Chapter 22 - Imaginary Enemy
After adding this bit of agility, Lu Yuan clearly felt his whole body become more "relaxed".
The muscles in his arms and legs became more toned.
The slight "bloated" feeling brought about by the previous two points of strength had now completely disappeared.
He took a ruler out of the drawer, tied one end to a thin thread, and hung it over the edge of his desk.
Because of the smooth surface of the ruler, under its own gravity, the thread tied to it kept sliding upward, struggling to break free.
Lu Yuan placed two fingers on each side of the ruler's zero mark, not looking at the thread, just staring at the ruler.
At the moment the thread completely broke free from the ruler and the ruler dropped down,
he pinched and grabbed the falling ruler with his fingers.
"Less than two centimeters."
Lu Yuan looked at the test results and understood in his heart.
"Nerve reaction speed has improved a lot."
This was of great significance.
If it was a track and field competition, then Lu Yuan could take a step faster than others out of the starting block the instant he heard the gunshot.
If it was in actual combat, it meant that when an opponent threw a punch at him, Lu Yuan could react faster than before, dodge, and then counterattack.
"I'll try to measure my running speed tomorrow to see how much it has increased.
Oh right, there's also the improvement from the two strength points."
Lu Yuan took off his shirt and walked to the full-length mirror in his bedroom closet, checking himself out in the mirror.
After adding two strength, no matter whether it was his arms, chest, abdomen, back, or thighs, all of his muscles had become much fuller.
The contours were distinct and the lines were smooth.
His whole body looked quite muscular.
Before adding agility, it would have been even more exaggerated, like those fitness influencers online.
But now it was much better, still having meat when undressed yet looking slim when dressed, more in line with Lu Yuan's own aesthetics.
Who would have thought that just a month ago, the teenager in the mirror was still a scrawny dog whose entire body didn't add up to two pounds of meat?
"The 11 points of strength make my strength at least double what it was at 9 points before.
I can easily snap someone's wrist bones, and send a grown man flying several meters away like a sandbag with a punch.
I wonder how high my punching power is now? I'll go to the martial arts school tomorrow to measure it."
Recalling the fight in the alley and the thrill of crushing those men in raincoats afterwards, Lu Yuan still couldn't forget that feeling now.
It was like an adult fighting a group of children, the absolute advantage in strength completely made up for his lack of skills and experience.
"Oh right!"
While "appreciating" his physique, Lu Yuan suddenly remembered.
"I still have 3 unused skill points!"
With all those basic occupational skills under the Student Profession, leveling them up with experience felt pretty good, so he had been reluctant to use the skill points.
Saving and saving had accumulated 3 points, but he couldn't save them anymore.
"Of the four basic martial arts skills, only Basic Grappling is not yet at lv3. After raising Basic Grappling to lv3, the prerequisite condition to unlock the Fighter occupational core skill should be met."
Lu Yuan had been looking forward to this for over half a month.
He had already decided to try unlocking it tonight, and the alley fight made him even more eager for this idea.
"Improve, Basic Grappling."
He added 1 skill point to Basic Grappling, immediately raising it from lv2 to lv3, while retaining the original experience points.
It was the same as when he had previously tried using skill points to directly improve his physics subject under the Student Profession.
After consuming the skill point, Lu Yuan immediately felt a torrent of fragmented memories flowing into his mind.
They were memories of him diligently practicing basic grappling.
These memories fused into Lu Yuan's body, deeply imprinting themselves into his muscle memory.
It was as if he had really gone through a long period of "hard practice", raising his Basic Grappling from lv2 to lv3.
"Not only is my mastery of current grappling techniques more thorough and skilled, I have also gained insight into several new techniques that even Cheng Peng never taught me.
I grasped them so naturally, it's just magical."
Lu Yuan casually tried some basic grappling moves, marveling at the magic of the Profession Panel, then eagerly checked the panel again.
"There it is!"
Sure enough, under Lu Yuan's delighted gaze, a gray dot quietly appeared on the Fighter Profession panel.
Focusing his attention on it, he immediately got the prompt - [Occupational Core Skill pending unlock]
Unlock?
Of course!
Lu Yuan added the 1 skill point without any hesitation.
Soon, the gray dot on the panel lit up.
A brand new skill fully emerged -
[Core Skill: Imaginary Enemy (Active)]
[Effect: Construct an opponent in consciousness and simulate the battle]
Looking at the effect description of this core skill, a strange light flickered in Lu Yuan's eyes.
"Imaginary Enemy"
"Fantasy Battle."
It sounded very interesting.
"If it's like what I imagine, it might just make up for my lack of actual combat experience."
He'll know the specific effects after trying it out.
Lu Yuan took out his usual training mat, but this time didn't go to the living room, just spread it out in his bedroom.
Long periods of exercise had soaked this old mat full of patches of deep brown sweat stains that couldn't be scrubbed away even with vigorous scrubbing using laundry detergent.
Lu Yuan didn't mind. He sat comfortably on the mat in a relaxed posture.
"Since it's a battle in consciousness, I should close my eyes."
Lu Yuan thought, as he closed his eyes. Then he silently activated the skill in his mind.
"Come, my imaginary opponent!
Activate, [Imaginary Enemy]!"
"Whoosh whoosh-"
Rain, heavy pouring rain.
Lu Yuan suddenly opened his eyes.
He found himself in a narrow alley.
Endless heavy rain poured down from the night sky overhead, drenching his whole body, yet he didn't feel any cold.
"Swish-"
Two beams of orange light shone straight at him from the front.
Lu Yuan instinctively squinted his eyes, and saw a shadowy figure standing silently between the two beams.
Although he couldn't see the other's features clearly, he was absolutely certain.
The other should be the middle-aged man he had just fought fiercely with earlier.
"So I'm back in the rainy alley from an hour ago.
And my imaginary enemy constructed in my consciousness is him!"
Lu Yuan took a deep breath, gently wiping away the rain water flowing from his forehead all the way to his chin.
"Then come on."
He rolled his neck and moved his limbs.
His increasingly muscular physique after adding two strength points had a distinct sense of mechanical smoothness during the motions.
"Let me... defeat you again!"
A raging battle intent suddenly ignited in Lu Yuan's eyes. He stamped down hard with his right foot, kicking up a spray of water on the ground.
His whole person rushed at the shadowy figure in front of the headlights like a unleashed hound.
The increased agility made Lu Yuan clearly feel his acceleration during the charge improve.
"Looks like my abilities in the conscious world completely reflect reality."
This made Lu Yuan even more assured, and his battle fervor rose higher.
Because he had defeated the other once before, encountering him again, his mentality was far from the tension and panic he felt back then in the alley.
It was more of a verification.
To verify what level his current strength could be considered!
Facing Lu Yuan's assault, the shadowy figure in front of the headlights also moved.
"Bang!"
The two shadows collided heavily, spraying out countless droplets of water from the central point of impact.