Stealing Skills

"Why is your condition so poor?"

Nordly frowned and looked at Li Aoz, whose gaze kept wandering. She snapped, "How are you supposed to cooperate with the experiment like this? You need to stay healthy."

"I had some nightmares."

Li Aoz rubbed his temples. What had happened yesterday left him a little anxious.

At the end of the day, he was just an ordinary person. Faced with such an unexpected situation, suspicion and anxiety created mental exhaustion, making it easy for him to overthink.

"Nightmares? Just boring fantasies. Only the weak fear nightmares. Even in their dreams, the strong charge forward and claim victory from the start." Nordly scoffed.

Still, he quickly adjusted his mindset. With a thought, he decided to use the topic to ask Head Nurse Nordly, "I don't think nightmares are the only reason I'm in such bad spirits—repeating these exercises every day is just too boring."

Nordly rolled her eyes, but on second thought, he had a point.

For days, all he had done was physical training after physical training. Meanwhile, the patients in the activity area nearby chatted and laughed, tossing balls back and forth in all kinds of games. Li Aoz could only watch from the side, so it was only natural that he felt dissatisfied.

I still need to pay attention to the patients' mental health.

Thinking back to Li Aoz's half-crazed, half-rational state before he had been contained, Nordly still felt lingering fear.

Li Aoz had seemed utterly harmless, yet when pushed to that point, he had instantly rendered her, a Martial Artist, unable to fight.

Nordly looked at Li Aoz. He appeared harmless to humans and animals alike, and from time to time he glanced toward the patients enjoying themselves in the distance, his eyes filled with envy and longing. After a moment of thought, she nodded.

"So what do you want?"

Nordly asked, "I can't let you join the others in group activities. You're currently under isolation and surveillance."

"I know—then at least add some other kinds of exercise, Head Nurse. Doing drills like this every day is too dull."

"Fine. What do you want to do?"

Li Aoz pretended to think for a moment before saying:

"Teach me how to box. How about it?"

Fighting.

Nordly had wanted to refuse, but before the words left her mouth, she reconsidered.

Teaching him a move or two would not actually pose any danger.

Martial arts required a long period of foundational training and repeated practice anyway. Li Aoz was already over twenty, his bones fully developed, making him unsuitable for martial arts training.

Besides, as long as he did not enter the realm of a Martial Artist, learning fighting techniques was hardly threatening.

Beyond seven steps, guns were fast. Within seven steps, guns were faster and more accurate.

If he really learned fighting and developed muscle memory, then the next time he lost control, he would not think of hiding a blade in his mouth for a sneak attack. Instead, he would take up a fighting stance and try to counterattack.

You want to challenge someone's livelihood with a hobby? I'd be more than happy to welcome that.

With that thought, Nordly immediately made up her mind. She agreed readily, "Fine, but my standards are high. Not everyone can learn martial arts. Since you want to learn, I'll have to give you an assessment. If you fail, you'll go back to physical drills."

Li Aoz was delighted. He immediately rolled up his sleeves.

"Come on, then. I can't wait!"

Seeing how enthusiastic he was about learning martial arts, Nordly sneered inwardly. I was happy when I first started training too. Once we start sparring, he'll know better.

Prompt: Nordly Crowe is teaching you the skill—"Basic Fighting"

This lesson is being voluntarily taught by the other party and requires no experience expenditure

Accept?

"This is exactly what I was waiting for!"

Li Aoz rubbed his hands together. Head Nurse Nordly had no idea that he possessed an NPC Template panel.

In the game Star Abyss, players had to spend large amounts of experience and special resources to learn skills. However, NPCs could teach and learn skills from one another without any cost.

When players went through the storyline in his previous life, they had often seen scenes of "imparting skills face-to-face." People had long since figured out that as long as NPCs were willing, they could teach and learn skills from one another without paying any price at all.

The official explanation was that this prevented the gap between players and NPCs from becoming too large and damaging immersion. Other than giving players something to discuss, though, no one cared much—who would be bored enough to envy NPCs? Of course, if they learned on their own initiative, NPCs were far inferior to players. NPCs had to study, seek teachers everywhere, and worry about going astray whenever they encountered difficulties or things they did not understand.

Players only needed to obtain a book containing the knowledge and patiently wait for the progress bar to finish. Then they would completely master it.

Li Aoz did not have any professional knowledge on hand, so he could not be sure whether he possessed the traits of a player. But the NPC Template was undeniably real, and he was enjoying the benefits of being an NPC.

You learned "Basic Fighting" from Nordly Crowe. Current level: Lv.1

Basic Fighting Lv.1: You now possess a rudimentary understanding of unarmed combat. You will no longer throw punches carelessly or expose your weaknesses.

Images of punching, kicking, shifting, dodging, blocking, and counterattacking flashed through Li Aoz's mind. He lightly swung his fist, and his movements became more natural and forceful.

"Even though I don't plan on wasting experience, this skill is very practical. I should still level it up when I get the chance."

Relying on Gravity Aura alone would still leave the Mutant's attributes trapped in prison. Li Aoz needed to gradually build his own combat style.

"I've already told you the basics." Nordly said, "Next comes practice."

"Practice?"

Li Aoz had not reacted yet.

Bang! With a blank expression, Nordly suddenly threw a punch at him! Whoosh.

The common sense and techniques granted by Basic Fighting fused into his muscle memory. Li Aoz instinctively raised his arm and bent his elbow to protect his face, twisting aside to avoid the blow. Even so, the powerful gust from her fist brushed past him, making his thin body stagger two steps. He nearly fell.

"Hm? Your reactions are pretty good."

Nordly was somewhat surprised. She knew Li Aoz's physical condition well. The fact that he had avoided being hit head-on and even assumed the correct defensive stance showed that he had truly taken in what she taught.

"Not bad. Looks like you've got some skill after all. But if you want to learn to fight, you first need to learn how to take a beating."

Nordly clenched her fist, as large as a sandbag, and pounced at Li Aoz again like a starving tiger! Li Aoz steadied his breathing, and terror appeared on his face.

"Stop! I'm a patient!"

He had already shown himself to be weak, so he had to keep it up. While dodging, he put on a performance fitting Frostplate's male stereotype and cried exaggeratedly, "What are you doing~? Ow, ow, ow~~~"

"How are Li Aoz's latest monitoring results?"

The professor held a tablet, her fingers flying across it as she operated it with smooth ease. Casually, she asked Assistant Physician Anna, "It's been two weeks already. Have you found anything?"

"His platelet count, cellular activity, thyroid-stimulating hormone levels, and brainwave activity are all slightly higher than normal, but still below those of a true superhuman."

Assistant Physician Anna opened the report in her arms and read carefully, "Head Nurse Nordly put him through training at the Frostplate Republic military's standards. Even after blood and bone marrow extraction, he was still able to recover to normal by the next day... But she also said that if this is all there is to it, he has merely reached the level of Sky Ring's super-soldier program. It is far below the standard expected of a Level 5 Infected—even Level 4 is beyond him."

"I see."

The professor placed the tablet on her lap and said calmly:

"It seems Head Nurse Nordly gets along quite well with him. Their relationship is harmonious."

"Harmonious?" Doctor Anna was speechless. "He's practically being trained to death..."

"According to the communication records, Li Aoz mentioned 'ZX-102' on the first day of training. Even so, Nordly managed to restrain her emotions. That alone is already quite surprising."

"That is true..." Anna hesitated. "Kochi once casually mentioned demolishing Room 102, and she broke his arms and legs. Judging from that, Li Aoz's relationship with her really isn't too bad."

"How did the intelligence tests go?"

"Multiple intelligence tests placed him between 117 and 121. He remains within the range of an ordinary person," Anna reported truthfully.

"His intelligence has not undergone any transformation. His physical strength is impressive, but it still has not entered the range of a superhuman. How interesting. Someone who appears to have nothing special about him has experienced so many things—doesn't that make him seem even more suspicious?"

"You mean...?"

"When a soldier comes back alive and kicking after being shot several times, should you reinforce the places where he was hit, or the places where he was not hit?"

Anna froze, then immediately understood. "Survivorship bias!"

"Past research on the Infected has focused on physical bodies and intelligence levels, but it seems we have forgotten that superhumans themselves come in many forms."

"Most of the Level 3 and Level 4 Infected we handled before were limited to physical mutations. Their increased intelligence also came from lesions in the brain—so we subconsciously assumed that all infection-induced abnormalities occurred in the body."

"A mutation on the spiritual level... Can the virus really go that far?" Doctor Anna hesitated. "The Infected we have contained at most awakened spiritual vision. Yet people from the Four Nations can awaken even without being infected by Malefic Calamity. Research into mediumistic constitutions has also progressed very slowly."

"So, is it possible that the previously crazed and mutated Infected actually experienced mutations on the spiritual level? We simply overlooked it because we had no way to control them for research."

The professor propped up her chin with interest. "Perhaps Li Aoz is actually powerful in ways we never expected."

Assistant Physician Anna fell silent. She firmly believed in the professor's words. Beyond her loyalty, the professor's views were indeed worth considering.

"Or, taking the thought further, perhaps those patients who went mad in the past were showing a tendency toward deepening infection..."

"Level 3 Infected are immune to disease and physically deformed."

"Level 4 Infected undergo bodily mutation, suffer hormonal disorders, and surpass ordinary people by far. That is also why they go mad."

"In theory, Level 5 Infected should undergo mutations concentrated in the brain. That would be the virus attempting to control the host... Yet Li Aoz's brain scans show nothing abnormal."

"So we can consider another direction. What if the mutation is not in the brain, but on the spiritual level?"

Doctor Anna fell into deeper thought. She had already begun planning to shift the direction of her research and experiments.

The professor gently brushed aside the white hair before her forehead. She glanced at the computer monitor, its dark screen reflecting her elegant and dignified face.

Her gaze sharpened slightly as she focused on the corner of her eye in the reflection.

Fine wrinkles slowly cracked and spread there, standing out starkly against the tender, smooth skin around them.

"In that case, I intend to apply for permission to use ZX-626's ability. Researching from another direction might yield some progress."

Doctor Anna noticed that the professor had drifted off, so she asked:

"Professor?"

"...It's begun."

"Are you listening?"

"Oh—" The professor came back to herself. Just as she was about to answer, a piercing alarm suddenly blared throughout the room.

Woooo—