Stealing Skills

"Why are you in such bad shape?"

Nordly frowned, looking at Li Aoz, whose gaze was wandering, and scolded, "How can you cooperate with the experiment like this? You need to maintain a healthy state."

"Had a bit of a nightmare."

Li Aoz rubbed his temples, the events of yesterday making him a little anxious.

At the end of the day, he was just an ordinary person. Encountering such unexpected situations, suspicion and anxiety formed mental attrition, making it easy to overthink things.

"Nightmare? Just a boring fantasy. Only the weak fear nightmares; the strong advance bravely and triumph even in their dreams." Nordly scoffed at this.

However, she quickly adjusted her mindset, and with a thought, she took advantage of the topic to ask Head Nurse Nordly, "I think it's not entirely because of nightmares that I'm in such a bad mood—repeating these exercises for so many days is just too boring."

Nordly rolled her eyes at him, but on second thought, she realized he had a point.

For so many days, all he had done was physical training. The patients' activity area next door was full of laughter and chatter, with various ball games going back and forth, while Li Aoz just watched from the sidelines, inevitably feeling unbalanced.

'I still need to pay attention to the patient's psychological problems.'

Recalling Li Aoz's half-crazed, half-rational state before he was contained, Nordly still felt lingering fear.

The seemingly harmless Li Aoz could instantly deprive her, a Martial Artist, of her combat power when he reached that state.

Nordly looked at the harmless man in front of her, who occasionally glanced at the patients participating in recreational activities in the distance, his eyes revealing envy and longing. After a moment of contemplation, she nodded.

"Then what do you want?"

Nordly asked, "I can't let you join the group activities with the others; you're currently under isolation and monitoring."

"I know—in that case, at least add some other sports, Head Nurse? It's too monotonous to just train like this every day."

"Alright, what do you want to do?"

Li Aoz pretended to think for a moment, then said:

"How about you teach me how to fight?"

Fighting.

Nordly wanted to refuse, but before she could say it, she took it back.

There was actually no harm in really training him in a move or two.

Not to mention that martial arts required a long time to build a foundation and repeatedly practice, Li Aoz was over 20 years old, his bones were set, and he was not suitable for martial arts.

Furthermore, learning to fight was not threatening without entering the realm of a Martial Artist.

A gun is fast beyond seven steps, and both fast and accurate within seven steps.

If he really learned how to fight and formed muscle memory, then next time he lost control, he wouldn't think about hiding a razor blade in his mouth to attack, but would instead adopt a fighting stance and try to counterattack.

'You're using a hobby to challenge someone's livelihood? I welcome that.'

Thinking of this, Nordly immediately made up her mind. She readily agreed, "Okay, but my requirements are very high. Martial arts are not something anyone can learn. Since you want to learn, then I have to propose an assessment test. If you don't pass, you'll continue with physical training."

Li Aoz was overjoyed and immediately patted his sleeves:

"Come on, I can't wait!"

Nordly saw that he was quite enthusiastic about learning martial arts and sneered inwardly: I was also very happy when I first learned martial arts; you'll know you're wrong when you start practicing later.

[Prompt: Nordly Crow is teaching you the skill – Basic Fighting]
[This learning is actively taught by the other party, no experience consumption required]
[Accept?]

"This is what I've been waiting for!"

Li Aoz rubbed his hands together. Head Nurse Nordly didn't know he had an NPC template panel.

In the game Star Abyss, players had to consume a lot of experience and special resources to learn skills. However, NPCs could teach and learn skills from each other without any cost.

When playing through the story in his previous life, players had seen many scenes of 'passing on skills face-to-face'. People had long discovered that NPCs could teach and learn skills from each other, as long as both parties were willing, without any cost.

The official explanation was to prevent the gap between players and NPCs from becoming too large, affecting the game's sense of immersion. Apart from providing a topic for discussion, players didn't pay much attention to it—who would be jealous of NPCs for no reason? Of course, if they were actively learning on their own, NPCs were far inferior to players. NPCs had to study hard, seek knowledge everywhere, and worry about cultivation deviation when encountering difficulties and things they didn't understand.

Players only need to get their hands on books of knowledge and patiently wait for the loading bar to finish to completely learn a skill.

Li Aoz doesn't have professional knowledge at hand, so he can't be sure if he enjoys the characteristics of a player. However, the NPC template is a real thing, and he enjoys the benefits of being an NPC.

[You have learned Basic Fighting from Nordly Crow. Current level: Lv.1]

[Basic Fighting] Lv1: You have a superficial understanding of unarmed combat. You will no longer swing your fists randomly or expose weaknesses.

Images of punching, kicking, dodging, parrying, and countering flashed through Li Aoz's mind. He slightly swung his fist, his movements more natural and powerful.

"Although I don't plan to waste experience, this skill is very practical. I should level it up when I have the chance."

Relying solely on Gravity Aura, the Mutant's panel stats would still be terrible. Li Aoz still needs to slowly accumulate and form his own fighting style.

"The basic theory has been taught to you," Nordly said. "Next, it's time for practice."

"Practice?"

Li Aoz didn't react.

Bang! Nordly expressionlessly threw a punch at him! Whizz.

The common sense techniques granted by Basic Fighting were integrated into his muscle memory. Li Aoz instinctively raised his arm to protect his face, dodging to the side to avoid being hit. Even so, just being grazed by the powerful fist wind made his thin body stagger a few steps, almost falling.

"Hmm? Not bad reaction."

Nordly was slightly surprised. She knew Li Aoz's physical fitness very well. To be able to avoid being hit head-on and instead perform the correct fighting stance meant that he had indeed listened.

"Not bad, it seems you have some skills, but to learn how to fight, you must first learn how to take a beating."

Nordly cracked her fist, which was as big as a sandbag, and pounced on Li Aoz like a hungry tiger! Li Aoz calmed his breathing, a look of horror and fear on his face.

"Stop! I'm a patient!"

He had already shown a weak demeanor before, and now he had to continue to maintain it. While dodging, he put on a performance befitting a Frostplate male, exaggeratingly shouting, "What are you doing~ Ouch, ouch, ouch~~~"

"What are the latest monitoring results for Li Aoz?"

The Professor held a tablet, his fingertips flying across it, operating it smoothly and effortlessly, as he casually asked Anna, the assistant physician, "It's been two weeks, have there been any findings?"

"His platelet count, cell activity level, thyroid-stimulating hormone, and brain waves are all slightly higher than normal, but not as high as a true transcedent."

Assistant Physician Anna opened the report in her arms and read seriously, "Head Nurse Nordly has been training him to the level of the Frostplate Republic army. Even after blood and bone marrow extraction, he can still recover to normal levels the next day... but she also said that if it's just this level, it's only reaching the Heavenly Ring's super-soldier project, far from the standard of a Level 5 infected—not even Level 4."

"I see."

The Professor placed the tablet on his lap and said lightly:

"It seems that Head Nurse Nordly is getting along with him quite well, their relationship is harmonious."

"Harmonious relationship?" Doctor Anna was stunned: "He's almost being trained to death..."

"According to the communication records, Li Aoz mentioned 'ZX-102' during the first day of training—even so, Nordly was able to restrain her emotions. That's already very surprising."

"That's true..." Anna hesitated, "Kochi just casually mentioned dismantling 102's room, and she broke his hands and feet. So it seems that Li Aoz's relationship with her is not too bad."

"How about the intelligence test?"

"Multiple intelligence test results are all in the 121-117 range, still within the scope of ordinary people," Anna reported truthfully.

"His intelligence hasn't transformed, and his physical fitness is strong but not yet in the range of a transcedent. How interesting, a person who doesn't seem to have anything special about him has experienced so many things—don't you think that makes him even more suspicious?"

"You mean...?"

"When a soldier is shot several times but returns lively and kicking, should you increase protection in the areas that were shot, or should you increase protection in the areas that were not shot?"

Anna was stunned, then realized, "Survivor bias!"

"Past research on infected people has been limited to the level of physical bodies and intelligence, but we seem to have forgotten that transcedents themselves are also diverse."

"Most of the Level 3 and Level 4 infected people we've handled in the past were limited to physical mutations. The increase in intelligence was also due to lesions in the brain—this has led us to subconsciously believe that the distortions caused by infection all occur in the physical body."

"Mental mutations... can the virus really do that?" Doctor Anna hesitated, "The infected people we've contained have at most awakened psychic vision, but even people from the Four Nations who are not infected by Esha can awaken. Research on psychic constitutions has also been very slow."

"So, is there a possibility that those crazy and mutated infected people in the past were actually mentally mutated? It's just that we couldn't control the research, so we ignored this point."

The Professor raised his chin with interest: "Perhaps, in reality, Li Aoz has unexpected strengths in other areas."

Anna, the assistant physician, remained silent, deeply convinced by the professor's words. Besides her own loyalty to her, the professor's views were also worth considering.

"Or to think further, those patients who went mad in the past might have been showing signs of deepening infection..."

"Third-level infected are immune to diseases, and their bodies are deformed."

"Fourth-level infected undergo physical mutations, and their hormone levels are disordered, far exceeding ordinary people. This is also the reason for their madness."

"Theoretically, fifth-level infected should have concentrated brain mutations, which is a manifestation of the virus trying to control the host... but Li Aoz's brain scans show nothing abnormal."

"So, we can think in another direction, if it's not the brain, but a mutation at the spiritual level."

Doctor Anna became more and more pensive, and she had already begun to plan to change direction to study the experiment.

The professor gently brushed the white hair from her forehead, glancing at the computer screen, the black screen reflecting her elegant and dignified beautiful face.

Her eyes narrowed slightly, focusing on the corner of her eye in the reflection.

A few wrinkles slowly cracked and spread, distinct from the surrounding soft and smooth skin, appearing particularly glaring.

"In that case, I plan to apply for permission to use ZX-626's ability, and maybe there will be progress if I change the direction of research."

Doctor Anna noticed that the professor was distracted, so she asked:

"Professor?"

"...It's starting."

"Are you listening?"

"Oh—" The professor came back to her senses, and just as she was about to answer, the room immediately sounded a piercing alarm.

Wooo————