242: Chapter 242 Come on, I'm ready

Lin Fan sucked in a breath of cold air. What a lunatic!

No wonder he is called Wang Laoliu, he fucking is the OG camper himself!

Faced with life and death, Lin Fan quickly adjusted his mindset. Striking might not necessarily hit him, plus drawing a gun would take time.

Also, if the first shot missed, given Wang Laoliu's speed, he wouldn't have a chance to fire a second shot.

It seemed he could only bluff.

Just at the moment when Wang Laoliu's strength was tensed to the absolute limit and about to explode,

Lin Fan suddenly smiled.

"Come on, I'm ready."

"Quick, throw the gun over?"

Wang Laoliu's movements were abruptly frozen just a second before execution.

Lin Fan's voice continued to ring out, "You planned to use this dozen-pound chunk of iron to force me to move, and then rush up while I was dodging."

"The short blade hidden behind your waist with your left hand would then smoothly slice open my throat."

With every word Lin Fan spoke, Wang Laoliu's face turned a shade paler.

By the end, Wang Laoliu was completely dumbfounded.

He had recited the exact fatal routine he had just rehearsed in his mind, word for word!

Even details like him preparing to draw the blade with his left hand were entirely spot-on!

As if he didn't see the shock on Wang Laoliu's face, Lin Fan kept talking on his own.

"Nice planning."

"Your plan is also very thorough. If it were any ordinary person, they'd be a dead man by now."

Lin Fan took a small step forward, his right hand already behind his back.

"Unfortunately, the one you met today is me."

He raised his chin and motioned toward Wang Laoliu.

"Come."

"I'll give you a chance."

"You can make a move right now and see whether your speed in drawing the blade is faster, or my speed in drawing the gun is faster."

After these few sentences, Wang Laoliu froze in place.

Make a move?

How could he make a move?

His proud battlefield experience and the combat skills he relied on for survival were stripped bare and laid out right here in front of this intern.

Every attack angle, every timing of force exertion, and every subsequent change had all been seen through by the opponent.

How was he supposed to fight this?

Wang Laoliu's hand was still gripping the sniper rifle.

For the first time, he felt that this old partner who had been with him for many years was unexpectedly burning hot to the touch.

It wasn't like he had never seen experts before.

In those war-torn regions overseas, he had seen monsters capable of splitting a willow leaf at a hundred paces with flying daggers, and strongmen who could pick people up and toss them away.

Yet no matter how strong those people were, they still remained within the scope of humanity.

Their strength lay in power, speed, and reaction.

But the intern in front of him...

He wasn't just strong; he was eerie.

After a long while, Wang Laoliu's Adam's apple bobbed, and he spoke with difficulty, "You..."

He wanted to ask something, but didn't know where to start.

Ask him why he knew?

Ask him what kind of person he actually was?

Watching Wang Laoliu's ghost-seeing expression, Lin Fan smoothly pulled out his pistol.

"Come on, I'll let you gamble once. Bet on whether I can hit you at such a close distance?"

"Wang Laoliu, don't fucking think I don't know. Just now you were thinking I'm an idiot for walking so close, giving you a chance to kill me at close range."

"But what you don't know is that actually, I was thinking the same thing."

"Let's make a bet, let's bet on how many shots I can hit if I empty my magazine?"

Wang Laoliu stopped talking. No wonder this kid walked so close; it turned out he was worried about missing from afar.

"I'm a person who doesn't like trouble," Lin Fan continued. "I'll give you a gun and bullets, and you go solve that snake. That's the optimal solution."

"If you feel that you can solve me first, and then take the gun to solve that snake..."

Lin Fan aimed the gun at Wang Laoliu's skull. "You can give it a try."

Wang Laoliu's breathing grew somewhat heavy.

He stared fixedly at the gun in Lin Fan's hand.

He knew there were bullets inside.

He also knew that at such a close distance, he had no chance of taking down the opponent before the opponent fired.

Not to mention he still didn't know that kid's true strength.

Who knows, maybe the other party just looked young.

The ambush plan just now was his only chance.

Yet this chance had been nipped in the bud by the opponent in a way he completely couldn't understand.

Wang Laoliu put down the sniper rifle in his hand.

This action represented a compromise.

He took a deep breath. "Fine."

"I'll cooperate with you."

He raised his head, his gaze locked tightly onto Lin Fan, and asked that question, "I just want to know, how did you see through it?"

Wang Laoliu's eyes were bloodshot.

He didn't believe in any predictions or intuition.

He only believed in muscle memory and battlefield experience.

Just now, the subtle movements of his body might not even have been instantly interpreted for all intentions by even the top reconnaissance soldiers.

Yet the person in front of him, an intern, saw it completely clearly.

This defied logic.

Watching Wang Laoliu's ghost-seeing expression, Lin Fan was also cursing inwardly in his heart.

Damn it, this lousy system only gives early warnings, why didn't it come with an auto-aim so he could finish acting cool with a single shot?

Now it was even better; he had to think of a way to cover for it himself.

Lin Fan didn't rush to answer. He weighed the pistol in his hand, then leisurely put it back into his lower back waistband.

Trying his best to act calm and composed, Wang Laoliu was dumbfounded—what did this mean?

"Seen through?" Lin Fan sneered. "No."

"Felt out."

Wang Laoliu's brows knitted into a knot.

Felt?

This fucking sounded even more mystical than saying he saw it.

"Have you ever heard of Tai Chi?"

Wang Laoliu was stunned for a moment.

Tai Chi?

Of course he had heard of it, the kind practiced by old men and old women in the park?

Slow as molasses, just like broadcast gymnastics, what use could that possibly have?

As if seeing through his thoughts, the arc of Lin Fan's mouth grew even wider.

"People practicing our trade emphasize listening to force."

"It's not heard with your ears; it's heard with the skin of your entire body and your pores."

"Listen to your breath, listen to your intent."

"Just now, your left toe turned slightly outward, and the sole of your foot pressed firmly downward. That was to turn the soft sandy ground into a point of force exertion—the favorite starting stance of people like you who do assault operations."

"Your right shoulder sank by about two centimeters, which was to make the throwing movement more stretched out and the power greater."

"And your breathing."

"From steady, it changed to three short inhales, followed by a brief pause. This is the rhythm before a fierce beast pounces on its food, meant to explode with maximum power in an instant."

"All of these are merely form."

Lin Fan changed the subject abruptly. "What truly betrayed you is your intent."

"People like you who rely on guns to eat on the battlefield emphasize being fast, accurate, and ruthless, striking first to gain the upper hand. Therefore, your murderous aura cannot be hidden."

Lin Fan's gaze suddenly became somewhat distant, putting on a unfathomable and mysterious appearance. "And coincidentally, we also emphasize that intent comes first, and force comes second."

"The moment your murderous intent arose, that intent had already emanated through your body."

"So, it was you yourself who told me everything, detail by detail."

Seeing that Wang Laoliu seemed to believe it, Lin Fan slapped his forehead.

"Oh, right."

"I was so busy chatting business with you that I forgot to introduce myself."

He cleared his throat. "Tai Chi Chuan, from the Chenjiagou branch."

"Passed down to me, neither more nor less."

"I happen to be the twenty-first generation successor."