The New Colleague Is a Bit Abnormal

With his right hand clicking the mouse, Chen Jue feigned familiarity with the risk control system while his left hand rhythmically squeezed a Grip Strengthener.

The counter on the Grip Strengthener ticked upward, +1 after +1, in a constant loop.

Because he had just started using this device and had no prior experience, he had gone too hard at the beginning, causing lactic acid buildup in both hands. This time, Chen Jue deliberately slowed his pace.

He not only lowered the resistance limit of the Grip Strengthener from 60kg to 30kg, but he also slowed down the frequency of his squeezes.

Since he had an eight-hour workday, as long as he didn't injure his hands, Chen Jue could keep squeezing until the company went bankrupt!

As for the work itself, it was child's play to Chen Jue.

As a master-level risk control data analyst with over 10,000 hours of experience, he only needed a glance at the system to know exactly how to judge whether a client's loan application should be approved or rejected.

This was the benefit of having professional experience; he could hit the ground running at any new company.

Many companies hiring on the market preferred experienced hands like Chen Jue.

They didn't mind paying a higher salary; as long as the work was done well, it was better than hiring a bunch of fresh graduates or interns who constantly made mistakes.

This was why so many college graduates faced the harsh reality of "I'm sorry, you lack work experience and don't meet our requirements" the moment they sent out their resumes.

No experience, no hire.

No hire, no way to gain experience.

It formed a logical closed loop of "graduation equals unemployment" that was impossible to break.

After squeezing for over an hour, the attribute panel remained motionless.

Chen Jue figured that because he had lowered the intensity, the exercise volume hadn't reached the threshold recognized by the panel.

When he was using the 60kg setting, he usually received a notification after about half an hour.

However, Chen Jue wasn't in a hurry; he had plenty of patience!

During a break while switching hands, Chen Jue looked up to survey his surroundings.

Beyond familiarizing himself with the office environment, he was also observing his new colleagues.

They were all risk control personnel who sat in front of computers for long periods; not only was their posture crooked and hunched, but their glasses were uniformly thick, clearly starting at a prescription of at least 500 degrees.

Yet, this group of colleagues belonged to the high-income bracket among ordinary people, with monthly salaries starting at 20k. Their spending habits were similar to Chen Jue's—they were all quite willing to spend money.

None of them looked sickly; they were either portly or had a well-fed, prosperous appearance.

Except for the team leader, Li Mo, who showed some signs of exercise with his lean physique, five or six out of every ten were overweight.

Looking at them, Chen Jue felt as if he were seeing himself before he had obtained the panel.

I've been so consistent with my training lately, I must have lost at least a few pounds, right?

If I get the chance, I need to find time to get a body composition test.

Chen Jue felt a bit nostalgic for the 50,000-yuan body composition machine at Yilian Fitness.

It was a pity that since he had moved to work in the CBD, he wouldn't have the chance to go to the Binjiang Industrial Park area anymore.

He opened his phone to browse Taobao and settled for a body fat scale, which cost less than 30 yuan—cheaper than a breakfast in Hang City.

Just then, Shen Shikun, who had finished using the restroom, passed by Chen Jue's workstation. He took a few glances at the Grip Strengthener in Chen Jue's hand and leaned in to ask, "Buddy, what is that? Is it for working out?"

Chen Jue glanced at him. In the last hour, he had noticed this chubby man go to the restroom twice.

And he stayed for a long time!

First a small leak, then a big one—getting paid to use the restroom, half an hour gone in the blink of an eye. He was clearly a veteran at slacking off on the job.

"It's just a Grip Strengthener, for training the fingers."

"Do you want to give it a try?"

Seeing his obese frame, Chen Jue handed it over out of kindness.

Shen Shikun took the Grip Strengthener and played with it for a bit, even trying to increase the resistance limit, but he couldn't budge it once he hit 50kg.

"Whew!"

"It's this hard to squeeze even a few times?"

"Can't do it! Can't do it!"

Shen Shikun let out a long breath and returned the device to Chen Jue with a suspicious look.

Because while Shen Shikun was daydreaming at his desk earlier, he had noticed that Chen Jue had been squeezing this thing since he sat down.

From past 9 o'clock until 10:30, he had been at it for over an hour.

How much hand endurance did that require?

Even though Chen Jue had switched hands midway, for a 200-pound homebody like Shen Shikun, it was impossible to understand how someone could have such patience.

Wouldn't his hands get sore after squeezing for so long?

This guy seems to have some weird hobbies! Shen Shikun muttered to himself.

Seeing that the chubby man wasn't interested in exercise, Chen Jue smiled, took back the Grip Strengthener, and continued his alternating hand training.

After squeezing until about 11 o'clock, the panel finally displayed a new notification:

[Ding~]

[Completed one session of excessive anaerobic endurance training. Your finger, wrist, and forearm muscle groups have been effectively exercised. Muscle endurance and bilateral grip strength have improved.]

[Strength Attribute +0.01]

[Free Attribute +0.01]

[Friendly Reminder: Muscle fascia and skeletal joints are not machine parts. Excessive endurance training can easily lead to stenosing tenosynovitis of the fingers. Please schedule your training time reasonably to avoid unnecessary physical injury.]

[Recommended training duration: 30 minutes/12 hours]

"Exceeded the limit again?"

Chen Jue looked at the prompt and immediately stopped using the Grip Strengthener.

Just like with the [Eye Health Exercises] from before, this Grip Strengthener could not be overused either.

As the panel stated, the human body is not a metal machine that never tires.

Sensitive human organs like the hands have their own upper limits of endurance.

"I can only train for 30 minutes every half day, which adds up to 1 hour a day."

It seems I have to learn how to rest as well, Chen Jue thought to himself.

Taking advantage of the soreness in his hands, he added the 0.02 points of free attributes he had just earned that morning into [Physique] once again.

A warm current spread throughout his entire body, and the lactic acid accumulated in his hands was largely relieved by the impact of this heat.

Glancing at the unfamiliar term [stenosing tenosynovitis], Chen Jue specifically opened his phone to search for it online.

It is a disease that frequently occurs in the hands and wrists, primarily caused by long-term overuse of the fingers and wrists.

The tendon sheath, also known as the synovial sheath, is a tubular synovial sac covering the surface of long tendons, which can reduce friction during tendon movement.

To put it simply, this thing is like a ring of ball bearings fitted over the hand muscles and joints; it automatically secretes lubricating fluid inside. As long as you don't overexert yourself, there is naturally no problem.

However, once the limit is exceeded and lubrication becomes insufficient, friction will lead to inflammation.

Chen Jue was already very resistant to the symptoms of lactic acid buildup alone.

Not to mention training until he developed inflammation!

He could grind for attributes at any time, but the prerequisite was not to damage his own body.

Putting down the Grip Strengthener, he checked the time and saw it wasn't lunch yet.

Chen Jue sat at his workstation and began looking up information related to human movement. These office computers were high-end configurations and basically never disconnected from the internet; he could even play games on them without issue.

But playing games during work hours wasn't just slacking off; it would be pushing his luck.

However, having stayed away from his phone and computer for a while recently, Chen Jue felt slightly unaccustomed to staring at the screen for so long, and his eyes felt a bit dry.

He took off his glasses and, as if no one else were around, raised his hands to perform the [Eye Health Exercises].

He intended to massage the acupoints around his eye sockets to relieve eye fatigue.

Yet, this scene left Shen Shikun, who was sitting nearby, completely stunned!

"What the hell!"

"What is he doing?"

"Doing the Eye Health Exercises for kids?"

If this stuff were actually useful, I wouldn't have gotten nearsighted so early! Shen Shikun complained frantically in his heart. He felt that this new colleague next to him was truly a weirdo.

It was one thing to play with a Grip Strengthener in broad daylight, but now he had actually started doing the exercises meant for elementary and middle school students.

However, seeing the other man massaging with such vigor, and noting that his techniques and movements were completely different from the "rubbing the Tianying acupoint" he remembered, Shen Shikun couldn't help but take a few extra looks.

"Which version of the Eye Health Exercises is this?"

"How come I've never seen it before?" Shen Shikun muttered to himself.

He snuck a glance at the workstation of the team leader, Li Mo, in the distance, hesitating whether he should follow suit and learn it.

Because if he did, he would have one more new trick to kill time while slacking off at work.

Time flew by to 11:30, and people at nearby workstations began to stand up one after another to stretch and move their limbs.

Chen Jue also saw that the new work group chat had already started discussing what to eat for lunch and what takeout to order.

For an office worker, only the lunch break and nap time truly belonged to them.

If you didn't eat something good to reward yourself during this time, you were simply making life difficult for yourself.

"Chen Jue, do you want to head to the cafeteria on the first floor and grab a bite together?"

"The food in the cafeteria is actually quite good; I basically eat there every day," Shen Shikun leaned in and suggested enthusiastically.

"Sure!"

"Let's go together!"

Chen Jue nodded, grabbed his work badge, and followed him downstairs.

However, he didn't take the stairs this time. Considering he had already climbed them once in the morning, Chen Jue was worried that excessive climbing might damage his knees.

While researching online that morning, Chen Jue discovered that besides finger tenosynovitis, there was also a complex condition known as knee joint injury.

Plus, with a 200-pound guy like him nearby, dragging his colleague along to climb stairs would probably make people look at them like they were idiots.

They took the elevator down to the cafeteria, which was spacious and featured a two-story open-ceiling layout.

The variety of dishes was impressive; besides Chinese cuisine, there were Western options and fast-food chains like KFC and McDonald's. The selection was quite extensive, easily rivaling the standards of the outsourced cafeteria at Huaye Building.

Furthermore, those who came here to eat were primarily internal staff of Hengtong Group, all dressed in sharp suits. It wasn't as crowded or chaotic as Huaye Building, and Chen Jue felt the environment was quite pleasant and not too noisy the moment he walked in.

After heading to the service counter to load 500 into his work badge, Chen Jue picked out the food he liked and found an empty seat by the floor-to-ceiling window.

As for Shen Shikun, he brought over an entire fried chicken, two cups of cola, fries, and a burger.

"Isn't it greasy to eat all that in the middle of the day?"

Chen Jue asked out of curiosity; he finally understood why the other man was so heavy.

"It's alright!"

"I grew up abroad, so I've loved fried chicken and burgers since I was a kid. I'm used to it, though I do switch things up occasionally," Shen Shikun chuckled, then began complaining to Chen Jue about the building's property management.

"See that fly?"

"It's already autumn, and there's still such a huge green-bottle fly! The property management here is so stingy; they don't even bother spraying insecticide. It's really off-putting to see this thing while eating!" Shen Shikun said with a look of utter disgust.

"They are indeed stingy!"

"They didn't even turn on the ventilation in the stairwell this morning; it smelled terrible inside," Chen Jue added, joining in the complaints.

It was highly likely that the fly had flown in from the stairwell.

Because when Chen Jue was climbing the stairs that morning, he noticed that the large trash cans on every floor were placed right by the fire exit doors.

If the ventilation wasn't turned on, the stench would inevitably attract flies.

As they ate, the fly circled around to their table, buzzing incessantly and becoming quite a nuisance.

Shen Shikun, being a 200-pound guy, lacked the agility in his arms and swiped at it twice without managing to shoo the annoying fly away.

Seeing this, Chen Jue stopped him from wasting his effort and said, "Let me handle it." He then picked up a toothpick from the tray.

"You're going to handle it?"

Shen Shikun, who was in the middle of biting into his burger, paused in confusion, not yet realizing what was about to happen.

He watched as Chen Jue narrowed his eyes, aimed, and waited for the green-bottle fly to land on the corner of the table and start rubbing its front legs together. With a flick of his finger, Chen Jue launched the toothpick from across half the table, pinning the fly to the spot.

Seeing this, Shen Shikun's hand trembled, and the half-eaten burger dropped into his tray with a thud.

He was stunned!

He felt that his new colleague sitting next to him was, quite frankly, a little abnormal!

Second update~

It's too late; I must start earlier tomorrow.

By the way, still asking for recommendation votes, monthly tickets are also fine, thank you everyone!