Ji Xinghuo was curious, "Is the director really that impressive?"
"Definitely!" Lu Yunhai said with admiration on his face, "Our director is a Ranger just like you, but he's a Super Mutant. There are countless people who want to learn archery from him, many of them are Mutants, and just one lesson costs tens of thousands of Ya Yuan. As soon as the schedule is released, it's fully booked."
Super Mutants, no matter what job they do, earn an exorbitant income.
According to the public data from the Star Realm Department, the number of Super Mutants in the Asia-Pacific Community surpassed 150,000 last year, while the total population was 5.6 billion. The incredibly low ratio of Super Mutants highlights their rarity and value.
Any Super Mutant could earn money without difficulty.
Lu Yunhai quickly registered Ji Xinghuo as a member, and said, "The types of bows, courses, and prices are different. Which one do you want to learn? Traditional Bow, Light Bow, or Composite Bow?"
Ji Xinghuo didn't hesitate with his answer, not even asking about the difference in price.
Lu Yunhai was not surprised and nodded.
This was the choice of most Rangers for a simple reason: the Composite Bow had the greatest power, fastest speed, and highest precision.
Although Traditional Bows and Light Bows have some advantages, and Composite Bows also have their drawbacks, they're hard-pressed to close the significant gap in power.
In fact, there's also the Competitive Recurve Bow, but it has too many components, making it inconvenient to carry, troublesome to maintain, and too intricate and cumbersome to be practical in combat, which means almost no Rangers choose it. It's typically only used by enthusiasts in sports competitions and is very niche.
The Light Bow is essentially a Competitive Recurve Bow stripped of most of its components.
Some Traditional Bows also fall into the category of Recurve Bows.
"The Primary Rank course for Composite Bows consists of twenty lessons, one lesson per day, and the total cost is 6,000 Ya Yuan," Lu Yunhai informed, lowering his voice, "I'll give you a 70% discount."
"Okay, thank you." Ji Xinghuo replied.
Ji Xinghuo knew that if the archery hall had a promotional event, they couldn't possibly reduce the price to 30%, otherwise, they would have gone bankrupt by now. It must be that Lu Yunhai subsidized some of the cost himself.
He mentally noted this favor.
"Why be so formal between us, even saying thank you," Lu Yunhai muttered discontentedly, as he registered Ji Xinghuo for the course, paid the fees, and said, "Let's go, we'll start right now."
This venue's ten-plus floors were all part of the archery hall, each floor providing a spacious shooting range.
The two arrived at the third floor, where most of the shooting positions were already occupied. Some were practicing on their own, while others were taking lessons with a coach.
Lu Yunhai picked a spot and asked, "I'm going to get the bow. Do you want a Hunting Bow or a Precision Bow?"
The Composite Bow was further divided into two types.
The Hunting Bow and the Precision Bow had no differences in structure.
The Hunting Bow was smaller to facilitate movement in complex outdoor environments like forests and tunnels, resulting in a higher draw weight and hence greater power; whereas the Precision Bow, having lower portability requirements, was more suited for use in open spaces. It was bigger, designed to shoot at longer targets, and had a slightly reduced draw weight to improve accuracy.
Of course, most of the techniques for both types of Composite Bows were the same, and the market also offered many hybrid models catering to both uses.
Ji Xinghuo was familiar with these basic archery concepts.
"I want a Hunting Bow." Ji Xinghuo responded.
Lu Yunhai then asked, "What about the draw weight?"
"70 kilograms," Ji Xinghuo estimated before replying.
The draw weight indicates how much force is needed to pull a bow; the higher the draw weight, the greater the power. However, more than a century ago, the unit for draw weight was changed to "kilograms," which was more familiar to most people.
70 kilograms is roughly equivalent to 155 pounds in the old measure.
"Damn!" Lu Yunhai cursed enviously.
This draw weight for a Compound Hunting Bow would take an ordinary person several years of practice to be able to pull, and they would also have to be very strong. Yet Ji Xinghuo, a beginner, was starting off with such a high draw weight bow for practice.
Even after years of practicing archery himself, Lu Yunhai normally only used a bow with a 60-kilogram draw weight.
"Mutants have all the luck," Lu Yunhai swore, used to dealing with Mutants regularly in the archery hall. He quickly fetched a Composite Bow, "I'll adjust the parameters first."
To perform optimally, a bow must match the archer's physique.
The first adjustment was for the draw length.
Ji Xinghuo was 1.8 meters tall, but his arm span was 198 centimeters. Using the formula, his draw length was calculated to be 79 centimeters—the most comfortable posture when fully pulling a bow, and the perfect position for exerting force, measured as the distance between the hand holding the bow and the hand hooking the string.
After adjusting the draw weight and aiming parameters, Lu Yunhai handed the bow to Ji Xinghuo, "Try it out, see if it suits you."
This Compound Hunting Bow had an axle-to-axle length of 85 centimeters, an aluminum alloy grip with the common hollowed-out structure, and limbs made of carbon fiber composite material. The entire bow felt light in hand, weighing less than 3 kilograms; it felt barely noticeable in his grip given his strength.
Although the bows used by Rangers omit many accessories,
Still, this Composite Bow retained a sight, which was a five-pin sight, and it also had a drop-away arrow rest, dampers, a string stopper, and a string separator.
These were small and durable components that significantly aided in shooting.
"When you were a junior, you attended activities at the archery club, remember the basic archery movements?" Lu Yunhai asked.
"Of course," Ji Xinghuo nodded.
Lu Yunhai gestured towards the target opposite them, "Shoot an arrow and let me see."
Ji Xinghuo stood sideways facing the target, picked up a training arrow and notched it onto the bow. He didn't use a release aid; instead, the arrow rested on the arrow rest on the right side of the bow grip. Furthermore, he used the Mongolian Shooting Technique, hooking the bowstring with his thumb, securing it with his index finger, and aiming at the target thirty meters away.