Chapter 72 – Antique
Wang Zhong had also been observing Barran’s actions. Since the loss, Barran had suffered a large psychological blow. Although it wasn’t shown on the surface, he felt deep remorse in his heart. He didn’t want to drag the entire society down. With this situation that lacked other methods, the only thing he could do was entrust all of his hope on the combat technique that Wang Zhong taught him.
Comprehending a combat technique wasn’t something that could be done in a single moment. Wang Zhong didn’t try to console Barran as what he needed to do during this time was to become more tenacious. This was an aspect Wang Zhong wasn’t worried about. One’s ability to comprehend more or less depended on one’s self. Techniques were dead, so it was only after repeated use of it that one could find a style most suitable for them. As such, Wang Zhong didn’t interfere much with this matter.
When Emily and Grai arrived, the entire training area seethed with excitement. The two were immediately swarmed and encircled as they were the truly big stars of the Prodigy Society. Both of them possessed the right temperament and attractiveness to gather others. Coupled with their strength and backgrounds, cough cough, well, even the president was no different from an unskilled labourer when beside them.
Ma Dong treated it as though he hadn’t seen anything. These dishes were captured by him. It’s not like Grai would snatch them away from the President, right?
“Oh yea, I managed to get a hold of those two wheels you wanted. What did you want these antiques for? You should properly train in your marksmanship as that’s the only true path,” Ma Dong said.
“Ah, you actually got them?” replied Wang Zhong, gawking.
“What are you shouting? Are you looking down on I, the Great President Ma? So long as I have the money and means, will there be anything I can’t get my hands on?” Ma Dong said. When he saw Wang Zhong’s astonishment, Ma Dong felt proud. This brother of his was good at everything but romance and acting almighty. For Ma Dong, acting almighty was one of the pleasures of life!
Wang Zhong couldn’t resist flattering Ma Dong for a while. “Yes, Lord President is very formidable.” In reality, he’d only casually spoken about it. After using that crosswheel previously in the OP, Wang Zhong felt he needed to do further research of the weapon.
After researching for a bit, however, he found that this kind of rune weapon was quite ancient in design. Not a single one was present in Tianjing. He’d brought it up as a topic casually to Ma Dong, but he never would have thought that this fellow would actually be able to gather the manpower to acquire it.
Inside the ranged combat training room, Wang Zhong saw two crosswheels that looked rather old fashioned. Ma Dong shrugged his shoulders helplessly. “It’s not that I didn’t want to find a new one for you. This toy had never been mass produced, so I got these two from a commemorative museum. Although they’re slightly old, I checked and found that they haven’t gone bad. Maybe they were ones that had been used by some bigshot in the past.”
Wang Zhong patted Ma Dong. “Maybe I’ll rely on these to bring glory to the Prodigy Society.”
“No, big bro, just playing with it is fine. This thing isn’t very suitable for real combat. Use it to train your dexterity and adjust your emotions, that’ll be enough,” Ma Dong replied. Although he was lazy, Ma Dong’s eyes hadn’t gone bad and he continued, “I threw it for a bit before. While this toy has some killing and injuring capabilities, its mid-air trajectory is rather unpredictable. Furthermore, it’s too much trouble to use your hands when it returns. The delay between attacks is also quite long. That’s a period of time equivalent to letting an assassin come over and stab you to death a few hundred times.”
Wang Zhong just gave a smile as he lifted the shabby crosswheels. The feeling they gave him was different from when he used them in the OP. They felt very comfortable in his hands, which was better than he expected. Due to his relationship with Simba, Wang Zhong didn’t have any deep feeling toward weapons. He focused primarily on training his body and mastering technical abilities. Yet, he indeed had some unfettered fantasies when he first came into contact with the crosswheel.
Every crosswheel had five holes around its axis. These holes were not used for control, which made it different from the one in the OP. The real one was obviously more complex in its use. The cutting edges of most ranged weapons tended to be incomparably sharp, but the edges of these crosswheels weren’t as sharp as one would imagine. Furthermore, there were strange ripples along its entire edge. Wang Zhong felt more and more interested as he examined it.
The thing Ma Dong couldn’t bear the most was Wang Zhong’s weapon fanaticism. During his first school year, Wang Zhong had chosen many classes of the rune department. This made many assume he was a student of the rune department, and even made those of the commander department think he was preparing to transfer to the rune department. Ma Dong had been the only one to know that Wang Zhong had done all of this because of his extreme interest in rune weapons and rune techniques.
A weapon’s construction process and the principles within contained all of the wisdom of the previous generations. It was related to the conversion of soul power, of its essence. Obtaining knowledge of this had aided Wang Zhong greatly in his understanding of other principles.
It was fine for an ordinary solder to know which weapon was the most lethal. Yet, it was obvious that Wang Zhong instead liked to ponder over and refine it into a literary topic. If he couldn’t find something that was hard to do, then he’d feel suffocated.
☀
“A helper will be allocated for every member of the core squadron of our Prodigy Society. These helpers will be known as ‘Followers’. First and foremost will be Grai and Emily. Those who wish to sign up, please come over to me.”
The moment President Ma Dong appeared on the scene and gave that announcement, he immediately attracted everyone over to him. The girls were at the forefront, but everyone was thinking along the same lines. Helper… Does this mean we can stay in sole contact with them… everyday?
Taking advantage of the presented opportunity, Emily and Grai quickly slipped away. It was very fortunate as Grai began to feel anxious. Emily, on the other hand, felt it was truly unbearable that she couldn’t take action. She thought that Ma Dong would be able to solve this issue as he was quite the array of sly and crafty plans.
When they arrived at the training room, Wang Zhong had already begun to toss those crosswheels. After throwing them a few times, Wang Zhong found that these crosswheels really weren’t simple.
Those five axis control holes didn’t only allow for a rich variety of control methods, but it also created an incredible number of possible transformations while in the air. Furthermore, the ripples along its edge actually complemented and improved the control of the crosswheel. These two crosswheels, simply put, were complex and high grade rune weapons!
Who was the person that designed this? Was he a super genius!
“Brother Wang Zhong, what’re you playing around with? Where did you get such an old wheel? Haha. Did you get your hands on this after All-Mouthy King’s match?” emily asked.
“Almighty King?” Grai asked curiously. “Is that person fierce?”
“Grai, are you an alien? You don’t even know about All-Mouthy King? It’s the mouthy in Mouth1. He’s an extremely fierce and mysterious expert!” Emily exclaimed. She had completely walked out of the shadow of her loss. After she watched All-Mouthy King walk further along his own path, and even achieve victory against an elite division member while under unfavourable conditions, she felt that her loss really had been nothing much.
“It seems I’m quite ignorant and ill-informed. I’ll have to go home and watch him,” Grai said as he smiled faintly. “But this thing looks… quite unique. May I have a look at it, senior?”
“Naturally. Go ahead and try it. This thing is very interesting and slightly hard to control,” Wang Zhong said.
When she heard his words, Emily began to feel excited. “How hard can it be? Let me try!”
As a member of the Assassin clan, Emily had also been trained in the basics of short-ranged weapons, and also some hidden weapons.
Yet, once the crosswheel entered her hands, she could feel its complexity. When she gave it a casual toss, the crosswheel didn’t even fly five meters before falling to the ground.
“Isn’t this toy too flowery? There’s too much interference with its rotational path. Where did you get a hold of this? Not even dead idiots would pay for it.”
Grai observed the entire construction of the crosswheel earnestly. His eyes flashed slightly before returning to their original state. “The person who designed this had great ambitions, but it’s a bit too much. The amount of time needed to master this weapon should instead be spent on other things.”
Grai’s appraisal was obviously more critical than Emily’s, and he moved on. “Senior, are you planning to train in this?”
Wang Zhong just smiled as he said, “I felt it was a bit interesting, so I’m playing with it so that I can adjust my mood. Hitting a target all day is too boring after all.”
BANG!
A series of shouts and screams rang out from behind a nearby wall. It had been due to Barran knocking himself out after hitting the collision device too fiercely. When he saw this, Wang Zhong felt slightly dizzy. Being too sincere also isn’t that good…
1. Wang Zhong’s username is 嘴强王者, which has almost the same pronunciation as 最强王者. It’s wordplay as All-Mouthy King sounds like Almighty King in Chinese. So if you were wondering why his name was so odd, well, here it is