"How was it?"
"Did it look good?"
After throwing all eight Water-Drifting Stones in one go, Chen Jue hurried back to Wu Fang to check the drone’s footage.
But Wu Fang’s face was slightly flushed. Her attention had been so captivated by the butterfly-shaped flower pattern he’d created that she’d completely forgotten to hit the record button.
"I didn’t get a clear shot... C-can we try again?" Wu Fang mumbled softly, like a schoolgirl who had made a mistake.
"Sure!"
"We have plenty of time this morning. Let’s try a few more times. We’ll get some amazing footage and blow everyone away!"
Chen Jue just smiled. His [Hidden Weapon Throwing] was at the Perfection Level, and his throwing techniques were simply unparalleled.
That move with eight simultaneous skips was effortless for him.
Since the adorable Teacher Wu had asked, how could Chen Jue not oblige?
A few more "blossoms on both culture and... wait, no, blossoms on the water’s surface!" later...
The butterfly petals, comparable to graphic art, unfolded across the lake’s surface once more. Wu Fang stared, mesmerized, at the screen, silently tapping the screenshot button a few times.
"What are we filming for the next segment?" Wu Fang asked curiously.
She felt this Stone Skimming special skill was already a work of art, enough for its own standalone video.
But to her surprise, Chen Jue was only treating this water-blossom video as a small clip for this episode.
"Still Stone Skimming, but this time, we’re going to break a little world record!" Chen Jue smiled, showing Wu Fang how to enable the range-finding function in the drone’s auto-track mode before handing her the gimbal controller.
"A Stone Skimming world record?"
Wu Fang blinked, and before she could even process it, Chen Jue, on screen, had already grabbed an unpolished, flat stone with his right hand and thrown it with all his might.
The stone skipped across the lake’s surface, traveling farther and farther, while the floating range-finder on the screen continuously updated its numbers.
When the Water-Drifting Stone finally sank into the lake, the large number "136.5" meters popped up.
Seeing this number, Wu Fang froze for a moment, then looked up at the Face Armor-wearing Chen Jue and asked for confirmation, "Did... did that just break the world record?"
"Yup! The current Stone Skimming distance record is held by a foreigner. The previous record was 121.8 meters."
"I just raised the record by a tiny bit, nothing special!" Chen Jue glanced at the range-finder’s reading on the drone screen, then held up two fingers, pinching them close together.
"That’s not a ’tiny bit,’ that’s a ’billion’ bits!" Wu Fang couldn’t help but chuckle at Chen Jue’s antics.
To Wu Fang, the minuscule gap between his two fingers seemed to hold a small universe.
It was clearly an incredible achievement, yet Chen Jue acted completely nonchalant about it, instead hurrying her along to film the next part.
’A serious man... really is kind of handsome!’ Wu Fang thought to herself.
Chen Jue’s casual tone and his masterful, in-control skill were truly starting to tug at Teacher Wu’s heartstrings.
But the filming was still ongoing, so Wu Fang didn’t let her feelings show too much.
By the time they finished filming the next two special skills—lighting a match with a Flying Card and slicing a ham sausage with a falling leaf—Wu Fang was almost numb from shock.
She couldn’t figure out how Chen Jue’s brain came up with so many strange and wonderful fancy tricks with Hidden Weapons.
Moreover, these Hidden Weapon Techniques seemed straightforward and simple, but they were incredibly difficult to actually perform!
As an amateur who had practiced with a Rope Dart for over a decade, she tried a few times herself and failed every single time.
Especially the part where he held a few leaves, threw them from several meters away, and actually managed to slice an unwrapped ham sausage into several equal segments!
The ridiculous scene completely shattered Wu Fang’s imagination.
Autumn leaves were so light and fragile; a normal person would make them disintegrate just by pinching them, let alone using them as Hidden Weapons.
Just how gentle must the technique be, and how powerful must the force be, to achieve such a miraculous feat?!
’Skills and artistry... When a skill is so refined it nears art, perhaps this is what they mean!’ Wu Fang couldn’t wrap her head around it, and by the time they finished filming, she was looking at Chen Jue with a face full of adoration.
Because in Wu Fang’s eyes, Chen Jue’s Hidden Weapon Technique had truly reached the level of an art form.
It was just that, for the average person, this art form was a ’billion’ bits abstract.
After they finished filming, the two sat on the grassy lakeside and started figuring out how to edit the video.
Since this was her first time doing a compilation, Wu Fang didn’t have much experience.
Fortunately, modern apps are powerful, and many of them are designed to be foolproof.
She and Chen Jue tinkered and discussed, spending over an hour editing the four clips together. After adding some wuxia-style background music, the new special skills video was officially complete.
Without needing any fancy post-production, Chen Jue simply titled it "[Special Skill: The Art of Hidden Weapons]" and uploaded it to several video platforms.
"I bet once this video is out, all those Hidden Weapon and Darts players online will have to admit you’re the best!" Wu Fang said with a grin, a sense of anticipation for the video’s performance growing in her heart.
"It’s not that exaggerated! With eight billion people on Earth, there’s definitely someone better than me." Chen Jue waved his hand humbly.
In truth, his Perfection Level [Hidden Weapon Throwing] hadn’t been fully maximized yet. Things like his hand Strength and his nearsightedness were still limiting his performance.
Once his Strength increased a bit more, or if he could get rid of his glasses, Chen Jue was confident he could film even more stunning videos.
However, his previous videos had all focused on the "Hidden Weapon Throwing special skills" persona. Too much of the same thing could lead to viewer fatigue, so Chen Jue planned to change things up for the next video to give his followers something new.
This was also why he had edited four different clips into this one video.
In this fast-paced, traffic-driven era, a video blogger could rise to fame quickly, but they could also be forgotten just as fast.
If he wanted to maximize his income from this video-making side hustle, Chen Jue would have to put in more effort and grind for more Attributes.
Wu Fang had to prepare for her classes, so after helping Chen Jue with the special skills video, she went off to handle her own business.
Chen Jue didn’t have the nerve to bother her further, so he packed up and left the park shortly before 11 a.m.
As for the accumulated earnings from his video accounts, Chen Jue already had a plan.
Even if Wu Fang refused to accept half of the profits, he had to find a way to buy the adorable Teacher Wu a gift or treat her to a meal.
He couldn’t just freeload off her labor without showing any appreciation, could he?
As a grown man, he had to have at least that much initiative.
Back at his place, Chen Jue moved the filming equipment into his room to charge while he rested on his bed for a while with his eyes closed.
When lunchtime arrived and his stomach started to GRUMBLE, Chen Jue hopped the wall to eat at the Jiang University cafeteria.
By this time, over an hour had passed since he uploaded the latest special skills video.
While eating, he planned to scroll through his phone for some "digital side dishes" to watch, but when he opened the backend of his video account, he saw it had completely blown up!
The view count, comment volume, and the numbers for likes, saves, shares, and tips had all exploded!
His site inbox and private messages were all at 999+, and his follower count was jumping by several hundred with every refresh. This was even more intense than when he’d scraped the bottom of the daily trending list before.
’Damn! What’s going on?’
’Why is there so much traffic?’
Chen Jue quickly clicked into the comments section of his new special skills video. Netizens from all walks of life were using their peak lunchtime brainpower to cook up the most eye-catching comments and cram them into the section.
"Brother of Special Skills was right, this Hidden Weapon level is f*cking art!"
"At this point, it has become art! As for how much artistic value it has, I’d say at least three or four stories high (from Kung Fu Hustle)."
"Are you sure those are Hidden Weapons? And not torture instruments? (crying-laughing emoji)"
"Came in here to watch the drama, leaving completely dumbfounded. Offering up my daily ’holy shit’ and a tip to the Brother of Special Skills (kneeling)."
"I’m also great at Stone Skimming (smiling emoji). My efforts often disappear just like the splashes (clown emoji)."
"Some people make videos to get attention. Brother of Special Skills makes videos to casually break a world record (link to Stone Skimming distance record attached)."
"I wanna know what would happen if one of those cards hit a person? (confused emoji)"
"As a girl, seeing the leaf slice the ham sausage made my phantom limb feel a little chilly (if you know what I mean)."
"I’ve decided! The new king of ’digital side dishes’ is none other than the Brother of Special Skills!"
"@Central Plains Swift Sword @Stone Skimming’s Shen Tongxue @FP Energy Lord, come on out and fight like digital crickets!"
"..."
Besides the regular netizen comments, a bunch of people were also tagging various Hidden Weapon and Darts video bloggers they followed.
Unexpectedly, a few of them actually surfaced in the comments section.
"@Central Plains Swift Sword: My skills are inferior. I concede defeat!"
"@FP Energy Lord: Bro! I’m calling you Bro! How the hell do you light a match with the back of a Flying Card without a striker strip? Add me on WeChat!"
Even @Stone Skimming’s Shen Tongxue, the one who had led the mockery in Chen Jue’s first "[Special Skill: Stone Skimming]" video and told him to "keep working hard," had posted a comment: "Congratulations to Brother of Special Skills for breaking the world record (fist-clasping respect emoji)."
He also quickly went back and deleted his own condescending comment from the first video to avoid having netizens dig it up.
He had no choice!
He had to admit defeat!
Shen Tongxue’s own maximum Stone Skimming distance was just over 100 meters, and that was using his custom-made Petal Water-Drifting Stones.
Compared to Chen Jue’s new world record, which smashed the old one by a huge margin, his own Stone Skimming skills really made him look like a clown.