Chapter 175 - 128: City Hero

’Persistence really does pay off!’

Chen Jue looked at the notification on his panel announcing the enhancement of his visual and auditory functions. He immediately felt that his persistence during this time hadn’t been in vain.

Although he could no longer monitor the Skill Level growth for the two Perfect Skills, [Eye Health Exercises] and [Ear Health Exercises], his daily massages were still effective.

After the panel’s notification flashed, Chen Jue felt his hearing enhance once again. Even from inside his room, he could hear the complex, rustling sounds throughout the entire apartment building.

Those sounds were like a tangled ball of yarn; as long as he listened carefully, he could trace them back to their source, as if unraveling a cocoon thread by thread.

Even the range of his hearing had expanded considerably. He could actually hear conversations at the breakfast stall fifty meters away from his apartment building, all from his room.

Hearing ability like this was clearly beyond the scope of an ordinary human!

As for his vision, it was even more astounding. Chen Jue got out of bed, changed his clothes, and ran up to the apartment building’s rooftop in a few quick strides.

Using the vantage point of the rooftop, he looked toward the flagpole on the Jiang University campus, 2 kilometers away.

The flag’s outline, which had been somewhat blurry before, was now clearly reflected in his eyes. He could finally see the way the flag fluttered.

However, the bright red color of the flag was still a bit distorted, and he couldn’t make out the stars on it either.

’Oh well. I’ll just keep at it. Sooner or later, I’ll be able to count the stars on it.’ After trying a few more times, Chen Jue finally let go of his obsession.

With his current vision, he had definitely surpassed the 5.3 upper limit of the LogMAR E-chart, the kind of score that was off the charts.

An ordinary person with 5.3 vision usually has farsightedness due to abnormal refraction, making it difficult to see things up close clearly.

But after training his eyes, Chen Jue could see both near and far with perfect clarity. His eyes had definitely undergone some kind of mutation, or perhaps something like atavism, or even evolution.

However, 5.3 was the current limit for vision tests; anything beyond that value couldn’t be measured. Chen Jue could only use the flagpole as a benchmark to gauge the progress of his eyesight.

...

Coming down from the rooftop, Chen Jue didn’t go to the park for his morning workout. The [Mild Fatigue] status was still on his panel, which meant he couldn’t do his high-intensity Horse Stance and bow-drawing training this morning.

He sent Teacher Wu a text to let him know he wouldn’t be coming over this morning, then took a short nap in his room to recover his stamina.

After sleeping in for a bit, the first thing he did upon waking was go online to look up the [Mechanical Waves] that had appeared in the panel’s notification.

"The propagation of mechanical vibrations through a medium is called a mechanical wave. It is divided into transverse and longitudinal waves. Common mechanical waves include water waves, sound waves, and seismic waves."

’Is it because when I perform the Heaven-Drumming Technique, the special-frequency sound waves generated by the tapping vibrations travel through my auditory center and stimulate the nerves there?’

’The relationship between sound, the brain, and nerves...’ Chen Jue reached up to touch a few acupoints behind his ear, then tapped the hard bone there.

The bone conduction headphones that had become popular recently used a similar principle of sound transmission. You didn’t need to put them in your ear canal; you could hear music clearly just by placing them against the bones near your ears.

This method could prevent damage to the ear canal and had significant advantages over traditional headphones.

This was the first time Chen Jue had encountered such a situation. He had always thought that simply massaging acupoints to stimulate blood circulation and metabolism in the ear region was enough to improve his hearing. He never expected such complex physical principles to be involved.

This was knowledge from the realm of physics, completely beyond the scope of a poor student like Chen Jue.

But since he’d seen it on his panel, Chen Jue copied his notes about the stimulating effect of [Mechanical Waves] on vision and hearing, along with his initial hypothesis, into the data model for his [Strongest Human Training Plan]. He planned to research it more deeply when he had the chance.

For now, he had too few data samples and not enough knowledge to analyze the principle on the spot.

...

After briefly jotting down some information from the internet, Chen Jue got his things together, changed into a nice set of clothes, and went out.

He first went downstairs for breakfast, then drove to the police station as invited.

Welcomed by Officer Sun, who had contacted him yesterday, Chen Jue met the parents of the little girl he had saved.

"Mr. Chen, thank you so much!"

"If you hadn’t stepped forward, who knows what kind of danger our Tongtong would have been in!" The little girl’s parents were extremely emotional, thanking him and bowing as soon as they saw him.

The little girl named Tongtong had probably been lectured quite a bit yesterday, as she wasn’t being a handful now. Guided by her parents, she was a bit shy at first. After fidgeting for a moment, she called out sweetly to Chen Jue, "Thank you for saving my life!"

Chen Jue chuckled and nodded. "It’s good that you’re okay. From now on, you should listen to your mommy and daddy and be more careful."

He chatted with the two parents in the meeting room for a while and added them on WeChat using his alternate account. Then, Officer Sun brought in the people from the publicity department he had arranged to meet.

Along with them came reporters from Hang City TV Station to conduct an interview. They said they wanted to broadcast the story of his heroic deed on the television news.

Chen Jue didn’t show any aversion to this, as they had already agreed to it over the phone yesterday.

However, seeing the TV station staff already setting up their equipment, Chen Jue put on his Brother of Special Skills Face Armor. It was like activating BKB for magic immunity; he could completely ignore the TV cameras that usually made him uncomfortable.

Before arriving, the staff probably already knew that the person they were interviewing today was the currently popular internet celebrity "Brother of Special Skills." Seeing Chen Jue put on his Face Armor didn’t cause much of a stir.

After all, they were professionals and had all signed non-disclosure agreements, so they couldn’t leak the interviewee’s private information.

On the contrary, the little girl, Tongtong, upon seeing Chen Jue’s public-facing disguise, ran over, took his hand, and asked curiously, "Mister, why are you wearing a mask?"

"Because this mister has to go save the world, I have to keep my identity a secret. Now that Tongtong knows, you have to keep it a secret too, okay?" Chen Jue crouched down, patting the little girl’s head as he explained.

"I get it! Mister, you can climb such tall buildings, you must be a superhero from the movies!"

"Tongtong will definitely keep your secret, Mister!"

"Pinky swear, a hundred years, no take-backs~"

The little girl held out her pinky to make a pinky swear with Chen Jue. Her innocent display brought a knowing smile to the faces of the adults present.

Once the tedious interview process was over and the cameras were put away, filming concluded. The little girl’s parents took out a carefully prepared silk banner from their bag.

They unrolled the banner and handed it to Chen Jue. Embroidered on it were two lines of large, gilt characters: "Heroic and Just, A City’s Hero." A warmth spread through Chen Jue’s heart.

He felt that his actions had finally received a certain level of recognition.

However, Chen Jue didn’t keep the banner. After everyone had taken a group photo and all the necessary footage was shot, he left the banner at the police station for Officer Sun and the others.

Because Chen Jue felt that compared to himself, the masked "Brother of Special Skills" who only occasionally stepped in, it was the police officers working on the front lines, protecting the community, who truly deserved the title of "City’s Hero."

...

Because of the interview, Chen Jue spent the entire morning at the police station.

Around noon, he was invited to a grand meal by Tongtong’s parents. He simply couldn’t refuse; the couple was just too enthusiastic.

Furthermore, the family lived in the same high-end residential complex as Teacher Wu. They were financially well-off; the husband and wife were said to be executives at a publicly listed company and were often away on business trips.

The accident yesterday happened because an elderly family member had carelessly gone out grocery shopping, leaving the little girl home alone.

As for the restaurant, it was a private kitchen near West Lake, a place Chen Jue had never even heard of before.

After all, they were in different economic strata; he had no exposure to this level of spending.

Originally, Tongtong’s parents had intended to give Chen Jue a monetary reward. But after learning he was a major internet celebrity with over 5 million fans across the web, they dropped the idea. An influencer of his level wasn’t short on cash and probably earned no less than corporate executives like themselves. So, they simply treated him to a lavish meal.

After the meal, they also gave Chen Jue two business cards, telling him to contact them anytime if he needed help in the future.

Chen Jue didn’t refuse. He glanced at the business cards and saw the couple was in the business of importing and exporting medical equipment. He accepted the cards, and after a feast of delicacies, he said goodbye to Tongtong’s family.

However, by the time Chen Jue drove back to his apartment, the news footage shot that morning had already been rapidly edited by Hang City TV Station and posted directly to their short-video account.

The buzz from yesterday’s building-climbing rescue hadn’t quite died down yet. As soon as this joint press release with the police station came out, the trending topics related to "Building-Climbing Bro" and "Brother of Special Skills" shot straight to the top.

In the press release, netizens were shocked to see the familiar Face Armor of Brother of Special Skills on camera. And after seeing him accept the banner of thanks from the parents, they all exploded with joy, as if they were each a Sherlock Holmes who had just cracked a case.

The fans of Brother of Special Skills were especially excited, furiously typing comments below:

"Nothing hits harder than an official confirmation (doge)"

"Can’t pull your three-part denial now, can you! Still gonna say it wasn’t you? (husky sticking its tongue out)"

"I feel like the Face Armor of Brother of Special Skills looks a little unhappy. Was he forced to make a public appearance? (laughing-crying emoji)"

"Finally, a streamer I follow is off the charts with positive energy! (awesome)"

"A well-deserved City Hero! (amazing)"

"Brother of Special Skills! When’s your next video coming out? Or do another livestream! I wanna see your special skills! Urgently demanding an update! (holding a sign)"

"+1 to demanding an update"