Inside the dining hall.
“Eh?”
Jiang Lulu stared at him, both hands wrapped together, afraid that Tang Hong would die from eating the food.
“Eat!”
Tang Hong could not care to say more. He was concise as he pointed to the food.
His vocabulary was not lacking but he really could not find a suitable adjective. This porridge-like and pudding-like gold-colored food also caused Jiang Lulu to be greatly astonished once she put it into her mouth.
Growing up…
She had tasted all delicacies, locally and internationally…
Even if she hadn’t tasted them before, she had seen them, and even if she hadn’t seen them before, she had heard of them. However, Jiang Lulu could not taste what raw ingredients had been used to make this finished product.
Both Tang Hong and Jiang Lulu took the lead.
Seeing looks of enjoyment on their faces, the others started digging in and all were surprised. Soon, there was only the small sounds of chopsticks hitting the meal trays left in the dining hall, the efficiency was unusually high.
After all, they had only taken a rest at dawn, everybody was exhausted.
After clearing her plate, Jiang Lulu looked towards Guo Bojun who was two seats away, with a look that she had yet to have her fill. “Can you finish yours?”
Guo Bojun ignored her.
Licking her lips, Jiang Lulu did not move. The brawny chief instructor from yesterday had scared her.
“The chief instructor’s name is Niu Hechuan,” whispered Tang Hong in her ear.
“Na, sounds bad. He’s too fierce.” Jiang Lulu rolled her eyes, she really wanted to have another serving.
But peeping at the frightening figure that appeared at the entrance of the dining hall, she shrunk her head.
“Good afternoon everyone.”
Niu Hechuan strolled around the dining hall with his hands behind his back. Wherever he passed, everyone consciously stopped eating.
“Don’t look at me, eat your food.” Niu Hechuan said with an abnormally loud voice, “Each person only gets this one meal of Transcendent food every day. Dinner and supper are both rice and dishes or noodles, proper nutritious meals.”
“In addition.”
“The entrance test begins at 7PM tonight. Anyone who is feeling unwell can come to me to ask for leave. It’s best not to be absent, doing a make-up test at a later period is very tedious. The entrance test will give correlated data about everyone’s present willpower and physical fitness… If your willpower is too much stronger than your body, it might trigger some unpleasant symptoms.”
His words just fell.
Jiang Lulu opened her mouth but did not make a sound.
It just happened that Niu Hechuan looked over, she covered her mouth but saw Niu Hechuan nodded lightly with a smile. She first faltered, then was delighted and turned her head diagonally.
‘He’s going to apologize to me?”
‘No, no, no. I, Jiang Lulu, absolutely will not forgive him, absolutely not!’
When everyone was done eating and the admitted trainees walked out of the dining hall in proper order, only Jiang Lulu held her head high and looked steadily forward when she moved past Niu Hechuan. The sight stunned Niu Hechuan.
…
300 people were divided into two batches.
One batch was led around the campsite to be familiarized with the landscape. The campsite had four buildings, two for accommodation and one as the dining hall, there was nothing much to see around.
The other batch headed to the fourth building and took the elevator to look around the true special training camp.
There were a total of two levels underground.
The first level was a huge running track. It was about 20 meters wide with metals railings enclosing both inside and outside.
The second level was full of laboratories. They walked one round through the passageway and was done. Entering the laboratories required the passes of official members. Tang Hong and company did not possess access rights for now.
When it was free time, Jiang Lulu went to ask the female instructor with fair skin and long legs some questions.
Soon.
Jiang Lulu’s small face was flushed and she returned to Tang Hong’s side jumping and bouncing. “The instructor said that Transcendent food contributes to beauty and face care. The effects are great.”
“What kind of mind do you have?” Tang Hong’s countenance changed several times. He really wanted to ask Jiang Lulu how high her IQ was.
Yet after some thought, he found that inappropriate. It would be too rude and hurtful.
“Sigh.”
Tang Hong squatted alone in the corner in a daze. He looked towards another corner that wasn’t far away. There was a person squatting there alone in a daze. He was playing with tree branches, making them stand on the ground.
He bowed his head in deep thought.
Xiao Ziyun, about to break through the limits of willpower, highly recommended by the Yellow River Organization’s Guangnan Branch Office.
The limits of willpower could be 99%, but could also be 90%.
Tang Hong remembered Fang Nanxun mentioning previously that they had yet to be able to create a scientific instrument that could measure willpower with precision.
“How should willpower be tested?”
Tang Hong thought inwardly, if I continue keeping my individual value, I might be no match for Xiao Ziyun.
Was he going to surrender the first place of the entrance test?
After thinking over it, Tang Hong felt indignant. Lagging behind by 100 points was equivalent to a difference of 10 million Hua dollars. He had vie for it this time. “But having a headache everyday is unbearable.”
If he were to continue increasing willpower, he might be in so much pain that he could pass out, or even suffer damage to his nerves and brains.
“I can only think of another way.”
“He looks weak and sickly.”
Since he was in the special training camp, Tang Hong wouldn’t be able to leave anytime soon.
He decided to make a slight change to his plan: He’d make an impromptu tiny bit of addition to strength!
Striving to pull open a huge gap in the grading of physical fitness and make up for his lag in the grading of willpower.
Tang Hong slowly returned to his room. He indistinctly caught low grunts from the neighboring room, they were repressed. They came from the single room that Xiao Ziyun was in. When he listened more carefully, they vanished again.
“His head hurts too.”
“That’s right, I’m not the only with willpower weighing down on my nerves.”
He was instantly enlightened. “No wonder Xiao Ziyun is pale, weak and constantly coughs. It’s probably because his willpower is too powerful and his physical fitness cannot keep up, resulting in aftereffects.”
“Then.”
“If I increase strength, my physical fitness will probably experience a corresponding improvement as well.”
Tang Hong walked into the single room, locked the door and sat cross-legged by the bed.
Less than a day had passed and he had traveled all the way north from his university campus that was brimming with the aura of youth to arrive at the capital dusk, and finally reached the special training camp in the early hours.
Not to mention standing until daybreak.
That odd scrap of paper stuck beneath the tea table in his single room; the passageway with flowing mercury; the bright gold-colored Transcendent food.
Fear stemmed from the unknown. He was restless and anxious because of the massive changes in his surroundings.
It was as if he had gone from being in an orderly city to being placed in a dark forest overnight. The lights were dim and unfamiliar. It made one uneasy, but also curious.
The Transcendent World.
He already could not wait.
“Fist technique.”
Suddenly leaping to his feet, one punch was delivered. Tang Hong first practiced the elementary fist technique for ten odd minutes. Upon hearing the notification of an increase in individual value, he called up the system interface.
Mortal: Extremely small and weak creature.
Willpower: 69%
Strength: 41%
Realm: 0.00
Individual value: 42
“Add!”
Without any hesitation, Tang Hong directly spent three points of individual value to increase his strength percentage figure.
Hua! !
He seemed to hear the sound of blood flow increasing, like a running stream.
His bones, tendons and all minute aspects of his body were amplified at once. It caused Tang Hong’s skin to grow warm, his face also became extremely flushed, like he had just left the sauna.
Perhaps the 3% increase in strength wasn’t as much as the previous 6%, or there were other reasons.
In short.
The changes in his appearances weren’t obvious, they weren’t easy to detect.
Tang Hong was delighted. He shook his shoulders and head but was stunned in the same spot. “My headache has been eased significantly. It’s probably the effect of increasing strength.”
He stopped after scratching the surface and added 10 points to the willpower percentage figure.
Smack!!
A deafening roar that resembled the public bus horning by his ears slammed and surged into his ears, passing by like it had cut through his mind.
Buzz, the pain was tolerable, the key was Tang Hong’s ears instantly turned deaf.
For an instance, there seemed to be a thin electric wire penetrating both his auditory canals.
The sensation came and left quickly. Panting, Tang Hong felt much better, but strong willpower remained weighing on his nerves. He wanted to increase strength but was also worried about the changes being obvious.
He pondered for a moment.
The current plan was: Break through the limits of willpower as soon as possible. The special training camp would definitely provide even more Transcendent food or even precious resources. At that time, when there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for the changes in his bodily appearance, it would be the time for him to increase strength with no restrictions.
His current increase of strength had to be done progressively. Otherwise, how would Tang Hong explain himself if he turned from a lean-looking youth to a brawny man with knotted muscles in less than a day?
In the Central Research Institute, even gods could be dissected and studied!
“It’s enough.”
“If I still cannot get the first place of the entrance test like this, I’ll let it go.”
Tang Hong wanted to clinch first place.
But he would not blindly take risks for the rewards of placing first. The body and brain was his own, he wouldn’t be able to fixed them if they were damaged.
He napped for a while, leaning against the headboard in a slumber.
The sky gradually darkened. At 7PM, he washed his face and headed out.
Many people were gathering towards the dining hall, it would be the entrance test after dinner.
Tang Hong also followed. His peripherals inadvertently swept past the corner from the afternoon.
That person was still squatted by the wall. Not far before him, the tree branch stood perfectly straight. Presently, the sun had set till the horizon, the shadow of the tree branch also reached the longest it would be for the day.
He took one look.
Probably moved by what he saw and because all beings feel for their fellow beings,
Tang Hong walked to him. “It’s already dinner time. If you still won’t make your way there you might not get a seat.”
“Oh.”
Hua Yu frowned and lifted his head in confusion.
“Thanks for the reminder.”
He saw Tang Hong and his knitted brows smoothed out. The fifth seed trainee, it was said that he was very talented, although he wasn’t as well-known as Xiao Ziyun.
…
The building where the dining hall was located was lit with bright lights. 300 admitted trainees took their seats in succession.
The nutritious meals were already saved.
Without further examining it, Tang Hong directly began eating.
Beside him was Jiang Lulu. Those jet-black eyes that were still filled with cowardice after waking up in the afternoon were now full of cheerful and confident vigor.
Tang Hong had no idea what sort of crazy Jiang Lulu was being now.
“You’re pregnant?”
He blurted out.
Jiang Lulu was puzzled. “Pregnant? There’s indeed a joyous matter[1].”
“I would love to hear the details.”
Tang Hong put on the manner that he was all ears. He had almost figured out Jiang Lulu’s personality. So long as someone was willing to listen to hear speak, she would keep going on, until the end of the world, until the other party was annoyed.
“(*^__^*) hehe.”
Jiang Lulu was so happy. “That Instructor Niu apologized to me in the afternoon.”
Tang Hong: ? ? ?
Despite only seeing him a few times, Tang Hong could tell that Niu Hechuan was certainly a Transcendent who was serious in speech and manner. Moreover, with his status of Chief Instructor there, an apology was impossible.
“Believe me.” Jiang Lulu pretended to be calm. She pouted her small mouth and said, “He nodded towards him and even smiled. I get his meaning… but I won’t forgive him, no.”
“Haha.”
“Why are you laughing?”
“Eat up. Finish eating and go do the test, be good.”
300 people left the dining hall in proper order and entered basement level one of the fourth building.
Everybody was gathered.
Chief Instructor Niu Hechuan appeared quietly. He seemed to be in a terrible mood as he said in a low voice, “The entrance test is divided into the willpower and physical fitness test. The grading of the former is more important.”
“Willpower test will be at basement level two.”
“The body constitution test will be on this level.”
“The correlated data after the tests will be distributed to you latest on the day after tomorrow.”
“The grading is done with a hundred-mark system. It indicates how far everyone is from Transcendence… The special training camp focuses on willpower. As for the limits of the human body, it is destructibility on a non-human level. Without intervention of external forces, the ordinary man have no way of reaching it.”
The burly Niu Hechuan pointed to the left. The lights turned on with his action.
Two rooms had their doors open. Inside them were the various instruments that resembled equipment used for physical examination. There were also a dozen staff members checking the equipment.
“Ladies first, you will test physical fitness first.”
“The rest.”
“Come with me.”
“When we are at basement level two, you are prohibited from entering without permission, form two columns.”
The rough voice echoed. Niu Hechuan also added, “Xiao Ziyun, Tang Hong, both of you at the front, lead everyone and follow me!”
In less than two minutes.
Close to 190 people arrived at the second level of the basement. Following the passageway, they made two turns and saw a silvery white tempered glass door that was extremely full of sci-fi style.
The tempered glass door had double layers, the middle was filled with a silvery white liquid.
“That is?”
Guo Bojun was wide-eyed.
[1] [Annotation text missing]