Chapter 218: Chapter 137: A Sense of Crisis
The past three days hadn’t been entirely fruitless. At the very least, he’d managed to get through *Mathematical Models*. He hadn’t fully grasped it yet, but that didn’t matter—as long as the system acknowledged it, he was good.
[Spirit 2.6] -> [Spirit 2.7]
Now, Li Wei only needed another 0.3 attribute points to evolve.
On Sunday evening, the setting sun was like a pool of molten gold, spilling across the New Jersey Giants’ practice field.
For most of the players at the tryout, it was a cruel moment. In the office, Dabor, Matty, and the others were taking a red pen to the roster, crossing out names one by one. Every stroke of the pen signified the shattering of a young man’s professional dream.
But for Li Wei, it was just another ordinary weekend.
Buses were already lined up outside, ready to take the rejected players to the airport. The air was thick with the scent of departure and dejection.
However, a low, ferocious engine roar shattered the heavy silence.
A matte black Mercedes G800 BRABUS, like a steel behemoth, roared through the twilight glow and came to an arrogant stop at the entrance of the training center.
The door opened, and a long, straight, beautiful leg wrapped in black stockings emerged first. Anya took off her sunglasses, revealing a face so exquisite it could belong to an elf, her skin glowing pale in the setting sun. She wore a black leather jacket over a tight white T-shirt, her black hair flying in the wind.
She walked up and gave Li Wei a bold kiss, then naturally looped her arm through his, making the surrounding rejected players look all the more dejected and miserable.
Just as the two were about to leave, Mad Dog Matty walked over, chewing on a fresh piece of gum, with Dabor following behind.
"You’ve worked hard these past few days," Mad Dog Matty said politely. "Brian has a new shooting range nearby. Interested in going to blow off some steam?"
"I..." Li Wei was about to refuse, but then he saw the look of anticipation in Anya’s eyes and changed his tune. "Shall we go together?"
...
Although New York is a Blue State, that doesn’t mean everyone in it is "blue." Dabor and Matty, for example, were a pair of bona fide super rednecks.
Li Wei suspected he opened a private shooting range just to satisfy his own collecting hobby and his desire to shoot.
Just like how guys from the Celestial Dynasty love to collect figurines, old redneck boys in the United States of America love to collect guns.
The walls of the shooting range were covered with all sorts of firearms, long and short. They ranged from the classic AR-15 to a slightly retro M1911, and there was even an AKM that looked like it had been brought back from Iraq.
"Try this, superstar," Matty said, tossing the AKM to Li Wei. "7.62 millimeter. This ain’t the kind of thing you use for turkey hunting. This is for punching through engine blocks and Level III body armor. This is a real man’s toy."
Li Wei caught it with one hand. It was heavy, with a solid, weighty feel.
He looked at the row of glistening brass 7.62x39mm rounds in the magazine, each thicker than a finger, and his brow furrowed slightly.
"What’s wrong?" Anya asked with concern, taking off her ear protection as she noticed the change in Li Wei’s expression. "Was the stock uncomfortable against your ribs just now?"
"No..." Li Wei shook his head and racked the bolt. "I was just thinking about something."
"RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!"
An orange-red tongue of fire erupted from the muzzle, and the deafening roar made Li Wei’s eardrums tingle.
Several water-filled plastic barrels dozens of meters away instantly exploded—not just punctured, but completely shredded, the water and plastic shards erupting into a white mist in the air.
"Brian!" Matty was bouncing with excitement. "Didn’t you buy a big boy? Bring it out and show us!"
"Fuck! You and your big mouth," Head Coach Dabor grumbled, taking a long, camouflage-wrapped object from a rack in the corner. "Can’t you leave any room for surprises?"
He whipped off the camo cloth.
A black, brutally rugged Barrett M82A1 anti-materiel sniper rifle lay there silently.
On the table next to it lay several 12.7mm rounds. The bullets were as large as small carrots.
Matty grinned slyly, grabbed a round, and shoved it into Li Wei’s hand.
"Feel the weight of that. When this thing hits, you don’t need a headshot. A graze on the arm, and the arm is gone. If it hits the torso..." Matty made an exploding gesture. "The coroner or whoever’s collecting the body won’t be able to piece it back together. They’ll have to scrape it up with a shovel."
Li Wei held the bullet. It felt cold, heavy, and almost uncomfortably jagged in his palm.
His current [Silver Body 3/4] could, at most, withstand the kinetic energy of a 9mm pistol round. He’d sensed it just now when using the AKM—a 7.62mm assault rifle round would break his defense. And if he were to face a 12.7mm sniper rifle bullet like this...
A sense of crisis instantly welled up in his mind.
A respectable professional football coach’s personal collection was enough to arm a platoon back in the Celestial Dynasty. If he offended someone, and they set up this sniper rifle 800 meters away in the wilderness...
’Free America, a gunfight every day.’
’If someone didn’t want him to play, if the games of capital escalated to the point of physical elimination... his current defenses were far from enough.’
’No, I’m not strong enough,’ he thought. ’I can’t entrust my life to the emotional stability of a redneck. I can’t get complacent just because things have been going well. I need to keep working on missions and grind my physical stats. That’s the only thing that matters.’
Nearby, Dabor and Matty watched Li Wei’s gaze linger on the bullet, assuming he was simply awestruck by the destructive power of human weaponry.
If they knew Li Wei was actually wondering when his own body would be tough enough to withstand an anti-materiel sniper rifle, one could only imagine the looks on their faces.
It would surely be a sight to see.
