How Am I Still Alive?

May 28th, 1998, Sunny, reading in the hotel.

May 29th, 1998, Rainy, reading in the hotel.

"Lu Ping'an, Lu Ping'an! How can you be so diligent, have you forgotten the previous plan to be a salted fish and slack off! Confucius said, 'I examine myself three times a day.' I can't go on like this!"

May 30th, 1998, Sunny, reading in the hotel......

The watcher Xia Qin was too busy, so she let Lu Ping'an write the surveillance diary himself.

But he really didn't have much to write about, as he hadn't been out for three days straight and just stayed in the hotel and read.

As an exam taker, it's only natural to prepare for the college entrance exam in just a week... Of course, the real him isn't that honest.

"If I were to write a diary, I could only write: in the morning, I eat breakfast sent by Meow, go in to tease Boss Cat and plant the fields, have lunch sent by Meow, go to the gym in the afternoon, continue to eat dinner sent by Meow in the evening, and then arrange work for Boss Cat tomorrow...Hmm, looking at it this way, it seems I'm a bit excessive?"

With the watcher gone, he can now spend a considerable amount of time on his Secret Realm.

Simply lock the door and toss the "key" under the bed, and no one can find him (Lu Ping'an inside can sense the situation around the key).

The only problem is that there's no phone or internet inside, so every time he comes out, a bunch of missed calls attract suspicious gazes.

As for the unlucky Meow... Currently, Lu Ping'an is under high alert and has limited outings. It's best to have only trustworthy informed-persons around, so her brother suggested that Meow send him three meals a day.

In this day and age, nobody is foolish. Pollution won't disappear out of thin air, and Chris' huge treasure is gone. Ping'an has naturally become the main suspect now that his cancer has suddenly disappeared as well.

It's only a matter of time before the "Sophists" or those like them figure out what happened that day and come knocking.

It seems that the Special Service Team has already requested support from above, but it's uncertain when it will arrive and if it will be of any help... Before finding the Sophist, it's best for Lu Ping'an not to go out randomly, so as not to give the police any more pressure.

"What about my college entrance exam?"

"Don't worry, it's in the Secret Realm at Ancient City University, so after the exam, you can move directly into the student dormitory."

Lu Ping'an himself doesn't mind, even without these warnings, he wasn't planning on going out these days.

Today, it's been a week since he became a Newborn, and these three days have been his three days of settling down and completing the accumulation of qualitative change.

More importantly, it's been three days for him and a certain cat to be alone together, trying to improve their relationship.

The hunters outside made the two who are essentially bound in life and death quickly reach a "verbal reconciliation."

Lu Ping'an was a bit more "human," and Boss Cat's fur became much smoother.

A communicative Boss Cat, while annoyed by Lu Ping'an, also helped him correct many wrong "common sense" misconceptions.

"... So Lin Nu's Church didn't pit me, there's a reason for the high price."

Previously, a bag of Demonized plants cost a whopping 100 credit-coins, and Lu Ping'an was a bit unhappy, feeling a bit like, "is your family playing monopoly or something?"

After all, 10 hibiscus blossoms, which are also first-tier Magic Plants, only cost 100 RMB, about one credit-coin each.

Later, after planting with Boss Cat for two days, he realized that the two situations were totally different.

"This thing is really hard to take care of. Even with all the conditions met, I'm afraid it'll fail for like ten days to half a month."

What he bought with credit-coins was not just a bag of seeds, but also a set of "tool books" that came with them.

As the Gardener lady said, "knowledge is power," and knowledge about taboo is even more expensive than the taboo itself. Without the seeds of the hibiscus blossoms, there's no way they could compare.

If it weren't for Lu Ping'an's ability, even if those seeds were planted, most of them would likely end up as duds.

Lin Nu's Church is quite generous, providing a complete set of "knowledge," which includes not only how to plant and cultivate but also analysis and reconstruction models of their gene modules.

Although Lu Ping'an can't understand it now, if given to a Gardener old stager, it means the gene lock of this Magic Plant is open, and they can use "grafting" or higher levels of abilities to re-engineer it.

"Only by improving the two basic professional skills of 'planting' and 'grafting' can one use and modify higher-level Magic Plants. Professional skills are the true foundation of a profession's strength."

If this was just a guess, as Lu Ping'an's study progressed, more and more facts corroborated his suspicion.

For example, the extremely expensive buildings in the Secret Realm, whose main purpose is to speed up training and elevate the basic skills of various professions, rather than those costly and bizarre supernatural abilities.

For example, the priority of his abilities is divided into various professional skills of different professions.

"Are professional skills (tricks) more important than professional abnormal abilities (abilities)?"

With Meow around, the question was naturally asked.

Chris did not talk nonsense in the guidance of this great road.

"You can't say which one is more important, both are essential. I said before that Runner is trash because its input-output ratio is low. Its space-like professional abnormal abilities are indeed useful, but look at its professional skills... Running fast is useful, but is it worth so much investment? Its overall return is far less than that of a Gardener, Beast Tamer, and so on."

Lu Ping'an suddenly realized that this was the difference caused by different perspectives.

He has been staring at the useful "abnormal abilities," taking the pre-positioned "professional skills" as a transition, while the other party has a more comprehensive view.

Professional skills (tricks) require time to be polished and accumulated, usually not possible to take on too many part-time jobs, the investment must be considered cost-effective.

Compared to "running faster," the Gardener "using and transforming stronger Demonized plants" is obviously a higher input-output ratio, more promising, and more worth investing in as the main path for resources.

"At the low-level stage, laying a solid foundation is the most important thing. Abnormal abilities only give you a way to burst out, and the power that bursts out requires professional skills."

"In this respect, you can look at Xia Qin, by the standards of the Life Bank, her boxing and shooting are at least level 20, and her swordsmanship may reach level 30. Give her a way to unleash everything together, and she can easily kill a so-called third-tier. Maybe even a fourth-tier."

This time Lu Ping'an thoroughly understood, and an accident on the third day's dividends made him even more clear about his path.

[Chasing Light Running Skill LV UP! Current LV4, 3/100]

[Congratulations to the host, who has successfully broken through the bottleneck after arduous training and polishing, slightly improving your physique and reflexes.]

What? Arduous training? Bottleneck? Where?

A sudden surge of heat appeared in his flesh, coming quickly and leaving just as quickly, but Lu Ping'an felt comfortable all over, as if he had just stepped out of a hot bath.

The panel still hasn't changed (Mortal), but he can feel that his body is better, and his reaction is a little faster.

But this is just the beginning.

['Chasing Light Running Skill' enters the branching stage, please choose the specialization evolution direction for the host.]

[A. Endurance direction, increasing the host's running endurance and physique.]

[B. Explosiveness direction, increasing the host's short-range explosive power and focusing on increasing the Qi direction in the physique.]

[C. Agility (acrobatics) direction, increasing the host's sense of balance when moving and greatly increasing reflexes.]

Three directions, simple and clear, but they don't seem to be compatible.

This time, it seems like you can't choose randomly.

In questions involving progress, asking Meow usually gives more reliable answers. Lu Ping'an asked, but the response was subtle.

"This abnormal ability can analyze even the divergence of professional skills? It's so powerful... It depends on how you position your role."

"My role positioning?"

Lu Ping'an hadn't really considered this. Does he need to run longer? Does he need better explosive power? Or does he need to be more agile, walking on walls like Spider-Man?

"Since there are only three options for this question, I choose B."

There's no need to hesitate. Endurance isn't suitable for Lu Ping'an, and he isn't interested in agility and acrobatics. However, explosive power can come in handy in many situations and professional systems.

After making his choice, he didn't feel any change at all.

Only the running method column in the system panel changed to "Chasing Light Running Skill (Thunderstorm Direction)"

"The change is only in the direction of progress; under normal circumstances, it needs targeted hard training to improve. However, your system allows you to always be on the path of your choice, as long as you accumulate, you can steadily improve..."

Chris's eyes became even more subtle, the increasingly bright green light of jealousy making Lu Ping'an always worry that one day when he is asleep, she might suddenly bite him.

And the breakthrough of the running method to lv4 also means that another professional skill, Breathing Technique, is not far away.

When both of Runner's professional skills reach the lv4 baseline, Lu Ping'an is only one step away from the professional abnormal ability "Shrink Land."

"The remaining thing is Spatial Perception lv1, which should not be a problem."

He was somewhat excited, and acquiring a real professional abnormal ability was when he became a 1-tier professional.

But before that, on the fourth day, he had to leave.

There's only one week left until the "college entrance examination," so he must go to the examination site in advance to register and make final confirmation.

"Meow, let's go check out the exam site together tomorrow, and remember to bring my lunch and dinner."