Chapter 561 - 367: Obtained a New Skill, Knight’s Light

Chapter 561: Chapter 367: Obtained a New Skill, Knight’s Light

Li Wei walked to the center of the lawn.

The surrounding crowd quickly gathered, forming a dense circle multiple layers thick. Even the participating police officers warming up and stretching in the distance stopped what they were doing, standing on their tiptoes to look over.

Li Wei stepped up and looked at the black SWAT officer in front of him.

He was nearly two meters tall and appeared to weigh over 120 kilograms. His bulging muscles stretched his black quick-dry T-shirt so tight it looked like body paint.

The two stood face-to-face in front of a table.

"Arm wrestling?" Li Wei confirmed the rules.

"Yeah," the black SWAT officer placed his right elbow on the table. "Whoever pins the other down first wins." He flashed a bright, toothy smile. "Don’t worry, MVP, I’ll hold back a little."

"Very confident, champ." Li Wei smiled, completely unfazed by his trash talk.

The two gripped each other’s hands, and only then did the surrounding crowd realize the sheer size difference—the black man’s hand almost completely enveloped Li Wei’s.

A police officer acting as the referee stepped up to the table with a megaphone. "Alright, ready—go!"

The veins on the black SWAT officer’s forearms instantly bulged like earthworms, and his entire upper body pressed down heavily toward Li Wei.

After all, he was one of the top five arm wrestlers in North America. When it came to arm wrestling, absolutely no one on the West Coast could beat him.

But...

Li Wei’s wrist didn’t budge an inch.

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

The black SWAT officer’s face turned from pitch black to a deep purple. Veins popped out on his forehead, sweat dripped down, and his feet left deep scuff marks in the turf beneath him.

Yet Li Wei maintained a calm smile.

"Hey, champ," Li Wei said with a grin. "Put some muscle into it."

Roars of laughter erupted from the crowd.

No matter how hard the black SWAT officer tried, Li Wei’s wrist remained rooted like solid cast iron. Despite all his pushing, it didn’t shift even half a centimeter.

"Alright," Li Wei said. "I’m afraid you’re going to hurt your hand."

His wrist slowly shifted, steadily pressing the back of the black SWAT officer’s hand onto the table.

The entire venue fell dead silent for a moment before erupting into deafening cheers.

"WOOO!!!!"

"Invincible!!!"

The officers stuck on the outside of the crowd who couldn’t see were dying of anxiety, shouting at the top of their lungs:

"Let me see!"

"Who’s invincible?!!!"

"Stop touching my ass, damn it!"

The black SWAT officer looked at his right hand, then looked up at Li Wei, his expression shifting from shock to total submission.

"Back when my coach didn’t pick me for the NCAA, I was still upset," he sighed. "Now I understand what kind of monsters are in the NFL."

"Don’t sell yourself short," Li Wei smiled and shook his hand. "You’re already pretty good."

[Task: The Royal Guard Captain’s Provocation completed.]

[You have gained 0.1 free attribute points.]

At 10:00 a.m., the 10-kilometer long-distance run officially began.

From the main entrance of Griffith Park, the route followed the mountain road to the turnaround point below the observatory, then returned along the same path. Over 10,000 participants surged past the starting line in a massive wave.

After participating in the opening ceremony, Li Wei said goodbye to Robert Flynn and left early.

Less than 30 minutes later, the first batch of runners began returning to the finish line one after another.

The first to cross was a young patrol officer from the Hollywood division. Wearing an LAPD commemorative quick-dry T-shirt, he immediately checked his watch upon crossing the finish line.

The timekeeper nearby also announced his result.

"32 minutes and 14 seconds."

The patrol officer froze.

"Is it really 32 minutes and 14 seconds?" he asked again. "Is my watch wrong?"

"32 minutes and 14 seconds," the timekeeper repeated.

"But my previous personal best was 36 minutes," the patrol officer muttered to himself. "How did I get so much faster all of a sudden?"

Shortly after, the second, third, and fourth runners crossed the line in succession.

An officer from the Southwest division clocked in at 33 minutes today; his previous best was 37 minutes.

A veteran officer from the SWAT unit, who ran 39 minutes last year, finished in under 38 minutes this year.

By noon, 90% of the participants had finished the race.

When the logistics team responsible for data compilation did a simple comparison in their Excel spreadsheet, they initially thought their formulas were wrong. After scolding an intern and having a veteran officer manually calculate the results only to get the exact same numbers, they discovered an utterly baffling phenomenon.

Among all returning participants who ran in both last year’s and this year’s commemorative run, over 89% had broken their personal records.

Moreover, their average improvement was a staggering 10%.

This was an absurdly high figure. For police officers who exercised regularly, improving a personal best by even 1% required months or years of training, let alone 10%.

In the afternoon, Chief Flynn reviewed the logistics team’s statistical report.

"Eighty-nine percent broke their personal bests?" Flynn found it ridiculous. "Are you sure there isn’t an error in the data?"

"No," the head of the logistics team scratched his head. "We considered a few possible reasons—weather, route—but both the weather and the route were exactly the same as last year."

"There’s another possibility," another analyst chimed in. "It could be the effects of the LW sports drink."

Flynn and the logistics team leader both looked at him.

The analyst hesitated for a moment. "At my gym, LW sports drinks have become an essential fitness supplement, just like pre-workout and creatine. Everyone generally sees improved results after drinking it... So I was thinking, could it be the effect of the LW sports drink?"

Robert Flynn immediately set down the report in his hands and looked at the logistics team leader.

"This LW drink... is it possible it contains some banned substances?" he asked in a low voice.

"I’ll send it in for testing right away," the team leader said. "There are still several thousand unopened cases at the water stations."

"Split them into two batches. Send one batch to our own forensics lab and the other to a third-party testing agency," Flynn ordered.

Two hours later, the forensics lab had the results.

Flynn read through the report.

"It’s as clean as it gets," the lab director shrugged. "We didn’t detect a single trace of any banned substances."

A little while later, the testing report from the third-party agency arrived, and its conclusion was exactly the same as the forensics lab’s.

"All known banned substances were not detected," the report’s conclusion stated. "The ingredient composition of the tested samples fully complies with all FDA regulations for functional beverages."

Robert Flynn stared at the two reports and remained silent for a while.

"I do have a proposal," the logistics team leader said. "Should we... regularly purchase a batch?"

"Purchase it?" Flynn hesitated. "Let me think about it..."

After all, the LAPD had one of the top three largest employee counts in the entire country. If the LAPD signed a procurement contract with LW beverages, it would be no small matter, both symbolically and practically.

He needed to think this over carefully before making a move.

On Monday morning, just as Li Wei arrived at Studio 9 and before he could even head to the makeup room, he saw the Knight Commander’s actor already waiting in the lounge area.

"Mr. Li Wei!" Seeing Li Wei, he jogged over. "The character biography is done."

"That fast?" Li Wei took the folder.

"Allen from the writing team helped me out a lot," the Knight Commander’s actor smiled sheepishly. "He worked on it with me over the weekend."

Li Wei flipped it open and saw that, in addition to fleshing out the background and personality, the core abilities section had also been expanded.

Setting aside the obvious additions like iron will, shields, and super stamina, one particular detail caught his eye.

"What is this Knight’s Light?" Li Wei looked at the actor.

"Oh, this is something we brainstormed and researched," the actor explained. "Knights fight for justice and protect the weak. We borrowed some skills from Paladins, allowing him to heal wounds and enhance the Spiritual Power of others."

Li Wei thought, "I seem to be lacking a healing skill right now, don’t I?"

"This is very well written," Li Wei closed the folder and looked at the Knight Commander’s actor. "Much better than before."

Obvious joy surfaced on the actor’s face.

"Alright, let’s do a screen test," Li Wei said.

The two walked over to an empty clearing beside the studio area.

No shooting was scheduled for this zone today, so the lighting and camera equipment hadn’t been set up, but the set decorations were still in place and hadn’t been dismantled.

"Go change your clothes first," Li Wei instructed. "Then we’ll test the scene right here and try to find the right feel."

The actor nodded excitedly, ran back to the dressing room, changed into his armor, and hurried back.

Li Wei also put on the [Deceiver’s Mask (silver)] and resumed playing the protagonist, Lovi.

The Knight Commander proceeded to teach Lovi how to use [Knight’s Light].

And Li Wei’s system, meeting expectations, popped up.

[Royal Palace Knight Commander (Gold) Darian is teaching you a skill.]

[Do you wish to learn the skill: Knight’s Light (silver)?]

Li Wei willed it.

Accept!

[You have learned a new skill: Knight’s Light (silver)]

[Knight’s Light (silver): Consumes a small amount of Spiritual Power. Can choose to heal the Spirit or stamina of an allied target. Can be used once per day.]

Success!

The corners of Li Wei’s mouth curled up slightly. He had finally learned another healing skill!

He suppressed his smile and carefully guided the Knight Commander’s actor throughout the entire morning.

By the time the morning passed, the actor felt he had reaped immense rewards and gained a much deeper understanding of the character. Looking at Li Wei, who was still in a very good mood, he couldn’t help but sigh to himself, "Mr. Li Wei truly is a good man. Not only does he ask for nothing in return, but he also teaches me with such endless patience. He is practically a legendary Knight!"

As for Li Wei, after learning [Knight’s Light (silver)], he got quite greedy. He added a slew of settings to this system-recognized Knight Commander, such as high-tier knight breathing techniques, massive area-of-effect lethal attacks, mind control, Polymorph, and more.

Unfortunately, whether it was because the system didn’t recognize them or because it had caught onto Li Wei’s bug-exploiting behavior, none of these skills ended up triggering.

After a busy morning, Li Wei parted ways with the highly rewarded Knight Commander’s actor.

He had just put the [Deceiver’s Mask] back into his inventory when his phone buzzed.

Tapping it open, he was surprised to see a message from Chief of Police Robert Flynn.

[Mr. Li Wei, this is Robert Flynn. I’ve been meaning to thank you in person for the commemorative long-distance run event. Would it be convenient for you to grab dinner together tonight? My wife baked a pie. I’ll send you the address. — Robert Flynn]

Li Wei checked the time. He had no shooting tasks scheduled for the afternoon, and this would be a perfect opportunity to build a good relationship with Robert Flynn.

He replied:

[I’d be honored. I will bring my girlfriend along this evening. — Li Wei]