Perhaps it was the academic atmosphere of a top-tier university, but it was a hundred times better than the vocational college Chen Jue had previously attended.
Chen Jue was completely engrossed in his first Zoology and Lab course, not feeling the least bit sleepy.
Not only did he learn about the true origins of humanity, but he also managed to grind over 300 points in his Hidden Weapon Throwing Skill Level. He even increased his Strength Attribute by 0.01 by squeezing a grip strengthener.
Gazing at his [Strength] Attribute, which had now risen to 0.98, Chen Jue began to eagerly anticipate the change that would occur when this final Three-dimensional Attribute reached a full point.
’I’ll find some time this afternoon and evening to work on my leg and core muscle strength. I’m going to grind it up today,’ Chen Jue thought to himself. He resisted the urge to use his Free Attribute points and followed the other freshmen out of the large lecture hall.
...
He ate lunch in the cafeteria again. When 1:30 PM rolled around, Chen Jue was right on time for the Clinical Medicine major’s Human Anatomy class.
This was a smaller class, and the teacher and freshmen had already known each other for over two months.
When an unfamiliar face like Chen Jue’s appeared, the female teacher on the podium stared at him for a good while. "Excuse me, you’re not in this class, are you?"
"Teacher, I’m a new auditing student!" Chen Jue found a seat in the back and called out a greeting to the teacher on the stage.
"An auditing student?"
The teacher was slightly taken aback. She checked the class roster on the university’s intranet and, sure enough, found a note at the very bottom indicating Chen Jue was auditing the course.
"In that case, please be mindful of classroom discipline. Set your phone to silent and don’t disturb the other students."
The teacher emphasized this point. After the bell rang and she had taken attendance, she opened her slides and spoke into the microphone, "Today, we’ll be continuing with Gross Anatomy."
"In our previous lessons, we learned that human anatomy is divided into two main categories. One is gross anatomy, which can be observed with the naked eye, and the other is microscopic anatomy, which requires a microscope."
"So, for this lesson, we’ll use muscles as our starting point."
As she spoke, a diagram of the human anatomy appeared on the projection screen, with everything from the skeleton to the muscles and specific joints clearly labeled.
"Muscles are the primary source of what we physiologically define as strength, or what we commonly call physical power."
"When a muscle group receives a myoelectric signal from the brain, it contracts. Then, through the leverage and synergy of the bones and joints, it produces what we call strength."
"Muscle tissue is primarily composed of muscle cells and can be divided into three main types based on structure and function: smooth muscle, skeletal muscle, and cardiac muscle."
"Skeletal muscle is the most abundant type in the human body, with 639 skeletal muscles attached to the surface of the 206 bones."
As the teacher explained, she highlighted the locations of these muscles on the anatomical diagram.
’So muscles are the source of Strength?’
’If that’s the case, does the [Strength Attribute] value on my panel correspond to these three types of muscles?’ The thought struck Chen Jue, and he hurriedly took notes.
Just then, the teacher circled the 639 skeletal muscles and a muscle group on the wrist and forearm, continuing, "Actually, the number 639 is an approximate figure established by early anatomical studies."
"According to recent research, some of the skeletal muscles in the human body have actually changed."
"Take the palmaris longus muscle, for example. That’s the strip of muscle that bulges on your wrist when you turn your palm up and pinch your five fingers together. About 13% of humans are now missing it due to evolutionary regression."
As soon as the teacher said this, the students in the class all started testing themselves.
Sure enough, a few students gasped in surprise, discovering that the palmaris longus muscle on their hands didn’t appear.
"Holy crap! I don’t have that muscle!"
"Is this a mutation?"
"Teacher Liu! Are there any consequences to not having this muscle?" The students chattered amongst themselves.
Chen Jue also tested himself. He could clearly see the protruding muscle on both of his wrists, and it was even more pronounced than the student’s next to him!
"Students who don’t have the palmaris longus don’t need to worry. Its absence doesn’t really affect our daily lives. You could even call it a form of evolution."
"This is because modern humans rarely use it. Its main function is wrist flexion, which affects our Climbing movements. Only primates like monkeys and apes use it frequently when climbing trees." The teacher offered a few reassuring words with a chuckle, and the noise in the classroom finally died down.
As for Chen Jue, he stared blankly at the two thick palmaris longus muscles on his wrists. ’So the [Climbing] Skill relies on this!’
’Regression? Isn’t that just like the Tailbone?’
This seemingly useless piece of trivia was incredibly useful to someone like Chen Jue, who had a ’cheat’ and was currently grinding his Skill Levels.
He made a special note about the palmaris longus in his notebook and then perked up his ears to continue listening.
"Besides the palmaris longus, there’s also the auricular muscle group in our ear region. This is another muscle that has regressed."
"The auricular muscles include the superior, anterior, and posterior auriculars. You’ve all seen animals like cats, dogs, and monkeys move their ears. They rely on these muscles to rotate their ears freely, allowing them to focus on and collect sound from a specific direction."
"Only about 2% of humans can move their ears. This is a relatively common atavistic trait." The teacher pointed to her own ears, which actually twitched slightly in sync with her hand gestures.
The students who saw this exclaimed, "Amazing! Teacher Liu has the divine ear-wiggling skill!"
"It’s giving me some serious Big-Eared Tutu vibes!"
"I’m screwed! My palmaris longus is gone, and I can’t even move my ears. I really am useless." Another student tried a few times, but their ears showed no reaction at all.
At that moment, Chen Jue, sitting in the back, raised his hand high. Just last night, he’d had trouble sleeping because of the sounds of his neighbors ’getting busy’, and had fantasized about being able to close his ears.
After seeing Teacher Liu move her ears, he had a flash of inspiration and quickly asked, "Teacher, can the auricular muscles be developed through Postnatal training?"
Teacher Liu gave Chen Jue a meaningful look and nodded. "Moving your ears can indeed be achieved through Postnatal practice! For students who can’t do it innately, you can try opening your eyes wide and raising your eyebrows as high as possible, or doing some exaggerated facial muscle movements. This can help activate some of the auricular muscles."
"Then, with repeated practice and long-term stimulation of the auricular muscles, some of their regressed functions can be reawakened."
As soon as she said this, the whole class started scrunching up their faces and wiggling their eyebrows. A few of the extreme extroverts even made bizarre faces, making the female teacher on the podium chuckle.
"I feel like I’ve mastered another useless piece of knowledge!"
"Who says it’s useless? I’m going to learn Tutu’s divine ear-wiggling skill!"
"Moving your ears doesn’t even improve your hearing. No wonder only 2% of people can do it."
"If you practice too much, you’ll get forehead wrinkles! I wonder if you could eventually use them to squash a mosquito?" the students joked, and the classroom atmosphere became very lively.
Chen Jue also tried a few times and found that raising his eyebrows did indeed pull on some of the muscles around his ears, but the effect was very weak and barely noticeable.
He had no idea how long he’d have to practice like this before he could actually move his ears.
He then remembered the [Eye Health Exercises] he had been doing. The muscles around his eye sockets, much like his ears, were rarely exercised, only receiving stimulation when he rubbed and pressed them with his hands.
So, Chen Jue raised his hands and tried massaging the three auricular muscles around his ear area, as well as every part of his ear he could touch, coordinating the movements with opening his eyes and raising his eyebrows.
Gradually, his slightly cool ears began to grow warm, as if he were flushed and red-faced from drinking.
This was a sign that blood flow in the ear region was accelerating, with blood concentrating under the skin.
Unexpectedly, after about 10 minutes of rubbing, a new notification popped up on his panel:
——————
[DING~]
[You have completed an effective ear stimulation exercise. Your regressed auricular muscles are showing a weak response. Your ears’ metabolic rate has increased, and your hearing has improved by a minuscule amount.]
[Skill Activated: Ear Health Exercises]
——————
’A new Skill!’
’Just like the Eye Health Exercises?’
’So you can train your ears by massaging them too!’ Chen Jue’s face was full of surprise.
He had been struggling to find a way to train his ears, and he’d unexpectedly solved the problem on his very first day of classes at Jiang University.
As long as it could be registered as a Skill, Chen Jue was confident he could gradually improve this bodily function.
...
He listened to the lecture and took notes, while also freeing up one hand to perform the Ear Health Exercises.
Chen Jue realized that the ambidextrous training he did when practicing with Darts was now paying off significantly.
Thanks to his improved left-hand dexterity, he could now write with either hand, though his left-handed writing was still a bit sloppy and needed more practice.
’Lin Ling once said that left-handedness can be developed postnatally.’
’I guess I’m pretty much ambidextrous now. It feels a bit like Zhou Botong’s Technique of Ambidexterity,’ Chen Jue thought, secretly pleased.
However, the improvement rate for his newly acquired [Ear Health Exercises] was incredibly slow. It often took a full 10 minutes of massage just to get a single notification for Skill Level +1, and his [Constitution] Attribute didn’t budge at all.
Chen Jue speculated that his massage technique was still lacking. He didn’t have a thorough enough understanding of the muscles, blood vessels, and acupoints in the ear region.
When he was practicing the [Eye Health Exercises], he had followed a video tutorial by its creator, Director Liu, which provided a detailed acupoint chart and massage instructions. That’s why he’d learned it quickly and improved efficiently.
But he had discovered these [Ear Health Exercises] through his own random experimentation. The process must have included a lot of wasted effort, which would explain the low efficiency.
’Knowledge really is humanity’s most valuable treasure. I need to keep studying hard!’ Chen Jue thought to himself as the class period flew by.