"The fist post in front of you is your enemy."
"While practicing your punches, you must also ensure that, no matter the circumstances, your fists can unleash their maximum power!"
Ever since Fang Qingyu held on yesterday, Instructor Qin had resumed personally instructing him, making the others envious.
But everyone had witnessed how desperately Fang Qingyu had trained yesterday, so no one dared say anything.
Fang Qingyu nodded and began circling the fist post while practicing Basic Fist Technique.
"Bang, bang, bang!"
The loud sound of his fists made Instructor Qin, who had originally planned to leave, turn around in surprise.
"Wait."
"?"
Fang Qingyu stopped and looked at him in confusion. He had only just started practicing. Had I made a mistake?
"Come with me for a moment."
Instructor Qin said nothing more. He left that sentence behind and led Fang Qingyu to the edge of the training area.
Some unfamiliar instruments were placed there.
After arriving, Instructor Qin did not speak for a while. Instead, he fiddled with the instruments.
After quite some time, he pointed at the black panel beside them.
"Hit it with all your strength."
Fang Qingyu obediently did as told.
Bang—
The black panel did not even shake, making Fang Qingyu wonder just how heavy the instrument was.
Instructor Qin, meanwhile, stared intently at the screen in front of him.
75 KG!
Hiss.
This kid improved that quickly?!
On his very first day here, Instructor Qin had already seen that Fang Qingyu's foundation was extremely poor when he practiced the stance exercises.
His speed at learning the stance exercises, however, was very fast.
So Instructor Qin had casually given him some personal instruction. He would have done the same for anyone else.
Then came the practice of Basic Fist Technique.
He had also witnessed Fang Qingyu's diligence.
Since he had nothing else to do, he might as well teach him more and see whether he could enter the Elite Class.
But Fang Qingyu's rate of progress now—
Instructor Qin immediately came up with a new idea.
If he maintained this speed, this kid really had more than a fifty-percent chance of entering the Elite Class!
"From now on, I'm going to supervise your training. Can you handle it?"
Before that, however, he had to ask Fang Qingyu's opinion.
Fang Qingyu was wondering whether 75 kilograms counted as a lot or a little.
Hearing this, he immediately nodded.
"I can handle it."
He was not afraid of hardship. What he feared was enduring hardship without ever tasting the sweetness afterward.
But now that he had the chart's existence—
The sweetness would come eventually.
"Good. Come measure yourself every day from now on. Go practice."
Instructor Qin nodded and first let Fang Qingyu return to training on his own.
He turned around and began searching the weapon rack. After finding a short staff, he walked over to Fang Qingyu and watched him closely.
Then—
Fang Qingyu's nightmare began.
Smack—
The short staff struck the inside of Fang Qingyu's elbow.
"When you punch, your forearm should be wound tight like a steel cable. What you're doing is flinging noodles."
Fang Qingyu withdrew his right fist with a muffled grunt. Just as he adjusted his stance, the short staff tapped his lower back again. "Did you waste all that stance training? Your waist and hips are the pivot point for generating force!"
Bang!
His second punch slammed into the fist post.
Instructor Qin's short staff struck below his collarbone again. "Sinking your shoulders and dropping your elbows doesn't mean hunching your neck!"
The fist technique Fang Qingyu had originally thought was correct was full of errors in Instructor Qin's eyes.
But Instructor Qin was right.
The short staff did not hurt much when it struck his body.
The hard part was accepting that he had made so many mistakes.
Perhaps someone more stubborn—
Under Instructor Qin's supervision, they would have quit long ago.
But Fang Qingyu's main quality was that he took advice.
Whether it was right or wrong—
The chart would naturally give him the answer.
Your Martial Arts Apprentice experience +1
Your profession basic skill Hidden Dragon Stance experience +1
Your profession basic skill Basic Fist Technique experience +1
.
All three types of experience on the Job Panel were skyrocketing!
Today's choice had indeed been the right one.
When he woke up that morning, Fang Qingyu had originally wanted to continue increasing his physique and recover from his bodily fatigue.
However, he also wanted to try adding points to strength and speed to see what effect it would have.
After all, all three attributes could be considered bodily attributes.
The result was just as he had expected.
Although the recovery effect was not as good as that of physique, it did not interfere with normal training.
Moreover, just like with physique, he could clearly sense the changes in his body.
That invincible illusion had instead grown even stronger.
That was precisely why Instructor Qin had suddenly changed his mind today.
It could be considered a stroke of luck.
Pain and joy advanced together.
The people around them watched with their scalps tingling.
"Is this guy a masochist?"
The short staff did not strike very hard, but the red marks it left behind were undeniable.
"He's really going all out."
Most people came to the martial arts gym for just two reasons.
One was to strengthen their bodies and improve their health.
The other was to become better at fighting.
Even if they could not enter the Formal Class or Elite Class, it would not affect them much.
But after seeing what happened today—
No one dared say anything about Instructor Qin giving Fang Qingyu special treatment.
After the extra training ended, Qi Hao did not come looking for Fang Qingyu today after seeing Instructor Qin personally supervising him.
"That's enough for today."
Instructor Qin returned the short staff to the rack.
Only then did Fang Qingyu sit on the floor, panting heavily, and look at the panel.
Profession: Martial Arts Apprentice Lv.1 (38/100) Profession Basic Skill 1: Hidden Dragon Stance Lv.1 (52/100) Profession Basic Skill 2: Basic Fist Technique Lv.1 (21/100)
He had never progressed this quickly before.
His profession experience alone had increased by 17 points today.
The experience of both skills had also risen by roughly 20 points.
At this rate, he would level up in only a few days.
He had also gained something in each of his four attributes.
Strength: 9.2 → 9.3
Speed: 8.3 → 8.4
Physique: 9.2 → 9.3
Each had increased by 0.1, which was not much.
But the larger the base value, the harder it was for his physique to improve. Fang Qingyu understood that much.
Especially if he trained like this every day.
"Instructor Qin, at my current rate, how much longer will it take me to enter the Formal Class?"
After changing clothes, Fang Qingyu followed Instructor Qin out of the martial arts gym.
"What, you haven't learned to walk, and already want to run?"
Instructor Qin took a cigarette from his pocket and lit it for himself.
"No, I was just curious."
Or rather, he wanted to understand the gap between himself and the others.
Fang Qingyu currently had no clear idea of what Formal Disciples or members of the Elite Class were like.
"When you can punch with 150 kilograms of force, you'll be close."
With the cigarette between his teeth, Instructor Qin said one final sentence before walking toward a sedan.
"...150 kilograms?"
Fang Qingyu muttered the number to himself.
If that was the case, the students in the Formal Class were even stronger than he had imagined.
Qi Hao had never shown his full strength in daily life, either.
As for the Elite Class, he did not even need to think about it.
Qi Hao had been stuck for so long. The intensity of the Elite Class was probably beyond his imagination.
But Fang Qingyu did not look discouraged. Instead, a faint excitement appeared in his eyes.
A clear path of upward progress lay before him.
The strong were naturally excited by such things.
Only the weak would see it as an insurmountable chasm.
Fang Qingyu shook his head with a laugh and walked toward his electric scooter. He first went to the Clear Pool Club for lunch.
This time, the attribute increase was not large.
At least he did not end up in yesterday's embarrassing state.
The torrential rain made the delivery box rattle loudly.
Fang Qingyu stopped before the countdown at a red light. The front wheel of his electric scooter bumped over puddles, his trouser legs had long since been soaked with mud, and water streamed down from the seams of his cheap raincoat.
He picked up his phone. The system notification said there were still seven minutes left.
Even in this rain, I've maintained a zero-percent lateness rate. I'm probably keeping up with quite a few veteran riders by now, right?
This work, brimming with the warmth of ordinary life, also gave Fang Qingyu a considerable sense of accomplishment with the chart's assistance.
"Ding-dong~"
Before he could put away his phone, another message popped up on Feixin.
It was a message sent to everyone.
It had come from the delivery group he had joined not long ago.
Normally, everyone would share areas to avoid.
The pay was low, and there was always too much trouble.
Fang Qingyu tapped it open.
"@Everyone, be careful when making late-night deliveries recently. Try not to go to remote areas if you can!!"
"What happened?"
"Got it!"
"..."
Someone below asked what was going on.
But the group owner did not reply.
Instead, someone else posted several screenshots of news reports.
"Recently, multiple remote areas in Qingjian City have seen murder cases occur from nighttime until the early morning. We urge all citizens to stay safe at night in the coming days."
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