Standing around the middle-aged man was a group of young new recruits. They too turned their heads and stared at Benjamin, but their eyes were not friendly.
Immediately, Benjamin sensed that he was not in a pleasant place.
Are those cliched plot in the novels about to happen to him?
He took a deep breath. Benjamin had no choice but to clench his jaw and walk towards the group.
"What’s your name?" The middle-aged man asked.
Benjamin thought for a moment before intentionally leaving out his surname, "I’m Benjamin."
The man curled his upper lip in a show of superiority, "So you’re the brat from the Lithur family, the useless one, right?"
A laugh was heard from the crowd.
Benjamin could feel how the stares of the crowd shifted the moment the word ‘Lithur’ was said. The stare of those surrounding him turned into those of envy and disdain.
He could only sigh deeply in his heart.
The military forces in the Kingdom of Helius held a special status, and they were not intimidated by the nobles, nor the royalties. Although they spoke of loyalty towards the country, but in actuality, they were only loyal to the church.
They are not be afraid of offending the nobles, as the nobles had no relations with them in any way. Thus, the nobles would find it difficult to find trouble with the army. Moreover, the army’s is backed by a much higher authority than those of a noble.
Besides, according to their values, the nobles were the ones that they look down on the most, even more than the common folks. In their point of view, the citizens worked hard to put food on the table; the nobles however, were a bunch of leeches that would just sit around do nothing and are utterly useless.
Thus, it definitely will not be easy for a noble that had joined the army ranks by accident.
As Benjamin thought to himself, he began to study his surroundings. He noticed that this was not a normal training camp the moment he stepped into the place. A normal training camp would not be as narrow and long and the soldiers would not be wearing these weirdly bulky uniforms. Additionally, the camp grounds would not have a row of targets lined at one end of the field….
He came to a conclusion quickly: This is a gunfire training ground.
Claude sent him here to learn shooting?
Benjamin was dumbfounded. Claude would never do that! The incident in the castle was started by a gun, and Claude’s intention was for him to suffer through some hardships so he could learn to behave and not cause him more trouble. But to let Benjamin learn how to handle a gun, was he implying that Benjamin's trouble-making skills aren't strong enough as it is?
None of these make any sense!
"Alright, since this is a command from the top, I have no say in this matter. From now on, you’ll follow our training regime," the middle-aged man did not care about Benjamin’s thoughts. He added in a disregarding manner, "Have you touched a gun before? Oh, do you even know what is a gun?"
Snickers were heard from the crowd.
Benjamin did not take that into heart. Honestly, this level of ridicule was not even close to the taunts of the System. Benjamin was already immune to them a long time ago.
Yet, it was the phrase ‘command from the top’ that had caught his attention. He suddenly had a feeling that it probably was not Claude’s intention to put him in the gunfire training grounds.
It was probably the work of Claude’s ‘friend in the army’.
Since he was born, it was no secret among the nobles that he was weak and susceptible to illnesses. At this point, the people in the military probably knew about it too. General Gray probably misunderstood Claude’s words and thought he wanted his child to learn something from the army. And after much consideration, General Gray had arranged for Benjamin to be sent to the gunfire training camp. Here at the gunfire training camp, there isn’t much intensive physical training that would exhaust Benjamin, and the thing about shooting is that even people with low stamina could do it. Benjamin could learn a thing or two here.
He really need to thank this General Gray for his wise ‘misunderstanding’.
The fact that he could learn how to use a gun was right down Benjamin’s alley. This was a type of combat skill, and one which he’d be able to utilize openly in battle. As he will need to move around in the Kingdom in the future, he must be very careful about using his magic. Thus, it was not a waste of time for him to learn a combat skill that could be used out in the open.
Also, he quite liked the idea of learning how to use a gun. Who wouldn’t?
Hence, Benjamin decided to stay around for some time. Claude mentioned to only train in the mornings anyways, he would still have time to learn magic.
After he thoroughly pondered on the matter, he faced the laughters of the crowd and answered calmly, "Oh, guns. Of course, I’ve touched them before."
He did touch a gun when he was having a struggle with Dick. So technically, he wasn’t lying.
Not only did he touch it, he was at the end of the barrel! Everyone here had probably shot a gun before, but aside from the middle-aged man who is likely the instructor, would have ever been pointed by a gun. After all, these recruits looked like newbies who had never been on the actual battlefield.
A gunfire training ground for recruits. This General Gray really did put an effort in finding the right arrangement for Benjamin. If Benjamin ever had the chance to meet him in the future, he must gift him a Nao Baijin [1].
The laughter from the crowd gradually quieted down upon hearing Benjamin’s reply. It was as if the recruits had found a new toy and their faces were one of surprise and interest as they looked at Benjamin.
The middle-aged instructor did not say anything. He just chortled, and took out a pistol from around his waist and tossed it over to Benjamin.
"Since you’ve touched one before, show me by taking a shot with it," Said the instructor as he spoke with disinterest.
The instructor had tossed the gun so sudden that Benjamin was unable to react immediately. He caught the gun ungracefully which caused another round of snickers from the crowd.
Once the gun was in his hand, a chill spread from his palm to the rest of his body.
Benjamin shrugged at the laughter and said, "This gun is quite heavy, it’s quite different from the one I had touched."
The laughters from the crowd turned louder.
"This dude is quite hilarious, he’s not like the other nobles."
"Is he really a noble?"
"Didn’t you hear? This one’s a little slow since birth."
"..."
These nonsensical whispers were overheard by Benjamin. However, he acted as if he could not hear anything.
He held the gun firmly in his hand, raised it and aimed at a target 30 metres away.
Initially, Benjamin wanted to release the safety catch on the gun, but he soon found out that it was unlocked in the first place. His impression towards the middle-aged man were renewed once again. He had slotted the gun on his waist with the safety catch off! Does he have a death wish?
The danger of this matter was more serious than if someone had placed their phone in their pockets without first locking their screen. The most that could happen with an unlocked phone would probably be sending a gibberish message to your mom saying, "Eat shit happened saw you send quick fucker." On the other hand, if the pistol had misfired, his nether region would be bleeding!
"Oh, just shoot. Stop dilly-dallying!" Someone in the crowd shouted.
"Oh, apologies, I was distracted," Benjamin replied with a raised brow.
He was delaying from firing the gun, not because he was fussing over the safety catch, nor was he worried about missing the target. Instead, it was because something weird appeared in his vision the moment he raised the gun.
An interface similar to that a shooting game had appeared before him: distance, aiming system, wind speed, information for the pistol, number of remaining bullets, the enemies’ health…... It was as if he had worn a VR goggle and was playing a shooting game, and his vision had the standard interface for these games.
Was it the System?
"Nope, that wasn’t me," the System blurted out before Benjamin could ask, "I don’t know where this thing came from. Blame yourself for downloading random things off the internet. which triggered a forced installation of a ton of internet games. It couldn’t even be deleted. This is the games acting out, I had no part in this."
"... I wasn’t planning to blame you," Benjamin said in his heart, "I thought you finally became useful and was planning to praise you. So, this was none of your work, huh…..."
The System was silent for a second it changed its statement, "Who said I didn’t contribute to this? It’s all because of me. If it wasn’t because my hard disk capacity was large enough to store all these software, you wouldn’t be able to have this many item stored on your laptop."
Benjamin chuckled silently. He had expected the System to respond in that manner.
Because Benjamin had been preoccupied with the appearance of the shooting interface and his conversation with the System, he had yet to fire a shot. This then cause the crowd to call out Benjamin with a shout, "Oh, just shoot already. Stop dilly-dallying!", to which Benjamin retorted casually, "Oh, apologies, I was distracted."
The crowd snorted in amusement. Some of them even started clapping, as if they were watching a comedian shaking a bag out on stage in the theatres.
"This person is really entertaining. Nobles nowadays had regressed into this…..."
Bang!
A gunshot rang through the air.
The laughters stopped immediately, as if a quacking duck was suddenly choked by someone else.
The target 30 metres away now had a tiny but eye catching hole right in the middle of the redeye. Although it was blurry due to the distance, but the hole was clear in everyone's eyes like a torch in a starless night.
Dead silence.
Benjamin put down the gun and cleaned it. He turned and saw the shock on everyone’s faces, and adapted the look of innocence as he spoke naively, "Um…. Did I shoot the wrong target?"
Nobody laughed this time.
Everyone stared at him as if he was a monster, their eyes no longer containing a single trace of the taunts they had before.
It was during this moment when Benjamin understood why the web novels always included this trope, where the main character would pretend to be weak and be ridiculed by people, before exposing their incredible abilities at the very crucial moment.
The feeling of pretending to be a professional is actually quite fun.
Translator Note:
[1] Nao Baijin is a health supplement product in China. It is marketed as a brain supplement for the old folks and it claims to strengthen the brain and prevent the signs of old age.