Lords of the Old Ones? I thought it was a speed bump.

Chapter 8 Half-Step Mental Patient

Did I hear that right? This lousy machine seems to be showing that my sanity is 0?

Upon hearing this, Lin Jue was taken aback for a moment, then smiled easily.

"It's malfunctioning, isn't it?" he said, pointing to the testing device, seemingly unconcerned.

"How could my sanity level be 0? Let me scan again."

The security guard in charge of the inspection frowned.

He originally meant to say that the instrument wouldn't malfunction.

The young man spoke clearly and logically, and his expression was very calm.

He couldn't help but mutter to himself, "He doesn't seem to be in such a bad mental state. Could the machine really be malfunctioning?"

Thinking of this, the security guard nodded and scanned Lin Jue's face with the instrument again.

The machine made another loud noise the next second, and the number on the screen was still "0".

The two consecutive explosions finally caught the attention of Gu Qian, who was arranging work nearby.

The female sheriff hurriedly pushed through the crowd and ran to Lin Jue. After glancing at the data on the instrument, she frowned and said:

"Young man, your sanity level is 0? This is extremely dangerous; you could have an attack at any moment."

"Stop joking, sister." Lin Jue pointed to his face, both amused and exasperated, and laughed.

Do I look like someone who's listless and might have a fit of madness at any moment?

At this moment, Li Qiang, who had been watching from the side, quickly came over and tried to explain:

"Yes, Kobayashi's mental state has always been very good and stable. He doesn't seem like someone with such a low rationality level. Should I take the test again?"

At Li Qiang's suggestion, Gu Qian personally picked up the instrument and tested his sanity level.

"Li Qiang, your sanity level is 72. It's normal for you, but for him..."

Gu Qian continued to place the device on Lin Jue, but there was still another loud bang, and his sanity value remained at 0.

But this is so strange, why does Lin Jue seem to be in such good spirits?

But his sanity level is ridiculously low? It's as if he might foam at the mouth and convulse on the ground at any moment?

Just as everyone was puzzled by this strange state.

Lin Jue suddenly remembered something, slapped his thigh, and shouted:

"Damn! I get it! It's the prologue..."

He stopped halfway through his sentence, clearly realizing he might have said something inappropriate.

"What is it? Tell me quickly!" Li Qiang glanced at him anxiously, frowning as he said:

"At this point, tell us what's going on so we can help you, right?"

Seeing Li Qiang's anxious expression, Lin Jue opened his mouth slightly, but still forced himself to say:

"I think it's a problem with the equipment, but my mental state is perfectly normal."

Gu Qian, Li Qiang, and the others were clearly very dissatisfied with this explanation.

They vaguely sensed that Lin Jue seemed to know something.

But the young man was unwilling to speak out, and the two men couldn't do anything about it.

In fact, Lin Jue did know what had happened to him, but he really couldn't say it.

If Lin Jue wasn't mistaken, that's why his sanity level was showing as 0.

It was the "Foundation Talent: Ultimate Body Tempering" that came with the sequence that was causing the problem.

[Core Talent: Ultimate Body Tempering (Permanently disables the use of all items, equipment, and skills; grants a thousandfold increase in physical ability efficiency and removes attribute caps; all other attributes are permanently locked to zero)]

This talent ability not only disables items, equipment, and skills, but also locks all of his non-physical attributes.

This means that the three attributes, including "magic power", "spirit", and "perception", have been permanently locked to 0.

The "spiritual" attribute mentioned here should be directly related to the determination of rationality value in reality.

With the Body Tempering Talent forcibly locking attributes, Lin Jue's sanity value will naturally be displayed as 0 points in the instrument since his mental lock is zero.

And this value is constant, it will never change.

Of course, although Lin Jue's mental attribute is fixed at 0, it will not actually bring any negative impact.

After all, in the rules of the dungeon, negative effects only occur when the mental attribute is negative.

Therefore, a constant value of 0 means that the level is maintained at a normal level indefinitely, neither good nor bad.

However, for residents living in the real world, it would be terrifying if their mental capacity dropped to zero.

This means he could contract delusional syndrome at any time and die a violent death.

Seeing that the young man, who was on the verge of madness, refused to say anything.

Gu Qian had no choice but to keep him there temporarily and arranged for someone to gather information on Lin Jue.

Half an hour later, a thick file folder appeared in Li Qiang's tin office.

Upon seeing the contents of the file folder, Gu Qian, who was sitting in the chair, couldn't help but wipe the cold sweat from her forehead.

This...this young man named Lin Jue is so pitiful, isn't he?

Her parents died in an accident when she was eight years old, and she and her younger sister have been living together ever since.

When she was thirteen, her younger sister was caught up in the battle between the extraordinary heroes and the gate beasts, resulting in a broken spine, paralysis of her lower body, and a long-term hospitalization.

To pay for his younger sister's medical treatment, Lin Jue, who was still in junior high school, came to the dock to work as a porter to make a living.

For the past few years, I've lived a life that revolves around school, the dock, and the hospital, with almost no time or entertainment for myself.

Furthermore, the data shows that Lin Jue usually has very few friends and doesn't talk much, so his lifestyle is simply amazing... After reading this, it's not surprising at all that his rationality level is 0.

After spending some time carefully reading through the contents.

Gu Qian sighed deeply before turning to look at Lin Jue, who was sitting in the corner.

At this moment, Lin Jue was slowly moving a round iron ball with three fingers, and the movement looked somewhat strange.

Because he had been waiting there for a long time, he was really bored, so he simply started practicing his finger strength.

Try lifting this heavy solid iron ball with the fewest fingers possible; this is a training method specifically designed for the fingers.

[Host attribute change detected, Strength +1]

But to Gu Qian, these standard physical exercises looked like the struggle and performance of a mental patient immersed in their own morbid world.

What a pitiful child. He seems normal on the surface, but his heart must be full of wounds. Sigh.

However, his sanity level has only dropped to zero, not yet to a negative number, which means there is still hope.

Thinking of this, Gu Qian put down the documents in her hand and slowly walked towards Lin Jue.

Seeing that he was holding the grapefruit-sized iron ball with his fingers, Gu Qian smiled and leaned down to ask:

"What is this? Is it fun? How do you play it?"

Gu Qian has also dealt with some people who are not in good mental condition.

She knew that to communicate with this kind of person, she had to start by talking about their interests and hobbies.

Although patients with such poor mental health often have very strange interests.

But Gu Qian was well-informed and naturally wouldn't be surprised by their strange quirks.

However, Lin Jue merely glanced impatiently at the female sheriff, then picked up the iron ball with his right hand and asked:

"Sister, can I leave now? I really have something urgent to attend to, and I can't stay here any longer."

Lin Jue was actually very busy today; he needed to find a place to sell the gold coins later.

After buying a bunch of other stuff, including a drone, I need to hurry back to the dungeon to continue fighting monsters.

He didn't have time to chat with this strange-looking sheriff.

However, Gu Qian didn't care at all about the rejection from this "half-mentally ill person".

She simply reached out with a faint smile to take the tin ball from the other person's hand, and reassured them:

"Don't be in such a hurry. Interpersonal communication may seem complicated, but it's an essential part of life..."

When the words "necessities" were mentioned, Gu Qian's expression changed immediately.

Because she discovered something very strange.

That's this iron ball... I can't lift it at all!