Wu Fang seemed quite calm when she saw Chen Jue’s message. He guessed that her previous experience with the dog rescue video that went viral had seriously affected her work and personal life, making her somewhat resistant to this kind of internet fame.
She just sent a cute sticker that said, "Go for it! I believe in you!" and then went silent.
’Teacher Wu is so composed!’
’It’s just one video that blew up a little. It’s not like I won five million. There’s really no need to make such a fuss.’ Chen Jue thought to himself with a sigh.
He felt that although he had used the panel to get his body into good shape recently, his mindset hadn’t been honed enough.
Even though he was almost thirty and understood a lot about life, deep down, Chen Jue was actually as immature as a seventeen or eighteen-year-old, still harboring an impulsive urge to show off.
’My body is easy to train. I just need to follow the Skills and prompts from the panel and exercise slowly.’
’But how am I supposed to train my mentality and willpower?’ Chen Jue couldn’t help but ask himself.
Because sometimes, the panel wasn’t omnipotent.
If he wanted to be worthy of a charming woman with high IQ and EQ like Teacher Wu, he would ultimately have to rely on his own wisdom and charm.
...
After being taught a lesson by Teacher Wu, Chen Jue felt much calmer as he looked at the growing stats of his "Brother of Special Skills" ID.
The trending topics online changed daily, and huge internet celebrities with millions or tens of millions of followers were constantly being replaced.
Interesting, novel, and a special technique others couldn’t replicate—this was why Chen Jue’s "Brother of Special Skills" account had been pushed to the top of the trending list.
For netizens with nothing better to do, after binging on too much unoriginal, mindless content, it was normal to want a change of pace once in a while.
He turned off his phone and stopped exercising for the day, looking at the sun, which had already sunk halfway below the horizon.
The city, enveloped in the orange-red afterglow, gave Chen Jue a strange sense of desolation.
Although he had a stable and comfortable job in Hang City, he was still drifting along all by himself.
Fortunately, with the panel and a girl he liked, he had finally found some positive motivation and a goal for his mundane life.
He went downstairs, got in his car, and first took a drive around Hang City.
He randomly found a well-rated restaurant on a review site and had a nice meal to reward himself for two weeks of hard training.
After dinner, Chen Jue transformed into a City Hunter again. He planned to use the cover of night to grind some Skill Level for [Hidden Weapon Throwing].
His left hand would probably be fully healed after another night’s rest, and exerting himself now wouldn’t affect its recovery, so Chen Jue decided to let loose.
He returned to the garbage collection site near the university town. Because it had rained a few days ago, the "Dining Gang" had become active again after his brief absence.
Taking advantage of their inattention, he sent a Nail flying from his right hand.
After the sound of the three-inch iron Nail cutting through the air, pitiful squeaks began to echo from within the trash heap.
After about half an hour of hunting, he had gained 860 points for his [Hidden Weapon Throwing] Skill Level, so Chen Jue decided to take a break.
Because at a new garbage site he’d just arrived at, he saw two young men who were also out hunting!
The two young men were dressed in outdoor sportswear, holding specially made high-powered slingshots. Wearing headlamps, they were aiming and firing at rats next to a trash can.
TWANG~ TWANG~ The slingshot bands snapped with a crisp sound.
The colorful clay pellets hit the rats, instantly shattering their bones and Inner Organs and taking their lives.
’Did I run into some kill-stealers?’ Chen Jue was stunned for a moment before walking closer.
He had seen videos online of City Hunters using slingshots to exterminate rats. He never expected to run into fellow enthusiasts just a few days after starting his own pest control activities.
When the two young men saw Chen Jue approaching, they vigilantly lowered their slingshots.
After all, a slingshot was a powerful weapon. If a shot went astray and hit someone, it would mean bloodshed and a trip to the police station.
"Hey man, you here to throw out trash?"
"You go first! We’ll continue after you’re done," said one of them, a stocky young man, who deliberately made way.
But to their surprise, Chen Jue waved his hand, pulled a three-inch round Nail from a paper box in his pocket, and said, "I’m here to hunt too! We’re in the same business."
"Huh? The same business?"
"Bro, you’re out hunting too?"
"How do you hunt with a Nail? You use a miniature Crossbow?"
The two young men were taken aback, thinking Chen Jue was joking with them.
To their astonishment, Chen Jue flicked his wrist, and the Nail in his right hand shot through the air, pinning a rat that was peeking its head out to the side of the trash can.
Seeing this, the two young men with the slingshots were completely dumbfounded!
"Ah!"
"That works too?!"
"He’s a Darts master!" The two young men cursed in amazement and rushed over to the trash can to take a look. They found the rat had indeed been pierced clean through. From the pool of blood, it was obviously dead.
Their favorability and worship for Chen Jue instantly maxed out at 100%.
"Bro! You’re amazing!"
"This is the first time I’ve ever seen someone hunt with nails!" The stocky young man had a look of disbelief on his face as he grabbed Chen Jue and started asking all sorts of questions.
After a bit of conversation, the three of them got to know each other.
The stockier one was named Guo Shao, and the thinner one was Yang Fan. Both were students from a nearby university who had gathered a group of classmates to form a hunter’s club.
Besides splitting into groups at night to clear the city of the rat infestation, they also held regular social events, inviting hunting enthusiasts from other universities to join them.
They never expected to meet a folk master like Chen Jue at a garbage collection point tonight!
After seeing Chen Jue kill a rat from a distance with a single Nail, Guo Shao and Yang Fan were completely blown away. They shamelessly insisted on adding Chen Jue on WeChat and then pulled him into a large group chat called "Hang City Hunting Superstars."
The group had a lot of people, at least over 300 members.
According to Guo Shao, besides all the top university student hunters in Hang City, the group also had many enthusiasts and beginners who had joined after watching videos online.
The moment an Outlier like Chen Jue, who used the [Hidden Weapon Throwing] technique, joined the group, it was like a dimension-crushing blow that instantly set the chat on fire.
Because before pulling Chen Jue into the group, Guo Shao had already sent a video of the nailed rat to the chat, complete with commentary, and @’d everyone to come and worship.
Instantly, messages started flooding the Hunting Superstars group chat, DING DING DING.
"Fuck, was that a Nail? (wide-eyed emoji)"
"I may be uncultured, but a single ’holy shit’ says it all! (kneeling emoji)"
"I’m speechless!!! Is that hunting with flying nails?"
"You sure that wasn’t a nail gun?"
"Full video please (begging emoji)"
"Video +1 (offering a cigarette to the master emoji)"
"+10086 (master, have an ice-cold coke emoji)"
"The rats: Another new way for us to get reincarnated (crying emoji)"
"This way of dying is so damn appetizing to watch (doggo sticking tongue out emoji)"
Seeing the lively atmosphere in the group, Guo Shao directly asked Chen Jue if he could show off his skills.
He didn’t have to do a group livestream; just a short video of him in action would be enough. Guo Shao wanted to show off big time in front of the 300-plus group members.
Chen Jue didn’t refuse, since he had joined the group with a burner account and wasn’t worried about his identity being exposed.
He pointed to the now rat-free trash heap. "It’s fine as long as my face isn’t in it! But there are no more rats here. Shouldn’t we find a more suitable spot?"
"We have one!"
"There are definitely rats!"
"Brother Jue, you don’t know this, but we have some IT guys in our group who made a coordinate map of all the hunting spots in Hang City."
"All the places with lots of rats are marked. You can find them just by opening a navigation app." Seeing his chance to show off was looking good, Guo Shao quickly gave Chen Jue a tutorial, showing him the hunting map.
It was quite detailed. Many of the red-marked spots even had text annotations.
There were detailed descriptions like "Frequent rat sightings here" and "There are Cleaner Fish in this river."
After finding the most frequently marked hunting spot nearby, Chen Jue followed the two in their Land Rover Defender toward the destination.
’So they’re a couple of rich kids!’ Chen Jue muttered to himself.
The car was a new model, costing over 800,000 yuan out the door.
An ordinary university student definitely couldn’t afford something like this. It must have been paid for by their families.
Hang City was full of families who’d gotten rich from demolition and relocation compensation. Listening to Guo Shao’s and Yang Fan’s accents, they seemed to be Hang City locals too. It was clear their families were well-off, giving them the free time to go hunting for thrills while in college.
...
After about a ten-minute drive, the two cars stopped at the edge of a river channel.
"Brother Jue!"
"This is the place!"
Guo Shao got out of the car and pointed his searchlight at a built-in sewage pipe opening on the riverbank. Under the beam of light, the figures of a large group of gray-furred rats feasting together were revealed.
Chen Jue was delighted at the sight. This place really did have a lot of hunting targets.
And they were all gathered in one spot, which was much more convenient than searching for them one by one at the garbage sites.
The only downside, however, was that it was too far away—seven or eight meters across the river. Combined with the dim lighting, it would be difficult for an ordinary slingshot to reach or hit accurately.
"You guys stand back a bit and film. Just make sure you don’t get me in the shot!" Chen Jue gestured, telling Yang Fan and Guo Shao to move further away.
He himself took out a handful of nails in his left hand. Using the light from the searchlight, he drew a Nail with his right, and with lightning speed, threw the three-inch round Nail.
The Nail flew so fast that its trajectory was almost invisible to the phone’s camera.
There was a WHOOSH, and in the distant pipe opening, a gray-furred rat that had been eating had its head explode from the impact. It dropped dead without even having time to let out a squeak.
Seeing this thrilling scene, Guo Shao and Yang Fan shouted in unison from the side, "Awesome!"
Then they immediately sent the short, less-than-10-second video to the group chat.
This time, all the hunting enthusiasts in the group who had been eagerly waiting started spamming messages like "666," "I kneel before the master," "Admin, please start a livestream," and "We want to see the live battle!"
Chen Jue took out his constantly vibrating phone and glanced at it. Seeing how enthusiastic the group was, he had a quick idea. Using his burner WeChat account, he dropped the link to his "Brother of Special Skills" ID into the chat, telling everyone to give him a follow when they had a moment.
He didn’t expect this to bring even more people out of the woodwork!
"I follow this ID! (shocked emoji)"
"I just saw it on the trending list today!"
"Master, are you the masked Brother of Special Skills?"
"The IP address is in Hang City. It must be the master himself."
"@Hunter No. 1 Guo Shao @Hunter No. 2 Yang Fan, hurry up and get an autograph and a photo with the master!"