At the end of the opening ceremony, the 32nd Olympic Games officially commenced.
When Jiang Chen received the schedule, he looked slightly surprised.
The first qualifying round of the ten-meter air rifle that he signed up for was actually on the first day of the Olympic Games, and it was in the morning, which completely surprised him. After he asked Zhang Yaping, he learned that it was an almost unwritten rule for the air rifle to be the first competition in the Olympic Games.
Originally, Jiang Chen planned to take some time to practice, but he didn’t expect that he would be competing the day after the opening ceremony, which made the situation somewhat awkward. He never even touched the air rifle used in the game before, let alone practice.
If the Xin Olympic Committee learned of this, the officials would suffer a heart attack. They were ignorant of their conscience to rank him as a level B athlete. Since there was no level A air rifle athlete in Xin, he barely qualified to represent Xin.
Since he was about to compete, it was obvious he didn’t practice!
“Have you tried this before?” Wang Tao handed the rifle to Jiang Chen with suspicion in his eyes. As a shooting coach, Wang Tao kept his eyes on him.
Generally speaking, on the night before the game, athletes often chose to have a good rest, especially shooting athletes. This kind of event that required a high degree of concentration meant that the athletes had to get adequate rest before the game to ensure proper focus during the competition.
It was the first time in his life to see an athlete like Jiang Chen who was practicing right before the competition.
“Don’t worry, don’t worry,” Jiang Chen waved his hand to comfort him. He loaded the air rifle and aimed it at a target ten meters away, “I just want to get the feel before the game.”
As he said this, he raised his air rifle, aimed at a target ten meters away, and pulled the trigger.
BOOM
The bullet hit the target accurately.
When Wang Tao saw the number that jumped out on the electronic target, his eyebrows twitched.
“How many rings?” Jiang Chen raised an eyebrow triumphantly as he put the air rifle aside, then he smiled at Wang Tao, revealing his shining white teeth.
Wang Tao responded with a smile that looked more like a cry, as he said in defeat.
“0, you missed the target…”
…
A shooting competition and the use of firearms were two different concepts.
The latter was an application of technology, while the former was a form of art.
How difficult was the 10 meter air rifle? Jiang Chen didn’t realize until he stood in front of the target .
The target was the first issue.
It was no exaggeration to say that the tenth ring was actually only the size of a needle tip, and the entire target was only the size of a dollar coin, and it was still ten meters away from the athletes. Imagine the difficulty to shoot a coin at a distance of ten meters?
People with poorer eyesight wouldn’t be able to see the target, let alone compete in the game.
Because of this, Jiang Chen, who stepped into the competition stood at the 14th shooting position, still felt somewhat nervous. He was debating if he should use his genetic code Peerless. Strictly speaking, an air rifle was also a weapon. If he used Peerless, he could master the weapon to the extreme and hit the bullseye.
Except…
Is it cheating to use his hidden genetic code?
“Are you sure you have touched an air rifle before?” Next to Jiang Chen, Matthew Emmons, an athlete that represented the UA, glanced at the way he held the rifle, then he teased Jiang Chen, “If you haven’t, I can teach you.”
When Jiang Chen realized someone was talking to him, he laughed and responded.
“Don’t worry, I have touched more guns than you have ever seen.”
“Really?” Matthew sneered. “Before I retired, I was the ace sniper of the Marine Corps. I don’t know where you get your confidence.”
“Then I will give you an example,” Jiang Chen said, “Have you heard of the Reaper Sniper Rifle? There is also the PK2000 which the standard configuration of the Celestial Marines, I’m sure you have never touched it before. In my view, M4A1 and M16A2 are both toys compared to the PK2000.”
Matthew raised his eyebrows. As he was about to argue, the referee’s voice came from the side.
“Athlete 14 and Athlete 15, please be quiet, the competition will start soon.”
Jiang Chen shrugged and didn’t continue to banter with the man. He picked up the air rifle and took a few false shots at the target in front. The model of the rifle was different from the one he saw in the hotel, but the weight and texture were not much different.
Jiang Chen glanced sideways at Matthew, and read the disdain and mockery from his eyes. However, Jiang Chen just curved up the corner of his lips.
If at first, he was hesitant to use his hidden genetic code, now he completely made up his mind. Since he no longer needed to inject to activate his hidden genetic code, it shouldn’t be considered cheating.
The competition officially started.
Jiang Chen put the rifle on the shooting rack, then slowly loaded it. He put his shoulder behind the butt of the rifle, held the rifle in his right hand, narrowed his one eye, looked down the sight, and muttered in his mind.
Peerless!
Everything in his field of vision was plated with a layer of light blue, and all colors faded to a cool tone. All sounds were slowly amplified in his field of vision and gradually distorted in the elongated slowness. The rifle in his hand seemed to be connected to his body, just like his fingers, everything from aiming to pulling the trigger was so natural.
Jiang Chen accidentally discovered that his skill had subtle changed unconsciously.
He couldn’t tell exactly what changed, and when it happened. At this moment, he was completely immersed in the deep internal realm, as if he was the only person with the only rifle in the entire stadium.
The bullet hit the target before it left the rifle…
When Matthew saw the way Jiang Chen held the rifle, he almost burst out laughing.
Holding the rifle with one hand?
Do you think you are James Bond?
Even the most basic shooting posture is wrong, how do you expect yourself to win?
But the moment the electronic scoring system returned the score, Matthew couldn’t laugh anymore.
In order to help the audience understand the game, when the bullet hits the target, the electronic scoring system would record the rings, and the hit would be shown in real-time on the big screen. The previous hits were presented as green dots, and the current hit was shown as a red dot. After the coin-sized target was zoomed out, every spectator could see where the bullet hit the target.
Because Jiang Chen was the first player to shoot, when the red dot first appeared on the big screen, almost all audiences around the world noticed this different shooter and the red dot that hit the bullseye
“Ten!”
“Wait?! That works?!”
“That must have been a lucky shot. You can hit a ten by holding the rifle with one hand? I don’t believe it!”
The camera gave Jiang Chen a close-up shot, and audiences all over the world were amazed by his one hand posture. Although they thought it was must have been a fluke, the audience still cheered him on.
Jiang Chen did not pay any attention to the audience behind him, in fact, he didn’t stop at all. He continued to pull the trigger with fluidity.
The 10 meter air rifle qualifying round consisted of shooting 60 rounds of bullets from a standing position to a target ten meters away. The total time limit including the test firing was 1 hour and 45 minutes. There was quite an ample amount of time, but Jiang Chen didn’t plan to waste any time at all.
With Peerless activated, it would put an excessive load on the body.
There was another shot that landed on ten, and the reading jumped to 10.9.
Without stopping, Jiang Chen kept holding the rifle with one hand and continued to pull the trigger.
Following the new rules of the Rio Olympics, the 10 meter air rifle qualifying competition also introduced decimal points. Each player was required to fire ten competition shots in each group for a total of sixty competition shots. The best score for a single shot was 10.9, and the eight players with the best total score advanced to the final.
In a blink of an eye, Jiang Chen had already fired ten shots and all of them hit the bullseye without exception.
From the initial excitement to the now dumbfoundedness, the audience seemed to have forgotten to applaud. They just stared blankly at the player who used the air rifle as a pistol. Even the famous athletes like Zhu Qinan and Sokolov who stood not far from Jiang Chen all stopped aiming, as they looked at the number 14 position in a shocked state and looks of disbelief.
In the audience, people whispered to each other.
“I heard that the target is only the size of a coin.”
“I see, that’s why I can’t even see the bullseye!”
“This marksmanship is too abnormal. Isn’t it a little bit…”
“Jiang Chen…wait, this name…it can’t be the same name, right?”
“WAIT, that’s insane, another identity of the world’s richest man is actually an Olympic athlete?!”
The referee behind Jiang Chen kept his eyes fixed on his movements. He watched Jiang Chen pulling the trigger and the numbers on the electronic scoring system with disbelief.
When he emptied the bullets in the magazine, he skillfully took the rifle down from the shooting rack and loaded the bullets into the magazine.
“You can take a break; you have 1 hour and 40 minutes left in the game.” The referee reminded him.
“No need.”
The referee opened his mouth, but no words came out.
In fact, he wanted to say, “You can take a break, I’ll get someone to see if the electronic scoring system is malfunctioning.” However, with how nonchalant Jiang Chen looked, the referee couldn’t say anything, so he watched him put the air rifle on the shooting rack, lean in, and continue to fire with one hand.
A total of sixty bullets were all shot in less than six hundred seconds.
The athletes in positions 15 and 13 stood there blankly and completely forgot to shoot.
“I’m done, you go.”
Jiang Chen smiled at Matthew as he put the rifle aside and left the stadium in swift steps.
Behind him were dumbfounded athletes and referees, and a group of dumbfounded spectators.
The red dots on the electronic scoring system were almost strung together into a line, and the counter next to it was flashing with bright red numbers.
640…
It was only 14 away from a maximum score of 654.
