Police officer Chen Shu

Chapter 417 Giving Up the Sniper Competition Winner
The First Directly Subordinate Brigade, rest room.

"Zhang Zhongzhen!!!"

This time, Wei Hengyuan completely disregarded the fact that the other assault team members were still present. He rushed into the rest room and pointed at Zhang Zhongzhen, yelling, "What on earth are you thinking? I warned you a thousand times before, and you just ignored me? Why did you treat the precision shooting competition like rapid fire? And you only got third place! What about the rest of the competitions?! Tell me!"

Zhang Zhongzhen waved his hand, and the team members who were still in the rest room tactfully left one by one.

He glanced at Wei Hengyuan, whose chest was heaving, and smiled coldly: "From today onwards, a new record will be set, and this is just my tribute to the old sniper king."

"A tribute?" Wei Hengyuan angrily pointed at Zhang Zhongzhen with his finger and said, "Don't think I don't know, you're just resentful that I interfered in arranging the team members! So you're deliberately making things difficult for me!"

Zhang Zhongzhen continued cleaning his gun with his head down, neither commenting on Wei Hengyuan's statement nor giving a direct answer.

Wei Hengyuan continued indignantly, "Zhongzhen, you're already in your twenties, don't act like a recent graduate and argue with me. You need to understand, in this competition, we're in this together. We share the same fate, and we share the same fate!"

The silent Zhang Zhongzhen was not at all surprised that Wei Hengyuan, the captain of the Special Police First Detachment, who was his direct superior, seemed to be angrily rebuking him, but in fact carried a hint of helplessness towards him.

Seeing that Zhang Zhongzhen still did not respond, Wei Hengyuan had no choice but to give up the idea of ​​persuading him and sighed, "I can't control you 90s kids anymore. If it weren't for your father's sake, I really wouldn't want to say a single unnecessary word."

"Click."

Zhang Zhongzhen finally stopped what he was doing, threw the sniper rifle on the table, and said expressionlessly, "Wei Da, don't mention my dad in front of me."

Knowing that the father and son, both police officers, had an irreconcilable conflict, but seeing Zhang Zhongzhen's reaction, Wei Hengyuan changed the subject at the right time, saying, "I know you are confident in your sniping skills, which is a good thing. But what if... well, I'll be frank with you, the second competition is rapid fire behind obstacles."

Zhang Zhongzhen picked up the sniper rifle again, pulled the bolt back with a "click," and aimed at it. Rapid fire was his forte, which he was proud of throughout the province.

“Wei Da, you didn’t need to bring this up with me. Revealing the details of the competition to us privately is a violation of the brigade’s regulations.”

The competition events were designed by the brigade's directly subordinate department, the Reconnaissance and Training Battalion. The confidentiality of the details and the specific competition events should not have been known to Wei Hengyuan, a member of the First Battalion, who was participating in the competition.

Clearly, Wei Hengyuan, who worked in the same building, had connections with the leaders in the investigation and training unit.

Wei Hengyuan gave a few wry smiles and said in a deep voice, "In order to reflect the randomness of the game, the third round of the sniper competition will be a shooting exercise targeting targets behind glass."

"Behind the glass?" Zhang Zhongzhen lightly tapped his index finger, and the sniper rifle in his hand made a crisp click. He said softly, "Heh, I thought it was a sniper shot from different distances."

He lowered the sniper rifle vertically, butt resting on the ground, and frowned in confusion, saying, "Shooting targets behind glass—this method relies heavily on luck, which doesn't align with our competition's objective of assessing ability."

When shooting at targets behind glass, bullets can deviate after passing through the glass. Therefore, snipers need to consider not only the type of glass (e.g., ordinary glass, tempered glass, or insulated glass), but also the thickness of the glass and the distance of the target behind the glass, which are also important factors affecting bullet deviation.

If the rifle used in this competition were the domestically produced Type 26 sniper rifle, which is relatively new, it would be somewhat less affected by the glass. However, with the Type 88, it would likely cause significant deviation.

"Old Gao made the decision, saying it should be close to real combat, and luck is also part of the skill." Wei Hengyuan shrugged.

“He’s the squad leader, whatever he says is right.” Zhang Zhongzhen nodded, understanding Wei Hengyuan’s anger when he rushed into the rest room earlier.

He hesitated for a moment, then admitted his mistake, saying, "Mr. Wei, I was careless earlier. I will do my best on the next two projects."

Wei Hengyuan sighed deeply: "This is the only way."

Zhengming Brigade, temporary rest room.

"Target shooting behind glass? And it's a single-shot contest? This is too frivolous!" Chen Shu exclaimed in shock, holding the competition event for the third round that the organizing committee had just announced.

The curtain in the inner room was lifted, revealing Li Da's rugged face. He smiled and said, "Chen Shu, you're the sniper king. Several sniping records you held seven years ago are still in effect. I believe in you!"

Immediately, Li Da suddenly realized that he couldn't put pressure on Chen Shu out of thin air, so he changed the subject and said, "Actually, our team has done quite well. Whether the later competition events go well or not doesn't matter."

Li Da, who was already extremely satisfied with Zhengming's current performance, didn't quite understand Chen Shu's meaning, but in his heart, he genuinely didn't care about the outcome of the upcoming matches. After all, Zhengming had consistently finished last in previous years.

Li Da is overjoyed.

After Li Da went to the outer room, Chen Shu instructed Zhang Qing to pour some water for the captain, shaking his head and explaining, "Li Da, shooting at targets behind glass involves a certain element of luck and doesn't fully reflect a sniper's skill. After two rounds of competition, Zhang Zhongzhen and I have each won and lost, and we were just waiting for the third round to decide the winner. I didn't expect this result. But it's fine this way; I'm still quite confident in my first-shot hit."

Police sniping is different from competitive sports; these are entirely different worlds. In sports shooting events, the score is generally based on the final total score, and the quality of the first shot may not have a significant impact on the final result.

But SWAT sniping is different. Although there are regular shooting competitions, these are merely training methods. In real combat, the ultimate goal of SWAT sniping is to solve the root cause of the problem. In many missions, a first-shot hit is essential.

If the first shot doesn't achieve the desired effect, firing a second shot is pointless, and the mission will fail.

Li Da, who had never touched a sniper rifle before, was unaware of the intricacies involved, but he was frank: "Chen Shu, just do what you have to do. You're just making yourself so tired by overthinking everything. Be careful not to turn into a white-haired old man at such a young age."

Hearing Li Da's amusing remark, Chen Shu was about to retort when a sudden flash of inspiration struck him, and he came up with an idea on the spot.

As arranged by the organizing committee, in order to allow special police officers to participate in the competition at multiple levels, rather than just a small number of elites from each brigade, the organizing committee specifically set a rule that winners of individual events cannot participate in subsequent team events.

Chen Shu left Li Da behind and hurriedly ran to the inner room to get the banknotes, comparing them with the team scores and individual event winners that Chen Chuan had just copied from the scoreboard.

The more he looked at it, the more it resonated with the idea that had suddenly come to mind.

"Chen Shu, what are you doing?" Li Da walked into the inner room and looked at Chen Shu, who was scribbling on an A4 sheet of paper, on the table, and asked in confusion.

A moment later, Chen Shu threw down his pen and paper, stood up straight, and shook his index finger, saying, "Li Da, we are currently in third place. If I win the individual sniper competition, our total score will surpass that of the First Brigade and the Yong'an Brigade to become number one."

Li Da licked his dry lips, knowing that Chen Shu had more to say.

"But this is all just a temporary illusion, because there's a team event after the sniper competition. Winning the sniper competition as an individual event only adds five points, but winning the team event is a solid ten points," Chen Shu said in a deep voice, his eyes narrowed.

Li Da did not understand the meaning behind Chen Shu's words, but this did not affect his proper response as a qualified listener.

"Chen Shu, what do you mean?"

Chen Shu took a deep breath, his expression becoming much more serious: "I will forfeit the sniper competition to help Zhang Zhongzhen win it. This way, he won't be able to lead the team in the final team event. And since I came in second, I can lead the team!"

Li Da was stunned, his eyes widening: "Chen Shu, don't joke around! Why would you give up? This is your comeback battle with the SWAT team. If you lose to the youngsters, you'll lose face! Besides, can you guarantee that with you leading the team, we can definitely crush their entire team in the team event? In that case, you'll lose both your wife and your army!"

"To win, you always have to take some risks."

Chen Shu smiled and took out the yellow cigarettes that Chen Chuan had forced on him before the competition from his pocket. He removed the packaging, took one out, and handed it back to Li Da.

"Li Da, think long-term. Our ultimate goal is to win first place."

First place. Li Da fell silent. Although he had been emphasizing that he was very satisfied with the current results, as the head of the brigade, the brigade's history of consistently ranking last was truly suffocating him.

This opportunity to win the championship is too tempting for anyone to resist.

"But, Chen Shu, you..."

Chen Shu raised his finger to stop Li Da's persuasion. He looked through the curtain at the group of people who were resting in the outer room, exhausted from the competition, and said softly, "Li Da, our team is actually quite good, with a certain degree of cohesion. Hmm, we still need an ultimate honor to transform this cohesion into fighting power."

"Hmm," Li Da accepted the cigarette and gave in, following Chen Shu's gaze to the outer room.

"It's mainly because you led your team well," the two said in unison, then paused for a moment before bursting into laughter.

(End of this chapter)