"Cycling is aerobic exercise?"
Three lines of pixel-style prompts scrolled across his vision with a clatter.
As Chen Jue panted with his mouth open, he glanced at the Attribute Panel.
He discovered that this MUD-style text-game panel had gained several new features.
Character: Chen Jue Strength: 0.76+ Constitution: 0.89+ Spirit: 1.05+ Skills: [Stone Skipping Lv. 0 (11/100)+] Free Attribute Points Available: 0.01↑ (Character Evaluation: An ordinary, unremarkable office worker. Your body is in a severely suboptimal state of health.)
First, a conspicuous "+" had appeared after each of the three core attributes and the skill entry.
According to the panel's prompts, Chen Jue could use free attribute points to increase his stats.
The conversion rate for attributes into attribute points was 1:1.
The other conversion rate was 0.01 attribute points for 10 points of skill proficiency.
Chen Jue had learned these rules by focusing his mind on the "+" signs.
They were simple enough, just like adding attributes to a character in a mini-game.
But he had no idea what would happen after he spent those free attribute points, and the panel offered no specific explanation.
Besides, his base attributes were extremely low. Other than Spirit, the remaining two were both below one.
"What standards does this Attribute Panel use to calculate these values?"
"An average adult?"
"Or an athlete's physical stats?"
Chen Jue worked in risk-control data, dealing with all kinds of clients' figures every day. He was naturally very sensitive to numbers.
He didn't rush to spend his points. Instead, he thought it over and analyzed the panel's underlying logic.
Besides, the [Stone Skipping] skill looked very strange to him.
To an ordinary person, stone skipping was just a fun, leisurely pastime. It was only for amusement; what real significance could it have?
And yet the Attribute Panel had recorded it separately and turned it into a skill.
"Even if I level this dumb skill up a hundred times, it's still just skipping stones! What's the point of putting points into it?" Chen Jue couldn't figure it out or make sense of it.
The mere fact that this Attribute Panel had appeared in the real world was already ridiculous.
Trying to analyze something that was already ridiculous was like opening the door for ridiculousness's mother. It was ridiculous beyond belief.
"Forget it! I'm not going to worry about all that!"
"I'll try increasing one of my three core attributes first!"
After taking a few moments to rest and compose himself, he focused his attention on the "+" signs after Strength, Constitution, and Spirit.
"Which attribute should I increase first?" Chen Jue hesitated.
It was his first time, after all. He had no experience, and anyone might have trouble choosing.
If it worked like in many online novels, where adding a point led to a bone-cleansing transformation and left him unconscious for days, Chen Jue would definitely head back to his rental and lie down comfortably before trying it.
It was like reviewing loan applications at work. Clients with poor credit were usually denied loans or asked for additional collateral and higher interest. At worst, he referred them to other small companies to transfer the risk and serve as a backstop.
He was in unfamiliar surroundings at White Horse Lake Park, with no one around to help.
If he spent points recklessly and something went wrong, no one would be there to bail him out.
Besides, he'd ridden for nearly half an hour, and had been as exhausted as a dead dog when he finally earned 0.01 free attribute points. The return was pretty poor.
After hesitating for a moment, he glanced again at the "suboptimal health" evaluation.
His last bit of rationality was overwhelmed by impulsiveness.
"Damn it! I'm almost thirty and still this indecisive. No wonder I'm stuck working for someone else!"
"I'll pick Constitution. Give me the point!"
Chen Jue slapped his sweaty cheeks and charged ahead without thinking.
His free attribute points reset to zero. The 0.89 Constitution value on the panel flickered and became 0.90, while the remaining "+" signs disappeared.
Then an inexplicable warmth flowed from his chest through his body. His skin grew slightly hot, but the cool breeze blowing through the park quickly put an end to it.
"That's it?"
"Nothing's changed at all!" Chen Jue couldn't help complaining to himself.
But when he paid closer attention, he found that the soreness in his legs after riding seemed to have eased a little.
It was subtle, but his recovery was indeed a tiny bit faster than usual.
Chen Jue figured he'd invested too little, so the effect on his overall body was small. That was why he hadn't noticed any major changes.
"Never mind. Something's better than nothing!"
"As long as there aren't any obvious side effects." Chen Jue muttered to himself, parked the shared bike, and slipped into White Horse Lake Park.
At night, a few scattered lights illuminated the park.
The trees lining both banks swayed in the wind. In the distance, an antique-style bridge spanned the river. Under the lights, he could just make out several oddly designed modern venues and a prominent tower on the opposite bank.
Since it was Friday night, quite a few families from Hang City had come to relax. Tents and canopies dotted the park's lawns.
Farther away, there was even a stage that looked like it belonged at a concert. Spotlights flashed as an unfamiliar singer performed a gentle folk song.
"A park music festival?"
"I didn't expect this place to be so lively." Chen Jue strolled around on the brick-paved path.
He realized he'd been a bit of a shut-in during the two years he'd lived nearby, missing out on such a wonderful natural setting.
The company would be shutting down in a little over ten days. He didn't know if he'd get another chance to visit this park.
"Time to get down to business!"
Chen Jue put those thoughts aside and began searching for stones on the riverside lawn with his phone in hand.
Since this was an ecological wetland park, there were natural stones everywhere. After walking along the river for more than ten minutes, Chen Jue picked up over twenty that were suitable.
To make stone skipping easier, he'd even cleared out his small work bag and left a compartment just for the stones.
He found a secluded corner, set his bag on the ground, and took out a flat stone. He weighed it in his hand.
Then, recalling the moves he'd used in the rooftop garden that afternoon, he swung his right arm and let the stone fly. It slapped across the river's surface, bouncing several times.
[ Ding~ ]
[Action meets requirements]
[Stone Skipping skill proficiency +1]
Seeing the familiar prompt scroll across the panel, Chen Jue smiled knowingly.
"Not bad!"
"It's about the same as skipping stones in a pool. And there's more room on this river, so I don't have to hold back." Chen Jue remembered how timid he'd been on the rooftop that afternoon.
The roof of the building had been spacious enough, but Chen Jue hadn't dared put his full strength into skipping stones.
If he accidentally threw one off the building, it would fall twenty-eight floors. Whether it hit a car or a person, the consequences would be more than he could handle.
The wetland park was different. The river was hundreds of meters wide at its broadest, so he could throw as he pleased without worrying about hitting anyone.
After standing there and skipping stones a few times to gain a few points of proficiency, Chen Jue grew bolder and began taking a running start to put more power into his throws.
"Smack!"
Watching the stone skip dozens of meters across the river, bouncing more than a dozen times, Chen Jue couldn't help grinning.
This was fun!
It was kind of addictive!
After one throw, he wanted to try again, to see if the next one would travel farther and bounce more times.
A man's happiness was often this simple and unpretentious!
What Chen Jue hadn't expected, though, was that this running-start throw would change the panel's prompt.
[ Ding~ ]
[Action meets requirements. You performed an outstanding stone skip.]
[Stone Skipping skill proficiency +2]
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