Jiankang City, a huge technological metropolis. Even though Cheng Jinyang has lived here for more than ten years, it is still difficult to grasp its full picture.
At 5 o'clock in the afternoon, following Xing Yuanzhi, he took the subway line 2, got off at "Xinjiekou" station, and turned left and right in the bustling underground commercial street. Cheng Jinyang couldn't help but ask, "A'zhi, why do you still wear a veil when it's underground?"
"Because the underground tunnels are not ventilated, there is more floating dust in the air, and the veil can block it a bit," Xing Yuanzhi said indifferently, "And if you dare to mention 'A'zhi' again, I will kick you directly onto the subway tracks."
After passing through various bustling shops, the two found a shop at the secluded end of the underground street with a sign that read "Real Person Shooting Simulation". The shop was deserted, with no light inside, looking somewhat eerie. A robot stood at the door, also of the oldest type, constantly repeating the phrase "Welcome".
"I reserved a shooting range this morning, and the fee is deducted from my account." Xing Yuanzhi approached the robot, pulling out her ID card from her pocket with white silk gloves on her hands.
"Welcome, Miss Xing, good evening," the robot glanced at the ID card and mechanically spit out a ticket.
Xing Yuanzhi took the ticket and signaled Cheng Jinyang to follow.
Passing through a dark corridor at the entrance, they found the reserved shooting range, and the room was brightly lit.
Various types of firearms and ammunition were placed on the shooting platform, and in the distance were four 25-meter shooting lanes.
Xing Yuanzhi pushed the firearms aside and then took out a bullet, saying, "Didn't you study the 'Gravity Control' algorithm this afternoon? Now use your gravitational manipulation to hit the target with this bullet."
She adjusted the moving target to a distance of about 10 meters, indicating for Cheng Jinyang to use his abilities.
"Um, how do I use it?" Cheng Jinyang asked, holding the brass bullet.
"According to the formula, you can activate the ability," said Xing Yuanzhi, "The gravitational supernaturals of your Cheng family essentially adjusts the direction of the gravitational vector. There are three formulas in the Iron Shooting Algorithm. You use the first formula to lock the bullet, the second formula to reconstruct the direction of the gravitational vector, the third formula to adjust the vector direction, and then aim at the target in front."
Cheng Jinyang followed suit as instructed. After about 5 minutes, he indeed felt the gravity of the bullet he was holding change, feeling as if it was about to fly out on its own.
A strange sense of 'thinking and it happens' emerged, as if reality would change accordingly as long as he had a thought.
Was this what they called an ability?
He carefully let go of his hand, watching the bullet accelerate and fly out on its own, hitting the target and making a crisp sound upon impact.
"Very good, it seems there's no issue with your bloodline," Xing Yuanzhi said calmly, "At the Ninth Rank stage, you need to train your three abilities."
She raised three fingers: "Positioning range, ability precision, and duration."
"Positioning range refers to the maximum range of your ability to locate, beyond which you cannot lock onto a mass source; precision refers to the precision of manipulating the direction of the gravitational vector, determining whether you can accurately hit a designated target further away without deviation or error; and duration refers to how long your ability can linger on an object."
"Wait a minute," Cheng Jinyang asked strangely, "Why isn't 'power' one of the three elements? Speaking of which, isn't the standard for measuring a supernatural's abilities determined by how much destructive power their abilities possess?"
"Hmm," Xing Yuanzhi neither confirmed nor denied it, "So what do you think determines the destructive power of your ability?"
"Um... kinetic energy?"
"Correct, kinetic energy," Xing Yuanzhi nodded, "In our Mass Effect, and your gravitational force, military applications mainly amplify the kinetic energy of flying objects to cause damage, such as bullets and shells. And the kinetic energy of an object depends on the mass and velocity of the object."
"The heavier and faster an object is, the greater the damage it can inflict. Since your ability is to adjust the direction of the gravitational vector, fundamentally unable to increase the magnitude of gravity, you usually can only lengthen the acceleration distance."
"Imagine a vase falling from the second floor, you can usually catch it; if it falls from the twentieth floor, attempting to catch it with your hands would likely result in broken bones."
"In other words: the longer the distance, the longer the acceleration by gravity, the greater the kinetic energy possessed by the object itself, and therefore the greater the damage."
"I understand," Cheng Jinyang nodded, "So if I want to use gravity to manipulate objects to hit someone, I need to maximize the distance, leaving enough acceleration distance for the object, and maximize its kinetic energy."
"Exactly," Xing Yuanzhi replied, "If the distance is too far, whether you can successfully hit the enemy will test your accuracy and duration of your ability."
"If the accuracy is insufficient, the object you manipulate may lose its accuracy after flying a long distance and miss the target; if the duration is not enough, the object may disappear halfway through, falling down, then there is no need to talk about the issue of destructive power at all."
"As for the range positioning, beginners tend to rely on physical touch to locate targets. I suggest that once you become proficient, you should refrain from physically touching the target and instead establish a coordinate system centered around yourself in your mind, manipulating designated objects in the distance through calculation. This way, using your abilities will become more flexible."
"I see." Cheng Jinyang pondered for a moment. "On another note, if we want to increase the kinetic energy of an object, could I make you... make you increase the mass of the object, and then I manipulate it to fly out and hit someone?"
"Yes, if solely relying on the gravitational force from your Cheng family, you'd have to select heavier objects. But if we combine it with the mass effect from our Xing family, increasing the mass of any object will rapidly increase its kinetic energy."
Xing Yuanzhi nodded, then added, "That's also why our Cheng and Xing families have been allied for generations, with the saying 'birds of a feather flock together'... After all, the synergy between our families' ability users leads to remarkable qualitative changes. By the way, if you dare to utter 'Ah Zhi' again, I'll immediately pick up a gun and shoot you dead."
Of course, this was just a joke, considering his special constitution, Xing Yuanzhi wouldn't even bear to harm him, even if she were to shoot herself.
But seeing her frosty expression, Cheng Jinyang could only silently refrain, wondering what he should call her if not "Ah Zhi".
Miss Xing? Lady Xing? It all feels a bit awkward. Yuanzhi? Hmm, how do you pronounce "Yuan"? I recall she initially introduced herself as "yuan...".
[T/N: He is thinking about the characters of the chinese name.]
Scratching his head, Cheng Jinyang continued to attempt to activate his ability, trying to firmly memorize the three basic formulas.
As he enthusiastically activated his abilities, Xing Yuanzhi stood by, arms crossed, silently observing this guy's capabilities.
The precision of manipulation is quite outstanding. Being able to achieve this level on the first try is like someone hitting a bullseye at 100 meters right after picking up a gun for the first time. Needless to say, he's gifted.
The duration is unclear, but evidently not short, as the bullets reversing gravity have been pinned to the target for quite some time.
As for the positioning range... well, he hasn't established a coordinate system yet.
But judging from the first two points, this guy's overall computational power is definitely not weak. Coupled with his constitution that enhances bloodline strength, if he undergoes further brain domain development...
Xing Yuanzhi suddenly shivered.
In this way, perhaps, there's a chance to reach the peak of the fifth rank?