One week later. Dallas, Texas.
Another shooting competition, another final shot.
“Adam Holly is leading by 3.6 points, he will definitely win this competition!”
“That might not be the case, don’t forget Holly’s nickname, the Tragic Last Shot. Even if he was leading by more than 3.6 points, he might still lose.”
“You definitely haven’t watched last week’s competition. Holly scored 9.5 points with his last shot. He defeated Prince, and he won first place.”
“In all these years, Holly only managed to do something like that once. In the other competitions, didn’t he always drop the ball with the last shot? Last week’s competition was just a coincidence! You can’t expect Holly to have last week’s luck every day.”
Some people were optimistic about Holly, and some weren’t. As for Holly himself, he fell into uncertainty.
Holly repeatedly checked whether or not he was aiming at someone else’s target, and then the memories of his past failures kept popping up continuously, the Olympics, the World Championship, the Grand Prix, domestic competitions in America… The memories of him missing the final shot every single time were like a slideshow flashing in his mind.
The shadow of his past failures had again become a lingering nightmare, constantly swallowing Holly’s self-confidence, making Holly more and more uncertain.
Finally, a number appeared in his memory, 9.5!
Holly remembered last week, at the competition in Tennessee, how he managed a score of 9.5 points on the last shot.
It wasn’t a very high number, but it was the best score out of all the last shots that he had taken in the past few years.
I just got 9.5 points last week! As long as I can get back into last week’s form, maybe I can achieve the same results today. Holly lifted his rifle and pulled the trigger as he thought of that.
At the same time the gun fired, Holly felt a feeling of steadiness.
This feeling again, it is the same as last week! I’ve got this! Although Holly did not look at the small screen in front of him, he could feel that the score for this shot would be enough for him to win first place.
…
Looking at the stage, Dai Li stared at the final score on the big screen. He let out a big sigh.
9.7 points. Compared to last week’s 9.5 points in Tennessee, Holly’s score for his last shot has improved. Dai Li looked at the State Scale on the system. All of the weights had been pushed to the side where it stabilized the state.
It was the same as last time; the State Scale is at the most stabilized state, but today’s result was 0.2 higher than last week’s. However, according to the system’s description, when the State Scale is in its most stable state, the fluctuation of the results should be the least. What is the reason for this gap?
Dai Li went to check Holly’s ability value again and found out that Holly’s ability had not changed. It was still at 925.
His ability value didn’t change, but his score has improved. Does this mean that it is because Holly’s mental state is gradually recovering?
Dai Li suddenly felt that he had found a way to cure Holly of his psychological problems.
…
Five days later, at the New York Elite Shooting Competition, Holly scored 9.8 points in his last shot.
Looking at the results, a mysterious smile appeared on Dai Li’s face.
9.8 points, Holly has again improved a bit. This result confirms my guess; when his results get better, he recovers his confidence, and the troubles his past failures brought him decrease.
It seems like, in order to solve Holly’s psychological problems, he needs to constantly enter competitions and do well in them. By going through such accumulations, he can start to build up his self-confidence. Once he has enough self-confidence, he will be able to resist the troubles that come from his past failures, and his last shot will reach a normal level.
…
Austria, the World Championship.
The commentator was speaking into the microphone, giving non-stop updates on the competition.
“Holly’s condition today is not bad. After finishing that shot, he managed to get a full score in the 50-meter rifle prone event!”
“10 points! Ten consecutive shots, and Holly managed to get 10 points in all of them. His score for the standing event is 393 points…”
“1,183 points? Oh my god, in the first 120 shots in the contest, Adam Holly scored 1,183 points! He is having an outburst today! It looks like Holly already has the gold medal for the 50-meter rifle three positions in the bag.”
Holly placed his rifle on the gun rack next to him and raised his head, then started to enjoy the cheers from the audience.
On the electronic scoreboard on the wall, Holly’s name ranked first, with a score of 1,183 points, meaning that he only lost 17 shots. Compared to the results of the previous 120 shots, this was a new world record.
At the same time, the 1,183 points almost guaranteed Holly would win the World Championship, because the score of the person in second place was only 1,176 points. Holly had a seven point advantage.
For the last 10 shots, if the difference was only one or two points, there was still a chance to catch up. But trying to close a gap of seven points with only ten shots was simply impossible. Even if 10.5 points was achieved with every shot, one must also pray that the opponent’s result would be below 9.8 points for it to be possible to win.
And Holly had been able to achieve a world record breaking 1,183 points in the first 120 shots; this showed that he was at the top of his game today. How was it possible for Holly, who was already surpassing his usual performance, to only get a score of 9.8 points?
Sure enough, for the next nine shots, Holly had seven shots with more than 10 points, including three shots that scored 10.5, and the gap between him and the shooter who was in second became wider, reaching a gap of 9.1 points.
There was only the final shot left in the competition. Leading by 9.1 points. For any shooting athlete, it was a lead that was completely impossible to lose.
Any athlete besides Adam Holly!
9.1 points. Going by the standards of shooting athletes, even amateurs, as long as they didn’t shoot off target, they would win. But Adam Holly had lost competitions in this kind of situation. He had missed the target, he had shot at the target of others, and he had done it in one of the most important sporting competitions in the world: the Olympics!
“What a dramatic scene, leading by 9.1 points before his final shot, Adam Holly will definitely feel a sense of deja vu! That’s right, it is the same situation he faced during that fateful Olympics; he led by 9.1 points before the last shot. It is simply a perfect copy of that Olympic match!” the TV station’s commentator couldn’t help but exclaim.
All eyes in the audience were focused on Holly, but both of Holly’s eyes were staring at the scoreboard on the wall.
The last shot, 9.1 points, am I dreaming that dream again? Holly couldn’t help but bite the tip of his tongue with his teeth, hoping to wake himself up.
It had been more than a decade since he shot the wrong target in the Olympics, and for more than a decade, Holly had been dreaming that same dream.
In the dream, he was competing in the final round in the Olympics, and he only had one shot left. He was leading by 9.1 points.
In the dream, he knew that he would shoot at another person’s target, so he would desperately try to aim at his own target. He wanted to correct that mistake.
In the dream, when he fired that last shot, the small screen in front of him would show a score of zero points.
In the dream, he would always try to fix his mistakes, but he would fail every time. And the feeling of despair would come.
At that moment, Holly’s hands suddenly trembled. He felt terrified, uneasy, confused, and he was somewhat unclear on whether it was reality or just a dream!
Another way of looking at it was that Holly knew that it was reality, but he hoped that he was dreaming, because he didn’t dare to face reality. He would have preferred it be a dream, as the failure in the dream wasn’t real.
Holly finally understood that although he had won several times recently, he had not overcome himself. He had not defeated the inner demons that had been bothering him!
At that moment, Holly was like a frightened bird. He wanted to escape from that place, but found himself trapped like a bird in a cage.
The demon continuously swallowed the light in Holly’s heart, and Holly felt a coldness in his body as if he was pulling himself into a bottomless abyss…
Holly couldn’t help but to turn around and look at the audience behind him, looking for the seat where Ekarina was seated. He hoped to find his wife, his lover, his family. At moments like this, she could give him warmth and make him feel safe.
Finally, he saw his wife in the first row of the stands. Ekarina was covering her mouth with both hands. Her eyes were looking at Holly with worry.
Ekarina knew that Holly’s old problem had reoccurred. The last shot, 9.1 points. The present situation was exactly the same as the Olympics from a few years ago. Holly was still unable to overcome that psychological barrier. She could predict that Holly would again face a tragedy with this shot.
Holly’s expression became a bit complicated. He felt his wife’s worry. He didn’t want to disappoint his wife, but he had no self-confidence. The nightmare where he shot the wrong target with his last shot lingered.
Suddenly, above his wife’s head, Holly saw a hand stretched out, giving him a big thumbs up.
It was the outstretched hand of the audience member who was sitting behind Ekarina.
Holly looked up, and finally saw the face of the audience member.
It’s Coach Li! Holly was slightly stunned. At the same time, he saw a smile on Dai Li’s face.
That smile showed expectation, and it also showed encouragement!
This was what Holly needed the most at that moment. He needed the encouragement of others.
Holly finally remembered the strange training he had received at Dai Li’s hands in recent times. He finally remembered the recent competitions where his last shot was not inaccurate.
Coach Li has been training me. I should have confidence in myself. I can do it! Holly finally recovered. He calmed down, raised his rifle, and aimed at the target in front of him.
…
“Holly seems to be hesitating. He must have recalled the last shot he took in the Olympics a couple years back, so he is worried about that tragedy reoccurring.”
“Speaking of tragedies, I suddenly remembered; Holly has another nickname in America, the ‘Tragic Last Shot.’ It means that he is often very inaccurate in the last shot.”
“In the last few years, Holly’s last shot has often been inaccurate, and he has lost a lot of chances of getting first place because of it.”
“But he is ahead by 9.1 points today. It is such a big advantage, even if he is not perfectly accurate, he won’t lose first place right?”
“That might not be the case, maybe he will hit another person’s target again!”
The audience members in the stands were discussing. At that point, Holly pulled the trigger.
“Holly took the shot!” Everyone’s eyes were on the scoreboard. After two or three seconds, Holly’s score appeared on the scoreboard.
“10.1 points! Holly won!”
…
Holly stood still with an expressionless face. As if he had not realized that he had won.
I really won? This is not a dream! Holly suddenly felt lost.
The dream where he missed his last shot had plagued him for more than a decade, and now, he finally saw a different conclusion in reality.
This time, he hit his own target, and he had firmly won first place.
Decades of burden, decades of pressure, they were all released at that moment. Holly felt that his body became lighter, and the grievances that he had suffered in his heart for many years also broke out at that moment.
In the next second, Holly could no longer suppress the emotion welling up inside of him. He leaned directly on the gun rack next to him, and he cried like a child.
…
In the distance, Dai Li made another detection for Holly.
The results from the detection show that the unstableness of the last shot is gone! Holly has finally defeated his inner demons with that last show. Holly will no longer need the State Scale, and I don’t need to follow Holly around when he participates in competitions anymore.