Staring at the lines of text that had suddenly appeared before him, Chen Jue froze.
He thought he'd smoked too much and that the smoke had damaged his eyes.
He instinctively raised a hand and rubbed them.
But after he stopped, Chen Jue was even more bewildered.
Because once the three lines of text disappeared, a character status window like something out of a MUD game popped up on its own!
Character: Chen Jue
Strength: 0.76
Constitution: 0.89
Mind: 1.05
Skills: [Stone Skipping Lv. 0 (1/100)]
Free Attribute Points Available: 0.00
(Character Evaluation: An utterly ordinary office drone. Your body is in a severely subhealthy state.)
"What is this?"
"A system?"
"A cheat?"
"Have I read too many novels? Am I hallucinating?"
Chen Jue furrowed his brow, thinking that he was under too much pressure and had developed some kind of mental illness.
He'd worked at the company for four years and had been in this Huaye Building for two. He'd heard plenty of stories about people in the nearby business park having mental breakdowns from working too much.
Office workers were under a lot of pressure, and with the rat race getting worse in recent years, some people had even threatened to jump off buildings after being laid off.
Afraid something was wrong with his mind, Chen Jue hurried to the restroom in the little garden, took off his glasses, and splashed cold water on his face.
He planned to use the cold water to shock himself into feeling more alert.
But no matter how much he splashed, rubbed, or washed his eyes, that character status window stayed in his field of vision.
"Dammit!"
"Is this thing going to stay here forever?"
"If so, will I have to browse the internet in incognito mode with a mosaic over everything?"
Chen Jue waved a hand in front of his eyes, then tried using his mind to click the X in the upper-right corner of the window. At last, he managed to close the Attribute Panel.
He tried opening and closing it a few more times.
After fiddling with it more than a dozen times, Chen Jue finally came to terms with the objective fact that he'd suddenly gained an Attribute Panel inside his body.
"What's this panel for?"
"Can I add points to my stats?"
"And this [Stone Skipping] skill... however I look at it, something seems off." Chen Jue stared at the panel and studied it for a while.
There were no hints at all. It was just a lone status window.
He'd leave the skill and free attribute points aside for now. As for Strength, Constitution, and Mind, they were just like the three core stats in many RPGs.
But he'd never seen stats displayed to two decimal places before.
There was also a brief character evaluation at the bottom.
Chen Jue vaguely remembered seeing the words "subhealthy state" in his high school biology textbook.
"How do I get free attribute points?"
"Don't game systems give you a few for free when you start?"
"Do I have to pay for them?"
Chen Jue searched the panel but couldn't find any place to make a purchase.
It probably wasn't made by Tencent, then.
"Click."
He pulled out a lighter and lit up.
"Hiss... Hoo..."
Seeing the words "subhealthy state" in the evaluation, Chen Jue felt he needed a few more cigarettes to calm his nerves.
He thought it over for a while but couldn't figure out what the panel did.
But remembering what had triggered it earlier, Chen Jue went back to the pond in the little garden and picked up a few pebbles.
"Plunk."
"Plop."
The first two pebbles didn't skip at all. After he threw them, they sank straight to the bottom of the pond.
"Does it only react if I get a stone to skip?"
Chen Jue stared blankly at the two ripples spreading across the pond, then checked the panel he'd opened. There was no sign of a response.
He had no choice but to crouch down and search carefully for another stone. This time, he chose a smooth, flat one.
He adjusted his stance, found the right angle, and threw it with all his might.
"Smack!"
A spray of water burst up, and the stone skipped four times across the surface. A series of pretty ripples spread across the pond.
At last, the status window stirred!
[Ding~]
[Action meets requirements]
[Skill [Stone Skipping] proficiency +1]
After three lines of text rolled across the screen, a green upward arrow appeared beside the newly awakened skill, [Stone Skipping Lv. 0 (1/100)]. Its proficiency bar also ticked up by one, changing to (2/100).
"So I just need to perform a qualifying stone skip once to increase my proficiency?" Chen Jue looked at the panel's message, instantly intrigued.
This was way more fun than work!
He stubbed out his cigarette, crouched down, and kept looking for suitable stones.
Over the next few minutes, he tried throwing stones dozens of times and successfully skipped one nine times.
As he watched the [Stone Skipping] skill proficiency repeatedly tick up by +1 in green, Chen Jue felt both his mind and body relax.
"This thing really does relieve stress!"
Chen Jue couldn't help sighing. It felt like he'd rediscovered the childhood joy of playing by the reservoir in the countryside near his hometown.
But after throwing stones dozens of times, he felt a dull ache in his right forearm and wrist.
He'd spent years sitting in an office and barely exercised, and it had been a long time since he'd made repeated strenuous movements like this.
The commotion from his stone skipping also drew over a security guard in uniform.
"Hey, which company do you work for? If you keep throwing stones into the pond, I'll have to talk to your boss!" the guard said, frowning.
The pebbles in the little garden had all been brought in at considerable expense for landscaping. If everyone threw them into the pond as carelessly as Chen Jue, it wouldn't take long for the place to be ruined.
The property management office had sent out several notices about this.
And it was the guards and cleaners who had to fish the stones back out of the pond.
Wasn't he just making trouble for them right in front of their faces?
Realizing he was in the wrong, Chen Jue hurriedly offered the guard several cigarettes.
After apologizing a few times and promising not to do it again, Chen Jue sheepishly left the rooftop garden and took the elevator back to the office.
The Huaye Building had twenty-eight floors. Taisheng Finance was on the twenty-third, sharing the entire floor with a cosmetic surgery company across the hall. Its annual rent alone came to 1.8 million yuan.
Four large, three-dimensional characters above the entrance gave the place an imposing look, and they'd even hired an attractive receptionist to make a good impression.
Unfortunately, the company was poorly run. Its annual profits couldn't match a fraction of those of the cosmetic surgery company across the hall.
Rumor had it that the other company had already gone public on the STAR Market. Its Hang City office was only a branch, while its headquarters had moved to Shanghai. It was a powerhouse, nothing like a shoestring operation such as Taisheng Finance, which was on the verge of collapse.
Looking at the company sign he'd passed through day after day for more than a thousand nights, Chen Jue couldn't help marveling at how quickly time had flown. His four years of youth had been like stones skipping across the vast sea of Hang City—without raising so much as a ripple.
He swiped his employee badge and went inside.
The young receptionist was loudly chatting with her best friend on a voice call, asking where a popular new shop had opened nearby so they could go check it out after work.
For junior clerical staff like them, the pay was low and turnover was high. They had no trouble finding another job.
Plenty of people hopped from one company to another within the same building. They weren't like Chen Jue, whose technical role was highly specialized.
He hurried back to his desk, just as the conference room doors opened after being shut all day.
Several shareholders and executives who'd been arguing fiercely emerged one by one, their faces dark.
One of them was a round-faced executive with a heavy build and close-cropped hair. He glared and beckoned Chen Jue over. "Chen Jue, come to my office for a minute!"
Chen Jue immediately stood up. Under the curious gazes of his office colleagues, he followed the round-faced executive into his office.
In the lavishly decorated general manager's office, Chen Jue sat uneasily on a large leather sofa.
The round-faced executive took a few phone calls, then pressed a few buttons on the tea machine. As he talked, he poured Chen Jue a cup of gongfu tea.
Shoestring finance outfits loved this sort of thing.
Even some small financial brokers would rent a storefront, set up a tea table, and start doing business.
They'd make promises that could reach the heavens, then spend all day drinking gongfu tea without doing anything proper. The moment a client showed up, they'd squeeze them for all they were worth and pull every trick in the book.
The round-faced man before him, Zhou Yong, was genuinely capable, though.
Chen Jue knew that Zhou Yong had built the entire business framework of Taisheng Finance.
The other shareholders and the chairman had basically just put in money without lifting a finger. They had little talent for running the business.
"Chen Jue, you've been with the company for four years, and your work's been pretty good."
"The company hasn't done well these past few years. As the one in charge, I've let everyone down."
"So here's the thing. I'm about to leave and start a new company, funding it myself. I'm planning to bring a group of people with me. Would you be interested in continuing to work for me?" Zhou Yong took a sip of tea, his eyes darting over Chen Jue as he sized him up.
Under Zhou Yong's scrutiny, Chen Jue felt a little uneasy. He was a mid-level employee, but tech workers tended to be introverted and weren't good at socializing or dealing with people.
So when Zhou Yong bluntly asked whether he'd leave and where he'd go, Chen Jue panicked.
Fortunately, he was quick-thinking. He brought up the newly awakened panel, using its text to block Zhou Yong's scrutinizing gaze for a moment.
"Now we're talking!"
With a screen full of text blocking the other man's view, Chen Jue felt a little more confident. After taking a couple of sips of tea, he asked, "General Manager Zhou, would the salary and benefits stay the same if I came with you?"
"Well... The new company is just starting up, so before business picks up, the pay will definitely be a little lower than here. I can offer you seven thousand for now."
"But don't worry. I'll bring it back to your current level within a year at most. You have my word." Zhou Yong was laying it on thick.
Damn, I've been living on promises like this since I was almost thirty.
No house, no wife, and now no money. You expect me to take out a loan, max out my credit cards, and come to work for you? What kind of joke is this?
If it doesn't pay, why the hell work? Chen Jue fumed inwardly.
Before you continue