The Increasingly Absurd Stone Skipping

A large box sat there, containing 420 skipping stones.

Although each piece was thin, they were stones nonetheless. Once the box was full, Chen Jue realized he couldn't carry such a heavy delivery on his own.

He first went to a small roadside restaurant for lunch, then borrowed a flatbed cart from the owner of the local courier station to wheel it back to his cramped rented room.

He returned the cart first, then came back to unpack the box.

"The texture is really nice!"

"No wonder those professional players can get so many skips." Chen Jue picked up a skipping stone to fiddle with it.

They were all machine-cut, with both sides as smooth as a mirror and a rough edge around the circumference.

The weight was perfect, and the feel in his hand was far superior to the stones Chen Jue had picked up in the park.

Since he had just finished practicing Darts in the morning, he was a bit tired.

Chen Jue took a nap at noon.

By the time he woke up, it was past 3:00 PM. The sun was bright outside, a light breeze was blowing, and the air had taken on the dryness of autumn.

Such weather was perfect for driving to the suburbs to enjoy the scenery, hike, or go camping.

However, he was part of the "no house, no car" crowd and had no chance to drive himself; the driver's license he earned in college had been gathering dust in his wallet ever since.

The reason he didn't buy a car was that after working at Taisheng Finance for four years, Chen Jue had seen too many cases of clients defaulting on their loans.

Once these clients stopped making payments, the collection process would begin, and the company's post-loan department would eventually have to forcibly tow the cars to court for seizure.

This was to prevent clients from privately using the cars for illegal second or third-party mortgages, or even selling them off as black-market vehicles.

The problem was that a car is a depreciating asset; whether new or used, it begins to lose value the moment it is taxed and handed over.

From the time the car is towed back until the court finishes hearing the auto finance loan case and reaches the enforcement stage, the process takes time.

By the time all the procedures were complete, the car's value had plummeted so much that even selling it wouldn't cover the loan debt and interest. The remaining balance still had to be collected from the client.

At that point, they would have to start freezing bank accounts, WeChat, and Alipay, which was a massive headache.

Chen Jue didn't want to shoulder that repayment pressure, so he kept putting off buying a car.

In Chen Jue's view, why not just use the money he would have spent on a car to take Didi rides?

The car is driven by a chauffeur, and he just sits there, like paying someone to drive him around.

Plus, there was no need to pay extra to maintain the car, and no car loan to repay—it was both money-saving and effortless.

He rummaged through his closet to find a large backpack and packed over 150 skipping stones into it.

It felt very heavy on his shoulders, but at least he could lift it.

He left the apartment complex, hailed a Didi, and arrived at White Horse Lake park once again.

Compared to the night, the park in the daytime was even more overflowing with the breath of nature.

Expanses of greenery and flower beds, neatly trimmed lawns, modern venues and concert stages, and the clear, babbling river winding through it all formed a poetic and picturesque scene on a beautiful autumn afternoon.

There were still many people camping on the lawn, and quite a few had come to listen to the live concert.

Chen Jue didn't walk more than a few steps with the bag on his back before setting it down on a patch of grass and grabbing a stack of skipping stones to head toward the riverbank.

He shook out his right arm; although it was still a bit sore, the hydrotherapy massage, medicinal poultices, and rest over the past two days had alleviated much of the pain.

He clenched his fist tightly and did a few warm-up movements, just enough to barely continue skipping stones.

"Let's see if these skipping stones are really that magical!" Chen Jue took a deep breath, placed the extra stones by his feet, and assumed a preparatory stance with a torso twist.

With a turn and a flick, his arm, wrist, and fingers exerted force simultaneously. He threw the disc-shaped stone at a downward angle of about 20 degrees. Like a spinning top in the air, it hit the water with a "plop" and then began to skim rapidly across the shimmering river surface.

According to the research paper published in Nature magazine by that foreign scientist, the number of times a stone can bounce on water depends mainly on four parameters: initial velocity, rotational speed, the angle of entry, and the material of the stone.

By now, Chen Jue had mastered the optimal throwing angle by imitating videos of experts online, and he had bought specially made skipping stones. The remaining initial velocity and rotational speed were entirely up to his own performance.

Fortunately, heaven rewards the diligent. Chen Jue noticed that after the special skipping stone left his right hand, it traveled at an extremely low distance from the water's surface with an incredibly high vibration frequency. Flying and bouncing, it seemed to graze the river, creating a dense string of circular ripples in a single go!

Moreover, these circular ripples were arranged in an arc, likely due to the centrifugal force generated by the rotation after the stone left his hand, changing the straight-line trajectory of ordinary stones.

What surprised Chen Jue the most was that this single throw had visually skipped at least 50 times!

The distance it traveled also reached an astonishing 50-plus meters!

This count and this distance were truly outrageous!

Because even if an ordinary person threw a stone the size of a bowl with all their might, they wouldn't necessarily be able to throw it 50 meters.

At this moment, the attribute panel in Chen Jue's field of vision also provided a targeted evaluation prompt:

[Ding~]

[Action meets the standard; completed a perfect stone skip.]

[Skipping Stones skill proficiency +5]

"A perfect rating on the first try!"

"Truly, a workman must sharpen his tools if he is to do his work well!"

"With these specialized skipping stones in hand, won't my proficiency just skyrocket?" Chen Zhe's mouth curled into a wide grin; he felt the 200 yuan spent was well worth it.

A +5 proficiency boost in a single go was something he had only encountered before while grinding his [Darts] level.

[Darts] could be retrieved and reused, so leveling it up didn't consume resources. Consequently, that later-learned athletic skill had actually overtaken [Stone Skipping] to reach Level 3 first, already hitting the standard of an amateur competitor.

Seeing that tomorrow was Monday and he would have to return to the company to slack off again, with no way to practice during the day, Chen Zhe wanted to seize his free time to push the [Stone Skipping] skill as hard as he could!

"Plip~"

"Plip~"

"Plip~"

The circular skipping stones skimmed across the river like flying saucers, the ripples they created spreading endlessly across the water's surface.

"Such a stable trajectory!"

"The quality of the stone really makes a huge difference; ordinary rocks could never produce such a stable skip!" Chen Zhe stared at the skips he was throwing.

He discovered that after switching to professional skipping stones, the trajectory of every single throw was as if it had been carved from a template.

The path the stones dragged across the water was both dense and long!

Although he was still a far cry from the world-record-holding master on the internet, he was vaguely beginning to reach half of that person's abstract level.

Nearby tourists who were camping and enjoying the scenery gathered around out of curiosity as soon as they saw this.

They were taking photos and recording videos.

Quite a few people on the sidelines were commenting: "Is this stone skipping?"

"This young man has some real skills!"

"Look at how many splashes that throw made!"

"Whoa! And it went so far! It's almost to the middle of the river; that's at least fifty-some meters, right?"

Everyone had played stone skipping, but they had never seen anyone play with such an outrageous number of skips or reach such a distance!

Moreover, Chen Zhe had the attribute panel to correct his posture, allowing him to hit the most standard arc trajectory almost every time.

Staring at it for a long time was easy to get hooked on, and it was also very stress-relieving!

Even some playful adults and children tried to imitate him by picking up rocks and throwing them into the water, but they couldn't manage to make many splashes, instead splashing water all over themselves, which drew constant laughter from the surrounding tourists.

As for Chen Zhe, watching the +4 and +5 proficiency growth prompts continuously scrolling on his panel, he put more and more strength into his hand.

Until he was so tired his arm ached and hung limp, unwilling to move, and all one hundred and fifty professional skipping stones he had brought were exhausted, the skill [Stone Skipping] was finally pushed to Lv3 in one go!

He had leveled it up twice in half an afternoon!

Along with it, his Strength and free attribute points had also increased by 0.01.

Character: Chen Zhe

Strength: 0.81+

Physique: 0.96+

Spirit: 1.06+

Skills: [Stone Skipping Lv3 (4/2000)+] [Darts Lv3 (426/2000)+] [Twelve Taiji Forms Lv1 (1/200)+]

Available Free Attribute Points: 0.01

(Character Evaluation: A somewhat awakened corporate slave; your sub-healthy body is developing in a positive direction.)

Looking at his constantly growing panel attributes, Chen Zhe felt that this weekend had been both fulfilling and fun.

Especially since he had mastered three niche skills he wouldn't normally come into contact with.

Although they seemed useless, they helped Chen Zhe improve his body and allowed him to regain hope for life.

As for the newly acquired free attribute point, Chen Zhe immediately added it to Physique.

Because he discovered that by focusing on the Physique attribute over the past few days, his body had undergone significant changes.

Not only was his appetite better, but his stamina, energy, and physical recovery ability had also improved much more than usual.

If it were in the past, Chen Zhe would have been so exhausted after hanging out with Jiang Zhe for half a day that he would have wanted to return to his rental room and lie down until the end of time.

It was nothing like now: morning exercises, practicing darts in the morning, and still being able to continue such high-intensity stone skipping in the afternoon!

With his entire day's schedule packed, he felt as energetic as if he had been injected with adrenaline.

However, even if Chen Zhe wanted to keep grinding, he had to go back and rest now.

Because the stones he brought were all gone, and his right arm was now so sore and painful that he couldn't lift it anymore, hanging by his side like a noodle.

Hailing a ride back to Changhe Residential District, Chen Jue had a sudden whim and ordered a fitness meal online for dinner.

Since it was his first time eating this, Chen Jue felt like he was chewing on wax and mud.

The beef, buckwheat noodles, and eggs were all boiled in water, drizzled with sauce, and served with a side of mashed potatoes and a vegetable salad to round out the meal.

It tasted bland and flavorless, completely devoid of any oil or fat!

Yet, this cost Chen Jue 38 yuan; it was truly so unpalatable it was hard to swallow.

"No wonder so many women at the company complain about how hard it is to lose weight."

"With this kind of diet, anyone who can stick to it for a week is a real tough nut." Chen Jue shoveled a few bites in and forced himself to swallow.

He had ordered this takeout himself, so he had to finish it, even if it was with tears in his eyes!

While eating, he browsed some self-discipline videos online.

He discovered that these self-discipline content creators were all hardcore; they performed high-intensity workouts morning, afternoon, and night, and their three meals a day were not much different from the takeout he had ordered that evening.

He had no idea how these tough guys managed to keep it up.

If it were him, he definitely wouldn't have that kind of willpower.

Chen Jue went to bed exceptionally early that night.

After finishing his takeout and taking a hot shower, he lay down on his bed and was fast asleep by eight o'clock.

Because his activity level over the weekend had been high, and he had expended a massive amount of energy grinding stats and skill proficiency, his body was completely exhausted.

Chen Jue slept for over 12 hours straight.

When he woke up promptly at 8:30 the next morning, his work alarm went off right on cue. Chen Jue hurried to wash up and change, dressing in a suit and tie before blending into the stream of commuters from the nearby residential districts.

Some were rushing to catch the subway, others were hurrying to clock in or grab breakfast.

Looking at the diverse crowd around him, and at his peers who had stayed up all weekend, dragging their exhausted bodies along, yawning incessantly and nearly dozing off while walking to work, Chen Jue felt as if he were seeing his past self in them.

"It really is better to have a regular sleep schedule!"

"Even though my muscles are still a bit sore, I don't feel sleepy at all this morning." Chen Jue sighed to himself.

He bought breakfast at the cafeteria on the first floor of Huaye Building, finished it, and took the opportunity to clock in via the DingTalk app to avoid losing his perfect attendance bonus.

He scanned his face at the turnstile and squeezed into the elevator up to the 23rd floor.

He even ran into a few acquaintances from a medical aesthetics company on the same floor inside the elevator and exchanged a few polite greetings.

Ding. The elevator doors opened.

Chen Jue was just thinking about greeting the brand-new Monday morning with his best energy, while simultaneously planning how to reasonably slack off while on the clock.

However, the moment he stepped out of the elevator, he froze!

The entrance to Taisheng Finance was packed with all sorts of people, and a group of officials in uniform were setting up caution tape at the door to maintain order.

"What's going on?"

"Did I get off on the wrong floor?" Chen Jue looked back at the floor indicator above the elevator; it was indeed the familiar 23rd floor.

Just then, his young apprentice Jiang Lin, who had arrived a bit earlier than him, popped up from somewhere and pulled him toward a less crowded area: "Brother Jue! Something huge happened to the company!"

"Chairman Zhang took Director Wang from the finance department and ran off with the money overnight!"