At that moment, Demon Yan detected a familiar powerful killing intent, because he was a veteran who had once faced multiple life and death situations.
Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!
The sounds of gunfire from a submachine gun beat down on everyone’s eardrums like a violent rainstorm.
But this storm left as quickly as it arrived. When the students looked over in a dumbfounded manner, the sounds of gunshots had already disappeared.
Meng Chao removed the cartridge with familiar ease and opened the magazine. He let the dumbfounded invigilator take a look at it.
His results did not appear on the screen even after a long time had passed, but he was completely fine with it. He just exercised his fingers, turned around, and left.
“Meng Chao, how was it?”
His classmates surrounded him anxiously.
“It was pretty good,” Meng Chao said after some thought. “It was within my limits. I’d say I did perfectly.”
His classmates were speechless.
‘If you’re nervous, then say you’re nervous! If you had a mental breakdown, then say that! Why are you trying to keep up a stubborn front?!’
Zuo Haoran shook his head in disdain, as if he was rebuking himself for arguing with a person who was just all talk.
At that moment, Meng Chao’s results finally showed up.
“Class 6’s Meng Chao obtained 588 marks for the shooting test. His total score is 1,434 points. As of now, he’s ranked at the eighth place in the school!”
The large indoor shooting range instantly fell silent.
Even the sounds of gunfire from the examination room next door seemed to have become duller.
It was as if the air had filled with a very sticky substance and glued all sounds, oxygen, and even their thoughts together.
“588 points? Zuo Haoran only scored 515 points just now, right?”
“Meng Chao’s marks surpassed Zuo Haoran’s by 73 points. He evened out the gap between them in terms of speed and strength, and his total score even surpassed Zuo Haoran’s by more than twenty marks?”
“How could it be? He missed a lot of targets, and he even used his submachine gun to hit the moving targets. How did he get so many points? Was there a miscalculation?”
Everyone looked at each other at a loss. There was probably a miscalculation. Yes, there had to be one. Maybe.
Zuo Haoran was shocked. “Did they mix my points with Meng Chao’s?”
The invigilator frowned and brought out Meng Chao’s targets.
All the ones in the front were normal.
Then, they reached the final Golden Target.
Zuo Haoran’s Golden Target was clean. There was no hole on it.
But Meng Chao’s Golden Target was covered in thirteen bullet holes. Six of them were within the inner eight rings, so he nearly destroyed the tiny Golden Target.
The Golden Target was the most valuable, and the points from it alone were enough to surpass Zuo Haoran.
Silence fell.
The invigilator and the classmates were all a little dazed.
“Did you shoot blindly? Or did you aim for it?” someone asked in disbelief after a long time passed.
Right now, no one was taking the test. The invigilator was the one who decided whether they could speak or whether they should continue with the test, and judging by his expression, it was clear that he was also very curious about this question.
“Of course I aimed. I told you repeatedly since a week ago that my shooting skills were pretty decent. Didn’t you believe me?”
His classmates could not help but say, “But you assembled the guns really slowly!”
He did not act like Zuo Haoran, who did everything smoothly and quickly.
Meng Chao smiled. “Assembling guns isn’t a circus act. What’s the point of doing it quickly? Am I supposed to turn my hands into a blur?
“One of the goals of assembling guns is to perform maintenance on the gun, and the other is to get a clear idea of the wear and tear as well as the shape of each compartment by rubbing them carefully. Then, you can deduce the shooting parameters of the gun.
“You have to understand that when each new gun is produced, their shooting parameters are slightly different from each other. Besides, my gun has already been touched by multiple examinees. Their shooting habits are different, and many people’s stances and shooting rhythm are wrong, so the rifling and compartments are all a mess. If I didn’t get a clear idea of the details, how would I be able to shoot accurately?”
One person swiftly came to a realization. “So, you were prepared to shoot the Golden Target since the beginning? Then why didn’t you use the semi-automatic rifle? Why did you use the submachine gun?”
Meng Chao shrugged. “The Golden Target will only appear for a moment, and I can only use one gun. We’re given thirty shots for the submachine gun, but only twenty shots for the semi-automatic rifle.”
His classmates could not believe their own ears. “But the accuracy of the semi-automatic rifle is higher!”
Meng Chao thought about it. “To me, it’s all the same.”
“…”
His classmates were all speechless.
The only thing they wanted to do was scream at the heavens.
Someone ground his teeth and asked, “Then why did you miss so many targets when you just started using the submachine gun to hit the moving targets?”
“I was testing the gun.” This would help the students in the test later on, so Meng Chao did not bother to hide this information. “Even though I did my best to assemble the submachine gun based on my shooting habits, since there was wear and tear in the compartments and rifling and since I wasn’t really sure of its characteristics, I needed to use a few bullets to correct the trajectory. Then, I was able to hit the target with every shot.”
The students looked at each other at a loss. “So, you decided to bet all your hopes on the Golden Target since the beginning?”
Meng Chao was stunned. His gaze was a little unfocused, as if his classmates had just asked a question that he could not understand.
“I didn’t bet everything on it.”
He could only be said to have bet everything when he shot that Ghost-eyed Golden Winged Flame Beetle. At that time, he staked his last bullet on it.
Today, he was only answering a question that had a lot of nitty-gritty steps and complicated calculations, but was not actually very difficult. That was all.
Meng Chao just high-fived Chu Feixiong, who stood at the back row, and walked out.
He brushed shoulders with Zuo Haoran and did not spare a glance for the class rep, who seemed to be absolutely stricken. He did not mention the challenge he issued to Zuo Haoran a week ago in front of the principal or the teaching director either.
But Zuo Haoran sank into a trap made of puzzlement, fear, and embarrassment. It was as if his world had collapsed around him.
A moment ago, he had the winning ticket in his hands, and he had been smiling because of it, but now, his smile had frozen on his face, as if it was a mark left behind when Meng Chao slapped him hard across the face.
“Haoran!” The teaching director pinched his waist hard. “You did well. Go and rest to calm down.”
The invigilator schooled his expression and said, “Pay attention to the disciplinary rules in the examination area. All those who have finished the test have to leave!”
The homeroom teacher quickly went up to them. “Meng Chao, Zuo Haoran, go back to the class first. Remember to calm down. Don’t let this get over your heads.”
The test was still going on, so it was only natural that they could not get into a conflict here.
Meng Chao nodded and waved his hand at the class before he said, “Good luck! I hope that you can hit all your targets and get good results!”
He turned around and left the examination room.
Zuo Haoran followed behind him with a dark look on his face.
When they left the examination center, Meng Chao could not help but raise his fist and swing it fiercely.
He was one step closer to his dream now. This feeling of continuously changing his destiny was amazing!
Zuo Haoran saw his action, and it was only natural that he saw it as an act of provocation.
“Meng Chao, you were lucky today, and it’s out of sheer luck that your overall results are higher than mine. I will naturally be too embarrassed to continue being the class rep. But I will absolutely not admit that you’re stronger than I am when it comes to your practicals!”
He gritted his teeth and said, “Your maximum punching strength, one-hundred meter dash, and the shooting games in the shooting range cannot represent your real fighting strength. Since you already returned to the peak of your strength, do you have the guts to fight against me?”
Meng Chao turned his head around and looked at Zuo Haoran with the ghost of a smile on his face.
‘Here it is. I knew it. It’s exactly the same as in my previous life.’
But last time, the class rep had full advantage. With just a few words, he managed to anger Meng Chao, and Meng Chao jumped straight into the trap.
This year, he would let Zuo Haoran reap what he sowed.
“Sure,” Meng Chao said calmly.
There was a dense grove behind the cafeteria of Ninth High School.
There was also a land full of soft sand there.
It was the place that students often used to settle their conflicts.
Dragon City was an unyielding society and learning martial arts was incredibly common among the people. Even elderly women in their eighties played around with shotguns, so what needed to be said about youths, who were very hot-blooded?
The school usually turned a blind eye to it. In fact, they even advocated going to the cultivation halls to publicly settle any conflicts under a teacher’s monitoring.
If anyone wanted to go to the depths of the grove for a private fight, the school usually did not punish the fighters badly as long as the consequences of the fight were not too severe.
Meng Chao stared at the rustling trees before him and sighed.
In his previous life, he was set up by Zuo Haoran in this place, and he failed his national college examination.
Meng Chao stopped at the center of the grove. He hesitated for a moment before he decided to speak. “Class Rep, we’re about to take our exam, so let’s have a brief fight. Regardless of who wins or loses, let’s put all our past transgressions behind us after the fight is over, alright?”
A thought appeared in Zuo Haoran’s mind then. “Of course. We’ll fight briefly, and once it’s over, we’ll put everything behind us!”
“Alright. I hope that you’ll keep your promise, or else…” Meng Chao furrowed his brow and stepped forward to seize the initiative.
Ripples appeared under his feet and on the sand. With the power from the ground, Meng Chao sent out a force that was as strong as a tidal wave.
Zuo Haoran quickly moved back, and his body became blurry. He used Ripple Force as well.
“Meng Chao, you’ve only been practicing Ripple Force for a year, while I’m skilled in both Ripple Force and Reckless Bull Force. I can use tough and gentle forces at the same time. You’re not my opponent! Give up!” Zuo Haoran intentionally provoked him.
“This time, I won’t lose!” Meng Chao’s strength increased, and he gradually brought out the essence of Ripple Force.
The two youths looked like two waves that were entangled with each other and pushed one another back and forth. They moved faster with each moment, and sand as well as stones flew everywhere. The grove let out rustling sounds, and a lot of the leaves were torn down by wind stirred up by the punches.
Meng Chao acted as if he had just recovered from his injuries and could not fight for a long time. Hence, he tried to end the fight as quickly as possible.
Zuo Haoran clearly knew about his weaknesses. He remained calm and slowly whittled down his stamina.
After just a brief minute, Meng Chao’s uniform was drenched in sweat, and his footsteps became disorderly.
Suddenly, Zuo Haoran shouted. He changed his fighting style and switched seamlessly from Ripple Force to Reckless Bull Force.
Slap!
Meng Chao looked unable to get used to this fighting style, where Zuo Haoran could switch at will, and was stunned for a moment. Then, he was struck firmly on the face. In an instant, blood gushed out from his nose, and his lip was torn.
“Ah!”
Meng Chao’s face was covered in blood. He was angered by pain, and his legs let out loud thuds as he charged forward without regard for any cost.
“Perfect timing!”
A savage light in Zuo Haoran’s eyes shone brilliantly.
‘The trash has finally fallen into the trap.
‘Heh, did you actually think that I’m only skilled in Ripple Force and Reckless Bull Force?
‘Or did you really think that I only know the three great force execution methods?
‘They are all just basic skills. Without true killing methods, they’re like unsharpened weapons. They can’t kill anyone.
‘So-called “good talents” like you can only receive compulsory education in school. You don’t know what true fights are.
‘But me? I’ve long since received teachings from my father and the powerful fighters in society. I’ve learned killing methods that only those in college can learn.
‘Meng Chao, witness my Heart Hammer!’