Chapter 171 - 124: Urban Knight-Errantry

’I pushed past my limits again?’

’This time, it was my willpower and courage that increased! They’re related to the Spirit Attribute!’ Chen Jue stared blankly for a moment at the notification that popped up on his panel, then walked to the edge of the 20th-floor rooftop and glanced down.

The dizzying sensation from being more than 60 meters off the ground should have made his legs go weak, giving him an impulse to retreat to safety.

But to Chen Jue, this height of over 60 meters no longer felt particularly dangerous.

Other than the biting chill of the early morning wind on the rooftop, Chen Jue felt surprisingly little fear at a height that most people would find terrifying.

Chen Jue’s eyes were as calm as still water, as if he were looking at something completely ordinary.

This increase in willpower felt a little incredible even to Chen Jue himself.

’Looks like this kind of high-altitude stimulation is the only way to train my courage,’ Chen Jue thought to himself. He quickly left the rooftop before the property management staff or security guards could find him.

This was the epitome of "accomplishing the deed and vanishing without a trace." As someone who disliked the spotlight, Chen Jue had no desire to expose himself to the public.

To him, scaling the outer wall of a residential building to save a little girl might have been a great deed, but it wasn’t much different from his usual practice of climbing trees and lamp posts.

It was just that the building was taller and more challenging, and the Skill Level the panel awarded him was far greater than any he had received before.

...

As the little girl was saved, the crowd of onlookers outside the residential complex burst into thunderous cheers.

"Incredible! That young man’s amazing!"

"Way to go!"

"Where are the parents? Are the kid’s parents back yet? She was up there for so long, she must be terrified!"

The crowd buzzed with discussion. People were either posting on their Friends Circles or spreading the rescue video in various group chats.

As for Wu Fang and Elder Wu, they watched from below, stunned, as Chen Jue continued climbing even after saving the girl, going all the way to the rooftop.

As the crowd dispersed, Wu Fang and her grandfather joined many of the complex’s residents in searching for the hero, but after looking everywhere, they couldn’t find Chen Jue.

Even the property management staff were baffled. How could a living, breathing young man just disappear after risking his life to save someone, without staying to receive the parents’ gratitude? It was like they’d encountered a modern-day knight-errant who does good deeds without seeking recognition.

He had saved a life, after all. The child’s parents and the property management felt they absolutely had to find Chen Jue and thank him properly.

Seeing everyone discussing Chen Jue’s identity and whereabouts, Wu Fang, who was watching from the crowd, stopped Elder Wu from speaking up. She knew Chen Jue hated trouble.

Just like when he killed the dog with a single dart and went viral on national trending topics, the entire internet had failed to uncover his real identity. It showed just how seriously Chen Jue took his privacy.

So, after checking on the little girl, whom she knew, and confirming she was mostly okay, Wu Fang pocketed the keys and phone and headed to the park.

Sure enough, by the lake deep inside the park, Wu Fang saw Chen Jue practicing drawing his bow while in a Horse Stance.

"Brother Jue, you’re not hurt, are you? Why didn’t I see you in the complex just now?" Wu Fang clasped her hands behind her back, leaning her graceful figure in to get a closer look at Chen Jue.

"Of course I’m not hurt!"

"It was only about the height of three ginkgo trees stacked on top of each other. It just took a little time to climb. I saw everyone coming up, so I took the fire escape down to the underground garage and came out through the garage exit." Chen Jue set down the Hard Bow in his hands and chuckled.

"Brother Jue, you’re really not one for modesty!"

Wu Fang was amused by Chen Jue’s cleverness. She let out a giggle, her pretty face flushing slightly as she smiled. Then she pulled the phone and keys from her pocket and handed them to Chen Jue. "Here, these are yours!"

But seeing how calm and collected Chen Jue was, Wu Fang felt more and more that this sunny, outstanding, and brave young man was totally her type.

He wasn’t like the other men her age she met online or in real life, who would start showing off and flaunting their superiority the moment they had a little money or a minor accomplishment.

All they ever talked about was making a million a year. They’d casually start a business and claim annual revenues in the hundreds of millions, or brag about securing several rounds of funding. It was all so pretentious.

Chen Jue, on the other hand, had actually made a million in half an hour. He possessed incredible special skills like Darts, climbing, and Archery, yet he didn’t like to show off at all. He was like a modern-day knight-errant walking the city streets, giving off a comforting sense of reliability.

"Thanks. Make sure your grandpa keeps my rescue a secret for me, okay?" Chen Jue accepted the keys with a good-natured smile and then asked Wu Fang about the little girl.

When he learned that the careless parents had gone out grocery shopping and the little girl had accidentally climbed out the window to retrieve a fallen toy, Chen Jue could only sigh.

These days, news about children getting into accidents was constantly trending, and most of it was caused by parental negligence.

On top of that, Hang City was a newly-minted first-tier city with strict requirements for its urban appearance, so newly built high-rise residential buildings weren’t allowed to install security bars on the outside.

They could only install bay window guardrails or invisible security mesh inside the bedrooms, which is how a dangerous situation like this, with a little rascal climbing out a bedroom window, could happen.

And when the girl’s parents got home and found out what a huge incident had occurred, they immediately took off their belts.

If the property management staff hadn’t been there to hold them back, they probably would have broken three belts on her to make sure the little rascal learned her lesson.

...

Seeing Chen Jue appear safe and sound by the park lake, Wu Fang could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

After finishing her morning exercises with Chen Jue, Wu Fang left for school.

Even though she was a high school gym teacher, she had a lot of work to do every day. For example, she was the one who led the school’s morning exercises, so she always had to get to school very early.

Before they parted ways, however, Wu Fang acted like a doting wife, thoughtfully warning Chen Jue not to eat at the breakfast shops outside the complex.

Chen Jue had just saved someone, so the sharp-eyed shop owners would definitely recognize him. If he didn’t want to become famous, it was best to stay away from the ground-floor shops near Wu Fang’s residential complex.

Chen Jue humbly accepted Teacher Wu’s suggestion. After grinding out 2 small points of Free Attribute and Strength Attribute with his Horse Stance and Hard Bow, he drove back to his apartment.

He first changed his clothes to avoid being recognized, then gathered his textbooks and strolled leisurely to Jiang University.

He went to the cafeteria for breakfast first, then found the classroom for his morning lecture and sat in the back row.

The lecture hadn’t even started when he overheard a few Jiang University students in the front row discussing the morning’s rescue.

"Did you see that rescue video from this morning?"

"Yeah! That dude is fucking incredible!"

"He climbed 20 stories in just over a minute. He’s practically Superman."

"The trending topics online have exploded. Everyone in the comments is saying the rescue guy is that Brother of Special Skills who just blew up recently."

"Brother of Special Skills? The one who plays with Darts and Flying Needles?"

"That’s not even the half of it! Brother of Special Skills has tons of talents. Last week he posted a video of himself climbing a tree to retrieve his darts. He scaled the tree in seconds, and netizens have already dug up photos showing he’s wearing the same clothes."

Hearing the discussion in front of him, Chen Jue’s face twitched, and he slapped his forehead.

For convenience, he didn’t usually bother much with his appearance. So he had bought some sportswear from Erke, and he’d bought several identical sets to rotate through.

He wore casual clothes for class and sportswear for morning exercises or filming videos.

’I can’t believe sharp-eyed netizens "cracked the case" based on such a minor detail. They must have too much time on their hands, using all their brainpower on surfing the web.’

Since his Linchuan Medicine class hadn’t started yet, Chen Jue quickly opened a video-sharing site to check the trending list.

Sure enough, two of the top ten trending topics for the morning were about him.

The first was "Hang City Man Bravely Climbs 13 Floors to Save Little Girl." It included a reporter’s interview and a detailed video of Chen Jue’s climb, but because it was filmed from a distance, the video quality wasn’t high.

Plus, since Chen Jue was climbing at a height of over 50 meters, the video didn’t capture his face clearly, only his back and a blurry profile.

But this crude disguise couldn’t fool the Sherlock Holmes-possessed netizens. As soon as the first topic started trending, another one popped up: "Climbing Bro’s Identity Exposed! Suspected to be Major Influencer Brother of Special Skills."

He clicked into the comments and, sure enough, saw a ton of people making wild analyses and tagging him in the comments of his previous tree-climbing video.

"Everyone stop guessing. The only person online with these climbing skills is this masked guy. Here’s the account: @Brother of Special Skills"

"The IP addresses on the videos cracked the case. They’re both in Hang City, Jiang Province! (crying laughing emoji)"

"His climbing movements are a carbon copy of his tree climbing. I bet Brother of Special Skills was just on his way to buy breakfast and saved her on a whim. (husky sticking its tongue out emoji)"

"Same clothes, and his build is almost identical. It’s definitely him, @Brother of Special Skills. (doge head)"

"I’ll bet 10 packs of spicy sticks that it’s Brother of Special Skills! (BUMP)"

"Is that you on the trending list? @Brother of Special Skills"

"Brother of Special Skills, if you haven’t been taken over by aliens, blink twice! (crying laughing emoji)"