CHAPTER 42: CHAPTER 42 AIMING TOO HIGH_1

"Yuan?"

"KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK—"

"What are you doing? It’s so late, and you’re still not asleep?"

"I... I’m going to sleep soon, Mom!"

Zheng Qiuling, standing at the door, was somewhat puzzled as she reached for the doorknob. However, the sudden vibration of her phone in her pocket made her quickly pull her hand back.

"How was Dad today... Are you coming home to sleep tonight?..."

He heard his mother’s voice gradually move towards the bathroom.

Inside the room, Lu Yuan, who was lying on the floor gnashing his teeth, finally relaxed and let out painful groans.

The pain of tearing muscles surged through his body, wave after wave.

He was now practically incapable of even moving his little finger.

"HUFF—HUFF—"

Lu Yuan gasped heavily, staring in disbelief at the ceiling above him.

Did I just... manage to perform all eighteen movements of the Crane-shaped Pile in one go?

Level 3 [Absolute Focus].

It plunged him into an unprecedented state of deep concentration.

It was like instinctively focusing on doing one thing seriously.

All the thoughts in his subconscious, like "impossible," "I can’t do it now," or similar, were completely blocked.

Until the task was actually accomplished.

"Unbelievable..." Lu Yuan voiced his astonishment; the pain in his body couldn’t overshadow his inner joy and amazement.

So... when concentration reaches a certain height... it’s also a kind of superpower, right?

Nothing can stop an extremely focused person. This sentence suddenly popped into Lu Yuan’s mind.

The pain eased a little.

Lu Yuan managed to support himself and get up from the floor, leaning his back against the edge of the bed.

Taking advantage of the interval while his body recovered, he opened his profession panel.

[Profession: Fighter lv4 (370/800)]

[Basic Professional Skills: Initial Body Forging lv4 (200/800)

...

Intermediate Professional Skills: Crane-shaped Pile lv1 (29/100)]

The Experience Points for these three had primarily changed.

The [Fighter] profession’s Experience Points increased by twenty-two.

The Crane-shaped Pile’s experience increased by twenty-four.

Initial Body Forging’s experience saw the largest increase, a full eighty points!

This was more than what Lu Yuan gained from several days of strenuous strength training.

This is practically like using a cheat... Lu Yuan couldn’t help but give a wry smile.

But the price for this cheat was also considerable.

At least for tonight, he couldn’t possibly do any more extra training.

He might as well just climb into bed and lie down.

Closing his eyes, he activated [Imaginary Enemy] and began his simulated combat training in the Consciousness Space.

「The next day.」

Burnt Rock Fourth Middle School, Year 2, Class 3.

It was a noisy yet joyful break time.

"Damn, Lu Yuan. What’s this... Did you get your back plastered up like some kind of ancient scroll?"

Cheng Peng curiously tugged at the back collar of Lu Yuan’s school uniform. Seeing the dense arrangement of medicinal plasters underneath, he was stunned and couldn’t help blurting out.

"Shut up, you idiot!"

Lu Yuan brushed his hand away and shot him an annoyed glance.

Cheng Peng, however, looked a bit worried. He sidled up, put an arm around Lu Yuan’s shoulder, and advised earnestly, "You, my friend, practice martial arts all you want, but don’t get obsessed, alright?

"The final exams are just around the corner. Everyone else is putting their hobbies aside to focus on studying.

"But you? How come you’re practicing even harder?"

"Even if I stopped listening to classes right now, took the exam with my eyes closed, and wrote with my feet, I’d still score higher than you... And you’re lecturing me about studying..." Lu Yuan replied languidly.

"Damn it! Are you trying to insult me?!"

"By the way, aren’t you dating someone? Which class is she in? What’s her name? When are you going to introduce her to us guys?" Lu Yuan changed the subject, asking Cheng Peng about his situation.

Hearing this, Cheng Peng’s face immediately lit up with a smug, triumphant expression.

"Ah, your sister-in-law... Yes, definitely. I’ll definitely bring her out for you guys to meet next time..."

Halfway through his sentence, Cheng Peng’s expression suddenly "drastically changed," becoming instantly serious.

He casually grabbed a textbook and started spouting nonsense, "Lu Yuan, quick, help me see how to solve this problem!"

Lu Yuan was puzzled and glanced towards the classroom door. No teacher was coming. Besides, it was still break time...

Suddenly, a pink hair clip floated past Lu Yuan’s eyes like a cloud.

Only then did Lu Yuan "realize," but he couldn’t help frowning.

"Aren’t you already dating someone? Why do you still care so much about Ling Yue?"

"Well... it’s just... I don’t want her to know..."

Seeing Cheng Peng stuttering and avoiding eye contact, Lu Yuan knew exactly what he was thinking.

Even though he’s already dating someone, he hasn’t completely given up on his former goddess, still clinging to some unrealistic fantasy.

What a scumbag.

"DING DONG DING DONG—"

The class bell rang. Lu Yuan waved his hand, shooing Cheng Peng away.

"Go, go, go..."

He couldn’t be bothered with Cheng Peng’s trivial affairs.

Lu Yuan casually grabbed a textbook and spread it open in front of him, but his mind was on martial arts practice.

Last night, he had fought a total of eight matches in the Consciousness Space battles.

Two against the middle-aged man in the rainy alley, four against Lin Zhiquin, and two against the coach surnamed Qin in the second-floor corridor of the martial arts hall.

With a bit more intelligence, the number of times he could activate [Imaginary Enemy] had indeed increased significantly.

The effectiveness of Lin Zhiquin’s combat training was also significant.

Now, he could relatively easily defeat the middle-aged man in the rainy alley within the Consciousness Space.

But Lin Zhiquin remained an insurmountable mountain.

This was even more true for Coach Qin.

No matter how he initiated the battle, the outcome was always the same.

He was invariably defeated in a single move by his opponent, without any suspense.

Lin Zhiquin uses his fists—a fist imprint to the forehead. And Qin Feng uses his fingers...

Lu Yuan subconsciously touched his own throat.

Qin Feng was the full name of Coach Qin from the martial arts hall.

In fact, Lu Yuan wasn’t sure if it was truly fingers, or perhaps a palm?

All he knew was that his vision would blur, and then he’d "die."

But one thing was certain.

Just like Lin Zhiquin, that move is a powerful killing technique they’ve mastered!

Lu Yuan repeatedly "died" in the Consciousness Space; wasn’t it also partly because he harbored thoughts of trying to learn these two moves by observation?

However, for him at his current level, this idea was simply too ambitious and impractical.

I should focus on mastering the basics first.

Lu Yuan shook his head. The action of flipping a page inadvertently pulled at his arm muscles, causing him to hiss from a sharp intake of breath due to the pain.

Last night, using lv3 [Absolute Focus], he had "cheated" by performing all eighteen movements of the Crane-shaped Pile in one go.

The repercussions were immense.

Heaven knew how many of his muscles had been torn all over his body.

Fortunately, he had received a healing massage before leaving the martial arts hall, and the secret medicine of the Heaven Water Sect that had permeated his body hadn’t completely dispersed.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have even been able to get out of bed this morning.

On his way to school, Lu Yuan had bought several boxes of medicinal plasters for sprains and bruises from a pharmacy and applied them all over himself.

Whether they were effective or not, they at least provided maximum psychological comfort.

"Lu Yuan."

The physics teacher, who was explaining a test paper on the podium, noticed Lu Yuan’s unusual state. Pushing up the glasses on his nose, he asked with concern, "Are you feeling unwell? Do you want to go to the infirmary to get checked out? If it’s really bad, you can go home and rest."

"Mm."

Lu Yuan thought for a moment and decided not to refuse. He closed his book, stood up, and walked towards the classroom door.

After attending a few classes that morning, he had already discovered something.

Once his intelligence reached 11 points, the curriculum taught at school could no longer satisfy the requirements for his [Student] profession.

The Experience Points gained from an entire class were minuscule.

Staying here was simply a waste of time.

I might as well discuss it with the form teacher and ask to self-study at home for the last two weeks. This afternoon, I’ll go to the bookstore and buy some higher-level textbooks; self-studying might be more effective. Lu Yuan silently made his calculations.