Learning Was Supposed to Be for Me, the Game System?

"Night Vision, damn, that's awesome." Lu Xingshi had originally planned to travel in the dark, only to discover that he possessed Night Vision and had no need to fumble along blindly.

After leaving Floating Goose Town, he found a safe spot to crouch down and began examining the two secret manuals.

Qi Guiding Art

Cultivation Requirements: Physical Constitution 0.1, Comprehension 0.1, Mental Fortitude 0.1

Learning Progress: 0%

The other manual, "Breathing Exercise," was the same, except it had no learning progress. He could only learn one skill at a time.

"Still, isn't there something wrong with this learning progress?" Lu Xingshi frowned at the 0% progress.

His Three-Dimensional Attributes were all at 10, yet nearly an hour had passed without the slightest movement.

If even a Peerless Genius like him found learning this difficult, wouldn't ordinary people be unable to even get started after a year?

Yet he had asked around about these two skills. The slowest learners took only around ten days, while the fastest could get started in a quarter of an hour.

So there was definitely a problem.

He canceled the learning process, switched to "Breathing Exercise," then took out the "Qi Guiding Art" from the Inventory.

Naturally, Game Villagers had an Inventory for storing items.

"What's so difficult about this?" Lu Xingshi flipped through it. His game came with a Language Translation Module, otherwise how could he possibly communicate? That certainly made things convenient.

Neither manual was very thick, only around a dozen pages.

The contents of "Qi Guiding Art" were quite simple. It had three levels in total, and with his 10 points of Comprehension, he learned it after reading through it once.

A quarter of an hour? No, he had completely learned it in just three minutes.

"That's it, and it still wasn't working until now?"

"Could there be something wrong with the Skill System..." Lu Xingshi thought of this possibility. After all, he was only a half-finished game, not a complete version. His skills and martial arts might just be empty shells. That was not impossible.

He canceled the "Breathing Exercise" learning process and set "Qi Guiding Art" to learn again. If it still did not work, he would just handle it himself.

Yet the very next moment, he received a notification.

Learned: Qi Guiding Art

In that instant, the progress bar leaped straight from 0% to 100%.

"What the hell?" Lu Xingshi was dumbfounded. He had not noticed what had happened at all. He opened the data to check, but found no issues.

He then checked every section of code, and there were no problems there either.

"Was it because I canceled it and started learning again?" He tried repeating the process with "Breathing Exercise," but it remained at 0%.

He took out "Breathing Exercise" as well, then put it back, simulating the process several times, yet there was still no reaction.

"Wait, could it be..."

A flash of inspiration struck Lu Xingshi.

He immediately began reading "Breathing Exercise." This time, he only read half of it before setting it to learn again.

Learning Progress: 52%

"What kind of garbage game are you?!!!" Lu Xingshi was completely bewildered.

"So you wanted me to learn it, instead of having the Martial Arts Game Character learn it directly!"

"If I hadn't started with the Peerless Genius trait, I'd have been imprisoned on the spot, wouldn't I?"

His Three-Dimensional Attributes were high, he learned quickly, and Attribute Traits helped him as well. Otherwise, he would never have imagined that, as a Game System, he actually had to learn things himself instead of getting a ding and instantly completing the learning process.

"No, that logic is wrong..."

After venting, Lu Xingshi quickly found the crux of the problem.

It was an issue of identity.

First of all, he was neither a player nor a game character. His identity was the game itself.

So only once he had learned it could the database contain the skill, allowing game characters to learn it. That was perfectly reasonable.

As for how he learned it, that could only depend on himself.

Game characters obtained skills because he granted them, not because they really learned them by slapping a skill book.

The instant learning had happened because his Three-Dimensional Attributes were high and the skill itself was too low-level.

"So from now on, I have to teach myself every skill before the Martial Arts Game Character can learn it."

"Doesn't that mean I'm working for him?"

"Breathing Exercise" was stuck at 52% because Lu Xingshi had learned that much. To learn it completely, he had to finish learning it himself before the Game Villagers could do so.

Still grumbling, he learned "Breathing Exercise," and once the progress bar filled, the Skill Slot was finally no longer empty.

Qi Guiding Art (Level One)

Proficiency: 0/9

Level One: Body Protection +1

Level Two: Locked

Level Three: Locked

The effects of "Qi Guiding Art" were that simple, and he only needed to cultivate it nine times to break through to Level Two.

The panel for "Breathing Exercise" was the same, except its Level One effect was different: Inner Strength +1. Lu Xingshi could feel changes in himself as well. The two attributes were not obvious for now, but they were probably extensions of the Three-Dimensional Attributes or some other kind of effect.

In addition, he had gained a new attribute: Inner Force.

It was still at 0 points. If he began cultivating these two skills, he could increase his own Inner Force.

However, as the value of Inner Force increased, low-level skills would become less and less effective.

At the beginning, when he had 0 points, one cycle might increase his Inner Force by 1 point. But at 10 points, it might take ten cycles.

Better skills granted more Inner Force and were less prone to diminishing returns.

"Let's see if I can grind it to the max today." If Lu Xingshi could grind both skills straight to Level Three, he was confident that he could... run a little farther.

He could not exactly go back and confront them head-on. It would not be too late to return for a Great Slaughter once he had achieved Great Accomplishment of Divine Skill.

Why did he have to be so stubborn and risk his life fighting them now?

This Martial Arts Game Character of his was worth one hundred million Gold Coins. He was precious beyond measure; risking him over such a trivial matter was utterly not worth it.

When one was weak, enduring a little was nothing.

Just as he was thinking that, he heard rustling sounds.

From beyond the Official Road came voices conversing and the barking of dogs. Faintly, Lu Xingshi could even see firelight.

Naturally, he did not dare stray too far from the Official Road, or he might encounter wild animals. Jackals and wolves were manageable, but tigers and leopards would be troublesome.

"There are dogs. That's a problem." Lu Xingshi's expression changed.

He was not afraid of people chasing him, but dogs could smell his scent.

"Wait, do I even have a scent?" Lu Xingshi suddenly realized.

He was not human, and Martial Arts Game Characters were even less human.

He sniffed himself carefully, but could not detect any smell.

"Still, I need to be careful..." Lu Xingshi surveyed the surroundings and began looking for an escape route.

He was indeed stronger than them, but two fists could not beat four hands. Born into a civilized modern society, he had never seen a scene like this before. Even with the boost from his Mental Fortitude attribute, it was not easy.