them clearly!
Their faces were painted with totems representing the splendor of the desert. The make-up artist spent a total of five minutes painting the first three faces but spent half an hour pondering deeply when it was Wu Jin’s turn.
The moment the dressing room door opened––the crowd of contestants was all a little stunned.
The originally slightly rounded corners of Wu Jin’s eyes were drawn out with long, slender lines; the strokes on the left side wound downward and outlined a scorpion on the upper part of his cheek.
If it was said that this juvenile was originally more on the cute side, then he now had traces of devilishness. When paired with his clear amber eyes, the end result appeared both innocent and cruel.
Caesar, who held the a.s.sault position, slapped his thigh and shouted, “I say, why didn’t you guys vote for him as the center?”
Wu Jin opened his eyes wide, “What did I do…”
The cruel pincers of the sand scorpion totem painted on his face instantly transformed into two small triangles.
The make-up artist hurriedly reminded, “Facial expression, pay attention to your facial expression!”
The instructor coughed, “Be serious! Alright everyone, let’s go to the shooting range for practice!”
The training facilities for White Moonlight were very good. The instructor had picked out a cartoon model of the lizards from who knows where and stood outside the holographic training grounds with a laser pointer. A lizard would emerge from the flat ground wherever the laser pointed.
Wu Jin dutifully laid down fire with the machine gun for a full seven minutes. The team missed the first two lizards, then gradually honed their coordination together, and there were no more incidents.
However, the instructor’s brows were twisted into a frown.
“Come here.” As soon as he waved, Wu Jin immediately set down the machine gun and quickly ran over, followed by a line of the other contestants, “You guys tell me, where does the problem lie?”
Wu Jin was frank as he admitted, “I’m dragging everyone down!”
C-position Zoe blushed, “I didn’t carry.”
Support: “I also…”
The instructor sighed, then pointed at Caesar, “What about you? For better or worse, you’re about to become a reserve player. What do you think?”
Caesar’s thick forearm landed on Wu Jin’s shoulder. “He’s not looking at me!”
Wu Jin fell into a daze and was almost patted onto the floor.
The instructor was gratified and nodded, “We are a team. We have to have team spirit, eye contact.” He thought about it, then added, “It’s best if the audience can read a story from it. There are two frontlines. The c-position and support, as well as Little Witch and Caesar, you guys have to remember that your positions aren’t only for fighting, it’s also for the audience. Alright, let’s do it again!”
They practiced like this for seven hours and the sky had already turned dark.
For survival show contestants, there was no such thing as standardized rest time.
Sleeping had to be done before the game and they had to be full of energy throughout the game. Unless they became a ball as soon as they hit the ground––during a formal game, they had to be ready for 48 hours of endless hard work.
It was only during the seventh hour that the instructor finally set up a real combat environment for the four of them to practice in.
Desert maps had only appeared a total of eight times in the Crosson Show. Every video was precious.
For a moment, Wu Jin even had an illusion that he was still in high school. The headteacher was full of heartache as they handed down the paper, “This is last year’s college examination questions. After you’re finished with it, there won’t be any more. There’s only this once––”
At the tenth hour, the instructor finally announced that the training had been completed.
Unexpectedly, Wu Jin stayed behind in order to continue practicing with his heavy machine gun.
Caesar carried his ** with him as he swayed his way towards Wu Jin’s side. The next moment, there was a “Yo!’ sound as he fiercely slapped Wu Jin on the shoulder.
Wu Jin didn’t have enough time to react and an ammunition belt full of bullets slipped to the ground.
“Not bad, Little Witch!”
After ten hours of ‘eye contact’, Caesar felt very familiar with him and casually sat to the side. On the electronic statistics screen for the machine gun, Wu Jin’s aiming compensation (the compensator was used to increase the ballistic distance stability and targeting stability, making firearms easier to control) had already decreased from 64 units to 22 units.
From the fourth hour onward, Caesar had been able to faintly detect a steady increase in the damage output from the machine gun within their team.
Aiming compensators were commonly used tactical equipment for snipers. A heavy machine gun did not require precise aim, but because Wu Jin was a novice, the training equipment was still roughly equipped with an aiming compensator.
The original a.s.sumption was that it would take Wu Jin two days to reach 30 units and below; unexpectedly, it only took him ten hours to achieve this goal.
Being a genius was one of the most important qualities when it came to survival show contestants.
Caesar drank down two mouthfuls of water, then dragged Wu Jin with him to go back and rest.
However, experience still held more weight than being a genius or having talent.
Wu Jin might be able to become a barely qualified heavy machine gun gunner after half a month in the a.s.sault position, but there was only a little under six days until the evaluation match.
At Wu Jin’s current level, he might be able to sc.r.a.pe a ‘D’ grade if he was lucky and met a judge who was a sucker for pretty faces.
It was difficult to raise their initial rating on the Crosson Reality Show. Caesar could understand what Wu Jin was thinking, but he was also certain that, based on Wu Jin’s face, even if he couldn’t get into the show this season––there would definitely be thousands of shows waiting for him later on!
“Little Witch, let’s go. I, your big brother, will take you back to the dormitory, and we can get to know each other a little better. Don’t practice if you’re tired. The initial score isn’t that important for us.” Caesar waved his large hand and bent over, his explosive lion’s mane of hair instantly blocking Wu Jin’s line of sight.
Wu Yu was very grateful but refused politely, “Thank you, brother! But I’d still like to stay a little longer.”
Caesar was surprised, and there was now a little more appreciation in his eyes. “Alright, don’t stay too long. Remember, you have to be at the dormitory by 4 AM. There’s extra training.”
Wu Jin nodded and made a mental note before waving goodbye to his teammates.
It was now ten o’clock in the evening.
Directly after the audition, Wu Jin had slept for a long time. Moving around a little more didn’t feel that tiring to him right then, so he continued to practice with the heavy machine gun within the holographic simulation environment until the number on the compensator slowly dropped from 22 to 21.
According to the instructor, he would be able to get rid of the aiming compensator altogether when it dropped to below 10 units. A heavy machine gun’s suppression came from its ability to fire continuously; aiming with the naked eye was much faster than aiming and firing through a compensator.
The lights in the practice room were only bright in his area. As soon as Wu Jin lifted his head and looked up, he almost lost track of whether he was training with guns or dancing.
Even after changing directions as a trainee, the rhythm of his life was still unchanged.
His memories overlapped and Wu Jin finally felt a familiar sense of stability.
White Moonlight Entertainment, first-floor monitoring room.
One of the security personnel was checking the monitoring floor by floor. They were suddenly stunned, “Why is there someone still in the training room?”
“He should be the newly recruited trainee from yesterday, right? He’s quite small and doesn’t look very old. We haven’t seen him around before.”
Wu Jin’s height was stuck at 178cm. As an idol and performing artist in the blue planet’s entertainment industry, he could be considered quite average. However, when compared to the muscular, well-built bodies that were typical amongst the survival show contestants, he was a little short.
The youth in the training room only put down his machine gun a very long time later.
Just when the security personnel thought that they could close down the room, Wu Jin excitedly jumped up and happily tried all the weapons his teammates had used in the shooting range one-by-one before leaving in satisfaction.
The security personnel smiled and locked the door behind him remotely.
At eleven o’clock, Wu Jin went around the canteen and bought some food for the rabbit. As soon as he stepped through the door, he saw the rabbit gnawing at a training sheet.
“Brother Rabbit, don’t chew that!” Wu Jin hurriedly went over and lifted up the little rabbit by its soft, fluffy ears. This paper from one thousand years in the future carried a silver sheen; who knew what kind of heavy metals it contained? This was the rabbit that big boss himself had personally entrusted him with!
On the training sheet, it was just as Caesar had said––there was a special training session that would be held in the middle of the night at 4 AM.
“Dear White Moonlight trainees, being able to fall asleep quickly when on the field is the best way to regain your strength. So, when there’s an enemy attack––will you be able to quickly shift back into battle mode again?”
“This dispersal exercise will begin at four o’clock in the morning.”
“Goodnight, and sweet dreams.”
Wu Jin read it over, stuffed the rabbit into a good spot, and gave it some food before unconcernedly going straight to sleep.
In his dream, he had gone in for an interview as a performing idol, finally danced the performance he had practiced for three months––and then he had been politely rejected. He had dejectedly made his way to the door, where he saw big boss leaning lazily against the wall, playing with the shotgun in his hands––
The alarm went off abruptly.
“Enemy attack! Enemy attack! Trainees who have heard the announcement should gather at the second floor and sign in as quickly as possible!”
Wu Jin’s expression was full of ‘there is no love left in this world’ as he got out of bed and prepared to run out. He was still wearing a White Moonlight Entertainment t-shirt, but he had kicked off his pajama bottoms at some unknown point in time, and his legs were bare under the hem of his shirt.
In the darkness, the door to his dormitory room was right in front of him.
Wu Jin squinted as he reached out to turn the handle. He was caught by surprise when he heard the subtle sound of metallic friction.
It was the sound of a gun’s safety lock being thumbed off.
Wu Jin froze, a chill running down his back. Even if this was a training exercise, it still felt a little too real. He was the only one who had a key to his dorm room, and the training sheet had clearly stated that it was a practice drill––
Wu Jin’s heartbeat sped up, and any bit of lofty aspirations and determination he’d had disappeared in a second. He raised his hands and slowly, slowly, turned back––Immediately afterward, the light in his eyes glowed, and he opened his mouth excitedly.
“Close your mouth, don’t shout.” Wei Shi interrupted him before he could begin. He held a Browning gun in his left hand as he mercilessly pointed towards Wu Jin’s two slender, pale legs. His gaze was cold as he commanded, “Put your pants on.”
b.u.t.ter: Hubby doesn’t want others to see Darling’s bare legs (*/ω＼*)
Celtic: awww, Little Witch dreams of his hubby and hubby appears. <3
xiin: “Put your pants on.” heeheeee~
sponsored chapter – thank you MaevaLily, Samie, & Dust!~