Chapter 605. A Demonstration (5)
There was a proposition that all martial artists in the modern era must contend with. Could they... overcome modern firearms?
The answer was dependent on individuals. Some would say human bodies simply could not withstand the impact force of a bullet. And they wouldn't be wrong. No matter how highly-trained a martial artist was, surviving against a hail of bullets with their naked body was impossible.
Maybe they could somehow deal with a pistol. But anything approaching the firing rate of submachine guns would already be beyond the limits of what the human physique could handle. Only a peak expert in external arts like Vator or a handful of people capable of circulating hardening qi to protect their bodies could remain unaffected by impact forces from firearms.
That wasn't all, however. Some other people also had something to say about this topic. Regardless of what type it was, an attack was meaningless in itself. It would only mean something if the attack had hit the target.
Without proper training, a rank amateur with a machine gun would still get devoured by a predator out in the wild. So, a martial artist shouldn't necessarily be at a disadvantage just because the other side had a firearm. That was their argument.
When the concept of firearms first surfaced in the world, martial artists roundly ignored it. Back then, firearms weren't any better than bows and arrows, even though they could be slightly more convenient at times.
Besides, rocks thrown by martial artists covered more distance and possessed better killing power, anyway. In that case, who would care about guns? Unfortunately for them, though...
The world tended to transform quite rapidly.
Humans progressed and developed through war. Almost nothing in history had improved human civilization more than technological breakthroughs originally meant to kill the enemy. Humanity focused on improving and refining this new armament called 'firearm', and sure enough, they succeeded in creating tools of war much stronger and more convenient than any of the traditional weapons available.
This was where the situation turned on its head for the martial artists.
The people of the shadows who had been manipulating the world from behind the scenes began receiving heavy damage from this point on in history. The peak experts at the absolute pinnacle of their martial arts weren't affected by firearms, but it was unreasonable to ask the same thing from regular martial artists. Nurturing a martial artist strong enough to withstand gunfire would require decades of intense training, but only a week or so should be sufficient to get someone proficient enough in handling rifles.
Eventually, martial artists had to give up on their hegemony and retreat even deeper into the shadows for their own survival. And then... the world evolved and progressed even further.
Countless variations of firearms were invented and flooded the market. Some of these weapons were so powerful that not even those small number of peak experts calling themselves transcendents could deal with them. This moment signaled that the destructive power generated by gunpowder had finally exceeded the power of a martial artist's qi.
Faced with threats to their survival, martial artists began scheming behind the scenes. They exaggerated the risks of firearms and restricted the further development of weapons. They even prohibited the usage of ammo capable of annihilating human physique with a single hit. After that, they created countless legislations and restrictions to tie up the inventors' and researchers' hands.
Even then, the gap between guns and martial artists continued to widen. And from a certain point in history, data began accumulating. To oppose the martial artists pulling strings from the shadows, the denizens of the criminal underworld resorted to using more and more firearms. And at the climax of the long and brutal war, people arrived at several important conclusions regarding the battle between an army of gun-toting regular people and martial artists.
The martial artists would be at a greater and greater disadvantage as more people got involved in the battle. The same also applied to the battlefield; the more open it was, the harder the battle would be for the martial artists. In the case of a small number waging urban warfare, martial artists would absolutely slaughter their enemies, but in a battle against an army in a desert? They wouldn't be able to put up a fight and get slaughtered instead.
This revelation forced martial artists to hide themselves in major cities of developed nations. They used to prefer quiet countryside to cultivate in the past, but for the sake of their continued survival, these martial artists had no choice but to use civilians as human shields.
This was a part of the reason why martial artists were nearly wiped out in the Middle East and Africa.
So, what about a European expert, then?
Everyone in this place should find out soon enough!
***
Jeong Eun-Ho quietly regulated his breathing.
The sniper scope of his 20mm takedown rifle was accurately locked-on on the former knight Wiggins' head.
'Don't get nervous, Jeong Eun-Ho!'
The tip of the barrel deviated slightly whenever his heart powerfully beat in his chest.
'I have only this one shot!'
An expert on the level of Wiggins would never allow a second chance at sniping him. Fail to shoot the bastard down, and everything would be over, as there was no way to keep up with a peak-level expert's movement speed. In that sense, one could say that a battle between a sniper and an expert was a game of hide and seek; who discovered who first, and if the sniper could remain calm while pulling the trigger, would determine the victor.
No matter how strong an expert was, getting shot in the head would kill them. And Jeong Eun-Ho was holding a bloody 20mm anti-materiel rifle, capable of taking down an elephant in a single shot! A human made up of flesh and bone would never withstand a shot from such a powerful weapon.
“Fuu-woo...!” Jeong Eun-Ho sucked in a deep breath. He briefly took his hand away from the rifle and pressed down on his chest. 'Goddamn it!'
He was getting tense. How could he not when trying to take down an expert of Wiggins' level? Jeong Eun-Ho's current issue wasn't about overcoming this tension but successfully shooting his target down despite how tense he felt.
Jeong Eun-Ho took his time and stuck to his routine while aiming the rifle. But then, Wiggins moved forward slightly out of the scope's view.
'Dammit!'
His current angle became unusable when the target moved to that position. What should Jeong Eun-Ho do now? The optimal solution would be to change the sniping position right away. That should be the simplest solution boasting the best odds of success. However...!
'Everyone will be annihilated before that!'
Wiggins' abilities exceeded everyone's calculations. They thought that the spirited charge from the elders should be enough to buy at least a little bit of time, but that didn't happen. These elders practically couldn't even stop Wiggins in his tracks for a second!
They were as powerless as falling leaves against storm winds. No, maybe even worse than that!
'F*ck...!'
While Jeong Eun-Ho was moving to the next position, all the elders could fall at Wiggins' hands. If that happened, it'd be difficult to evade a high-level expert's sensory perception. Wiggins should be able to detect Jeong Eun-Ho's killing intent from this distance.
In that case... Jeong Eun-Ho had no choice now.
'Right. I gotta take this gamble...!'
Jeong Eun-Ho carefully walked closer toward the building's window. Despite his position being too far for naked eyes to see, and even though he had found the perfect angle, he did not lower his guard. After all, he wasn't dealing with a human being here!
One must never think of martial artists as regular humans. These people could sense what normal humans could never sense. And they could see what normal humans could never see!
Jeong Eun-Ho must be extra cautious in his movement. As if Wiggins was directly staring at him!
“Fuu-woo...!” Jeong Eun-Ho sucked in another deep breath. This would be his last time doing so, as he ran the risk of being discovered if he breathed loudly again.
He cautiously slipped the barrel past the window frames. A normal person would never entertain the thought of shouldering a massive rifle weighing almost twenty kilos and firing it in this position, but Jeong Eun-Ho was also a martial artist. That gave him the advantage of largely ignoring the weight of the weapon or his posture.
From this position, the angle wasn't so good, forcing him to place the barrel outside the window. That was a risky thing to do, but...!
'But, it's worth taking this gamble!'
Jeong Eun-Ho had no choice but to take on this risk. Without this anti-materiel rifle, he wouldn't even be on the level of an annoying fly to the former knight Wiggins.
He was trying to shoot down a powerful expert here. An expert Jeong Eun-Ho wouldn't dare look in the eye in any other situation! So, not wanting to take a risk in such a situation was an inappropriately arrogant mindset.
Besides, only those prepared to lose could gamble with their lives on the line. And Jeong Eun-Ho was confident of not regretting anything even if he died tonight.
'Right. Here we go...!'
Jeong Eun-Ho quickly sucked in a brief gasp of air, then stopped breathing altogether. After stabilizing himself, he sneaked the barrel of his anti-materiel rifle outside the window.
In a normal situation, no one would notice a rifle barrel sticking out of a building's window from such a distance away. However, Jeong Eun-Ho's target was no ordinary person. Being extra cautious might not be enough.
So, he moved slowly. Oh-so agonizingly slowly!
He pushed the barrel out at a speed that shouldn't disturb the air molecules, then carefully pressed his eye against the scope. The bull's eye accurately locked on Wiggins' head.
'Now... Die!'
What a sniper needed at the last moment was decisiveness. Without a moment's hesitation, Jeong Eun-Ho... squeezed the trigger.
BOOM!
A low, heavy rumble rocked the air. With that, Jeong Eun-Ho was convinced of hitting his target. He could not miss at this range even if he tried!
The curtain of gun smoke wafting from the barrel quickly dissipated, and the scope revealed the current state of Wiggins.
“...Huh?!” Jeong Eun-Ho was left momentarily speechless.
What was the meaning of this? Didn't he pull the trigger just now? Yes, he definitely did, and the rifle did fire its round. However... the former knight Wiggins seemed unchanged as far as Jeong Eun-Ho could see through the scope!
'Did I... Did I imagine firing the rifle?'
But that couldn't be it? Even now, the unpleasant smell of burnt gunpowder was stinging Jeong Eun-Ho's nose. In that case, he couldn't have imagined anything!
'Then, what the f*ck is going on here?!'
It was as if this part of the world and where Wiggins was had been isolated and split apart. As if... As if they existed in the same dimension but now belonged to two different worlds!
That was when two isolated worlds began merging back to being one. How could Jeong Eun-Ho tell? Because, Wiggins was slowly turning his head toward Jeong Eun-Ho's position! And then...
Wiggins' gaze met Jeong Eun-Ho's through the scope. That was when Jeong Eun-Ho felt his heart stop beating for a second.
There was a creepy smile etched on Wiggins' lips.
***
“What a travesty...” Wiggins slowly unfurled his hand. And on his palm was a large bullet still glowing red-hot. “The thing is, our side began fighting against firearms long before your people have. I don't want to disparage the power of guns here, but if you really thought we wouldn't have any contingencies against potential firearms... Now that is being careless.”
Especially against a knight of the Round Table! A knight possessed an incredible wealth of information on many nations on Earth. So, for them to die from a single bullet to the head would be a tragic loss. A loss in vain!
No one would be able to deal with the aftermath of such an event. The treasure trove of information would be lost, and a newly-picked replacement knight would never be able to perfectly fill the void left behind.
The Round Table obviously was aware of this danger, so it set out to develop dedicated magic spells to defend against possible assassination attempts from a distance when sniper rifles were invented. And it had been well over thirty years since that spell was introduced. So, for these people to try and snipe Wiggins now? How old-fashioned!
'Still, that could've been dicey.'
Wiggins didn't think someone would try to shoot him in a country where firearms were banned. If he hadn't cast the defensive spell out of habit before the fight...! Wiggins would be tumbling on the ground as a headless corpse.
In that regard, Wiggins should admit that the rebels seemed to have made a rather thorough preparation.
“I'm guessing that was your ace hidden up your sleeve to deal with my lord, now wasn't it? Unfortunately for you...!”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Jeong Eun-Ho fired several shots in a row after realizing that their situation was extremely dire. Since he was discovered already, he probably thought there was no point in hiding anymore.
Unfortunately, all the rounds fired toward Wiggins flew past him in impossible-looking trajectories.
“You see, magic to deflect arrows has existed for over a thousand years.”
Since magic users weren't idiots who only stuck to old-school magic spells, it should be rather obvious that they would improve the existing magic to defend against the modern era's firearms. Of course, that didn't mean anyone learning magic would be able to block every type of bullet. Still, as long as the impact force was within a magic user's defensive threshold, they should be able to deflect the incoming bullet. And it'd look like a miracle to the uninitiated.
“Still, that was dangerous. So, time to pay the price,” Wiggins muttered as blinding rays of white light shone from his right hand. The light swirled around his hand before flying like a streak of lightning at the window where Jeong Eun-Ho was!
“Heok?!”
By the time Jeong Eun-Ho realized what happened, that light ray was already right before his nose. Even before his brain could order his body to dodge, the beam of white light penetrated straight through his head.
Jeong Eun-Ho couldn't even squeak out a scream as his lifeless body fell to the floor. The heavy anti-materiel rifle clattered hard on the ground, its harsh metallic clang echoing in the room.
“Well, then. If you have any other tricks up your sleeves, now's the time to bring them out,” said Wiggins with a relaxed smile on his face.
Meanwhile, Director Choi's complexion paled considerably.
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