The Admiral of Hogwarts

Under Veneto's guidance, Hugo began his firearms shooting practice. However, at the beginning, it wasn't direct shooting practice. Instead, Veneto adjusted the various target positions while assessing Hugo's level of firearm usage and maintenance after his previous practice sessions.

Considering that this place was just an indoor shooting range, their practice targets were limited to three types: a 25-meter pistol target, a 30-meter submachine gun target, and a 50-meter rifle target. Because it was Hugo's first time practicing live-fire shooting, Veneto prepared only stationary targets for him today.

"Long-range shooting will have to wait until we find time later," Veneto said, looking at the farthest 50-meter rifle target with some dissatisfaction. "Once we find an opportunity, I want you to practice on a 300-meter chest target, and you have to fire the first bullet within four seconds, with three out of five shots hitting the bullseye."

"That data sounds a bit familiar," Hugo thought, a standard keyboard military expert in his past life. After searching through his memories, he realized the source of the data. "Isn't that what the Japanese trained their army to do at the beginning of World War II?"

"That's right. The Japanese soldiers in World War II were indeed as inhuman as beasts, but their individual shooting skills were truly impressive," Veneto said. "If you want to master the skill, I personally think it's more appropriate to use this most stringent individual design requirement from World War II to train you."

"You're right about that," Hugo said, nodding in agreement. "I had an elder in my past life who served in the Eighth Route Army's guerrilla force. He told us before he died that in the early years, the Japanese devils' veterans were very accurate shooters. They had to change locations after firing one or two shots, or they would easily be hit by the Japanese."

"Moreover, many infantry manuals of the Chinese army later drew on the essence of the Japanese army's manuals. So, even though I hate those invaders, we still have to absorb their strengths."

Soon, Veneto adjusted the target positions in the shooting range. Then, she said to Hugo, who was ready, "Next, we will practice one-minute chest target shooting. You have to empty four magazines, a total of 28 bullets, within one minute. Considering that you are a novice, you only need to empty three magazines."

"Understood," Hugo replied loudly, following the training requirements. Then, when Veneto pressed the button on the stopwatch and shouted 'Start,' he pulled the trigger. Instantly, the rapid sound of gunfire echoed throughout the Room of Requirement.

While shooting, Hugo began to subconsciously apply the shooting knowledge brought by the 'Unlucky Fellow' avatar. Fortunately, since World War II, the operation methods of automatic pistols have basically not changed much to the modern era, so this knowledge can be generally applied.

"Bang, bang, bang—" After firing the last bullet, Hugo quickly operated the magazine release button below the pistol grip to eject the magazine. Then, he picked up a new magazine from the table, loaded it into place, and then re-cocked the gun to shoot again. This magazine release button position also caused the biggest difference in operation between this old-fashioned automatic pistol and modern pistols.

"Time's up." Veneto didn't call a halt after Hugo had fired three magazines, so Hugo simply continued shooting the fourth magazine as before. Unfortunately, Veneto stopped him after he had only fired two bullets from this last magazine.

"23 shots fired, two misses." As a ship girl, Veneto could naturally see the situation on the pistol target 25 meters away. "The remaining 21 shots were pretty good. Except for the first few shots that hit the 4 and 5 rings, the remaining dozen or so shots all hit above the 8 ring. For someone who's touching a gun for the first time, that's already very good."

As ship girls, they basically don't lie, especially when facing their Admiral. So, what Veneto was saying now was from the bottom of her heart. She knew that Hugo had previously obtained the 'Unlucky Fellow' avatar and mastered shooting skills, but unlike some knowledge-based skills, this kind of practical skill, if not practiced, is actually not much different from not mastering it at all.

So, she felt that Hugo's current shooting level was already very good for his foundation, and she could even vaguely see that Hugo seemed to have some talent in shooting.

"Then, should we continue practicing next?" Hugo asked. "I feel like I still have a lot of room for improvement in this area."

"Of course, you should definitely continue practicing. Especially considering that even though wizards use magic, many spells are those ray-like spells that need to be aimed beforehand. So, practicing shooting is a very practical skill from any point of view."

As Veneto spoke, she replaced the target paper on the target and then let Hugo continue shooting. However, this time, the shooting was no longer the rapid shooting of a test, but started to correct some problems in the shooting under Veneto's guidance.

Accurately speaking, these problems were not really problems. It's just that the shooting movements that Hugo remembered from the 'Unlucky Fellow' avatar were more suitable for tall and strong young men, but sometimes they were a bit unsuitable for his current 11-year-old body, even though he now possessed the strong physical fitness of an adult male after obtaining the 'Unlucky Fellow' avatar.

So, now he could only temporarily learn Veneto's shooting method that was suitable for his current body type, even if some of the movements didn't look very appropriate when he did them.

But to be fair, these instructions could be said to have hit the nail on the head, and they had an immediate effect. After just over an hour of practice, Hugo was able to empty four magazines within the specified time, and all the bullets hit above the 8 ring, with more than 13 hitting the bullseye.

"Very good. When your right hand is proficient in the future, we can practice your left hand," Veneto said, massaging Hugo's shoulders. "When you fight in the future, you can use your right hand for the wand and your left hand for the pistol, ambidextrously."

"Wouldn't using a pistol when fighting wizards seem out of place?" Hugo asked, somewhat confused. "And most importantly, if guns were really useful, why didn't so many Muggle-born wizards use them before?"

"Guns are indeed not very useful for those higher-level wizards," Veneto said after thinking for a moment. "But if you consider that the Ministry of Magic has a large group of useless people who can't even cast the Shield Charm, you'll know that firearms are definitely not completely useless."

"As for why firearms are not popular here, it's very simple. First of all, with the UK's gun control laws, Muggle-born wizards find it difficult to obtain guns through legal channels, and using magic to obtain them illegally will be dealt with by the Ministry of Magic."

"Secondly, even Muggle-born wizards, after learning magic for seven years during the important period of shaping their worldview from 11-17 years old, their thinking will lean towards the magical world and will subconsciously despise the things of ordinary people who don't know magic. They may not think of using guns."

"Finally, in the last war, the pure-blood Death Eaters would definitely not be as clumsy as the Ministry of Magic staff, who can't even use the most basic self-defense magic, let alone have a large pile of magical items for defense on their bodies. So, even if those Muggle-born wizards had guns, they wouldn't be of much use after encountering them."

"After synthesizing the above reasons, it's understandable that they don't use guns," Veneto concluded. "However, considering that we ship girls have a way to add some kind of extraordinary attribute to the bullets in the future that is effective against wizards, it's still very worthwhile for you to practice guns."