Stealing Skills

  "Why do you look so bad?"

  Nordri frowned, looking at the evasive gaze of Li Aozi, and scolded:

  "How you cooperate with the experiments like this? You o maintain a healthy state."

  "Had a nightmare."

  Li Aozi rubbed his temples; what happened yesterday made him a bit anxious.

  After all, he was just an ordinary person. Entering suexpected situations, suspi and ay caused mental exhaustion, leading to wild thoughts.

  "A nightmare? Just empty delusions. Only the weak fear nightmares; the strong charge forward and win even in their dreams." Nordri scoffed at this.

  However, he quickly adjusted his mi and, taking advantage of the topic, asked Nurse Nordri:

  "I think it's not just nightmares causing my mental state to be bad—doing the same training every day is just to."

  Nordri rolled her eyes at him but then thought it made sense.

  Day after day, he was just doing physical training. Meanwhile, other patients iivity area were chatting, ughing, and pying various ball games, while Li Aozi watched from the side, iably feeling unbanced.

  'I still o pay attention to the patients' psychological issues.'

  Remembering Li Aozi's semi-mad, semi-rational state before he was taken in, Nordri still felt a bit apprehensive.

  Seemingly harmless, Li Aozi could instantly render her, a martial artist, powerless when in that state.

  Looking at the harmless Li Aozi in front of her, who occasionally g the distant patients participating in activities with envy and longing in his eyes, Nordri pondered for a moment and nodded.

  "So what do you want?"

  Nordri asked:

  "I 't let you join group activities with others; you are still under isotion monit."

  "I know—sihat's the case, at least add some different exercise activities, Nurse? Doing the same training every day is just too dull."

  "Alright, what do you want to do?"

  Li Aozi preteo think for a moment and said:

  "How about you teach me boxing?"

  Martial arts.

  Nordri initially wao refuse but stopped herself.

  Training him in some basic moves wouldn't be harmful.

  Besides, martial arts require long-term foundational practid repeated learning. At over 20 years old, Li Aozi's bones were set, making it unsuitable for him to start martial arts.

  Moreover, learning some fighting teiques without entering the realm of martial artists posed no threat.

  Within seven steps, the gun is fast; within seven steps, the gun is both fast and accurate.

  If he truly learned some fighting moves and formed muscle memory, ime he lost trol, he wouldn't think of hiding bdes in his mouth for a sneak attack but would iry to fight ba a bat stance.

  'If you use a hobby to challenge someone's professional skills, I would wele it.'

  With this in mind, Nordri quickly decided and readily agreed:

  "Alright, but my standards are high. Martial arts are not for everyone. Since you want to learn, I'll have to test you. If you fail, you'll tih physical training."

  Li Aozi was delighted and immediately rolled up his sleeves:

  "e on, I've been waiting for this!"

  Seeing his enthusiasm for learning martial arts, Nordri internally sneered: I was happy about practig martial arts initially too; you'll realize your mistake soon.

  【Prompt: Nordri Crowe is teag you the skill—【Basibat】】

  【This learning session is initiated by the other party, no experience required】

  【Do you accept?】

  "This is what I've been waiting for!"

  Li Aozi rubbed his hands in anticipation. Nurse Nordri had no idea he had an NPC tempte panel.

  In the game "Star Abyss," pyers o e a lot of experiend special resources to learn skills. However, NPCs could learn and teach each other skills without any cost.

  During past storylines, pyers often saw ses of NPCs "passing on skills" to each other. It was discovered early on that NPCs could tead learn skills from each other without any cost if both parties agreed.

  The official expnation was to prevent the gap between pyers and NPCs from being te, affeg the game's immersion. Besides providing a topic for discussion, pyers didn't mind this too much—who has the time to be jealous of NPCs?

  Of course, if it was self-learning, NPCs were far inferior to pyers. NPeeded to study, seek out mentors, and worry about going astray when entering difficulties.

  Pyers only o obtain knowledge books and patiently wait for the progress bar to finish to master a subject.

  Li Aozi didn't have any specialized knowledge and couldn't be sure if he had pyer-like characteristics. However, the NPC tempte was real, and he ehe bes of being an NPC.

  【You have learhe skill 【Basibat】 from Nordri Crowe, current level: Lv.1】

  【Basibat】 Lv.1: You have a basiderstanding of unarmed bat, no longer randomly swinging or exposing weaknesses.

  Images of pung, kig, dodging, and terattag fshed through Li Aozi's mind, and he felt his movements being more natural and powerful.

  "Although I don't pn to waste experiehis skill is very practical and worth upgrading if I get the ce."

  Relying solely on the Gravity Aoneng, the 【Mutant】's patributes still o be developed. Li Aozi had to slowly accumute and shape his bat style.

  "The basic theory has been expined." Nordri said: ", it's time for practice."

  "Practice?"

  Li Aozi didn't rea time.

  Bam!

  With a bnk expression, Nordri suddenly pu him!

  Crack.

  The on sense and teiques imparted by 【Basibat】 ied into his muscle memory. Li Aozi instinctively raised his hand to protect his face, sidestepping the punch. Despite only being grazed by the strong gust of wind from her punch, his thin body staggered back a few steps, almost falling.

  "Hmm? Nice reflexes."

  Nordri was slightly surprised. She knew Li Aozi's physical dition well, and for him to avoid a direct hit and adopt the correct defensive posture indicated he had been paying attention.

  "Not bad, it seems you have some potential. But to learn to fight, you must first learn to take a beating."

  Nordri ched her sandbag-sized fists and, like a hungry tiger, lu Li Aozi again!

  Li Aozi calmed his breathing, his face showing fear and apprehension.

  "Stop! I'm a patient!"

  He had already shown a weak demeanor before, and now he o maintain it. Dodging while ag in character as a gentle Frosted Land man, he exaggeratedly shouted:

  "What are you doing~ Oh my, oh my~~"

  ——————————————

  "What's the test on Li Aozi's monit results?"

  The professor, holding a tablet, deftly operated it, casually asking Assistant Anna:

  "It's been two weeks now, any findings?"

  "His ptelet t, cell activity level, thyroid-stimuting hormone, and brainwaves are slightly higher than average, but still not on par with true transdent beings."

  Assistant Anna spread out the report in her arms, reading seriously:

  "Head Nurse Nordri subjected him to training on par with the Frosted Republic's military standards. Even after blood and bone marrow extras, he could return to normal the day... But she also hat at this level, he merely matches the Heavenly Ring's super soldier pn, far from the standards of a level five iee—not even close to level four."

  "I see."

  The professor pced the tablet on her p and said indifferently:

  "It seems Head Nurse Nordri is getting along well with him, their retionship is quite harmonious."

  "Harmonious?" Anna was stunned: "He's almost being traio death..."

  "Based oera records, on the first day of training, Li Aozi mentioned 'ZX-102'—even so, Nordri mao trol her emotions. That's quite surprising."

  "Indeed..." Anated: "Previously, Korqi merely mentioned removing room 102, and she broke his limbs. sidering this, Li Aozi's retionship with her isn't too bad."

  "How about the intelligeests?"

  "Multiple tests pced his IQ between 121 and 117, still within the normal range." Aned holy.

  "No intellectual transformation, strong but not exceeding transdent physical abilities. Iing, someone seemingly ordinary causing so much trouble—doesn't that make him more suspicious?"

  "You mean...?"

  "When a soldier returns unscathed despite being shot several times, should you reinforce where he was hit or where he wasn't?"

  Anna paused, then realized: "Survivor bias!"

  "Past studies on iees focused on physical and intellectual levels, but we seem to have overlooked that transdent beings themselves are diverse."

  "Previous level three and four iees mostly exhibited physical mutations, and increased intelligence was due to brain abnormalities—this led

  us to subsciously believe: mutations caused by iion occur in the body."

  " a virus truly cause mental mutations?" Anated: "The iees we've tai most awakened spiritual sight, but even people from the four nations without Esha iion awaken. Resear spiritual mediums has been slow."

  "So, is it possible that past berserk iees experienced mental mutations? But since we couldn't trol the research, we overlooked this."

  The professor stroked her with i:

  "Perhaps, in other areas, Li Aozi possesses strengths beyond our expectations."

  Assistant Anna remained silent, deeply believing in the professor's words. Beyond loyalty, the professor's insights were worth sidering.

  "Or further, those past berserk patients might be showing tendencies of iion deepening..."

  "Level three iees are immuo diseases, with physical deformities."

  "Level four iees have body mutations, hormonal imbances, far surpassing ordinary people. That's why they go berserk."

  "Theoretically, level five iees should exhibit brain mutations, showing the virus's attempt to trol the host... But Li Aozi's brain ss showed no abnormalities."

  "So, we sider another dire, fog oal mutations instead of the brain."

  Anna pondered deeply, already pnning to shift her research focus.

  The professently brushed her white hair aside, gng at the puter s. The bck s reflected her elegant aiful face.

  Her gaze focused on the refle of the ers of her eyes.

  Some wrinkles slowly spread, trasting sharply with the surrounding smooth skin, making them particurly noticeable.

  "In that case, I pn to apply for ZX-626's ability usage permit, shifting research direight yield progress."

  Assistant Anna noticed the professor spag out and asked:

  "Professor?"

  "…It has begun."

  "Are you listening?"

  "Oh—" The professor snapped back, about to answer when an ear-pierg arm sounded in the room.

  Woooooo——