Chapter 411 - 278: The Source of Fear is Insufficient Firepower

Chapter 411: Chapter 278: The Source of Fear is Insufficient Firepower

Starling began her performance.

The audition didn’t have a set or other actors, so she had to perform the final battle with Buffalo Bill all by herself.

In the script, the final battle was set in Buffalo Bill’s basement. It was pitch-black and had a Low Tier Forbidden Magic Array, making it impossible to use even a basic Lighting Technique.

The main police force had been sent to the wrong location due to a miscalculation.

This left Starling all alone, and her only weapon was the latest model Colt-style revolver.

This Pistol became widely popular because it solved the troublesome reloading process of first pouring gunpowder, then inserting the ball, ramming it down hard, and finally placing the percussion cap.

In practice, old-fashioned flintlocks were rarely reloaded during a fight. Most people just carried several of them and switched to melee combat after firing.

Zog had also acquired several to use as props. As long as the actor being shot at was covered by a Defense Technique, they could film with real guns, saving them the trouble of even adding muzzle flash effects.

This purely kinetic weapon was useless in any reasonably high-level fight. Its muzzle velocity was only about two hundred meters per second, and its effective range wasn’t even thirty meters.

If one hit Zog, it wouldn’t even scratch his Dragon Scales.

Because the bullets were so slow, Zog had even recreated the famous scene from Fire Cloud Evil God, catching a bullet between his claws.

But the audience wasn’t shocked at all. Perhaps the spectators he had gathered were too high-level, including Furin, Doudou, El...

Not only were they not shocked, but they also started imitating him on the spot.

In the end, Doudou’s reaction speed wasn’t fast enough. He couldn’t catch the bullets no matter how he tried, ended up shooting himself several times, and was mercilessly mocked.

After that, he became obsessed with catching bullets, carrying a gun and ammunition with him to practice wherever he went. This strange behavior successfully influenced the not-so-bright Beastmen.

The powerful Beastman Warriors weren’t afraid of guns either. However, their hides weren’t as thick as an Ancient Dragon’s, so they couldn’t completely ignore the damage. It still hurt a bit when they were hit.

So the Beastmen developed a brand-new drinking game: Deepwater City Roulette.

They’d put one bullet in the cylinder, spin it, put the gun to their own head, and pull the trigger. Whoever got shot had to chug a drink...

However, it was rumored that some Mages were already researching how to apply Enchantments to this new type of weapon, though their progress didn’t seem to be going well.

In any case, Zog took out a Colt-style revolver—now treated as a toy—and handed it to Starling.

He also taught her how to fire it.

This Pistol didn’t have an automatic mechanism; how fast you could fire depended mainly on how quickly the shooter could cock the hammer.

Starling learned quickly and soon got the hang of it. Holding the small, unloaded pistol, she began her performance.

Under the gaze of a dozen pairs of eyes, she quickly got into character.

This was a great talent. In common parlance, you’d say she was poised and confident.

An actor must be able to perform while being watched, because even when filming a monologue, there’s a whole crew of people on set.

Some people freeze up when they’re being stared at, but that wasn’t a problem for Starling at all.

She began her scene from the moment she reached the killer’s basement door. She leaned against a non-existent doorframe, clutching her weapon tightly, her anxious breaths betraying her nervousness.

After a brief moment of psyching herself up, she burst through the door with a fierce and furious expression.

She captured that anger perfectly.

When fear and terror reach a certain point, they can often transform into anger at the unknown danger.

The only flaw was that her entry was a mess, but it was a minor issue. Tactical movements and that sort of thing could be taught through training.

Zog himself didn’t know what the standard gun-holding posture of this era was supposed to be.

According to the script, after she entered the basement, the lights would suddenly go out, plunging her into darkness.

Starling had to face Buffalo Bill, who had darkvision, while being unable to see a thing.

In the story, Buffalo Bill was also a pure psychopath who hunted women and sewed their skins into clothes because he wanted to become his ideal version of a woman.

A psychopathic opponent and a dark, unknown space intensified the fear.

Starling held the gun in one hand and groped forward with the other, her unfocused eyes making it seem as if she truly couldn’t see anything.

Buffalo Bill’s downfall also stemmed from his psychopathy.

Because he admired the beautiful protagonist, he couldn’t resist the urge to touch Starling. This, combined with his overconfidence and desire to toy with his prey, led him to get too close and be discovered.

He basically got himself killed by showing off.

Having located the enemy, Starling spun around in an American-style quick draw and emptied the cylinder.

The bullets shattered the basement’s boarded-up windows, allowing sunlight to stream in again.

Starling’s eyes regained their focus. She collapsed in a corner, trembling all over, and struggled to reload before aiming the muzzle at the non-existent enemy once more.

She perfectly portrayed the panic of shooting someone for the first time, the thrill and excitement of escaping danger, the lingering fear, and the anger she used to fight that fear.

A natural-born actress.

Zog couldn’t help but applaud. ’She’s the one.’

Still, he stuck to the plan and had her choose another scene to perform.

For her second scene, Starling chose her first meeting with Hannibal.

The rookie detective being seen through and manipulated by the evil master criminal.

Once again, it was a performance without props.

Since this scene had dialogue, Zog was responsible for reading Hannibal’s lines.

Here, Starling displayed another talent: she memorized lines incredibly fast. After just a few read-throughs, she had learned all the dialogue for the entire scene.

Zog felt she would have been perfect for the "flying paper" era of Hong Kong cinema, where screenwriters wrote scripts on the spot and actors had to memorize their lines just as quickly.