Chapter 32: Flying Pellet Special Training
Chapter 32: Flying Pellet Special Training
It was an unbelievable thing in their eyes that the nation’s top practical archer actually challenged a reporter.
They didn’t know the truth of the bet, only that Fang Moqi initiated the challenge.
“Nonsense! Is there anyone in the country who can match Fang Moqi’s archery?”
“Right, especially a reporter, I don’t believe it!”
“Probably a one-sided outcome.”
People discussed it animatedly, but Du Yu jumped up happily, looking excitedly at Lan Mu.
Only Du Yu knew how incredible Lan Mu’s archery was, so incredible it felt unreal, like watching a movie.
Fang Moqi didn’t care what others thought. He walked straight to Lan Mu and grinned.
“Faster than me? Good. There’s a special training ground out back. How about we compete there?”
Lan Mu wasn’t sure what a special training ground was, but he didn’t mind. He didn’t care what they competed in.
“Whatever, you decide how we compete… I only have one request.”
“Oh?” Fang Moqi asked, “What request? Go ahead.”
Lan Mu pointed at the crowd and said, “I don’t want others watching our match. Let Du Yu be the referee and judge.”
“Ah? What did you say?”
“Are you kidding? We finally have a chance to see such an exciting match, and you won’t let us watch?”
“Yeah, I’ve admired Fang Moqi’s archery for a long time.”
Lan Mu’s request stirred up the crowd. They were all there because of Fang Moqi’s fame, hoping to see his amazing archery skills.
Fang Moqi was stunned for a moment, then smiled. He remembered that Lan Mu might not know archery at all, since his hands showed no signs of long-term practice.
“Not letting people watch is probably because he’s afraid of losing too badly?” Fang Moqi thought to himself.
“Alright! I agree!”
Fang Moqi was considerate of Lan Mu’s pride and agreed directly.
“But Du Yu isn’t a professional judge. How about someone else? How about Wang Ling?”
Wang Ling was stunned, then overjoyed. He often acted as a referee at the club. Though his archery wasn’t great, he was quite good at being a referee.
“I’m fine! But I don’t know…”
Wang Ling looked at Lan Mu, who pondered for a moment before saying, “That’s acceptable, but you must promise not to spread word of it.”
Hearing this, Du Yu trembled with excitement all over. He knew Lan Mu was serious. Lan Mu was a very low-key person. If he said not to spread it, he must be planning to use his incredible archery!
“Agree! Quick, agree! Wang Ling, say you won’t spread it around!” Du Yu didn’t mind losing his referee role at all. He shouted excitedly.
Wang Ling didn’t know why Du Yu was so excited, but he wanted to see Fang Moqi’s archery himself. He didn’t care if others could see it or not. He hurriedly agreed, “Okay! I promise! I absolutely won’t tell anyone else.”
“Darn it! Why?”
“I want to watch too! I can be a referee too!”
Others complained bitterly, but Wang Ling ignored them. He was happy himself.
Fang Moqi nodded and said to Wang Ling, “Old Wang, go to the back and prepare the field. We’ll shoot at moving targets, starting with the flying pellets.”
After speaking, Fang Moqi took off the backpack from his back. It was a backpack with a very complex design.
He opened the backpack and laid it out flat on the ground, revealing the equipment inside.
“Wow!”
Seeing the true contents of Fang Moqi’s backpack, everyone exclaimed in amazement.
Dozens of weapons appeared in the spread-out backpack, ranging from tiny pocket knives to robust bows made of sinew.
These weapons looked homemade. Some were made from bone, others had obvious marks of manual polishing. Only one item was an industrial product: an iron plate that had been shot through, fixed quietly in the center of the pack.
Skinning knives, bone cleavers, tri-blade spikes, kukri knives, short daggers, blow darts, longbows, flints…
Fang Moqi didn’t take anything else, only two sets of bows, one large and one small. The large one was over a meter long, made from animal tendons and bones, a homemade strong bow.
The small one was less than two feet long, and even the arrows that came with it were thin and short.
“What about your equipment?”
Lan Mu felt behind his back and took out the recurve bow he had bought not long ago from his backpack.
The style was clearly from the Forest Club’s physical store, which drew sneers from many people.
Even Zheng Hui couldn’t help shaking his head and said, “He really is an amateur! This bow is decent for an amateur, but even competitive archers don’t use this type. What practical archer plays with this kind of standard bow?”
Yu Xiao also chimed in, “Hah, maybe he plans to use this bow to pull off that… rat-a-tat-thing?”
Lan Mu glanced at them but ignored them. He only said to Fang Moqi, “This is my equipment. I’m ready.”
Fang Moqi also looked at his bow with surprise. Based on his experience, he could tell at a glance that the bow was brand new, used for less than a week at most.
“You… alright, let’s go.”
The two went out from behind the lounge and soon arrived at the so-called special training ground, which was actually just a super-large training room.
Everyone followed them, but when the two entered the special training room, Wang Ling stopped the crowd and said, “Don’t make things difficult for me. Fang Moqi agreed to his request.”
After saying that, he was about to close the door.
Unexpectedly, Du Yu suddenly rushed forward, bumped the door open a bit, and barged right in.
Wang Ling grabbed him, but heard him shout, “Brother Mu, I’ve seen your super archery before. It’s okay if I watch, right?”
Lan Mu looked at him speechlessly and nodded. Du Yu had seen it anyway. If he kept him outside, who knew what this guy might do.
“Thud!”
Seeing others trying to squeeze in, Wang Ling hurriedly closed the door and locked it.
Ignoring the complaints outside, the four walked to the center of the special training ground.
“Let’s make this quick. I’ll explain the flying pellet game first.”
Fang Moqi didn’t waste words and started explaining directly.
“In a moment, you and I will each hold our bows and stand on this platform. A machine will launch flying pellets from the right at a speed of seventy-five meters per second. They will eventually fall into the recovery port on the left. Look…”
Fang Moqi nodded to Wang Ling, and Wang Ling operated an instrument in the corner of the training ground. Immediately, many small balls, about the size of ping-pong balls, shot out from small holes on the right wall, flying past a few meters in front of Lan Mu.
“Whoosh whoosh whoosh!” They only saw various white shadows flash by before the pellets fell into the large recovery port on the left.
“We stand on the platform and shoot the passing pellets. In the end, we don’t count those that fall into the recovery port. We tally the score based on the pellets that are shot and fall on the ground, judging the winner by which color arrow hits which pellet.”
“My arrows are all black, and your arrows are gray, so it’s easy to tell. If there are more gray arrows on the final tally of pellets, you win.”
“This is a normal training exercise for me. It tests an archer’s eyesight, reaction speed, and rapid-firing ability. I usually use it for warm-ups. Do you want to compete in this? If not, feel free to choose another. There are over thirty different special training methods here.”
Lan Mu smiled and said, “What’s your best score?”
Fang Moqi thought for a moment and said, “I remember it was sixty-four arrows in one minute.”
Hearing this score, Du Yu interjected from the side, “I know! Brother Mu, don’t underestimate sixty-four arrows in a minute as being slower than you. Brother Fang hit sixty-four pellets with sixty-four arrows!”
“At that time, the pellet frequency was one hundred per minute, with twenty launchers firing simultaneously. Two thousand pellets were launched in one minute. Afterwards, a total of two hundred and ten pellets fell on the ground. Brother Fang shot sixty-four arrows, each hitting at least three pellets, and several even hit four or five pellets at once!”
After hearing Du Yu’s words, Lan Mu didn’t find it particularly difficult. He visualized it and felt it was too easy.
“Forget it, let’s go with this. Let’s make it quick.”
Lan Mu nocked an arrow on his bow and waited quietly.
Fang Moqi grinned and shouted to Wang Ling, “Old Wang! Start! One minute! Frequency one hundred, twenty launchers!”
“Three!”
“Two!”
“One!”
As soon as the countdown ended, Du Yu and Wang Ling were stunned. Even though Du Yu had seen this scene before, he was still incredibly excited.
Countless flying pellets shot out from the wall, leaving white trails and whooshing sounds in the air.
Fang Moqi and Lan Mu’s hands never stopped moving from the start, each faster than the other!
Their methods of nocking arrows were completely different. Lan Mu used the normal method of drawing arrows from his quiver, quickly nocking them, then drawing and releasing!
Fang Moqi, on the other hand, held three arrows at once, each pinched between different fingers.
When he shot one arrow, he only needed to flick his fingers skillfully, and the second arrow would slide in a beautiful arc, pivoting around his finger and onto the bow.
The third arrow was the same. This special arrow-drawing method allowed him to reach a maximum speed of three arrows per second.
But then he would slow down because he needed to draw three arrows again.
“This… how is this possible?” Wang Ling felt more and more that something was off, because Fang Moqi, whom he considered the strongest, was actually slower than Lan Mu!
Lan Mu used only the most ordinary method of holding arrows, completing the motions one by one, but his speed was no slower than Fang Moqi’s three-arrow volleys.
From the beginning, Lan Mu’s speed never dropped. Every arrow maintained the same high speed. His hands danced between the quiver and the strong bow, as fast as a fleeting shadow, leaving only afterimages.
Du Yu’s eyes sparkled. His efforts were not in vain; he finally witnessed this extreme-speed archery again.
“Swish swish swish…”
A continuous stream of arrows shot out, and pellets kept falling. Soon, the ground was covered with pellets, mostly several strung together on the same arrow.
One minute passed in a flash, and when time was up, the pellets automatically stopped.
Lan Mu and Fang Moqi both lowered their bows.
Fang Moqi had been completely focused and didn’t pay attention to Lan Mu. He only felt that Lan Mu was very fast but didn’t know exactly how fast.
So the first thing Fang Moqi did was look at Lan Mu’s quivers.
“Five… five quivers… all empty?”
Both Fang Moqi and Lan Mu had five quivers hanging at their waists. Unexpectedly, after one minute, Lan Mu had shot all his arrows!
“Wait! Mine seem… huh?”
Fang Moqi suddenly realized his arrow count was wrong. He had used one extra quiver!
“Could it be…”
“You used one of my quivers just now?” Fang Moqi said in disbelief.
Lan Mu nodded and said, “Ah… yeah.”