With hawk eye and time difference activated, the world practically stopped. Qiu Ye was able to assess her situation. She didn't recognise the person who tried to deck her but she saw the senior that attacked her this morning behind her. Seems like he brought his goons to attack Qiu Ye. They had her surrounded but she wasn't worried, Qiu Ye could tell they weren't that strong and were simply attacking with numbers.

A huge crowd gathered around her, it seems like this was a planned attack against her. Qiu Ye knew she couldn't just let them off again since they would only come after her again if she went easy on them. And the situation was good to practice Hawk Eye since she had to pay attention to more things at once.

Duels were allowed around the school since it was good training, as long as students kill each other it was fine. Qiu Ye wanted to avoid trouble but now that they found their way to her she was going to take advantage of the situation.

With a heavy stomp, Qiu Ye spread a thick layer of ice across the floor. But it seems like they were prepared for this situation since it was quickly melted by a fighter's fire jet. Qiu Ye nimbly dodged all the attacks thrown at her as she said.

"Your ambush already failed, if you want to fight properly can we take this at the gym?"

Thankfully with Eternal Pulse Sutra running, she was able to keep Hawk Eye and Time difference on for a long time. Seems like they didn't want to give up any advantage they got so they continued to throw attacks at her left and right, with none of them landing. Qiu Ye shrugged and continued to dodge around, any chance she could get to become more proficient at evasion was good.

Qiu Ye ducked and swerved left as a kick swung over her head and a blast of fire went by. At this point there was so much friendly fire that half of the guys were already out of commission. At this point, Qiu Ye was just standing in place with her body bending around attacks. Her small frame helped fit between dicey attacks and it made the attackers really mad.

A lot of the gathered crowd had left because the fight was getting boring. Qiu Ye felt like she wouldn't progress much at this point since the attackers were too weak so she started fighting back as well. With a single punch to the sternum, she encased all the fighters in ice and crushed their limbs under her shoes. The ice made them much more brittle than normal, she stepped on their knees and shoulders, completely pulverising the bone.

She crouched down by the senior that attacked her that morning and thawed out the ice. With one foot on his hand, she held him up by the collar.

"Listen. If you don't want to be permanently crippled, leave me alone. You understand?"

He didn't say anything and simply spat blood at her face, she skilfully dodged, froze his hand and crushed it in one swift motion. The senior let out a bloodcurdling cry as his hand's bones were turned to tiny pieces. She shifted her foot up to his and slammed his back into the floor. The combined force of her strength and his weight created cracked webs in the ground.

"Just stay out of my way you hear me?"

The senior was writhing in pain, the ice was slowing his healing factor. He grit his teeth and nodded. Qiu Ye lifted her foot, dusted herself off and walked off to her dorm room. The crowd parted and let her through. Winter spoke when Qiu Ye entered her room.

"Do you think they'll come back for revenge?"

"Probably. I'm fine with fighting people as long as they're interesting, long as I don't kill them I can't get expelled or anything."

"This is going to get annoying isn't it?"

"Maybe I could let you fight the slower ones to spice things up."

"I'll leave the fighting to you. I can be brain and you be the brawn."

"But I'm already both brain and brawn."

"Are you calling me stupid?"

"Um… No? I just know more."

"Yeah yeah sure sure I'll prove you wrong."

After changing, Qiu Ye pulled out a tablet from the wall. She swiped her ID card on the side and logged onto the internet. She then opened up an app called Battleground. It asked her to login and configure some settings. Wanting to keep herself anonymous, she made her username: Artemis. She also turned on the setting that blurred her face and hid her identity.

"Why Artemis?"

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"Well she's the god of hunting right? And I'm hunting for experience and skills. Plus she uses a bow and I thought it would be appropriate."

"I guess that makes sense."

Qiu Ye placed the tablet on the floor and a holographic fighting ring appeared from the screen. She selected the Baron level server and waited for an opponent to be selected. Even though Qiu Ye wasn't even a noble fighter, she could probably hold her own against a knight fighter. Against a Baron she might last about a few seconds, but she knows she grows much faster under pressure. Of course an actual fight with her life at stake would be better but this was the best alternative.

After a few more seconds, she matched up with someone named Huang Ling. Qiu Ye saw the other woman pick up a knife to use so she imitated her and also chose a knife. Huang Ling's manifested body walked to the opposite corner of the ring and prepared a stance. Qiu Ye flipped the knife into a reverse grip and crouched low. After a short exchange of nods, the two swung at each other.

Qiu Ye's knife style was more catered to stealth so it was more about quick strikes at vital points. When Huang Ling attacked, it was almost like the short blade extended. Even though Qiu Ye thought she dodged, her health bar continued to drop. Within less than a minute, Qiu Ye was already eliminated. She immediately sent a request for a rematch.

Huang Ling just wanted to wind down with a few breezy duels but she didn't expect to have a fight finish so quickly. Though she couldn't see the other person's face she could tell they were somewhat combat trained. Right after she defeated her, she got an invite for a rematch. Fighters often get butt hurt on Battleground so she just accepted it to make it clear they had no chance in defeating her. This time however, Artemis lasted a bit longer. Huang Ling still defeated her easily but then got another request.

After about half an hour, Artemis had lost over a couple dozen times. Yet each time she lasted longer and longer. Huang Ling wasn't sure if it was stubbornness or stupidity but she was entertained. Artemis was undoubtedly weak, but her style was interesting. Huang Ling could tell Artemis was trained in other weaponry and simply knew the basic with knives and a few minor tricks and skills. It was almost like she was baiting Huang Ling to take swings at Artemis in full view.

At a dozen rematches, Artemis was even starting to block a few of Huang Ling's strikes which was already quite impressive. Huang Ling was the head of the Bulldogs, a human military branch located on Terra Arbor - a subsidiary planet from earth. Her knife style was named the Canines of the Bulldogs, her enemies knew her as the Rabid Bitch of the Bulldogs due to her aggressively offensive fighting style.

Not only was Artemis now dodging most of Huang Ling's attacks, she was even attacking back. What kept Huang Ling interested wasn't just Artemis' tenacity, many of the recruits had that sort of fire. It was more so Artemis' mind bending growth, if Huang Ling was told the Artemis she was now fighting had been defeated within seconds before she would have thought she was lied to. But even that was just the tip of the iceberg. What truly interested Huang Ling was the fact that within Artemis' attacks, she saw her knife style. It was slightly modified but she could definitely tell a large part of it was familiar. A skill which took her years to learn and master was being stolen within an hour.

After a few more rematches, Qiu Ye started gaining the upper hand. The knife style resembled sharp fangs which pierced and tore flesh effectively. It was a far more aggressive style than what Qiu Ye was used to but she managed to somewhat mould it into something she liked. Once Qiu Ye managed to consistently beat Huang Ling, she closed Battleground and practised the new knife style. Knives were an important side arm especially since bows aren't great with close combat. An aggressive knife style was great and now Qiu Ye looked for something which focused on defence and parrying.

Fighting Artemis was an eye opener for Huang Ling, having someone mimic her knife style allowed her to see many flaws of the skill and she herself was able to improve. She didn't feel angry that she was starting to lose, but instead felt immense respect towards Artemis. With the fights recorded, Huang Ling watched the video over and over again. Each time she was able to find something new to try within Artemis' moves. She had tried to request a rematch but Artemis had left.

For the rest of the week Winter attended classes and Qiu Ye trained in archery. In the afternoon she practised Hawk Eye, Eternal Pulse Sutra and played Battle ground. She picked up new skills like grappling, kicks, punches and other close combat fighting styles. Though they weren't as good as Huang Ling, they were still useful when combined. As Qiu Ye stole and consumed more and more skills, she created a very flexible combat style which became more and more unpredictable. Hawk Eye had reached a bottle neck and needed proper combat before evolving and Qiu Ye was about half way through the second tier of Eternal Pulse Sutra.

It was now the start of the alternate week, Qiu Ye stood at the warp gate waiting in line with her ID card. She had brought a simple compound bow, a quiver with steel arrows at her hip and a few daggers at her other side. She stepped through the warp gate and appeared in a small town. Looking up, she saw flags with a logo of large bronze wings. Winter was ecstatic to finally see the shelters in the in-between she had heard in classes.

Hundreds of years ago, Humans discovered large invisible cracks in space which lead to another world. With the development of warp gates, humans had a reliable way of entering the world on the other side of the fractures, which they named the in-between. The first parties were special forces of the government, and even with all the gear they prepared, they were immediately slaughtered. Due to the different magnetic field of the in-between, technology was rendered useless and only physical strength could be used to fight against the beasts of the in-between.

As time passed, people trained their bodies to evolve and found old manuals to strengthen themselves. Shelters were built in the in-between as people hunted beasts. With the materials and beast souls found in the in-between, technology on earth progressed. And now days, once people became 15 they could get a license to hunt in the in-between.

"Wow, so this is the Copper Angel Shelter. It's just as impressive as I imagined."

"Oh this? This is nothing, wait until you see the shelters in the higher floors."

"Shut up and let me enjoy this, it's my first time in the in-between."

Qiu Ye smiled and put on a cloak and left the gates of the shelter.