Simulation: Grabbing the Gold Brick

Altogether, the video on horseback archery turned out to be extremely splendid. Although it had not yet surged to the top of the trending searches, it successfully evoked fond childhood memories of martial arts and chivalry among the majority of net-pals.

To everyone's surprise, as soon as the video went live, several actors who had starred in various adaptations of The Legend of the Condor Heroes were drawn out of the woodwork. They left comments and likes one after another, eager to engage in a friendly interaction with Chen Jue, the newly emerged internet celebrity in the action genre.

Seeing this spectacle, net-pals flooded the comment section with remarks like "My youth has returned," propelling the video to the trending lists in less than half an hour and once again injecting a massive wave of new traffic into the "Master of Unique Skills" ID.

As for Chen Jue himself, after uploading this installment of his unique skills video, he began practicing yoga and meditation in his room.

On this very first night of being in a relationship, it was truly agonizing not having Teacher Wu by his side.

After all, being a hot-blooded thirty-year-old young man who had abstained for so many years was no easy feat. He had no choice but to use meditation to suppress the restless agitation surging within his body.

By the time he finished his yoga practice, his backup smartphone, plugged into the charger on the cabinet, was vibrating incessantly.

Chen Jue then picked up the phone to check the incoming messages. The notifications piling up in his secondary WeChat account resembled a heavily stacked Killing Book; having ignored it for just two days, the screen was already full of "99+" indicators.

His contacts list also featured a huge backlog of stranger friend requests, though he had no idea where the secondary account's information had leaked from.

Browsing through them one by one, aside from fans in the Wild Jungle Team chat group tagging him, the vast majority were business partners knocking on his door to seek commercial cooperation—much like the Cold Weapon Studio, which had been Chen Jue's very first collaborator.

However, because the video performance over the past two days had been somewhat explosive, the sellers coming to seek cooperation were no longer limited to cold weapons. The manufacturers now ranged from bows and arrows, grip strengtheners, and sports equipment to dietary supplements, health products, and functional beverages. In short, the categories were utterly diverse.

Even the manufacturer of the GM150 grip strengthener had reached out, claiming they wanted to sign a cooperative agreement with Mr. Chen Jue, the world's number one in grip strength.

Regarding these business requests, Chen Jue accepted them all without giving it much thought.

Since it was just a secondary account, he had no fear of his true identity being exposed.

Moreover, since these people were rushing to deliver money to his doorstep, Chen Jue had no intention of turning them away.

If terms could be negotiated, they would talk; if not, they would be deleted. That was simply the standard playbook for internet celebrities cashing in on traffic.

However, professional internet celebrities all had management teams, and this kind of entry-level commercial cooperation didn't require the master of unique skills himself to step up personally.

After chatting with a few cooperative merchants that caught his eye, Chen Jue began to wonder whether he should set up a "Master of Unique Skills Studio" similar to a celebrity's personal studio.

As his fan base grew larger and the traffic became more massive in the future, such business collaborations would undoubtedly arrive in an endless stream.

Relying solely on himself to manage everything by that time would certainly stretch his abilities thin.

"Professional matters should still be left to professionals."

"I'll discuss it with Teacher Wu tomorrow," Chen Jue muttered to himself, rubbing his chin.

After all, he was no longer a lone wolf. Having secured Wu Fang as his ideal girlfriend, Chen Jue inevitably began to map out plans for their future together at the bottom of his heart.

He would turn thirty after the Lunar New Year, an age of standing firm that no longer permitted Chen Jue to muddle through life aimlessly as he had in the past.

...

Having suppressed the distracting thoughts in his mind through meditation, he felt an exceptional surge of internal heat upon waking up.

Youthful vigor, combined with a bundle of attributes brushed via the panel, left Chen Jue's mind filled with suggestive thoughts even in his dreams, naturally triggering a physical reaction upon waking up in the morning.

"Sigh!"

"Calm down, stay calm. I still need to work hard on improving my mental state."

Chen Jue got out of bed and splashed cold water on his face to shock his system. Perhaps because he had suppressed too much pent-up heat the previous night, yellowish crusts had gathered at the corners of his eyes, and his urine carried a reddish-yellow tint that wasn't normally there.

Sighing over how tremendously romance could impact the physical body, he routinely went upstairs to perform eye and ear training.

By the time he drove to the morning exercise park, Wu Fang was already waiting near the chess tables.

Glancing at Wu Fang's slightly reddened eyes, it was evident she hadn't slept particularly well last night either.

"How come we haven't seen the old gentleman lately?"

"Is it too cold for him to go out?" Chen Jue asked with a light cough, feigning composure, while immediately grabbing Wu Fang's plump little hand.

"Grandpa went traveling with several old friends and won't be back until before the New Year."

"Retired old folks like them lead lives far more colorful than ours!" Wu Fang remarked with a slight sigh, her face blushing faintly as she ducked into the apartment complex's small grove with Chen Jue.

Young couples were always like this, eager to be glued together every single minute.

However, Chen Jue didn't just focus on sweet-talking with Teacher Wu; he also filled her in on the situation with the Master of Unique Skills account, incidentally opening the backend earnings for his sweetheart to consult on and advise.

"Oh!"

"I haven't checked for just a few weeks, and the earnings are already this high! My annual salary doesn't even add up to this much."

Seeing the backend data—where the revenue from views and ad splits alone had already reached over 370,000—Wu Fang couldn't help but look somewhat astonished.

One had to realize that once the real follower count across the entire network exceeded five million, Chen Jue's daily income had already easily surpassed four digits, and on the day a video was released, the earnings could even surge past 70,000 to 80,000.

This didn't even account for the previous live-streaming income that had raked in a million within half an hour; the money came in so swiftly it felt as though it had been blown in by a gale.

It could only be said that the internet created miracles. Even going abroad to live-stream begging for meals beat working a down-to-earth job.

"How much is your salary right now?" Chen Jue asked curiously.

"Just over 20,000 hitting the card each month, and factoring in the housing fund, it comes out to around 250,000 a year," Wu Fang calculated on her fingers.

"A high school P.E. teacher can make that much?"

"When I first graduated back in the day, I only made two thousand a month!" Chen Jue couldn't help but exclaim.

Hangzhou truly lived up to its reputation as a newly tier-one major city; the welfare benefits of public institutions were simply too high.

No matter that even talents graduating from Tsinghua and Peking University were racking their brains to pass civil service exams and secure permanent establishment positions. Not only was the job stable, but the income grew every year, making it far more promising than toiling in a private enterprise or working at a tech giant where one could be optimized out at any moment!

Even within the traditional dating and marriage market, those working as teachers or civil servants were extremely sought-after, premium catch objects.

Coupled with Wu Fang's favorable family background and stunning appearance, the line of men pursuing her would measure at least half a mile long. For Chen Jue to catch such a treasure of a girlfriend truly meant smoke was billowing from his ancestors' graves.

...

While doing their morning exercises, the two discussed the operational matters of the Master of Unique Skills account.

Initially, Wu Fang had thought it was merely a matter of casually shooting videos, putting out one installment per week as a relaxing weekend activity.

Yet upon seeing the backend earnings, Wu Fang herself couldn't remain entirely calm.

"I have a cousin who runs an MCN company and collaborates with Alibaba. I'll go find her this afternoon to inquire about the situation." After pondering for a moment and hesitating repeatedly, Wu Fang brought up her past encounter.

Back when she trended on searches for subduing a dog to save a life, that cousin of hers had strongly recommended that she sign with their company and debut directly as an internet celebrity.

Given her figure and appearance, not to mention pulling in tens of millions annually, earning a million-yuan annual salary would have been an absolute certainty.

Unfortunately, Wu Fang came from a strict family upbringing and had no desire to be thrust into the public eye or endure criticism behind her back, so she had politely declined her cousin's proposal.

Since Chen Jue had a demand right now, Wu Fang intended to leverage this connection within her social circle to add bricks and tiles to her boyfriend's career.

"Then I'll leave it in your hands, Ms. Wu Xiaofang!" Chen Jue flashed a cheeky grin and handed over his secondary work phone.

Young women from the Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Shanghai region were mostly nurtured under the influence of a commercial atmosphere; even a girl with a romantic brain would still cultivate an extremely astute mind, always remaining fiercely proactive when it came to making money.

Seeing that Chen Jue actually handed such an important secondary phone over to her, Wu Fang's eyes grew as tender as water.

Female governance over boyfriends and husbands in Hangzhou had always harmonized toughness with gentleness; being able to voluntarily hand over major financial authority indicated that Chen Jue had already accepted her from the bottom of his heart.

Thus, right after the morning exercises concluded, taking advantage of Chen Jue's inattention, Wu Fang hooked her arm around Chen Jue's neck. Meeting gaze for gaze, she gave him a light kiss, which felt like an absolute windfall of a surprise to Chen Jue.

...

When wrapped up with someone you loved, time invariably flew by in a blur.

Reluctantly bidding farewell after escorting Wu Fang to the entrance of her residential compound following their morning exercise, Chen Jue drove back to Wangyang Apartment.

Since the management of the Master of Unique Skills account had temporarily been handed over to Wu Fang, what Chen Jue needed to do next was to proceed step-by-step with studying and training.

Despite spending two hours doing morning exercises at the park, the majority of that time had been consumed by romance, causing his exercise efficiency to drop noticeably—he had only farmed 0.01 free attribute points all morning.

Furthermore, Chen Jue discovered that his strength attribute had surged recently, making the 120-pound Kirin bow in his hands much less laborious to draw than before. It was obvious that the draw weight of this heavy bow could no longer keep pace with his current physical conditioning.

Testing it with the GM150 grip strengthener he had purchased, his normal single-handed grip strength had upgraded to the 145kg level.

To test his hypothesis, Chen Jue specifically dug out the fake gold brick he had custom-ordered online earlier.

Planting his stance in a horse stance, he curled the five fingers of his right hand and initially attempted to lift it using his normal exertion.

The 25-kilogram fake gold brick instantly slipped from his grasp, merely budging slightly under the force.

"There's hope!"

At this sight, Chen Jue's face revealed a pleased expression. On his second attempt, he activated the temporary attribute buff of [Adrenal Hormone] while proactively deepening the dermatoglyphic patterns on his hands, temporarily increasing his palm's friction by several fold.

Attempting the grip and lift once more, Chen Jue—feeling as though he had put on non-slip gloves—unleashed the second stage of [Explicit Force] exertion. Every pore on his body closed, the veins on his right hand bulged violently, and his fingers turned pale from the intense pressure while the back of his hand flushed red and purple from pooled, surging blood.

Under the stacking effect of multiple buffs, Chen Jue finally managed to hoist this 25-kilogram fake gold brick up to chest level using a one-handed gripping technique!

If it had been a dumbbell with a handle, Chen Jue felt he could have held it horizontally for several minutes straight.

However, gripping a smooth gold brick with his palm facing downward clearly tested the endurance of his fingers and wrists to an even higher degree. Gritting his teeth to persist for nearly a full minute, Chen Jue had to constantly guard against the gold brick sliding downward, his focus completely locked in the entire time.

When the full minute elapsed, every pore on his body relaxed, fine beads of sweat burst forth, and his right hand neared total exhaustion as he slammed the fake gold brick down onto the table with a heavy "thud."

At that exact moment, the panel popped up with a prompt:

——————

[Ding~]

[Completed a high-intensity gripping exercise; the palmaris longus muscle of your right arm has received thorough training, and the endurance of your right hand's muscle groups has been slightly enhanced.]

[Sustained activation of specialized exertion has stimulated the coccygeal odd ganglion, slightly strengthening your mastery over your body's mechanics.]

[Strength attribute +0.01]

[Spirit attribute +0.01]

Today's second update~

(End of this chapter)