"Army." Qin Fen finally stopped eating.

"High," Inzarota gave a thumbs-up.

Song Jia paused slightly, then understood and smiled, realizing that even this Qin Fen had a slippery side, choosing a branch of service rarely utilized in modern warfare.

If a war truly broke out and the Army was deployed, Qin Fen would likely be long past retirement age and certainly wouldn't still be in the military.

"Then you'll need to dedicate more time to training," Lin Liqiang sat up straight and delivered the reminder very seriously.

"I will."

Qin Fen nodded. Although modern warfare belonged to the age of guns, cannons, and even warships, the importance of martial arts had not diminished in the slightest. On the contrary, because large-scale wars were relatively difficult to initiate, with conflicts mostly limited to localized skirmishes, the significance of martial arts became even more pronounced.

The massive exchange of fire between warships signaled the true arrival of war. But the preceding minor frictions involved the Army engaging enemy ground forces with firearms.

A soldier skilled in martial arts possessed superior reaction speed and mobility, allowing for varied combat styles when wielding firearms.

A soldier trained in the military who also knew martial arts, armed with a rifle, could single-handedly take down a squad of soldiers who only had military training but no knowledge of martial arts. After all, the difference in movement speed, judgment, and reaction time between the two was vast, often resulting in a huge disparity in stamina and strength as well.

Ordinary soldiers could use rifles, or light, man-portable anti-tank rocket launchers. However, some of the heavier, more powerful man-portable rocket systems were beyond the capability of a common soldier to carry and use easily.

Those equipped with such devastating power, like heavy man-portable rocket launchers, could only be wielded by martial artists possessing considerable inherent strength.

For this very reason, all soldiers were required to cultivate martial arts. The establishment of the Sky Martial Arts Battle Network and the free public release of martial arts techniques was implemented to prevent recruits from falling behind in combat effectiveness by starting their cultivation only after joining the military.

Of course, besides localized skirmishes, the Army also engaged in special operations training, adopting combat roles such as infiltrating behind enemy lines for decapitation strikes, conducting anti-insurgency missions, and undertaking exploration tasks on newly discovered planets.

The modern Army was somewhat of a double-edged sword, yet it remained an indispensable branch. Whether for small frictions, assassination missions, or ground occupation duties in the later stages of a war, the Army could not be dismissed.

The four of them were young, and Qin Fen had just awakened from a deep sleep, feeling quite energetic. Their conversation drifted late into the night.

Remembering that classes were scheduled for the next day, after receiving Lin Liqiang's detailed explanation for the necessary leave to avoid later discrepancies, the four left the McDonald's, long deserted of customers, and headed home to rest.

Having slept continuously for days, Qin Fen found himself in an agitated state, unable to sleep soundly after waking.

Returning to his room, recalling that he had spent an entire week in slumber without earning any money through odd jobs, and having splurged on a large meal today, Qin Fen decided to log onto the Sky Martial Arts Battle Network. He planned to watch a few matches and draft an article immediately to earn some money, lest his newspaper column slot be snatched away.

He donned his helmet, entered his ID, and accessed the Sky Martial Arts Battle Network.

Free Zone Eleven, Arena Number Eleven.

As soon as he went online, nearly a hundred challenge letters popped up in his inbox. Qin Fen was stunned for a moment, then quickly scanned the messages. About a third of the challenges came from RuZhenQinLin, and the rest were from people he didn't recognize at all.

After a brief moment of surprise, Qin Fen immediately understood the source of these challenges—it must have been because of that video clip from the forum last time.

In the globally unified Sky Martial Arts Battle Network, receiving a hundred challenge letters wasn't unusual; truly famous masters often received thousands or more daily. Still, Qin Fen felt a small surge of satisfaction.

Having fought only two matches, receiving nearly a hundred challenges was no small feat.

"Thirty-six hours!" In the communication channel, RuZhenQinLin's furious roar came through, "You finally showed up! I thought you were afraid to get online! Fight me again!"

"You can't beat me," Qin Fen stated calmly. "I'm Three-Star now."

"Three-Star?" RuZhenQinLin's voice sounded highly surprised. After a pause, he spoke again, "Then suppress your combat power, fight me with Two-Star strength. I'll turn on the anti-cheat system; the moment your strength hits Three-Star, it counts as your loss."

"You still can't beat me," Qin Fen replied, his voice filled with confidence. After the rigorous training from the Light Being, he was sure that if he hadn't broken through to Three-Star, he would have secured a spot among the top thirty Two-Star masters.

"..." RuZhenQinLin fell silent. He had spent the past few days having others seriously analyze the recording of their previous match. The conclusion, just as Qin Fen suggested, was that another fight would just be a waste of time.

"I know," RuZhenQinLin's voice sounded deflated. He continued, "That's why I found someone to fight you instead. If you can beat him, I'll give you one hundred US dollars!"

"I'll fight," Qin Fen agreed without hesitation. His purpose for logging in was to make money, so why turn down an easy hundred dollars?

"Go to the center of the arena first," RuZhenQinLin instructed. "The person I called will be here soon."

A few minutes later, the helper RuZhenQinLin found appeared.

ID: ZaiZhanJiangHu (To Fight in the Martial World Again). New Martial Art: Two Poles Thundering Sword. Record: 2,642 wins, 49 losses, 15 draws.

An astonishing win rate! Qin Fen raised an eyebrow. More surprising than the phenomenal record was his opponent's New Martial Art.

Two Poles Thundering Sword was not a free technique publicly disseminated by the state. It was a martial art that required real money to purchase starting from the first level.

Qin Fen knew a bit about this technique; it was considered a very powerful New Martial Art, but it required significant financial investment from the practitioner. He simply didn't know the exact procedure for cultivating a New Martial Art.

First, those two Thundering Swords were not ordinary blades; they were magnetically driven swords crafted with high technology that allowed them to fly via remote sensing!

The user had to undergo a special surgery to implant the remote sensing device for the flying swords inside their body, followed by a relatively brief period of practice to preliminarily master the martial art.

The most distinct feature of the Two Poles Thundering Sword was the ability to manipulate the two Thundering Swords to fly and attack in the air, much like the sword-flying immortals in Xianxia novels. Furthermore, upon reaching a certain level, the swords could even carry the cultivator through the air.

Incredibly swift, attack trajectories impossible to discern—striking enemies from a kilometer away—this was the paramount characteristic of the Two Poles Thundering Sword.

ps: Well, one chapter of only two thousand characters is unsatisfying for me, and I suspect readers feel the same. We will stick to releasing two chapters at a time. Although posting updates twice in one day to solicit recommendation votes isn't as effective as posting separately across two days, Gao Lou still feels this method is fairer, offering a more satisfying experience for the readers.

Recommendation votes, everyone! Come get them! Come get them! Come get them. New Book Chart—this is important!