Stone Skipping Mastered!

Chen Jue realized that ever since he'd awakened this Attribute Panel, his motivation to work hard had all but vanished.

When he thought about having to clock in at the office again tomorrow, Tuesday, the first thing that came to mind wasn't how to get his work done. It was how to slack off and skip work.

The company was going under anyway. What was the point of acting so enthusiastic now?

Especially since he'd recently started enjoying exercise. As his body gradually improved, he increasingly felt that he'd wasted the past few years of his life.

Working nine to six hadn't brought Chen Jue much good fortune.

He hadn't made much money, still couldn't afford a house, and hadn't landed a pretty girlfriend.

Not only had his health been run into the ground, but his enthusiasm for life had nearly been worn away, too.

"I really have to thank this Attribute Panel!"

"Otherwise, I'd have thrown away my life before I even hit thirty." Chen Jue sighed with emotion.

After looking up the information, he bookmarked a few websites related to human physiology, planning to study them in depth when he had time.

Then Chen Jue went to the bathroom, took a shower, changed into clean clothes, and headed out of the residential district to find something to eat.

Practicing darts that afternoon had taken a lot out of him. If he didn't eat a late-night snack now, he'd probably have trouble sleeping later.

He went to a Northeastern dumpling restaurant he often visited and ordered beef dumplings and two stir-fried dishes.

Chen Jue had always been willing to spend money on food. This meal alone cost him more than eighty yuan.

When the food arrived, he'd planned to wash it down with some cold beer.

It was just the right time for a late-night meal. The nearby barbecue restaurants were smoky, their aromas wafting through the area, and plenty of office workers who rented nearby were gathered around the outdoor tables, drinking in groups of three or five.

But when Chen Jue remembered that he had to go to the hospital for an examination tomorrow, he put the thought of drinking out of his mind for now.

"Damn it!"

"I have to quit smoking anyway, so I might as well give up drinking, too." Chen Jue comforted himself and glanced again at his [Constitution] attribute, which had already reached 0.99.

He realized that his self-discipline had improved tremendously over the past few days.

Never mind going to the gym and exercising every day without fail. Just look at how he'd stopped smoking and drinking.

If he added a family-oriented trait and loving husband status, what kind of super husband would that make him?

"Too bad I'm just a little plain-looking."

"And a little short on money."

"Otherwise, I'd probably be married and settled down by now, right?" Chen Jue thought of the few relationships he'd had that had gone nowhere.

He browsed his Moments again. Most of his classmates, childhood friends, and coworkers around his age had already started families and careers. Their posts showed family dinners or outings with their kids.

Unlike him, alone and adrift far from home, sitting despondently at a small table in a little restaurant on the street, eating food whose ingredients might have included who knew what additives. It didn't feel like home at all.

That night, Chen Jue lay in bed in his rental apartment and thought about a lot of things.

From his future employment and career prospects to the family and emotional life he ought to have, he tried to make some plans in advance.

Unfortunately, he'd once hoped to have the same happy family life as his peers.

Looking around, Chen Jue realized he seemed to have no chance of that anymore.

First and foremost was the huge obstacle of buying a house.

With his current salary, he could barely afford a mortgage on a place in a small county town in a fourth- or fifth-tier city. Even after another ten years of working in Hang City, he might not be able to keep pace with rising prices and inflation.

Second, there was no suitable partner his age left in his circle.

His classmates and coworkers were nearly thirty. Basically, any woman that age was already married.

The ones who weren't were extremely picky and unlikely to consider someone with circumstances like Chen Jue's.

It was like an unsolvable deadlock, one Chen Jue couldn't break through with his own efforts alone.

And after starting a family, he'd still have to deal with a mortgage, car payments, and the cost of raising a child. The financial pressure would be enormous.

Chen Jue tried asking himself: was that really the life he wanted?

The answer was obviously no.

Lost in his thoughts, Chen Jue fell asleep.

He slept through two long stretches without waking.

When he got up the next morning, he felt refreshed and full of energy, so he set aside his life plans for the time being.

First, he went to the office to pick up the old phone he'd left with his young apprentice. He submitted a sick-leave request on DingTalk, then took a taxi to the nearby Second Affiliated Hospital.

It was one of the top hospitals in Hang City, and plenty of people were already there early in the morning to register for appointments.

When he asked the staff at the cashier's desk, he learned that a comprehensive health checkup cost over four thousand yuan. Chen Jue was shocked!

The worst part was that health checkups weren't covered by medical insurance. Spending that much at once made even a middle manager like Chen Jue, whose income was decent enough, wince.

No wonder people online said poor people couldn't afford to get sick. Chen Jue finally understood what they meant.

He gritted his teeth and registered for a health checkup.

From the general examination to internal medicine and surgery, then blood and urine tests, stool tests, ultrasounds, liver and kidney function tests, chest X-rays, electrocardiograms, and more.

There were a lot of tests. Chen Jue spent nearly the whole morning running from one place to another.

By the time he got his checkup report that afternoon, his mind was a blank.

Most of his results were good. After all, Chen Jue's Constitution was almost at a full one.

But apart from the frozen shoulder and herniated lumbar disc Li Chaoqun had mentioned, common occupational ailments, Chen Jue also had hemorrhoids, seborrheic hair loss, appendicitis, and even a gallstone!

The other problems weren't too bad. Most were chronic conditions.

The symptoms could be improved with the right medication, a regular sleep and eating schedule, and exercise.

But appendicitis and gallstones were different. If either flared up, the pain could be severe and even lead to other illnesses. The doctor recommended that Chen Jue have them surgically removed.

As soon as the doctor suggested surgery, Chen Jue refused.

He wasn't even thirty yet. If he had two organs removed at such a young age, who knew whether it would affect his life down the road?

If it caused any side effects, there'd be no point complaining to the hospital!

Once you cut out a body part, it's gone.

It wasn't like chives in a garden, which could grow back after being cut.

"Damn it!"

"If you don't get checked, you don't know. Once you do, you find a pile of problems."

"No wonder ordinary people don't want to get checkups. Isn't this just asking for trouble?"

Holding his checkup report, Chen Jue left the hospital in a daze.

It wasn't easy coming to Hang City to work. He'd nearly lost his life over it.

Both of those digestive disorders had been caused by his daily diet and irregular routine.

Fortunately, gallstones and appendicitis were the sort of conditions that weren't a big deal unless they flared up.

Chen Jue thought carefully about it and realized that neither had acted up in the past year.

On top of that, he'd awakened the Attribute Panel, and his physical condition was improving. So he decided to bury his head in the sand for now and ignore the two problems.

"If it really comes to it, I'll grind my Constitution up to 999. Even cancer cells will get ground to dust!"

"Appendicitis and a tiny gallstone? Won't they heal themselves in no time?" Chen Jue imagined the best and tried to encourage himself.

He didn't go back to the office.

He'd already taken sick leave, so he might as well skip a whole day of work.

And with a medical record from the hospital, he could upload it to DingTalk later. Even the HR employee in charge of attendance wouldn't be able to find fault with him.

He took a taxi back to Changhe Residential District. Since it was still early, Chen Jue grabbed the remaining skipping stones and went straight to White Horse Lake Park.

The checkup had left him feeling on edge.

Chen Jue wanted to relieve some stress by skipping stones and, while he was at it, raise his skill proficiency.

The park was sparsely populated on Tuesday evening.

The visitors who usually came to camp and sightsee were at work. Few people were out skipping work to visit the park like Chen Jue.

In a fast-growing first-tier city like Hang City, time was money.

The only people with free time to stroll through the park on a workday were probably retired old men and women, landlords, and the wealthy.

He found an empty corner, settled his mind, and put the checkup out of his thoughts for the time being.

He gripped a skipping stone and threw it with a forceful twist, using his usual technique.

"Plop!" The stone began bouncing across the river, pattering over the surface before skimming a long distance away.

Watching the dense string of ripples spread across the water, Chen Jue felt his mood calm considerably.

"This is really relaxing to watch!"

"But my stone skipping is starting to look more and more like those professionals online." Chen Jue stood on the bank and watched closely.

He tried skipping stones a few times with his right hand. Each time, he got a [Perfect] +5 prompt.

From what Chen Jue could tell, [Stone Skipping] had a lower technical barrier than [Darts], and its proficiency improved faster.

Even the world-record holder he'd seen online was only a little better at skipping stones than Chen Jue.

But the other man had clearly received professional training. His arms, wrists, and fingers were stronger, allowing him to give the stone greater initial speed when it hit the water.

That made it travel farther and bounce more times.

"Is my strength not enough?" Chen Jue wondered.

To test his theory, Chen Jue threw all the more than 260 remaining skipping stones from the box, leaving only one in his pocket.

After that, he found some more stones in the park and kept practicing until it started getting dark. His right hand was completely numb, and his Strength attribute had even increased by 0.01. Finally, Chen Jue filled the [Stone Skipping] proficiency bar to the top.

At that moment, a brand-new prompt he'd never seen before popped up on the panel:

[ Ding~ ]

[ Proficiency reached 100%. Skill level increased. ]

[ Stone Skipping Lv3 (2000/2000) → Stone Skipping (Mastered) ]

[ Through your unremitting efforts, this low-level sport no longer holds any technical blind spots for you. ]

[ Skill evaluation: Give you any suitable stone, and you can make it do all sorts of tricks! ]

"It went straight to the top?"

"There's no Lv4?"

Looking at the prompt on the panel, Chen Jue felt as if his right hand had developed some kind of remarkable muscle memory.

He hesitated slightly, then picked up the last mail-order skipping stone he'd deliberately set aside.

He made a standard half-turn. His arm, wrist, and fingers moved in perfect unison, his entire arm whipping like a lash as he threw with all his strength at a downward angle of twenty degrees to the water.

The last skipping stone shot through the air with a whoosh. It hit the water with a "plop," bounced once, and began skimming rapidly across the river.

In the light of the park's streetlamps, Chen Jue could see the stone's path clearly.

That long arc shot all the way to the middle of the river in one go!

It must have traveled seventy or eighty meters!

And the splashes it made on the water were dense and numerous. He roughly counted them and estimated it had bounced at least eighty times, almost matching the world record for stone skipping.

Seeing the result, Chen Jue couldn't help blurting out, "That's so damn absurd!"

Second update~

The first mastered skill has appeared. Please toss me some votes~

P.S. Stone skipping is indeed easy to learn. If you're interested, check out the Bilibili UP creator Yi Diandian Bu Yiyang's video visiting the national stone-skipping champion. You can learn how to throw one a long way pretty quickly.

But the protagonist isn't using the flower-shaped clay stones, so he can't reach an insane three hundred-plus bounces.