Can't Go Down One Path to the End

Perhaps it was because he had shaken off the muddled haze of yesterday, he felt as though he were about to welcome a brand-new professional life.

On the drive to the talent apartments, Chen Jue thought about many things.

Given his current situation, he could live quite comfortably in Hang City with a job paying 20k a month.

It was just that as one grew older, continuing to burn through one's youth working for others was not a long-term solution.

Unless this job had excellent prospects for advancement, the kind where one could climb all the way to corporate management and earn dividends.

However, Chen Jue knew his own personality: socially anxious and introverted, he didn't know how to flatter or play office politics, so promotion was essentially out of reach.

As for relying on his newly acquired professional-level Darts to make a living by winning prize money in competitions, he would first have to be able to actually eat from that bowl.

Whether it was the rules of the darts industry or the registration process for tournaments, Chen Jue was currently completely unfamiliar with them.

Furthermore, he had no confidence at all in whether his current strength could actually win gold or prizes in a competition, or even if he could qualify to compete at all.

After all, competitive sports are notoriously cruel.

In the circle of professional athletics, the unspoken rules were no fewer than in the corporate world; having skill and strength didn't necessarily mean you would be allowed to play.

For example, take men's soccer: do you believe that out of 722 million people, they can't pick out 11 who know how to kick a ball?

In Chen Jue's view, one shouldn't abandon years of accumulated professional experience just because they saw a glimmer of hope, then recklessly dive headfirst into a career in darts.

How was that any different from quitting without a plan and going all-in on a startup?

For a technical professional who dealt with risk control data, facing such high stakes required keeping a clear head.

He would continue working for a while longer and see if he could raise Darts to Lv4 or higher.

It wouldn't be too late to make a move once he had absolute certainty.

While lost in thought, he arrived at the Hengtong talent apartments.

This was a commercial-residential building located next to a high-end residential complex, which the Hengtong Group had leased long-term and converted into employee dormitories.

It had 20 floors with over a dozen rooms per floor, all fully equipped with modern facilities.

The apartment complex was adjacent to a park and a large shopping mall, with a commercial street right outside the door, making life very convenient.

Since he had scouted the location that morning, Chen Jue borrowed a flatbed cart from the front desk and moved his luggage into his room bit by bit.

After tidying up, he saw that the environment was indeed much better than the rental in Changhe Residential District.

The room was about 40 square meters with a one-bedroom, one-living-room layout, furnished like a comfortable hotel room costing three or four hundred a night—definitely top-tier configuration in the eyes of a rank-and-file worker.

After making the bed and hanging up his clothes, Chen Jue took a shower and headed downstairs to eat.

Between the hassle of moving, it was already past 9:00 PM, and his stomach was growling with hunger.

He wandered around the nearby commercial street and found a noodle shop to order a bowl of Pian'erchuan; feeling it wasn't enough, Chen Jue also ordered a side of fried pork ribs and a fried egg.

After a week of increased physical activity, plus his physique rising to 1.00, Chen Jue found his appetite was significantly better than before.

According to Li Chaoqun, this was a normal phenomenon after exercise.

Chen Jue was still a beginner, so he could basically replenish his energy just by consuming nutrients from food.

If he were to train to the level of a "monster muscle man" like a fitness coach in the future, he would probably have to go online and buy whey protein to drink.

After eating his fill, he returned to the apartment and lay down, checking his attribute panel:

Name: Chen Jue

Strength: 0.82+

Physique: 1.00+

Spirit: 1.08+

Skills: [Stone Skipping (Perfect)], [Darts Lv4 (12/5000)+], [Twelve Taiji Forms Lv1 (85/200)+]

Available Free Attribute Points: 0.01

(Character Evaluation: A corporate worker who has suddenly awakened. Although your body has shaken off sub-health, there are still some hidden issues. It is recommended to seek targeted treatment to avoid letting minor ailments drag on into serious illnesses.)

"Both physique and spirit have crossed the 1.0 mark."

"Next is to strengthen my strength."

"I wonder if the evaluation will change once all three dimensions reach 1.0," Chen Jue thought to himself.

As for the panel's reminder to see a doctor, Chen Jue planned to find a large nearby hospital tomorrow.

He still had a few days before he had to start work, so he would give himself a short vacation to adjust.

He opened his phone to scroll through his social feed, first "liking" the family photo posted by that idiot Jiang Zhe.

Then, he went on Douyin and Bilibili to watch short videos on darts and fitness.

Since Lin Ling had mentioned "fancy darts" that afternoon, Chen Jue focused his search on high-difficulty dart techniques.

Because the panel still displayed restriction warnings, ordinary needle-dart training would no longer increase his attributes.

However, the internet truly contained everything under the sun.

Especially with big data recommendation algorithms, the videos that popped up were exactly what he liked to watch.

From throwing knives and daggers to strange everyday objects like nails.

With the popularity and widespread adoption of short videos in recent years, all sorts of folk masters had attracted thousands of fans through mere seconds of footage.

As for their storefronts, they were all filled with promotional products boasting 999+ sales.

Just by earning advertising commissions, these content creators and short-video influencers were already raking in the cash.

After looking around, Chen Jue felt that he might be able to give it a try himself.

Filming videos didn't necessarily require showing his face; he could set up a phone stand, wear a mask, or just film his back. He could even showcase his dart-throwing or stone-skipping skills without ever revealing his identity.

"Both Bilibili and Douyin have submission incentives lately."

"Once the view counts go up, the income should be decent."

"Doing this as a side hustle is actually feasible!"

Once this thought took root, Chen Jue temporarily lost all desire to sleep.

In a fit of enthusiasm, he went on Taobao to buy a phone tripod and ordered two large-capacity power banks.

Feeling that showing his face might lead to social embarrassment if recognized by acquaintances, he searched for masks and chose a resin-based, demonic-style battle mask worn by ancient generals.

It was full of personality and impossible to forget after a single glance!

It also saved him the trouble of pixelating his face in post-production.

Of course, to select performance material for his videos, Chen Jue specifically ordered those clay-sculpted petal-shaped skipping stones, buying 500 for a bulk discount.

He wanted to buy some throwing knives, but a warning page popped up.

"Strictly prohibited?"

"So they're contraband!"

Chen Jue's hand trembled as he hurriedly canceled the search and switched to looking for martial arts darts instead.

This time, he got results.

After asking the seller if the items were unsharpened metal darts that wouldn't be restricted, he ordered a set of best-selling short-sword darts.

They were made of stainless steel, so as long as he didn't throw them into the water, they could basically be reused indefinitely.

As for the accounts to post the videos, Chen Jue already had them.

He had been a Level 6 user on Bilibili for over a decade, lurking in the shadows; his profile was empty, save for a few reposts for lucky draws.

He cleared his activity feed, bought a premium membership, and changed his name to: Master of Unique Skills.

He used the same name on Douyin; it happened to be a homophone for his own name, making it both catchy and easy to remember.

These days, if you don't have some unique skills, it's really hard to grab attention on these video sites.

Of course, these initial preparations only cost a small amount—less than a thousand yuan in total.

If he wanted to produce high-quality videos without even that much investment, he would have to go back to the park and keep picking up rocks.

Because he had moved to a more comfortable environment, free from the dampness of the first floor at Changhe Residential District, Chen Jue's sleep quality improved steadily that night.

Although he didn't trigger [Deep Sleep] like last time, when he woke up the next day, Chen Jue felt refreshed, energetic, and exceptionally high-spirited.

Checking his phone, it was only 6:30 AM.

"I'm waking up earlier and earlier!" Chen Jue couldn't help but remark.

He planned to go to a nearby park to practice the [Twelve Taiji Forms].

He changed into sportswear and jogged out of the Talent Building.

By the time he reached the park, quite a few people were already gathered there for their morning exercises.

There were people jogging, cycling, playing table tennis, doing street workouts on pull-up bars, and even whipping spinning tops—in short, it was a lively scene with all sorts of activities.

Compared to the Changhe Residential District where he previously rented, the athletic atmosphere at this park was indeed much better.

After looking around, he found people practicing Taiji.

This was a national treasure, so one could basically find like-minded people anywhere.

However, Chen Jue couldn't join in this time because the middle-aged man leading the group, with his thick black hair and rosy complexion, was clearly teaching a class.

They were all wearing uniform training outfits, and the Taiji they were practicing wasn't the simplified Twelve Forms.

With no other choice, he found an empty, unoccupied spot to practice on his own.

During this time, he didn't run into any passing master-level elders to offer him pointers; those were just things made up in web novels—old tropes meant to fool people.

In reality, there aren't that many random masters running around!

In short, he practiced alone for over an hour until his body was drenched in sweat and he felt completely refreshed. At this moment, the panel provided a prompt:

[Ding~]

[Proficiency reached 100%, skill level increased.]

[Twelve Taiji Forms Lv2 (200/200) → Lv3 (1/2000)]

[After a period of effort, you have become very familiar with the movements of the Twelve Taiji Forms, and it is now almost impossible for you to make a mistake.]

[Ding~]

[Completed one aerobic exercise session meeting the requirements.]

[Free Attribute Point +0.01]

"This simplified Taiji really levels up fast!" Chen Jue remarked with a sigh.

With only twelve forms in total, the difficulty was indeed not high.

Just like practicing [Stone Skipping] before, it was the same few motions repeated over and over, so the proficiency naturally climbed much faster.

According to Chen Jue's estimation, since these [Twelve Taiji Forms] were so simple, they would likely reach perfection at Lv4.

However, looking at the free attribute point that had accumulated a little more, Chen Jue smiled slightly, feeling that the harvest for this morning was decent.

Just as he was planning to head back for breakfast, he spotted an elderly man with gray hair on the other side of the park, leading a bright-eyed, white-toothed young girl in practicing a rare martial arts routine.

Holding a rope in one hand with a sharp dart resembling a spearhead attached to the end, she swung it until it whistled with the wind, throwing it to strike dead-center on a wooden board several meters away.

The movements were vigorous and powerful, making it a truly pleasing sight to behold.

But most importantly, the young girl wielding the dart possessed a truly remarkable temperament.

With her hair tied in a ponytail, her features were full of heroic spirit, and her lithe figure was wrapped in a dark-colored training suit dampened by sweat, accentuating her curves.

She had the group of old men playing chess nearby staring so hard their eyes were practically popping out!

If they kept watching for a few more seconds, they would probably need to take heart medication and be rushed to the ICU.

Of course, seeing this picturesque scene, Chen Jue, a closeted lecher, was equally unable to tear himself away, thinking to himself: "This looks like that thing called a Rope Dart?"

"The difficulty is so high! It's very challenging!"

"If I practice this, I should be able to increase my proficiency in [Darts], right?"

Second update~

My lumbar disc herniation is acting up; sitting for too long makes my back ache.

I have to step up my training to correct it.

Continuing to ask for votes~ Recommendation votes refresh every day, and I hope you esteemed readers will be generous with your rewards!

Kowtowing again (thud, thud).