Stone Skipping Perfected!

Chen Jue discovered that ever since he awakened this panel, his ambition for work had basically vanished into thin air.

The moment he thought about having to clock in at the company tomorrow, Tuesday, his first thought wasn't how to carry out his work, but how to slack off and skip out.

The company was going under anyway; what was the point of being so proactive at a time like this?

Especially since he had started to enjoy exercising recently and his body had begun to improve, he felt more and more that he had been wasting his life over the past few years.

The nine-to-six grind hadn't brought Chen Jue much in the way of blessings.

He hadn't saved much money, he still couldn't afford a house, and he hadn't managed to woo any pretty girls.

Not only had his health been worn down to a wreck, but even his passion for life had been nearly flattened.

"I really have to thank this attribute panel!"

"Otherwise, my life, nearing thirty, would have truly been a total waste." Chen Jue sighed with emotion.

After finishing his research and bookmarking a few websites related to human anatomy, he planned to find time to study them in depth.

Afterward, Chen Jue took a shower in the bathroom, changed into clean clothes, and headed out of the residential complex to find something to eat.

His practice with the Darts in the afternoon had been quite draining, and if he didn't grab a late-night snack now, he would likely have trouble sleeping later in the night.

He went to a Northeast-style dumpling shop he frequented and ordered a portion of beef dumplings and two stir-fried dishes.

Chen Jue had always been generous when it came to food; this single meal cost him over 80 yuan.

After the food was served, he had initially wanted to pair it with some ice-cold beer.

Since it was late at night, the nearby barbecue joints were thick with smoke and the scent of grilled meat wafted through the air, with many office workers living in the area sitting at outdoor tables, nursing three or five bottles each.

But the moment he remembered he had to go to the hospital for a checkup tomorrow, Chen Jue temporarily extinguished the thought of drinking.

"Damn it!"

"I'm quitting smoking anyway, so I can do without this drink too." Chen Jue comforted himself, glancing at his [Physique] attribute, which had already reached 0.99.

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

Not to mention the unwavering daily fitness routine, just look at this abstinence from smoking and drinking.

If he were to add a "family-oriented" and "dotes on his wife" attribute, what level of super-husband would that make him?

"Too bad, I'm just a bit too average-looking."

"And my bank balance is a bit too low."

"Otherwise, I should probably be married and settled down by now, right?" Chen Jue recalled a few past relationships that had ended without a spark.

He scrolled through his social media feed; his classmates, childhood friends, and colleagues of the same age were basically all married with families. Their posts were either family dinners or taking their kids out for fun.

Unlike him, drifting alone in a foreign city, sitting lonely at a small table in a street-side eatery, eating food that contained who knows what kind of "tech and harsh additives," without a shred of the feeling of home.

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

From his future employment and career prospects to the family life he should have, he thought about planning ahead.

Regrettably, even though he wanted to live a happy family life like his peers, looking around, Chen Jue realized he seemingly had no chance left.

First and foremost was the major hurdle of housing.

With his current salary, he could only afford to pay a mortgage on a house in a fourth or fifth-tier county. As for a house in Hang City, even if he worked for another ten years, he might not keep up with the speed of price hikes and inflation.

Secondly, there were no suitable peers left around him to be a partner.

Whether classmates or colleagues, by the age of thirty, almost every woman was already married.

If they weren't married yet, they were extremely picky and would find it hard to look favorably upon someone with Chen Jue's conditions.

It was like an unsolvable dead end; relying solely on Chen Jue's own efforts wouldn't crack it.

Moreover, after starting a family, one would have to face mortgages, car loans, and the expenses of raising children—the economic pressure would be immense.

Chen Jue tried to ask himself: was that kind of life really what he wanted?

The answer was clearly no.

Amidst his wandering thoughts, Chen Jue fell asleep.

He slept soundly for two long stretches that night.

When he woke up the next day, Chen Jue felt refreshed and full of vitality, so he temporarily stopped obsessing over his life plans.

He first went to the company to retrieve his old phone from his young apprentice, submitted a sick leave request on DingTalk, and took a taxi to the nearby Second Affiliated Hospital.

This was a top-tier major hospital in Hang City, and there were quite a few people there early in the morning to register for appointments.

After asking the staff at the payment counter, he found out that a comprehensive health checkup would actually cost 4,000 yuan, which gave Chen Jue quite a shock!

The most critical part was that the checkup wasn't covered by medical insurance. Spending that much money all at once made even Chen Jue, a mid-level employee with a decent income, feel a sharp sting of pain.

It is no wonder the internet says the poor dare not get sick; Chen Jue truly understood that now.

Gritting his teeth, he registered for a comprehensive health checkup.

From general examinations to internal medicine, surgery, blood, urine, stool, ultrasound, liver and kidney function tests, chest X-rays, electrocardiograms, and more.

There were so many items that Chen Jue spent nearly the entire morning running back and forth.

By the time he received the report in the afternoon, his mind was a complete blank.

Most of the indicators on the report were good; after all, Chen Jue's physique was nearing an integer value of 1.

However, aside from the common occupational ailments Li Chaoqun had mentioned—such as periarthritis and lumbar disc herniation—Chen Jue was shocked to find he also suffered from hemorrhoids, seborrheic alopecia, appendicitis, and even a gallstone!

The other issues were manageable, mostly being chronic conditions.

With the right medication, a regular schedule, a proper diet, and exercise, they could all be improved.

But the appendicitis and gallstone were different; when they flared up, they were excruciatingly painful and could even trigger various other complications, so the doctor advised Chen Jue to have them surgically removed.

Because with current medical means, there were no better ways to treat these two digestive tract diseases; most of the time, it was just a matter of cutting them out.

Upon hearing the doctor's suggestion for surgery, Chen Jue refused immediately.

He was not even 30 years old yet; to have two organs or tissues removed at such a young age—who knew if his future life would be affected?

If any side effects arose, it would be useless for Chen Jue to go after the hospital!

Human organs are not like chives in a field; once you cut them, they don't grow back.

"Damn it!"

"I didn't know until I checked, but once I did, I found a pile of problems."

"No wonder ordinary people don't want to get checkups; isn't this just looking for trouble for oneself?"

Walking out of the hospital with the report, Chen Jue felt completely numb.

It really wasn't easy to work in Hang City; he had almost lost his life in the process.

These two digestive diseases were both caused by his daily diet and irregular sleep schedule.

Fortunately, both the gallstone and the appendicitis were the type of conditions that didn't matter as long as they didn't flare up.

Chen Jue carefully recalled that he hadn't experienced a flare-up in the last year.

Plus, having awakened the attribute panel and seeing his physical fitness improving, he decided to play the ostrich and ignore these two conditions for the time being.

"If all else fails, I'll just grind my physique to 999; surely that would wipe out even cancer cells, right?"

"Mere appendicitis and a small stone—wouldn't that be self-healed in a minute?" Chen Jue fantasized, trying to boost his own morale.

He didn't return to the company.

Since he had already taken sick leave, he might as well skip work for the day.

Besides, with the medical records from the hospital, he could upload them to DingTalk later, and even the HR person in charge of attendance wouldn't be able to find fault with him.

He took a taxi back to Changhe Residential District, and seeing that it was still early, Chen Jue took the remaining stones and headed straight to White Horse Lake Park.

He was feeling irritable because of the checkup.

Chen Jue wanted to relieve some stress by stone skipping and, incidentally, increase his skill proficiency.

On a Tuesday evening, the park was sparsely populated.

The tourists who usually came here to camp and play were all at work; there were very few people like Chen Jue who would skip work to come out.

In a fast-developing first-tier city like Hang City, time is money.

Aside from retired old men and women, the only people with the leisure to stroll through the park on a workday were likely landlords or the wealthy.

Finding a deserted corner, Chen Jue adjusted his mindset and temporarily pushed the checkup out of his mind.

He gripped a stone, followed his usual turning posture, and flung it with all his might.

With a "plop," the stone began to skip across the water's surface, traveling a great distance.

Watching the series of dense ripples spreading across the river, Chen Jue felt his mood calm down significantly.

"This sight is truly stress-relieving!"

"But my stone skipping is starting to look more and more like the level of those professional players online," Chen Jue observed carefully while standing on the bank.

He tried skipping stones with his right hand a few more times, receiving the same [Perfect] +5 prompt.

Based on Chen Jue's observations, he found that [Stone Skipping] had a lower technical threshold and improved faster than [Darts].

Take the world record holder online, for example; his technique was actually only slightly better than Chen Jue's.

It was just that the other person clearly had professional training, with greater strength in their arm, wrist, and fingers, allowing the stone to gain more initial velocity upon hitting the water.

That was the only way to make it skip further and more times.

"Is my strength not enough?" Chen Jue speculated inwardly.

To verify his hypothesis, Chen Jue skipped all the remaining 260-plus Stone Skipping stones from the box, keeping only one in his pocket.

Afterward, he scavenged for more stones in the park to replenish his supply, tossing them until the sky began to darken and his right hand went completely numb. His Strength attribute even ticked up by 0.01, and the proficiency bar for [Stone Skipping] was finally maxed out by Chen Jue.

At this moment, a brand-new notification that had never appeared before popped up on the panel:

[Ding~]

[Proficiency reached 100%, skill level increased.]

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

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

[Skill Evaluation: Any suitable stone that falls into your hands can be played with such flair!]

"It went straight to the max?"

"Is there no Lv4?"

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

With a hint of hesitation, he picked up the very last Stone Skipping stone he had specifically set aside from his online order.

Then, with a standard half-turn, his arm, wrist, and fingers exerted force in one fluid motion, his entire arm whipping forward at a 20-degree angle toward the water's surface with full power.

That final stone whistled through the air, followed by a crisp "plap" as it hit the water, bounced, and began to skim across the surface at high speed.

By the light of the park's streetlamps, Chen Jue clearly saw the trajectory of the stone.

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

It had flown nearly 70 or 80 meters!

Moreover, the splashes the stone kicked up were dense and numerous; a rough visual count suggested it had skipped at least 80 times, nearly tying the world record for Stone Skipping.

Seeing such a result, Chen Jue couldn't help but blurt out a curse: "This is just too damn abstract!"

Second update~

The first perfected skill has appeared, asking for some votes while I'm at it~

PS: Stone Skipping is indeed very simple to learn. If you're interested, you can check out the video by Bilibili creator "Yi Dian Dian Bu Yi Yang" where he visits the national Stone Skipping champion; you can learn to throw them quite far just by watching.

However, the protagonist isn't using petal-shaped clay stones, so the bounce count won't reach the insane levels of over 300.