From Today On, I Won't Need the Elevator Anymore

Watching the new prompt pop up on the panel, Chen Jue was slightly taken aback.

"Climbing stairs counts as Climbing? Not bad!"

"Is it because climbing upward is a form of exercise?"

Chen Jue pondered for a moment, then turned around and looked at the steps he had just climbed.

The staircase wasn't particularly steep. Although there was a handrail, Chen Jue hadn't touched it once on the way up, and he'd climbed the stairs in no time.

Still, since the panel considered climbing stairs a form of Climbing, Chen Jue was now full of motivation to keep doing it.

"I just started at this new company, and they've already got me climbing stairs to grind proficiency."

"Isn't this basically forcing me to slack off in plain sight?" Chen Jue grinned. He stopped wondering why and turned to continue climbing.

The building housing Hengtong Group was a Grade A office building, with each floor measuring the standard 4.2 meters in height.

The emergency staircases in Grade A office buildings were usually designed in a double-flight layout. That meant the stairs turned once on every floor, making a shape similar to the symbol "|z|".

There were about fifteen steps in each half-flight, with a small landing at the turn where people could rest. After rounding the corner, another fifteen steps led to the emergency exit on the floor above.

It took thirty steps to climb each floor, so getting to the seventeenth floor meant a total of 480 steps.

That many steps would take no time at all on flat ground or downhill.

But climbing stairs was another matter. It was seriously exhausting.

By around the seventh floor, Chen Jue was already panting. His heart was racing, and sweat was beginning to break out all over his body. One hand instinctively reached for the railing.

"This... it doesn't look that high, but it's really tiring to climb. It feels way more exhausting than doing Taiji." Chen Jue slowed down. Climbing the stairs felt like he was submerged in water.

Every time he lifted a leg, his thighs and ankles ached with muscle fatigue.

By the time he reached the twelfth floor, Chen Jue was moving as slowly as a snail.

He had to gasp for breath after every two steps and pause to recover.

He'd only rested for a few seconds when the panel gave him another prompt:

[ Ding~ ]

[You completed a high-intensity aerobic workout. Your leg muscles were exercised, and your dynamic balance improved slightly.]

[Reminder: Your cardiopulmonary function is working hard, your blood circulation has accelerated, and your oxygen consumption has increased. Make sure to take in enough oxygen to avoid bodily injury.]

[Constitution +0.01]

[Strength +0.01]

[Free Attribute +0.01]

"C-Climbing the stairs actually triggered a critical hit!"

"It only took three minutes!"

Chen Jue climbed up to the thirteenth floor. Seeing the warning highlighted in red, he quickly pushed open the emergency exit and went out into the office area, where he took several deep breaths of fresh air.

Climbing stairs was a high-intensity workout, and it raised proficiency and attributes at an absurdly fast rate. But the air in the stairwell smelled awful.

Chen Jue guessed the building management had deliberately turned off the ventilation fans to save electricity. The air was stale and musty.

It probably came from the cars in the underground garage, mixed with the smell of smoke. Too much of it made him feel sick.

"Just as I thought. Property management companies are stingy no matter where you go!"

"How much electricity could running a fan for a day possibly use?" Chen Jue couldn't help grumbling.

He'd finally found a new way to raise his attributes, only to have it disrupted by something beyond his control.

If he hadn't just started at a new company and still been unfamiliar with the place, he would've called 96119 to report the building for failing to meet fire safety standards!

Chen Jue stayed on the thirteenth floor for about seven or eight minutes. By then, it was past nine.

That was a normal time to start work, but Chen Jue wasn't in a hurry at all. He'd already clocked in downstairs.

Showing up right on the edge of being late on his first day at work—he sure had some nerve. He was getting bolder.

Of course, that was mainly because his mindset had changed.

He was almost thirty. Who still cared about that damn attendance record?

But what Chen Jue hadn't expected was that, just after nine, the ventilation ducts in the stairwell started humming.

He stuck his head into the stairwell and sniffed. The air wasn't as unpleasant anymore, so he waited until he'd recovered from the exertion, then slowly dragged himself up to the seventeenth floor.

He pushed open the emergency exit again and slowly walked to the impressive entrance of Hengtong Group's Risk Control Department. His tracksuit was completely soaked with sweat.

"Counting the breaks, it took about twelve minutes in all."

"One climb like that feels more effective than an hour at the gym!"

"No wonder nobody ever talks about climbing the stairs to get to work in a building this tall." As Chen Jue marveled at it, he glanced at his Attribute Panel:

Character: Chen Jue

Strength: 0.87+

Constitution: 1.09+

Spirit: 1.07+

Skills: [Hidden Weapon Throwing Lv5 (24/20000)] [Climbing Lv0 (35/100)] [Twelve Taiji Forms (Mastered)]

Free Attribute Points Available: 0.01

(Character Evaluation: You're an employee with a mind of your own. Although your hard work hasn't earned you a 100% return, it won't go completely to waste like it used to, taking up all your time for nothing.)

(However, please remember to pay attention to any underlying health issues while being disciplined. Balance work and rest, and stay healthy if you want to go further.)

"Almost there!"

"If I keep at it for a few more days, all three stats should get above one."

Chen Jue looked at the updated character evaluation on the panel. His brow furrowed slightly, then he felt the small pocket in his backpack where he kept his medicine.

He'd already gotten a rough idea of what was wrong with him after going to the hospital. Most of his conditions were chronic.

Besides exercising every day, he'd been taking his prescribed medication after meals.

He was regularly taking the Tauroursodeoxycholic Acid the attending physician had mentioned, which was specifically used to treat gallstones.

The medicine was expensive. It was imported, so insurance wouldn't cover it, and a month's supply cost more than 600 yuan.

People prone to developing gallstones had to keep taking it, too. It cost even more than Chen Jue used to spend on cigarettes.

"I wonder if this medicine can actually dissolve the stones."

"If it can't, I'll have to make a special trip to Shanghai to see a doctor." As his thoughts turned over, Chen Jue stood at the entrance to his new company for a moment before walking inside.

He'd already completed his onboarding, had his face scanned, and been assigned a workstation.

The young woman at the front desk didn't recognize Chen Jue, but when she saw his employee ID pop up on the entry camera's monitor, she smiled and greeted him warmly with a "Good morning."

"As expected of a top company. Even the Risk Control Department's receptionist is several levels better-looking than the ones at Taisheng Finance!" Chen Jue thought. There was always a bit of excitement in starting somewhere new.

He crossed the spacious office and made his way to the Risk Control Department at the far end.

It was a large space with nearly a hundred workstations, divided into six teams. As the new hire, Chen Jue had been assigned to Team Five.

According to General Manager Luo Lezhi, the head of the Risk Control Department, Team Five handled refinancing for existing vehicle owners—that is, the common car-backed loan business.

Compared with the more common installment plans for new and used cars, the volume of car-backed loans wasn't particularly high. But the customers' qualifications varied widely, and many were fraudsters, making the work a real test of a risk-control employee's judgment.

But Chen Jue had been demoted from a supervisor position and had experience with all kinds of business. Car-backed loans were nothing new to him.

He ambled over to his workstation. Several people at the neighboring desks were already hard at work.

Some were logging into the system, some were reviewing documents, and a few were analyzing last week's approval data.

As soon as Chen Jue, a new face, appeared, everyone looked his way.

Chen Jue smiled and waved at his new colleagues. "Hi, everyone. I'm Chen Jue, the new guy! We met last week!"

Seeing his polite, scholarly appearance, glasses, slightly chubby build, and sparse hair that left some of his scalp showing, everyone could tell he was a veteran in risk control. They smiled and greeted him, making their first introductions.

Just then, Li Mo, the leader of Team Five, seated at the far end, smiled at him. "Chen Jue, General Manager Luo already went over your onboarding arrangements at last week's meeting."

"Today's your first day. Start by getting familiar with the logic and data models in our risk-control system, then learn how the front-end products classify customers. This afternoon, I'll try giving you a few Class A customers to review."

"I'm the team leader, so I'll supervise your work for the first week. If everything goes well, you can handle cases on your own next week. Does that work for you?"

"No problem!"

Chen Hao nodded at that. His first impression of his new colleagues was pretty good.

No one was giving him a judgmental look or whispering about him. It seemed Li Mo had fostered a good atmosphere.

After taking his seat, Chen Jue put away his personal belongings, then went to the restroom to change into his work clothes.

He'd climbed seventeen floors and was drenched in sweat. Luckily, he'd brought a towel; otherwise, he'd be sticky and uncomfortable sitting at his desk trying to slack off.

He'd only just sat down in his chair when the chubby guy at the next desk leaned over.

"Hey, man. I'm Shen Shikun. Nice to meet you! Looks like we'll be neighbors from now on."

"You haven't joined the group chat yet, have you? I'll add you on WeChat and pull you into our team group."

Shen Shikun was a hefty-looking guy with a somewhat simple, honest appearance. He looked like the sort of office worker who weighed over 200 pounds and wasn't very athletic.

"Thanks!"

Seeing how welcoming he was, Chen Jue politely took out his phone and added him on WeChat.

When you started at a new company, adding people on WeChat was the first step to fitting in as quickly as possible.

After Shen Shikun added him to the Team Five group, Chen Jue added the members one by one and sent a 200-yuan red packet to the group, letting people try their luck and livening things up.

Seeing the group chat fill with all sorts of silly stickers and a few nearby colleagues lamenting that they hadn't gotten the biggest share, Chen Jue knew his new job probably wouldn't be too boring.

"Looks like they're all pretty easy to get along with."

Chen Jue smiled and turned on his computer, logging into Hengtong's system with his employee ID.

The interface was sleek, and the risk-control models and strategies were among the most advanced on the market. It was also connected to a bunch of paid data-query platforms, covering nearly every kind of information related to vehicle financing.

Everything was gathered in one system, from vehicle repair records, 4S maintenance, and insurance claims to customers' legal enforcement records, credit liabilities, and bad-debt history.

"Wouldn't checking one customer's data cost over a hundred yuan?"

"No wonder it's a big company. They've got money to burn!"

After only a quick look around, Chen Jue could barely stop himself from drooling.

Compared with a rinky-dink operation like Taisheng Finance, only a big company like this could confidently tell investors that it had a proper risk-control system.

If Chen Jue had had a system like this at his old job, he could've handled the workload of an entire team on his own. There'd have been no need to hire three assistants to split up the busywork.

That was the advantage of an integrated software system!

Everything could be done with a single click. All it took was a few mouse clicks to finish the job.

But small companies couldn't afford something like this. Chen Jue guessed that setting up the system alone would cost tens of millions. No small-business owner or investor could cough up that kind of money.

"But that's fine!"

"The stronger this risk-control system is, the easier my job will be."

"Isn't it great to have extra time to slack off and work out?"

Once Chen Jue thought it through, he grinned, reached into his bag, and took out the Grip Strengthener, placing it openly on his desk.

First update~

I took the kid to get checked for the flu during the day, so it took quite a while.

I don't have to go tomorrow, so I'll try to start posting earlier. Staying up late is bad for your health.

And, as always, please keep sending those recommendation votes~