The spacious playground was lively with eight high-school boys in sportswear dashing around the plastic track.
This was a physical test, a thousand-meter run for boys.
For some reason, although it was just a class physical test, there were quite a few students by the trackside.
Especially girls.
Dressed in short skirts that were clearly not meant for physical activity, they were obviously not there for a PE class, all eyes were firmly on the boy leading on the track.
As the boy crossed the finish line, the PE teacher precisely stopped the stopwatch in his hand.
"Xue Jing, 2 minutes and 36.79 seconds."
The PE teacher announced the time somewhat incredulously, while the student responsible for recording also paused in surprise, then took a pen and jotted down the result in a notebook.
Xue Jing gradually slowed down, breathing lightly.
The buzz of the girls floated over faintly, but he paid no attention to it and instead gazed at the translucent panel only he could see in front of him.
[Completed the physical test kilometer run, Running experience +20]
[Running Lv3 (258/800)]
'Gained 20 points, a bit more than usual...' he thought to himself.
He then looked at another skill on the panel.
[Charm Art Lv2 (89/500)]
[Someone has taken a liking to you, Charm Art experience +1]
[Someone has taken a liking to you, Charm Art experience +1]
[Someone has taken a liking to you, Charm Art experience +1]
[Someone has taken a liking to you...]
Amidst a flood of notifications, the 'Charm Art' skill's experience continued to rise visibly fast, piling on +1 after +1, quickly reaching (151/500), and although the pace slowed, it still occasionally ticked up by +1.
'This useless skill sure increases quickly,' Xue Jing felt somewhat resigned.
He glanced at all the skills on his panel.
[Fitness Lv2 (158/500)]
[Health Cultivation Lv1 (199/300)]
[Cooking Level 2 (257/500)]
[Running Lv3 (258/800)]
[Charm Art Lv2 (153/500)]
'This is my harvest for the month,' Xue Jing thought with a faint sense of satisfaction.
He was a transmigrator.
A month ago, he had inexplicably arrived in this world, which bore some resemblance to the Earth of his previous life, becoming a high school senior named Xue Jing and inheriting the former occupant's memories.
And with his transmigration came the translucent panel before him.
Xue Jing called it the Skill Panel.
Whenever he mastered something to a certain level, it would activate the corresponding skill on the panel.
Thereafter, as long as he continued to practice that particular skill, he would keep gaining experience, and his grasp and understanding of that skill would improve accordingly.
As long as one practiced, the skill would improve, the effort would yield results, and it wouldn't be wasted.
For instance, 'Running', which he activated half a month ago; he improved it to Lv3 in just half a month, and his time for the thousand-meter run went from 3 minutes and 42 seconds to 2 minutes and 36 seconds.
Without much egregious effort and without professional guidance, such progress would have been impossible.
But with the miraculous Skill Panel, he achieved it with ease.
And indeed, the level-up of "Running" wasn't just about improving his understanding and speed of running, but also contributed to a significant enhancement of his physical fitness.
'Is this what it feels like to cheat the system?'
Xue Jing sighed.
At this moment, another male student dashed past the finish line.
"Li Ge, 3 minutes and 22.17 seconds."
The physical education teacher pressed the stopwatch.
This was a very respectable result for a high school student, but with Xue Jing's stellar performance preceding him, the teacher's expression remained unchanged.
Li Ge, panting heavily, slowed down and took slow steps toward Xue Jing, leaning on one knee with one hand and draping the other over Xue Jing's shoulder, he gasped:
"I demand an immediate urine test... You must be on drugs, how can you run so fast..."
Xue Jing chuckled, about to reply, but then he noticed a few girls in school uniforms on the side of the track, chattering excitedly about something.
Then, one of the girls, who was pretty with a delicate face and slender figure, her cheeks slightly flushed, walked toward Xue Jing.
In her hands, she carried a stack of white towels, and her long, slender, fair legs under her short skirt were so pale in the midday sun they almost reflected light.
Li Ge also noticed this scene and without saying anything, silently withdrew his hand from Xue Jing's shoulder, and stepped a short distance to the side.
Shaking his head and muttering as he walked: "Futile effort."
The Star of the Heavens from our Elite Class, if the girls from his own class are out of reach, what chance do you little lasses stand?
The girl holding the towels obviously couldn't hear his muttering. She approached Xue Jing with a shy face, looked up at him, and mustering her courage, said:
"Senior, please wipe off your sweat."
Xue Jing glanced around, hesitated for a moment but still took the towel, saying, "Thank you."
The girl, not expecting Xue Jing to actually accept it, froze for a second, her face flushing red: "No... no problem."
Having said that, she immediately turned and jogged back to her friends, her steps a bit bouncier.
As soon as she returned, her friends began to tease her loudly, laughing and joking, and some seemingly made embarrassing remarks. She couldn't help but chase after one and hit her a few times, sneaking glances at Xue Jing a few times during the process, thinking she was being covert.
Xue Jing's classmates, who were also in the physical education class, saw all this, shook their heads smiling, and some girls even clicked their tongues, as if somewhat disdainful.
Xue Jing wiped the sparse sweat from his forehead with the towel, not sure if it was an illusion or because the junior girl had held the towel against her chest for too long, but it seemed to have a faint fragrance.
[Someone has developed a lot of favorability toward you, Charm Art experience +45]
Li Ge stepped forward, holding his chin curiously, "Weird, you actually didn't refuse, could it be that you've finally come around?"
"Hey, not to say anything, but why let the water flow into someone else's field when it can water your own, if you really want, in our class..."
Xue Jing shook his head to cut him off: "Don't want to."
"Then why?" Li Ge asked.
Xue Jing twirled the towel on his finger as if spinning a basketball, casually saying, "It takes quite some courage to come over with a towel in front of so many people. If I refused, someone with a slightly thinner skin might end up with a psychological shadow."
Pausing, Xue Jing continued, "If she really has that intention, I can refuse when she comes to find me alone later on."
Li Ge shook his head and said with a sigh, "You even think about this, you're mature like an office drone... It's because of you being like this, that these junior girls, knowing they don't stand much of a chance, still keep coming over."
"Why not make it simple and pick someone in the class to date, and let everyone else give up the idea."
"The male students at Qingcheng Affiliated Middle School have suffered enough because of you, Old Thief Xue. The junior girls are widowed for your sake, and the junior boys go hungry, aren't you afraid that everyone will gang up against you in a clandestine duel?"
Xue Jing glanced at his Charm Art on the Skill Panel.
[Lv2 (209/500)]
He closed the panel, stretched out his hand, and patted Li Ge's shoulder: "I'll be counting on you to protect me when the time comes, my good brother."
Li Ge hurriedly waved his hands: "Hardly necessary."
...