Chapter 56: Big Brother, an Eagle Bullied Me

"Hehe, Dashan brother, you've got a sharp eye! That's right, Yu brother just scored this yesterday—a ninety-percent-new Mauser rifle. Have a look."

With that, Huzi handed the rifle over. Since he and Su Yu grew up together and were extremely close, he wasn't overly restrained in his speech and manner. If it were anyone else, they wouldn't just hand someone else's valuable item over so casually to be played with—what if it broke? But they knew each other inside out, so Huzi spoke his mind.

Huang Shan didn't stand on ceremony either. Which hunter doesn't love a rifle? Smitten at the sight, he immediately took the weapon, dropped the magazine, worked the bolt, and pulled the trigger a few times to test it out.

"Not bad, really is quite new, and well-maintained too. In this condition, it wasn't cheap, right?"

Huzi didn't answer. Even if he knew, he had enough tact to know what should be said and what shouldn't.

"Haha, not too much. Normal price, and the seller threw in five boxes of ammunition, so I agreed to the trade."

Su Yu stepped in and answered Huang Shan's question right away. Though he didn't mention the exact price, Huang Shan could probably guess roughly.

"Fine rifle. Here, hold onto it tight. You won't need this kind of firepower for ordinary small game; the gear Su Yu and I carry is more than enough."

What Huang Shan said was true, but today Su Yu had no intention of letting this rifle stay silent. He planned to grind out his marksmanship skill. Yet, ordinary game truly wasn't worth wasting a bullet on—take pheasants, for instance. If you shot one with a rifle, half the bird would be blown to pieces, wasting both the ammo and the meat.

Therefore, it had to be justified and reasonable, which meant they needed to hunt something larger.

"Brother Huang, didn't Duoicai uncle run into a lone wolf last time? Did they manage to get it afterward?"

As soon as Su Yu asked this, Huang Shan understood that Su Yu had his eyes on that wolf.

After a moment's thought, Su Yu had a rifle, exceptional archery skills, and with the three of them combined, there wasn't much real danger. As long as they didn't run into a whole pack, hunting it was entirely feasible.

Wolf meat wasn't particularly tasty—it tended to be a bit sour and tough—but wolf skin was a good prize, certainly more valuable than dog skin.

"You want to track down that wolf? Alright, let's head north and have a look around. We don't have any specific target anyway, just everyone stay sharp."

Huang Shan unleased Dabao and the other three hounds. With four dogs and three men, even if they encountered four or five wild wolves, they were more than capable of putting up a fight.

Huang Shan carried an old-fashioned muzzle-loader, Huzi held the rifle, and Su Yu's archery was a match for any firearm, leaving truly nothing to worry about.

Even Huzi didn't think a single wolf was anything to be scared of, and the trio of men headed north.

"Whoosh."
"Whoosh!"
"Whoosh."

Along the way, Su Yu notched his bow and loosed arrows at intervals, instantly dropping various small creatures from not far away—some Siberian chipmunks, a few pheasants, and even a mountain wildcat.

The mountain wildcat closely resembled a tabby cat, but its fur and build were distinctively different. Its fur was longer than a tabby's, and the hair around its neck was particularly long, resembling a small lion. An adult mountain wildcat could weigh up to twenty pounds, preying normally on pheasants, wild ducks, snakes, and rats.

Of course, if this creature crossed paths with a domestic cat, it wouldn't let it go, and it preyed on domestic chickens and ducks as well.

Weasels and chipmunks were also frequent targets of the mountain wildcat. In a few decades, this creature would become a protected species due to its dwindling numbers.

Su Yu had stumbled upon it by chance. Not only were its reflexes maxed out, but its sense of smell was also exceptionally keen. However, it wasn't particularly afraid of humans because it frequently visited human settlements to hunt poultry, so it wouldn't bolt the moment it saw a person—it would only flee if you got too close.

This gave Su Yu his opening, and he killed it with a single arrow.

"Damn, this wildcat is pretty plump! Though the meat isn't much to write home about—a bit sour, very similar to cat meat. Word has it that tabby cats were originally bred from mountain wildcats, though I don't know if that's true, but the markings sure are similar."

"Who cares? If it doesn't taste good, I'll take it back to feed the hounds. Still counts as a catch, as long as we get something."

The men exchanged a smile and continued on their journey.

Aside from Su Yu's occasional harvests, neither Huzi with his rifle nor Huang Shan with his muzzle-loader had caught anything—they hadn't even managed to shoot a pheasant.

"Yu brother, Yu brother, look up at the sky. Is that an eagle?"

Huzi patted Su Yu's shoulder and pulled him to a halt, pointing upward.

Su Yu possessed extraordinary eyesight. Looking up, the eagle seemed close enough to touch, though it was definitely more than a hundred meters away—well beyond the effective range of a bow and arrow. Even if Su Yu pulled his heavy two-stone bow to its absolute limit, any arrow loosed upward would likely float up feebly and lose all momentum, governed as it was by upward air resistance, unlike a flat trajectory shot.

Still, this presented a rare opportunity to use the rifle! Su Yu had been racking his brain over how to find a chance to test the gun, and now timing favored him. Although the eagle didn't yield much meat, shooting it wouldn't raise any suspicions from the others.

"Not bad. Hand me the rifle, let me see if I can hit it."

Su Yu handed his bow and arrow over to Huzi, took the rifle in return, and worked the bolt with a series of crisp clacks to chamber a round.

"Why shoot that thing? There's hardly any meat on it, and the meat quality isn't even as good as the wildcat's. You're wasting ammo."

Su Yu was well aware of that. A single bullet cost several jiao, enough to buy things at the country fair back then. But wasn't he trying to grind his firearm skill?

"It's fine, Brother Huang, I just want to practice a bit. I haven't fired this rifle since I bought it, and I've been itching to try it out for a while."

When he put it that way, Huang Shan stopped trying to dissuade him. After all, if he had a rifle of his own, knowing it was a waste wouldn't stop him from wanting to try it out either—it was only human nature.

"Alright then. But that's a moving target; I reckon it'll be pretty hard for you to hit."

Huang Shan and Huzi both stopped in their tracks, quietly watching Su Yu show off.

Su Yu paid them no mind. He pulled the bolt back, raised the rifle, and took aim at the sky.

Yet this eagle seemed to have lived a long time; sensing the danger the moment Su Yu raised the gun, it veered off and flew in another direction. Evidently, it had encountered the gesture of someone aiming a firearm before and knew to be afraid.

"Well, I'll be. That eagle's probably been shot at before, which is why it's so alert. It's flying toward the east now."

Its speed wasn't frantic, seemingly deliberate, giving off the impression that it was taunting: *Come on up if you've got the guts.*

The eagle practically had a spirit of its own. Every time Su Yu raised the rifle, it flew away; the moment he lowered it, the bird circled back to hover right above their heads.

It wasn't that Su Yu couldn't shoot, but rather that he wanted to trigger a skill. According to his guess, unlocking a skill required two things: first, having a clear intention or mental concept of the skill he wanted to grind; second, actually executing the physical action to achieve it. For instance, when fishing, Su Yu had genuinely speared fish, and the system determined that the user needed that capability, thereby generating the skill.

In other words, if he wanted to unlock the firearm skill, he had to fire shots repeatedly and actually hit his targets; only then would the system generate a new skill. Missing wouldn't do a thing. If simply going through the motions of practice worked, Su Yu would have long since practiced on stationary targets.

"Brother Dashan, Huzi, this eagle seems to be mocking us. Look at it circling back and forth—can we just let this slide? We don't have a specific destination anyway, let's chase after it and see."

Huang Shan had also noticed the eagle's behavior. Hearing Su Yu say this, he helplessly nodded. The eagle in the sky truly acted like it had turned into a spirit, circling back and forth as if provoking them, dodging left and right. With Su Yu's novice level of skill, shooting at it now was bound to be a waste.