445 God’s Guidance (1/2)
Justin Alexander was seated in church with his fists clenched and his head lowered, praying to God.
He was a faithful believer. As long as there were no matches on the weekend, he would rather give up his training and attend a church service.
The sound of footsteps grew louder behind him. Alexander opened his eyes and saw a priest that he was very familiar with walking towards him.
Alexander had known this priest ever since he was a child. Back then, the priest was still middle-aged, but now, the priest had turned into a white-haired old man.
”My son, you look lost. Did you encounter some troubles?” the priest asked.
”I did something wrong before, and I want to seek forgiveness from God,” Alexander answered.
”If you want to repent and atone your sins from the bottom of your heart, God will forgive you,” the priest answered in a deep voice.
Alexander raised his head. ”Father, my suspension is about to be lifted. I want to return to the arena.”
”That's great, son. You are still young. You can still achieve a lot if you return to the arena; however, I hope that you won't make that same mistake again,” the priest said as he took a seat beside Alexander.
”But I can't find a suitable coach.” Alexander sighed before continuing, ”I've contacted several reputable coaches, and they've all rejected me. You should know that I was suspended for using performance enhancing drugs. I've touched the taboo that no athlete should ever touch.”
”Child, that is a thing of the past. I'm sure you won't be using drugs again, right?” the priest asked.
”That's a given. I will never touch something like that for as long as I live,” Alexander answered resolutely.
”My child, it looks like you've found your road to redemption. Believe in yourself. God would never abandon you, so you should not give up on yourself. Continue moving forward, and God will give you guidance. Who knows, a miracle might occur in the very next moment,” the priest said as he touched the cross on his chest with a hand before patting Alexander on the shoulder. ”Child, I will give you a piece of advice. If you feel a lot of pressure and stress, find a place to vent. Perhaps you will feel better.”
...
In front of the main door of a building, Dai Li was reviewing a promotional poster in detail. The poster was the layout plan of the building, and on the top of the poster were the words, ”Holly's Shooting Club,” as well as a photograph of Mr. and Mrs. Holly.
On the side, Holly pointed towards the layout plan and announced, ”The shooting club is divided into three parts. On the right here is the indoor shooting range, the place at the back is the outdoor shooting range, and on the left, this is the shooting training center.”
”The indoor and outdoor shooting ranges both use real guns and live rounds, whereas the shooting training center uses practice guns used in matches. In some shooting clubs in America, it is mandatory for users to possess a gun license before they can perform live rounds practice, but for my shooting club, as long as you are over 21 years old, you can perform live rounds practice. For those who are above 18 years old but below 21 years old, they can only use pistols, and for those not yet 18, they can only use practice rifles in the shooting training center. Let's go inside.”
Holly brought Dai Li into the shooting club. Descriptions of all kinds of guns were pasted all over the walls, and every gun had a one-to-one ratio display picture, the name of the gun, the gun's caliber, production house, as well as some information about the gun.
A price list was placed in an area with high visibility. On the price list was the rental price of every gun.
Holly, who stood on the side, continued his introduction. ”In my shooting club, clients are allowed to bring their guns. However, still select rented guns. I have a lot of classical guns here; you can't buy these from Walmart or your regular gun stores.”
Buying a gun in America is easy. There is a total of around 50,000 legal gun stores in America, which is about the same as the number of Shaxian country snack stores in China. Apart from gun stores, even Walmart has designated areas that sell guns. Apart from that, there are more than 5000 annual gun exhibitions in America on average, and one could purchase a rare or classical gun from those exhibitions.
Most ordinary gun owners possessed a pistol or a hunting rifle, and very few owned a submachine gun, an automatic rifle, or a machine gun. In truth, from the perspective of self-defense, a pistol would be more than enough. Besides, the price of a pistol was lower, as they could be purchased for around 300 or 400 dollars.
And if an ordinary citizen had the urge to shoot a gun, renting a gun from the shooting club was obviously very cost effective. It was like going skiing; although skiing equipment isn't expensive, very few people would actually bring their own gear. They would rent and use the items from the ski resort instead.
Dai Li looked at the price list. The guns were divided into three categories. The first were pistols, and the rental rate was 25 dollars each; the second were automatic rifles, and the rental price was also 25 dollars each. The third was the machine guns which had a rental rate of 50 dollars each.
The price listed included a fixed number of bullets; for example, ten bullets were given for the rental of an SKS semi-automatic rifle for 25 dollars. 50 bullets were given for the rental of a UZI submachine gun for 50 dollars. Of course, the bullet of the 9mm caliber UZI submachine gun was much cheaper than the 7.62 bullets used by the SKS semi-automatic rifle.
After using up all the given bullets, one would have to spend money to purchase bullets. Bullets of different calibers were priced differently. However, one thing was certain. The bullets in shooting clubs were more expensive than the prices at Walmart.
Apart from that, the price lists included an advertisement for the application of VIP deals. For example, the cheapest was a VIP deal that cost 499 dollars. One could rent a gun 11 times, plus a one-time-use for an M249 machine gun or a Degtyaryov machine gun, one use of an MP5 submachine gun, an M4, or an AK-47 rifle, and two pistols uses as well as one semi-automatic rifle use. To sum it up, it was spending 499 dollars for the rental and use of guns for a total of 17 times. The higher-priced VIP deal that cost 799 dollars allowed for a total usage of 42 times. On average, the rental of a gun didn't even reach 20 dollars. It was much more cost-effective when compared to renting a gun separately.
Apart from the VIP deals, there were also a few gun rental packages. Some of the packages were very tasteless. For example, the price for the rental of two pistols was 40 dollars. In Dai Li's opinion, going to a professional shooting range to experience shooting two pistols was anything but money well-spent. It was very probable that only those who were aged between 18 and 21 would choose that sort of package.
Of course, there were also combinations of several more popular guns. For example, there was a package named ”We've won World War II.” That package was a combination of the Thompson submachine gun and the MP40 submachine gun. Renting the guns separately would cost 50 dollars, but the package reduced it to 44.90. Although both those guns were ancient, they were the classic submachine guns of the second world war, and they were very popular among gun enthusiasts. There was another package, the ”American Army Package,” it included the M9 pistol, the M4 rifle, and the M249 machine gun. The full set of US military equipment was also a favorite and hot package.
Apart from the rental price of guns and the price of bullets, the rental of the shooting lane also cost money. An indoor lane cost 30 dollars per hour while the outdoor shooting lane cost 50 dollars per hour. The target sheets also cost money, but the cost was mainly to cover the labor for changing the sheets. It was the US after all; as long as it was human labor, it cost extra.
If it were the outdoor shooting range, the target equipment would also cost money. Take for an example a row of beer bottles, or perhaps a few humanoid gun targets, maybe even a watermelon or a hanging apple. Each and every one of those would have a clear price tag.
Dai Li looked at the price list and began calculating in his mind.
Under normal circumstances, buying a gun in a gun store, a pistol would cost from 300 to 500 dollars. The selling price of a long-barrelled gun would be around 1000 dollars. The price might be lower if it was bought directly from the factory in a gun exhibition. Based on the rental price of 25 dollars, deducting the cost of the bullets, the breakeven point for a long-barrelled gun would be around 60 plus times. The people who come here would never only rent one gun. If that were the case, the price wouldn't even be able to cover the cost of renting the shooting lane. Under normal circumstances, it is common for a person to rent two guns. If that's the case, the usage rate of the guns is quite high.
And the charges for these shooting lanes, it is merely a profiteering business. It's just the simple act of providing a location, and the maintenance fee is so low that is can be considered insignificant, but the price is more than ten dollars per hour. It is comparable to opening a cyber cafe and not just charging people for computer use, but for internet use as well, not to mention the charge for the used area of the computer table. These ”two-sided” charges sure are well-played. Considering that in the calculation, spending two hours here would cost at least 200 dollars. A front-row seat for the LA Lakers was also around 200 dollars, wasn't it? No wonder Blake told me that Holly's shooting club could earn him several million annually. Renting guns, selling ammo, renting shooting lanes and target equipment... With these sorts of charges, there is no way to not make a profit.
Holly brought Dai Li to the counter. The shelf behind the counter was filled with all kinds of guns, and behind the counter was a man and two girls and three staff. The three of them all had pistols on their waists.
”Coach Li, which gun do you want to try, just choose whichever,” Holly pointed toward the guns.
Dai Li looked dumbfoundedly at the gun shelf instead. He only recognized half the guns, and that was only because of the games he had played before. He had never touched a real gun before.
”Um… about that. To tell you the truth, I don't have a gun license, so I haven't used a real gun before,” Dai Li could only answer honestly.
”I've almost forgotten, you aren't American!” Holly had only just remembered.
American adults who had never touched a gun were considered strange. The population of the US is around 300 million, but there is a total of 270 million guns. Removing minors who are below 21 years old, there were enough guns in America for every American to have one, with several million left over. So amongst the adults, almost everyone knew how to use a gun.
”If that's the case, let me help you pick.” Holly grabbed a pen and the gun selection menu before pointing towards a silver pistol on the gun shelf, and saying, ”This M500 revolver is the most powerful pistol in the world. The kinetic energy generated from the launching of the bullet is double that of the famous 'Desert Eagle.' The power it generates is almost the equivalent of a powerful rifle. The weight of the pistol, without bullets, is 2.32 kilograms, which is close to a lightweight submachine gun.”
”That is a Thompson submachine gun. You've definitely heard of this gun before. It was the favorite weapon of the Chicago mob in the twenties, the burst of this gun is extremely satisfying, the rhythm that goes 'da da da,' giving it the nickname 'The Chicago Typewriter.'”
”The M4 rifle, the main rifle for the US Army, is also the most stable rifle of the US Army. It uses .223 caliber Remington bullets, which is also the most common rifle bullet in the US…”
”Hold on, I remember the M4 rifle is supposed to use the 5.56mm bullets,” Dai Li interrupted Holly's explanation.
”The 5.56mm bullets were the standard bullets during the Vietnam war, but only the military used those. The bullet used by civilians in shooting ranges are the .223 bullets. For an ordinary person, the difference between the two isn't that big.” Holly pointed towards the AK47 on the side and continued, ”The AK47, the king of the long-barrelled guns, this is a gun you cannot miss.”
”The SPAS-12 multipurpose shotgun is something you have to experience. This is the most commonly seen shotgun in Hollywood movies, like 'The Terminator,''Jurassic Park'...”
”The M249 machine gun… Yeah, let's forget about machine guns for now. We'll head towards the outdoor shooting range. I'll show you my baby, it's way better than the M249.”
...
Hitting the target with real bullets was completely different from playing a first-person shooter game. When playing a game, all one needed to do was click on the mouse and within a few seconds, thirty bullets would have been shot. In real life shooting, however, it was not like that. Every shot was fired with a pull of the trigger. If one aimed seriously for every single shot, it would take a long time to finish shooting 30 bullets. Moreover, Dai Li was a beginner, so his rate of shooting was much slower.
After about an hour in the indoor shooting range, Holly brought Dai Li to the outdoor shooting range. Dai Li also had the chance to witness the ”baby” that Holly mentioned earlier.
The gun was placed on top of a shelf, six dark and shiny steel pipes that sent shivers down people's spines. Although Dai Li's understanding of the gun stopped at the game level, he still recognized the gun on first sight.
”The Gatling gun!” Dai Li couldn't help himself.
As the world's first practical machine gun, the Gatling gun was certainly famous enough, and more importantly, the gun could easily be recognized. The gun barrels tied together are the Gatling gun's most prominent feature. It was hard to forget after seeing it.
”I didn't see this thing in the advertisement outside,” Dai Li remarked as he stepped forward to touch the Gatling gun, unable to help himself.