Transcendence

Boom—Boom—Boom—

A series of violent crashing sounds rang out, and the entire old apartment building seemed to shake.

"Which motherless, fatherless idiot is making such a racket in the middle of the night? What the hell are you doing? Are you using a building shaker to poke your ass?"

The resident upstairs was a fiery older woman. She cursed as she pulled open her door, walked onto the stairs, and leaned over the railing to look down.

"Huh!?"

The young man, whose muscles were bulging all over, looked up. His eyes were bloodshot, and his face was flushed with anger, making him look like a bull on the prairie ready to charge.

Their eyes met for a moment, and time seemed to stand still.

"Oh, why am I deaf? I can't hear, I can't hear..."

The older woman immediately turned around, clattered up the stairs, and then slammed her door shut with a bang, locking the deadbolt three times.

Seeing the older woman leave, the young man turned his attention back to He Ao and resumed crashing against the door.

The reason he hadn't wanted to do this initially was that he was afraid of attracting the neighbors' attention and causing them to call the police. But now that He Ao had already called the police anyway, he wasn't afraid of anything.

He was determined to make this kid pay the price for his arrogance!

Once anger begins to burn, it cannot be extinguished.

Only when it burns itself out.

Boom—

He increased the frequency of his crashes against the door. More and more cracks appeared on the welded points of the sturdy security chains.

Sometimes, cracks are not the sign that destruction is beginning, but rather that destruction is halfway complete. Once a crack appears, the appearance of more cracks and the collapse of the entire object are only natural.

At the young man's speed, he would be able to break open the security chain in no more than ten seconds.

He Ao took a few steps back, looking from a distance at the young man whose face was contorted in a sinister smile as the door was gradually being forced open.

Then he looked at the three reward options before him. Originally, he had wanted to think carefully, but now it seemed there was no time to think.

With a thought, he made his choice.

[You have chosen Vermillion Fruit. The item has been delivered. Please check.]
[Newbie mission complete. You have unlocked formal game qualification.]
[Life Resume function unlocked]
[Character Panel unlocked]
[Time remaining until next game starts: 23:56:36]

He Ao didn't have time to examine the system's text carefully at this moment. He only felt a slight weight in his hand, and a small, heavy object appeared.

He picked up the object and held it in front of his eyes. It seemed to be a red fruit, about two fingers wide and three fingers long, entirely fiery red and cylindrical. The fruit had some dense pits on its surface, reflecting a bright light under the lamp.

He Ao was actually not unfamiliar with this kind of fruit, but he usually called it... Red Date!

Zhu, red, guo, fruit. Vermillion Fruit is a red fruit. Red Date is also a red fruit. Therefore, Red Date is Vermillion Fruit. Deduction complete. This is very reasonable.

He Ao didn't even know where to start complaining for a moment.

However, upon closer inspection, there was still a difference between this fruit and a Red Date. Red Dates are generally very light, while this fruit was slightly heavier.

As for the taste...

He Ao brought the fruit to his mouth and took a bite.

...It tasted like a Red Date.

Boom—bang—

The old anti-theft door was violently slammed open, the steel door hitting the wall with a loud crash.

He Ao couldn't hesitate at this moment. In a few quick movements, he swallowed the fruit in his hand.

Then he spat out a small object.

...Hmm, it had a date pit, cough... fruit pit.

This date pit didn't look edible, so He Ao simply put it in his pocket and ran towards the back of the house.

He Ao's home had three bedrooms and one living room. The master bedroom was his parents' bedroom, which had accumulated dust from being unoccupied for a long time. The second bedroom was his own, and there was a small room at the back, which was his study. He was currently running towards the study.

"Kid, don't you dare run!"

After the young man crashed into the room, he immediately grinned ferociously and charged towards He Ao.

Actually, He Ao didn't have much of a choice. Out of the three items, he already had one Talent Sequence, and it wasn't guaranteed that he could roll a Talent Sequence suitable for combat. He didn't want to become a robot through mechanical modification, so only the Vermillion Fruit was left.

Moreover, he had a guess. If Talent Sequence represented superpowers obtained out of thin air, and mechanical modification represented a powerful body acquired through external technology, did the Vermillion Fruit signify the strengthening of his own body? Or the improvement of his own qualities?

Soon, he would know the answer.

As he ran, a warm current flowed from his lower abdomen to his chest cavity, then entered his limbs, permeating his entire body along a special circuit.

He Ao felt as if some blockages in his body were being broken through one after another, like long-blocked silt being washed away by a strong current, or someone constipated for two weeks suddenly having a massive release.

This feeling was strange, a little painful, and a little exhilarating.

Any further description seemed impossible. In short, He Ao felt that his movements were much faster than before, and his whole body felt light.

But even so, his speed was still a step too slow.

The young man charged straight at him like a wild bull.

Some people think that because bulls are strong, they are slow runners. This is not entirely true. While bulls are not fast over long distances, they can burst out with very high speed during short charges.

Why use a bull as an example?

Because He Ao felt that the young man in front of him no longer seemed like a person. Although he was still in human form, he faintly showed the shadow of an angry wild bull.

The young man was almost not 'running', but rather stepping on the ground and leaping towards He Ao with each step.

In a very short time, the young man's body had already closed in on He Ao, swinging his fist towards He Ao's chest.

If this punch landed, He Ao felt that his ribs would be directly shattered, and the broken bones would directly pierce his lungs.

He Ao's heart tightened; he had been a bit too arrogant.

The young man's strength was somewhat beyond his imagination, far exceeding what a human could achieve.

The young man seemed to notice He Ao's slight frown, and the smile on his face widened. "Pay the price for your arrogance, kid!"

He Ao watched the fist swing towards him. He had some jiu-jitsu techniques to twist his body and dodge the punch, but after dodging, he would expose a weakness. If the young man seized the opportunity, he would still be injured.

However, he didn't have time to think too much at this moment. If this blow landed, even if he didn't die, he would lose half his life.

Just as he was about to dodge the attack, a flash of inspiration suddenly crossed his mind.

It was a scene he had memorized using [Super Memory].

In that yellowed little book, there were not only dense, unfamiliar characters but also some simple illustrations of human figures and movements.

At first, he couldn't understand these illustrations, but now, with the Vermillion Fruit in his stomach and the warm energy flowing through his body along certain lines, he gradually began to understand what the lines drawn on the human figures in those illustrations meant.

At this moment, there was still some power from the Vermillion Fruit. He tried to control it with his mind, to see if he could guide the Vermillion Fruit's power to flow along the lines from the illustrations in his memory.

He could!

All of this happened in an instant!

The enraged young man punched He Ao in the chest, but his fist passed through a blurry phantom.