The Strongest Brain in the Interstellar

Unaware that she had inadvertently become a clear target, Jiang Hui did feel the gaze directed at her. Moreover, it wasn’t just one gaze; there was another one—coming from a familiar face.

Alright, alright, she truly couldn’t understand why these people liked to waste their time focusing on others. But she was destined to disappoint them because Jiang Hui generally only focused on herself.

After all, weren’t they all here for shooting practice? Why not just concentrate on practicing properly? Why did they feel the need to create imaginary rivals for themselves?

And she really wanted to say… young men, you’ve seen too little of the world. Why do you feel the need to pick someone out of your life and make them an imaginary enemy? Can’t you have some greater aspirations? There are plenty of geniuses outside; the stars are bright. If you’re really jealous, how can that lead to such resentment?

She tightened her expression into a calm facade and forced herself to focus more deeply.

She couldn’t let herself be dragged down by others, especially with the orientation cross-country competition coming up in two days. Stark had repeated a few times in her ear that this was quite an important event, so with limited time, it was better to practice quickly instead of wasting it on exploring other people or matters.

So she tried her best to ignore the strong presence of that gaze not far away and silently complained about who had arranged such positioning. It was rather malicious to have that person so close; she was even afraid he would accidentally shoot at the positioning net and hit her directly in the face.

Although her mind was wandering, upon hearing Nie Erqi’s stern command, she instinctively adjusted her body functions and subtle movements. Her eyes slightly focused, and through the sight, she accurately found her target and promptly pulled the trigger.

Hmm… didn’t hit the target?! Jiang Hui was somewhat surprised.

She had been practicing for the past few days and had gradually found her shooting rhythm. While she wouldn’t dare call herself a sharpshooter, she had her own set of standards when it came to shooting. Especially with that inexplicable intuition buried deep in her mind, which allowed her to subtly judge her completion in a task with impressive accuracy.

Just now, she had clearly sensed that her shot would hit the target perfectly, so why didn’t it? Moreover, there was no number displayed on the target marker, indicating that no one had hit it.

Jiang Hui felt a bit lost. She had been so focused that she hadn’t noticed anything happening after the shot, making it impossible to analyze what had gone wrong midway. Was her aim really off?

Out of more than forty people, including three elite second-year students, only three markers had been hit out of ten. This group of students was weaker than Nie Erqi had anticipated, leaving him somewhat disappointed.

He had expected at least five hits, but two had missed due to unforeseen circumstances, and those two were barely salvageable.

Remembering those two troublesome students, Nie Erqi couldn’t help but pinch the bridge of his nose.

Jiang Hui hadn’t seen it clearly, but he had.

In fact, Jiang Hui’s shot had been executed with remarkable precision, and her series of actions were so standard that they could easily serve as a demonstration. Given her shooting trajectory, she should have hit that target marker without a doubt.

Yet someone had clearly planned to sabotage her success. Both Hess and Jiang Hui had chosen the same target marker. Given Hess’s shooting range, choosing the marker on Jiang Hui’s side was a bit disadvantageous; the different angle and distance today meant the shooting process would face more variability. Yet, he still made that choice.

Moreover, he was quite capable, managing to accurately hit the spot just two or three centimeters in front of the marker, causing the two colored bullets to collide and cancel each other out without leaving a trace.

Wasn’t that just reckless? Nie Erqi felt a headache coming on with this student named Hess. He had thought he appeared calm and steady, only to find his actions were completely unreliable.

What could have been a good practice session had turned into a one-man show for him… Why couldn’t he just blend in with the crowd and compete like everyone else? In the end, it would have been the same result, yet he insisted on taking such an extreme approach.

Nie Erqi originally intended to step in and directly stop the disruption to the teaching process, but Stark, who was watching from the side, held him back and shook his head.

Since Nie Erqi took over Class Two and began their specialized shooting training, Stark had been quietly observing the class, rarely speaking or sharing any opinions. He had simply watched the students as they learned to shoot under Nie Erqi’s guidance.

The few times he had asked questions were after class, in private discussions, never interfering with the training in such situations. He didn’t expect today would be an exception.

Though he didn’t know why Stark allowed that guy to cause trouble, he decided to let it go for now.

Besides, this person seemed deeply obsessed. If he didn’t let him reach his goal, who knows how much more he would stir things up? It was better to let him compete.

How would they know who was better without a comparison? And—

Nie Erqi was also quite curious about what this guy really cared about regarding Jiang Hui.

Failing in the first round, it would be a lie to say he wasn’t disappointed. Jiang Hui herself knew her performance was still too unstable. After seeing her accuracy improve gradually yesterday, she had thought she had made significant progress, only to find herself quickly reverting to her previous form today.

However, her gaze fixed forward, and she unconsciously pursed her lips. There were still nine rounds left.

After recording the scores of those who hit the target in this round, Nie Erqi ordered everyone to prepare and quickly moved into the second round of shooting.

This time, Jiang Hui was even more focused, more so than in the previous round.

As usual, she went through the shooting preparations and operations. At the moment she squeezed the trigger, she suddenly felt as if she had entered a strange and indescribable realm.

Her entire field of vision seemed to be drawn into a wide-angle perspective, anchored on something moving quickly. The wind rushed past her ears, and she could faintly hear the sound of air being cut through.

In this strange state of sight and sensation, she followed the bullet as it traveled straight toward a predetermined, unwavering trajectory—2.8 star meters… 1.6 star meters… 0.8 star meters… 0.56 star meters… 0.3… It was almost right in front of her! This time, she was sure she could hit it.

With a “bang,” a swift shadow struck the bullet at an angle from the side.

Jiang Hui immediately felt as if the world was spinning. Her entire perception and intent were thrown off, vibrating and tumbling before finally returning to reality, her mind still buzzing for a long time.

Once she calmed down from that disorienting state, her first instinct was to look in the direction of the residual trajectory she had faintly sensed. There, she suddenly met a pair of pitch-black eyes.