Today, I Got This Far Entirely Through My Own Efforts

Had he just... had a bizarre dream?

There had been no logic to it at all, nor any discernible pattern to how the plot developed. Things just happened abruptly, without any buildup. Somehow, he had become the villain, and somehow, the dream had suddenly ended. He did not even know what had happened...

That was the conclusion Gu Mo reached after lying in bed, staring blankly at the ceiling for quite a while and carefully sorting through it all.

And his assessment of it was... there was nothing to assess.

Dreams were all like that, weren't they? What logic or pattern could they possibly have?

Most dreams were inherently illogical. While dreaming, people always unconsciously overlooked the unnatural parts, or unconsciously accepted the setting as it was. It was not as though he had never dreamed before, so he understood this perfectly well.

Suddenly appearing somewhere, suddenly knowing someone, suddenly having to do something...

Somehow running away, somehow being hunted by monsters, somehow knowing what he was supposed to do...

That was basically how it went. Those dreams never had any cause or consequence, and their plots could only be described as a complete mess. Most people, Gu Mo included, might not be particularly familiar with them, but they should at least be used to them by now.

Gu Mo stretched hard in bed, covered his mouth with one hand, and let out a huge yawn. He felt that this dream had somehow affected the quality of his sleep. Unlike every previous time he woke up full of energy, he now felt especially sleepy.

He had no energy and no strength. His body felt so heavy that he did not want to move at all.

"Damn it, why am I getting sleepier the more I sleep? And the sleepier I get, the more I want to sleep..."

He muttered to himself, feeling that this was becoming a serious problem. He had clearly slept a full sixteen hours in a day, yet he was only getting sleepier. He had just woken up and already felt weak all over, as if a new day had only just begun but his energy bar was already empty. What was he supposed to do?

If this kept up, would he really die at home and only be discovered after his corpse started to rot?

This could not continue... He struggled into a sitting position. While blinking sleepily and yawning repeatedly, he fumbled toward the bedside and turned on the lamp.

That was right. He could not keep sleeping. He had to get up and eat something first.

Come to think of it, that nightmare just now had felt way too real. He had actually failed to find that store. Just thinking about it made him angry. Hopefully, when he went out later, the nightmare would not come true.

Still somewhat dazed, Gu Mo put on his slippers, grabbed the clothes he had prepared yesterday, and staggered out of the bedroom into the bathroom to wash up and shower... He knew he should hurry, or he might still fail to make it in time later, but he simply could not summon the energy.

It was not just because his body felt heavy, his limbs weak, and his mind sluggish. It was also because he had just had a dream. In that dream, he had not only woken up once, but had gone through the whole process of getting out of bed. The details had been incredibly clear, leaving him with a strange illusion now—

Hadn't he just gotten up? Why did he have to get up again?

That was probably it. He was already listless to begin with, and now he was also somewhat impatient, so naturally he could not muster any motivation at all.

After taking a cold shower, Gu Mo felt somewhat more awake, but the weakness throughout his body remained difficult to resist. He wondered if he was sick. Otherwise, he should not have been crushed by such sudden weakness the moment he woke up.

But after carefully checking himself over, that did not seem to be the case...

He simply seemed to be getting more tired the more he slept. Maybe he had slept too much. After all, oversleeping really could make one increasingly exhausted. Honestly, the fact that this had only happened to him now was already fairly fortunate.

With that thought in mind, Gu Mo staggered over to the sink and began brushing his teeth. His movements were repetitive, monotonous, and mechanical, like an aging machine.

As he brushed his teeth sleepily in front of the mirror, he looked at his reflection and then... felt as though something was not quite right.

Previously, he had been unable to see his own health bar and ID...

He could not see them in the mirror either. It seemed that, in his own eyes, his visual image was not glitched.

But this time was different. Beside his reflection, new options had appeared, arranged neatly down the upper-right corner of the mirror. They looked pleasing and well-designed. Every floating box glimmered with a faint white light, subtly emphasizing its presence and drawing attention.

—"Level Up."

—"Equipment."

—"Skills."

—"Appearance."

That was roughly it.

And that was not all. Several more options were arranged horizontally beneath the mirror. Unlike the ones in the upper-right corner, however, the ones below were all garbled text. Every single one was either "%￥#@&" or "$#%&@," completely impossible to read.

The sound of brushing gradually stopped. Gu Mo froze.

In the silent washroom, time slipped by in the still air. His heart began pounding louder and louder, and eventually, he could no longer hold back. Hesitantly, he reached out to try touching one of the options in the mirror.

But the moment he extended his finger, while his fingertip was still some distance from the mirror, perhaps because his attention had focused on that point, the floating box he wanted to touch faintly lit up and then dimmed.

Yes, it displayed a brief animation, as if simulating the process of pressing a button.

—"Level Up."

As the first option was selected, a new interface immediately popped up and replaced the original one, covering the entire mirror.

At that moment, he could no longer see the mirror's normal reflection. What appeared in it was a strange... Character Attribute Panel?

At the very top were two long bars side by side. The first was labeled "Life Level," followed by a progress display of "LV1."

The second bar displayed "Profession Level," followed by a suffix in parentheses: "Commoner." Its progress read "LV0," with a little over half of the bar filled in solid yellow.

What a classic design... that was the polite way of putting it.

Gu Mo pressed his lips tightly together, his gaze trembling with excitement as it moved down to the center of the interface.

"Strength," "Agility," "Constitution," "Intelligence," "Spirit," "Perception"...

There were six attributes in total. They were not arranged horizontally or vertically, but formed a neatly balanced Hexagonal Attribute Chart, perfectly regular, with no side skewed or irregular... because all six attributes were exactly the same.

Every displayed value was precisely 10.

Well, he truly was a Hexagonal Warrior, though probably the ultra-low-spec version.

Moreover, after the value of every attribute was a very obvious "+" symbol. Anyone who had played games would probably understand what that meant without having to think about it. Directly beneath the Hexagonal Attribute Chart was a line of text—

Unallocated Attribute Points: 1.

"..."

"..."

With a hand against his chin, Gu Mo fell into thought as he looked at the scene before him. After quite a while, he hesitantly focused his attention, but his gaze kept wandering back and forth over the "+" icons behind the six attribute values, as though he could not bring himself to make a decision.

It was not for any other reason, nor was it because he had decided to be a normal person and refused to acknowledge what was before him. In fact, he had always hoped that all of this was because he "had a cheat," rather than because he "had a problem." There was no doubt about that.

Even though every time he had wavered, the result had not gone as he wished.

But he still held onto a certain expectation and hope. At the same time, he forced himself to calm down and think seriously. He could not make a rash choice. He needed to find an attribute where adding points would give the most direct possible proof, making it easier for him to confirm everything.

That was right, no rush. He should check the others first...

Thinking this, Gu Mo silently closed the incredibly tempting Level Up page, though the urge to start clicking wildly was almost bursting out of him.

He would check the others first. It would also give him a chance to calm down.

But then again, if all of this was real... then that dream he had just had...

Suddenly recalling that crucial question, Gu Mo's expression became somewhat subtle. That strange nightmare had been so clear. After waking up, it had not faded as quickly as an ordinary dream, leaving almost no impression behind. Did it mean something?

Especially the weakness that had washed over his entire body when he woke up...

And at the end, when he suddenly did not know what happened, when the screen suddenly went black and everything came to an abrupt stop...

—Those two points seemed worth thinking deeply about.

Shaking his head, Gu Mo did not immediately do anything. Instead, he refocused on the returned character page.

He tried opening the second option, "Equipment." The new page was a very typical interface. In the center was the silhouette of a human body, with corresponding slots around the head, torso, hands, feet, and other areas. They were all empty, with absolutely nothing in them.

The moment he casually focused on one of the slots, a sensation like electricity shooting through his brain nerves immediately appeared. Piercing static seemed to ring inside his mind, tormenting his nerves... His ears buzzed, and Gu Mo could not hear anything clearly.

But while gritting his teeth and enduring the torment, he saw a line of text flash across the mirror before him, like a considerate prompt—

No equipment available for selection.

"..."

"..."

All right...

If he could have pulled out a piece of equipment, that would have been the most direct way to test things. It would have saved him the trouble.

With a twitch of his lips, Gu Mo reached up and dug at his ear, this thought flashing through his mind as he felt genuine regret. After fumbling around for a while and finding no additional clues, he tried opening the "Skills" page. He found that this interface was somewhat similar to the previous one—

There was likewise a silhouette of a human body in the center, with circular slots surrounding it, neatly arranged in a regular ring around the body's outline.

Gu Mo instinctively counted them and found exactly ten slots. Did that mean he could equip at most ten Skills? But every skill slot looked empty, so there were probably no Skills available to choose from either.

He sighed and casually tapped one of the empty slots. The expected noise did not appear in the next instant. Instead, another new interface opened before him.

Rows and columns of empty spaces formed an interface designed like a game inventory. However, it was otherwise completely empty, with only the first slot containing something...

He was stunned!

Gu Mo stared at the scene in astonishment. There was actually a skill available to choose?

Recovering himself, he hurriedly examined that lone item carefully. It was a badge-shaped object, seemingly made of gold and gleaming with brilliant golden light. The design was clear and detailed: the silhouette of a muscular person spreading their arms, as though showing off their muscles and displaying their strength.

Skill Badge: Life Potential.

Quality: Rare.

Level: 0.

Effect: Automatically activates after losing more than 30% of your health. Temporarily increases your maximum health bar by 100%, while also enhancing vitality and physical endurance to a certain extent, raising your pain threshold, extending your dying state, and increasing your recovery rate. (This effect can only be activated once per day.)

(Seven-Day Sign-In Final Reward. Cannot be sold!)

He was completely numb! There was even a sign-in system?

Why had he not known about this?

Gu Mo was so shocked that he did not know what to say. Feeling dizzy, he tried tapping the Skill Badge. With a flash of golden light, it was successfully equipped into one of the skill slots, like a dazzling gem set into an ornament.

Perfect!

Gu Mo took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and quietly focused on feeling it. Only after a long while did he open his eyes again.

Well, naturally, he felt absolutely nothing.

Damn it, this skill was not a permanent passive effect, nor was it something he could actively release whenever he wanted based on his own will. It was a special effect that could only activate after he had lost nearly one-third of his health bar.

Naturally, he could not use it to verify anything right now.

As for activating it voluntarily... Well, after considering what losing nearly one-third of his health bar would mean in reality, Gu Mo decided it was best not to consider that possibility.

He gave the "Appearance" interface one final cursory look, found that there was even less to do there, and decisively backed out.

Reopening the "Level Up" page, he took several deep breaths and muttered to himself, "I, Gu Mo, got this far today entirely through my own efforts..."

So—

"Add points!"

That was right. Relying solely on his own efforts, he could only get this far.

If he wanted to see more different sights, he would need a little extra help.