Chapter 374: Becoming a Qualified Long-Range Sniper

Xia Qing made a round of inspection over her territory and once again arrived at the north gate on Gao Po. Seeing that brain-evolved wolf who deserved a beating — the one that had passed through the north gate countless times — staring at the gate with a thoughtful look, Xia Qing's eyelid couldn't help but twitch.

"Waist-Snapper, this kind of gate is not for trade."

Waist-Snapper Wolf turned to look at Xia Qing, a thoughtful expression on its face.

Xia Qing's attitude was firm. "No trade. Tonight I'm taking a medicinal bath. If you and the Alpha want to soak, you can come over."

A wooden door on a wolf den is already bizarre enough; installing an automatic door would be bizarre's mother opening the door for bizarre — bizarre to the max.

The chance to soak in the medicinal bath was traded by Waist-Snapper Wolf with Yi Stones, so Xia Qing honored the contract and gave them advance notice. Whether to come or not was their own choice.

Because she was going to Luo Pei tomorrow to learn marksmanship, Xia Qing decided to take her medicinal bath early and go to bed early.

Before the sky had fully darkened, Xia Qing had already eaten dinner and prepared the medicinal bath. Waist-Snapper Wolf and the Alpha hadn't arrived yet, but Xia Qing didn't wait for them. She instructed Sheep Boss and Sick Wolf to guard the door and watch the territory, then listened to the news broadcast on the radio while enduring the pain of the medicinal bath.

"Due to crustal subsidence, the Guisan Base in the southeast of our country is no longer suitable for human habitation..."

Suddenly hearing a news broadcast about Guisan, Xia Qing immediately lifted her head out of the water and listened intently.

"... Currently, all 1.6 million-plus residents of Guisan Base have been transferred to nearby bases and properly resettled."

At the beginning of this year's population statistics broadcast, Guisan Base had a population of over 2.5 million. Now only 1.6 million-plus have been properly resettled, meaning that from January until now, over 900,000 people have died at Guisan Base.

Over nine hundred thousand... Xia Qing sank her head back into the medicinal bath, and felt that the sensation of the medicine's potency drilling into her flesh wasn't so hard to bear anymore.

After the news broadcast and weather forecast ended, a hand with bulging veins reached out from the medicinal liquid and gripped the edge of the tub. Xia Qing slowly stood up from the tub.

"Beep."

The phone placed beside her chimed once. Xia Qing turned her bloodshot eyes toward the lit-up phone screen.

Waist-Snapper Wolf entered Territory Three through the north gate at 20:02 on November 9.

Xia Qing's trembling lips pulled into a smile.

When she rinsed off the medicinal liquid, got dressed, and went downstairs, Xia Qing saw that the Alpha and Waist-Snapper Wolf had already arrived.

The north gate system only notified that Waist-Snapper Wolf had entered the territory, meaning the Alpha had jumped the wall in again. Xia Qing greeted the two wolves and beckoned her companion. "Boss, go to the bathroom for a soak."

Sheep Boss, who was chewing cud, paused for a few seconds before reluctantly heading to the bathroom.

Xia Qing told the wolf pack to keep an eye on things outside the house, while she took the radio into the bathroom, timing Sheep Boss's soak while collecting information on how to build a greenhouse for growing vegetables.

The method introduced on the broadcast was much the same as what Qi Fu had said. Xia Qing decided to build three thick earthen walls, paste a layer of broken bricks on the outside of the earthen walls, then brush on a layer of cement for rain and wind protection.

When Sheep Boss couldn't stand the pain anymore, Xia Qing coaxed it gently for a while before switching to the Alpha for its soak, then Waist-Snapper Wolf, then Sick Wolf.

After all the animals had finished soaking, it was nearly midnight. Xia Qing crawled back up to the second floor, collapsed onto the bedding spread at the stairwell entrance on the second floor, and fell asleep immediately.

The next day, Xia Qing was fully revived and headed to Area Three of Mountain 49 to meet up with Luo Pei.

Seeing that Luo Pei's complexion had returned to normal, that he hadn't lost so much weight as to look unrecognizable, and that his eyes were full of spirit, Xia Qing was completely reassured. Chatting with him as they walked up the mountain, she asked, "Brother Luo, have you finished planting all the wheat?"

This girl really couldn't go three sentences without talking shop. Luo Pei, who was leading the way ahead, laughed. "Yeah, we got a batch of high-quality seeds and planted 150 mu of wheat and 50 mu of rapeseed. Are your seeds enough for you?"

Xia Qing, who had planted two and a half mu of wheat, nodded. "Enough. I also got a batch of high-quality seeds. Wait until next summer when we harvest the wheat, let's test the Qi-Yi dual-element content. If the quality of your seeds is good, I'll trade you 40 jin."

Her idol had said that the wheat seeds she traded for couldn't be traded, but the wheat grown from them could be traded normally.

"Sure." Luo Pei didn't ask where Xia Qing's wheat had come from, only put forward the same condition as hers. "If your wheat is good quality, however much you put up for trade, we'll take that much."

"Okay." Xia Qing agreed. Chatting about sowing and greenhouses, the two arrived at a large boulder halfway up the mountain.

Luo Pei explained to Xia Qing the purpose of coming here. "To accurately hit a high-speed moving target at long range, you must learn to predict the target's direction of movement and landing point. In ten minutes, among the squad conducting live-fire drills 500 meters ahead, there are Level 4 and Level 5 speed evolvers. When they start fighting later, I'll explain how to predict a speed evolver's direction of movement."

"Yes." Xia Qing also grew serious. This skill was extremely important to her, because her enemy was a high-level speed evolver.

"First, you must quickly observe the surrounding environment and identify places you can use as footholds. Once the target enters your firing range, you must accurately capture the movements of the high-speed target, predict their landing point, and have your bullet leave the barrel before they do — only then is it possible to hit the target."

"Any conscious behavior directed by the brain goes through observation, analysis, and decision-making. Prediction means that while the target is observing, you must already determine their next move..."

Once the live-fire training in the distance began, Luo Pei started demonstrating for Xia Qing how to predict accurately.

"Left One — his next move can only be forward, left, or up. His head is tilted slightly up — up!" Luo Pei's gun fired first, the round landing where the target was about to move. The speed evolver spotted the laser gun's red dot and changed direction.

Luo Pei predicted accurately again. "Left-front, the only direction! Bang!"

The high-speed evolver was hit and stopped in place, frustrated. Because the snipers participating in today's live-fire drill were too skilled, he had "been shot in a vital spot" right at the start, and this round of live-fire training was over.

"Right Four — back, right, it's right." Luo Pei used his sniper rifle to accurately predict the second speed evolver's landing point. "Killed." Then he ordered, "Continue."

The hit speed evolver pleaded through the walkie-talkie, "Brother Luo, can you let me live a little longer?"

"Cut the nonsense. Start. If you get hit again within two minutes, extra training."

The training squad members wailed, their speed increased, and Luo Pei

continued explaining to Xia Qing how to predict.

Xia Qing's gaze and gun followed Luo Pei's instructions, moving rapidly to capture one fast-moving target after another. In two hours of training, she only hit one target.

When the combat drill stopped, Luo Pei's lesson also ended. "I tested my visual evolution level yesterday. I'm now the same as you — Level Nine. So what I can do, you can definitely do with more practice. There are drills on the mountain all the time. Join them as a long-range sniper, starting from 200 meters. Once your hit rate improves, we'll increase the distance. Within one winter, you must accurately hit high-speed moving targets below Level Six at a distance of 1,500 meters, and become a qualified long-range sniper."

"Yes!" Xia Qing certainly knew how rare this opportunity was, and answered loudly.