After dinner, Zheng Yuan and his girlfriend went to the library to study.
Both of them were majoring in biological sciences. Their goal wasn’t simply to get through their undergraduate program; they were already working toward getting into graduate school. They were far more diligent than the average student who just coasts for four years before graduating.
However, as he saw the Jiang University campus under the night sky, filled with student couples holding hands, wrapping arms around waists, and draping arms over shoulders, Chen Jue couldn’t help but sigh, "It’s great to be young!"
’Wait... I’m not even thirty. I’m obviously still young too!’
After reassuring himself, Chen Jue took advantage of the post-dinner lull to walk around the Jiang University campus, slowly familiarizing himself with his surroundings.
After an hour of walking, just as his ankles were starting to feel a little sore, Chen Jue found himself at a track and field stadium.
There were two standard 400-meter rubber tracks built right next to each other! Truly an extravagant display.
However, a soccer game was going on in the field of one, and since Chen Jue had no interest in ball sports, he slowly ambled over to the track that had more students on it.
University life was relatively open and free. On the field, you could see student couples out for a stroll, a club in the center playing guitar and holding an impromptu open-air concert, and a few student-athletes practicing their sprints.
At a top-tier institution like Jiang University, anyone admitted for their athletic prowess would be at least a National First-Class Athlete. These were the kind of people who could easily run the 100-meter dash in under 10.93 seconds, electronically timed.
Chen Jue watched from the sidelines for a while, observing the sprinters as they burst from the starting blocks and rocketed toward the finish line.
The crouch start, the high-knee drive and footfalls during the run, the rhythmic swing of their arms, and the explosive power of their tensed muscles—it all made Chen Jue’s blood pump with excitement.
The muscles on their thighs were especially impressive—not only were they sharply defined, but they were also clearly a size thicker than an average person’s.
’I wonder what my time would be now.’
’Twelve seconds? Or maybe eleven?’
’It’s a shame running can’t be recorded on the panel. I wonder what the rules are for activating a Skill,’ Chen Jue mused.
Most of his previous training had focused on arm strength, so his leg workouts had been lacking. Now that he was going to be studying and training at Jiang University, he definitely needed to get his leg strength up to par.
But he had walked too much tonight—well over ten thousand steps—and his calves and ankles were already a little sore. So, Chen Jue decided not to join in and test his own sprint speed.
After watching the sprint training with great interest for a while, he slowly made his way to the other side of the stadium, to an exercise area equipped with climbing frames, pull-up and parallel bars, and monkey bars.
A group of disciplined students in sportswear was there, showing off their powerful physiques. There were quite a few of them, at least twenty or so, and most were focused on upper-body strength training.
They were doing push-ups, curls, static hangs, pull-ups, and more. Some of the more advanced ones even grabbed a pole and performed a human flag, drawing gasps of amazement from the onlookers.
They had clearly been inspired by the fitness influencers online, as a similar wave of "self-discipline" culture had swept across college campuses.
Having come all this way, Chen Jue wasn’t about to just stand on the sidelines.
His legs were sore, but he still had plenty of stamina, so he could still do an upper-body workout.
So, when one of the "disciplined" students vacated a pull-up bar, Chen Jue went up and grabbed it, planning to practice some pull-ups.
Besides building upper-body muscle strength, pull-ups were also an effective way to train the core strength in his abs and back—an area he was currently lacking in.
One, two, three... At first, no one paid much attention to Chen Jue’s pull-ups.
After all, any of the disciplined students there could easily do ten or twenty reps. But when Chen Jue cranked out over thirty in a single set, students started to turn their heads.
"Damn, nice!"
"Full-range explosive pull-ups!"
"Thirty in one go!"
"Which department is that upperclassman from? How come I’ve never seen him before?" the students muttered among themselves.
The "high explosive pull-up" is a specific type of pull-up. The movement was very similar to how Chen Jue had climbed the wall earlier, requiring one to pull their elbows up higher than the bar, making it look as if they were propping their upper body on top of it.
Besides the high explosive pull-up, other variations included Australian pull-ups, eccentric pull-ups, kipping pull-ups, and crossed-leg burnout pull-ups.
However, the high explosive pull-ups Chen Jue was performing were the most difficult and physically demanding variation of all.
If he hadn’t been intensively training his hand strength, and if his [Constitution] Attribute hadn’t steadily increased, granting him abundant stamina, Chen Jue would never have been able to complete thirty of these difficult high explosive pull-ups in one go.
"Thirty-one, thirty-two, thirty-three... forty!"
After gritting his teeth and finishing the last pull-up, Chen Jue’s entire body felt like it was on fire. His hands were numb, his back and waist were stiff, and he dropped from the bar, landing on the ground with a THUD.
Just then, a notification popped up on his panel:
——————
[DING~]
[Skill Level reached 100%. Skill Level has increased.]
[Climbing Lv1 (200/200) → Lv2 (1/500)]
[You have become more proficient in the sport of Climbing. Your upper body strength, grip strength, and core strength have slightly increased.]
[Strength Attribute +0.01]
——————
’Doing pull-ups counts as Climbing?’
’Is it because it involves gripping and climbing motions? No wonder the Skill Level went up so fast!’