Technology and ruthless practices

After buying the nails for his "wild foraging," Chen Jue had intended to ask Jiang Zhe to go to Trash Street in Binjiang and Xiasha to reminisce about the past.

To his surprise, the guy rushed home to look after his kid the moment he got off work, flatly rejecting Chen Jue's proposal.

It was likely that he had been visiting Jingtanghui too often lately and had been slapped with a strict curfew by his wife.

However, mentioning Trash Street filled Chen Jue's mind with memories.

Back when they had just graduated from college and arrived in Hang City, the two of them were broke newcomers who couldn't afford high-end restaurants, so their favorite thing to do on weekends was to eat this kind of street food.

How did that saying go?

College night markets are the three-star Michelin for the poor, roadside massage parlors are the bath centers for losers, and budget hotels like Home Inn or Hanting are the five-star luxury suites for students.

Unable to afford upscale venues but still wanting to satisfy their cravings, they had no choice but to eat "trash" from pushcarts.

But this kind of street food was all about "technology and harsh additives"; while it was certainly satisfying to eat, you were guaranteed to have the runs the next day.

Chen Jue didn't have much savings when he first graduated, so he lived a tight life. Occasionally, he would take a break on the weekend and ask Jiang Zhe to go grab a bite of street food.

He didn't eat indiscriminately; he mostly stuck to his hometown favorites like sticky rice and lean meat balls.

As a native of Wen City drifting away from home in Hang City, he would naturally miss the flavors of home after a long time.

It was just that once their salaries increased later on, the two of them rarely went to places like Trash Street to spend money.

For one, they were older and their horizons had broadened; having tasted healthy food, they naturally wouldn't touch this junk anymore.

For another, it was a bit embarrassing to admit: sitting in an office for so long had given them minor issues like hemorrhoids, so they didn't dare risk a bout of diarrhea.

Since he hadn't managed to meet up with anyone, Chen Jue drove slowly toward the Binjiang University Town based on his memory. By this time, the sky outside had darkened, and the nearby residential compounds and office buildings were already twinkling with lights.

But as soon as he arrived, Chen Jue was stunned.

He hadn't been here for several years, and Trash Street—which he remembered as dirty, messy, and filled with flowing sewage—had changed quite a bit.

The street carts from his memory were gone, all replaced by square storefronts. Inside, they had even built a food court with a dome, complete with standardized seating and a performance stage.

Passing by from the outside, one could see flashy neon signs flickering everywhere. The atmosphere of human life mixed with the bustling crowds of college students, and the air was filled with an alluring scent of food.

"Laxi Street?"

"Eat it and you'll get the runs!"

"Which genius came up with this name? They're a real talent, damn it!"

After finding a parking spot nearby, Chen Jue was blinded by the sign hanging above the entrance as soon as he reached the food court.

He had intended to come here to "wild forage" and practice his dart proficiency, while also finding something to do for his dull nightlife, but he hadn't expected such a massive change.

He followed his memory to find the stall that sold Wen City snacks. The same boss and his wife were still there, though they looked much older after not seeing them for a few years.

Running a night market stall is hard work; facing smoke and fire every day is exhausting, so it's normal for them to age faster than the average person.

Chen Jue, a white-collar worker who sat in an office, had a physical age nearly three years older than his actual age! Let alone people who worked in catering from dawn till dusk.

However, seeing the old couple's business was booming and their faces held the happy satisfaction of making money, it was clear they were filling their pockets with the students' cash.

Don't underestimate these street stalls; as long as the foot traffic is high, you can make a lot of money in a year!

He ordered a portion of sticky rice and lean meat balls, then found a seat to eat slowly.

The taste was still the same as before, but the prices had skyrocketed to an absurd level.

The two snacks cost Chen Jue 30 yuan. When he first came to Hang City, they only sold for 12; in just eight years, the price had nearly tripled.

"Roadside stall quality, big-city prices."

"Truly keeping pace with the times!" Chen Jue couldn't help but sigh.

The management here probably feared that tourists would find the prices of such street food too high, so they had even arranged seating for the customers.

On the performance stage at the front of the seating area, a band formed by college students was performing. They sang quite well, and the end of each song drew applause and cheers from many tourists.

Having listened to too much depressing music online, occasionally hearing this kind of live performance had a unique charm.

After finishing the snacks as his dinner, Chen Jue sat and watched the performance for a while.

By now, there were more and more people. Students from the nearby universities gathered here, the street was bustling with crowds, seats in the plaza were hard to come by, and there were many tourists who had brought their families along.

With such high foot traffic, the sanitation in the vicinity began to deteriorate.

Disposable tableware was scattered everywhere on the ground, along with the occasional dropped food scrap.

However, there were people specifically assigned to clean the plaza, so Chen Jue hadn't yet found a target for his "wild foraging."

Once the food he had eaten was mostly digested, Chen Jue finally rose from his seat and went to his car to load a box of nails into his pocket.

Don't let the fact that Trash Street had been regulated fool you; some things shouldn't be judged by their appearance alone.

Who among those running street food stalls didn't have food waste?

He followed the cleaning staff for a distance, bypassed the regulated front-street shops, and found a small waste station in the back alley of Laxi Street where the food scraps were piled up.

The environment was damp, with several open-lidded trash cans piled haphazardly together. The ground was slick with a mixture of unknown, murky liquids, and the air was thick with the nauseating stench of food scraps.

Above, swarms of flies buzzed about, while large southern cockroaches crawled along the walls.

Around the rims of the trash cans and near the drainage ditch on the ground, several large, gray-furred rats were feasting on spilled food scraps. Judging by their plump, sturdy frames, they were clearly the permanent residents of this place.

"Found you!"

Chen Jue's face lit up at the sight.

He lingered nearby, pretending to fiddle with his phone, and waited for the janitor to leave before pulling a three-inch carpenter's nail from his pocket.

The nail was three inches long, roughly the size of a small professional dart.

However, the difficulty of pinning down a moving rat from a distance increased exponentially.

The back alley was dimly lit with poor visibility, and the rats were positioned at incredibly tricky angles—unlike the green-headed fly that had stayed still on an open tabletop earlier that day.

Chen Jue didn't have a head-mounted miner's lamp like the urban hunter Ah Fei; he had to rely entirely on his own eyes to track the rats.

Getting any closer was out of the question!

Once he crossed the five-meter threshold, the rats would alert, perking up their heads and stopping their meal. Their pitch-black eyes would fixate on the strange human in the distance, and at the slightest sign of trouble, they would dart behind the trash cans. Their counter-reconnaissance skills were truly master-class by nature.

"A rat's reaction speed is ten times that of a human."

"Their top running speed reaches eight meters per second."

"They are tough-skinned and thick-fleshed, with extreme adaptability and some of the highest survival rates among all rodents!"

"Their only weakness is their poor eyesight—about one-thirtieth that of a human. They struggle to track moving objects, which is why people say they have 'rat-like vision' and are easily caught by cats."

"However, their night vision is six times better than a human's. With eyes positioned on the sides of their heads, their field of view exceeds 280 degrees. They are natural walkers in the dark."

"To secure a kill, it's best to hit them in one shot, and it must be thrown with great force!" Chen Jue lowered his head to review the data he'd looked up online, shuffling his feet as he inched toward the trash cans.

When he reached about ten meters away, the rats on the trash cans began to react, each one stiffening its body.

"This distance should be about right."

Seeing this, Chen Jue took a step back. Ten meters was the closest he could get, which also happened to be the limit of the rats' night vision range.

By the same token, it was also the limit of Chen Jue's nearsighted observation.

Any further, and the rats would appear as blurry, overlapping shadows, which would severely hinder his performance.

I need to keep training my eyes!

I wonder if there's a way to improve night vision. Chen Jue mused, planning to look it up when he returned home to rest.

But for now, these rats had to be pinned!

He raised his left hand, clenched his fist, and pinched the three-inch nail between his thumb and index finger.

At this distance, using professional dart-throwing techniques would never work.

He had to rely on brute force and a whipping motion.

With his Lv5 master-level [Hidden Weapon Throwing] skill, the moment Chen Jue held the nail, his instincts took over, guiding him on how to unleash its maximum power.

He focused his gaze, aimed at a rat on the edge of a trash can, and with a sharp "whoosh," he whipped his arm forward. The nail flew across the ten-meter gap at incredible speed.

Thud! The plastic lid of the trash can was pierced through, the entire bin shuddered, and a piece of a rat's tail was sliced off in the process.

The rats were all startled; they scrambled their four paws against the hard plastic lid and darted into the shadows behind the trash cans with lightning speed.

"A miss?"

Chen Jue paused, slightly stunned. Just as he was about to step closer to investigate, the system prompt popped up:

[Ding~]

[Completed one real-world night-time hidden weapon exercise that meets the requirements. Target successfully struck. Your Hidden Weapon skill has improved.]

[Hidden Weapon Throwing proficiency +10]

"Does just cutting off a rat's tail count?" Chen Jue rubbed his chin, retreated a bit further, and pulled out another nail to prepare.

Having watched many urban hunter videos that afternoon, Chen Jue knew the greedy nature of these rats. As long as there was food in front of them, they would risk their lives to come out and eat.

Some of the tougher ones would even get hit by a steel ball from a slingshot and still poke their heads out to keep eating until their internal injuries finally did them in.

This was the instinct of wild animals foraging for food.

They might not care about their lives, but they had to get the food into their mouths first!

Sure enough, less than half a minute later, the first rat emerged from the shadows.

The rat circled the trash can cautiously, and finding no danger, began to feast again.

Presumably, with the vanguard rat scouting the way, the others followed out of the shadows, even the one with the severed tail.

"Keep the music playing, keep the dance going!"

Chen Jue chuckled to himself and began to shuffle forward once more.

The previous throw had missed, likely due to his lack of focus and the fact that it was his first time hurling a nail over such a distance, meaning he hadn't yet found his rhythm.

This time, he made a slight adjustment, pushing the frames of his glasses higher up on his ears; as the angle of the lenses shifted, the prescription correction improved, and his vision became significantly clearer.

Taking a moment to extend his aiming time, Chen Jue gripped the nail once more and threw it with all his might.

With a soft "pfft," blood splattered across the scene as the round nail pierced straight through the head of the Broken-Tail Rat, which struggled for a few moments before dropping off the trash can.

At this moment, a notification popped up on the panel:

[Ding~]

[Completed an excellent night-time Hidden Weapon Throwing combat exercise, successfully killing a small mammal. Your Hidden Weapon Throwing technique has improved significantly.]

[Hidden Weapon Throwing skill proficiency +100]

First update~

The flu is a bit better today, though I'm still coughing; the medicine has kept it somewhat under control, so updates will be normal~

By the way, continuing to ask for recommendation votes and monthly tickets~

PS: There will be a large amount of science-based data appearing in the future; I hope you gentlemen don't mind.