Guo Shao and Yang Fan were also stunned when they saw the @mention in the group chat.
They never expected that besides his incredible nail-throwing skill, Chen Jue was also a video creator.
"Brother Jue, is this your ID?"
"You already have over 30,000 fans!"
Guo Shao clicked the link to his homepage and took a look. He was especially intrigued by the three mind-blowingly skillful videos, which made him itch with curiosity. He then followed the account with both his Bilibili and Douyin accounts.
Yang Fan did the same. After watching the special skills videos on the homepage, he spouted a series of "Holy sh*t! Awesome!" before his fingers flew to hit the follow button.
"I wear a mask in all my videos, so just keep it a secret for me. I’m pretty afraid of social suicide," Chen Jue said with a slight smile, giving the two college students a little talk.
’The identity of Brother of Special Skills will be exposed sooner or later, so Chen Jue isn’t afraid of a few outsiders finding out.’
’It’s just that before he can make a living from his side hustle, the fewer people who know about this identity, the better. It would prevent any socially disastrous situations at his real job.’
...
After hunting by the river with the two college students for a while, he gained over 900 more Skill Level points.
Due to the frequent bursts of throwing nails by hand, his Strength Attribute also increased by 0.01.
But after seeing Chen Jue’s terrifying accuracy, Guo Shao and Yang Fan were left dumbfounded on the sidelines.
It was basically one Nail, one kill. Few rats survived to see a second one from Chen Jue.
"Brother Jue, you’re too badass!"
"After watching you with those nails, my slingshot suddenly doesn’t seem so great anymore!" Guo Shao said with a hint of envy.
He and Yang Fan were childhood friends, and both came from well-off families. While not top-tier trust-fund kids, you could say they were comfortably living "second-generation rich" in Hang City, their wealth coming from demolition compensation.
They had several properties in first-tier cities registered under their names, and their parents had helped them buy luxury cars.
In their first two years of college, they spent their time taking girls to bars and clubs, but after two years of that, it started to feel meaningless.
Once the novelty wore off, the thrill was gone.
With the rise of outdoor activities, Guo Shao got his childhood friend hooked on the "hunting" operations of the City Hunter group.
Whenever they had free time, they would search for hunting spots and exchange battle results and hunting techniques with everyone in the group chat.
But after running into Chen Jue tonight, Guo Shao felt like his whole perspective had been broadened!
’So this is how you can play the hunting game?’
’So damn cool!’
"Brother Jue, I want to learn how to throw nails from you—the kind where I pay tuition! Is that okay?" Guo Shao asked, his expression clearly tempted.
Even Yang Fan, who was standing to the side, chimed in, "Coach, I want to learn this!"
"Learn from me?"
"Are you sure?"
"My Darts-throwing skill is a Child’s Skill. I started practicing when I was young, and it takes at least ten-plus years of practice to reach this level," Chen Jue said, spouting nonsense with a straight face.
His Hidden Weapon Throwing technique was entirely a crash course, forcibly corrected by the system panel and ingrained through muscle memory transferred from leveling up.
Although he had put in a lot of effort himself, without the panel, Chen Jue had no idea how to teach it to others.
Of course, his exaggerated claim of ten-plus years of Power wasn’t a complete fabrication. To become a Master Level figure in the field of Hidden Weapons and Darts, one would need to put in at least 10,000 hours of hard work, which adds up to roughly a decade or so.
As for Guo Shao and Yang Fan, two college students who had just turned 20, they were dumbstruck when they heard the exaggerated number of years Chen Jue claimed. Their enthusiasm to learn was immediately cut by more than half.
Spending ten-plus years of hard work to practice a special dart-throwing skill that had no practical use and was only good for showing off? They’d have to be brain-dead to waste their time on that.
Even if they really wanted to learn, their parents would never approve.
They were better off just playing with their slingshots and doing some outdoor hunting in their free time. That way, it wouldn’t be a waste of time or affect their studies.
...
After lingering by the river for over an hour, most of the large rats in the sewage pipe had fallen to Nails and mud pellets.
The few that escaped the net would probably not gather here again so easily after seeing the ground littered with the corpses of their brethren.
Seeing it was almost time for their dorm curfew, Guo Shao and Yang Fan got in their Land Rover and headed straight for campus.
Before they left, however, the two college students who were out hunting for thrills specially invited Chen Jue, hoping he could find time to keep an eye on the group chat and not mute the "Hang City Hunting Dream Team" group.
Apparently, the group was planning a large-scale offline event soon to clear out a few river areas marked on their hunting map that were suspected of having Cleaner Fish.
The Cleaner Fish is a very peculiar type of fish. It looks like a mutated alien that’s been hit with radiation, and it’s something people with trypophobia definitely can’t stand (don’t search for it).
This fish is an invasive species in Huaxia. Because it devours fry and fish eggs, combined with its extremely strong vitality and reproductive capabilities, it causes devastating damage to the local river ecosystem wherever it goes. Therefore, it’s best to exterminate them as soon as they are discovered.
As for how this invasive species ended up in Hang City’s waters, it’s usually the fault of those "mercy release" freaks who are trying to earn good karma.
Hunting this kind of invasive species was a lot more interesting than just messing with rats.
So, without giving it much thought, Chen Jue verbally agreed to their invitation.
...
He drove back to his apartment. Having unexpectedly gained two college student fans, Chen Jue was in a pretty good mood that night.
He washed up and went to bed. By the time he woke up the next day, the injury on his left hand had completely healed.