Chapter 49 - 42: This Inner Power Seems a Bit Unorthodox

’As long as this master keeps uploading videos, I’ll have a chance to contact him eventually. There’s no rush.’

...

After lunch, he went upstairs and took a 90-minute nap.

In the afternoon, he went to the park again.

This time, however, he didn’t rush to exercise and grind his Attributes. Instead, he set up his tripods to film a video.

He found a good tree trunk to use as a target, put on his Face Armor, and threw a few practice Darts for the camera with a SWISH SWISH.

After his Stone Skimming video on the "Brother of Special Skills" account got mercilessly mocked by netizens, Chen Jue had been planning to redeem himself.

’If Stone Skimming wasn’t impressive enough, then Master Level Darts should be able to grab some attention, right?’

To up the difficulty, Chen Jue even deliberately increased the distance, only throwing the Darts from about 20 meters away.

He spent over an hour practicing with all the different styles of Darts he had bought.

After collecting all the footage, Chen Jue sat down and edited it on the spot with his phone, added a classic wuxia-style BGM, and uploaded it with the title [Special Skill: Darts].

Why the extra spaces to lengthen the title?

It was a mandatory trick for any meme-loving content creator, and it fit perfectly with the extreme distance of Chen Jue’s dart throws.

He had tried the same fancy trick with his [Stone Skimming] video, but unfortunately, the world record holder had stolen his thunder.

...

After uploading the video, Chen Jue saw that it was still early, so he continued practicing the Tai Chi Twelve Forms by the lake.

Since this Skill had already reached (Perfection), practicing it further wouldn’t increase its Skill Level.

However, Tai Chi was considered aerobic exercise, so he could still gain attribute points by practicing it more.

After half an afternoon, Chen Jue had managed to grind out a total of 0.02 free attribute points.

After a moment’s thought, he put them directly into [Constitution].

His Constitution Attribute rose to 1.05.

After increasing his Constitution Attribute, Chen Jue discovered that his stamina had improved by a huge margin!

In the past, just sitting in front of a computer at work for a few hours would make him drowsy.

Now, even with waking up early and training every day, he didn’t feel tired.

Even if he trained too hard and his muscles became sore and fatigued, one or two nights of rest was usually enough to recover. It was all thanks to getting his [Constitution] Attribute above 1 point first.

’I wonder if grinding my Constitution to 2 or 3 will get rid of all these little health problems of mine.’ As he felt a comfortable warmth spread through his body, Chen Jue pondered this while slinging his backpack over his shoulder and heading back to the talent apartment.

...

He didn’t train with the hand gripper that evening.

The muscle groups in his hands hadn’t fully recovered yet. Chen Jue estimated he’d need another night’s rest to completely metabolize the accumulated lactic acid.

According to the fitness coach, Li Chaoyun, the muscles in the arms are small muscle groups and recover faster than the larger ones.

However, an ordinary person training like Chen Jue would need at least five days, or even a week, to recover.

The reason Chen Jue recovered so quickly was entirely due to the support of his Attribute panel.

Of course, even though he didn’t train that night, Chen Jue didn’t stay idle.

He had recently become enthusiastic about sports and exercise to improve his physical condition. In his free time, Chen Jue went online to research the human body, sports, and fitness, educating himself to avoid training improperly and getting injured.

As for Wu Fang, Chen Jue sent her a message, saying he was very grateful for Elder Wu’s guidance and had benefited greatly from their meeting that morning.

He wasn’t sure if it was because the buzz from the weekend’s dog rescue news had died down, or if the netizens had just moved on.

Wu Fang was actually online, a rare sight, and replied, "As long as it helped you (grin). My grandpa said your Darts are really amazing, you could even enter competitions!"

"Not at all, it’s just a little something I taught myself (innocent face)."

Seeing the beautiful and kind-hearted teacher reply instantly, Chen Jue started chatting with her.

...

Time always flies when you’re chatting with a pretty girl.

When 10 o’clock arrived, the other end of the WeChat conversation went silent.

Chen Jue had no choice but to put down his phone, turn off the lights, and close his eyes, planning to get to sleep early.

But after he closed his eyes, his mind was filled with the image of that pair of giant, seemingly inflated hands. The impression from the daytime had clearly been too profound, and his brain was still in an excited state.

He tossed and turned, finally managing to fall asleep close to 11 o’clock.

The next morning, he overslept a little. It was almost 7 o’clock when he went up to the rooftop to do his [Eye Health Exercises].

These daily 30 minutes of closed-eye sun exposure and eye care had gradually become a habit for Chen Jue.

People who’ve never been nearsighted probably can’t understand the discomfort and inconvenience of wearing glasses.

The first thing he’d do after waking up was grope for his glasses. If he forgot where he put them, he’d have to squint and search everywhere, because anything a few meters away was a complete blur, as if a mosaic filter had been pasted over his eyes.

Now that he had a method to improve and restore his vision, Chen Jue was naturally practicing it intensely.

Fortunately, after a few days of practice, the effects were remarkable. Not only was his vision becoming clearer, but Chen Jue had also grinded the [Eye Health Exercises] Skill to the point of leveling up again.

——————

[DING~]

[Current Proficiency has reached 100%. Skill Level is increasing.]

[Eye Health Exercises Lv1 (200/200) → Lv2 (1/500)]

[After a period of exploration, you have gained some insight into eye care massage. You are now familiar with the blood vessels, meridians, and neuro-muscular points around your eye sockets. The pressure of your massage has improved, accelerating the blood flow in your eyeballs. The metabolic rate of your photoreceptor cells has become more vigorous, and your massage technique and its therapeutic effects have been slightly enhanced.]

——————

A wave of unfamiliar muscle memory washed over him, and Chen Jue felt his hands become a little more nimble.

When he raised his hands again to press the acupressure points near his eye sockets, he could find them perfectly in one go. It was no longer like before, when he had to watch tutorial videos and fumble around to find the right spots.

"It’s truly magical!"

"Like inputting a fixed program of code right into my muscles!"

Chen Jue tested the effects of the upgrade a few times. Marveling inwardly, he went downstairs to get his things ready.

Because today was Monday, his first day reporting for work at Hengtong Group.

Although it wasn’t far—only about a 20-minute drive—he still needed to prepare early.

He grabbed a large bag and packed a business suit. It was standard attire for a financial firm; any large company with a dress code required it.

However, Chen Jue planned to change at his desk since it was still early anyway.

Even though he now had the panel and could get rewards by diligently grinding Skills, Chen Jue had no intention of quitting his job and "lying flat" back in his hometown until he had earned enough money with these special skills to make a stable living.

After all, he worked in risk control and knew there were too many uncertainties involved in quitting a job without another one lined up.

...

He packed a pair of leather shoes into his bag, stuffed a hand gripper in his pocket, and went downstairs dressed in his sportswear.

He didn’t go to the park for his morning workout because there wasn’t enough time.

He drove to the building where Hengtong Group was located. Due to hitting rush hour traffic, it was already past 8:40 by the time he arrived and parked.

Chen Jue saw swarms of office workers and white-collar professionals rushing into the several large office buildings nearby.

The Hengtong Group building was no exception; it was teeming with people and cars.

But Chen Jue wasn’t in a hurry. He was approaching this new job with the simple intention of slacking off.

Why else would he have a hand gripper stuffed in his pocket?

’Secretly grinding Attributes while collecting a high salary... I’m a bona fide master of time management!’

But as soon as he clocked in on DingTalk and walked to the elevators, Chen Jue was dumbfounded.

There were way too many employees in this new building. All eight elevator banks were packed solid.

Even the fire escape corridor around the corner was full of people, all scrambling for the freight elevator, terrified of being late for work.

Seeing this, Chen Jue’s mind raced, and his gaze fell upon the empty stairwell. ’It’s only 17 floors. Shouldn’t be too hard, right?’

Spurred by the thought, Chen Jue, who was already becoming a man of action, started up the stairs.

Unexpectedly, he had barely climbed half a flight of stairs, not even reaching the landing, when a notification popped up on his panel:

——————

[DING~]

[A series of qualifying physical actions has been completed.]

[Climbing Skill Proficiency +1]