I left my room in the middle of the night with the handgun rattling uncomfortably in my pocket. I headed towards the shooting range, a dome-shaped building consisting of 20 training rooms located east of Dorm 1. The targets were oddly distributed around the sharpshooter because magic arrows could easily change their trajectory.

— Rank 934, Kim Hajin, confirmed.

An unfamiliar robotic voice called my name when I held my smartwatch against the entrance. Indeed, my name had changed from Kim Chundong to Kim Hajin. I walked inside feeling a bit odd. Ten doors evenly stood apart past the wide circular lobby. I held up my smartwatch against a door.

— Rank 934, Kim Hajin, confirmed.

It opened to a simple shooting range. The center of this circular 130 square meter area contained a scaffolding for the shooter. I walked towards the low scaffolding and stood on it. A courteous robotic voice rang out from the ceiling.

— Initializing targets. Please select the number of targets. You may choose between 2 and 20.

“Ten.”

My voice rang out and blue insects popped up from the ground. I looked at the targets surrounding me, mole crickets that could barely be considered monsters. They were similar to the mole crickets everyone knew, but bigger.

— Select your difficulty from stage 1 to stage 9.

Higher levels naturally meant targets moved faster. At stage 9, targets also attacked. Their attacks would only sting at best, but I still considered them dangerous.

“Stage 4.”

I set the difficulty to 4 and loaded my magic bullets. It would’ve been possible to compress magic power into bullets, but the current me didn’t have such talents. Even if I did, using a bow would be much more destructive and efficient.

“Start.”

I notified the system and aimed at the leftmost target. The slow mole cricket seemed to notice as it sped up. It scuttled around without a set pattern, but I could see an afterimage of its future path. I pulled the trigger after predicting its movements. 

A blue flare shot out from the barrel. It didn’t make a loud bang like the guns from Earth. The bullet silently pierced the mole cricket. I didn’t even bother to check the results. I moved on to the next target as I fired. My hand moved on its own. One, two, three, four… ten. I pulled the trigger 10 times as the mole crickets scattered into mana particles. Only 2 survived.

“Oho.”

I was quite impressed. I managed to hit every mole cricket except the farthest 2 after gaining my gift.

— Your training has ended. Elapsed time: 1.37 seconds. Sharpshooting score: 80/100

In just 1.37 seconds.

“This is pretty fun.”

An eternal truth. The better you are at something, the more fun it is. It was fun because you were good. I felt like I was at the arcades and shouted start once more.

***

An eternal truth. No matter how fun something is, doing it 20 times makes it boring. I ended my shooting practice at around 3 A.M. After leaving the room, I relaxed my sore finger and heard a noise from next door.

— Whoosh Whoosh Whoosh

The faint sound of shockwaves from arrows cutting through the air. Curious, I snuck a peek. I shouldn’t have been able to see, but I saw through the door. It turned faint and the interior revealed itself. The scene I saw showed why bows were superior to guns.

“It’s Chae Nayun.”

Chae Nayun practiced with a serious face. Four magic arrows sat on her bow. She still lacked magic power technique, so she couldn’t perform a split shot that multiplied a single arrow into different directions.

— Whoosh!

Chae Nayun released the bowstring. Her arrows left a blue trace as they hurled towards 20 targets and obliterated them.

“Amazing.”

I exclaimed in shock. Still, Chae Nayun’s real aptitude wasn’t for bows. Another weapon suited her more, but just what kind of a setting did I make if she was already this good? Suddenly, Chae Nayun turned around and met my eyes. She couldn’t see through the wall, but I still felt strange and quickly escaped.

***

[Sharpshooting training has increased your gift’s proficiency by 3%] [Repeated sharpshooting training has increased your gift’s proficiency by 2.9%] [Luck has been applied! Your perception and speed have increased by 0.1!] [Repeated sharpshooting training has increased your gift’s proficiency by 2.8%]…

The above messages appeared on my laptop. Master Sharpshooter’s proficiency shot up along with bonus stats from my luck. I gained 50% in proficiency EXP thanks to the gift’s low grade. Achieving grade 9 didn’t seem too difficult.

▷[Master Sharpshooter] [Low-intermediate rank] [Spirit attribute] [Evolving — Grade 10] [Proficiency EXP 50%] — Master Sharpshooter’s Training: Familiarity with all long ranged weapons — Thousand-Mile Eyes: Can see far away and somewhat predict a target’s movement path. — Bullet Time: Only in combat and once every 24 hours, you may spend 3 seconds in bullet time.

This gift seemed better the more I thought about it, especially how it applied to every long ranged weapon. It was easier to currently raise my proficiency with a gun, but I would have to switch eventually since bows were stronger.

“But what’s up with the SP?”

[You have obtained 0.2 SP!] [You have obtained 0.2 SP!] [An auspicious gift! You have obtained 1 bonus SP.] [You have obtained 0.2 SP]…

I only obtained 5 SP after practicing for 20 rounds. Choosing a gun as my main weapon gave me 64 SP, which meant standing out gave more SP than quietly training.

“Tsk.”

I only received a small amount, but I still had uses for it. Our dreaded combat training would take place tomorrow. I needed to make up for my lacking physical abilities to score even the fewest points. My biggest problem was stamina. I was weaker than an ordinary person after investing everything into luck.

[Training Sneakers] — Specially crafted sneakers. Will increase stamina and speed by 0.3 points.

“Maybe with this…”

The easiest way to fix my problem was with equipment. I began to tap on the keyboard.

[Mystical Training Sneakers] — Specially crafted sneakers with a mystical power. Will increase stamina and speed by 0.3 points. Will enhance energy and stamina recovery.

[You do not have enough SP.]

The modification I made was canceled without any adjustments. I wasn’t too surprised. After all, I only had 5 SP, but it was still too early to give up.

[Mystical Training Sneakers] — Specially crafted sneakers with a mystical power. Will increase stamina and speed by 0.3 points. When activated, energy and stamina recovery is enhanced for 1 hour. After use, this effect cannot be used again for 24 hours. This effect disappears after 1 month.

I added 3 restrictions to save SP. A 24 hour cooldown, a 1 hour duration, and its effect would disappear after 1 month.

[You have used 5 SP. Would you like to save?]

“Oh! It worked!”

I ecstatically hit the Enter key and a blue light flashed from the laptop. The dancing light melted into sneakers with a streak of color on them.