Skills Progress
In the sweltering heat of the late afternoon, on a remote, sun-baked road on the outskirts of Los Angeles.
Accompanied by the ragged, rhythmic sound of his own heavy panting, Arthur Sterling pushed his body to its absolute limits.
Dressed in a sleek, sweat-drenched athletic jersey that clung tightly to his frame, he was running with slow, agonizingly heavy steps.
Every muscle in his legs screamed in protest, burning with the intense buildup of lactic acid.
The heat radiating off the asphalt blurred the horizon, but he forced his sneakers to hit the pavement, one agonizing stride at a time.
Suddenly, the cold, familiar mechanical voice rang out clearly in the center of his mind, cutting through his exhaustion.
"Ding, gained 1 point of [Running] experience."
" [Running] level increased!"
"Congratulations to the host for gaining 1 free attribute point and increasing private space by 1 cubic meter."
The moment Arthur heard that emotionless yet deeply satisfying voice, a massive wave of relief washed over him.
He instantly felt like a tightly inflated balloon that had just been punctured.
The adrenaline that had been keeping him upright evaporated.
Stopping his punishing pace, his legs feeling far too heavy to even attempt another jogging stride, Arthur transitioned into a slow, unsteady walk.
He moved forward aimlessly for a few moments, letting his erratic heart rate gradually slow down.
After looking around the deserted stretch of road, he spotted a secluded corner under the sparse shade of a dusty palm tree and slowly walked over.
His muscles trembling with fatigue, he practically collapsed, sitting down heavily on the cracked, dry earth.
Without missing a beat, Arthur immediately summoned the system light wall that only he could see.
The transparent blue interface flickered into existence, floating silently in the air right before his eyes.
On it, his hard-earned current attributes had already updated to reflect his grueling efforts over the past week.
[Host: Arthur Sterling.]
[Lifespan: 18/72.]
[Intelligence: 11] (The average value of this attribute for an adult male in the current world is 10)
[Strength: 8] (The average value of this attribute for an adult male in the current world is 10)
[Agility: 9] (The average value of this attribute for an adult male in the current world is 10)
[Constitution: 8] (The average value of this attribute for an adult male in the current world is 10)
[Endurance: 7] (The average value of this attribute for an adult male in the current world is 10)
[Unallocated Attribute Points: 1 ]
Arthur wiped a bead of sweat from his brow and scrolled down the glowing interface to view the rest of his data.
~ [Current Skill List]
[[Driving] lv2 (472/500):The highway can no longer satisfy you.]
[[Lockpicking] lv1 (1/200):You can try picking locks without a key.]
[[Culinary Skill] lv1 (62/200):Delicious food can please the heart and do much more.]
[[Reading] lv0 (83/100):Wisdom comes from knowledge, and Reading is one of the shortcuts to gaining knowledge.]
[[Repair] lv0 (46/100):Once you master this skill, you might be able to fix anything.]
[[Swimming] lv1 (0/200):Keep it up, you're already faster than a seahorse.]
[[Running] lv1 (0/200):Don't stop, keep Running, and you will gain health and a good body.]
[[Shooting] lv0 (69/100):American Iaijutsu, ensuring your safety.]
Arthur stared at the glowing blue text, a deep sense of accomplishment settling into his chest.
In just five short days of relentless grinding, he had successfully activated a total of eight distinct skills!
This level of efficiency really wasn't low; it was the result of meticulous planning and sheer, stubborn willpower.
Moreover, every single skill Arthur had activated felt incredibly practical, directly tied to his immediate survival and future prosperity.
[Driving], [Culinary Skill], [Repair], and [Shooting]—these four went completely without saying.
The first three were essential life skills that grounded him in this reality.
Especially [Culinary Skill] and [Repair]; Arthur knew that even if he fared incredibly poorly in the future, he could still easily use these abilities to make a comfortable living.
As for [Shooting], that went even more without saying.
This was the United States, a place where the news was filled with gunfights practically every single day.
Every year, tens of thousands of people lost their lives needlessly in sudden, violent shootings across the country.
Not to mention, this wasn't just the real world; this was the cinematic universe of the Fast & Furious franchise.
The situation here would only become increasingly volatile, chaotic, and dangerous as the timeline progressed.
Taking the time to learn the system's humorously named "American Iaijutsu" was undeniably the right move to ensure his continued breathing.
As for the remaining four new skills on his list, their origins were a mix of deliberate grinding and complete accident.
[Reading] was unexpectedly triggered a few nights ago when Arthur was idly flipping through a stack of his predecessor's adult magazines at the apartment.
After some later, more focused testing, he discovered the core mechanics behind the skill.
As long as he read books filled with text and pictures, and fully comprehended the information presented on the pages, his [Reading] experience would steadily increase.
Unfortunately, this particular skill heavily favored complex, highly professional books.
It was also an incredibly time-consuming process to grind.
Generally, experience points could only be accumulated after fully finishing an entire book from cover to cover.
Of Arthur's current eighty-some experience points in the skill, exactly half were obtained from painstakingly leafing through over forty of his predecessor's questionable magazine collections.
Reading an entire adult magazine from front to back yielded only a pitiful single experience point.
The remaining forty-some points, however, came from deeply studying just two dense, highly technical introductory books on motorcycles and [Repair].
Comparing the two methods, it was glaringly obvious which reading material provided a more substantial boost in experience.
The [Lockpicking] skill was incredibly niche, and Arthur hadn't even thought of a practical, immediate use for it yet.
However, since one point of experience could be gained simply by personally opening a lock of a different style, Arthur had gotten creative.
Over the past five days, he had systematically visited several large hardware stores across the city.
Under the clever guise of carefully choosing locks for a home project, he had stood in the aisles and tested picking them hundreds of times.
It was tedious work, but it had actually successfully leveled up the skill once.
As for [Swimming] and [Running], those were purely physical skills he had accidentally ground out while pushing himself to exercise and build up his weak frame.
Since they were both highly practical and directly improved his physical fitness, Arthur was immensely satisfied with unlocking these two abilities.
Through five grueling days of continuous, systematic exploration, Arthur had mapped out the core rules of his cheat.
He discovered that with the proficiency system bound to him, regardless of the specific skill triggered, the lower the skill level, the faster the improvement speed.
This foundational rule was precisely why Arthur was able to, in just five short days, raise the levels of five of his eight triggered skills by one or two full levels.
Arthur also discovered a consistent, highly rewarding pattern regarding his triggered skills.
Whether a skill's level went from lv0 to lv1, or from lv1 to lv2.
The tangible rewards granted by the system for leveling up were always exactly the same.
They always consisted of 1 free attribute point, alongside a 1 cubic meter expansion in the volume of his private space.
And so, the math added up beautifully!
After five days of relentless dedication, Arthur had accumulated a grand total of 6 free attribute points, and the total size of his concealed private space had increased to a highly useful 7 cubic meters.
Of the 5 free attribute points he had previously obtained before today's run, he had decisively allocated 2 directly into [Intelligence].
In his previous life, he had always felt his IQ wasn't quite high enough, struggling with complex concepts.
He had carried a deep, lingering regret for not being able to get into a top-tier university and forge a completely different, more successful path in life.
Presented with a miraculous chance to fundamentally change that in this new life, Arthur naturally wanted to become a genuinely smart, highly capable person.
The 2-point increase in his [Intelligence] stat was undoubtedly, profoundly noticeable.
Almost immediately after allocating those points, Arthur felt the heavy fog in his mind rapidly clear.
He began to slowly, vividly remember countless blurry memories from both his past life and his predecessor's experiences.
Even when reading books normally, especially for dense, highly specialized technical manuals, his comprehension and retention efficiency had significantly improved compared to before.
As for the remaining 3 free attribute points from his earlier grinding, Arthur had evenly and practically distributed them among [Strength], [Agility], and [Constitution] to build a balanced foundation.
Now, his eyes locked onto the newly acquired 1 free attribute point hovering on the screen.
Without a single moment of hesitation, Arthur mentally commanded the system to add it directly to his [Endurance]!
With the instantaneous addition of that one free attribute point, a profound physical shift occurred.
He quickly felt a warm, surging rush of energy flood into his trembling muscles.
His legs, which had been agonizingly weak and practically failing from running a full five kilometers in the brutal heat, were now instantly filled with a fresh, vibrant strength!
The deep ache in his joints vanished, replaced by a steady, enduring vitality.
However, despite feeling fully revitalized, Arthur didn't immediately push himself to run again.
Although he possessed the miraculous golden finger of the system, he still clearly understood the fundamental human principle of 'too much is as bad as too little'.
He leaned back against the dusty trunk of the palm tree, allowing his body to properly cool down.
After resting in the shade for about ten minutes, his breathing completely leveled out.
He stood up, brushing the dirt from his shorts, and scanned the remote road to ensure absolutely no one was around to witness him.
Satisfied that he was completely alone, Arthur focused his mind and quickly retrieved the battered motorcycle he had seamlessly stored inside his private space.
The heavy machine materialized out of thin air with a faint, metallic thud against the asphalt.
Throwing a leg over the seat, Arthur kicked the starter, the engine roaring to life in the quiet afternoon air.
Then, he rolled the throttle and rode the motorcycle back toward the city, heading straight for his residence.