How some rules are made

I was hiding few meters behind trenches observing enemy positions. Republicans rarely got out of their trenches. It was mainly sentries and officers that kept checking situations on our side.

Perfect.

Let the hunt begin.

My first target was enemy officer using binoculars looking at what was going at our position. I hold my breath and positioned his head in the middle of crosshair. Distance wasn't too big but I am not rifle ace either. Not yet though. So finally I got ready and pulled trigger releasing my breath. I saw how officers head twitched and he fall down.

" Enemy officer killed"

Good. Kill is confirmed, now for next target. I saw another officer run up to where my previous prey was standing. He slowly raised his head and I didn't miss such opportunity. Another shot and another dead officer.

" Enemy officer killed"

This created some commotion. Within a minute two officers got killed. My next target was a soldier trying to find out who killed officers. His head was rotating like radar but he in the end he also ended up with a bullet. However this time I just wounded him in a shoulder.

" Enemy soldier wounded"

Reason for such mercy? Well, cause their death will not cause same damage as death of officer to chain in command. Also wounded soldiers can instil fear amongst other soldiers much better than death of officer.

Now it is time to play with machine gun. I was able to see enemy soldier in small visor of machine gun shield. However it was too difficult to get him there. So I focused on his buddy. I made a shot and got his arm. Machine gunner panicked and started shooting spraying bullets all over the place.

I decided to duck down and wait till he is over panic shooting. While I was resting and waiting for machine gunner to calm down Lt. Murphy arrived to my position.

" How is the situation?" - he asked me wondering why enemy machine gunner is shooting non-stop.

" 2 officers killed and 2 soldiers wounded, one of them is buddy of crazy machine gunner" I replied lighting a cigarette.

" In just two minutes?" - Lt. asked looking surprised.

" Yes, Lt. Murphy, I should have hunted someone else instead of that MG crew." - I said listening for MG to calm down.

Finally he stopped shooting so I stood up and prepared my rifle.

" Lt. if you want to see how I work you can stand up and observe using binoculars." - I told him looking for my next prey.

" Alright. I am ready. Where should I look?" - he asked tacking out binoculars.

" You see man yelling at MG he is officer and he is next." - I whispered to him as trying not to scare my prey.

" How do you know he is an officer.?" - Lt. asked looking at MG position.

" Three factors. First his hat. Second moustache. Third he shouts similar to you when you caught one of new recruits caught smoking near ammo cache." - I whispered and then pulled a trigger.

Before Lt. could say anything I saw how enemy officer fall down and MG gunner got covered in blood. Scope with X8 magnification is really good when it comes for less than 300 meter distance so even without system I am sure about killing an officer.

" Enemy officer killed"

Talking of a devil I thought chuckling inside my head. But then I saw how MG gunner panicked again and prepared to shoot.

" Down! Down! It's starting again." - I shouted pulling Lt. Murphy with me down the trenches.

" That was some nice marksmanship there." - said Lt. with eyes full of awe.

" Oh don't flatter me. I am still far away from real professionals." - I replied while my ego was bursting from pride.

" But in less than 5 minutes you killed 3 and wounded 2 enemies." - he said looking at rifle in my hands.

" Yeah, its just the beginning of hunting season. Prey is reckless and fearless so it makes things easier." - I lighted a cigarette and offered one to Lt. Murphy.

" Heh, don't worry those are really good ones. I roll them myself with finest cherry flavoured tobacco and not that hay mixed with chicken crap they call tobacco and give us as part of a ration" - I chuckled and Lt. grabbed one.

" Soon prey will become more cautious and it will be harder to snipe them like I do right now. Still they are good practice targets". - I kept explaining to Lt. who tried to light his cigarette using matches. While watching at this I remember the story about Three on a match.

" Hey Lt. wanna see how some rules during war are made and how smoking can cause your death?- I smiled at him.

" What do you mean?" - he looked completely puzzled.

" Let's wait till night. Then I will explain everything." - I said with mysterious look.

" Ok. Should I prepare anything for that?" - he asked writing down in his small diary.

" Yeah. Have a good sleep. We might have long night watch" - then I went towards my dug out.

After a good sleep I was awaken by night watchmen. Then I got Lt. Murhpy. and together we went to new position.

" You see there are small sparks of fire from time to time? Those are enemy sentries smoking. As you can see there are at least 3 or 5 of them. That's good. You know why? "

" Why?" - wondered Lt. Murphy.

" They will usually tend to smoke together. So look first one lights match. Now I know that they are smoking and start preparing my rifle." - I took out my rifle and prepared it while following ignited match.

" Second one lights his cigarette now I know precisely where their head or torso is and start aiming" - I followed movement of a match to final third smoker.

" When third one lights his I make a shot " - I pulled a trigger and bullet hits the target. Match falls down.

"Enemy soldier killed"

" That's how smoking can cause your death." - I chuckled putting my rifle away and moving to different position.

" That's quite surprising results I have to admit. But what do you meant when said about rules you mentioned before?" - Lt. Murphy asked.

" Hah, that three soldiers shouldn't smoke together as one of them may end up dead and its usually the last one to light his cigarette. And now we gonna repeat that few times from different position at different enemy regiments. Prey here is scared and alerted so no point of wasting time waiting for them to calm down."

I have made three more shots that night. Only one of them was successful and killed an enemy, one I missed and last was just a minor wound according to system. In the end it resulted that enemy side stopped smoking in groups of three or more in trenches.

Lieutenant Murphy wrote down warning about dangers of smoking at night and called it rule of Three on a match. Later on Lieutenant Murphy recorded few more rules and laws which resulted in them all together being called Murphy's laws. When I heard it first time I couldn't stop laughing. Or what a irony, my previous world had similar thing.

I kept hunting for next few weeks and was able to get my Rifle skill to reach 40/100 which I consider quite a good result. Republicans were scared and considered night watch, sentry and MG gunner positions suicide job. That made my work harder but from another point good challenge prevented me from stalling in my rifle skill progression. So I kept increasing my kill count until I got a level up and strange message from Lt. Murphy about enemies dispatching some sort of champion of Olympic shooting competition.

Well we will see who is better. Guy with thousands and thousands online battles or guy that spend most of his time and talent on shooting range. Usually there would be no doubt about the outcome of such duel. However there is a thing that can change everything and it is my COMBAT system. So let's get started here but first let me level up.