Research Capabilities

Han Dang laughed when he saw Mo Qiong pointing at him.

He really did want to play professionally. If Li Ming's grand promise to Mo Qiong had been offered to him, he would have been a hundred times willing to give it a try.

But he knew exactly what he was capable of. He could brag among classmates, but at an actual tryout, boasting would not get him anywhere.

Li Ming froze, realizing Mo Qiong was politely turning him down. He hurriedly said, "Won't you think about it? My eye for talent isn't wrong. You really are gifted. You might not know A-League Team salaries. Once you secure a starting position, you can make four hundred thousand a year. And that isn't even your limit. In the Chinese Super League, a starting goalkeeper making five million a year is no problem."

Mo Qiong had already weighed all the pros and cons. He decisively shook his head. "Sorry, I'm not interested."

"I only play football because I joined the Football Club. When it comes to sports, I'm more interested in archery."

Han Dang added from the side, "I can vouch for that. In our department, everyone calls him the God of Archery."

"Don't talk nonsense..." Mo Qiong said awkwardly. That nickname was more of a tease than anything.

But now, his ability really could be called the archery of Absolute Hit. He did not know whether it had any causal relationship with his hobby.

He really wanted to hurry up and study it properly.

"See? I really do have something to do," Mo Qiong said.

Helpless, Li Ming took out a prepared business card and stuffed it into his hand. "Think it over some more. I'm not trying to recruit you for our school team. I just sincerely hope you won't waste your talent. Whether you play in the A-League or the Chinese Super League doesn't benefit me, but if you don't go, it'll be a huge loss for domestic football."

"I honestly just think it's such a shame. Give it a try."

Mo Qiong also knew that Li Ming truly valued his talent. If Li Ming introduced him to professional football, at most he would gain some reputation. If Mo Qiong made a name for himself later, Li Ming might benefit somewhat from that fame.

Maybe he could find a better job, but that was all.

Mo Qiong thought to himself that more than anything, Li Ming simply wanted to prove that his judgment had not been wrong.

"Fine, I'll think about it some more," Mo Qiong could only say.

Li Ming smiled and stopped pressing him, returning to the gymnasium to lead his team away.

Mo Qiong and Han Dang returned to their dorm. Han Dang said regretfully, "I know you really don't want to go."

"Ha, I really don't. You know, if you hadn't insisted on dragging me along, I wouldn't have joined the Football Club," Mo Qiong said, picking up his bow again.

Seeing this, Han Dang said, "You're something else... The facts prove I was right to bring you in. You really do have talent for this. What a shame you only love archery! But that's just your hobby. It doesn't conflict with playing football professionally."

"Enough. I'm going to practice archery," Mo Qiong said as he started to leave.

Han Dang stared at him. "Practice again? Didn't you practice today already? There's a mixer tonight. We'll play a few rounds of games, then head out."

"I felt at noon today that my archery had reached a new level. If it hadn't been for the match, I'd actually planned to practice all afternoon," Mo Qiong said with a smile.

Han Dang said anxiously, "The hell do you mean your archery reached a new level? You really aren't going? Don't be like that. Our Football Club is the star of tonight, and you're the star among stars."

Mo Qiong waved a hand. "No, no, no. You got a Hat Trick. You're the star."

"You got a Hat Trick in assists too! Damn... Do you want that money or not? Luo Qing will definitely be at the mixer with all twelve clubs. Wang Xiong said he'll demand the money from him tonight. Luo Qing might try to welch on the bet, and we'll all have to stand with Wang Xiong this time. You're not going?" Han Dang said.

Mo Qiong curled his lips. He could clash with anything, but never with money.

Besides, Wang Xiong had been acting so high and mighty tonight that he might go overboard. Luo Qing was not someone easy to deal with either. It would not look right if Mo Qiong skipped it and just waited to collect his share.

"Why wouldn't I go if there's money to collect? We still have over an hour, don't we? Forget the games. Call me when it's time to leave," Mo Qiong said.

"Fine. Huh? Haibin is probably setting things up already. Where are you planning to practice archery?" Han Dang asked as he turned on his computer.

"The roof!"

Mo Qiong normally did not come to the dormitory rooftop to practice archery.

That was because it was usually covered in rows of drying quilts, making it look like a dye workshop.

Only when he came back late from work would he choose to practice here for a while.

This time, he stood in the "corridor" formed by two rows of quilts and began exploring his superpower.

After setting up the target, he stood ten meters away, tilted his bow slightly upward, and fired three arrows in a Burst Fire.

He had fired those three arrows backward!

The instant they left the bow, he saw the three arrows curve upward through the air, then trace beautiful arcs toward the space behind him.

"Thud, thud, thud..." All three arrows struck the bullseye.

"They didn't fly backward directly and hit the bullseye with their tails?"

"Hmm. Their trajectories aren't random. As long as I fire in the same direction and at the same target, the arrows will follow the same path."

The three arrows had identical trajectories, differing only in timing. Each later arrow chased the previous one, curving along the same path before hitting the target.

Although turning midair was already absurd enough, they were not flying chaotically toward the target.

In other words, if he practiced enough, he could rely on experience to judge how any given arrow would curve after being fired.

The reason he wanted to study this first was because he had noticed during the match that although he could designate a Landing Point, he could only do so before firing or at the very instant of firing.

Once a football—or an arrow—left his hand, it had nothing to do with him anymore.

He could not change the Landing Point afterward, much less control the trajectory of what he had fired.

Combined with the fact that this was a passive ability, Mo Qiong knew that in the future, he would have to decide on a Landing Point before every shot. He also had to consider whether the path between his firing direction and the Landing Point would become especially convoluted.

Otherwise, he might cause a huge mess someday.

The most obvious example was shooting at the sun.

He still remembered the sound of the arrow tearing through the air at noon, as well as the trail left by the high-speed object cutting through the atmosphere.

Even now, he did not know whether that arrow, fired in ignorant confusion, would alert the authorities.

Or what consequences it might even cause.

After all, if the arrow had truly gone after the sun, it would likely have crossed most of China from the eastern coast toward the west... Even if radar could not detect it, it might pass over the airspace of some military district and be spotted.

"Why did that arrow at noon have such enormous power? Was it just because I was shooting the sun, and the sun had a higher status?"

Mo Qiong smiled. That was obviously ridiculous. After thinking for a moment, he began testing how firing speed related to the force he exerted.

He drew the bow, nocked an arrow, faced the target head-on, and released it gently.

The bowstring had bent by only an imperceptible amount. By the laws of physics, the arrow should not even have reached the target. It should have fallen straight off the string at his feet.

Yet it did not fall.

He moved the bow aside and saw the arrow floating in midair, slowly moving forward...

It was moving at an outrageously slow speed. Mo Qiong could circle around the arrow and observe it from every angle.

It was like an object floating in zero gravity, moving uniformly at its initial velocity through space...

Mo Qiong waited a full five minutes before the arrow finally crossed the ten-meter distance and touched the bullseye.

Then it instantly returned to the embrace of Earth's Gravity and fell freely.

Mo Qiong had not even heard it touch the target, because the impact had been far too light.

"So that's how it is..."

Mo Qiong fell into thought. The pattern was already obvious. He casually fired another arrow, using slightly more force than before.

Sure enough, the arrow "floated" a little faster, but it was still clearly unnatural.

"This really is a superpower that kills physics."

"The amount of force I use to propel an object is the force it maintains as it flies toward the target I designate. Its trajectory will try its best not to be too absurd, but if natural laws cannot help it and instead obstruct it—like Universal Gravitation—then it ignores them... It directly acts as though it is in a weightless environment without a strong Gravity Field."

"But it doesn't ignore natural laws blindly. Sometimes, it borrows their power instead."

Thinking this, Mo Qiong suddenly raised both hands and shot an arrow into the sky. The arrow traced an arc downward and struck the bullseye with accelerating speed.

While rising, it briefly maintained the initial direction Mo Qiong had fired it in, then ignored gravity and air resistance, curving while maintaining the initial velocity he had given it.

Once it began descending, the arrow suddenly took gravity into account again, using the acceleration of Earth's Gravity to hit the target faster. Naturally, air resistance still could not help it and continued to be ignored.

"Damn... My ability... What does it take natural laws for..."

"It ignores them when they're useless, but follows them when they're useful? Fuck, doesn't the universe have any dignity?"

The more Mo Qiong thought about it, the more terrified he became. This superpower was simply too frightening.

No wonder that shooting upward produced an arc, while shooting straight produced no parabola. Yet when the target was on the ground, the projectile fell directly and cleanly.

It was as though it were bargaining with Earth's Gravity, giving it as much face as possible so the path would not be too absurd.

But that alone... was already incredibly disrespectful.

With that as a foundation, he summarized what he had learned.

First, his ability could generally be described as shooting. Whether firing, throwing, or using a tool to launch an object, once it left his control, it triggered the passive effect of Absolute Hit.

He described it that way because he had always loved archery, and the first time his ability had activated had also been while shooting arrows.

If he did not use a tool, then his body was the "bow," firing molecular clusters through electromagnetic collisions.

If tools could be used, then it was surely not limited to bows. Any kind of apparatus should be able to trigger it.

"Hmm... If this is passive, doesn't that mean my body is constantly colliding with and firing invisible molecules toward whatever target I'm currently imagining?"

When he touched the ball, he had only changed its trajectory slightly, yet it triggered his ability.

The football should have been nudged slightly off course by his light touch, but under his ability, that direction could lead anywhere. Thus, the football could descend in an extremely strange way, while its original speed was instead borrowed by him, making it strike the ground with barely any loss of speed.

In other words, because the speed at which an object left his hand would be maintained, even if that force had originally been applied by someone else, as long as he changed its direction midway, it still counted as force he had fired.

Then as long as he changed the direction in which a substance moved, that thing would go directly to wherever he imagined.

Theoretically, even subtler molecular movements might have been unknowingly sent toward the target along with them.

The reason he only considered molecules was because it was self-evident whether even more microscopic matter counted.

Light had not been randomly fired by his passive ability.

Otherwise, no one would be able to see him. Every ray of light he reflected would go to his designated location. Wouldn't he have become like a black hole long ago?

"Whew!" Mo Qiong took a deep breath and exhaled with all his strength. Before long, the target swayed slightly.

Then Mo Qiong took out his phone and photographed the inside of his mouth.

Staring at the photo, he tightly closed his lips and felt nothing unusual.

But when he suddenly took several quick steps, he felt airflow strike his mouth. His oral cavity was forced open at once, and he could not help opening his mouth wide.

"Urgh..." Mo Qiong dry-heaved, confirming a fact.

Air could also be fired toward whatever target he wanted to hit. Furthermore, as he moved, every substance his body collided with was triggering the passive ability.

Just now, he had not waved his hands through the air. He had simply walked, yet the passive ability still activated. That meant he was actually firing things in all directions at every moment.

For some unknown reason, though, this only applied to things like dust and air.

Light, as well as things from the microscopic world beyond that, were not passively reflected toward his target. They continued to follow natural laws.

Matter smaller than molecular clusters probably could not be passively fired, though he did not know whether it could be actively fired.

"That's actually for the best. If everything randomly shot wherever I wanted, how could I survive? With my fragile human mind, I simply couldn't consider the destinations of countless microscopic substances at once..."

"If even fundamental particles triggered it, then the instant this ability activated, I'd probably die immediately."