"...Since you want to gamble, fine, I agree. However, my gun has more bullets than yours. What do you want to compare?"
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka weighed the all-metal air pistol in his hand. The grips had a natural walnut wood pattern, making it look almost like a real gun. It felt incredibly smooth to the touch, much better than any replica.
Ikishima Midari glanced at the gun in Ayanokoji's hand and nodded thoughtfully: "A SIG-ASP, a 4.5mm sport air pistol from Sig Sauer. While it can't compare to the Remington 1875 revolver air pistol I use, it's more than enough for a beginner."
"Indeed… your gun has more bullets than mine. So, we won't compare speed or overall scores. We'll just see who hits the bullseye first."
"We'll take turns firing. Whoever hits the bullseye first wins!"
"Alright, let's gamble like that," Ayanokoji Kiyotaka agreed.
"However, I'm a novice, so you'll have to go easy on me," he then added.
"No way. As you just saw, my marksmanship isn't that great either. Maybe you'll get lucky and hit it before me?"
Ikishima Midari didn't have the same confidence in shooting as she did in the "knife between fingers" game, so she couldn't afford to make concessions to Ayanokoji.
She said with a smile, returned to her previous position, raised her silver-white revolver, and pulled the trigger with a bang.
Missed the target.
The scoreboard showed no score.
This result was within Ikishima Midari's expectations. She pouted, then turned her head and gestured to Ayanokoji with a nod: "Your turn."
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka walked to the lane next to her and raised the air rifle in his hand.
This gun had no safety. He mimicked Ikishima Midari's earlier movements, using the fixed sights on the gun to aim at the target, then pulled the trigger—
With just a slight pressure of his finger, the bullet flew out of the barrel via air pressure. The lead pellet hit the outermost layer of the circular target, leaving a bullet hole.
1 point.
So this is what it feels like to fire a bullet… Ayanokoji Kiyotaka felt a sense of unreality.
After all, having always lived in peaceful times, he truly had no concept of firearms. At most, he'd played shooting games like CS:GO or Rainbow Six, knowing some classic gun models.
Then there were toy rifles that fired yellow plastic soft pellets, used for shooting balloons in parks. The feel of those was vastly different from real guns.
But the one in his hand, though an air pistol, gave Ayanokoji Kiyotaka a strange experience, as if he were using a real gun, especially when he saw the power of the lead pellet fired.
"Not bad, it's already impressive not to miss the target on the first shot," Ikishima Midari glanced at Ayanokoji and praised him.
"But it's useless, isn't it?" Ayanokoji Kiyotaka shrugged; "Your turn."
In this gamble, they would take turns shooting. Whoever elegantly hit the bullseye first would win.
Since both parties acknowledged this as a "gamble" and set a "stake," the system recognized the legitimacy of this game.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka habitually kept a safety net. He could open the system now and activate "Eye of the Reaper" for his next shot, precisely hitting the bullseye and ending the match.
However, that would make the game boring. He rarely got to visit a shooting range, and with his private pass, all bullet consumption was free. He naturally wanted to enjoy shooting first.
Just as Ikishima Midari said, shooting was indeed a difficult process to get the hang of. Aside from the first shot, Ayanokoji missed the target for several consecutive shots.
During the first few shots, Ikishima Midari was still diligently aiming and shooting, but the results were unsatisfactory.
However, when she noticed that Ayanokoji Kiyotaka was a complete novice, she dropped her initial seriousness and focused on mocking Ayanokoji instead.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka also retorted defiantly. Although her score was slightly better than his, her best score was only four points, still far from a perfect score. What right did she have to mock him?
Eventually, both of them seemed to have forgotten the initial gamble, treating the stake as an "extra," and more so enjoying the process of shooting, which they didn't usually experience.
Not long after, before even one round was over, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's gun ran out of bullets. He suddenly found that the bullets wouldn't fire; pressing the trigger did nothing.
Before Ayanokoji Kiyotaka could speak, Ikishima Midari glanced at it and said: "The air in this air pistol has run out."
"Airguns rely on compressed gas to propel bullets. As the number of shots increases, the pressure of the compressed gas decreases, eventually making it impossible to shoot. Generally, an airgun can only fire ten to twenty bullets. After that, you need to replace the gas cylinder."
"However, your gun doesn't need to be so troublesome. It uses a special rotary compression structure, and the refilling process is very simple; you just need to fold and press the barrel back and forth."
As she spoke, she took the pistol from Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's hand, pressed the hammer, and rotated the barrel upwards using the front end of the "slide" as a pivot to open the gun. As it opened, the compression rod and air chamber also unfolded.
Ikishima Midari held the grip with one hand and the "slide" part with the other as a handle, then pressed the "slide" back, quickly completing one compression cycle.
Like using a bicycle pump, she repeated the above process several times to further increase the air pressure.
The barrel of this gun was located inside the "slide." When the "slide" opened, the breech end would be exposed, and lead pellets could be directly loaded into the rear of the barrel.
While refilling the air, Ikishima Midari also helped Ayanokoji Kiyotaka reload his bullets.
"You're quite skilled with pistols," Ayanokoji Kiyotaka exclaimed.
He could at most press "R" for a quick reload. If he had to reload manually, he truly wouldn't know how. Moreover, he was completely clueless about air pistols, which have a special structure. He hadn't expected Ikishima Midari to possess this skill.
"Hmph… I've practiced," seeing the surprise on Ayanokoji's face, Ikishima Midari laughed triumphantly: "I've always wanted to come to a shooting range, but unfortunately, I only really got my hands on an air pistol after junior high."
She said, looking with longing eyes at the counter outside the glass window: "But… what I really want to touch is a real gun. Unfortunately, I don't have a permit. Even if I offered that guy more money, he wouldn't let me touch a gun…"
"Isn't that obvious?" Ayanokoji shrugged: "These training ranges are registered with the police. If even one gun has an issue, the entire establishment might have to shut down for rectification."
"Although the gun in my hand is quite similar to a real one, the difference is still too great… it lacks the smell of gunpowder and blood."
Ikishima Midari murmured, raising the silver revolver in her hand and pointing it at Ayanokoji Kiyotaka.
"When I hold it, I can feel that this isn't the gun I want. Even if I point this gun at you, there's no real sense of being able to take a life…"
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