“This is…
a flintlock!” Meinhard Janek stared at the weapon resting in Reed Newt’s hand, his fingers trembling subtly.
As someone who had thoroughly researched Terra’s discarded history of weaponry, he recognized the distinct mechanisms the instant the gunshot echoed across the sea.
Strictly speaking, it wasn’t a modern firearm, nor did it pack the explosive punch of contemporary ballistic weaponry.
Yet…
Reed was firing large-caliber, high-density penetrating rounds designed specifically to shear through heavy armor.
While flying artillery shrapnel couldn’t dent the hardened hides of first-order sea monsters, these heavy lead slugs fired directly from a flintlock gun certainly could.
“Has anyone else noticed Reed Newt’s marksmanship?” a mentor suddenly interjected, his voice tight with disbelief.
“It’s… unnaturally precise.”
The surrounding instructors froze.
A collective realization dawned on them as they recalled the chaotic sequence: Reed Newt had fired exactly twenty shots, and every single bullet had drilled straight through the center of a Tier-1 sea monster’s brow.
Twenty shots, twenty lethal hits.
Not a single projectile had strayed.
Without optical scopes or auxiliary targeting systems, standard flintlock smoothbores were notorious for their poor accuracy.
Yet Reed managed to land point-blank precision shots over and over again, dropping lethal threats with effortless, single-shot lethality.
Calling him a master marksman was an understatement; he was an absolute deadshot.
“When on Earth did he pick up marksmanship like that?”
“He can smelt ore, forge iron, tame wild beasts, construct fortified cities, cast heavy cannons, craft firearms…
and now he’s an elite sniper?”
“Instead of mastering the evolution courses taught in our curriculum, he spent his time researching all these bizarre, forgotten crafts?”
“Is he seriously trying to reverse the wheel of history and embark on his own personal Renaissance?”
Outrage and bewilderment warred in the instructors’ eyes.
They were stunned to the core.
Terra had long abandoned the path of technological development after exhausting its natural resources.
Besides, technology had an agonizingly low ceiling and developed at an agonizing crawl; Terra had barely managed to launch a crewed vehicle into low orbit, remaining completely trapped within its own solar system.
In stark contrast, a Rank-9 Island Holder possessed the terrifying power to travel interstellar space physically, unleashing destruction equivalent to a nuclear warhead with a single strike.
There was simply no comparison between the two paths.
To watch Reed Newt turn his back on the bright, glorious road of Evolver power to drag out the dusty artifacts of a bygone era was heartbreaking.
With talent and intellect like his, he could have easily scaled the heights of a Rank-9 Island Holder if he had only directed his focus toward proper evolution. This chapter is updated first at NovelPing.
“Look at the standings!
Check the scoreboard!” an instructor monitoring the leaderboards suddenly shouted, breaking the heavy silence.
Everyone snapped their heads toward the projected rankings.
The standings were refreshing at a blinding speed.
Reed Newt’s point total wasn’t just climbing; it was accelerating skyward like a launched rocket.
800 points…
860 points…
900 points…
Within moments, the numbers shattered past previous records:
2,200 points…
2,300 points…
2,400 points…
The gulf between Reed and the second-place participant widened into an unbridgeable chasm with every passing second.
“Slaying a Tier-1 sea monster yields fifty points,” Meinhard Janek murmured, shaking his head with a heavy, helpless sigh.
Taking down those twenty Tier 1 beasts alone had instantly handed Reed a massive thousand-point boost.
Factor in the slaughter of over two hundred common sea monsters, and his final score was going to reach a staggering, unprecedented figure.
For anyone else trailing behind, overtaking him would be harder than reaching up and plucking the stars from the sky.
“Principal!
Someone from City Hall just arrived,” a staff member called out, breathlessly interrupting the heavy mood.
“The Mayor has issued a formal order.
He’s summoning you immediately.”
Meinhard Janek’s face twitched.
He didn’t even need to ask why; it was undeniably about Reed Newt again.
City Hall Reception Area.
Having received the direct summons, Meinhard Janek didn’t dare waste a single second.
He hurried into the grand reception hall, bowing his head respectfully the moment he entered.
“Greetings, Mayor.”
He cast a heavy, unreadable glance at the academy principal, his aura suffocatingly composed.
“I assume you know why my office summoned you,” Wisław said coolly.
Meinhard Janek wiped a bead of cold sweat from his forehead and gave a tense nod.
“Then explain this,” Wisław snorted, gesturing coldly toward a massive stone pillar lining the hall.
Etched into the stone was the live, enchanted feed displaying the current Valley View Academy standings.
Sitting proudly in first place was Reed Newt, his score surging to a mind-boggling 3,120 points.
In second place, the runner-up lagged far behind with a pitiful 910 points.
The gap was no longer a competition; it was an insult.
Wisław had watched the numerical surge himself, initially suspecting a catastrophic array glitch in the tracking system.
“This…
well, the truth is…” Meinhard Janek stammered, shrinking his neck as he desperately tried to phrase his explanation without sounding insane.
“Are you going to tell me he used explosives to blast his way through again?” Wisław interrupted, rolling his eyes in sheer annoyance.
Meinhard Janek froze, then shook his head with utter gravity.
“No, sir.
It wasn’t gunpowder this time…
He deployed heavy cannons.”
The moment the words left his mouth, the atmosphere in the hall plummeted.
A suffocating pressure exploded from Wisław Zackery as his terrifying Rank-9 Island Holder aura flared.
The temperature in the reception hall dropped to sub-zero, frost creeping along the polished stone floor.
“Cannon?” Wisław’s face hardened, eyes sharp as jagged ice.
“The Endless Sea strictly prohibits the introduction of manufactured technology.
Are you trying to convince me he built an entire artillery battery from scratch inside the trial ground?”
The last time the standings glitched, Wisław had genuinely believed a once-in-a-generation prodigy had emerged from Valley View Academy, prompting him to extend an official invitation, only for the whole affair to turn into a ridiculous misunderstanding.
And now, Meinhard Janek had the audacity to offer another absurd excuse about heavy military cannons.
“Do you honestly believe I know nothing of technology?” Wisław stared down at Meinhard Janek, his tone dripping with cold disappointment.
“The Endless Sea suppresses technological constructs from entering.
Without refined iron or proper forge infrastructure, how could anyone possibly build a cannon?”