Chapter 19: Precision Strike

Chapter 19: Chapter 19: Precision Strike

"Son of a bitch, you damn rat!"

As a cat lover, Chen Zijie personally charged down from the dormitory building.

He was holding the dorm manager’s special weapon: a bamboo broom used for sweeping fallen leaves. He jabbed it repeatedly at the big rat that was stealing the cat food.

Gao Fei, who had followed him down to watch the commotion, saw this and quickly shouted:

"Zijie, stop, stop! Don’t kill the rat just yet! I’ve never seen a rat fight a cat before. Let me watch for a bit!"

"What’s there to watch? This fatass rat is almost bigger than the cat! If we watch any longer, I’m afraid this little tabby’s going to get itself killed!"

Chen Zijie said as he continued to jab.

His jabbing sent the big rat into a frantic squeal.

It had no choice but to flee in disarray.

After it had escaped to a safe distance.

As if it were sentient, the big rat didn’t immediately scurry into a hole to hide.

Instead, it turned back and stared intently at Chen Zijie, its gaze strangely unsettling.

"What the hell are you looking at?!"

Chen Zijie didn’t tolerate its attitude for a second. He casually picked up a rock and threw it, scaring the rat into the bushes, where it vanished from sight.

Gao Fei walked over and couldn’t help but sigh.

"You southern rats really hold a grudge. Even after getting chased off, it dared to stop and stare you down. It gave me the creeps."

"You’ve just never seen it before. Our southern rats are all like this. They’re not really afraid of people. They’re nothing like those mini-rats you have up north."

Chen Zijie crouched down to check if the tabby cat was injured, speaking nonchalantly.

Hearing this, Gao Fei suddenly felt a little annoyed.

"Are you serious? All I said was that your southern rats are pretty scary. Is that something to feel superior about?"

"I wasn’t trying to act superior, was I?"

Chen Zijie turned around and looked at Gao Fei with a baffled expression.

Seeing the atmosphere grow a bit tense.

Gu Qing quickly stepped in to smooth things over.

"Southern rat or northern rat, all rats are disgusting. Come on, let’s go back to the dorm and queue up for a game."

"Now that’s not right. Duole is always calling them ’widdle wats,’ saying how cute they are. If he hears you badmouthing them, he’ll come after you," Chen Zijie immediately joked, taking the out he was given.

Gao Fei also laughed and teased, "You’re kidding, right? With Old Gu’s insane athletic ability now, he could pin him to the ground and wipe the floor with him using just one hand. Duole wouldn’t dare to go after Old Gu."

Poor Qian Duole. Since he was too lazy to come downstairs for the commotion, he wasn’t there to defend himself. He was mercilessly teased by his two roommates, becoming the tool they used to lighten the mood.

...

「The next morning at seven o’clock.」

The alarm went off.

The four roommates got up one by one to wash up.

It wasn’t until almost seven-thirty that they left together for their morning class in the academic building.

As usual, Gu Qing observed the tags of the people he passed on the way.

After a quick look around, he only saw very ordinary tags.

There were no insane tags like [Corpse] or [Biochemical Madman] in sight.

Thinking about Bai Ningyu’s [Corpse] tag, a question couldn’t help but surface in Gu Qing’s mind.

’What do I have to do with Bai Ningyu to get an Attribute from her [Corpse] tag?’

’And what kind of Attribute would I even get?’

’Corpse Transformation +1?’

’Yin Qi +1?’

’Corpse Control Technique +1?’

’Undying +1?’

’And then... after a minor Attribute accumulates 100 points, I’ll get a major Attribute that lets me control corpses?’

’Will I just transform into an Undead Mage?’

’No.’

’None of these ideas seem very reasonable.’

’The tags are all closely related to the person themselves.’

’Take Xia Shuran, for example. Her whole family practices martial arts, and she’s been training since she was a child, which is why the [Martial Arts Grandmaster] tag floats above her head.’

’The other people’s tags are the same, more or less related to some characteristic of their own.’

So.

Gu Qing really couldn’t figure it out.

’How on earth is Bai Ningyu connected to a [Corpse] tag?’

’What caused this tag to appear?’

’And what does it mean?’

’It seems there’s still a lot to uncover about the mechanics of this tag-based cheat power.’

He pondered these things absently on the way.

As he passed a trash can by the side of the road, Gu Qing caught a glimpse of a rat on top of it out of the corner of his eye.

It was fat and large, with long, dark fur, looking as if it had mutated.

His roommates beside him also spotted the big rat.

"Damn, this rat is way too brazen. There are people coming and going, yet it dares to openly crawl all over the trash can. It’s just asking for a beating."

Chen Zijie muttered as he picked up a rock.

He took aim at the rat.

And threw it with all his might.

"CLANG!"

The rock missed the rat and hit the trash can lid instead, scaring the rat into a mad dash toward the nearby bushes.

"Shit, I almost got it!"

Chen Zijie cursed, frustrated.

Just as he was lamenting his miss.

Gu Qing bent down and picked up a small pebble.

Boosted by his Lightning Reflexes, his eyes locked onto the fleeing rat.

The instant the rat dove into the bushes.

His eyes suddenly sharpened, and he flung the pebble in his hand with ferocious force.

"SPLAT!"

A muffled sound of flesh tearing could be heard.

The small pebble had precisely struck the rat, blasting a hole clean through its skull. A mess of red and white oozed out, and it died on the spot.

"I hit it."

A smile touched the corners of Gu Qing’s lips.

Both his accuracy and his explosive power were absurdly strong.

He was very satisfied with his current self.

Chen Zijie squinted at the bushes, unable to see anything clearly. He asked doubtfully:

"It’s so far away, I can’t even see a thing. Are you sure you hit it?"

"I really hit it. A precise headshot."

"Yeah, right! You’re full of it!"

Chen Zijie didn’t believe him at all.

Gao Fei and Qian Duole also said they didn’t believe it.

The bushes were a bit far, and none of the three could see the situation inside clearly.

By the same token, they naturally assumed Gu Qing couldn’t see anything either.

They concluded Gu Qing was just talking out of his ass.

That he was bullshitting.

It wasn’t until the three of them walked up to the bushes and saw that there really was a rat with its head blown open inside that they were all shocked.

"Holy shit, you actually hit it?"

"Are you using a hack?"

"Tsk tsk, its head is completely smashed. Looks like it was hit by a slingshot. Fucking incredible!"

"That’s it, I can’t ever get on Gu Qing’s bad side. Otherwise, he’ll kill me with a rock."

"Lord Gu, spare me!"

"I’ll call you Godfather! Can you teach me this Thousand-Mile Stone-Throwing Technique?"

After the shock wore off.

His three roommates started joking with Gu Qing.

They laughed and bantered all the way to the academic building.

Just as they walked into the classroom.

Gao Fei asked with some curiosity:

"By the way, the bushes were so far away from us, and all those messy plants were blocking the view. How did you know you hit the rat?"

"I guessed."

Gu Qing explained casually, "I didn’t expect to be that lucky, but I really did hit it."

It wasn’t luck.

His cumulative Physical Strength +23 had drastically enhanced all his body’s attributes across the board.

Vision.

Hearing.

Body coordination, and so on.

His vision was now sharper than even the world’s best pilots.

A little distance.

A few plants in the way.

None of it could stop him from clearly seeing the rat get a precise headshot from a single small pebble.

...