Xu Feng hurriedly lowered his fist halfway through his swing. "What are you looking at? Get back to studying!"
Xiao Dan pouted and looked away, but she kept watching the target out of the corner of her eye.
Xu Feng threw his final two blades.
One after another, they hit the five-ring.
This time, all three blades hit the target!
Xiao Dan trembled and clenched her little fists.
But Xu Feng was so caught up in his excitement that he didn't notice the girl's reaction.
"Again!"
Full of confidence, Xu Feng retrieved his blades.
He knew this might be because of the panel.
But he didn't have time to check it just then.
This time, he recalled the stance he'd used before.
He pinched a blade between his fingers, then suddenly whipped his arm forward.
Thwack, thwack, thwack!
A series of dull thuds rang out.
The three blades struck the six-ring, forming a triangle.
The improvement in his accuracy and the tighter grouping were plain to see.
Retrieve the blades, throw them.
Retrieve them again, throw them again.
He kept at it until his sixteenth attempt.
Thwack!
The first blade hit the bullseye for the first time.
The second blade hit the bullseye again!
The third blade—
Thud!
It hit the bullseye too.
But the sound of the blade striking the target suddenly changed.
Xu Feng went closer to look.
The blade had previously sunk only a tenth of the way into the wall panel, but now it had gone in a full third!
He opened the panel with a thought.
[Secret Blade Art · Proficient (2/500)]
Just as he'd thought!
His proficiency kept improving with practice, and all he had to do was practice to make progress.
What's more, whenever his skill level increased, all sorts of related knowledge and experience would naturally appear in his mind.
Awesome!
Xu Feng was absolutely thrilled.
He loved this feeling.
Hard work actually paid off.
This was one hell of a cheat.
There were plenty of things in this world where you could work hard and still end up with nothing.
Even if you spent years immersed in a particular skill, leaving it to languish for long enough would inevitably make you worse at it.
But based on what the panel could do so far, his skills wouldn't decline at all!
Wasn't this the legendary kind of proof that lasted forever?
What more could he ask for?
Xu Feng stayed up late practicing his blades.
When Xiao Dan finished her homework, he stopped throwing blades and started repairing communicators.
It was around midnight when he checked the time and finally drifted off to sleep.
Over the next week, Xu Feng settled into a strict routine.
What did people mean by a three-point commute?
Home to the base, then to the Trading Zone, then back home.
Xu Feng's schedule was packed every day that week.
He got up early to cook, then went to work.
In the afternoon, he came home, cooked, repaired equipment, and practiced throwing blades.
At midnight, he practiced the Nine Star Body Refining Art, then went to sleep.
And so it went, day after day.
After a week, his blood-energy hadn't changed much. It had barely climbed to 175c.
His blade technique and repair skills, on the other hand, had improved by leaps and bounds.
First, he'd successfully reached the proficient level in his blade technique.
Within a five-meter range, a casual throw was guaranteed to hit the bullseye, and the blade sank about three-quarters of the way into the wall.
Xu Feng had never seen a firearm's power, so he figured his blades were probably weaker.
But they could still inflict plenty of damage on a person.
If he aimed for the eye, he'd blind them for sure.
As for his repair skills, Xu Feng no longer bothered with the 940 model.
He was now focusing on the 945 and 950 models.
The 950 in particular was used by workers and logistics staff who had a little more money to spend.
It could not only connect with Earth through a relay station, but also make video calls.
Among low-end communicators, Weihua's Mate 950 had become one of the most popular models in recent years.
A broken one cost 900 to buy. Once repaired, it could be sold to a secondhand shop for 1,700, or to a passerby for 2,000 to 2,200!
The parts required to repair it were expensive too, of course, so the costs were a little higher.
Still, the price difference let him earn a steady profit of at least 900.
The work required a fairly high level of repair skill, but after practicing for a long time, Xu Feng had finally raised his Communicator Repair skill to the proficient level.
That meant he could handle just about any minor problem the 950 ran into.
His repair success rate wasn't a hundred percent, but compared to when he'd started—
Xu Feng could now rightfully be called a repairman.
After a week, once he'd deducted his living and repair expenses,
Xu Feng's account balance had finally, and with some difficulty, passed ten thousand.
"Little Board."
[Name: Xu Feng] [Blood Energy: 175c] [Age: 40] [Skills: Nine Star Body Refining Art [Free Version] · Proficient (45/100) Communicator Repair · Proficient (9/20) Secret Blade Art · Mastered (115/1000)]
Xu Feng looked over his current stats with satisfaction.
Then he stepped outside and practiced a set of the Body Refining Art in the night air before going back inside to lie down.
Early the next morning.
It was the long-awaited end-of-month day off.
He didn't have to go to the base today, so Xu Feng planned to try setting up a stall in the Trading Zone.
After getting up, he first made Xiao Dan a full breakfast of jianbing guozi.
Then he gathered up his tools and the repaired communicators, ready to head out.
"Dad, I want to come too!"
Xiao Dan held up her greasy hands and grabbed Xu Feng's shirt.
"Let go, let go! Have you washed your hands? Huh? How many times have I told you to wash your hands after eating? I just washed this shirt!"
Xu Feng pried the grubby little hands off him.
Then he dragged the girl over and washed both her hands carefully.
Splash, splash—
The thin stream of water sounded like someone peeing.
As he scrubbed her hands, he said, "All right. I don't feel safe leaving you home alone, either. Bring your homework.
"It's my first day running a stall, so your job is to sit there and be my lucky charm. Got it?"
"Mm-hmm."
Xiao Dan nodded like a bobblehead, her eyes full of excitement.
Lately, Xu Feng had been doing his best to take care of her, and she'd grown noticeably taller.
Her cheeks had gotten chubbier, and she looked much livelier too.
She swore less, and her clothes were cleaner.
Lu Fei had visited once during that time. She'd been astonished, and finally stopped looking at Xu Feng with cold disdain.
Of course,
he wasn't raising his daughter to win over that wicked, busty woman.
Still, it felt good not to be looked down on.
After changing the girl into a set of her old, worn-out clothes,
he took her through the filthy, chaotic streets.
Before long, father and daughter arrived at the Trading Zone.
Sure enough, bringing along the little girl, now bright-eyed and pretty, attracted plenty of attention as Xu Feng walked.
After all, it was a pretty rough place.
You didn't often see someone bringing a kid along to run a stall.
Once he'd set up his repair stall, Xu Feng hung up a handwritten sign: "Cheap Communicator Repairs."
Then he said to Xiao Dan, "All right, do your homework. Remember what I just taught you?"
"I remember."
The little girl wore two topknots and nodded like Nezha.
Her big eyes blinked brightly.
Xu Feng smiled in satisfaction. "Get to your homework."
With that, he laid out the secondhand communicators from his bag.
He set down handwritten price tags.
Then he opened his repair kit and started fixing a communicator on the spot.
You had to look the part.
Xu Feng understood that very well.
He couldn't just sell them. He had to offer repairs and after-sales service too.
A full range of services.
That was how he could win over customers and build a reputation.
And with a reputation, he'd have a way to make money!
As it happened, he was in luck.
Before long, a couple walked over. "Hey, these secondhand communicators are pretty cheap."
The girl had barely spoken when her boyfriend tugged at her. "Hey, everyone around here's a scammer. Let's go."
Just as they were about to leave,
the little girl suddenly turned to Xu Feng and asked, "Dad, when Mom was alive, was she as pretty as that big sister?"
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