Chapter 90: Celestial Eye

“These little cuties will be our test today,” Lex said with a wide smile. They have a particular skill that makes them the bane of average gunmen.” Lex said as a pistol appeared in her hand, but it was nothing like the one Nikolai used.

Even though she called them birdies, the creatures looked more like butterflies than birds. Each had a pair of metallic wings that flapped unceasingly.

Bang!

The gunshot echoed through the field as the bullet traveled to one of the small metallic butterflies. As the shot got close, the butterfly seemed to sense it and darted away, making it miss by a hairbreadth.

“They sense air change around them and dodge accordingly. Wind Butterflies.” Nikolai nodded in amazement, but Lex scowled at him.

“Don’t give them weird names!” She said before holstering her gun. “We get five minutes. Whoever manages to strike more butterflies will be the winner.” Lex said with a thin smile.

“Wait!” Sergio looked confused. “How would you strike it if they can dodge?”

“Calculation,” Nikolai answered as he turned toward Lex. “As expected from a Gunmaster, this will indeed weed out most of the average gunmen.”

“Are you chickening out?” Lex asked with smugness.

Nikolai squinted his eyes at her, trying to see through her act. He knew that Lex was a mechanic, not a gunman, so this made no sense. Even in his past life, he never heard of Lex using a gun.

‘What’s the worst that can happen?’

Nikolai believed that even if he loses, he can find a way to preserve his life while practicing the Celestial Art. He nodded to Lex and saw a grin blossom on her face.

“The countdown starts in 10 seconds! Take out your babe!” Lex said as she took out her gun and pointed toward the sky. “Master, please keep track of time!”

“Fine.” The Master Dwarf sighed and took out a pocket watch. He began counting down from ten as Nikolai took out his gun as well.

“Bossman, good luck!” Sergio said, and Yuxi bobbed her head in agreement. Smiling at them, Nikolai took out his gun and pointed it at the Wind Butterflies as well.

“5! 4! 3! 2!” The Master Dwarf counted and shouted ‘one’ before clicking on his pocket watch, and the timer began.

Nikolai’s finger touched the trigger and pulled, making the bullet zoom through the air one of the flying devices. The device dodged as expected, but that was why Nikolai fired twice at the same time.

The second bullet struck the creature, and Lex whistled in approval. However, her firepower was stronger, and the shot made the Wind Butterflies scatter.

Her bullets followed after the Wind Butterflies, arriving at the same time that the creature dodged to that spot. Nikolai’s eyes went wide at such calculation.

‘She can tell where each of Wind Butterflies will dodge to?’ Nikolai found the concept unbelievable, but the number of butterflies she struck was increasing by the minute.

10, 20, 30…

By the time she reached 40 butterflies, Nikolai was still at 18. It was then that he knew he was being scammed. He sensed a trace of elemental mana coming out of Lex’s body. This observation made him realize that she was using a skill or an item to calculate.

‘If that’s the case, then don’t blame me for using this.’

He infused his gun and bullets with darkness, hiding them with his stealth. The shots kept leaving his muzzle, but there were no traces of it doing so until it struck the unaware bullet.

“What the…” Lex paused as she saw the butterflies fall one by one in front of Nikolai without resistance. “You can’t hide your bullets! That’s cheating!”

Even though she grumbled, she kept competing. Nikolai tied with her at 56 before his record shot past her to reach sixty. After that, Lex began lagging because she needed to calculate before firing while Nikolai simply aimed.

“If that’s the case, then I’m not holding back!” Lex bit her lower lip and grabbed her eyepatch.

“Lex!” Master Dwarf shouted with a frown, but the Gunmaster didn’t listen to him and took off the eyepatch.

‘What the hell is this light?’ Nikolai squinted his eyes when a blinding golden light spread through the field. As the light died down, he could see a golden flame on the Gunmaster’s eye.

“Cheating?” Nikolai was baffled. “You are outright mocking me at this point.” He could have never guessed that Lex had such an ace up her sleeve.

Celestial Eye.

If a heavenly string can allow a person into the secrets of a weapon, then a Celestial Eye allowed a person to see a part of the world’s truth.

‘Is it a future-seeing eye?’ Nikolai tried to guess, but his bullets never ceased. ‘No, her ability to create machinery should be a side-effect of her Celestial Eye. Therefore, it must be a calculating eye.’

The ability to see the calculations of the physical world in numbers: the length of an item, its melting point, the speed of a moving object.

If a person can see these stats of objects, it would be only a matter of time before pulling a miracle—a miracle like creating a flying forte.

‘I’m not going to lose.’

Nikolai refused to lose, especially against a gift from the heavens. He kept pulling the trigger and firing as fast as his gun allowed him. By spreading his mana to sense the butterflies, Nikolai managed to keep up against Lex.

120… 125…

They fired as if their lives depended on it. The smell of gunpowder filled the field as magazines fell to the ground one by one.

Nikolai shot his 149th target at the same time Lex struck down her 153rd butterfly. They changed magazines at the same time as the Master Dwarf shouted.

“Five seconds left!”

The words became the announcement of the final sprint between the two. Nikolai used the Limit-Break as his mana infused to his eyes, enhancing them. Blood tears dropped from them as his sight expanded and the world slowed.

There was nothing but gunshots in the field as the two kept firing. One had a flame on her eye, as the other had blood dripping from both of them. None of the two backed away.

With four seconds left, Nikolai struck down three, the same case for Lex. When there were only three seconds left, each of Nikolai’s bullets struck two butterflies simultaneously, striking them the moment they intersected.

Lex, however, seemed to have the world around her little finger as she struck at empty air, only for a butterfly to fly there and get struck down.

As there were only two seconds left, a crack appeared on Nikolai’s muzzle. He squinted his eyes but still pulled the trigger, only for his weapon to burst to pieces.