Sam gazed at the masterpiece of firearms in his hands. The revolver was, to put it mildly, stunning. He had noticed how incredible it looked before, but now, holding it, he felt a unique connection with it.
"You're mine."
It was as if the revolver had become an extension of his hand—a rather unusual feeling. The grip was incredibly comfortable and pleasant to the touch, and the style perfectly matched Sam's tastes.
'Those horns on the sides could be removed and... What?'
The revolver had an odd feature—two long horns on its sides, just above the cylinder, curving toward his palm. The moment Sam thought about it, the horns crumbled to dust, which then absorbed into his hand. Surprised by this, Sam immediately decided to conduct a few experiments with his new weapon.
First up was altering its form. He was curious if his wonder weapon could transform into something other than just a revolver. Maybe into the pistols at his waist, or perhaps even a simple knife. He pulled one of the pistols from his holster and inspected it. In his mind, he gave the command, and the revolver began to disintegrate slowly.
But, alas, the experiment failed. His weapon tried to mimic the pistol's shape but ultimately reverted to its default revolver form—minus the horns, at least.
'Well, that would've been too much.'
Indeed, if the weapon could change shape at will, it would be incredibly versatile. That would've put an end to any questions about his new weapon. Sam set the pistol aside and took another look at the revolver. The next experiment came to mind right after he removed the horns.
If he could remove parts, why couldn't he extend or modify the weapon itself?
With that thought, Sam tried to command the revolver to lengthen its barrel. This time, the weapon fully obeyed him. The dust that once formed the horns flew from his hand and carried out the command. The barrel extended by five centimeters, making the weapon seem rather bulky. Thankfully, Sam didn't need a holster for it.
He then attempted to return the weapon to his hand by giving it a mental command, and it instantly disintegrated, turning into dust and flying back into his mechanical palm.
'Now this is what I call technology!' Sam grinned, pleased.
Nodding to himself, he summoned it again, this time without having to repeat any commands like "obey." One more important experiment remained in Sam's mind, and to be honest, any person who received such a weapon would want to try it.
'Time to test it.'
Sam decided to move further away from the vehicle to avoid waking the girl. As he walked, the gentle breeze of the desert night pleasantly caressed his face. Sam took a deep breath, feeling a bit lighter—it always felt good to breathe fresh air, though... who doesn't?
After moving over a hundred meters from the vehicle, Sam glanced at the revolver again and then at the nearest large rock. It didn't particularly stand out in the desert, and while driving, Sam sometimes had to slow down the buggy to prevent it from falling apart entirely.
Raising the weapon, Sam aimed at the rock, noticing that it had no front sight, only a mounting adapter. But before he could react, a holographic sight in the form of a circle appeared on the adapter. Sam brought the weapon closer to his face to inspect how it worked.
'Wow, it even has a built-in sight!'
As it turned out, there was a small hole above the barrel where the adapter was, likely the source of the holographic sight. He mentally commanded the sight to deactivate, and the collimator sight's hologram vanished.
After turning it back on, Sam confirmed that his weapon was still nearly perfect. Finally, the moment of truth had arrived. Sam placed his metallic finger on the trigger, exhaled, and held his breath, causing the sight to steady. The rock was fairly large, so Sam was unlikely to miss, but he decided to do so anyway.
'Distance to target... about 30 meters, perfect.'
And then, Sam pulled the trigger. His muscles tensed, and he slightly leaned forward to compensate for the recoil. But... nothing happened.
"Huh?!" Sam exclaimed in surprise.
Why wasn't it firing? Was he supposed to give a command for that too? Sam felt a bit frustrated.
He aimed again and commanded the weapon to fire, but again, nothing happened. He saw the cylinder spin and then realized what might be causing the problem. Ordering the weapon to open the cylinder, Sam saw exactly what he expected. The cylinder was empty—no bullets. What was even more surprising was that the cylinder looked a bit unusual.
It had six chambers, naturally for bullets, but there were slits between them, suggesting one thing to Sam—it was collapsible. But that wasn't the main issue right now.
"Uh... where do I get bullets?"
This was a big problem. If Sam didn't fire the weapon right now, he wouldn't be able to sleep later! Anxiety grew in his chest, and his mood worsened until another interesting test came to mind. Sam commanded the weapon to produce plasma rounds, and to his amazement, the cylinder slightly rotated, emitting a faint glow, and then... nothing. The cylinder just spun a bit, as if mocking Sam.
"You little...! Just let me shoot!" Sam said, tossing the revolver to the ground. His expectations were utterly shattered, leaving him extremely disappointed. Maybe this is how the monkey in the complex felt? Was it even alive anymore?
As soon as the weapon touched the sand, it disintegrated. Sam quickly commanded it to return, and after a few seconds, the revolver was back in his hands, still without bullets.
For about 15 minutes, he tried to think of different types of ammunition it should shoot, but the cylinder just kept spinning, causing Sam to throw the weapon onto the sand or off to the side repeatedly, only for it to keep returning to its frustrated owner.
Sam eventually sat down on the sand, his mood in the dumps, and his hopes of a cool shot that would shatter the rock ahead of him evaporated. Who wouldn't dream of a weapon that could blast any huge rock into pieces? Well, at least Sam dreamed of it—he didn't care about others.
He took another look at his weapon and lazily commanded it to summon any kind of bullets that would serve for a shot. The moment he thought it, the cylinder spun again, but this time... something different happened. The barrel shrunk by the five centimeters he had added earlier to the horns. The remaining dust flew to the cylinder and formed a single bullet now sitting in the chamber.
Relief washed over Sam's face. He exhaled and closed the cylinder, aiming the weapon at the rock again. The holographic sight reappeared, and the excitement in his chest grew with anticipation. Sam repeated the aiming process and quickly pulled the trigger.
The first thing Sam saw was a split-second beam shooting from the weapon. The bullet was as fast as it could be. The recoil was strong enough to lift Sam's hand slightly, causing him to sway. Dust rose around Sam but quickly settled.
The sound of the shot was like a thunderclap—thunderous. Sam could already guess that the girl would soon be yelling at him. But right now, he didn't care; he felt immense joy knowing that his weapon could indeed shatter a rock because when he looked at his target, it was blown to bits.
A few fragments even landed near Sam, but all he felt when looking at them was victory.
Sam decided to take one more look at his revolver. Smoke was rising from the barrel, and he could hear the faint crackling of electricity.
'Dude, this is insane! With this weapon, I could...'
But before he could finish his thought, he heard someone running on the sand. He already guessed who it was, so he took a deep breath and turned to see Jade running toward him. Her face... was far less excited than his.
"Hey, listen, I summoned this weapon and it..." Sam started to explain when suddenly he felt a sharp pain as something hit him in the nose.
He fell to the sand, feeling not only the lingering ache in his hand but also a throbbing pain across his face. He was about to start yelling at Jade about what she was doing, but she beat him to it.
"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!"
Sam was stunned. Jade was clearly furious. He hadn't expected the shot to be so loud, but to his surprise... it hadn't even deafened him, which he only realized now. And that was... awesome?
"This..." Sam tried to say, but she cut him off again.
"Fine, I didn't say anything when I woke up to you mumbling to yourself about someone obeying you... But then you decided to blow something up?! Idiot, I might hear you, but did you think about the fact that we could be being hunted right now?! No, even worse... that creature could still be following us, and you decided to... do whatever this is!" she raged, not holding back her emotions.
"Come on, calm down..." Sam said, frowning at her outburst.
"Yeah, sure, whatever you say, pal! Nothing bad happened, and you did everything right! You only fired this thing once, so why not shoot it again? On second thought... better not. You might think you're still dreaming and decide to shoot me in the head. You're such a genius thinker, aren't you?!"
Sam felt like he was being scolded in school for some mischief, and it was definitely not a pleasant feeling. Sure, he understood that he messed up, but did she really have to blow it out of proportion?
"Enough! Just tell me not to do it again, no need to make such a big deal out of it!"
The girl sighed heavily and simply turned away, not even bothering to ask what kind of weapon Sam had been using in his "tests." That stung him a little.
The rest of the night passed more quietly. The girl went back to sleep after yelling at Sam, though, honestly, he didn't really care.
Who would mess with someone who's got a freaking railgun?