I will eventually become a god through sheer hard work.

"What the heck? You didn't throw a depleted uranium armor-piercing round with your bare hands, did you?"

The mandrill said with an incredulous look on its face.

The petite, short-haired girl, Xiaojing, muttered, "It should be an armor-piercing knife..."

Xu Ren gave Xue Jing a deep look, “...This knife of mine is very expensive.”

After Xue Jing threw the knife and pierced the cockroach monster, it didn't stop at all, but continued to fly away in a spiral shape into the distance, and now its whereabouts are unknown.

If this were in an animation, it would have a twinkling star effect.

Xue Jing's right arm hung limply, its skin covered with bruises, and almost the entire arm had turned purple.

The repeated use of the extremely demanding "Tornado Thunder" attack had taken a toll on his arm muscles, leaving them in very poor condition.

While silently circulating his energy to dispel the blood stasis, he laughed and said, "Sorry, I couldn't control my strength. Look for it, and I'll compensate you if you can't find it."

Xu Ren shook his head: "I'm not asking you for compensation..."

She glanced at Xue Jing's shocking arm. "Let's go, get on the plane. We'll take you back to Canglong Dojo first, and we'll talk about other things later. Your dojo should have a secret medicine specifically for treating this kind of injury, right?"

Xue Jing thought for a moment, then took his phone out of his pocket with his other hand.

It's quite unbelievable that this phone only had a cracked screen during such an intense battle, while all other functions remained normal.

I tapped a few times on my phone, opened the dial pad, and called my homeroom teacher, Du Shiwei.

"Hey, Teacher Du, I've got a bit of an injury, so I have to leave early..."

Du Shiwei on the other end of the phone quickly replied, "You're busy, you're busy, the teacher understands."

"Thank you, Teacher Du."

Xue Jing smiled.

He hung up the phone and nodded to Xu Ren: "Let's go, thank you for your help, Captain Xu Ren."

Xu Ren hummed in agreement.

The mandrill casually remarked from the side, "Boss, what should we do with Qi Yu's corpse?"

Xu Ren shook his head: "Qi Yu has only been in the team for a short time and doesn't have any alien plants that need to be retrieved. Just get his 'black belt' back. The police should be here soon. Let them handle the body. We'll just take the cockroach's corpse with us."

Mandrill shrugged: "We've lost another team member. Captain, should we apply to the higher-ups to transfer a few more?"

"Let's talk about it later. You've seen Qiyu's situation. Newcomers aren't very effective... If a few more die, the team's casualty rate will be too high, and my year-end evaluation will be downgraded."

Xue Jing listened to their conversation silently, and sighed inwardly at Bai Ya's attitude of treating the death of his companion as commonplace, or even indifferent.

Soon, the mandrill finished packing up the cockroach monster's corpse.

The group boarded the helicopter, and under the watchful eyes of the teachers and students of Qingfu Middle School, the helicopter started up, the propellers stirred up a storm, blowing up countless dust particles, and slowly ascended into the sky and left.

……

On the helicopter, Xue Jing opened the panel and glanced at the harvest.

[You survived a fierce battle, your physical potential was unleashed, and your fitness experience points increased by 1367.]

[You survived a fierce battle, landed the final blow, and secured the kill. You feel extremely satisfied. Health experience points +939]

[You survived a fierce battle, delivered a perfect shot, and maximized your accuracy. Aiming experience points +1211]

You survived a deadly battle...

Aiming skill upgraded to Lv6 (198/3000)

[Hidden Dragon Strength upgraded to Lv5 (232/5500)]

[Visualization upgraded to Lv5 (121/2000)]

After reading through the entire list of prompts, Xue Jing felt excruciating pain all over his body, but in his heart, it was like swallowing a big mouthful of sweet shaved ice on a hot summer day—both painful and refreshing.

He turned and glanced outside the helicopter.

High in the sky, the vast city of Qingcheng was almost entirely within his field of vision. He randomly chose a direction, focused his attention, and adjusted the focus of his pupils to see everything clearly, even those more than ten kilometers away.

Inside an old restaurant, several guests sat around a table chatting and laughing. The subtle expressions on their faces were crystal clear, and Xue Jing could even deduce what they were saying just by the shape of their mouths when they opened them to speak.

"This hot pot is really good, the ingredients are all very fresh. It's a great place recommended by Mr. Zhang..."

"I've already spoken with Mr. Li, and he plans to have us handle this order together..."

Xue Jing withdrew his gaze.

The Lv6 aiming ability provides static vision that is equivalent to giving him a high-quality telescope, and also gives him some microscope functionality.

He had a vague feeling that, disregarding wind resistance, if he threw a stone from here, he could accurately hit something several kilometers away.

It's not just about visual aiming; the improvement in aiming level also brings about an improvement in throwing instinct and feel.

"Regarding the unfinished building in the southern district that you mentioned, although we haven't found any clues about the Heavenly Nest Mother yet... we have made some other discoveries."

On the plane, Xu Ren spoke.

“When we got there, because the boundary earthquakes were very frequent, we used instruments to check and found that the pollution rate in that area had exceeded 10%.”

Xue Jing asked in confusion, "Pollution rate?"

This was the first time he had heard the word, and he didn't understand what it meant.

Xu Ren sighed slightly: "The level of education in the outer ring is worrying... Nobody's learned anything here."

She explained, "The pollution rate refers to a generalization about the degree to which a region in our real world is polluted by 'otherworldly' elements."

When the present world and the other world collide, a "cross-boundary phenomenon" occurs. The more severe the cross-boundary phenomenon, the higher the pollution rate.

“If the two worlds only slightly collide, then only a ‘world earthquake’ will occur. At this time, the pollution rate will generally be around 1% to 5%, and will quickly return to 0%.”

“If the collision is severe and the contamination rate reaches more than 10%, then boundary earthquakes will be very frequent… In a severe collision, the two worlds may break open with ‘gaps’ and the gaps will temporarily fit together, resulting in a ‘weak overlap’ phenomenon. In this case, the contamination rate will increase to more than 30%.”

"After a weak overlap occurs, the physical laws and principles of the current region will change due to the overlap with the other world... and otherworldly creatures may even come to the present world through the 'gap'."

Xue Jing suddenly realized, "So this is how the border area came into being?"

Xu Ren shook his head and said, "Yes and no."

"The boundary is a product of the pollution rate reaching 100%. It is neither the present world nor the other world, but something born from the fusion of the present world and the other world... It also has another name, called 'sub-world'."

“Weak overlap will eventually become a boundary, but the process is reversible, as long as the corresponding correct measures are taken to prevent it from transitioning from ‘weak overlap’ to ‘strong overlap’.”

"The newly emerging boundary areas in the past sixty years have not developed gradually from weak overlap, but rather from the collision of two boundaries, instantly forming strong overlapping areas with a pollution rate of over 60%, which ultimately become boundary areas irreversibly..."

Xue Jing nodded and exclaimed, "I've learned something new."

Xu Ren crossed his arms and said, "In short, there's a risk of weak overlap in these unfinished buildings in the South District at any time. Be careful and don't go near them."

Xue Jing nodded, indicating that he understood.

……

Hidden Dragon Dojo, a place for nurturing the mind.

Xue Jing stripped down to his shorts and lay obediently on a physiotherapy bed.

Sitting in his wheelchair, Li Qi turned the wheelchair around, examining the dragon scale marks remaining on Xue Jing's skin, and exclaimed:

"Golden Scale Skin... and you've already mastered it?"

Zhu Shanying and Meng Qingjiao were standing one in front of the other at the head and foot of the bed, applying ointment to Xue Jing's body.

"Junior brother, you're such a worry, you always come back covered in injuries."

While rubbing Xue Jing's thigh skin, using force to make the medicine penetrate into the skin, Zhu Shanying complained.

"Hiss—" Xue Jing kept hissing in pain.

The membrane that had withstood the full impact of the cockroach monster after being treated with the Golden Scales was severely damaged internally. Even a light touch was like scraping flesh with an iron brush, let alone a vigorous massage.

"It wasn't my intention, but I was forced by circumstances," Xue Jing said helplessly.

He didn't want to end up covered in injuries every time, but he had no other choice.

Given the circumstances, he was the only one who could stand up against the cockroach monster, so he had no choice but to go for it.

It wasn't that he was particularly selfless; he just felt he could handle it, so he decided to give it a try.

Anyway, there's always the twins to fall back on...

"Senior Sister Zhu, be gentle, hiss—" Xue Jing gasped.

Takeyama Ei scoffed, "I'll make you remember how painful it was."

On the other side, compared to Zhushan Ying, Meng Qingjiao's movements were much gentler. Her smooth, delicate hands, which showed no signs of being a martial artist, moved over Xue Jing's back.

Her control over force was exquisite; she used gentle force to silently penetrate the ointment into the skin, making Xue Jing feel almost no pain, but rather a sense of comfort.

A gentle, slender hand brushed across her back.

As Meng Qingjiao leaned forward to apply the ointment to the back of her body, the intense World Cup paint on her skin inadvertently brushed against Xue Jing's back.

"..."

The delicate fragrance emanating from the short-haired beauty kept wafting into his nose, and Xue Jing's expression turned strange.

As if trying to divert attention, he turned to Li Qi beside him and said:

"Master, do you know anything about the Golden Wind Dojo?"

He thought of Duan Kaiping, whom he had met at school.

That cockroach monster is probably related to Duan Kaiping.

This person belongs to the Razor Gang, which is actually backed by the Golden Wind Dojo.

Xue Jing felt that he should learn more about it.

Upon hearing the words "Golden Wind Dojo," Li Qi paused, then casually said:

"I do know a little about him. I had a conversation with Jiao Hongyuan, the owner of the Jinfeng Dojo, when he was young."

Xue Jing asked curiously, "How did they communicate?"

Li Qi said nonchalantly, "He was beaten up by me before. He was a disciple of the Golden Wind White Rainbow Sword School in the Inner Ring City back then."