When he heard that Yan Anqing was using his willpower data as the benchmark for talent, Ma Ran could not help imagining all sorts of ridiculous scenes.
Ten or twenty years from now, when the age of the extraordinary truly reached its glorious peak, would people say things like this...
"Trash! Your Limitless Cell proliferation rate is only 0.5 Ma Rans. Stop cultivating and just settle down as an ordinary person!"
"Peerless Genius! You're worth six Ma Rans! Truly astonishing talent! I have a granddaughter, sixteen and as beautiful as a flower. Might this young man be interested?"
Just thinking about that future made Ma Ran swallow hard. His scalp tingled, chills ran all over his body, and cold sweat poured down his back.
He wanted to protest and ask Yan Anqing to change the benchmark.
But the moment their eyes met Yan Anqing's indifferent gaze, Ma Ran immediately shrank back.
Can't afford to offend him, can't afford to offend him.
Whatever the big shot said went!
Who knew? Maybe one day, he would go down in history for becoming a unit of measurement...
"Live strictly according to the daily schedule I provided."
Yan Anqing's gaze fell on Yu Hongyi and Ma Ran. "To ensure the accuracy and validity of the experimental data, you must cooperate."
Upon hearing this, Yu Hongyi immediately gave a military salute. "I guarantee the completion of the mission!"
Ma Ran looked at the chart in his hands, his face turning pale and his lips taking on the dark purplish hue of oxygen deprivation.
What time to sleep each day, what time to wake up, what to eat for three meals, how much to eat, what exercises to do every day, how many calories to burn...
Meditation time, stretching repetitions, what to do during the one fixed rest day each week, even sex and masturbation were strictly restricted...
Yan Anqing was a complete data freak!
Ma Ran even suspected there were mechanical parts hidden beneath his skin.
How could a normal human possibly maintain that level of self-discipline?
If someone could follow this schedule perfectly, they would already be inhuman. With that kind of self-discipline, what could they possibly fail at?
"I... I'll do my best to cooperate."
Ma Ran sighed and spoke weakly.
He was not someone who failed to appreciate kindness.
Yu Hongyi's "aptitude" was already five times his own. If he still refused to follow Yan Anqing's scientific training methods, then in a few years, he probably would not even be able to look up at Yu Hongyi's back.
After Yu Hongyi flew from Magic City to the capital, he became Ma Ran's roommate.
With a roommate like that beside him, he felt guilty every time he slacked off.
With Yu Hongyi keeping an eye on him, he should be able to...
"No! I can definitely do it!"
A faint gleam swirled in Ma Ran's golden eyes as he solemnly promised, "Dr. Yan, I won't disappoint you!"
Yan Anqing neither agreed nor disagreed. "Let's encourage each other."
People were different.
For some, things that came easily were terrifying projects that others could only accomplish by exhausting all their willpower and pouring out their heart and soul.
Yan Anqing gave the two of them different schedules. On the surface, Yu Hongyi's schedule was harsher, but it happened to be exactly at his limit.
For Ma Ran to follow his own schedule, however, he would have to surpass his limits.
Dormitory 259.
Zhang Xiaoyue, on the top bunk, suddenly burst out laughing like a pig.
"Hahaha! Why is this so hilarious?"
The little girl on the bottom bunk looked utterly baffled. "Huh? Mrs. Zhang, did you update today?"
At those words, Zhang Xiaoyue's smile gradually vanished.
"I haven't finished revising the draft yet, so I can't upload it directly..."
She gave an awkward cough and changed the subject. "Go over the firewall and check Twitter. America has produced twelve Golden-Eyed Ones and made some 'Twelve Saints'!"
Miaomiao was immediately intrigued.
She skillfully bypassed the firewall and logged onto Twitter, quickly finding the news Zhang Xiaoyue had mentioned.
After the Blood Moon Incident, Golden-Eyed Ones had appeared all over the world. The standouts were America and China.
The former publicly reported twelve people, while the latter concealed many and claimed to the public that China had "only" twenty Golden-Eyed Ones.
According to the statistics from various countries, the appearance of Golden-Eyed Ones had nothing to do with a nation's population.
India only had three Golden-Eyed Ones!
After prolonged arguments and flame wars, American netizens finally reached a consensus—the stronger a country's overall national power and the greater its prestige, the more Golden-Eyed Ones it would have!
But that theory did not entirely hold up.
America was clearly Earth's uncrowned king, the big brother leading the pack.
So why did China have so many Golden-Eyed Ones?
Americans who had no clue what was going on refused to accept it.
They insisted that America had an excellent and powerful international reputation.
Why did the Blood Moon Incident happen to occur during the night in China?
If it had happened at a time when it was nighttime in America, they would definitely have had even more "extraordinary people"!
Such brilliant takes actually had quite a market among the major Twitter influencers...
America's sour-grape netizens comforted themselves while wishing they could crawl through the internet cables and beat China's Golden-Eyed Ones to death.
Miaomiao browsed Twitter with great interest, reading the messages being pushed to her one after another.
"Christian is the strongest Golden-Eyed One in the world! No objections accepted!"
"Agreed... He's 2.2 meters tall, has perfect muscles, and a physique perfectly conforming to the golden ratio. He hasn't shown anything unusual yet, but once supernatural powers erupt, he'll definitely be Superman-tier!"
"What a joke! Aisteron is the strongest Golden-Eyed One!"
"That's right! Aisteron is the leader of the Twelve Saints, the King of Angels, Gabriel, the one named by Jehovah! He is the true chosen son of God!"
"If we're talking muscular performance, isn't Jack Grimm obviously stronger?"
"Motherfucker... Stop spouting bullshit! Little J, Jack Grimm, isn't even in the same league as Christian and Gabriel, okay?"
The little girl quickly found the personal profiles of the so-called "America's Twelve Saints."
America's approach was completely different from China's low-profile policy.
They vigorously promoted individual heroism and seemed determined to turn these twelve Golden-Eyed Ones into real-life superheroes.
For the time being, the two most famous among the Twelve Saints were Christian and Aisteron.
Christian was America's officially appointed leader, receiving all kinds of resource support and media hype.
Aisteron, on the other hand, was much more interesting.
He had a shady past in pyramid schemes.
After becoming a Golden-Eyed One, he posted an article online.
It was around two thousand words long, but its contents could be summed up in one sentence—"Two days before the Crimson Moon appeared, God Yahweh entered my dreams, foretold the coming disaster, and bestowed upon me the name 'Gabriel.'"
The wording was not particularly ornate, but the details were all remarkably complete, leaving people utterly taken in.
Back when he was running pyramid schemes, Aisteron had called himself "Gabriel."
With a little embellishment to those deeds, some comparisons, and paid promoters stirring things up, he easily harvested a large number of believers.
For a time, Aisteron had enough momentum to stand shoulder to shoulder with Christian, America's officially promoted figure.
Seeing this, Miaomiao snorted twice. "That liar Aisteron is pretty high-level! Gabriel, my ass! Why doesn't he claim he's Lucifer? This cat is going to expose his true face!"
"Don't!"
Zhang Xiaoyue poked her head out from the top bunk and stopped the little girl from doing something so stupid. "Let them fight. Let them tear each other apart! It'd be best if they beat each other's brains out! It's America's business anyway. What does it have to do with us?"
Hearing this, Miaomiao froze for a moment before stretching out her little feet and swinging them in the air twice. Her tone was faint. "My litter-scooper is quite devious."
Zhang Xiaoyue's face flushed red as she snapped in embarrassment, "Go away!"
This brat was practically terminally afflicted with chuunibyou, beyond cure and beyond saving!
How was she anything like an Essence Devouring Beast?
"This cat bears the title 'Orange.' One day, I shall grant you the position of my personal litter-scooper."
Damn it!
Just thinking about such stupid lines made her furious!
Why did she have to share a room with someone who had absolutely no sense of shame...
(Today, I saw someone making snide Chapter Comments and nitpicking, throwing insults around. It didn't feel like it came from a reader's perspective, so I clicked on their profile and found out they were a fellow webnovel author... Nearly all of this person's book reviews were nitpicks and mockery... So depressing... What's the point of doing that? Reducing competitors? Meaningless. Even though my last book flopped so badly, I still wrote it to a million words. Can their insults make me cut myself off with a sword? I just want to focus on writing...)
A new week has arrived! Please vote! Please donate! Awoo! I want to make a push for the new-book rankings in this category too...
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