At two in the morning, Bai Xiao quickly exited through the staff passage.
His harvest today was good, better than usual.
[Your profession "Security Guard", experience +13]
[Your professional skill "Patrolling", experience +16]
Bai Xiao chewed on his Green Arrow gum, feeling the refreshment of mint spread in his mouth. He squinted his eyes and found his electric scooter parked by the main road. Inserting the key, twisting the throttle, he set off toward home.
On the other side, the girl in the short skirt and her friends dispersed, each heading to their respective homes. But before calling it a night, she couldn't withstand the soft pestering of her annoying friends and ended up sharing Bai Xiao's phone number with them. In the taxi, the girl in the short skirt sat in the back seat, scrolling through her phone.
To avoid being outwitted by other scheming girls, she decided to make a call now that the other party had also finished work. She accessed her contacts and confirmed the call.
Bringing the phone to her ear, what followed was a strong and colorful ringtone: "Willing to exchange several lifetimes for our one-time bond... let love move the heavens..."
"What an old-fashioned song, my dad used to listen to it a lot."
The girl paused for a moment, feeling that Bai Xiao might be a traditional man. He had an unusual mature charm, indeed very rare.
With a beep, the call connected.
The girl in the short skirt was slightly pleased and immediately took the lead, saying, "Hello?"
"Hello."
The voice on the other end seemed to be that of a middle-aged man who had just woken up.
The next second, a series of broken Mandarin with a rural accent came from the other end of the line: "Is it the toilet that's clogged? Or the kitchen? Or the sewer? Calling at this hour, definitely can't fix it tonight..."
"Tomorrow then, I have time tomorrow morning."
"Toilet eighty, kitchen fifty, sewer line…"
With a beep, the call hung up, and the distinctively loud voice of the middle-aged man on the call vanished. The girl in the short skirt sat in the back seat, stunned.
For the first time, she experienced what those pure-hearted young men felt when they could not get through or dialed the wrong number after she casually gave them a wrong one...
How awkward and frustrated they must have been.
At two thirty in the morning, in a bedroom.
The pipe repairman hung up the phone bewildered, having received four or five perplexing calls, all from female voices with coquettish tones. As soon as the pipe repairman introduced his services, the calls were disconnected.
"Could it be that my rates are too high?"
"Eighty for unclogging a toilet isn't expensive, is it? Strange..."
Baffled, he chose to turn off his phone and continue to sleep under the covers.
In Sunshine District, rental house.
The small kitchen beside the living room had something simmering on the gas stove.
Gurgle, gurgle…
The air was filled with the fragrant aroma of cooking food.
Although Bai Xiao didn't cook much, he knew how to make chicken soup.
A whole chicken, onion, ginger, garlic, spices, seasonings, and the nourishing herbs he had bought before. Beiqi, ginseng, red dates, goji berries.
Soon, a casserole full of aromatic and thick white chicken soup was served.
With a click, the rice in the rice cooker was also ready.
Bai Xiao picked up the bowl and chopsticks that he hadn't used much in the past half month.
He began his late-night meal, replenishing his body's nutrients.
The entire chicken was devoured, leaving only bones. The chicken soup was scooped clean, and Bai Xiao, with his vegetables, had several large bowls of rice soaked in soup.
He didn't miss a single piece of the tonic herbs.
Bai Xiao tried to see if having a full meal in advance could effectively alleviate the hunger felt after improving his professional skills.
Feeling fully satisfied, he reclined in his chair, staring straight ahead.
[Skill 3: Jujutsu Beginner (23/100)]+
"Dark Red, upgrade my Jujutsu to Minor Achievement!"
With a thought, the Potential Points at the bottom of the modifier instantly dropped to zero.
Two Potential Points were directly allocated to the Jujutsu Skill.
The entire skill bar blurred as numbers flickered.
[Your profession 'Fighter,' experience +6!]
[Your professional Skill 'Jujutsu Beginner' experience +100!]
[Professional Skill 'Jujutsu Beginner' has risen to 'Jujutsu Minor Achievement']
[Skill 3: Jujutsu Minor Achievement (23/200)]
Bai Xiao concentrated with closed eyes when suddenly, as expected, a torrent of information flooded his mind. The many essentials of Jujutsu and the professional combat moves had been integrated drip by drip into his body and memory.
With a swoosh, he opened his eyes.
Now, Bai Xiao had one Combat Skill at great accomplishment and two at Minor Achievement. He might have already reached the level of a professional athlete.
"I wonder how I'm supposed to go about the grading that Coach Zhang Hongtao mentioned..."
"I'll ask about it during tomorrow's training if there's time," he decided.
As he thought about it, he suddenly felt hungry, a sensation emanating from his entire body. This time, the hunger and weakness were a bit less intense than before, but there wasn't a significant change. Clearly, just getting full on a meal did not provide enough energy and nutrition to support a rise from Beginner to Minor Achievement.
"So I still need to eat energy bars, protein bars and the like..."
Bai Xiao shook his head, declaring this experiment a failure.
Next, he resumed his usual routine.
When he was hungry, he ate; and after eating, he slept.
Time flew, and soon it was the next morning.
July 1st, 9:30 AM.
Bai Xiao stood in front of the bathroom mirror, under the golden sunlight streaming through the window, and performed several poses used in bodybuilding competitions to show off his muscles. His thick chest muscles, powerful-looking abs, and the "shark lines" on either side of his waist and abdomen.
Their contours and gullies were hard, exuding a rugged beauty.
"Will has actually become my lowest attribute..."
"It seems that in the future, I'll need to regularly use extreme training methods to temper my will."
In front of his retina, the four-dimensional attribute panel was displayed.
[Power: 13.0→13.6]
[Speed: 11.6→12.1]
[Physique: 12.3→12.8]
[Will: 11.9→12.0]
Power +0.6, Speed +0.5, Physique +0.5, Will +0.1.
As his overall attributes rose, the enhancements gained from breaking through in professional Skills slightly decreased. However, Bai Xiao was mentally prepared for this.
In the bathroom, he began to freshen up, ensuring he stayed in good condition.
Five minutes later, he checked his phone and saw that the clothes he ordered online had arrived. Bai Xiao didn't want to wear those few tight clothes anymore, so he had to buy several larger-size shirts. They were all uniformly colored, either completely black or white.
He hurried downstairs and quickly made his way to the security gate of the Sunshine District.
After chatting with the security guard for a moment, he collected his package.
On his way back up, Bai Xiao ran into a neighbor. It was an old man with white hair, wearing a miniature backpack with a pink pig pattern on it and holding the red-eyed hand of his granddaughter, walking down from upstairs. When Bai Xiao saw this, he instinctively made room for them to pass.
The old man nodded at Bai Xiao with a smile and then continued on his way down.
Soon after, cries of the girl could be heard from downstairs, her voice muffled, yelling: "I don't wanna go! I don't want to go to kindergarten!"
Bai Xiao mourned for her for a couple of seconds and then made his way back to his rental room. He packed his belongings into a blue canvas bag, grabbed his phone, and again opened the security door. Checking the time as he left the Sunshine District.
Today, Bai Xiao wanted to try to break through in the professional Skill 'Wrestling Beginner.'