In the Name of God - Chapter 26.1
Park Jung-geon tapped the railing of the stands slowly with the fingers of the hand supporting his chin while sitting cross-legged. He, who had been indifferent to the 197 awakeners who went before, widened his eyes at the two gunshots that had just echoed from the D Barrier.
Once his eyes grew wide, they did not shrink even after the man in the white coat had walked out of the D Barrier.
“Wow…”
A belated, genuine sense of awe slipped out.
“Did you just see Number 198?”
“I saw him. He finished unbelievably fast.”
A trace of expectation was in Estelle’s voice as she replied.
But that was all.
It did not meet the reaction Park Jung-geon had been hoping for. Frustrated, he clicked his tongue.
“Finishing fast is not the problem.”
“Then?”
Tilting her head, Estelle asked again. Park Jung-geon leaned his face close to hers. Startled, she almost struck him before he pointed to his own eyes, causing her to freeze.
“That guy… his eyes are insane.”
“Insane how?”
“Not like crazy in a weird sense. I mean truly insane eyes. And even if it weren’t for that, he’s an insanely skilled shooter.”
“If you’re not crazy yourself, stop speaking in riddles and explain properly.”
Park Jung-geon rolled his eyes in frustration and gestured toward the test arena below the stands.
“You’ve seen that long-range weapon users rarely pass, right?”
“Yes. Strangely, many of them fail. Even though the monsters were weak, like ones from an F-rank dungeon.”
Estelle looked confused. From her perspective, the distance from the monster meant that if one aimed well at weak points, the fight could have been over before getting close. Such shallow thinking was possible only because she had never used a long-range weapon, being a close-combat fighter.
“Most of them probably couldn’t hit the weak spots, right? Number 197 carried out of barrier C just now nearly died before doing anything.”
It was a very simple formula: shoot before it reaches you.
Unlike Estelle, however, Park Jung-geon had understood long ago that this test was never that simple. A close-combat fighter like Estelle Laurent could never understand the ‘awkward inconveniences’ faced by long-range shooters.
“The examiners intentionally set it up this way. To filter out unskilled rookies who rely solely on long-range weapons.”
He pointed with the hand supporting his chin at a long-range shooter who had just entered another barrier.
“The seven-meter distance is awkwardly short and awkwardly long. With a reaction time to aim under half a second, it’s an extremely inconvenient setup for long-range shooters.”
A charging-type monster slowly rose at a seven-meter distance in front of the shooter. With a tense expression, he drew a costly-looking crossbow, likely having invested a significant amount.
“Moreover, the monsters deployed all charges quickly. By the time the shooter focuses on aiming with their weapon, the distance will be less than half. They can’t fully take advantage of their initial range.”
As if to prove his point, the monster charged as soon as its chains broke. It seemed the monster’s speed was faster than expected, and the shooter’s expression showed panic as he aimed his crossbow.
“There are almost no people who can maintain composure, aim at weak points, and hit them accurately, even twice without error, when the distance shrinks like this.”
The shooter barely managed to fire, but the arrow hit the monster’s shoulder, not its weak point. As he tried to aim again, his stance completely collapsed, forced to avoid the rapidly approaching monster.
“You know what’s amazing about the eyes that can shoot so accurately in an instant?”
“What?”
Watching the monster overwhelm the shooter and force him to signal surrender, Estelle became interested in Park Jung-geon’s words.
A smirk appeared on Park Jung-geon’s face. He tapped his chest with his thumb.
“Guts. Confidence.”
He recalled Number 198 leaving the barrier without changing expression.
“He’s not going to get into close-quarters combat, but even if he does, he can handle it easily. That’s the confidence he has.”
That is a guy destined to succeed.
A truly remarkable guy.
“I don’t know why he has a ninth-rank tag, but he’s going to rise in the blink of an eye. I guarantee it.”
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
