Han Feng set the gun down.

He shook out his numb wrist.

That last shot had consumed a significant amount of his Qi Blood.

It was roughly equivalent to executing a powerful Sword Control Technique.

"It’s probably just my Talent."

Han Feng blinked, falling back on his all-purpose excuse.

"I’m just particularly sensitive to things that spin."

"I was just thinking, what if I could wrap the bullet in spinning Qi Blood? Wouldn’t that make it more powerful?"

"I didn’t think it would actually work."

As he spoke, he held out his index finger.

A faint, blood-red wisp of energy appeared at his fingertip.

The energy didn’t just dissipate aimlessly. Instead, it spun at a bizarrely high speed, emitting a faint SSSHHH sound.

Just being near it, you could feel a stinging sense of Sharpness on your skin.

"Spiral Force..."

Zhang Hao stared at the wisp of Qi Blood on Han Feng’s fingertip, lost in thought.

He held out his hand and tried to mobilize his Inner Qi, mimicking the spiral structure Han Feng had created.

A ball of white Inner Qi gathered in his palm and began to spin.

But he quickly frowned.

’It’s so hard.’

Inner Qi became diffuse once it left the body.

It wasn’t hard to make it spin rapidly, but compressing it into a razor-thin stream that maintained its high-speed rotation—without any sort of container—was incredibly difficult.

After only a few rotations, the ball of Inner Qi dissipated with a PUFF.

Unwilling to give up, Zhang Hao tried a few more times.

His face flushed red with effort, but in the end, he had no choice but to let his Inner Qi dissipate.

"I can’t do it."

Zhang Hao shook his head, looking at Han Feng as if he were some kind of monster.

"My Inner Qi has a hard time maintaining that kind of delicate structure after leaving my body."

"How did you manage to keep the Energy stable through the blast?"

Han Feng blinked.

’How did I do it?’

’The system gave me an Empowerment, of course.’

’It’s an instinct carved directly into my muscle memory, into my very bones. It just comes naturally.’

’But I can’t say that out loud.’

So he could only put on a simple, honest-looking expression.

"Maybe... because of practice?"

"I practice it a lot on the plane. After a while, I just got the hang of it."

"Captain, you know me. I’m not good at much else, but I’m just especially sensitive to things that spin."

’Talent.’

’That damned Talent again.’

Everyone on the range fell silent.

They remembered Han Feng’s absurd Talent for flying and his mechanical Talent for fixing engines. Now, he’d added a shooting Talent that let him fire a rifle like it was a cannon.

’Is there any justice left in this world?’

Wang Meng tossed his rifle aside, looking as if he’d lost the will to live.

"You took a crummy old rifle and turned it into an anti-materiel cannon."

"If we gave you a real anti-materiel rifle, you’d probably punch a hole in the sky!"

Gu Yun stood in the back, staring at the pierced alloy plate. His lips moved, but he ultimately said nothing.

’He had originally planned on finding a chance to challenge Han Feng’s marksmanship.’

’Now? Compete with him? My ass.’

’Is that even a gun?’

’What he’s holding is clearly a cheat code.’

"Alright, I don’t have the nerve to shoot anymore."

Wang Meng threw the cigarette butt in his hand to the ground.

"Practicing shooting with you is just asking for my ego to get crushed."

"I’m out, I’m out. Going back to bed."

The group dispersed, their faces a mixture of shock and complex envy.

Only the limping old man remained, still holding the armor plate and studying it.

He muttered phrases like "unscientific" and "makes no sense."

Han Feng paid for the two bullets—four Contribution Points.

He looked at his account balance and smiled with satisfaction.

’An expense of four points, for the effect of four thousand points worth of ammunition.’

’Now *that* was what you call cost-effective.’ 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

The commotion at the firing range faded. Han Feng returned to the hangar alone, rubbing his chin, still wanting more.

’Mastery Level Sword Qi Release, with just a superficial grasp of Spiral Force, could turn a regular rifle into an anti-materiel cannon.’

’If I reach Small Success or even Great Success in the future, couldn’t I craft a railgun with my bare hands?’

He even felt that if he had infused that missile with Spiral Sword Qi back then, he might have been able to pierce the Black Iron Earth Dragon straight through from head to tail.

’Unfortunately, there are no what-ifs.’

The afternoon patrol mission was simply a form of torture for Han Feng.

He flew the Gray Donkey back and forth over the North District for more than two hours.

Forget Demon Beasts, he didn’t even see a field mouse.

His frenzied bombardment that morning had completely disrupted the North District’s ecosystem. The area had been swept clean; it was unnervingly empty.

"It’s lonely at the top."

Han Feng sighed, circling aimlessly out of sheer boredom.

He even activated his Spiritual Vision to see if any unlucky bastards were hiding underground.

But all he saw was the brownish-yellow earth qi and a scene of perfect tranquility.

’The feeling was just like leveling up, equipping a full set of god-tier gear, and then turning around to find you’ve already wiped out all the mobs in the starting zone.’

However, his "boredom" was a source of incredible news for the farm.

As dusk fell, Han Feng landed the Gray Donkey on the crude runway. Zhou Ping came scrambling over to him, practically tumbling in his haste.

His chubby face was wreathed in smiling wrinkles.

"Technician Han! The great hero of our Golden Ears Farm!"

Thanks to Han Feng’s "clearing-out" bombardment that morning, the Demon Beast threat in the entire North District had been eliminated ahead of schedule.

The harvesting teams were able to push forward at full speed without any fear.

The farm’s overall harvesting progress was actually a full day ahead of schedule.

For Golden Ears Farm, which was in a race against Time and fighting Demon Beasts for every grain, this was an absolutely massive contribution.

To celebrate and reward all the team members for their days of hard fighting, the farm director, Lei Zhen, made a sweeping decision: a grand bonfire banquet would be held that night in the farm’s open-air plaza.

「Night fell.」

Three huge bonfires were lit in the central plaza.

The roaring flames leaped high, painting half the night sky a brilliant crimson.

Over a dozen cleaned Tier One Demon Beasts were skewered on thick iron spits, roasting over the flames, SIZZLING as fat dripped from them.

The rich aroma of roasting meat mingled with the mellow scent of strong, locally brewed spirits, drifting freely through the cold air and chasing away the wasteland’s nightly chill.

The farm workers and the rough-hewn men of the guard team gathered around the bonfires.

They tore at the scorching-hot roasted meat, drank strong spirits from massive bowls, and sang at the top of their lungs.

Their happiness was simple and pure.

"Come on, Han, my friend! I have to drink this one to you!"

Wang Meng approached, his face flushed and his voice booming. He held a ceramic bowl larger than his own head, filled to the brim with amber-colored spirits.

"I was bored out of my mind this afternoon, thanks to you."

"Flew around up there for two hours and didn’t even see a rabbit’s whisker!"

"It’s all thanks to you! Drink up!"

Han Feng laughed, clinked his bowl against Wang Meng’s, and tilted his head back, downing the strong liquor in one go.

The harsh liquor burned its way down his throat and into his stomach, instantly igniting a fire within him.

This rough, simple joy was a rare chance for his nerves, strung tight for days, to finally unwind.

"Han Feng."

Captain Zhang Hao had come over at some point. He handed Han Feng a plate of neatly sliced roasted lizard leg, sprinkled with spices.

"Well done."

"Because of your efficiency, the farm has already paid out half of the reward for this mission in advance."

"Your share should be in your account by now."

Upon hearing this, Han Feng immediately opened his personal terminal.

Sure enough, a new credit notification was sitting there.

[Credit: 40,000 Contribution Points]