“Grinding through that last kilometer isn’t too hard. But a full marathon is 42 kilometers. There are still 7 to 8 kilometers left after that…”
While heading down the mountain, Li Bai talked with Liang Manjun about how it felt to hit the wall this time.
At first, he had thought his energy reserves were enough to finish a full marathon.
But after hitting the wall, he finally understood why people online said a full marathon and a half marathon were on completely different levels.
For a half marathon, he could finish with a very good time.
But at the same pace—even slightly slower—he couldn’t sustain it for a full marathon.
Of course, if he lowered his speed and reduced his consumption, with his current level, finishing a marathon was still possible.
But that wasn’t what he wanted.
As a runner with ambitions, Li Bai wanted his first full marathon to be under three hours.
Not to mention the advanced reward requirement of 2 hours and 30 minutes, or even stricter targets.
“Brother, you’ve only trained for a month…” Liang Manjun looked at Li Bai, who was three years younger than her, feeling a bit speechless.
A complete beginner who had never done long-distance running before had trained for just one month and could already run 35 kilometers at marathon pace.
That was nothing short of genius—a true marathon prodigy.
And yet Li Bai still wasn’t satisfied. He wanted to leap straight to the top.
Liang Manjun wasn’t good at comforting people.
And Li Bai didn’t need comfort either.
After thinking for a moment, she offered a solution, “If you want to break through the wall, the only way is to keep increasing your mileage.”
“Don’t rush your speed. Use more slow runs to strengthen your body.”
“And do lactate threshold runs to improve your lactate threshold and aerobic endurance.”
“The wall isn’t something you can smash through like you just tried. That’s not good for your body.”
“When you become stronger, the wall will gradually be pushed farther away—maybe even beyond 42 kilometers.”
…
Liang Manjun was right. In competitive sports, there were no shortcuts.
Even someone like Eliud Kipchoge, standing at the pinnacle of marathon records—
His success was built step by step, through daily and yearly accumulation of training.
Li Bai had seen Kipchoge’s training schedule. That was true discipline.
Training twice a day—morning and evening!
During non-competition periods, he only rested for half a day on Sunday evenings each week.
Training every single day, his weekly mileage exceeded 200 kilometers.
That was something many amateur runners couldn’t even reach in a month…
Li Bai had once been a little worried.
To complete the system missions, he had been running at least 10 kilometers every day without a single rest day.
Would his body be able to handle it?
But after seeing that even Kipchoge, nearly forty years old, trained with such intensity—
Li Bai stopped doubting the system’s check-in requirements.
In fact, his daily mileage had long exceeded the system’s minimum of 10 kilometers.
As an ordinary person who had obtained the chance to change his fate through the Self-Discipline System—
Why not give it everything?
Why not dare to aim for those shining heights, those positions admired by countless people?
Of course, Li Bai did have a shortcut.
On Monday evening, after completing the final 10-kilometer check-in of the month—
He felt the Self-Discipline System in his consciousness send out a notification.
[Ding! You have completed the basic running check-in mission. Please claim your reward.]
Li Bai waited until he got back to his residence before opening the long-awaited reward.
First was a cash reward of 200,000 yuan.
Almost at the same moment, a bank notification popped up.
Li Bai didn’t know how the system managed it, but the money had genuinely been deposited into his account.
His balance now reached 350,000 yuan.
This included the 100,000 yuan from the second month’s disciplined routine check-in.
350,000 yuan. Not enough to buy a house, but enough for a modest car.
“Should I buy a car?”
The thought lingered in Li Bai’s mind for only half a second before he dismissed it.
He wasn’t someone driven by material desires.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have chosen to return to this small city.
If necessary, buying a car wasn’t impossible.
But for now, he didn’t need one.
Especially for commuting—Dawan Mall was in a bustling area, and traffic during rush hours was completely jammed.
Driving would be exhausting, and finding parking would waste even more time.
Instead of buying a car, it might be better to get a place near Dawan Mall…
Wait, that actually sounded like a good idea.
Even if he couldn’t afford to buy a house, he could rent one.
The small single room in the urban village was indeed cramped.
If he moved into a bigger place near the company, he could walk to work.
And being close to the sea, he could even run along the coast in the morning, greeting the sunrise.
He set aside the housing matter for now.
Li Bai turned his attention to the other two rewards.
“20 free attribute points!”
“I’ve never fought such a wealthy battle before!”
“With this many points, I can upgrade whatever I want, right?”
Very quickly, he realized he had been too naive.
For stamina, going from level 5 to level 6 actually cost him two attribute points.
“Wait, that’s not right!”
“Wasn’t it one point per level?”
Li Bai started to feel uneasy.
Still, he continued upgrading his stamina.
When upgrading to level 7, it cost him three attribute points.
Even more than before.
“…”
Looking at how a quarter of his points had disappeared in an instant, Li Bai fell silent.
After a long pause, he sighed.
“So only levels 1 to 5 require one point per level.”
“Beyond that, the higher you go, the more points each level costs. It increases step by step…”
It wasn’t hard to understand.
When he improved his attributes through training, the time and effort required also increased progressively.
The system had simply made that difficulty explicit after level 5.
“The bad news is that 20 free attribute points aren’t enough to freely upgrade whatever I want.”
“Inflation has hit. These hard-earned points don’t last long…”
“But the good news is that 20 points are just enough to max out stamina!”
2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6… that added up perfectly to 20.
With the mindset of pushing one thing to the limit, Li Bai continued investing points into “Stamina.”
At first, everything matched his calculations.
Level 8 cost him four points.
Level 9 cost him five points.
Level 10…
Suddenly, the system displayed a red warning.
[Insufficient free attribute points. Insufficient free attribute points…]
Li Bai froze. “How is that insufficient? Don’t I still have six points left?”
Then he saw the new prompt.
[Required free attribute points — (6/10)]
“???”
A flood of question marks exploded in Li Bai’s mind.