Chapter 61: Showing Off

"Wow, this gun is amazing, wow, this gun is so good, wow wow, the accuracy is so good too! Wow..."

"Shut up! Are you playing an ambulance siren? What's with the constant 'wow'?"

The one scolding is Arthur, because John kept on endlessly shouting "wow" which was causing the other shooters at the shooting range to give them strange looks.

"Wow! This gun is really the best, top-of-the-line production, the pinnacle of mass-produced guns, there's no way to surpass it, no wonder it's a special custom-selected experimental gun from Sig Sauer!"

John emphasized the last few words particularly, so the chubby guy shooting at the next lane couldn't help but take off his earmuffs and curiously ask, "Experimental gun? Come on, you're joking, an experimental gun...wow! An M17?!"

"It's an MH17, buddy, look closely, there are two of them here, the prototypes of the M17 and M18."

The chubby guy stared at them for a while and then curiously said, "Shouldn't it be in a sand color?"

"Sand color, haha, sand color! You know what a special custom version is? Buddy, shoot two rounds, give me two bullets, shoot two rounds and then talk to me."

Arthur really wanted to stop John, because he just realized that John came to the shooting range just to show off, no other purpose, pure boasting, very high-profile boasting.

John proudly placed the gun on the table, and the chubby guy next to him eagerly picked up the gun, carefully took off the manual safety at the rear of the slide, and exclaimed in surprise, "This is really an MH17!"

The P320 does not have a manual safety at the rear of the slide, but the military required one to be added, so Sig Sauer added a manual safety behind the slide stop, which became the most important distinguishing feature between the military and civilian versions.

The chubby guy fired two rounds, then stopped, his face filled with astonishment, "Is this the level of accuracy that mass-produced guns can reach? This must be a specially customized high-precision version, wow, my two shots overlapped? Wow! The recoil is so smooth, the P320 doesn't have this kind of accuracy, it reminds me of a heavily modified gun I use for IDPA competitions, but this is really a production gun?"

John burst out laughing, he took the pistol back from the chubby guy's hand and said proudly, "If you really believe that an experimental gun is just randomly picked from the production line, then you're an idiot, buddy. Now you know the standard of a good gun."

At this time, an older gentleman dressed in a suit who had been shooting suddenly said, "May I give it a try?"

The shooting at the range temporarily stopped, no one continued firing. The old gentleman removed the magazine, cleared the chamber, and holding an empty gun, he said, "I'm not trying to show off, but this gun of mine is what you call a custom-made gun. We can exchange a few rounds, how about it?"

The old gentleman seemed to be well-respected at this shooting range. John shrugged and said, "Mr. Moedl is here too, so let's exchange a few shots."

The old man placed his own gun on the table, picked up the MH17, felt the grip, then put on the earmuffs, aimed, and fired one shot.

The bullet hit the lower left corner of the target paper. Moedl paused for a moment and said, "Feels good."

Then Moedl fired a second shot, and the two bullet holes basically overlapped, leaving only one enlarged hole on the target paper.

"This accuracy is not what a handgun should have, the precision is really high, and the ammunition must be specially selected as well?"

After Mr. Moedl seriously said this, he didn't continue shooting, but instead pulled back the slide, and a round popped out of the barrel. Mr. Moedl quickly caught the round.

Carefully examining the bullet, Mr. Moedl gently said, "This round is an M1152, one of the four types of ammunition selected by the military for the MHS project, the others being the XM1152 ball, XM1153 hollow point, XM1154 training, and XM1155 blank. After compatibility testing, they were officially standardized, but the military placed the ammunition orders with Winchester. However, this round was produced by Sig Sauer themselves."

Mr. Moedl explained in detail, then turned to show the bullet to the onlookers. Arthur couldn't help but nod and say, "That's right, the bullets came with the gun box, 100 rounds of M1152 ball and 100 rounds of M1153 hollow point."

"So the ammunition is also custom-made, I figured regular ammunition wouldn't have this level of precision. John, do you mind if I try some regular ammo?"

John seemed to have a lot of respect for this Mr. Moedl, and immediately said, "Sure, feel free."

Immediately, a helpful person brought out half a box of ammunition. Ammunition costs money, but now people were eager to learn.

"This is Winchester ammunition, give it a try."

The helpful person provided 9mm Parabellum ammunition, the same caliber as the M17, but with a round-nosed bullet.

The bullet shape was a bit different, but 9mm Parabellum would work. Without further ado, Mr. Moedl loaded five rounds of the regular Parabellum ammo into the magazine and began shooting again.

After firing five consecutive shots, it was truly a sight that brought tears to the eyes, as there were even some female shooters present.

Mr. Moedl was extremely perplexed and said, "Why is the accuracy so high? It's not a competition, is this necessary?"

The five bullet holes were concentrated within an area the size of a coin, even though it was a 10-meter target. This level of accuracy was indeed exceptionally high.

Handguns are for close-range self-defense. The engagement distance when using a handgun is mostly within 15 meters. Unless it's for competition shooting, there's no real need to pursue the extreme precision of a handgun, as it's not really necessary.

Mr. Moedl raised his handgun again and fired off several shots in quick succession. After emptying the magazine, he said in a serious tone, "Not bad, really not bad. This is the best production handgun I've used."

John pointed at Arthur excitedly and said, "A matching pair - one M17 and one M18, a gift from a friend. I took the M17, and gave him the M18."

Mr. Moedl looked at Arthur for a moment, then suddenly said, "Sell it to me, $10,000 for one."

Arthur was taken aback, but John looked even more pleased. He shook his head and said, "No, I won't sell."

"$30,000!"

John laughed, "Don't be silly, this has sentimental value and collector's value. It will definitely appreciate in value."

"I'll give you $40,000 for both guns! And by the way, I custom-ordered this handgun for $18,000, a masterpiece by Rosskranz, the best custom practical pistol. You can test-fire it before deciding."

John shrugged and extended his hand. Mr. Moedl reluctantly placed the gun in his hand, and John shrugged again, "No, I won't sell, no matter the price. I'm keeping it to play with myself."

John turned around proudly and loudly said, "Sorry everyone, we have to leave now, still have some things to do. See you all later."

Arthur quickly followed John out of the crowd. Mr. Moedl called out from behind, "You should try my gun before deciding. I really can't go any higher, this is already..."

Mr. Moedl's offer was too high, but Arthur couldn't sell. After they left the shooting range, he couldn't help but say, "You bastard, you just came here to show off!"

John looked surprised and said, "Just now you figured it out? What else would I come for if not to show off? If I didn't show off, how would you know how much this gun is worth? If I didn't show off, could I let Mr. Moedl test-fire this gun? Do you know who he is?"

"Who is he?"

"Mr. Moedl is a high-end player. He's not a professional shooter, but he's won over a hundred shooting championships. He's a firearms consultant for Hollywood, but his main job is as a famous film and TV investor. That's why I knew he'd be here today."

John looked very proud as he twisted and gestured, "At this shooting range, Mr. Moedl is the only god. But today, haha, today I have a gun he doesn't, haha, it feels so great!"

After saying that, John placed the gun in Arthur's hand and said seriously, "From now on, never bring these two guns to this shooting range again, because you'll run into Mr. Moedl, and he'll give you an irresistible high price. It's a pity this was a gift from Smith, or else..."

"You're not really thinking of selling, are you?"

John sighed, "What use is a handgun? One handgun can be traded for the best top-of-the-line gear. Why wouldn't you sell? Sigh, it's just a pity it was a gift from Mr. Smith."

Arthur quickly holstered his gun, then said very seriously, "I'll never bring this gun here again. You've shown off enough, let's go recruit some people now."

"Back to the office."

John looked very satisfied, but also a bit tired. He leaned back in the car seat and said weakly, "Your driving has improved, hasn't it?"

Arthur got in the car and started driving slowly. If the shooting club wasn't so close to the office, John would have insisted on driving several times.

At the office, John went straight to the chairman's office, turned on the computer, and started fidgeting in the swivel chair, "Finding people is easy, it's the legal part that's a bit tricky. Give me 10 minutes, I'll find you two good ones."

Arthur came over to John's side, looking curious, "Online recruitment? Is it reliable?"

John smiled smugly, "Since you still want to gift me a gun, I'll show you what the industry elite group looks like."

The computer booted up, and John quickly typed out a web address and clicked on it. He pointed to the very simple page and said, "You know what the dark web is?"

Arthur had heard of the dark web, but had never actually seen it. Now looking at this simple single-page website, he couldn't help but exclaim, "This is the dark web?"

John entered his username and password, and the simple page turned into an equally simple chat room. He clicked on a war-related section, then said proudly, "The internet age has made brokers obsolete. It was hard for mercenaries to get gigs on their own before, and they had to let brokers take a cut. But now we have the dark web - there are so many jobs."

Arthur pointed at the page, "Wow, there are hitmen. Wow, this place really has everything, let me see the hitman section, let me see!"

John's fingers didn't move, but Arthur impatiently grabbed the mouse and clicked on the assassin title. However, he found that he couldn't open it.

He clicked a few more times, and then Arthur suddenly said, "Isn't this website tiered? Your level... is the lowest?"

John's expression immediately darkened as he said, "What do you mean the lowest level? This is... this is industry segmentation. Do you know the importance of confidentiality? Even assassins can't open our page."

This dark web was like an old-fashioned chatroom, but there were no visible online users and no avatars, only a series of topics with user names, most of which were just letters and numbers.

However, John's user name was different - it was called "Killing Machine".

John created a topic with the title "Urgently recruiting experts in Los Angeles".

The content was simple: "Urgent recruitment in the Los Angeles area, daily wage of $1,000 cash, security tasks, requirements: legal identity, own legal equipment, must be a retired special forces, interested parties please send private messages, positions filled as soon as possible."

After clicking submit, John tossed the mouse, leaned back smugly and said, "Wait and see, in ten minutes, you'll be able to select people. No non-special forces, no bad attitudes, no cannon fodder, no problem-makers, no troublemakers, no sh*t!"

But just as John was listing all the exclusions, he suddenly jumped up from the chair, staring at the computer in extreme surprise, "The post has been blocked? What does this mean!"

On the computer screen, there was only a line of red text: "Violation."

John hurriedly clicked on the "Violation" text, and a new line of text appeared below: "Violation of information release."

John angrily roared, "Violation of information release? Nonsense, where did I violate anything? What's wrong with this dark web, why..."

Arthur felt a bit horrified, because he found that John didn't type anything, he just yelled a few sentences, but the words appeared on the computer as if answering his questions.

"Appearance of real location information."

John paused for a moment, then furiously said, "How am I supposed to post a recruitment ad without mentioning the location? Is this website stupid?"

A new line of text appeared on the computer, taking up half the screen, not conforming to the normal dialogue format.

"Don't know how to use the dark web, you're a newbie? No, you're an idiot, idiot permanently banned!"

The computer's response clearly answered John's question, and then the text disappeared, and the dark web vanished.

John was dumbfounded, and Arthur cautiously said next to him, "The dark web seems to be mocking you. Wait, our computer has been hacked, right?"

John stood there stunned, and said, "Fuck, my account, the account I bought for $1,000!"

Arthur sighed helplessly, "So you really are a newbie, huh? Okay, do you know what to do next?"