The More Tragic I Act, the Stronger I Get — My Fans Beg Me to Stop Killing Off My Roles-Chapter 250: Top-Tier Knife Skill, This Skill is a Bit Torture
The clamor of the barbecue stall faded away. Back in the hotel room, Jiang Ci still carried the scent of grilled food and beer on his clothes.
He didn't head to wash up immediately. Instead, he first pulled out his phone, skillfully tapped open an app named "Maoyan Box Office Record".
The screen lit up, the poster for "Three Lifetimes Tribulation" occupying the most prominent position.
Below the poster, a line of bright red numbers almost seared his eyes.
[Day 2 of Release, Single-Day Box Office Breaks 103 Million]
Jiang Ci stared at that number for a moment, then opened his system panel.
A pale blue light screen unfolded before his eyes.
[Heartbreak Value Balance: 8995 points]
[Remaining Lifespan: 5 years, 279 days, 11 hours]
Jiang Ci's breath hitched for an instant.
8995 points.
Just one final push away from reaching five digits.
Overnight, his lifespan had increased by nearly half a year.
And this was the result after a major national event on the trending list had siphoned off a large portion of the audience's emotional energy.
Looking at that number approaching ten thousand, Jiang Ci's heart began to beat faster, betraying his composure.
A powerful urge to spend, a primal desire, grew wildly from the depths of his heart.
He had to go on a serious spending spree.
Jiang Ci opened the long-unvisited System Store. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞
His gaze swept over those familiar performance-related skills,
but unexpectedly discovered a newly added category at the end of the list – [Life Mastery].
Jiang Ci's current spending strategy was no longer that of the rookie who only sought to survive.
More skills never weigh one down.
As long as it could make the character Shen Qingyuan "come alive" on the screen, make the audience believe in his existence,
even the most outrageous skill had its value.
His eyes quickly scanned the list, soon locking onto one skill.
[Language Proficiency: English, French, Japanese (Native Speaker Level)].
[Description: You will possess the thought processes of a native speaker in these three languages, including but not limited to fluent speech, precise grammar, and a deep understanding of the cultural context of each language.]
[Price: 3000 Heartbreak Points]
This skill was practically tailor-made for Shen Qingyuan.
In the script, Shen Qingyuan studied abroad from a young age. Proficiency in multiple languages was the cornerstone of his character.
To convincingly portray a "returnee from overseas," a few memorized foreign lines wouldn't cut it.
That deeply ingrained linguistic habit and way of thinking were the hardest things to imitate.
Jiang Ci didn't hesitate.
"Exchange."
[Heartbreak Value -3000. Skill exchange successful.]
A vast torrent of information instantly flooded into his mind.
Countless words, sentence structures, slang, and the cultural memories carried by those languages,
came rushing in like a tide, merging at high speed with his brain's neural pathways.
The entire process lasted less than three seconds.
When he opened his eyes again, the world seemed subtly different.
He looked at the English version of the hotel guide in the room. Every word on it now felt familiar and natural, reading just like his mother tongue.
Suppressing the excitement in his heart, Jiang Ci continued browsing the store.
Soon, a second target appeared.
[Master of Organization and Storage (OCD Edition)]
[Description: You will possess the spatial planning ability of a top-tier professional organizer, capable of utilizing every inch of space, arranging all items with the precision of a military parade formation. Simultaneously, you will develop an extremely sharp intuition for subtle changes in your environment.]
[Price: 2000 Heartbreak Points]
This skill, on the surface, seemed to have nothing to do with acting.
But in Jiang Ci's train of thought, this was practically a divine skill tailor-made for a spy role.
A top-tier lurker often needs to change hideouts, and quickly packing essentials is a basic skill.
Hiding intelligence, weapons, or disposing of traces that shouldn't exist,
all require an extreme ability to utilize and plan space.
More importantly, that sensitive intuition for environmental changes.
Someone has touched my things.
There's a speck of dust in the room that doesn't belong here.
In spy films, such details are often signals of life and death.
"Exchange!"
[Heartbreak Value -2000. Skill exchange successful.]
The third skill made Jiang Ci pause for a moment.
[Top-Tier Japanese Sashimi/Dissection Knife Skills]
[Description: You will have a thorough understanding of the skeletal and muscular structure of living creatures. Whether facing a tuna or a... model, your cuts will be precise and accurate, with an error margin not exceeding one millimeter.]
[Price: 2000 Heartbreak Points]
The description of this skill carried an ominous air.
But Jiang Ci's thinking veered off course once again.
For Shen Qingyuan to mingle in the circles of the Japanese high command, being able to show off top-tier Japanese culinary skills would undoubtedly be an excellent door-opener to gain trust.
Moreover...
If these knife skills were used in scenes of interrogation and torture, the sense of oppression and tension would probably be maxed out.
A man in a suit, gentle and refined, meticulously scraping his nails using the techniques for handling premium ingredients.
Just imagining that scene was enough to send chills down the audience's spine.
Buy!
[Heartbreak Value -2000. Skill exchange successful.]
In one go, 7000 Heartbreak Points were spent just like that.
Jiang Ci's balance instantly shrank to 1995 points.
But far from feeling the slightest bit of heartache,
he instead felt a sense of exhilaration, like equipping a character to max level, ready to leave the beginner village and wreak havoc.
He stood up and walked to the full-length mirror in the room.
The person in the mirror still had that same somewhat pale face.
But Jiang Ci knew something was already different.
He slightly parted his lips and, in an extremely standard Kyoto-accented Japanese, softly recited a line.
"Tonight's moonlight is very suitable for killing."
It was an elegant and composed tone, each syllable carrying just the right amount of texture.
Even he himself got goosebumps.
Next, his gaze fell on the open suitcase in the corner of the room.
Inside were clothes haphazardly stuffed together, crumpled and squeezed.
The moment he saw the suitcase, an irresistible impulse surged from the depths of his heart.
Messy.
Too messy.
This was practically an insult to the aesthetics of space.
His OCD was acting up.
He walked over and dumped everything out of the suitcase.
Three minutes later.
All the clothes, sorted by color shade and fabric thickness, were folded into perfect, neat blocks.
Just as Jiang Ci was admiring his own handiwork, the room door was knocked.
It was Zhao Zhen and Chen Mo.
"Ci-ge, not sleeping yet? Let's discuss tomorrow's trip to Hengdian!"
Jiang Ci walked over and opened the door.
Zhao Zhen and Chen Mo walked in one after the other.
"Whoa, Ci-ge, did you... hire a cleaning auntie for a house call?"
Zhao Zhen's attention was immediately captured by the suitcase that could be called a work of art.
His eyes widened as he circled the suitcase once, his face filled with disbelief.
Chen Mo also pushed up his glasses, looked at the suitcase, and fell into a prolonged silence.
Jiang Ci ignored their exaggerated reactions.
He looked at them and, very naturally, spoke in an elegant tone.
"Préparez vos affaires, nous nous présenterons bientôt à l'équipe."
(Pack your things, we're going to report to the film crew.)
Pure, authentic French flowed from his mouth.
Zhao Zhen was completely dumbfounded.
He stared blankly at Jiang Ci, then turned to look at Chen Mo behind him, his face a canvas of question marks.
"Holy crap, Ci-ge, are you practicing your lines? That bird talk... damn, really has a celebrity vibe!"
Chen Mo pushed up his glasses expressionlessly.
"This isn't an effect achievable by reciting lines."
He paused, looking at Jiang Ci, his face carrying a trace of confusion.
"It's more like someone who speaks French as their mother tongue."
