Excess Reward

Monday, morning rush hour.

Jiangdong District, Maocheng Road Intersection Station.

Through the rain curtain, a bus plastered with a breast enhancement advertisement endorsed by a female star came shuttling over and pulled into the stop.

Fang Cheng raised his umbrella and jumped down from the open rear door.

He looked up at the colorful umbrellas moving along the road.

Then he quickly stepped through water that had nearly flooded the sidewalk and headed toward the brightly lit Wantong Shopping Center.

Because of his post transfer, his rotating leave had also been changed from Monday to Friday.

So he had to work for nearly two straight weeks.

But to Fang Cheng, that was actually a good thing.

He quickly arrived at the club, folded up his umbrella, and hung it on the rack by the entrance.

It was already nine thirty, yet the venue still seemed fairly quiet.

Apart from the clock-in sound and conversation sound of his coworkers, there was none of the usual blood-boiling atmosphere.

It had rained continuously these past few days, and with it being a workday, noticeably fewer trainees had come to train or attend classes.

The entire Training Hall was nearly empty, with only a handful of professional boxers doing daily training.

Fang Cheng went straight into the locker room and opened his storage cabinet with his key.

He took out a set of blue work uniform and a pair of lightweight, anti-slip Puma boxing shoes.

Then he took a plastic bag from his bag, containing another clean set of clothes and shoes.

Working at the club required more than attendance and performance; personal image and hygiene also mattered.

Fang Cheng took off his slightly soaked shoes, sat on a bench, changed into his boxing shoes, and tied the laces.

At that moment, someone suddenly walked toward him.

"A Cheng, how's the transfer to the Sanda Department? Have you adjusted?"

There was unexpected concern in the other person's warm, generous tone.

Fang Cheng glanced at the newcomer.

Seeing that it was Chen Xiaohai, who was in charge of the Karate Department, he answered flatly,

"Not bad."

"If you need any help, just tell your brother. I've worked here for ten years, so I know all the connections."

"Okay. Thanks, Hai Ge."

Fang Cheng nodded, as brief as ever.

Chen Xiaohai smiled, reached out to pat Fang Cheng on the shoulder, then left the locker room.

His actions left the other coworkers somewhat taken aback.

Since when had those two become so close?

Chen Xiaohai whistled, clasped his hands behind his back, and walked into Hall No. 2 with a relaxed and comfortable expression.

Over the past week, his mood had been like a roller coaster, rising and falling wildly.

After learning that Fang Cheng had refused an internship in the Marketing Department and offended Manager Li, the hostility he had once felt instantly vanished.

From time to time, he even checked on Fang Cheng and offered a few comforting words, practically turning into a good senior in the workplace who took the best care of newcomers.

Of course, in private, he also said that Fang Cheng was young and impetuous, determined to become a Big Lawyer, and looked down on this small temple of a club.

"Right Stance Left Turn, Left Stance Right Circle..."

"Once the waist moves, the base stance must go first..."

Inside Training Hall No. 1, Xu Maocai's booming voice could nearly carry across the entire venue of thousands of square meters.

Fang Cheng stood with his hands behind his back, silently watching a group of trainees follow the coach's instructions as they practiced various wrestling techniques and ways to exert force.

This was an advanced course for senior trainees, mainly covering the application of Sanda wrestling techniques.

Kicking, striking, throwing, and seizing were known as the four major techniques of Sanda.

The first two had absorbed relatively advanced and practical fighting techniques from abroad.

The latter two were a concentrated collection of the essence of the nation's Traditional Martial Arts.

Moreover, compared with the former, their movements were simpler and more practical, without any flashy tricks from traditional forms.

To summarize Xu Maocai's lesson, wrestling techniques came down to one sentence.

"Borrowing Momentum to uproot, Root Removal through body lean!"

"You only need to remember that every wrestling technique in actual combat revolves around those four key points."

Xu Maocai suddenly stopped the trainees practicing basic skills and had them split into groups for sparring.

The trainees paired up and began trying various grappling slams and leg catch takedowns on each other.

Some took turns throwing their classmates around like punching bags to review the movements, while others competed with each other, locked in stalemates through brute force.

Fang Cheng watched them with complete focus.

As he recalled the coach's lesson, he analyzed the mistakes in their movements.

Gradually, understanding emerged in his heart.

If the most important thing in fist technique and leg techniques was maintaining one's center of gravity, then wrestling techniques existed to destroy the opponent's center of gravity.

The opponent did not necessarily have to fall completely for it to count as success.

In actual combat, the arms, torso, buttocks, legs and feet—any part of the body could be used to execute the techniques.

As long as the opponent was put into an unstable state, the battle was already half won.

Then, with a light lean and a pull, one could borrow momentum to make the opponent fall.

Or perhaps one could swiftly follow up with fist technique and leg techniques, launching a fierce pursuit.

Either option was several times more effective than simply wrestling for strength.

The trainees did not think as much as Fang Cheng did. They were simply having a great time.

In a class of fewer than ten people, one Lucky One was left sparring with the coach.

Smack!

The Lucky One was cleanly thrown to the ground by a Shoulder Throw.

Though the floor was covered with soft mats, he still needed a while before climbing back up.

Xu Maocai said seriously,

"Look. I can stand here and let him try to throw me, yet he can't move me at all. But with one casual pull, he goes down immediately."

"Why? Because you're too weak!"

"If you want to achieve anything, three physical training classes a week are nowhere near enough. When you go home, keep doing a few more sets of squats. Come back in a month, and your lower body will definitely be steadier than it is now."

The others laughed and joked, not taking it seriously.

The Lucky One, meanwhile, rubbed his buttocks with a miserable expression.

After all, nobody wanted to be thrown around like a sack.

But Fang Cheng's face was full of envy. He sincerely wanted to replace that trainee and test the feel of it himself.

The morning group class ended quickly.

At lunchtime, Fang Cheng went to the front desk to collect his meal. When he returned, he was carrying three takeout bags.

One contained the company's employee meal, while the other two held chicken leg rice takeout he had ordered for himself.

Seeing this, his coworkers couldn't help asking whether he had been hungry for days, since his appetite was so enormous.

Fang Cheng did not explain much. He only said that he had skipped breakfast and was simply eating two meals' worth at once.

In reality,

after his morning workout, he had swallowed ten boiled eggs, three cartons of pure milk, and a whole basket of steamed dumplings from the breakfast shop downstairs.

The reason his appetite had become so absurd was all because of practicing squats.

That was right.

Among yesterday's two enhancement rewards, Fang Cheng had ultimately chosen the second.

He had gained one point in Strength Attribute and acquired the Skill Special Effect, "Lone Eminence."

Putting aside the matter of waking up with an erection,

Fang Cheng had read the book Prisoner's Fitness and knew that the essential principle behind muscle training was actually very simple.

First, one used overloaded resistance training to tear part of the muscle fibers in specific muscle groups.

Then one relied on the body's own self-healing ability to repair and reorganize them.

The body's physiological mechanisms were incredibly wondrous.

To prevent similar situations from happening again, the body produced a Supercompensation Phenomenon during this process.

That was, the muscles became harder and thicker, strengthening the body and reducing injuries.

Bones, joints, tendons, ligaments, and the like worked the same way, following this training mechanism within a bearable range.

And testosterone, the most active male hormone, was an important force behind supercompensation.

The "Lone Eminence" effect allowed the body to secrete testosterone at a higher concentration than ordinary people during exercise.

This stimulated muscle and bone growth and enhancement, constantly increasing muscle dimension and bone density.

That meant the same training volume would produce several times the results.

Naturally, the body's required dietary intake would also increase accordingly.

This Enhancement Effect looked somewhat crooked...

But it was truly a god-tier skill that counted as an excess reward!

Fang Cheng gnawed on a chicken drumstick, his attention entirely on the panel.

He opened the Character Attribute Bar, and densely packed Prompt Information instantly emerged before his eyes.

After verifying it through practice yesterday and today, he had filtered out dozens of relevant messages.

It was clear that every time practicing squats added one point of experience,

the frequency of messages showing Constitution and Strength Attribute increasing by 0.001 points became extraordinarily high afterward, whether he continued exercising or worked.

Agility Attribute performed relatively more normally, but it too showed a rather obvious and considerable increase.

This effect lasted for roughly two hours and gradually declined over time.

It was practically the same as certain fitness fanatics desperately injecting themselves with huge doses of testosterone.

Fortunately, Fang Cheng was using a skill, so it remained within the limits his constitution could bear, greatly reducing the negative effects.

At most, his body would feel somewhat hot, his blood flow would speed up, and he would occasionally get nosebleeds.

"It's fine..."

Fang Cheng chewed on a chicken bone and silently comforted himself,

"As long as my constitution is strong enough, I can completely ignore this little side effect."

After cleaning up the three finished bento boxes, Fang Cheng left the locker room and tossed the packaging bags into the recycling bin beside the corner.

Turning around, he looked at the Training Hall and spotted several professional boxers who had always been diligent.

They apparently had not eaten lunch. They were still persistently doing anaerobic strength training such as weighted squats and barbell plate lifts.

Fang Cheng's heart heated up, and he couldn't help thinking of the training plan he had made for himself.

Now that the "Squats" skill had been enhanced and become a genuine "Fueling Machine,"

it would be too wasteful not to make good use of it.

"Looks like I need to raise the intensity too!"

Fang Cheng muttered in his heart, then turned and headed back toward the locker room.

Next, he was preparing to challenge higher-difficulty action options.