Brush Up Your Proficiency

The melodious and poignant sound of the erhu, like a gentle breeze, slowly drifted away.

It passed through the treetops, over the winding mountain paths, and floated towards the distant village.

The music did not diminish in the long-distance transmission; instead, due to the unique vibrations in the air, the people chatting and cooling off at their doorsteps in the village could clearly hear every note.

The slightly mournful melody seemed to possess a magical power, gradually silencing the people who had been talking and laughing.

For such a purely accidental occurrence, he could only recall what he had heard in his childhood. However, at that time, it wasn't music he heard, but singing.

“Congratulations, you have triggered an amplification condition. Erhu Intermediate skill proficiency +10, current proficiency: Erhu Intermediate 12.2 / 1000.”

With the appearance of the system notification, Wang Hao's thoughts were abruptly pulled back to reality from the music.

Although his fingers had left the strings, his mind was still immersed in the melody he had just played.

He glanced casually at the notification, originally intending to continue savoring the unique feeling brought by the beautiful music. However, an astonishing discovery made his eyes widen instantly—this notification was somewhat different from previous notifications!

"Triggered an amplification condition? And the erhu skill proficiency actually increased by a full ten points in one go!" Coming back to his senses, Wang Hao looked at the huge increase in proficiency for the erhu skill and couldn't help but feel lost.

He wondered to himself: Just now, I only played 'Reflection of the Moon on Two Strings.' In his understanding, the technical difficulty of this piece was not even as high as 'Horse Racing,' which he played in the park before.

And 'Horse Racing,' which had attracted onlookers before, gave him two points of proficiency, so he expected this piece to gain about one point or so.

But who would have thought that it would suddenly increase by a full ten points! This is equivalent to the effect of playing 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' a hundred times in a row!

Wang Hao's heart was filled with doubts and confusion:

Why would so much proficiency suddenly increase? And what exactly is the so-called "amplification condition" mentioned in the notification? What annoyed him even more was that the system did not provide any specific explanation about the trigger condition.

This series of questions shrouded him like a fog, making him even more confused.

This sudden event forced Wang Hao to stop savoring 'Reflection of the Moon on Two Strings' and instead fell into deep thought. He began to try to recall all his performances just now, trying to find out what was different from the past.

Wang Hao carefully recalled every detail of his performance just now. First, from the external environment, it was undoubtedly completely different from before.

In the past, he either practiced alone in a narrow and crowded rented house or demonstrated his skills in a noisy park, but this time, he was in the quiet night, surrounded by mountains. However, from this point alone, he didn't seem to be able to draw any clear conclusions.

Next, Wang Hao began to analyze from within himself.

For him personally, the biggest difference in playing the erhu this time may have been the emotional investment. In such a quiet night, accompanied by intermediate erhu skills, he seemed to be able to immerse himself wholeheartedly in this piece.

At that time, he no longer had the idea of grinding proficiency, but was purely intoxicated in it, single-minded, and the action of playing the erhu in his hand became natural and smooth, like a fish swimming in the water. This wonderful feeling was something he had never experienced before.

From the second point of view, he might be able to try to classify and study it.

Therefore, Wang Hao made up his mind to play 'Reflection of the Moon on Two Strings' again. But this time, he didn't plan to invest himself wholeheartedly as before, but instead tried to observe how much proficiency he could gain when he reduced his emotional investment, and use this to reverse infer whether it was the influence of emotional investment or the location that caused this change.

After secretly making up his mind, Wang Hao quickly plucked the strings without hesitation.

“Congratulations, Erhu Intermediate skill proficiency + 1.2, current proficiency: Erhu Intermediate 13.4 / 1000.”

With the appearance of the system notification, the performance that purely used skills and did not contain much emotion came to an end.

Wang Hao also successfully harvested 1.2 proficiency, but such a significant drop in proficiency undoubtedly proved that the amplification condition triggered just now was not as simple as environmental factors, at least not solely due to environmental factors.

With such a conclusion as support, Wang Hao took a deep breath, trying to gradually calm his restless heart. When he thought he had adjusted enough, the starting position that had been prepared for a long time finally began to dance, starting the second test.

“Congratulations, Erhu Intermediate skill proficiency + 1.2, current proficiency: Erhu Intermediate 14.6 / 1000.”

This time, Wang Hao devoted himself wholeheartedly and played with all his strength, but he clearly felt that there was a gap compared to the first performance. The result given by the cheat also confirmed his feelings—he still only gained 1.2 proficiency.

This result couldn't help but make Wang Hao think. It seemed that the so-called "amplification condition" of the cheat was not easy to achieve.

After experimenting with these two pieces, he vaguely realized that satisfying this amplification condition might require the dual effect of the environment and the person. If it was just a single factor, I'm afraid that in the end, he could only get the same proficiency.

Faced with such rare and restrictive conditions, Wang Hao's originally excited mood instantly fell.

However, he quickly comforted himself with a self-deprecating smile: "I already have such a powerful cheat, and I'm still thinking about finding other shortcuts. I'm really too greedy."

After adjusting his mentality, Wang Hao no longer obsessed over this sudden trigger condition, treating it as a pleasant surprise, and not being too demanding was enough!