Real Kung Fu, Fake Skills

After merging the [Stone Skipping] and [Darts] skills, Chen Jue had finally achieved a small goal he had set for himself recently.

Forcing himself to refrain from spending points was, to him, even more agonizing than being unable to... (censored)!

He practiced using stones as darts for a while until his hunger became unbearable, at which point Chen Jue finally left the park to find a breakfast shop.

However, he noticed that the morning's exercise hadn't just left him feeling refreshed; his appetite had also increased significantly.

Sweet soy milk, meat buns, and freshly fried dough sticks—after finishing them, Chen Jue felt only half-full, so he went next door to buy a pancake to munch on while walking.

"Spent 35 on breakfast; the cost of living in Hang City is even more ridiculous than my hidden weapon technique!" Chen Jue couldn't help but grumble.

It was no surprise, really; the city had just finished hosting the sports meet, and with the city's image on the rise, prices had followed suit and skyrocketed.

If ordinary people earning minimum wage had to live in Hang City, their Engel coefficient would likely soar past 80% with ease, leaving them with just enough to fill their stomachs!

Fortunately, having just changed jobs and nearly doubled his salary, Chen Jue had started to become a bit more lavish with his spending.

As long as it tasted good and was nutritious, he was perfectly willing to spend a few hundred on a single meal!

Of course, while eating breakfast, Chen Jue specifically studied the newly activated [Hidden Weapon Throwing].

Once the skill reached level 5, the proficiency progress bar had surged to 20,000 points.

At the rate of improvement he had just experienced, he feared it would take a year or two of practice to reach the next level.

However, seeing the [Master] skill rating provided by the panel, Chen Jue immediately associated it with the "10,000-Hour Rule" he had learned about during his work.

This was a rule proposed by the author Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers.

For an ordinary person to become a world-class master in a certain field, they must dedicate 10,000 hours of practice to it.

If one works eight hours a day, five days a week, it takes at least five years to become a master in a field!

After graduating from junior college at 21, Chen Jue had worked in risk control data, switching between several companies; cumulatively, he had over 8 years of experience, and when counting overtime, he could already be considered a master of risk control data.

Yet, this attribute panel had allowed him to start from scratch and grow into a master of hidden weapons in just 10 days.

This spoke volumes about its efficiency and its mind-boggling corrective functions!

"If I were to open an interest class or take on a few apprentices now, I bet quite a few people would sign up, right?" Chen Jue chuckled to himself.

With his skills improved, Chen Jue hadn't forgotten about making money.

Taking advantage of the brief moment of peace after breakfast, he thought of the video account he had opened online.

Clicking into the backend, he saw that the [Unique Skill: Stone Skipping] video he uploaded yesterday had already garnered several thousand views.

As for the comment and bullet screen sections, they were finally free of bots and had started to see real people.

But upon reading the messages, Chen Jue's face immediately darkened.

"That's it? And you call this a unique skill? (Disdain)"

"You dare show this off without breaking a world record? (Tsk tsk)"

"Don't you know everyone on Bilibili is a master? (Dog head)"

"Master, someone is showing off their unique skill in front of you @Shen the Stone Skipper"

"These skipping stones must have been bought from your shop, right? @Shen the Stone Skipper"

"Wearing a mask and playing mysterious, is this person from our group? @Shen the Stone Skipper"

The comment section was filled with people tagging that world record holder, and the man himself had even descended to comment, "Not bad, keep working hard! (Heart)," his tone dripping with the condescension of a master instructing a novice.

However, comments were just comments; the world record holder had actually sent Chen Jue a private message, inviting him to join a stone-skipping enthusiast group.

Chen Jue didn't join the group, but he did click in to check the group announcement.

The announcement flew the banner of being a "Gathering Place for Competitive Stone Skipping Practitioners," but underneath it were links to several Taobao listings for clay skipping stones.

As expected of someone doing business with stone skipping; once you gather all the high-level enthusiasts, you can conveniently peddle your own skipping stones—precision marketing!

"You guys certainly have a head for business!"

Chen Jue gave them a mental thumbs-up.

Having been mocked on the video site, Chen Jue had initially wanted to film another stone-skipping video to retaliate against these self-important, arrogant keyboard warriors.

But after trying a few times, using the newly synthesized level 5 [Hidden Weapon Throwing] technique to throw the store-bought petal-shaped clay skipping stones, he still couldn't manage to surpass the world record.

The maximum number of skips reached 250, and the distance was only about 90 meters—this was already a master-level stone-skipping performance.

Anything beyond that would mean breaking the world record.

"The skill is only a technical application."

"The key still lies in the strength attribute!"

"I'll focus my training on hand strength from now on. I don't believe that once my strength is up, I won't be able to skip one to the other side of the lake!" Chen Jue huffed, looking at the park lake nearly 200 meters wide, clearly feeling unconvinced.

But one must eat a meal one bite at a time, and kung fu must be practiced bit by bit.

There was no need to get worked up over these keyboard warriors.

Taking advantage of the time before noon, Chen Jue slipped out of the park.

Returning to the talent apartment, he picked up a few packages; the Darts and Grip Strengthener he had ordered online had arrived.

To prepare for future videos, he had bought quite a few darts this time, with a wide variety of styles.

However, bolstered by the technique of [Hidden Weapon Throwing], Chen Jue found every new style of dart extremely intuitive to handle. After feeling them out for a moment and testing them on the foam padding inside the shipping box from a distance, he immediately mastered the optimal throwing method.

He tried out throwing knives, short swords, iron chopsticks, Steel Needles, and Meteor Darts. While his proficiency didn't increase much, Chen Jue himself was having a blast.

After all, these stainless steel darts cost several hundred yuan, and their feel and quality were excellent.

As a slightly chuunibyou shut-in, no one could refuse such toys.

After testing the new darts, Chen Jue picked up the Grip Strengthener recommended by Yu Jie and adjusted it according to the manual.

After squeezing it a few times, he discovered that with his current Strength of 0.83, he could only fully close it with one hand at a maximum setting of 50 kilograms.

Any higher, and he couldn't force the handles to touch.

"A 100-kilogram limit, I've still got a long way to go!" Chen Jue was somewhat dissatisfied.

After heading downstairs for lunch, he began to squeeze the Grip Strengthener frantically.

Since there was an electronic counter on top of the device, every squeeze added +1, and after a few presses, it became as addictive as checking step counts on WeChat.

But as he kept squeezing, Chen Jue began to feel his fingers, wrists, and forearms aching intensely.

Compared to [Hidden Weapon Throwing], this Grip Strengthener was clearly much more efficient at exercising forearm strength.

He spent about half an hour, alternating between his left and right hands.

After about 200 squeezes, with both arms feeling as hard as [beep] (censored), the panel finally popped up a notification:

[Ding~]

[Completed a mechanical anaerobic exercise. The muscle groups in your fingers, wrists, and forearms have been effectively exercised, and your grip strength has improved.]

[Strength Attribute +0.01]

"I can't! I can't do any more!"

"This is a hundred times more tiring than playing League of Legends!"

Although he saw his Strength attribute increase, this training session left a deep impression on Chen Jue.

The seemingly small Grip Strengthener had managed to leave him completely exhausted.

Once he put it down, he didn't even want to lift a finger.

The worst part was that the soreness and swelling lasted from the afternoon well into the night without fading, which showed just how intense the workout had been.

He started by applying a cold compress to both hands.

Because he had been researching and learning during this time, Chen Jue already knew that applying heat immediately after strenuous exercise could easily make blood vessels brittle, damage capillaries, and even worsen muscle fatigue, triggering a series of inflammations!

Take NBA athletes, for example; many big-name stars would enter specialized liquid nitrogen equipment for cryotherapy after a fierce, high-contact game.

Only after the cryotherapy was finished and the body temperature had completely dropped would they take a hot shower.

Doing this effectively prevented injuries and extended their competitive longevity.

Chen Jue didn't have the conditions of an NBA star to spend millions on liquid nitrogen therapy equipment, so he had to make do with ice cubes from the freezer mixed with tap water to give himself a cold compress.

After the cold compress, he went to the bathroom and soaked his hands in hot water.

Unexpectedly, this first attempt gave him a surprise from the panel!

[Ding~]

[Completed a cryotherapy session meeting the requirements. Through the cold compress, your hand muscle groups are effectively cooling down, and the hot compress reduces lactic acid buildup. Under the stimulation of alternating cold and heat, your hand muscle groups have been slightly improved.]

[Physique Attribute +0.01]

"As expected, those top-tier athletes and stars don't do useless work."

"I didn't expect that learning recovery techniques from them, outside of the sports themselves, would actually be useful!" Chen Jue looked at the panel notification and couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

Top athletes are worth hundreds of millions, especially foreign stars, some of whom have assets in the billions or tens of billions.

Only with such financial depth can they afford top-tier recovery teams.

Chen Jue was still in the starting phase and hadn't yet figured out a way to make money that suited him, so he had to rely on crude methods and try to figure things out on his own.

His requirements weren't high; he just didn't want to train himself into an injury!

After finishing the hot and cold compresses, he sprayed his hands with Yunnan Baiyao and applied a Tiger Balm pain-relief patch.

The consumption of these two types of medicine had been quite high lately, so Chen Jue had already gone online and stockpiled two boxes.

After finishing the folk therapy, his hands still lacked any strength.

He couldn't perform the Eye Health Exercises, and he didn't even want to move to scroll through his phone.

He had intended to lie down and sleep early, but he hadn't expected that Wu Fang, who had been silent all day, would actually reply to his text message at this moment!

"Do you want to train in real kung fu? (Surprised)"

"Isn't your Darts technique real kung fu? (Sneaky laugh)"

Third update!

Coughing up blood begging for votes~ Recommendation votes or monthly votes are both fine!

Continuing tomorrow! Nothing more for tonight~