Chapter 22 – Imaginary Enemy

With an additional agility point, Lu Yuan felt a noticeable “lightness” throughout his entire body.

The muscles in his arms and legs became more toned.

The slight “bloated” feeling brought on by the previous two strength points was now completely gone.

He took a ruler from the drawer, tied a thin string to one end, and hung it from the edge of his desk.

Due to the smooth surface of the ruler, the string, under its own weight, kept slipping upward, trying to break free.

Lu Yuan placed two fingers on either side of the zero mark on the ruler, not looking at the string, but focusing on the ruler itself.

At the exact moment the string broke free and the ruler fell, he caught the falling ruler with his fingers.

“Less than two centimeters.”

Lu Yuan checked the test results and nodded to himself.

“Significant improvement in neural response speed.”

This was incredibly significant.

If he were in a track race, he could be the first to burst off the starting line the moment the gun fired.

In martial arts combat, it meant that when an opponent threw a punch, Lu Yuan could react and dodge faster than before, then counterattack.

“Tomorrow, I’ll find time to measure how much my running speed has improved. And also check the enhancements brought by those two strength points.”

Lu Yuan took off his shirt and stood in front of the wardrobe mirror in his bedroom, examining himself.

With the additional strength points, all his muscles—arms, chest, abs, waist, back, and thighs—had become much fuller.

The contours were clear, and the lines were smooth.

He looked quite robust.

Before adding the agility points, his physique was even more exaggerated, like those fitness enthusiasts on the internet.

Now, it was much better; he had muscles when shirtless but still looked slim in clothes, which suited his own aesthetic preference.

Who could have guessed that just a month ago, the boy in the mirror was a “skinny dog” with barely any muscle on him?

“With 11 strength points, my power has at least doubled compared to when I had 9 points.

I can easily snap someone’s wrist bones and send a hundred-pound adult man flying several meters like a sandbag.

I wonder what my boxing power is now? I’ll go to the martial arts gym tomorrow to find out.”

Lu Yuan recalled the fight in the alley, the thrill of overpowering the group of men in raincoats still fresh in his mind.

It was like an adult fighting a group of children, where his absolute strength completely compensated for his lack of technique and experience.

“That’s right!”

As Lu Yuan admired his physique, he suddenly remembered.

“I still have three unused skill points!”

With a bunch of professional basic skills, he usually felt the experience gain was decent and had been reluctant to use the points.

He had saved up to three points, but he couldn’t hold back any longer.

“Only the basic grappling technique remains at Level 2 out of the four basic martial arts techniques. Once I upgrade basic grappling to Level 3, I should meet the prerequisites to unlock the [Martial Artist] professional core skill.”

Lu Yuan had been looking forward to this for more than half a month.

He had already decided to try unlocking it tonight, and the fight in the alley made this desire even stronger.

“Upgrade basic grappling.”

He added one skill point to basic grappling, immediately raising it from Level 2 to Level 3, and even retaining the existing experience points.

Just like when he used skill points to directly upgrade the Physics subject under the [Student] profession.

After consuming the skill point, Lu Yuan felt a rush of fragmented memories flowing into his mind.

These were scenes of him diligently practicing basic grappling.

These memories integrated into Lu Yuan’s body, imprinting deeply into his muscle memory.

It felt as if he had truly undergone a long period of “intense training,” thus raising his basic grappling from Level 2 to Level 3.

“Not only have I mastered the existing grappling techniques more thoroughly, but I also grasped several new techniquestechniques that Cheng Peng never taught me. It’s amazing how naturally I acquired them.”

Lu Yuan casually performed a few basic grappling moves, marveling at the magic of the professional panel, and then eagerly checked the panel again.

“It’s really here!”

As expected, under Lu Yuan’s delighted gaze, a small gray dot quietly appeared on the [Martial Artist] professional panel.

Focusing his attention on it, he immediately received a prompt—[Unlockable Professional Core Skill].

Unlock it?

Of course!

Without hesitation, Lu Yuan added one skill point.

Quickly, the gray dot on the panel lit up.

A brand-new skill fully emerged—

[Core Skill: Imaginary Enemy (Active)]

[Effect: Construct an opponent in your mind and simulate the battle trajectory]

Lu Yuan’s eyes gleamed with excitement as he read the skill description.

“Imaginary Enemy.”

“Simulated Battle.”

This sounded really interesting.

“If this works as I imagine, it might just compensate for my lack of real combat experience.”

To see its true effect, he had to try it out.

Lu Yuan took out his old training mat as usual, but this time, he didn’t go to the living room. He just spread it out in his bedroom.

Long periods of training had left deep brown sweat stains all over the old mat, which couldn’t be scrubbed off even with vigorous use of laundry detergent.

Lu Yuan didn’t mind and positioned himself comfortably on the mat.

“Since it’s a mental battle, I probably need to close my eyes.”

Thinking this, Lu Yuan closed his eyes and silently activated the skill in his mind.

“Come on, my imaginary opponent!

Activate, [Imaginary Enemy]!”

“Whoosh—”

Rain, a torrential downpour.

Lu Yuan suddenly opened his eyes.

He found himself standing in a narrow alley.

Continuous heavy rain poured down from the night sky above, drenching him completely, yet he felt no cold.

“Whoosh—”

Two beams of orange light shone directly ahead.

Lu Yuan instinctively squinted and saw a figure standing quietly between the beams.

Although he couldn’t see the person’s face clearly, he was absolutely certain.

The figure was the middle-aged man he had just fought fiercely with.

“So, I’ve returned to the rainy alley from an hour ago.

The imaginary enemy constructed in my mind is still him!”

Lu Yuan took a deep breath and gently wiped away the rainwater flowing from his forehead to his chin.

“Let’s do this.”

He twisted his neck and stretched his limbs.

After adding two points of strength, his increasingly muscular body felt like a well-oiled machine in motion.

“Let me defeat you once more!”

A fierce determination ignited in Lu Yuan’s eyes. He pushed off with his right foot, creating a splash of water as he launched himself towards the figure under the car lights.

The increase in agility points made Lu Yuan keenly aware of his improved sprinting speed.

“It seems my abilities in this mental world fully reflect reality.”

This realization steadied Lu Yuan, intensifying his fighting spirit.

Having already defeated this opponent once, he no longer felt the same tension and fear he experienced in the alley.

Now, it was more about validation.

Validating his current strengthwhat level had he truly reached?

As Lu Yuan charged, the figure under the car lights moved as well.

“Bang!”

The two figures collided fiercely, sending countless water droplets exploding from the point of impact.