Bard Incubus Voice?
What kind of ridiculously long Western fantasy term was that? It sounded awful, didn't it?
Cheng Che silently grumbled to himself, then looked at the effect description.
[Bard Incubus Voice: Your voice will continue to improve as your charm increases. Your speaking voice will naturally possess clarity and resonance, while your singing will gain innate bonuses to pitch accuracy, vocal tone, and breath control.]
Cheng Che stared at the line, his mouth slowly falling open.
He covered his throat and softly went, "Ah."
The sound emerged from his throat as though washed in spring water, clear and bright with a slightly deep trailing note.
Holy crap.
Cheng Che's eyes widened in delight. Then he sang a few lines from "Midsummer Reply," and in an instant, his voice sounded as though it had been polished by a magnet.
Every vocal run was unbelievably smooth. His high notes didn't crack, his low notes weren't hoarse, and even he was stunned.
He felt that if he went to karaoke, he could hog the mic!
This talent was so damn good.
Cheng Che rolled out of bed, changed, and headed out to train.
His mouth never stopped the whole way. After humming "Midsummer Reply," he hummed an old song.
An elderly man passing by looked back at him suspiciously several times, probably wondering whose family was playing music through speakers this early in the morning.
Cheng Che was in a wonderful mood.
He began looking forward to it, too.
According to the panel's progress, in two more days, his stamina, endurance, and intelligence would all reach 70.
Drawing three talents at once then-just imagining it was glorious.
Two days later.
Early that morning, Cheng Che sat on a park bench, looking at the numbers on the system panel and rubbing his chin.
[Stamina: 70.0] [Endurance: 70.0]
Just like charm, they were all locked at exactly 70, without a single fraction extra.
But the three consecutive draws he had imagined never came.
The system remained quiet. Only when he opened the trial panel did a line of tiny gray text pop up:
[Once an attribute reaches the current stage's cap, you must complete the corresponding trial to unlock its level 70 special reward.]
Cheng Che: "..."
He pondered it seriously for quite a while.
"So I have to complete the trial before I can claim the reward for reaching 70 in an attribute."
He sighed helplessly.
For the stamina trial, he was still on the first stage's "reach professional-level technique," with a long way to go.
The intelligence trial's second stage was "place in the top 10 of your grade by total score on the next monthly exam, and earn a perfect score in any single subject." The next monthly exam was still some time away.
And to complete the final trials for these two tasks, he would probably have to wait until after the college entrance exam.
"Forget it, forget it." Cheng Che shook his head.
For people, the greatest danger was insatiable greed.
How many talents had he drawn and how many items had he received lately?
[Total Concentration], [Ever-Full Power Reserves], [Enduring Progress Without Fail], [Stars Surrounding the Moon], [Sapiosexual Boy], [Tolerance Makes Greatness], the [Heartthrob of Ten Thousand] title, and those bizarre but incredibly useful items.
Pick any one of them and give it to a novel's protagonist, and it could carry an entire book.
"It's enough. More than enough." He stood up, dusted off his backside, and picked up his tennis bag to head home.
Once home, he took a shower.
After drying himself, he stood in front of the bathroom mirror.
The boy in the mirror was already a completely different person from two months ago.
He had shot up to 180 centimeters.
His shoulders and back had broadened, his waist was trim, and his entire frame seemed to have been reshaped, filling out everywhere it should.
His skin was a healthy shade of fair, fine and clean, without a single blemish on his face. His brows and eyes were handsome, his nose straight, and his lips neither thin nor thick, with a natural flush.
His wet hair lay across his forehead, making him radiate even more youthful energy. His eyes were dark and bright, as though holding light.
Cheng Che rubbed his chin, checked himself from the left, then the right, and finally reached a very objective conclusion:
"So handsome."
Satisfied, he tossed his towel onto the rack.
Handsome he might be, but that didn't mean he had no troubles.
The most obvious trouble was that more and more people had been confessing to him lately.
Some stopped him face-to-face in the hallway, some slipped him envelopes when he was alone, and some sent lengthy essays over QQ.
There were even two sports students who used playing ball as an excuse to come specifically to Class Five's doorway between lessons to "look at someone."
Cheng Che politely turned them all down, handing out so many nice-guy cards that he had gone numb.
Perhaps that saying really was true.
Graduation was coming. If they didn't confess now, it would be too late.
"Being too outstanding is a sin, too." He sighed.
His phone chimed.
He opened WeChat.
A pig-head avatar popped up. It was Yan Ruanning.
She had sent a landscape photo.
In the photo, a sea of clouds billowed over rolling mountains. It looked like some small southern city. Cheng Che wasn't good at geography and didn't know where it was; he just thought it looked beautiful.
A message followed underneath:
[Attended a gala today. A male singer went off-key live, and I nearly couldn't hold it in sitting in the audience. So painful.]
Looking at the message, Cheng Che couldn't help laughing.
After adding each other on WeChat, the two had chatted on and off.
At first, they had been a little polite, but later it turned into each of them talking about their own things.
Yan Ruanning shared her daily work life, while Cheng Che shared his study progress and tennis training.
Neither commented on the other. They only said a few words whenever they felt like talking, like two streams flowing side by side.
This strange rapport had actually lasted.
Cheng Che put down his phone, shouldered his schoolbag, and headed out.
Life returned to its usual track.
Although his attributes were locked, he didn't skip a single thing he needed to do.
Tennis practice in the park in the morning, classes at school during the day, and practice questions back home at night.
The bottle of [Perfect Hair Quality Shampoo] and the [Perfect Teeth Toothpaste] in his tennis bag sat in the easiest spot to reach. Twice a day, without fail.
Two weeks later.
The morning mist in the park had yet to fully disperse.
Cheng Che stood before the abandoned low wall, knees slightly bent, gripping his racket with both hands.
Opposite him was not an actual court, but a complete regulation court he had imagined.
Crosscourt forehands, down-the-line backhands, volleys at the net, passing shots from the baseline.
Every movement happened in his mind first, then was precisely reproduced by his body.
He tossed the ball, took his racket back, rotated his body, and swung.
"Ha!"
The ball slammed into the chalk circle on the wall, bounced back, and was driven back again with another stroke.
His pace was steady, his rhythm distinct, like a wound-up machine.
Five minutes later, he stopped and caught his breath.
[Backhand Hell Training Pack: Current progress 5000/5000. Completed.] [Forehand Heavy Hammer Training Pack: Current progress 10000/10000. Completed.] [Lingbo Weibu Training Pack: Current progress 100 hours. Completed.] [Serve Hell Training Pack: Current progress 10000/10000. Completed.]
All four training packs had been cleared.
Cheng Che walked over to the bench and sat down, his heartbeat not yet fully settled.
He raised his hands and looked at his palms.
No calluses, no redness or swelling-nothing even suggested these were hands that swung a racket thousands of times a day.
Thankfully, he had the Training Recovery Card. Otherwise, at his intensity, he would have been practically wrecked by the time he finished.
He opened the system panel.
[Stamina Trial · Stage One: Young Boy. Objective: Reach professional-level tennis technique. Completed!] [Congratulations! You have obtained the passive talent "Star of the Court."] [Congratulations! You have obtained the item "Perfect Hand Cream."]
Cheng Che perked up and hurriedly opened the descriptions.
[Star of the Court (Passive): When you are in a competitive setting and most people are watching you, your ability to react in the moment will improve greatly. Judgment speed, tactical instinct, and handling of crucial points will all receive bonuses.]
Cheng Che stared at the line, his expression growing increasingly odd.
Star of the Court plus Stars Surrounding the Moon.
One made everyone look at him, and the other made him stronger when they watched.
This combination...
"Enemy: How are there combo skills, too?!"
Cheng Che lowered his voice to supply his own line, then let out a "Heh heh heh" cackle.
He looked at the item next.
[Perfect Hand Cream: After application, the self-healing speed of the skin on your hands will exceed its rate of wear, automatically locking your hands at their optimal appearance.]
I get something this good, too? Cheng Che thought.
The Training Recovery Card only "repaired training injuries," but this hand cream kept his hands at their "optimal appearance" all the time.
Even after he retired and stopped playing, his hands wouldn't become rough and ugly from years upon years of training.
"It'd be even better if there were one for the whole body," he muttered.
He unscrewed the hand cream and squeezed a little onto the back of his hand. A cool sensation spread, very comfortable.
Finally, he looked at the next stage of the stamina trial.
[Stamina Trial · Stage Two: Breakthrough. Objective: Advance through the qualifiers of a professional tournament into the main draw and secure at least one victory.]
Cheng Che sighed.
"I really don't have time for this."
He stood up and slung his tennis bag over his shoulder.
Back to school first.
There was a monthly exam today. He couldn't be late.