Surprise! The Supposed Talent Show Was Actually-?! Chapter 52

translator: xiin
editors: apricot & juurensha

Wei Shi's face was clearly expressionless, but it somehow also seemed to be full of rage.

Wu Jin quivered and drew a solid, fat checkmark under the fourth option.

It was obvious from his handwriting that he had already lost all his courage.

The form was respectfully delivered over to the big boss. Wei Shi returned it back to the charge machine--there was a 'ding', and the automatic card charge went through successfully, the sweet sounding prompt ringing out again.

Wu Jin's gaze skittered as it followed the path of the questionnaire, his pupils shrinking slightly in the moment the fee was deducted.

Instructor supervision, 1000 credits/hour.

Monthly package, yearly package, plus service charge, selection fee, tip…

His vision darkened.

He seemed to have returned to the White Moonlight Entertainment Building.

Zoe looked sad, "Little Witch, how could you spend money like this?!"

Caesar hollered, "Little Witch! Who stole your credits?! Big brother will stand up for you and beat that bastard up!"

Secretary Qu shook his head pitifully, "Little Witch, how come you just bought some nuts, hard candy, and small steamed buns with last month's salary, and still managed to use it all up…"

Wei Shi saw the rabbit spirit huddled in the corner, crying silent sobs of poverty. He couldn't help but tsk when he saw that his gaze had already gone stupid.

"Come here." The man commanded.

Wu Jin trotted over to look at the stress training evaluation form in big boss's hands.

Beneath the dense training data were simple and easy to understand graphs. Over the course of the two-hour training, the resistance time decreased the fastest, followed by the panic time, meaning that the trainee had basically adapted to the beginner stress scenarios.

In contrast to the lines that represented significant progress--the curve that represented 'stress aggressiveness' was consistently lower.

In short, his offensive awareness was weak, and it wasn't easy for him to start shooting.

Wu Jin could also vaguely sense his own training bottlenecks even without generating a report.

Wei Shi plucked out the pen that Wu Jin had just used to fill in the questionnaire out of his hand and drew a circle around 'stress aggressiveness'. "Tell me about it."

Wu Jin hesitated, then fumbled for words, "… It seems that this is primarily expressed through gun sense. Just now, during training… even during normal training, it's very hard to find a sense of the gun…"

Wei Shi grunted an affirmation.

Ever since the audition when he saw the rabbit spirit pasting himself up against the tree foolishly, Wei Shi had already known that he'd never touched a gun before.

In the consciousness of the vast majority of Federal residents, guns had always been connected with aggression, violence, and war. Most of those who could overcome this psychological barrier and choose survival shows as their career had extroversion levels in line with such a consciousness.

According to Wu Jin's character and background, it would be much more difficult for him to get gun sense than other trainees.

Seeing that the rabbit spirit had started to think chaotic thoughts again, Wei Shi spoke again, "I said before, E's have their own way of playing."

Wu Jin lifted his head, his eyes bright and sparkling.

The training room's weapons arsenal opened up.

Wu Jin followed behind him, sticking his head out from time to time, only to see the big boss pick out the most common hunting gun and hand it over, "Try this."

Wu Jin nodded. The dynamic target at the other end of the training room lit up.

He aimed with bated breath and abruptly pulled the trigger--as expected, it was like the first shot every time he practiced, off-center as usual.

Gun sense was built up through the accumulated experience of countless shots.

In dynamic shooting, the contestant would usually become increasingly accurate with each successive shot. In actual combat, however, there was no time to warm up, let alone get used to a gun.

Wu Jin obediently returned the hunting gun. Wei Shi didn't speak as he accepted it, aiming it straight at the target and shooting accurately.

Wu Jin's heart throbbed violently, his eyes widening of their own volition.

This wasn't the first time he'd seen the big boss shoot; his movements were clean and neat, and every inch of his body's muscles and bones seemed to link together for the sake of the moment when he pulled the trigger. He looked deadly attractive as he squinted and aimed.

White smoke drifted from the muzzle of the gun. The man glanced over at Wu Jin, "How does it feel?"

Wu Jin subconsciously blurted, "Like it's brilliant--" He quickly swallowed back the second half of his sentence as rationality returned, "Scanning is up to par, accurate trajectory control…"

Wei Shi interrupted him, "There's no brilliance when you shoot."

The man's gaze dipped slightly and locked tightly on Wu Jin. The youth stilled, and something seemed to flash across his mind, "Wh, what--"

Wei Shi: "The light disappears when you're afraid."

Wu Jin was stunned.

Then, Wei Shi did something unexpected--six powerful ceiling lights switched on at the same time, the light sources hot and bright, lighting up the whole room until it was as bright as day.

This wasn't the kind of lights that training rooms should have.

Before Wu Jin could react, his blood had already started rushing through his veins, one step ahead of his muscle memory and pushing him into an extremely familiar and excited state.

These weren't common ceiling lamps. They were better known as projection lights, wall-washing lights, or--stage lights.

Wei Shi raised his eyebrows and spoke from behind the youth, "Your best position is on stage."

Wu Jin sucked in a breath and turned swiftly.

Wei Shi: "How many years of dance training have you had?"

Wu Jin replied subconsciously, "Eleven years--" He then looked at Wei Shi in amazement, his amber eyes full of confusion, "Big, big brother, how did you know?!"

Under the strong ceiling lights, the rabbit spirit who had suddenly been seen through stood there stupefied.

Wei Shi analyzed briefly, "The theme song choreography, good flexibility, and you're more familiar with dancing than your teammates are with guns." He summed up calmly, "Your big brother isn't blind."

Wu Jin: "……"

A flash of something that could reluctantly be described as a pleased expression flashed across Wei Shi's face, only to suddenly be covered up again by the familiar cold and hard lines.

Wei Shi: "What dances did you learn."

Wu Jin finally reacted, like waking up from a dream, "Classical dances, hip-hop, jazz, break dancing, locking…"

Wei Shi tossed him the gun, "Start with break dancing."

Wu Jin was stunned. Hesitating, he looked at the floor and was just about to make room for the big boss to dance…

Wei Shi looked him over, "How did you learn, and how many years did you learn it for."

Wu Jin faltered, "… Two years, starting from learning how to open the shoulders and stretching the tendons, connecting, windmilling, learning combos, freezing, exploding…"

Wei Shi pulled the rabbit spirit to him and gestured for him to stand in front of the dynamic target, "Alright. Open up your shoulders."

Wu Jin reflexively pulled his shoulders back until Wei Shi called for him to stop, "Basically there. Find this feeling in the future. Your shoulder posture when you shoot shouldn't be worse than when you're dancing."

Wu Jin exhaled and quickly came to a realization--he was always hunched into himself like a quail whenever he shot. What big brother had just said indeed made sense…

Wei Shi continued to command, "E102, SE150, two targets. Do a combo. After hitting SW225, retreat half a body length and freeze."

Wu Jin was shocked and hurriedly translated the moves in his brain: Hit two targets in a row, then return to the bunker and stop…

When the youth pew-pew-pewed and finished, Wei Shi shot him an indifferent look, "Do you dance like this?"

Wu Jin: "Not really…"

Wei Shi tsked, "Shrinking back every time you shoot, is it a floorboard dance or a hamster dance?"

Wu Jin looked over pitifully, "!!!"

Wei Shi: "Continue."

The dynamic targets were reset again. Before shooting, Wu Jin closed his eyes and concentrated for a moment, finally straightening out his thoughts. When he moved again, he restrained the instinct to hunch up after shooting, and it was much better than before.

However, the big boss continued to criticize, "Center of gravity is off."

Wu Jin's gaze was blank.

"Gun." Wei Shi finally spoke again, "There was no gun in this set of actions."

Wu Jin was stunned.

In the next moment, the man headed straight towards him, put the shotgun back in his hand, and gestured for him to hold it properly. His rough, callused hand wrapped the youth's five fingers around the hard metal of the handle, "Eleven years of dancing, right."

Wu Jin nodded lightly.

Wei Shi's dipped his head, and the soft and fluffy little curls brushed against his chin. "Your muscle memory, center of gravity, and the focus of your attention will follow inertia." He continued, "When you have an extra gun in your hand, the inertia will subconsciously reject it."

Wu Jin suddenly froze.

"It's very hard to change." Wei Shi analyzed, "Hold the gun properly and treat it as a new dance. Remember, don't let your body's inertia interfere with the gun. It is your defense and also part of your body."

Wu Jin subconsciously looked up beneath the strong stage lights, his gaze connecting with Wei Shi's eyes.

The contours of the man's eyes were deep, and there was no emotion in the features that were clearly defined in shadow. When the man put the gun into the youth's arms, there seemed to be a gentle stroke over his heartbeat.

There was a long delay before Wu Jin finally came to his senses. The back of his ears felt hot.

"Do it again." Wei Shi raised his eyebrows and said, "Focus your attention. Your gun sense can be developed slowly, but the first thing you need to achieve is to stop resisting it."

Wu Jin finally responded and even showed a foolish little smile, "Yes!"

The lines around the corners of the man's mouth seemed to loosen slightly.

The third time he attempted the dynamic target shooting was more difficult than Wu Jin had imagined. He abandoned the muscle memory built up over eleven years and even his instincts, and mobilized every muscle. After two shots, there was a serious deviation when he aimed at the target in position SE150.

Wei Shi looked on silently.

Under the lights that were as bright as day, the clumsy rabbit spirit consciously went back to reset the target positions on his own, then clutched at his carrot gun and played again.

He missed twice, three times.

The fourth time, he missed both E102 and SE150, and Wu Jin suddenly let out a sigh.

The fifth time, everything hit.

By the eight time, his movements began to smooth out and become more coherent.

By the twelfth time, Wu Jin began to randomize the target directions, and the targets were no longer in two fixed positions, causing the uncontrollable factors to rise straight up.

Wei Shi looked over the monitoring data and occasionally spoke up to adjust Wu Jin's shooting posture.

The bell signaling the end of class rang twice.

However, the two people in the training room didn't hear it at all.

Until the clock rang again at midnight.

The youth, who was practically moving on autopilot, stilled. He had forcefully reconstructed his muscle memory through hundreds of repetitions, and his movements were smooth and interconnected.

This time, the target appeared in three locations. Wu Jin squinted and completed the analysis in half a second--

Then pulled the trigger three times.

The light at the top of the shooting range lit up.

All clear.

Wu Jin was stunned, then ecstatic. His first reaction was to look towards his big brother--

The man looked directly at the sweat-soaked youth, and a bright cluster of lights seemed to shift in the center of his pupils.

"Congratulations." He spoke slowly, "You blew up the stage."

Wu Jin's small round face lifted abruptly, his brilliant smile causing him to overflow with youthful spirit.

Wei Shi stretched out his hand so they could clasp hands.

Wu Jin jumped and skipped towards the podium, leaping up with a whoosh like a vibrant leopard cub, excitedly bouncing around everywhere--

Then, he gave Wei Shi a fierce hug.

Wei Shi was stunned, but didn't hesitate to tighten his right arm and press the rabbit spirit into his strong embrace.

Juurensha: Awwww they finally hug!x
xiin: such a cute hug~

Chapter end