0134 Giving the fans a little shock!

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Chen Jue stared blankly at the palms of his hands. He remembered learning during a lecture that skin wrinkled after being soaked in water.

According to the theory of human evolution, the wrinkles that appeared on the hands and feet had evolved as a neurological stress response, allowing humanity’s ancestors to adapt to damp environments. Their appearance was controlled by nerve endings rather than being caused simply by the skin swelling after prolonged exposure to water.

The purpose of these wrinkles was to increase the contact area of the palms and soles, thereby enhancing friction and preventing slips and falls. Among modern humans, only a very small minority lacked this adaptive response.

By all rights, after spending so long in the water, Chen Jue should have developed wrinkles. Instead, his hands were reverting further and further, almost as though some ancestral trait had resurfaced.

“Something’s wrong!”

“Why has the friction of my palms increased instead of decreasing?”

Chen Jue reached out and touched the wall of the swimming pool. The friction he felt against the tiles was considerably stronger than before.

Looking more closely at his hands, he realized that the pale wrinkles had vanished, but the lines on his palms and the ridges of his fingerprints had become noticeably deeper.

Ordinarily, the lines on a person’s palm were extremely shallow, measuring only about 0.4 millimeters in depth, while fingerprints were even shallower, at roughly 0.2 millimeters.

Under the combined stimulation of the aquatic environment and the system interface, however, the grooves in Chen Jue’s hands had deepened to twice their original depth.

The effect was especially pronounced on his fingertips. When he ran his fingers over them, they felt almost like the surface of a pair of rubberized, nonslip gloves.

What was more, the abnormality was impossible to notice without close inspection. Chen Jue could not help staring at his hands in astonishment.

“Could the system’s function be more than simply monitoring the growth of my attributes? Could it actually be stimulating my body to evolve in response to its environment?”

Chen Jue began to make a bold conjecture.

Just then, Ma Qiang finished swimming a lap. Seeing Chen Jue clinging to the end of the pool and staring at his palms, he approached with a mischievous grin.

“Senior Chen Jue! What’s wrong? Did the water make your skin peel?”

“Peel?” Chen Jue turned to look at Ma Qiang.

“Yeah! If we stay in the water too long, the skin all over our bodies starts peeling. It’s especially bad on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet. You can practically tear it right off.”

As he spoke, Ma Qiang raised his hand for Chen Jue to see.

His hand was covered in pale wrinkles, and the skin around his fingers showed clear signs of peeling.

Compared with Chen Jue’s perfectly intact hands, the difference was striking.

“So the white wrinkles that ordinary people evolved are actually defective?”

“They temporarily increase friction, but they also reduce the skin’s toughness and strength. It’s an evolutionary adaptation with flaws.”

Chen Jue rubbed his chin and analyzed the matter silently. He then tried tugging at the skin on his palms and soles.

He discovered that the skin around his palm lines was extraordinarily tough. It would probably tear only if cut with a blade or bitten through with his teeth.

…

Two hours of swimming training brought Chen Jue tremendous gains. Aside from the increase in his attributes, the most important discovery was the body’s adaptive response to an underwater environment.

What surprised him even more was that the deeper lines on his hands and feet did not automatically disappear after he left the pool.

Instead, like the adrenaline in his body, they had changed from passive to active. As long as he focused his awareness on his hands or feet, the lines would deepen at astonishing speed, and they could just as quickly return to normal.

The sensation was remarkably strange. It was similar to the way he had consciously learned to control his arrector pili muscles and contract his pores while practicing his stance work.

His ear muscles had undergone a similar transformation. Through gradual training and stimulation, they had evolved from nothing, allowing him to contract and twitch them independently, much like many animals in nature.

“These lines aren’t useful only for swimming!”

Chen Jue experimented several times while staring at his hands. On his way out of the swimming center, he found a roadside lamp post on campus and rubbed his palm against it.

The smooth metal pole suddenly offered tremendous friction beneath his hand. By gripping it with only one hand, he was able to pull his entire body upward.

Previously, when climbing lamp posts, Chen Jue had needed to use both hands and feet, gripping with his hands and clamping his legs around the pole to keep from sliding down.

Now, he could climb using only the friction of one hand. The improvement was so drastic that it felt like activating a cheat code on the spot.

“It seems this isn’t merely an increase in friction. Once the palm lines deepen, contact with smooth surfaces produces a suction effect, almost like a suction cup!”

“This is incredible!”

“Isn’t this even better than the little spines on Spider-Man’s hands?”

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Chen Jue forcefully squeezed the air trapped beneath his palm. Once the suction had fully formed, he gave it a hard pull.

A crisp pop rang out, leaving even him staring in stunned confusion.

“So the system’s true function isn’t merely to improve my physical attributes. Its ultimate purpose is to enable the human body to achieve a certain degree of evolution in response to the real world?!”

Chen Jue stared at his palm, suddenly overwhelmed by the implications.

Fortunately, the evolution had been entirely beneficial so far and had caused him no negative effects. After testing the evolutionary function of his palms several times, Chen Jue adjusted his mindset and relaxed completely.

…

By the time he finished swimming, darkness had settled outside.

After winter arrived, night fell earlier in Hangzhou. The sky began to darken before six o’clock.

Feeling hungry, Chen Jue went to the Jiang University cafeteria and ate a hearty meal to replenish the energy he had expended during training.

He discovered that exercise in the water consumed far more energy than simple machine-based workouts, while also improving his attributes in a more comprehensive manner. It was not merely a matter of building muscle.

Moreover, after several days of high-intensity training, Chen Jue’s endurance and stamina had improved considerably.

That afternoon’s swimming had not pushed his body into another state of Extreme Fatigue. Once the pre-workout pump and adrenaline had faded, he had experienced only Mild Fatigue.

After dinner, Chen Jue slowly walked back to his apartment with a heavy sports bag on his back.

As usual, he first soaked in a medicinal bath to relax, then applied topical medicine to various parts of his body.

Unexpectedly, after doing yoga stretches in his room and practicing Meditation, even his Mild Fatigue disappeared. All three of his core attributes returned to normal:

———

Name: Chen Jue

Strength: 1.82

Constitution: 2.07

Spirit: 1.56

Skills: Horse Stance Level 5; Thirteen Tai Chi Stances Level 5; Climbing Level 6; Archery Level 4; Hunting and Throwing Level 2; Meditation Level 2; Skating Level 1; Perfect-Level Skills Omitted

Unallocated Free Attribute Points: 0.09

Character Evaluation: You are a strong adult male. Due to prolonged exercise, certain tissues and organs in your body have undergone a degree of evolution. You are currently wondering whether this evolution is reasonable, and therefore need to acquire more relevant knowledge to resolve the psychological fear arising from the unknown.

———

“Fear of the unknown?”

“People really do fear and worry about things they don’t understand.”

“If this evolution could be predicted and was free of side effects, I probably wouldn’t be so concerned.”

Looking at the system’s new evaluation, Chen Jue muttered to himself.

Yoga had helped him relax. Since it was still early, he went online to search for information about the lines on the palms of the hands. To his surprise, he learned quite a few useful things.

Take fingerprints, for example. They were patterns formed by the raised and recessed skin on the pads at the ends of human fingers.

Fingerprints might appear to increase friction when the hand touched an object, but in reality, their purpose was to reduce friction and allow the skin to stretch and deform more easily. This physiological mechanism helped protect the skin from injury.

Even now, humanity’s practical applications for fingerprints and palm lines remained extremely limited, such as tracking criminals through forensic evidence or using fingerprints for smart-lock identification.

By using his willpower to deepen the lines on his palms, Chen Jue had effectively developed an entirely new application based on the human body. In the eyes of ordinary people, it could be described as a supernatural ability or some form of superpower.

…

After a comfortable night’s sleep, Chen Jue awoke on Friday morning.

The weather outside was still perfectly clear. Winter in Hangzhou brought little rain; the long stretches of gloomy, drizzly weather would not arrive until spring.

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After getting out of bed, Chen Jue continued his usual upstairs exercises for his eyes and ears. Having developed two active bodily abilities the previous day, he no longer doubted the power of the system and had begun wondering whether his eyes and ears might also evolve similar supernatural abilities.

As for his ears, it would be enough if he could make them fold and close at will, like Pigsy’s.

And if his eyes could see farther and more clearly, that would be a considerable help in daily life.

After spending more than forty minutes training and gaining 0.01 free attribute points, Chen Jue packed up his equipment and went to the morning-exercise park.

Wu Fang happened to be there as well, so Chen Jue decided to ask her to film some new material and warm up his audience for tomorrow’s stunt video.

“We’re filming today?”

“But tomorrow…”

Wu Fang was caught off guard by Chen Jue’s request.

The thought that she would be going on her first date with Chen Jue tomorrow caused a faint blush to rise naturally across Teacher Wu’s cheeks, making her appear even more radiant and charming in the winter light.

“We’ll film tomorrow too. Today, I’ll just post a shorter vlog.”

“My followers keep urging me to upload more, so I thought I’d record some extra content. The attention is still high lately, so I might as well post more videos and gain a few more followers,” Chen Jue explained as he took a pile of filming equipment out of his bag.

“A vlog?”

“That works too!”

Wu Fang nodded and helped Chen Jue set up the tripod and adjust the camera.

Many internet celebrities who specialized in stunts also filmed ordinary daily vlogs. With a little editing, they could turn them into new videos, increasing their posting frequency and strengthening their appeal and connection with their followers.

After all, stunt ideas were not something one could produce every day. Video creation, much like literary creation, inevitably reached a bottleneck after progressing to a certain point.

Chen Jue’s vlog, however, was clearly not an ordinary record of daily life. It was hardcore from beginning to end.

After putting on his mask, he began his customary bow-drawing and horse-stance exercises in front of the camera. Once he finished drawing the bow, he performed Russian planche push-ups on the grass.

Having taken a pre-workout pump before leaving home, Chen Jue was brimming with energy and strength. The early-morning sunlight shone upon him, making him appear dazzling.

After completing these routine strength exercises, he brought out a GM150 custom grip dynamometer he had purchased earlier. He connected it to the registered app, took a deep breath toward the camera, and squeezed with all his might.

With the combined support of the pre-workout pump and adrenaline, his three core attributes temporarily increased by fifteen percent, pushing his Strength to an unprecedented 2.09.

He also applied the explosive-force technique of Clear Strength to the squeeze, increasing his power output by another ten percent. Even under normal conditions, Chen Jue’s grip strength had already exceeded 140 kilograms.

Now, with multiple factors combined, the liquid-crystal display on the grip dynamometer shot rapidly upward before finally stopping at 177.12 kilograms.

To give his followers an even greater surprise, Chen Jue tested not only his right hand but also his left, producing a result of 176.23 kilograms.

By the time they finished recording this segment of the vlog, Wu Fang was feeling a little numb with shock.

Chen Jue’s phone had been filming under her control the entire time. The moment the first grip-strength result of 177.12 kilograms appeared, the Bluetooth-connected GM150 grip app immediately displayed an Easter egg effect resembling an exploding firework:

“Congratulations, user Chen Jue, on breaking the world grip-strength record!”

“Your grip-strength result has been added to the rankings. Your current position is No. 1 in the world.”

First update~

It certainly hadn’t been easy. His grip strength had finally broken through to first place in the world.

End of chapter.