Chapter 2: Insane, Self-Realized

Second-floor bedroom.

Lin Mo was completely unaware of his parents' grand plan downstairs to "train their alt accounts."

He locked the door behind him, flung himself hard onto the soft bed, and immediately opened his profession panel.

On the panel, the icon for 【Fireball Spell】 remained gray.

"It's been half an hour already—still not back?"

At that moment.

A series of messages popped up on the panel.

【Your skill "Fireball Spell" has traveled a long distance and arrived at the southern suburbs of Jianghai City—"Emerald Grassland" (Lv. 1–Lv. 3).】

【Encountered enemy! Ahead, a "Sharp-Toothed Rabbit" (Lv. 1) is grazing.】

【"Fireball Spell" mocked the Sharp-Toothed Rabbit: Is that all? You call this a monster? Are you here to make a joke?】

【"Fireball Spell" struck in anger, hitting the rabbit's incisor with perfect accuracy!】

【Kill successful! Experience +5, skill proficiency +1.】

【"Fireball Spell" felt deeply dissatisfied! It considered the experience points from this low-level monster an insult to its noble status!】

【It is accelerating its search for stronger opponents! It roars: I want to fight ten at once!】

Looking at these lines of battle logs on the panel, Lin Mo fell into deep thought.

First and foremost, the most critical point: the experience points had genuinely returned.

This meant that although 【Fireball Spell】 seemed to have run away, it still belonged to his own skill system.

"Which means…"

Lin Mo rubbed his chin.

"Has my golden finger finally arrived?"

"Eighteen years—I waited eighteen years for my golden finger, and it's finally here?!"

Skill personification!

Lin Mo was lazy, but he wasn't stupid.

As an old bookworm from his past life, he instantly realized just how terrifying the potential of this golden finger was.

First, fully automatic cultivation.

Others had to risk their lives venturing into the wild to fight monsters hand-to-hand.

Although this world was highly gamified, life only came once—die, and you were dead, no resurrection coins here.

And what about him?

Sitting at home, experience rained from the sky.

As long as his skill was ambitious, even if he lay in bed sleeping, his level and skill proficiency would skyrocket!

Second, and most insane of all—absolute micro-management!

Even at the same level, mages could differ wildly in actual combat power.

In intense battles, predicting movement and controlling skill trajectories required extraordinary combat talent and real-world experience.

But now?

The skill had its own mind!

It aimed itself, predicted movements, and might even understand how to kill monsters better than Lin Mo himself!

"This isn't just a golden finger—it's a full auto-farming cheat…"

Lin Mo leaned back comfortably, propping his pillow higher.

"Not bad, not bad. Though it has a terrible temper, I'll forgive its sudden disappearance for how hard it's working."

"Also, releasing skills in this world consumes one's mental energy—but Xiao Huo is leveling up outside without draining any mental energy?"

"Is this another benefit of personification?"

【Ding! Your skill "Fireball Spell" has been surrounded by a "Grassland Gray Wolf Pack" (Lv. 1)!】

【Quantity: 15!】

"Huh? Fifteen Lv. 1 monsters?"

Lin Mo's heart leapt.

He knew that although these were beginner monsters, they were still dangerously numerous for a Lv. 1 cultivator.

"Hey, don't be suicidal! If you can't win, run!"

Lin Mo blurted out instinctively.

Even though he didn't know if a skill could die.

But the next system message left Lin Mo stunned.

【Faced with the encirclement, "Xiao Huo" didn't fear—it felt ecstatic!】

【It thought single-target strikes were a waste of time, severely slowing its leveling efficiency!】

【In its fury, it began to think, to deduce, to attempt reorganizing the arrangement of fire elements!】

【"Xiao Huo" erupted! It attained enlightenment on the fissure essence of fire elements!】

【Congratulations! Due to your skill's incredible comprehension, it independently deduced and evolved into an advanced skill—Multiple Exploding Fireballs (Lv. 1)!】

【Multiple Exploding Fireballs: Instantly splits into 10–15 fireballs for area bombardment, triggering secondary explosions upon impact! Cooldown: 15 seconds】

【Boom—!!!】

【Killed 15 Grassland Gray Wolves! Experience +75! Skill proficiency greatly increased!】

【"Xiao Huo" looked at the pile of wolf corpses and contemptuously blew a smoke ring: Pathetic trash, you think you can block my evolution?】

"Holy shit?!"

Lin Mo sprang up from the bed.

At this moment, a new skill had suddenly appeared in his skill bar — Multi-Burst Fireball.

"This works too?!"

Although Lin Mo was a poor student, he still had basic professional common sense.

In this world, learning skills wasn't that simple.

Skills were divided into six grades: 【Basic】, 【Beginner】, 【Intermediate】, 【Advanced】, 【Legendary】, and 【Forbidden Spell】.

Basic skills like the fire-type 【Small Fireball】 or the water-type 【Water Arrow】 — any mage could learn them.

But starting from 【Beginner】 skills, it wasn't that simple anymore; you couldn't just casually eat a skill book and comprehend it.

Although 【Multi-Burst Fireball】 was only a Beginner skill, it involved the techniques of "Elemental Splitting" and "Secondary Detonation."

Even a fire-specialist 【Flame Mage】 couldn't comprehend it in one go.

Let alone a blank-slate mage like himself.

But now?

He'd only changed class less than half a day ago, hadn't even seen the shadow of a monster, hadn't even seen the cover of a skill book — and just because the skill itself found killing monsters too slow, it comprehended itself?

Unheard of…

Lin Mo stared blankly at the newly appeared skill icon.

"Against the heavens… too against the heavens."

"Is this the world of the grind kings?"

"Others have people training skills; mine has skills training people."

Lin Mo shook his head slightly, unable to help thinking.

If things kept developing at this rate…

When he reached level 10 and could learn a second basic skill, if he learned 【Water Arrow】, would it also find the damage too small and grind itself into 【Tsunami】?

If he learned 【Earth Shield】, would it feel it wasn't hard enough and grind itself into 【Absolute Defense】?

If skills of every element grinded like this…

Wouldn't this so-called "blank-slate mage" of his turn into an all-element Forbidden Spell Mage God?

"Hiss—"

Lin Mo drew in a sharp breath.

This was the rhythm of becoming a god while lying down!

"Looking at it this way, in the professional's grand exam three days from now, this blank-slate mage of mine — he won't make an astonishing debut, will he?"

Lin Mo couldn't help feeling a bit excited.

Although he was lazy, if he could lie down and get a good result, earning some face for his parents, that wouldn't be bad either.

【Ding! "Fireball" feels the monsters on Emerald Grassland are too weak, and is heading to the higher-level area "Dark Forest" (Lv. 3-Lv. 5).】

【Message: Go to sleep, don't make a fuss and disturb my operation!】

Looking at this domineering message, Lin Mo was completely at ease.

Fine then.

Since the skill was already working so hard, how could he hold it back?

At times like this, the greatest support was not causing trouble!

"In order to cooperate with the skill's great leveling enterprise, I have decided—"

Lin Mo yawned, adjusted to the most comfortable position:

"Sleep!"

"Of all things under heaven, sleep is the greatest."

"Hey… Xiao Huo, keep it up. If you haven't reached level 3 by tomorrow morning, I'll laugh at you, you know."

Two minutes later, the sound of even breathing rose within the luxurious bedroom.