Chapter 96: Breaking Through the Bottleneck

That night, after returning home, Chen Meng logged into the Boundless Forum and, using Mo Xiaoyi’s account, Honey Badger, posted the Ultimate Nineteen Technique.

“Shocking! So this is how you can break through the potion-digestion bottleneck!”

The first reply under the post was one he had written himself.

“The Ultimate Nineteen Technique, a posture even more useful than A-Wei’s Eighteen Moves.”

The title and the reply were both instantly attention-grabbing, but if the post got no traffic, it would be buried under other junk within a day.

If only an administrator could pin it to the top.

He thought it over and, though he had no idea whether the forum even offered such a service, he did spot an admin account.

On impulse, he opened the administrator’s profile and sent a private message: “Five thousand yuan. Pin my post to the top. Deal?”

After that, Chen Meng searched to see whether anyone offered traffic boosting. To his surprise, he really did find someone claiming to boost post data for a price that was not too outrageous, only three thousand yuan.

Having lived through a previous life in the age of traffic and clicks, Chen Meng knew full well how important numbers were. As long as the stats looked good and created the impression that the post was truly blowing up, then what was there to worry about? People would come looking to buy the Ultimate Nineteen Technique.

Three thousand yuan. He would treat it as an investment.

Chen Meng sent the man a private message, and the other party guaranteed that within a week the post would have more than ten thousand replies, with no fewer than a hundred featured ones. Chen Meng did the math and found it entirely feasible. The featured posts currently occupying the top spots had about those same numbers.

“All right,” he muttered. “Just keep it discreet. Don’t let anyone notice. I’m calculating you at thirty cents a post.”

With that, he transferred the three thousand yuan.

“Relax. I’ll handle it beautifully, guaranteed.”

Though Chen Meng could not see the man, the tone alone made it obvious he was thumping his chest in assurance.

After finishing all that, Chen Meng read for a while before going to sleep, hoping the Ultimate Nineteen Technique would sell.

Otherwise, he would have no choice but to borrow money to buy more knowledge points and raise the grades of his other academic subjects.

For the sake of becoming top of the class, he really had it rough.

Early the next morning, the first thing Chen Meng did after waking was log into Boundless and check the stats on the post he had published.

But the moment he logged in, he was stunned. Three messages popped up at once, and when he opened the first one, he went completely speechless.

“The post you replied to was found to violate forum rules and has been deleted. Please be advised.”

Chen Meng was dumbfounded. This place deleted posts too? Thankfully, it had only removed his own reply.

He went on to the second message.

“You are suspected of bribing an administrator. Your account has been suspended for two weeks. Please be advised.”

Chen Meng felt like crying. I only asked whether I could pay to have it pinned. How is that bribery? Aren’t you just framing me?

But there was something even more despairing.

He saw the third message.

“You are suspected of manipulating post data, causing extremely adverse effects. Your post has been temporarily deleted, and your account has been suspended for one month. Please be advised.”

When Chen Meng saw that, his mind buzzed. My post got deleted?

They actually saw through the data boosting?

Below the notice was a link that seemed to lead to the deleted post. He clicked it, and to his surprise it still opened.

The replies underneath made him stare in disbelief.

“This Ultimate Nineteen Technique is really useful. I practiced for half a day and my waist doesn’t ache anymore, my legs don’t hurt anymore, I can climb eighteen floors in one go, and my potion digests faster too. (Thirty cents each time. Please delete the text in the brackets when posting.)”

“Amazing, absolutely amazing Ultimate Nineteen Technique. My potion bottleneck broke through. ( ).”

“Incredible. The person who developed the Ultimate Nineteen Technique is definitely a genius. I’m impressed! ( ).”

...

Looking at those replies, Chen Meng felt like crying. Whose idiot idea was this?

The first one is bad enough, but at least delete the bracketed text. Leaving only the brackets in the replies below, one after another? So neat and tidy, it’s obviously fake.

Still, his account had been banned for a month and a half, which was infuriating. The worst part was not only that the three thousand yuan had gone down the drain, but his plan to sell the Ultimate Nineteen Technique for profit had become impossible as well.

This is too much for me.

Chen Meng was in a bad mood all day, though fortunately, practicing the Ultimate Nineteen Technique did make his potion digest faster, which at least comforted him a little.

Five days later, just as Chen Meng was on the verge of breaking through the potion-digestion bottleneck, with only the final 0.01 percent left, he unexpectedly received a call from Yan Ruoxi.

He was somewhat surprised that Yan Ruoxi had taken the initiative to call him.

“Senior, what’s wrong?”

Chen Meng asked curiously. Could it be that the senior wanted to continue studying the Ultimate Nineteen Technique with him? To be fair, the movement still had plenty of room for development.

To his surprise, Yan Ruoxi’s voice was a little excited.

“I broke through the potion-digestion bottleneck. The Ultimate Nineteen Technique we came up with really works.”

Chen Meng was not surprised at all. How could it not work? It was the optimal potion-digestion movement determined by the system.

“Junior, thank you.” Yan Ruoxi said gratefully. “Now that I’ve gotten past this bottleneck, I should be able to fully digest the Azure Potion in a few more days.”

Chen Meng thought about it.

“If gratitude means gratitude, shouldn’t there be some token of appreciation? How about you repay me by marrying me?”

Yan Ruoxi froze, but then acted as though she had heard nothing.

“I’m planning to let some of the other students try this method. That should be fine, right?”

Chen Meng smiled.

“What could go wrong? It just happens to let us see how practical the Ultimate Nineteen Technique really is, based on other people’s results. Maybe you and I are just special cases.”

Yan Ruoxi said nothing more and hung up.

Chen Meng thought for a moment and realized he needed to work even harder as well.

At eleven thirty that night, after another hour of practicing the Extreme Yoga, Chen Meng suddenly felt something. It was like the long-delayed release of a pressure that had finally burst free in a torrent.

It was as if his body had been opened up at that instant. He felt an overwhelming surge of pleasure all through himself; every cell in his body seemed to be celebrating, singing in wild joy.

The bottleneck had broken.

Chen Meng understood this in his heart, and the small booklet Han Hao had given him earlier had mentioned exactly this: when a divine-body lifeform passed through a potion-digestion bottleneck, it sometimes sensed it on its own.

He immediately checked his stats.

Knowledge Points: 503

Page Turns: University Runes (0/1998), Primordial Speech (10/698, 68%)

Analysis Progress: Ghost-Step Lotus (8.369%)

Digestion Progress: Pale Potion (20.911%)

As expected, it had already gone beyond one percent.

It had not been easy. This bottleneck had held him back for nearly two weeks.

He thought about it. Since he had broken through, he should be able to spend knowledge points to raise the digestion progress again. He wondered how far it could go this time.

At the movement of his thoughts, the digestion progress changed at once.

It climbed from twenty percent all the way to thirty, then continued to forty, then fifty, finally stopping at just under sixty percent.

Knowledge Points: 113

Page Turns: University Runes (0/1998), Primordial Speech (10/698, 67%)

Analysis Progress: Ghost-Step Lotus (8.369%)

Digestion Progress: Pale Potion (59.911%)

But after that, it would no longer rise.

He tried sensing his own body. His strength seemed greater, and both his speed and perception had improved enormously.

“A second digestion bottleneck?”

Chen Meng murmured to himself, though he was not especially worried. Now that he had mastered the method of potion digestion, breaking through this bottleneck would not be difficult either.